First off, I want to make sure you understand the terminology.  An algorithm is a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps, as for finding the greatest common divisor.  Google’s actual algorithm is, and always will be, a mystery and closely guarded secret in order to protect the integrity of their search results.  It’s about monitoring every change Google makes and following right behind.  No matter how ethical a campaign you run, there will still be changes you will need to make in order to keep up with your competition on Google.

It’s not just about what your competitors are doing and matching or outdoing them, you must also take advice from your SEO expert to help you update your website in order to keep up with Google’s most recent changes.  Being the diligent SEO expert that I am, I get the luxury of having an industry email sent to me every morning at around 4am CT, seven days a week, and I get to read through the 40 or so article and blog entries each morning that have been posted by the industry experts.  I’m very happy for the information and it keeps me very informed so I can keep my clients at the top.

Our SEO maintenance usually consist of a yearly contract designed to maintain and enhance your existing positions by adding a variety of strategic options, as well as a year of monitoring and making changes to your website as Google changes.  Many years ago, it was considered absolutely acceptable to solicit links and give reciprocal links back to those who gave your website a link.  Outbound links are now considered to be negative and we had to make immediate changes as soon as we discovered this major change in Google’s algorithm or all our clients would have started to perform poorly in the rankings.  All our clients who were in an SEO maintenance contract were adjusted and fixed for free and actually saw sharp rises in their rankings.  The people who were not under a maintenance contract were left to fend for themselves, or more likely, sink with many others who were not aware of the changes.

With the fight for Internet search supremacy fierce and the speed of changes white-lining between Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, SEO maintenance is a wise investment for your SEO campaign.  Whether you are in Google Local or in Google’s organic rankings, every campaign should be maintained in order to remain competitive and keep the high rankings.

Yesterday, Google announced it launched Google Buzz on it’s official blog. With the competition being so tight right now between Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter to capture and keep the attention of the social media masses, Google is targeting Twitter and Facebook directly. I gave it a spin today and set up Webtyde Internet Marketing’s official account.

So far I feel it’s much more like Twitter than Facebook. Most likely because I haven’t set up the other media which is pulled from Picasa, Flickr, or Google Reader. Buzz updates your status feed instantly like Twitter, let’s others follow your updates, let’s you follow others status updates, and even has it’s own mobile software portals already. At this point, I’m not sure I need another instant way to update my status, but rather another me to update it for me.

A nice feature in Google Buzz is that it does integrate Twitter into your feeds so at least your followers can follow you in one place rather than two. I imagine Google Buzz integration/compatibility will be next on Twitter’s agenda.

I feel like the way they have Buzz set up will probably give it a legitimate chance to compete with Facebook. With Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter integrated as options to share media and the *prettier* image viewer (which looks rather nice), it should give Facebook a run for their money.

What this means for rankings: Not entirely sure yet. Definitely more exposure and inbound links. It’s up in the air how people will take to it and if it will stick.

I’ll be looking forward to where the new feed URLs will land in the rankings once Google gets to indexing and ranking them all. As always, I recommend creating an account if you have the time because, well, it’s Google.

How Will This Affect SEO?

If your website has a legitimate, honest SEO campaign, you shouldn’t be affected in a negative way.  It is my personal opinion that it may even help pre-qualify visitors and improve your click through ratio.  Much remains to be seen, but this will be interesting to follow since Caffeine will also be launching in January 2010.  For those of you unfamiliar with Caffeine, it is Google’s entirely new search engine.

Lots of fun in 2010, so make sure your site is freshly optimized and you’re all working on your inbound link campaigns.

Google’s Blog Announcement