A major shift for search listing domination as Google supports GoodRelations.

Imagine that you have spent hundreds of hours and thousands in cash getting your website to rank on the first page of Google and you find that your efforts become 30% less effective.  Don’t imagine – that time is here – now.

For years there has been an ongoing struggle between the search giants and internet marketers, the marketers want to get their products in front of potential buyers and the search engines have been struggling to provide the most relevant results to the searchers using their services.

Over the years the SEO industry has grown and the web is now inundated with a wealth of good and bad information about how to get a high website rank with the majority of that information focused on getting high Google rankings. Today everything changed with the announcement that Google supports GoodRelations.

What is GoodRelations?

GoodRelations (GR) is a standardized vocabulary for product, price, and company data that (1) can be embedded into existing static and dynamic Web pages and that (2) can be processed by other computers. This increases the visibility of your products and services in the latest generation of search engines, recommender systems, and novel mobile or social applications.

GoodRelations is a language that can be used to describe very precisely what your business is offering and when used the search engines can display advanced eye catching listings that really stand out.

Here is a standard listing:
Here is a GoodRelations enhanced listing:

(images courtesy of Hepp Research)

What are the Implications for Search?

In a word “Massive”.

Here are just a few examples:

Currently if you are at position number one for a search term you could assume that you will get around 60% of the available search traffic for that term i.e. if there are 10,000 unique searches a day you would expect to get around 6,000 of those unique visitors.  Now, if a competitor ranked at say number 5 has a visually enhanced GR listing it will be more eye catching and the rank advantage will be lost.

As business implements GoodRelations mark-up for its products we can expect changes in the way comparison engines are used by searchers, these GR enhanced listings allow users to make choices based on price and other factors IN the search engine results page.

This in turn leads to the new developments in specialist product aggregation sites.  The GR RDF mark-up is machine readable, meaning that new applications can extract precise, relevant product information from source.  This can be stored, combined and reused with other linked data.  i.e. all data about the same product can be linked from multiple source around the web.

The most apparent form of linking that currently springs to mind are reviews.  Most ecommerce sites encourage users to write reviews and rate a product.  If 100 sites around the world sell the same model camera, mark up that product with GoodRelations and the reviews are marked up as well, all of the reviews for each of those sites can be combined providing a more accurate rating and a better picture of the pros and cons for the consumer.

Does this affect how I optimise my website?

Google’s adoption of GoodRelations is not a magic bullet in it’s own right that will enhance your search rankings if you include it.  You still need to correctly optimise your website, the categories and the pages within it.  If anything, you will need to improve your optimisation techniques to get the best from including GoodRelations markup.  As Kingsley Idehen, the founder and CEO of OpenLink Software wrote in a tweet

Q: What r the deeper implications of #Google, #Yahoo etc. adopting #GoodRelations + #RDFa? A: SEO is now structured courtesy of #LinkedData.

Without a good solid understandable structure to your website you could actually hinder your SEO efforts within the semantic framework.  Let’s never forget that semantics is about getting the web to think for itself and if your site structure is confusing or goes against the grain I believe the chances are higher that your content will get rejected.

How can I improve my website structure?

The research required to understand your position within your marketplace, how your products are associated to other products or categories and how your competitors fit into the picture is not a simple process.  Having said the entire process can achieved much quicker than you would think if you use the right tools.

What used to take weeks can now be done in days thanks to tools such as Krakken which performs your market analysis, competitive analysis, keyword DNA creation and automates the structured blueprint development for your website enhancement.

Developed by ThemeZoom, Krakken along with TLKT and DWS, which optimises the entire workflow and outsource process, you have a comprehensive suite of products and unparalleled training that aids the serious web developer’s desire for market domination.  Add to this GoodRelations markup and you have a semantic SEO winner.

It’s also worth noting that early estimations that 30% of all ecommerce websites would be using GoodRelations by the end of 2011 are being readjusted upwards.  Quite simply if you sell online and you are not using GoodRelations by the end of 2011, 2012 will be a very slow year, it’s your choice.

Finally congratulations @mfhepp Thanks for all of your efforts and those who helped.

Freebase has been built by a community that loves open data.  For many first time visitors to the site, the words “An entity graph of people, places and things” might not sound sexy or form any mental association with improved ecommerce but the announcement that Google acquired Metaweb woke a few people up.

The  Freebase blog announced Metaweb joins Google saying nothing would change other than “getting better, and yes, even more open”.  The hope is that the announcement will encourage even more individuals, institutions and companies to use and contribute to Freebase..

Why? Everyone involved in web commerce will benefit from the linking and reuse of open data.  By combining the ongoing development of core semantic technologies with new innovative ways of making the web smarter, such as linking  entities, there will be a sustainable improvement in efficiency and accuracy.  Here is Metaweb’s explanation of what an entity is.

I’ll let you work out for yourself how the fundamentals might improve your business model.

What next if you are in business?

If  that sparked the neurons and opened your mind up to  a wealth of possibilities you’ll be jumping for joy to find out that semantic  ecommerce developments are well under way and a common ontology model (structured set of facts)  for describing products or services (making a product entity?) is already being used with success.   Search engines other than G have been reusing linked data for a while.

