Search Engines – Clawing Your Way Up – Part 3

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve introduced you to your new competition: non-branded home improvement lead generation companies.
These are search engine marketers who drive visitors to their non-branded Web sites to generate sales leads that they in turn sell to home improvement companies. These professionals consistently secure the top spots in the Google’s search results for home improvement keywords—squeezing out home improvement companies such as yours.
But in an interesting twist, Google recently threw a wrinkle into the way Google calculates its search results. It’s called The Vince Update, and it’s important to local home improvement companies. Let me explain what this means to you.
From time to time, Google changes the way it ranks the listings on its search results pages. Every time Google makes such a change, it does so with the stated goal of making its results more relevant to Internet users.
Google never publishes its criteria for ranking Web sites. Nor does it announce when it changes them. But changes never go unnoticed by the vibrant community of Internet marketing professionals who make their living keeping their Web sites high in the search rankings—like the folks who work at the home improvement lead generation companies.
At the end of February, Google implemented what has come to be known as The Vince Update. Suddenly, the Web site rankings of many of the home improvement lead companies moved down. What moved up were the Web sites of home improvement brands themselves. For a term like “replacement windows” the Web sites of replacement windows brands like Harvey, Marvin and Andersen jumped in the rankings.
Just like that? Yes, just like that. That’s classic Google being Google.
This change has had important ripple effects on home improvement marketing. The Web sites of the major brands are getting more organic clicks than ever before. They’ve seen the hard work (and money) they put into search optimizing their Web sites finally begin to pay off. On the other hand, the Web sites of the non-branded lead generation firms are seeing less traffic.
What does this mean to local home improvement companies? If the brands you represent have done the proper search marketing work on their Web sites, it means that you should be seeing more leads.
How many? That’s impossible to know. But my key point is that the brands you sell have the opportunity and responsibility to do all that they can to 1) maximize the search rankings of their Web site; and 2) leverage those rankings to generate sales leads for you.
That was true before The Vince Update—but it’s much more the case now. When it comes to search engine optimization, Google has (again) changed the rules of engagement. For you, this can be either an opportunity…or a curse.
How should your brand leverage The Vince Update? That’s for next week in Part 4 of the series.