Search Engine Ranking: Is It Enough to Generate Online Business?

To rank well in the top SERPs does not fulfill the pre-requisites of business generation in the virtual world. A top ranking site with less or no reputation at all is likely to generate much lesser traffic or leads as compared to a website with good credibility and brand presence.

Your online reputation says a lot about you or your firm. This decides the fate of the business you are likely to generate through Internet. Your online reputation is the complete picture a prospect can access by visiting your website or by typing your name into their Web browser and reading what has been said about you.

Now, the question arises, how you can create or manage brand popularity in this virtual world? The answer is through socializing. To create your brand in the world of Internet, spend some time networking with common interests and welcome business inquiries. These activities can be carried out by exploring second generation Web communities and social networking sites. These activities don't replace your prospecting efforts, but they can enhance them.

With the advancement of technology, it has become pretty clear that Web 2.0 will revolutionize business practices. Web 1.0 was all about getting your message out to your target audience. It was more like a one way communication through the more traditional media like websites, e-mail and banner ads. Today the scenario has completely changed in the world of marketing and advertising. Today, consumers are controlling the online environment and the consumer or the audience is not listening anymore, but the audience is creating, selecting and participating.

Web 2.0 is all about conversation and participation. With various tools and techniques such as social networks, wikis, blogs, social bookmarks & tagging etc. the user -not the sender- controls the message.

You can build your relationship with your target audience and grow your network with them through social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace etc. Wikis and forums are other handy tools to communicate with your customers. You can also develop a conversation with like-minded individuals on blogs. The choices are endless. Only, you have to select the most feasible techniques that can work well for you.

So, now don’t just try to get that top ranking in the Search Results, but start developing a relationship with your target audience, socialize with them and make your presence felt on the WEB.

On Page Optimization

On page optimization is the process of making any website Search Engine friendly or optimizing the site according to the guidelines suggested by the Search Engines. This process helps the crawlers to index and crawl the pages easily and helps to get better ranking in the SERPs. The term on page has come into existence since the activities are done on the web pages directly. The process includes various steps which are as follows:

1. Unique Title and Meta Tags
2. Code and Design Optimization
   
3. Website Architecture and Site Navigation
   
4. Content Optimization
   

1. Unique Title and Meta Tags

• Unique title and meta tags are prepared and placed on all the pages based on the theme of the page.
  
• Proper alt tags are added for the images.

2. Code and Design Optimization

• All the inline css are shifted to an external file.
  
• The unnecessary spaces are removed.
  
• The broken links (if present) are removed.
  
• The page size is optimized.

3. Website Architecture and Site Navigation

• The website hierarchy and text links are made proper so that all the page can be reached from at least one static text link and within three linking levels or clicks.
  
• All the pages are linked and the site navigation is made structured.
  
• The pages are linked with proper anchor texts (keyword oriented).
  
• The important pages are linked directly with the home page.
  

4. Content Optimization

• Content is prepared with SEO copywriting and placed on the pages. The important keywords and their synonyms are used with adequate keyword frequency and density.
  
• The headings are optimized with the help of header and bold (or italics) tags.
  
• If required different font colours and sizes can also be used to optimize the content.
  
• The content should be informative and related to the theme of the website.
  

On page optimization is a very important step towards getting high ranking in the SERPs. Don’t overdo it as the Search Engines penalize for over optimization.

Successful SEO Campaign - 10 Basic Thumb Rules

Search Engine Optimization is the stepping stone for developing Internet Marketing Strategies for any website. It lays the foundation for the success of web marketing and advertising for any entity. If you want to increase the online presence of your website, then SEO is the first step. The basic performance of any successful SEO campaign can be measured by examining the ranking of the website in the Search Engine Result Pages or simply SERPs. SEO is an ever evolving and fast moving field. There are several techniques which can be followed to accomplish the task but the big challenge is to decide the techniques which should be adopted for any particular campaign to get the desired results. The best practice is to do proper planning before proceeding with the SEO process and adopt a combination of the most suitable techniques which depends entirely on the website theme and goals. The success depends upon how intelligently you use that technique.

The new and evolving trends are always good to try and experiment but don’t forget to implement the basics of SEO. There are 10 basic thumb rules, which, according to me should always be followed to create a solid foundation. These are:

1. Unique Titles and Meta Tags: All the pages should contain unique and descriptive titles and meta tags.

2. Original Content: There is a proverb which is very famous in SEO fraternity that content is king. So always put unique, high quality and informative content on your website.

3. Quality Link Backs: Get quality back links for your website. Don’t run for junk, high in quantity links.

4. Ethical Approach: Don’t try to fool the Search Engines. Always adopt the ethical approach to optimize your website. It may take some time to show in the SERPs, but believe me the results will be long lasting.

5. Website Architecture: Have a proper architecture and navigation for your website. It helps the Search Engine spiders to do deep crawling of the site.

6. No Unnecessary Code: Remove all the junk or unnecessary code from the site. Make it a neat and clean website.

7. XML Sitemaps: Always create and submit xml sitemaps at regular intervals for proper indexing of the website.

8. No Broken Links: Check and remove all the broken or not found links from your website at regular intervals.

9. Regular Updations: Search engines love the websites which have something new to offer to the visitors. They do not like dead sites. Update your website regularly with fresh and original content.