As it says at the GoodRelations data space

GoodRelations is a standardized vocabulary for product, price, and company data that can (1) be embedded into existing static and dynamic Web pages and that (2) can be processed by other computers. This increases the visibility of your products and services in the latest generation of search engines, recommender systems, and other novel applications.

From an SEO perspective this is a game changer because the ecommerce data layer is all about verifiable facts from verifiable sources.  In a busy world would you want more words than you can verify instantly?    You can still add a human readable description but at this point in time the focus seems to be on providing the basics for a transaction to occur … but the opportunities are there.  It is very much a case of ‘work with the web and let the web do the rest’.

Here is a cloudofdata.com podcast from February, 2010 where Paul Miller talks about GoodRelations, with Martin Hepp, and Jamie Taylor of Metaweb.  Listening to it is recommended for developers and others who want a better grasp of the capabilities of the web of data for buying and selling anything.   Second generation affiliate marketing will sound good to a few people I can think of as will open linked advertising space

Also interesting in this interview was what Martin Hepp who (if you’ve not heard the name before is seen as one of the global thought-leaders on The Semantic Web)  said Freebase could be with a minimal tweak.  Professor Hepp will be speaking at the International Search Summit in October.

Those who are beginning to understand the possibilities that the  linked data/ semantic web presents could also look at Triplify as a way of beginning to expose other content for use by the web.  My word of warning is to read the ‘about’ page at Triplify and understand issues on exposing private data.  I was surprised how easy it was to implement.

What can The Semantic Web do for us?

Probably the best way of seeing for yourself is to watch Tim Berners-Lee‘s 2010 Ted Talk The year open data went worldwide These are some of the results just one year after his initial call for ‘Raw Data Now’. Impressive.  People helped all that happen

Now imagine if your business or organisation worked with every other business and organisation in other sectors or regions and you all shared common and open data using currently available structured methods.

Do you think the people developing exciting new applications using open source licensing might just do some very interesting things with your data that can help you become more web effective or even work in a more sustainable way?

Don’t Just Dip Your Toe In

Jump in … the water is warm, the swell is building and these little waves already have momentum but it’s not too deep yet.  Take heart from the fact there isn’t yet a community ‘how to guide’ (at least I haven’t found one yet) that helps every one at any level understand just how big the pay off can be by just doing the basics now and then implementing the improvements learnt during the crawling stage.

Come to think of it there isn’t a common starting guide that all applications link to.  Effectively the book is still being written at all levels in all sectors for the new web and it could be said that virtually everyone will have to learn to adjust how they swim or float because of a positive change in web buoyancy.

and Google ….

As more people like you and I start making custom searches from our desktops and mobile devices using an ever increasing range of open search data sources and apps, I have an image in my head of G people having meetings.   Upon meetings.

I can only hope that G treat the web of linked open data to more respect than they have shown some of their customers by banning some of them for breaking rules that are not published or open and with no right of correction or appeal.  Even G have to work with the web and the web has the potential to be a great leveller.

The semantic web is going to mean many things to each and every one of us and as the semantic layer, or framework integrates with the web we have currently, it will eventually affect every aspect of every business process.

The good news seems to be that in general, business won’t need to change core processes because the technology uses it rather than the other way round.  Put simply, the semantic web is the process of making everything readable by computers so they can find meaning.  Once that’s all done then it gets really interesting.

Once the web has readable data, all data can be used to make connections between people, documents, products, places, times, events.  Anything and everything.  Everything is linked in some way to something else.

Once you start to think about ‘everything’ and absorb the enormity, it actually becomes quite easy to let your mind wander off and drift through the possibilities.  At some point, you then begin to see how this raw, collaborative sharing power will open up real doors of opportunity for existing and new businesses.

Once data can be read and is understood by the new web, the way you control your research, advertising, marketing, search and business in general will never be the same.  Used in the right way and in the correct context we can genuinely expect more effectiveness, better efficiency and see benefits all round.

The more I think about it, the benefits & possibilities seem endless for any business that embraces the concept of the semantic web now and then gives genuine consideration for early adoption of best and common practice.  You may already be on the right path and not even have realised.

What’s the real world application and time frame?

Nova Knows.

Nova Spivack is the CEO of Radar Networks one of the trail blazers in the semantic web who have recently moved Twine, a semantic service to collaborate, manage, organize and share information, into beta.

The video below “Making Sense Of The Semantic Web” was filmed at The NextWeb Conference April 3- 4, 2008 in Amsterdam.  In his presentation Nova explains in plain simple terms pretty much all you or I need to know about what the semantic web really is and isn’t … yet.

It’s all of the facts with none of the fluff and I hope will help decision makers make an informed choice on when to direct or make budgets available to reap the benefits of the semantic web.  Personally I don’t see it as an if option.

I hope everyone who watches this video will learn something and find some inspiration.  I know I did and so have many others.  That’s because it’s a very informed and valuable insight in to where the web is heading and how it’s going to get there.

As I watched I made lots of notes but one thing that really caught my attention was Nova’s take on the time line of digital evolution.

