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Tag: SEO

A man reads about quantum computing and Elon Musk as the world' first trillionaire.

Elon is a trillionaire, and you’re not. But nuclear clocks are a thing.

Written by venus on . Posted in Blog.

Elon is a trillionaire, and you’re not. That’s ok (honestly). It’s not great – but it’s not terrible, either.

While you’re on board with a workaholic making more money than anyone or not, you can’t disregard his achievements. PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX are just a few. But he isn’t the only one making waves. Did you hear about the nuclear clock?

Similar to atomic clocks, the nuclear clock uses isotope thorium-229 to keep time, possibly doing a better job than these atomic clocks. Why does this matter? You’ve seen how fast technology progresses. Heck, even the things Elon is tinkering with could potentially benefit from a super accurate timing device.

Elon and nuclear clocks are nice, but how does this affect you? Well, if you’re reading this it is likely you have some interest in websites, how to get them to rank better, and all that. Technology like this extends to things like quantum computing which are extremely sensitive to timing. It feels like as soon as a Qubit appears, it’s gone. Like a flash. Once that isn’t so much of an issue, cryptography gets a lot easier. Unfortunately, this also includes your website’s SSL certificate.

Most of a website’s security infrastructure contains protocols like HTTPS and SSL/TLS certificates. These are trust signals that Google uses to rank websites and they are based on encryption algorithms like RSA and ECC. These quantum computers will eventually break through.

We’re not done. These neat nuclear clocks could enable GPS and location timing so precise, that hyperlocal search signals become way more accurate. You know, those “near me” keywords? Instead of a few blocks, how about a few meters? We may find more of a shift towards the impact of these “near me” keywords like “Chinese food near me” or “divorce lawyer near me” (hopefully these terms are not related!)

Inforgraph showing the impact of Nuclear Clocks on quantum computing and localized search terms.

So how do we look ahead? Well, if your website doesn’t have a security certificate (SSL/TLS) then you need to get one, like yesterday. Visit your website and check the button next to the URL, often there will be a lock or something similar to say your website is secure. These certificates are getting pretty strict and need to be renewed more often than ever before. The next thing is to make sure your website is lightening fast and contains very obvious signals to Google of where your business is located and the areas it serves. Maps, schemas, FAQs, all that stuff.

We’re not all built like Elon, but it doesn’t mean we can’t prepare for what’s to come. There’s some cool things on the horizon, let’s embrace it.

A laptop partially closed.

Is SEO dead, or just another brand of BBQ sauce?

Written by venus on . Posted in Blog.

Google’s Keynote Presentation revealed that Search is changing as we know it. Instead of the familiar list of blue links, we will be shifted into a dashboard that acts like a conversation, rather than a list of results.

Think of it like this: You go to the grocery store and ask a merchandiser, “where is the BBQ sauce?” They direct you to aisle 2. You go there and you see the selection of brands and prices you can choose from. That’s the way we know Google now. We have a query and we are given a selection.

The new method out on the horizon looks like it is going to work differently. When you ask, “Where is the BBQ sauce?” the merchandiser will instead pull out a bottle out of her apron and say “it’s right here.” Less choice, but a more immediate result.

The perks? You get a recommendation based on someone that knows their sauce. Out of all the brands, they see which ones sell out, which ones are a good price, and which one is quite frankly, the best. The downside is it is harder to see those other brands that might be new or lean more towards your taste.

So while this won’t change overnight, it does raise some important considerations.

On-Page and technical SEO – you know, the stuff you see and the stuff you don’t see, but you can control it. How fast does your website load, what kind of content is on it, are there broken links or is the engine running smoothly? These things still matter. In fact, I’d argue they matter even more. Having a solid baseline is important, no matter what industry you’re in.

But the backlinks? Reviews? Getting mentioned on Reddit? These things rely on other people and reflect how good you are. People are going to talk to you if you’re really good or really bad. If you’re just so-so, who cares? So when Google sees that you are getting referenced positively from a variety of trustworthy sources, ding-ding we have a winner!

I’d argue that SEO is not dead but getting far more important. Equally so, the business owner has more of a responsibility than they previously did. They need to deliver good results and ask for public feedback from their clients. The easiest way is to ask for a Google Review.

And… you know what else? Not everyone is going to love this new dashboard idea. I predict there will be a group of people that want a list of blue links back and they will get that from other search engines. While Google dominates now, we may see a shift to more people using these other “more archaic” search engines. And that is ok.

The purpose of SEO is to get your website seen and interacted with by the people who are searching for your services or products. We talk about Google because it is the biggest contender, but there’s nothing wrong with using Duck Duck Go, Bing, Yahoo, or whatever else floats your boat. Or, whatever sauce hits just right.