Today, Google officially announced the public beta version of their Website Optimizer tool. This much anticipated launch puts Google squarely in the court of other multivariate testing platforms, such as Offermatica and Optimost. Unlike current players in the multivariate testing space, Google is offering the Website Optimizer tool free to AdWords advertisers. This is in line with Google's strategy of offering advertising tools as loss-leaders to increase the effectiveness of their AdWords product. It also bolsters Google's efforts to collect advertiser conversion data - advertisers using the Website Optimizer tool are required to install Google tracking code on their conversion pages.

Avenue A | Razorfish anticipates Google's Website Optimizer will follow the path of Google Analytics - it will provide more advanced technology to small and mid-size business for whom Google has removed the cost barrier to using these tools. Enterprise level advertisers, however, will continue to opt for more sophisticated tools such as Optimost, or Atlas' multivariate testing platform.

Although this product is focused on optimization of Paid Search landing pages, an interesting debate has begun to take place in the SEO world responsible for improving Google organic search results. The debate has been summarized in detail today at Search Engine Land. In short, there are some who worry that this tool could give the perception, to Google organic crawlers, that the process of cloaking is being employed. Cloaking is when a Web site delivers content to a specific user based on IP addresses. Webmasters have used this methodology as a way to “feed” highly optimized content to the search crawlers which differs from what the public is viewing. AA|RF does not believe that Google’s algorithm will consider pages using this tool to be cloaking.

The AA|RF SEO team in Philadelphia regularly keeps up with perceived changes in Google’s and other search engines’ algorithms, in order to try and keep ahead of the pace and continue to deliver better ranked pages for clients.  Occasionally, theories are raised within forum communities that suggest further analysis, and this week’s coverage at Search Engine Roundtable, of a forum topic at WebmasterWorld forums provided the basis for such a discussion.

The thread includes a theory that Google, in particular, recently seems to be favoring sites that include a higher degree of “freshness.” Initially, the team decided to try to put a finger on what exactly “freshness” means, in terms of the factors that Google may consider in its ranking algorithm.  The consensus feeling was summed up in a simple equation proposed by analyst Andy Powers: (increased fresh content = increased fresh links).  Therefore, both consistent content updates and regular new links to a Web site will likely help to improve the chances of its pages ranking for desired keywords.

This does not mean that sites which do not update content regularly will have less of a chance than those that do, with all other things not being equal.  This will vary greatly by industry, and the AA|RF team will attempt to collect more data in order to be able to predict such a boost with a greater statistical confidence.  As summed up by Engineer Brian Cosgrove: It makes intuitive sense that Google would deem the persistent addition of new, unique content as a “sign of quality”.  At the same time, it is probable that fresh links are a better sign that the page is something that people value and a trend of these fresh links over time shows “staying power.”  In regards to inbound links, a page wouldn’t be discounted if it’s still the best around, despite no recent updates.  The downside to reliance on linking is that, there is no algorithmic way to determine every link that was purchased or influenced specifically for SEO, so it will never be a true (complete) representation of online popularity.

Organizations that choose to go with a content management system in order to dynamically create pages gain an undeniably increased efficiency. However, it is very important, at the onset of the project, to take time to consider the ramifications that the URL structure can have on search engine crawlers.  Some examples of issues with URLs include the use of dynamic parameters such as session ID’s generated by cookies for each individual user.  This can cause search engines to see a different URL for each page every time that they return to re-crawl a Web site.  Since search engines frown upon Web sites attempting to “Spam” the indexes with multiple URLs containing the same content, having session IDs can cause engines to have problems.

The above example is one major problem, which can be fixed relatively easily by implementing recommendations for a URL rewrite process.  This can even be done “after the fact,” and allow for a better chance of increased rankings.  In order to increase efficiency, if the time is already being spent on addressing this issue, developers may want to consider other factors, which could help the pages better rank within search results.  One idea is to try and include popular keyword phrases within the URL itself.

Using keywords in the URL has long been accepted as one of the many factors helping to gain an incremental lift in search engine rankings.  Automating this process within a CMS is not too difficult, if given initial attention when setting page-creation rules.  AA|RF Engineers will often recommend considering using keywords pertinent to the page, especially if they are frequently searched.  Renowned Google Engineer Matt Cutts has even stated, almost in passing, that “having keywords from the post title in the URL  can also help search engines judge the quality of a page.” 

SEOMoz releases Top SEO Ranking factors V2.0 – A study of 34 leading SEO experts, which was published this week at SEOmoz.org, provides excellent insight into the number of factors that are considered when analyzing search engine algorithms. The research provides ratings and commentary regarding over fifty different possible on-page elements and off-page criteria that search engines consider when deciding to rank one page over another. Read the report at SEOmoz, and feel free to contact SMTrends with any requests for a deeper dive into the factors mentioned.

Search Engine Strategies New York 2007 - AA|RF Speakers - Next week, the Search Engine Strategies conference will take place in New York from Tuesday through Friday. The sessions will feature two Avenue A | Razorfish speakers: Matt Greitzer and Chris Boggs. Matt will present during both the “In House: Big PPC” session on Tuesday and the “Search Ad Buyers Forum” on Wednesday. Chris will present during the session titled “Link Baiting & Viral Search Success” on Friday. These are all three repeat sessions from past SES conferences, with new and updated content. Please contact SMTrends if interested in meeting with Matt or Chris, or any of the other AA|RF attendees. Full conference information is available here.