Seeing how everything I take for granted fits neatly in to ‘the’ web master plan, was a strangely humbling moment for me now I look back on it.  The plan stretches back 30 years or more but I also see laid bare before me, the technological development plan of the web for the next 10 – 15 years, real enlightenment.  At least for me.

After watching this video I got the feeling that I’d finally discovered something priceless.  When the real Web 3.0 would be here and how long I’d got to take action.

It wasn’t as long as I thought.  I’m changing the way now.

Nova Spivack at The Next Web Conference 2008

from Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Vimeo.

Original Post

The way the web works is changing and the groundswell behind the introduction and implementation of semantic applications has already affected lots of businesses. We are starting to see it’s effects become more apparent in SEO and marketing practices as the industry gets a better understanding of what the semantic web is and its currently defined parameters.

A very useful article Don’t get the Semantic Web? You will after this concludes “All the semantic web is trying to do, is make sure everything is structured in a consistent manner, with a consistent dictionary behind the content, so that a machine can draw connections.”

In a nutshell – every thing is connected to something and it’s better to make sure your data is machine readable.  That way it can be used, shared, linked or found easily.  The chances are you are already using semantic technology and didn’t even know it.

Semantic Search Engines

Semantic search is IMO the way forward.  From what I’ve seen so far from semantic search engine beta’s like Hakia (and a few others), the search results are a lot more focused as they are based on concept match rather than keyword match or popularity ranking.  Its not a huge leap from there to see the potential of semantically delivered advertising.

It’s also interesting reading Marissa Mayer’s interview talking about Google at 10 and 20. Marissa is the vice president of search product and user experience at Google and she says “I think there will be a continued focus on innovation, particularly in search. Search is an unsolved problem. We have a good 90 to 95% of the solution, but there is a lot to go in the remaining 10%.”  Maybe she was referring to semantic search technologies being incorporated.  I hope so.

One of the common links to unlocking all of this potential in a business is RDF which stands for Resource Description Framework – In plain English that’s a way to describe anything and any relationship.

And that leads us into the video and why knowing that ‘dave likes cookies’ is the way to describe anything.  Even if you are not a coder it’s worth watching so that you get a better understanding and can make more informed choices when business planning or allocating IT budgets.

Notes:
subjects predicates objects
www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-rdfa-primer
www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-sytax

The semantic web is here and it’s growing all the time. Following on from my last post I thought it would be useful for seo, sem, social marketers and anyone else interested in discovering how the semantic web will affect online business to hear what it should be from the man who invented the world wide web, Tim Berners Lee.

Tim is a true modern visionary and in this video his genius, compassion and desire to make things better shines like a glowing beacon on hope for all.

How can this video help marketers?

I think all marketers and SEO’s need to remember that the semantic web has a much higher goal than just selling goods and products. We need to remember that in many respects marketers have hijacked new technologies for their own ends since the web took form and gained popularity. Software has been developed to artificially improve search positions and while it’s not a bad thing it’s effects have helped to speed up change to deal with the growing flood of useless content that chokes the net.

The semantic web can and is helping business online. I’m also sure that even now there are software developers who are coding the next ‘must have’ tool on behalf of marketers to help beat the system. And therein lies part of the problem as I see it.

Why would you want to beat a system that is being developed to provide and deliver more accurate information to the people who are looking for it?

Search as we have known it is changing and the semantic web infrastructure has the power to render current search practices almost obsolete. So lets look at what the original aim of the semantic web was from the eyes of the man who knows. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Improve it and roll with it.

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What do you think?

An excellent article by Charles Heflin about digital footprints and how they affect social marketing activities needs to be read by anyone with an online business who is using any automated tactics to improve their search engine rankings.

It prompted me to comment and reminded me to start sharing some of the useful information I’ve picked up on where the net is heading and why carrying on some current SEO practices could be devastating the ability of some websites to be found in the near future.

For the past two years I’ve been involved in private SEO and SEM research which has been looking at where the web is heading and why.  Much of what I learned very early on made me understand that virtually all of what was being said and the tools being sold or promoted by marketers, to improve my search rankings, would have a shelf life of around 18 months – if I was lucky. Why? Because things change and there’s a problem.

The following video explains more way better than I can but put simply, one of the root problems is thatthe network infrastructure that the internet uses, needed a more efficient way to cope with growing demand and deliver the content we want, when we want it.

Enter Semantic Web Development

Now we know that things have to change, watching this explains really well what the semantic web is and gives you a glimpse or two into how your websites will be affected. I get the feeling that if you plan to make the right changes it wont be anything bad.  Better still if you start to take on board the importance of what the sematic web could do for business in general.  Everyone wins.  It just means learning the rules and sticking to them. Who knows … 

I’ll be posting more videos and some of my findings about the semantic web and RDF technology soon.

We can be sure that this technology will be instrumental in delivering the next generation of search results. It could be that search engines loose some dominance. I don’t think anyone has all of the answers about how it will affect business websites being found i.e semantic sem but I’d like to start some discussions about the implications.

Hope you enjoyed the video. If you did please share this post and make a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.