Webmaster Videos – Realtime, Breadcrumbs and SEO Searches!

I'm so good to you sometimes.
Your raised eyebrow suggests that you don't initially agree, but I'm happy to announce that today you are in for a triple helping of Google webmaster videos supremo and all round search oracle Matt Cutts.

Today we delve in for some juicy topics: like whether realtime search will soon be a possibility, why 'breadcrumbs' for your site might not be showing in Google search results and his especially interesting comment on – how much traffic is generated by marketers (and SEOs, industry analysts, etc) looking for their own keywords?

Let us tarry no longer, the first video awaits:

Will “site:” searches ever become realtime?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecquzx1_EQ4[/youtube]

We've certainly talked about this recently: Google's new Caffeine indexing architecture has meant that Google has developed a system which allows them to return significantly fresher results. The question relates to site: style searches. For those unfamiliar with this technique, it forces Google to return only results from one particular domain. (E.g. searching for “site:www.cozy-digital SEO” would return all the pages on cozy-digital.co.uk with SEO on them.) I'm guessing the person asking the question is using this to evaluate how many of his site's pages have been indexed, but from Mr Cutts' reply it seems that realtime site: searches are some way off. His example of seeing content indexed in a just a few seconds is great, I just hope that this doesn't raise expectations prematurely. If you launch a new site tomorrow I wouldn't expected Google to be evaluating and re-indexing it with such high frequency.

Why don't some sites 'breadcrumbs' appear in search listings?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmOjX5DlN2A[/youtube]

For those not in-the-know, 'breadcrumbs' are a hierarchical structure that many sites use to aid navigation around their site. (E.g. A sporting goods site may have a t-shirt product page with the breadcrumbs links Clothing > Football > T-shirts > Male.) This not only shows the user where in the site they are located, but also provides links to parent categories. It's very handy and provides real navigational value to all users.

From Mr Cutts' reply it would seem that there are a few stages and techniques to having your breadcrumbs actually displayed along side your search results. His point about visiting the Webmaster Help Forum is also handy, lots of great advice available from there.

How much traffic do you think is generated by marketers (and SEOs, industry analysts, etc) checking their own keywords?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxi8njP1A_Y[/youtube]

Must admit I quite like this question. Initially you could think that with all the tools that use search engines to check rankings, this seemingly harmless act of checking could perhaps actually become statistically significant (all of a sudden it feels a little like the much vaunted particle physics observer effect (though I prefer the car tire example used in that Wikipedia article)).

I think Mr Cutts does a good job in putting this in some sort of context – there may be (in his example) 50,000 to 100,000 people interested in one particular topic, but this is nothing compared to the millions of people searching every day. As Douglas Adams might have said, the internet is big, really big.

Stay tuned for more Webmaster Videos soon!

• About the Author
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About Adam

• Search The Human Body With Google Body Browser - December 21, 2010
• Has This Site Been Hacked? - December 20, 2010
• How Do Twitter & Facebook’s 2010 Trends Compare With Google’s? - December 14, 2010
• Google Zeitgeist 2010: What Have You Been Searching For Planet Earth? - December 10, 2010
• Google Chrome Gets Store And Talks Chrome OS - December 8, 2010
• Google Issues Security Email For Website Optimiser - December 7, 2010
• Google Launches AdWords Global Market Finder - December 7, 2010
• New Android Phone Promises A Pure Experience - December 7, 2010
• Google AdWords Wants Your Products! - December 3, 2010
• Know How Mobile Internet Affects Your Website? Google Analytics does… - December 2, 2010

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