10. Be Consistent: Consistency is the key to success. So keep on working on your SEO project to reap the benefits.

The 10 points mentioned above are the basic SEO ranking factors and if followed with proper planning, show the sure shot success path to a successful SEO campaign.

Search Engine Submissions and Index Inclusion

Index inclusion is the first step towards practical SEO. It means ensuring that maximum pages from your website are included within the main index database of search engines.

It is very rare for a site to be dropped from the index of the Search Engines completely unless and until it has been penalised or banned. However, temporary variations in the number of indexed pages are common.

So it is very important to notify the Search Engines about a new website by Search Engine submission. Submitting your websites into Search Engines help them to get indexed by the Search Engines. However it is not necessary to submit a site into Search Engines because they tend to find a new site through natural links etc. but it is always a good practice to submit a website which catalyses the process.

Index inclusion is the first step towards practical SEO. It means ensuring that maximum pages from your website are included within the main index database of search engines.

It is very rare for a site to be dropped from the index of the Search Engines completely unless and until it has been penalised or banned. However, temporary variations in the number of indexed pages are common.

So it is very important to notify the Search Engines about a new website by Search Engine submission. Submitting your websites into Search Engines help them to get indexed by the Search Engines. However it is not necessary to submit a site into Search Engines because they tend to find a new site through natural links etc. but it is always a good practice to submit a website which catalyses the process.

What is Index Coverage?

Index coverage refers to the proportion of the pages of your site which are included in the index of Search Engines.

Google Sitemaps are very helpful tools for increasing index coverage and notify Google of the changes occurring on the site. Sitemaps do not guarantee to improve the rankings of your site for existing pages, but it can enable more pages to be included in the indexed database of the Search Engines which in turn increases the visitors. It can also determine the frequency of the visit of Googlebot.

Excluding Pages from the Site Index:

At certain occasions, you may not want the Search Engines to follow links and index certain pages of your website. In this case you may instruct the Search Engine Bots not to follow and index those pages by adding following code on robots.txt file:

User-Agent: * Disallow:/demo/

The above code will disallow all the robots from crawling the entire demo folder. Simply adding a / will disallow the robots from crawling of your whole website.

You can also restrict the robots from indexing a particular page by adding noindex, nofollow attributes.

Search Engine Optimization - A Step by Step Guide for Beginners

Search Engine Optimization, as the name suggests, is the act of changing or altering websites so that they can rank well in the organic, crawler-based Search Engine listings or Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). The main aim is to get top rankings on the first page of Search Engine listings. The process of Search Engine Optimization includes - choosing targeted or theme oriented keywords or key phrases that are related to the website, and ensuring that the site shows on the top listings of SERPs when those keywords and phrases are searched. The process includes optimizing a site according to the criteria of Search Engines and increasing the number of visitors also called traffic to a Website. Normally, Internet uers do not click through pages and pages of SERPs, so the position where a Website ranks in SERPs is very important for generating more traffic for the site because, the higher a Website ranks, the greater is the chance of getting visitors.

SEO Ranking Factors:

• Planning and Strategy
  
• Search Engine Submissions, Index inclusion and Coverage
  
• On Page Optimization
  
• Link Popularity Building and Off Page Optimization
  
• SEM Process
  
• Conversion Efficiency

A. Planning and Strategy:

Planning is the first step to SEO. Never launch any strategy without proper planning. In this section, I will discuss the following steps:

1. Goal Setting
   
2. Keyphrase Research, Analysis and Selection
   
3. Competitors’ Analysis
   
4. Market Analysis

1. Goal Setting: Before starting SEO process, it is very essential that you set some realistic goals for the campaign. Common types of high-level goals used for Search Engine Marketing:

• Position Based Goals and Targets: It is important for position based goals that these targets generate high volume, high intent keywords and key phrases in the major search engines.
  


• Visitor Volume Based Goals and Targets: This includes getting a particular number of clicks from unique and returning visitors. For example to achieve 5,000 clicks from the targeted phrases per day, week or month.


• Outcome Based Goals and Targets: This includes setting conversion based goals. For example to generate 10,000 leads or sales from SEO per day, week or month.


• Market Share Based Goals and Targets: There are various tools such as the Google Traffic Estimator or Hitwise, which make it possible to calculate a ‘share of search’ within a product category with detailed keyphrase analysis. However, care must be taken while setting this type of goal with these tools because they may not be 100% correct being mislead by automatically submitted searches from rank-checking, link-building or click fraud software tools. For example to achieve 25% share of the searches within a year for a particular key phrase.

2. Keyphrase Research, Analysis and Selection: Keyword or key phrase analysis and selection are the core to success in Search Engine Marketing. Identifying the most relevant key phrases for a Website is the most important and crucial starting point as it forms the base of your SEO campaign. Since this is very important aspect of SEO, I shall discuss it in detail in a separate section.

3. Competitors’ Analysis: Comparing search performance of competitors against that of yours is a big part of analysis and improvement for SEO. The first step is to identify your online competitor types for search traffic. It is not always necessary that the competitors for particular keyphrases are your traditional competitors. For example, for a mobile phone retailer, when someone searches for a product, you will be competing for search visibility with these types of websites:

• Mobile phone retailers
  
• Network providers
  
• Handset manufacturers
  
• Affiliates and partner sites
  
• Gazettes and news sites
  
• Review sites
  
• Blogs and personal sites about mobile phone technology
  
• Mobile phone related articles

This makes it very important to identify your actual competitors and their SEO strategy to compete with them and beat them.

