If you’ve spent any time interviewing search engine optimization (SEO) firms, one of the things you’ll find is that the reputable ones will tell you “we can’t guarantee specific results in Google.”

While that phrase provides an honest assessment of our, or anyone’s ability to control Google, it also does the SEO industry a disservice because, quite frankly, SEO works.

SEO has been around for 22 years, since Google launched in 1998, and it’s still the most effective way to get qualified website traffic. In fact, we’re hearing from more and more clients that their websites have become their #1 lead generator since implementing SEO.

At the same time, SEO has become harder and more complicated with every update to Google’s algorithm. But the good SEO firms are ones that have developed a process they know works based on years of experience working on client websites. They also have the ability to track Google changes and adapt their clients’ SEO to meet current standards.

When it comes to implementing search engine optimization for 2020, I tell clients that it’s like the game of Monopoly.

First, Google itself is a monopoly among search engines, with an 88% market share for all searches conducted in the United States, and a 92% market share for searches worldwide as of January 2020(1). For the industrial clients with which we work, that’s fairly significant, along with the knowledge that 89% of technical professionals – their customers -- say they use search engines as a source of information for work, with 77% saying they use the Internet to find equipment, components, services and suppliers.(2)

So, there’s no escaping the impact that Google has on your business, whether your website is optimized or not.

Companies that have gone all in with SEO are likely the ones benefiting from Google’s domination; those that have not (unless they’re branded giants in their own right) are likely suffering and wondering why the Internet doesn’t work for them.

We were there at the forefront and continue to offer our clients SEO expertise derived from many years of practical experience.

My, how time flies when you’re having fun! Pilot Fish is celebrating 25 years in the Internet marketing industry, through our affiliated business Polysort.com, which was founded in 1995 as the first online portal for the plastics and rubber industry.

And, my, how things have changed over the last 25 years!  When we started Polysort.com, it was the Wild, Wild West back then, and we cut our teeth teaching plastics and rubber companies how to setup email accounts and build their first websites. 

Very few companies had websites in 1995, so helping plastics and rubber companies build their online presence became our primary business,which is just a part of our mission today.

With the launch of Google in 1998 and its subsequent growth, search engine optimization become a must-have for every industrial company's marketing toolkit. That's where Pilot Fish stepped in.  

As inquiries increased from non-polymer businesses and the need for SEO grew, Pilot Fish became our website development and SEO arm, providing Internet marketing services not only to plastics and rubber companies, but also to other industrial businesses in a variety of markets, including medical, packaging, woodworking, construction products, chemical, machinery and more.    

Google routinely adjust its algorithm a couple times a week to no fanfare, but an update that rolled out in early November caught the attention of SEOs and website owners.

Some websites saw their traffic drop 30-50%. Some of our own clients were slightly affected, and we’ve already initiated activities to get them back on track.

In response to questions from SEOs, Google confirmed that an update had occurred but gave no indication of what website owners could do to combat the change, beyond its usual advice to provide “great content”:

Google is set to throw a new wrench into how visitors view your company’s website. Starting in March, Google’s Chrome browser will start blocking “mixed content” on secure websites.

Which might sound like confusing jargon, so let’s have some definitions first:

A secure website is one whose address starts with https, rather than just plain http. The “s” means the site is secured by extra coding to deter hackers from intercepting the personal data entered by a visitor to that site. The extra coding also allows your browser to verify that it’s really displaying the website you want to view.

A nonsecure website doesn’t have that extra layer of protection. Google often labels these sites as “not secure” and can even block users from easily reaching the site.

We hear a lot of news coverage about the impact that the millennial generation (those born from 1981-1996) will have on our society. But what about your business? Younger millennials have grown up with computers and the internet as an integral part of their lives. So, not surprisingly, they’re accustomed to researching and shopping online and have much different expectations of websites than folks in older generations.

Engineers, purchasing managers, company owners in the millennial generation are viewing your site in significant numbers. And their impact on your business is increasing with each passing year. Is your website set up to meet the needs of these tech-savvy visitors?
 

Search Engine Land has released the 2019 version of its Periodic Table of SEO Factors, a handy chart of the activities that can positively – and negatively – affect your website’s search engine rankings.

With 200+ ranking factors in Google’s algorithm, Search Engine Land distills all the known information about Google’s methodology into 35 elements, which cover multiple ranking factors.

Positive Attention

Twenty-nine of those elements represent positive ranking factors, those activities you can undertake to help improve your website’s position on the search engines. Seven of the elements dealt directly with content.

Since Google is tightening its SEO standards on website download time and page speed (factoring your site’s download time into search rankings), it’s time to take action, if you haven’t already. There are countless operations that can be performed to improve page speed, but, knowing where to begin can be overwhelming.

My site seems to load fine, so why is this necessary?

• To maintain visitors.
  Statistics show that, if your site does not load quickly, visitors will leave in just a matter of seconds. Fast page load times are a major factor when it comes to user experience, usability, and the overall functionality of your website.
• To perpetuate sales.
  On e-commerce sites, visitors who become frustrated with slow page load times are not likely to return, which oftentimes leads them to competitor sites. Fast load times lead to more customer interaction and better sales.
• To improve rankings.
  Faster pages are known to have higher traffic and better search rankings. Significant improvements in site speed will lead to better performance.