The Search London event today takes place at Google Campus in Shoreditch.
This post is part of an experiment!
If you are here, it is likely to be because of a relationship.
We have written this to prove the value of relationship building. If you are in SEO, we believe this is where your focus should be right now.
You may not think that Google and SEO are a match made up in heaven, but it is. Google is supporting this event Search London. The first Search London evening meetup was sponsored by Google back in January 2011 and the first day time event is taking place at Google campus, so they are fully behind us.
Is this not enough to prove that Google loves those in SEO?
There has been criticism of Google that it has not loved SEO and that its updates means some in SEO frantically chase the algorithm to ensure their rankings remain high. This negativity has only increased with the Google updates, Panda and Penguin to name the recent ones.
In recent years, Google has been introducing new changes to help those who genuinely want to increase the online visibility of their website. The expression “Content is King” is one that has been used over and over to emphasise the importance of fresh and unique content. Google have always stated this and those sites with good content will naturally see more traffic and links to their site.
Here is a look at some of the ways Google has been supporting SEO:
Google Authorship
This markup is a way for Google to show within the search engine result pages (SERPs) who has written that particular content. For those who have Google Authorship, they will see a headshot of themselves and a link to Google+. It is a way to associate an author’s Google+ account with the content they have published on either their own site or on third party. Google Authorship means it will be more important about who has written the content, rather than where the link is coming from. If Google was against SEO, would it really have introduced such a markup?
Schema.org
The use of a schema is a great way to show reviews of different products/services in the SERPs. Reviews are written by the user for the user. Schema is just a great way to demonstrate reviews of a product or service that a customer wants to promote. There are even many handy plugins to install for wordpress which means those who want to implement it do not need to be tech geeks or spend a small fortune finding someone to help them.
Google Local
There has been a lot of talk around the subject “Is SEO Dead”? or “Is Link building Dead”?. Google’s aim is to provide the most relevant search results for the user. Therefore for those who are working/living in a local area who are looking for a particular product/service, it makes more sense for these local results to be delivered. If Jo Blogs is in New York city looking for a pizza, it surely is more relevant for Google to deliver the results in the proximity to where Jo is currently (eg Little Italy), as opposed to those in Philadelphia.
Google+
When Google first brought this out, I too was skeptical. Is it not just jumping on the social media bandwagon? Did Google only introduce this so that it had a social media presence after the failure of buzz? This may be partly true but Google+ is still here more than a year and a half after it was first announced. When it was first launched, Google suggested that those pages that had +1s may have an impact on rankings.
Entrepreneurship
Google was set up by two entrepreneurs and the Google campus was built to help other budding entrepreneurs. Today’s event “Entrepreneurship and Content Marketing” is being held free of charge to help those looking to set up in business and those who are also working on a small budget. “Content Marketing” should be available to all, not just those who have a big wallet.
We have sponsorship from MajesticSEO who will be paying for a few drinks at the evening event. SEOJoBlogs has sponsored the day time event and Google campus have even put on a special afternoon tea for us (normally it is just sandwiches and crisps, but we asked really nicely). Thank you for all those who have signed up and attended today.
We will be going to the evening venue at 6pm. There are a few tickets remaining for the Meet the Speakers event, at Amber Bar on 1 Ropemaker Street. Look forward to seeing you.