4. Market Analysis: Market analysis is very essential to get more visitors to a website and convert those visitors into long term customers.

Google News: Fact & Fiction Edition

The Google News blog has an excellent post on the truths and myths of how Google News works. Here is the short version: * Images don't help your articles rank higher (there is a but...)
* Google News currently can't fetch revisions to articles
* Timing your articles for specific releases won't help it rank better in Google News
* You need text in your articles, Google can't include a picture with no text in the news index
* Google Webmaster Tools has a section for News content, so you can see Google News specific errors
* Google Sitemaps do not help with boosting the ranking of an article in Google News
* A site redesign, specifically new site and url architecture, may impact your performance and indexing by Google News
* Google AdSense has no impact on your Google News ranking

If I had to add my own, based on reading the SEO forums on a daily basis, I would add that the only way to get included in Google News is to be reviewed by a human and be manually included in the Google News index. Good SEO won't get you included in Google News, no matter how many links you have - you still need a manual review. You can request such a review using this form.

The major takeaways I had from this post are two things:

(1) Google News is working on a way to check your articles for updates. So sometime in the future, if you make changes to a story, Google will be aware of those updates. This is something most publishers want from Google News.

(2) Good images can be featured in Google News and if you click on the image, as opposed to the story hyperlink, the story hosting the image will be the destination URL. So although images won't help you rank your story headline higher, the image may be feature next to other stories and can increase your traffic from Google News.

Via [http://searchengineland.com/080403-083445.php]

Real Estate Search Engine Zillow Opens "Mortgage Marketplace"

Zillow doesn't see itself as a real estate "vertical." Instead it regards itself as a media company that creates advertising opportunities around what is arguably the most significant "life events" purchase: buying a home.

In that spirit the company is developing numerous interesting marketing vehicles aimed at consumers in all phases of home buying (and in the future home remodeling). One critical piece of that equation is getting a home loan or an equity line of credit. Zillow doesn't see itself as a real estate "vertical." Instead it regards itself as a media company that creates advertising opportunities around what is arguably the most significant "life events" purchase: buying a home.

In that spirit the company is developing numerous interesting marketing vehicles aimed at consumers in all phases of home buying (and in the future home remodeling). One critical piece of that equation is getting a home loan or an equity line of credit. Enter the new Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.

Basically the site is a lead-gen tool for lenders, but without any fees. Lead-gen isn't the business model; lenders can use the site for free. Zillow makes money on ads that will be served to consumers visiting the various pages of the Mortgage Marketplace. If the site is successful with the new offering it will put pressure on conventional lead-gen sites for lenders such as LendingTree, among others.

One thing that's very interesting about what Zillow is doing is that it's going to allow borrowers to rate lenders so that consumers can make determinations about whether to do business with them accordingly. This is a unique feature of the site in my understanding and may spur others to do the same. That should flush out some of the "bait and switch" tactics that exist in the home loans market.

Consumers, (would-be borrowers) apply online to receive loan offers from multiple lenders. They have to provide a good deal of information, including an estimated credit score. But borrowers are allowed to remain anonymous and don't offer their SSNs. This prevents aggressive lenders from hounding consumers with calls, which happens in other mortgage lead-gen scenarios.

Participating lenders are verified by Zillow and loan "offers" are submitted to borrowers in something like a reverse auction. Lenders can see the other offers submitted to an individual borrower and try to "one up" the best offer on the table. Consumers can then choose which lenders to contact.

In my call with Zillow I got into an arcane discussion about consumer perceptions, contracts and potential liability for Zillow. The company has thought through nearly 100 percent of the legal issues associated with brokering these potential deals. Indeed, no "transaction" takes place through the site. Ultimately lender and borrower have to strike a deal independently with the information exchanged through Zillow as the foundation of that potential deal.

I was told also that mortgage brokers and lenders were already very heavy users of the Zillow site and that the company sought to create a mortgage product that would benefit those lenders and consumers simultaneously and improve upon lead-gen products already in the market.

Zillow said that it already had "hundreds of lenders registered and confirmed at launch even without product details," indicating a high degree of demand -- somewhat surprisingly -- in a down market.

Via [http://searchengineland.com/080403-092734.php]

Recent Google Updates Have SEOs Scrambling

Like a celebrity sitting down with Barbara Walters, Google News has decided to clear up rumors surrounding how articles are included and ranked. In a post on the official Google News blog, software engineer Andy Golding addressed some assumptions floating around about how articles are indexed. Like a celebrity sitting down with Barbara Walters, Google News has decided to clear up rumors surrounding how articles are included and ranked. In a post on the official Google News blog, software engineer Andy Golding addressed some assumptions floating around about how articles are indexed.

