Topics in Technology and Marketing Week 3 Recap

Assignments and Grading Mid-term assignment (individual) - 20% of final grade: ● Identify an actual/imaginary business to create an internet marketing plan for, based on the internet marketing principles discussed in Modules 1-4 ● Due at end of Week 6. ● Submit questions via class blog/ after Week 3. ● Graded on: ● Insightfulness of proposals ● Effectiveness of communication ● Mastery of course

Assignments and Grading Classroom participation - 10% of final grade: ● Graded on interaction with instructor/peers

What Is Google? ● A search engine? ● An internet app developer? ● Hardly… ● Google is: ● A media publisher that makes money selling advertising – just like a newspaper or magazine. ● 99% of its revenue is from advertising.

What’s Visible, What’s Not ● The only content that search engines can “read” is text ● Images, videos, audio, and Flash cannot be read, therefore invisible ● Example: ●

2 Pillars of Search ● Search ranking is proportional to Google's assessment of BOTH: ● How well the content matches the intent of the query ● The authority of the content ● Authority is earned through: ● Content and factors within a web page ● The authority of pages associating with a web page

King Content ● More content is better than less content. ● Interesting is better than boring. ● Fresh content is better than stale content. ● All things being equal, the page with the most content, updated most frequently, will rank higher. ● Digital writers get $1 per word.

Google’s Key Innovation ● Good content will have more pages linking to it. ● Essentially an information democracy. ● “Social” way before its time. ● Backlinks are an indication of the page's value (authority). ● All things being equal, the page with the most backlinks will rank higher.

Not All Backlinks Are Equal ● Backlink value determined by: ● The authority (PR) of the linking page. – Links from pages with higher PR – great! – Links from pages with lower PR – can’t hurt. ● Similarity of subject matter between linked and linking page: – Links from veterinarian website to a pet groomer’s website – great! – Links from plumber’s website to a pet groomer’s website – can’t hurt. ● Backlink context determined by anchor text: – “For more information on teacup poodles, read more.” – bad – “For more information on teacup poodles, read more.” – good

Learning To Think Like Google ● “All things being equal, which web page would I prefer?” ● A page that lots of people like, or one that hardly anyone likes? ● A page that people who know about the topic like, or one that unrelated people like? ● A page with lots of frequently updated content, or one with small amounts of stale content? ● A page from a business with roots in the community, or one from an unknown business? ● A page from a business with a professional website, or one from an amateurish website? ● A page from an established business that is committed to the future, or one from brand new business that isn’t confident about its longevity?

Questions?