Marketers should be looking towards Facebook in the next year, according to one expert who has predicted the site will see a large growth in advertising.
Craig MacDonald, writing for Search Engine Watch, stated he estimated pay per click marketing providers are planning to spend between ten and 20 per cent of their budgets for the year on campaigns for the social media platform.
He explained that, while last year clickthrough rates for Facebook promotions were "atrocious" and there were virtually no conversion rates, the site is now on a par with major search engines for returns on investment.
Mr MacDonald noted the key factors that make the service appealing to marketers are that it is "huge, it's global and it's growing", adding the sites performance on a dollar-for-dollar basis is the same as Google's.
His observations come as new data from Experian Hitwise revealed the site was the most visited domain in 2009, accounting for 8.93 per cent of all traffic in the US.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
Website marketing service providers should be prepared to expect changes in the way they will have to operate in 2011 in order to manage new developments and shifts in search behaviour.
This is the opinion of Search Engine Watch's Horst Joepen, who suggested several innovations and new products that were introduced in 2010 will continue to have a major impact on the sector into next year.
He predicted that the rise of social media would be a "game changer" for many companies, highlighting developments such as the Facebook/Bing partnership and new features added to facilities such as Google Places as important areas for search engine optimisation specialists to focus on.
Mr Joepen also stated "trustbaiting" would be a key factor in generating high rankings, explaining that high-quality social campaigns that users had confidence in would require marketers to develop a more sophisticated link-building strategy in order to build reputation.
It was also recently stated by Yahoo! vice-president Shashi Seth that advertisers would need new ways of analysing data in 2011 to determine the best way to create a successful promotion.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
Internet marketing services providers may be interested in new data that has revealed Facebook was both the most searched for term and the most visited website in the US in 2010.
The research, by Experian Hitwise, revealed four variations of the social networking site appeared in the list of the top ten most common search terms, with 'facebook' and 'facebook login' numbers one and two respectively.
Between them, they accounted for 3.48 per cent of all queries recorded in the last 12 months – a 207 per cent increase from 2009, while social media-related terms made up 4.18 per cent of the top 50 searches.
Facebook was also the most visited website of 2010, knocking Google, which had topped the table last year, down into second place. Yahoo! mail was third, with the search engine itself fourth.
Bing was the tenth most popular website in terms of number of visits.
Earlier this month, Google's Zeitgeist report also showed Facebook to be one of the most popular search terms on its site, along with iPad and YouTube.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Google will examine what it can do to prevent the technique of 'cloaking' in 2011, a practice that offers differing results to users and search engines, according to the company's Matt Cutts.
According to Search Engine Land's Barry Schwartz, Mr Cutts announced on his Twitter page that the company would seek to address the issue in the first quarter of next year.
Using the practice as part of an online marketing services strategy is against Google's webmaster guidelines and could lead to a site being removed from the firm's index, Mr Schwartz pointed out.
He added that it is difficult to tell exactly what Mr Cutts meant from his brief message, but cautioned any companies that currently use the technique they "may have to be on the look out".
Earlier this month, Google also announced it had made changes to its algorithm to combat negative search engine optimisation techniques, following a New York Times report on a company that deliberately used bad publicity to boost its rankings on the site.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
Co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen has re-filed a patent infringement lawsuit against several tech organisations, including Google.
Mr Allen submitted his amended suit to a judge in Seattle yesterday (December 28th) after a previous attempt was dismissed on December 10th for being too vague.
He claims 11 companies, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Apple infringed on patents held by his now-defunct firm Interval and has now provided additional information on exactly what products and services he believes violate his copyright.
Some of the technologies Mr Allen alleges use his patents include several features used by internet marketing services and search engines, with the Seattle Times reporting it includes "systems that automatically call up and display related content".
Although the publication stated his case is a "long shot", it could be worth up to $500 million (£324.9 million) if it is successful.