Here are the Myths:

* Having an image next to your article improves your ranking
* Timing the publication of your article improves your article ranking
* There's no way to see why my articles weren't included in Google News
* Publishing a sitemap helps my rankings
* If I put AdSense on my site, my article rankings will improve


And now the Truths:

* Redesigning my site may affect my coverage in Google News
* Articles that are just images or video won't be included
* Updating an article after posting it will create problems with Google News

Things to keep in mind:

* Google News only visits each URL once. If you make updates, it won't be reflected in Google News results. This could change in the future, however.
* If you try to game the system with duplicate content or constantly rewriting stories, you might get flagged in the system as spam.
* Use Webmaster Tools to help analyze your coverage
* A sitemap helps Google News find your content, but not rank it

Via [http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080403-095920]

Google Gets Out of the SEO Business

Google is getting itself out of a somewhat sticky situation by deciding to

sell Performics Search Marketing, which it acquired as part of the DoubleClick deal. It will retain the affiliate marketing portion of the DoubleClick Performics business.

Since Google announced its intention to acquire DoubleClick last year, Google had faced criticism of the potential conflict of interest that would be created by Google owning a search marketing firm. After all, why wouldn't customers assume, even if it weren't the case, that a Google-owned agency would have inside information?

According to Tom Phillips, director of the DoubleClick integration at Google:

It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google’s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party. We believe this will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers. While we have not yet identified a buyer, we’ve received preliminary interest from a number of our current partners. Search Marketing will continue to run as a separate entity until the division is sold.

So that only leaves one major search engine who's also in the SEO business: Microsoft, which acquired Avenue A | Razorfish and its SEO business with the aQuantive acquisition.

In the meantime, the New York Times is reporting that Google will lay off 300 at DoubleClick. This comes as no surprise, since CEO Eric Schmidt hinted at cuts when the acquisition closed last month.

Via [http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080402-204611]

Google Selling Performics -- Thanks, Google!

Last month, I did an open letter to Google wishing they'd quickly sell off Performics, to avoid the conflict of having a search marketing firm that works to improve results on Google's own search engine. Well, thank you Google! They've acted far more quickly than I would have hoped for, announcing today that the company will be splitting Performics into two separate companies (affiliate marketing and search marketing) and selling the search marketing business off. Now to see if Microsoft will do the right thing and make a similar move with Avenue A/Razorfish, as I covered in my open letter and in my Ad Age column this month. Below, Google's statement on the move:

Since we closed the acquisition of DoubleClick on March 11, we’ve been immersed in integration planning for each of our products and business units. Recently we completed this process for the DoubleClick Performics businesses, and have decided to split them into two separately-run business units: Affiliate Marketing and Search Marketing.

It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google’s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party. We believe this will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers. While we have not yet identified a buyer, we’ve received preliminary interest from a number of our current partners. Search Marketing will continue to run as a separate entity until the division is sold.

We plan to integrate the affiliate marketing business into existing Google operations, providing enhanced value and reach for our affiliate advertisers, and additional tools and monetization opportunities for our publishers. Together, we believe that we can continue to grow this business and deliver on the high expectations from partners.

Where it’s applicable in Europe, these plans and their implications for employees are subject to consultation with staff and employee representatives. During this transition, we will ensure that all affiliate and search marketing customers receive the same high level of service they have always experienced.

Via [http://searchengineland.com/080402-172222.php]

Megachart & Analysis: Google Management Changes, 2000-2008

With two high-ranking Google executives leaving the Big G within a month's time, I thought it would be interesting to go back through Google's executive management page over the years and see how it reflects changes among the higher-ups. Below, there are a series of tables and commentary that hopefully let you understand the shifting currents at-a-glance.

Some notes. First, I think who gets listed on this page -- and the order in which they are listed -- is important. This has to be a perk for some execs -- that they'll get to show up and be profiled on that page. In addition, the order is not always alphabetical. With the exception of the big three -- CEO Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin -- I think who shows up first when it's a non-alphabetical listing can be significant. There can be some exceptions to this, and I'll note them as part of the charts. Let's dive in.

The charts below reflect the exact order people were listed on the executive management pages, for the dates shown at the top of each charge. There may have been other changes between dates, of course. Maybe eventually I'll go back and redo this to reflect all significant changes to the pages. I might have missed some key updates.

Each row in the chart shows where an executive was listed, in a white background. If you hit a gray background while reading across, then that person moved somehow. They might have gone up or down on the page, and I show this with a notation. I also note if someone was given a title change (usually a promotion). Keep in mind that sometimes titles at Google don't reflect that much. Matt Cutts, for example, remains (I think) a senior software engineer. In another company (or if he were a different type of person), he'd probably be called "vice president, search quality." Still, seeing how titles change among the top execs is still useful to note.

Be sure to read the summaries below each chart. Sometimes people will drop in positions, but that doesn't mean they necessarily have dropped in "pecking order." Indeed, speculating that there is a pecking order to some of these pages is just that, speculation.

Finally, if you see orange, that's when someone actually left Google. Why orange? Hey, red looked too bad, and I'm color-challenged. Like I need Garanimals for adults, OK?

