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When it comes to making predictions, no-one has an infallible magic crystal ball. But here at ClickThrough, we’ve got Senior SEO Account Exec, Martyna Sroka – our very own Mystic (Marketing) Meg.
She’s gazed into the future of SEO and drawn some conclusions about the industry in 2012.
Of course, nobody can predict for certain what Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft have up their sleeves. But Martyna’s run the risk of embarrassment in 12 months’ time, and put together a list of her predictions for the coming year. We’ll be back in 2013 to mock her if she gets any of these wrong.
Do you agree with Martyna’s predictions for 2012? Get in touch and let us know your thoughts!
Well, we’re not far into the year and already Google has made an announcement of a new feature which I believe will have a major impact on SEO, if it stays in its current form. It’s already been released in the US on Google.com, if you want to take a look, but hasn’t been rolled out to Europe yet.
You can read more about the change in Google’s official announcement
The new change is about making Google more personal and integrating social conversations. It’s an extension of previous enhancements to personalisation and Google Real Time. Google now effectively has two views – a default view with personalised results included and a non personalised view, that the majority of people are unlikely to click on.
Taking an example of a generic term “fashion”, you can see how big the impact is:
This is the personalised view (default):
The results with the blue heads next to them are personalised results.
And this is the general view:
You can see that in both cases there are prominent recommendations for People and Pages who have taken the time to grow their Google+ circle – effectively large ads to encourage adoption of Google+
Well, the implications are obvious I think:
In short, this change means that it becomes more important for companies to get active on Google+ and build a network based around the content they share.
Of course, the impact will vary by sector. It is greatest in sectors like fashion, media, B2B services and technology where there is a high degree of engagement in Google+ already. But as adoption of Google+ increases in other markets it will have more impact on these.
So, even before this feature becomes live in the UK it’s worth reviewing the impact on Google.com on different types of target keyphrases and benchmarking against competitors to see their success in engaging their audiences through content on Google+.
Finally, you may have noticed the caveat “if it stays in it’s current form” at the top of my post. There are already rumblings that Google may be subject to an “anti-competitive practices” lawsuit. Twitter are rightly angry. They say:
“We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users”.
I agree with this and hope we see a diluted version with the default swapped to the non-social view, though that’s unlikely to happen.
In a landmark case, a judge in USA has allowed the seizure of nearly 700 domain names selling Chanel products, enforced the transfer all the domain names to GoDaddy with a redirection to a notice about seizure, and Google have been asked to “de-index” the sites.
All the sites were allegedly selling counterfeit Chanel goods, but there appears to have been little regard for the international nature of the sites, and in fact some are not registered in the USA and therefore require the international domain registrars to comply with a US ruling. This would appear to be slightly shaky ground, but is proceeding nonetheless, seemingly as an extension of the American “Operation in our Sites“.
The Operation should cause some cause for concern for anyone legitimately dealing in branded goods, as well as for those re-using content where the copyright holders are American. A few instances have come to light of genuine bloggers and sites who were operating with full permission of the rights’ holders but are now embroiled in trying to recover their domains.
One has to question the wisdom of this level of action, as surely it will just push counterfeiters away from .com and .net domains and register their domains in other countries, as well as using less SEO and more social media to avoid simple detection?
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is due to come in in the USA to try to further prevent such actions such as selling of counterfeit goods and illegal use of intellectual property. However, there is considerable opposition to SOPA, deemed to be censorship, and a threat to free speech.
For anyone selling online or sharing non-original content, the moves being made to close down sites, seize domain names, and prevent search engines indexing specific sites can only be a concern, as undoubtedly the actions taken by those enforcing such laws will also mop up entirely innocent sites in their trawls across the Internet, and not just those based in or accessible by US citizens.
Will this affect your company or product set or content in any way? Let us know your thoughts.
Further to our thoughts about the dying art of email earlier this week, email marketers should take a close look at their lists.