As well as co-founding Microsoft, Mr Allen is estimated to have given over $1 billion to various philanthropic causes.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Search engine optimisation specialists must think about the way in which they interpret data in order to create more targeted content, according to one expert.
Senior vice-president of search products at Yahoo! Shashi Seth said in an interview with Search Engine Land's Gord Hotchkiss that the differing behavior of people using devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs means marketers will have to deal with more sophisticated information.
"Knowing and providing details about users, their habits, what kind of content are they likely to interact with … and then changing that advertising and marketing message to fit that individual user is going to become increasingly important," he stated.
Mr Shah added that taking elements such as intent, the device a person may be using, location and other aspects could "make for a pretty complex landscape" that could result in a change in the way companies approach search advertising.
It was also recently predicted by Ciaran Norris that the increasingly social nature of individuals' online behavior will also affect the way in which marketers need to operate.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
More internet marketing services providers are using Google's click to call features to include a phone number in their ads, it has been revealed.
According to Search Engine Land's Pamela Parker, the number of users including a phone contact on their advertisements has been growing by an average of 28 per cent a month in recent times.
This has lead to millions of calls being made and Google has claimed ads that utilise the feature experienced clickthrough rates around six to eight per cent higher than those that do not.
Ms Parker suggested one reason for this could be that more people are using search engines via their mobile, pointing out the number of mobile queries have grown by five times in the last two years.
She indicated an increase in people using the Android operating system may be contributing to this, as Google claims these individuals are more likely to engage with mobile search than those on other platforms.
It was recently predicted by Juniper than expenditure of mobile marketing strategies would hit $11 billion (£6.9 billion) globally by 2015.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Internet marketing services may experience a surge in activity on Christmas Day as bargain-hunting shoppers turn to online retail early.
According to research from the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), 4.8 million people in the UK will make a purchase via computer on December 25th, spending a total of £153 million.
Managing director of the IMRG David Smith commented that individuals are taking advantage of the 24/7 nature of ecommerce as they search for the best bargains.
He also stated: "With many people not being able to get out to the high street sales due to the wide-ranging impact of the snow, online could see a real boost over the next few weeks."
The group predicted Boxing Day will also see a large number of sales, with revenue for the 26th expected to reach the £300 million mark for the first time.
Earlier this month, the IMRG reported the busiest day for online retailers so far was Monday 6th December, when sales figures of £831,000 were recording in a single minute at 13:15 GMT.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Google's Matt Cutts has confirmed in a video posting this week that search engine results pages (SERPS) on the website now factor in social signals when determining rankings.
Mr Cutts stated in May that these elements were not included in the algorithm Google using to determine the ordering of its SERPs, but he has now said that this has changed.
However, according to Search Engine Land, Mr Cutts explained that this does not automatically mean that the more followers a company has on their Facebook or Twitter accounts, the higher they will rank on Google.
Rather, followers that have a good reputation would be the key to improving search engine marketing.
Although the Google representative did not specify exactly what this entails, it was suggested by Search Engine Land that factors such as the number of retweets and links that were included in such tweets would be considered.
Earlier this month, Danny Sullivan of the site claimed that sites like Twitter were playing a role in web rankings, noting "retweets serve as a new form a link building" if they come from reputable individuals.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
Online marketing services have surpassed newspaper advertisements in 2010, according to new research.
Econsultancy's Patricio Robles reported the study, by eMarketer, revealed companies will spend just under $26 billion (£16.8 billion) online on 2010, a rise of 14 per cent compared with last year.
In the same period, spending on print ads has dropped by eight per cent to just under $23 billion.
Although it has been expected for some time that internet ads would overtake those in newspapers, Mr Robles stated it is still a significant milestone that "says just as much about the rise of the internet as it does about the fall of the newspaper".
However, he added that "simply throwing money" at online services will not be a good way to see a return, as organisations need to adopt creative, holistic strategies to get the most out of the available opportunities.
Last month, it was predicted by Google's Dominic Allon that the digital economy in the UK would continue to grow at a rate of ten per cent a year until 2015.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