Google Management: 2000 to 2002

Jan. 20, 2000	March 31, 2001	Feb. 7, 2002
		Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO (NEW)
Larry Page, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer	Larry Page, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer	Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products (TITLE CHANGE)
Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President	Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President	Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology (TITLE CHANGE)
	Omid Kordestani, Vice President of Business Development & Sales	Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Business Development & Sales (TITLE CHANGE)
		Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales
		Joan Braddi, Vice President, Search Services
	Wayne Rosing, Vice President of Engineering (NEW)	Wayne Rosing, Vice President of Engineering
Urs Hölzle, Vice President of Engineering	DROPS: 3 TO 8	Urs Hölzle, Google Fellow
		Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology
		Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Marketing (TITLE CHANGE)
Omid Kordestani, Vice President of Business Development & Sales	RISES: 4 TO 3
Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Communications	Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Communications	DROPS: 5 TO 10
Tim Armstrong, Vice President, National Sales	DROPS: 6 TO 7
	Joan Braddi, Vice President, Search Services (TITLE CHANGE)	SEE ABOVE, STAYS AT 6
Joan Braddi, Vice President, Licensing Sales	RISES: 7 TO 6
	Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales (TITLE CHANGE)	RISES: 7 TO 5
	Urs Hölzle, Google Fellow (TITLE CHANGE)	SEE ABOVE, STAYS AT 8
Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology	Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology	SEE ABOVE, STAYS AT 9
8 Execs	9 Execs	10 Execs

In 2000, only eight executives get spotlighted on the page. After Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the remaining six aren't in alphabetical order. My assumption is that Urs Hölzle got third billing because he was over at engineering. At Google, engineering rules, as will be seen later on.

Omid Kordestani came next. I'd say that was a nod to the man who became Google's early breadwinner. Cindy McCaffrey, the woman who guided Google toward its public relations greatness, came fifth. After that, my assumption is that both Tim Armstrong and Joan Braddi were deemed important enough to deserve management page credit with an alphabetical listing between them used as a tie-breaker.

Of course, all four VPs I've mentioned oversaw different areas. Could it be that they were listed alphabetically by those areas (Business Development, Corporate Communications, National Sales, & Licensing Sales)? Not with National Sales coming before Licensing Sales. Perhaps seniority was involved.

Craig Silverstein in "last" place? I'd call that more "pride of place," similar to when you've got an important actor who gets the last credit. He's also the only director level position on the list. And I could be overthinking all of this.

In 2001, Wayne Rosing came on to head engineering, apparently replacing Urs Hölzle, who shifted over into being named "Google Fellow." But Omid Kordestani bumped the VP of engineering slot out of third billing, likely a reflection of how important he was to actually building Google a business income.

Joan Braddi and Tim Armstrong did a flipflop in terms of how they were listed. I wouldn't be surprised if this was something thought to be fair, flipping two execs seen as co-equal in the billing, to make things fair.

Am I reading too much into the order? Perhaps -- but alphabetically by name isn't used, nor is alphabetically by the area each VP governed used. And if it were seniority, then McCaffrey would have been over Rosing.

In 2002, the big change was Eric Schmidt coming on as CEO. That moved everyone down a notch. Larry Page became "President, Products" and Sergey Brin, "President, Technology." Kordestani got promoted to Senior Vice President and kept his spot after the big three.

The three VPs other than Cindy McCaffrey might have been shifted to be listed in alphabetical order by last name -- so movement here might signify nothing. Then the non-VPs, Hölzle and Silverstein, are listed.

So why's VP McCaffrey at the end? Look, Cindy was important. Very much so. That drop had nothing to do with any decreased importance, in my view. To me, it would have been much more an honor of last billing sometimes being more noticed.

Google Management: 2003 to 2004

Feb. 7, 2002	Feb. 7, 2003	April 2, 2004
Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO	Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO	Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO
	Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology	Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology
	Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products	Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products
	George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer (NEW)	George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer
	Wayne Rosing, Vice President of Engineering	Wayne Rosing, Vice President of Engineering
Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products	DROPS: 2 TO 3
Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology	RISES: 3 TO 2
Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Business Development & Sales (TITLE CHANGE)	Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations (TITLE CHANGE; DROPS: 4 TO 6)	Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations
		Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Marketing
	David C. Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development (NEW)	DROPS: 7 TO 9
	Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management (NEW)	Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management
		David C. Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development
		Shona Brown, Vice President, Business Operations (NEW)
Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales	Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales (DROPS: 5 TO 9)	DROPPED FROM PAGE
Joan Braddi, Vice President, Search Services	Joan Braddi, Vice President, Licensing Sales (TITLE CHANGE; DROPS 6 TO 10)	DROPPED FROM PAGE
Wayne Rosing, Vice President of Engineering	RISES: 7 TO 5
Urs Hölzle, Google Fellow	Urs Hölzle, Google Fellow	DROPPED FROM PAGE
Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology	Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology	DROPPED FROM PAGE
Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Marketing	Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Marketing	RISES: 13 TO 7
10 Execs	13 Execs	10 Execs

For consistency with the earlier chart, I've continued on from 2002, which was already covered above.

In 2003, three new key executives were added. George Reyes was named Chief Financial Officer and took over the number four spot previously held by Omid Kordestani, who slipped down slightly past engineering VP Wayne Rosing. David Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development, was added and jumped above existing execs like Tim Armstrong and Joan Braddi. The same was true for new exec Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management. Larry Page, long either in the top spot or second spot, swapped places with Sergey Brin. I doubt it meant anything more than the two deciding they should rotate from time-to-time.

In 2004, there was spring cleaning. Long-standing execs Armstrong, Braddi, Hölzle, & Silverstein were dropped from the page. They were still at Google, but they no longer got listed as top management. Shona Brown, Vice President, Business Operations, came in as the only new exec to make the page. She took over Cindy McCaffrey's spot at the end of the list. In doing so, that last spot no longer felt like a place to spotlight an exec but rather that the list was showing a pecking order of who was rated most important.

Google Management: 2005 to 2006

April 2, 2004	March 3, 2005	Jan. 1, 2006
Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO	Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO	Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO
		Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products
		Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology
Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology	Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology	DROPS: 2 TO 3
Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products	Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products	RISES: 3 TO 2
George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer	George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer	George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer
		Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Business Development (TITLE CHANGE)
		Alan Eustace, Vice President, Engineering (NEW)
		Jeff Huber, Vice President, Engineering (NEW)
		W. M. Coughran, Jr., Vice President, Engineering (NEW)
Wayne Rosing, Vice President of Engineering	Wayne Rosing, Senior Vice President of Engineering (TITLE CHANGE)	LEFT GOOGLE IN MAY 2005
Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations	Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations	RISES: 6 TO 5
Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Marketing	LEFT GOOGLE IN DEC. 2004
Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management	Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management	Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management
David C. Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development	David C. Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development	David C. Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development
Shona Brown, Vice President, Business Operations	Shona Brown, Vice President, Business Operations	Shona Brown, Vice President, Business Operations
		Elliot Schrage, Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs (NEW)
		Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales (RETURNS TO PAGE)
		Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience (NEW)
		Salar Kamangar, Vice President, Product Management (NEW)
		Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President, Global Online Sales and Operations (NEW)
		Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Vice President, Asia-Pacific and Latin America Operations (NEW)
		Nikesh Arora, Vice President, European Operations (NEW)
		Norio Murakami, Vice President and General Manager, Google Japan (NEW)
		Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist (NEW)
		Miriam Rivera, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel (NEW)
10 Execs	9 Execs	21 Execs

Again, for consistency when moving between charts, I've repeated the previous year. Moving along...

In 2005, there was only one major change -- Cindy McCaffrey was off the chart. She'd left Google by then (in December 2004), the first high-ranking exec to take her well-deserved winnings and move on.

In 2006, there was another absence. Wayne Rosing became the second high-ranking exec to depart, having left in May 2005 (and see here) to focus on his passion for astronomy. But the real change was the addition of many new execs to the page. Elliot Schrage took over from Cindy McCaffrey, so his addition was no surprise. Same too for the three separate VPs of engineering that came in to fill Wayne Rosing's spot.

But many pre-IPO Google employees gained new recognition, such as Sheryl Sandberg, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, and Marissa Mayer. Meanwhile, Omid Kordestani moved back higher in the seeming pecking order and Tim Armstrong finally returned to the page. Joan Braddi, who he'd long been twinned with on the page, did not, despite still being at Google then (and today).

Google Management: 2006 to 2008

Jan. 1, 2006	Feb. 2, 2007	April 2, 2008
	Executive Management Group (EMG)
Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO	Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO	Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO
Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products	Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products	Larry Page, Co-founder & President, Products
Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology	Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology	Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology
		Laszlo Bock Vice President, People Operations
George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer	(MOVES TO EMG; SEE BELOW)
	Shona Brown, Senior Vice President, Business Operations (TITLE CHANGE)	Shona Brown, Senior Vice President, Business Operations
	W. M. Coughran, Jr., Vice President, Engineering	W. M. Coughran, Jr., Vice President, Engineering
	David C. Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development (TITLE CHANGE)	David C. Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer (TITLE CHANGE)
	Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President, Engineering & Research (TITLE CHANGE)	Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President, Engineering & Reseach
	Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Google Fellow (TITLE CHANGE; RETURNS TO PAGE)	Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Google Fellow
	Jeff Huber, Vice President, Engineering	Jeff Huber, Senior Vice President, Engineering (TITLE CHANGE)
Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Business Development (TITLE CHANGE)	Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Business Development (MOVES TO EMG)	Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Business Development
	George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer	George Reyes, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer (TITLE CHANGE; ANNOUNCED RESIGNATION IN AUGUST 2007; STAYS UNTIL REPLACED)
	Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management (TITLE CHANGE)	Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management
	Elliot Schrage, Vice President, Global Communications & Public Affairs	Elliot Schrage, Vice President, Global Communications & Public Affairs
Alan Eustace, Vice President, Engineering (NEW)	MOVES TO EMG; GETS SENIOR VP TITLE
Jeff Huber, Vice President, Engineering (NEW)	MOVES TO EMG
W. M. Coughran, Jr., Vice President, Engineering (NEW)	MOVES TO EMG
Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management	MOVES TO EMG; GETS SENIOR VP TITLE
David C. Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development	MOVES TO EMG; GETS SENIOR VP TITLE
Shona Brown, Vice President, Business Operations	MOVES TO EMG; GETS SENIOR VP TITLE
Elliot Schrage, Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs (NEW)	MOVES TO EMG
	Google Management Group (GMG)
Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales (RETURNS TO PAGE)	Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales (MOVES TO GMG)	MOVES TO SALES EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Nikesh Arora, Vice President, European Operations	MOVES TO SALES EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Laszlo Bock Vice President, People Operations (NEW)	MOVES TO GMC, SEE ABOVE
	Adam Bosworth Vice President (NEW)	LEFT GOOGLE SEPTEMBER 2007
	Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Vice President, Asia-Pacific and Latin America Operations	MOVES TO SALES EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist	MOVES TO ENGINEERING EXECS, SEE BELOW
	David Eun Vice President, Content Partnerships (NEW)	MOVES TO SALES EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Dave Girouard Vice President & General Manager, Enterprise (NEW)	MOVES TO SALES EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Salar Kamangar, Vice President, Product Management	MOVES TO PRODUCTS EXECS, SEE BELOW
	David Lawee Vice President, Marketing (NEW)	MOVES TO LEGAL EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Kai-Fu Lee Vice President, Engineering, Product, and Public Affairs & President, Greater China (NEW)	MOVES TO SALES EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Udi Manber Vice President, Engineering (NEW)	MOVES TO ENGINEERING EXECS, SEE BELOW
Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience (NEW)	Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience (MOVES TO GMG)	MOVES TO PRODUCTS EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Douglas Merrill Vice President, Engineering (NEW)	MOVES TO ENGINEERING EXECS, SEE BELOW
	Norio Murakami, Vice President and General Manager, Google Japan (MOVES TO GMG)	MOVES TO SALES EXECS, SEE BELOW
	David Radcliffe Vice President, Real Estate (NEW)	MOVES TO FINANCE EXECS, SEE BELOW
Salar Kamangar, Vice President, Product Management (NEW)	MOVES TO GMG; SEE ABOVE
Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President, Global Online Sales and Operations (NEW)	Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President, Global Online Sales and Operations (MOVES TO GMG)	LEFT GOOGLE MARCH 2008
	Kent Walker Vice President & General Counsel (NEW)	MOVES TO LEGAL EXECS, SEE BELOW
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Vice President, Asia-Pacific and Latin America Operations (NEW)	MOVES TO GMG; SEE ABOVE
Nikesh Arora, Vice President, European Operations (NEW)	MOVES TO GMG; SEE ABOVE
Norio Murakami, Vice President and General Manager, Google Japan (NEW)	MOVES TO GMG; SEE ABOVE
Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist (NEW)	MOVES TO GMG; SEE ABOVE
	Susan Wojcicki Vice President, Product Management (NEW)	MOVES TO PRODUCTS EXECS, SEE BELOW
Miriam Rivera, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel (NEW)	DROPPED FROM PAGE; LIKELY LEFT IN 2006
		Engineering Execs
		Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist
		Stuart Feldman, Vice President, Engineering (NEW)
		Vic Gundotra, Vice President, Engineering (NEW)
		Udi Manber Vice President, Engineering
		Nelson Mattos, Vice President, Engineering, EMEA (NEW)
		Douglas Merrill Vice President, Engineering LEFT GOOGLE APRIL 2008
		Shiva Shivakumar, Vice President and Distinguished Entrepreneur (NEW)
		Alfred Spector, VP of Research and Special Initiatives (NEW)
		Benjamin Sloss Treynor, Vice President, Engineering (NEW)
		Jeff Dean, Google Fellow (NEW)
		Sanjay Ghemawat, Google Fellow (NEW)
		Amit Singhal, Google Fellow (NEW)
		Products Execs
		Salar Kamangar, Vice President, Product Management
		Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience
		Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management, EMEA & Latin America (NEW)
		Lorraine Twohill, Vice President, Marketing, EMEA (NEW)
		Susan Wojcicki Vice President, Product Management
		Sales Execs
		Daniel Alegre, Vice President, Latin America and APLA Business Development (NEW)
		Tim Armstrong, President, Advertising and Commerce, North America, & Vice President, Google Inc. (TITLE CHANGE)
		Nikesh Arora, President, EMEA Operations & Vice President, Google Inc. (TITLE CHANGE)
		Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, President, Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations (TITLE CHANGE)
		David Eun Vice President, Content Partnerships
		David Fischer, Vice President, Online Sales & Operations (NEW, REPLACES SHERYL SANDBERG)
		Dave Girouard Vice President & General Manager, Enterprise
		John Herlihy, Vice President, Onlinel Sales & Operations, EMEA
		Kai-Fu Lee, Vice President, Google Inc.; President, Greater China (TITLE CHANGE)
		Dr. John Liu, Vice President, Sales, Greater China (NEW)
		Norio Murakami, President & General Manager, Google Japan & Vice President, Google Inc. (TITLE CHANGE)
		Penry Price, VP, Advertising Sales, North America (NEW)
		Dennis Woodside, Vice President, UK, Benelux and Ireland (NEW)
		Legal Execs
		Kent Walker Vice President & General Counsel
		David Lawee Vice President, Corporate Development (TITLE CHANGE)
		Megan Smith, Vice President, New Business Development (NEW)
		Finance Execs
		Brent Callinicos, Vice President & Treasurer (NEW)
		Francois Delepine, Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis (NEW)
		Mark Fuchs, Vice President of Finance and Chief Accountant (NEW)
		Julio Pekarovic, Vice President, Global Sales Finance (NEW)
		David Radcliffe, Vice President, Real Estate
		Business Operations Execs
		Francoise Brougher, Vice President, Business Operations (NEW)
21 Execs	31 Execs	54 Execs

As with the other charts, I've repeated the last year of the previous one, 2006, so that comparisons can continue.

In 2007, we see a major change. Google execs were divided into two groups. First there's the Executive Management Group, of EMG. These are the most senior executives. There's no pecking order in how they are listed after the top trio of Schmidt-Page-Brin. Everyone else is listed alphabetically by last name, regardless of job title. All elevated to the EMG had been previously listed on the management page before. Several gained promotion to senior vice president level (Brown, Drummond, Eustace, Hölzle, & Rosenberg). Hölzle is notable for being the only one to return to the executive page after an absence. He was on the original executive page way back in 2000 as a VP; he changed to being a Google Fellow in 2001 and was dropped in 2004. His return reflected gaining SVP in addition to his Google Fellow title.

Other executives are listed under the "Google Management Group" heading. These include all the new additions from 2005 (such as Mayer, Kamangar, Sandberg, among others). In addition, many new execs get added, such as Susan Wojcicki and Douglas Merrill, among others. Only one person goes, Miriam Rivera, formerly listed as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel. I don't recall any news coming out about her leaving Google. But she definitely left at some point, currently serving on the Stanford University Board Of Trustees.

In 2008, another big shake-up. The executive page listed over 50 people, more than ever before.

The EMG section remained largely the same. The only addition was Laszlo Bock, Vice President, People Operations, jumping into it. David Drummond got a title change, picking up Chief Legal Officer to add to his SVP title. Jeff Huber gained an SVP title, as did CFO George Reyes. Reyes, of course, also announced he was resigning in August 2007. More than half-a-year later, he continues to serve and seek a replacement. Forbes looked at that challenge back in December.

The Google Management Group section added in 2007 did not survive. Instead, all the execs there other than three departures I'll come to were added to one of several groups: Engineering, Product, Sales, Legal, Finance, & Business Operations. Within each group, people were listed alphabetically by name, regardless of title.

I said earlier that engineers sat on top of the Google pecking order. Anyone familiar with Google culture will tell you this, and the order of the groups reflects it. Engineering comes first. That just alphabetical? Sure, Product and Sales would come next, but then Legal & Business Operations ruins that pattern.

Within the group are names long on the page, such as Vint Cerf. But many new names were added, such as engineering VP Stuart Feldman and Shiva Shivakumar, who is also Google's only Distinguished Entrepreneur. Still listed today but soon to go missing is Douglas Merrill, confirmed to be leaving and expected to head to EMI. Missing from the group is Adam Bosworth, who left in September 2007.

In the Product group are (again) familiar names (Kamangar, Mayer, Wojcicki) along with two new ones (Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management, EMEA & Latin America, and Lorraine Twohill, Vice President, Marketing, EMEA).

Sales is the biggest group (13 people) outside the EMG itself (14 people), just edging out Engineering (12) and Products (5). Lots of new additions to the page show up. Notable is David Fischer, Vice President, Online Sales & Operations, filling the spot vacated by Sheryl Sandberg in March 2008, though Fischer doesn't get the "Global" moniker that Sandberg's title carried. Also notable are some additions for areas outside the US, such as Daniel Alegre, Vice President, Latin America and APLA Business Development.

We also see the first "President" titles showing up beyond those that the two founders carry. Indeed, while I previously said that at Google, engineers rule -- on a title basis, it's the sales side that would seem to outrank. Tim Armstrong, Nikesh Arora, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, and Norio Murakami all carry a president's title, joining Kai-Fu Lee, who already had one. That's six sales-side presidents to only one on the engineering side (Sergey Brin) and one on the product side (Larry Page). Of course, most of these sales presidents oversee areas outside the US (China, Japan, Europe & Middle East; Asia & Latin America), and there might be regulatory or other reasons why it's helpful to have someone at least carry a president's title.

In the Legal group, one new exec is added (Megan Smith, Vice President, New Business Development) and David Lawee stays on the executive page but seems to make a lateral move, becoming VP of corporate development. Previously, he was VP of marketing. Oddly, this means that Google seems to be without a VP of marketing, at the moment.

In the Finance group, four new execs get named in addition to David Radcliffe, Vice President, Real Estate, who was previously on the page. And Francoise Brougher, Vice President, Business Operations, becomes the sole person listed in the Business Operations Group.

Departures, In Summary

So with all the talk of a brain drain, how's it looking in terms of executives on the Google management page that have gone? Year-by-year:

• 2000: 0 departures
• 2001: 0 departures
• 2002: 0 departures
• 2003: 0 departures
• 2004: 1 departure (Cindy McCaffrey; this was also Google's IPO year)
• 2005: 1 departure (Wayne Rosing)
• 2006: 1 departure (Mariam Rivera -- may have left in 2007)
• 2007: 1 departure (Adam Bosworth; George Reyes announced departure; Louis Monier also left and may have been listed on the page at a time point I didn't check)
• 2008: 2 departures (Sandberg & Merrill)
• Total To Date: 6 departures

That's it -- only six named execs to depart (though there might be a few more, if they were named on pages between the time points I picked). Frankly, that seems a great retention record to me, four years after the company went public, when plenty of the execs are pre-IPO and wealthy. But as I said in my post today about Merrill's departure, I'm sure Google will continue to see execs go because they want to show they can succeed on their own, out from under Google's shadow.

Eventually, Google might also suffer Yahoo's problem, that post-IPO execs leave not just for the challenge but because they potentially can make IPO money by working for actual start-ups, rather than a former start-up that simply can't deliver the same perks (payoff, lack of bureaucracy).

By the way, be sure to check out this cool Google organization map that's being maintained at the Cogmap wiki.

Via [http://searchengineland.com/080402-170216.php]