Are you emailing a number (small or large) of people each week who do not actually want to receive information from you but who cannot unsubscribe without going through a lengthy process? For instance, when someone wishes to leave your email list, do they need to try and recall a password that your system insisted was set up some 1, 2 or 5 years ago? If there has been no requirement to use that password in the interim, it is unlikely that the subscriber will recall it. What other requirements does your unsubcribe process insist upon that may prove difficult?
Try now. How easy is it to unsubscribe from any email list you run?
If your email lands, week in week out into the inbox of someone who does not want to receive it but has been unable to unsubscribe, then all you are doing is pushing home a negative message which is likely to be passed on by those recipients. Not jsut by email but by word of mouth, twitter, facebook etc.
It is all very well insisting on a double opt in process to ensure that people have chosen to receive your info, but how easy are you making it to opt out? Or are you leaving people with little option but to report your emails as spam or to filter them permanently into the delete folder?
If people are finding it more simple to report your address as spam, this will have an effect on your presence on blacklists, and hence whether your emails will be delivered to other address who may actually wish to receive your content.
Take 5 minutes today to set up an address on your email marketing list and then try to unsubscribe. Are there issues? Can you make life easier? Have you already been blacklisted for spam due to a complexity in your unsubscribe mechanism? How clean is your email list? When was the last time you spoke directly to your list and received a substantial number of responses? Are your email falling into black holes?
Does your email marketing campaign work? Have you tied it into your social media marketing campaign so that you can track results? Are you actually reaching your target audience?
let us know what tactics you have tried and the changes you have made in email marketing over the last year or so….
Press releases are not going to go away, whichever new technologies come to the forefront. But there is a methodology to sending to them that will guarantee a higher chance of response and which should become a key part of your marketing strategy.
Firstly, you must build up an audience. This means getting in touch, via whichever means the journalist, publication or promoter prefers, and establishing a rapport. It is no good sending a PR out into the cold. And good relationships take time to establish.
Secondly, your PR must have substance. It needs to be newsworthy, timely and include links to further information to allow the author of any piece relating to that press release a chance to write a piece of value. Press releases should include links to video, audio, references, and if at all possible personalised and in-depth content. So, a Skype contact for a quick video conference, a Twitter handle with hashtag for a broad range of input on the subject matter or event, Youtube URLs, audioboos etc should all be included.
Top Tip: Add a QR code for a personalised page for that journalist. Relate some of your information back to previous pieces they have written to give a background or insight.
Thirdly, you must sell your story. The vast majority of press releases are simply puff pieces because the marcomms department thinks it is time there was a column inch or two about the company. Do not fall into that modus operandi. Only send out stories when there are meat and bones, when timely, and when you have a valid reason to see the company name in print.
But do not miss opportunities. This is where a great PR salesperson will come to the fore. A good marcomms person will be able to spot an opportunity eg when something is trending on Twitter, contact the people with whom they have established relationships, have a great piece that can be customised by the journo to suit their publication (without being yet another “Read similar stories” on Google) and who can push the whys and wherefores of this particular story to a specific publication.
Understanding how Online PR works in this fast moving environment where a story may die in a day is vital. And it requires fast action and slick processes in-house to work correctly, backed up by valuable content that is regularly added to your website. But get it right, and you could be viral for a few hours with a long tail audience for many months to come.
The annual Talk Like a Pirate Day is upon us again – 19th September.
It’s the 16th year of the event and although the official website is showing its age, it is still worth a visit if you haven’t yet lost your sea legs.
So, how is the web’s love of everything Pirate holding up year on year?
Wouldn’t it be great if we could find out…
Funnily enough, we now have a lot more visibility on long-term search trends thanks to Google Trends, and it’s archive now contains seven years of data to give a true picture of the growth (and sadly, the fall) of the popularity in Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Talk Like a Pirate Day - Global Search Trends from Google Trends
As you can see from the above chart, Talk Like a Pirate Day peaked in 2006 (in terms of search volume). That’s back when MySpace was bigger than Facebook, and Tony Blair still had a year left in Number 10.
What is interesting is that although some online trends are real flash-in-the-pan – it has taken six years for the web to really begin to tire of this (admittedly very fun) day of Pirate-i-ness. And that’s possibly one reason why – if something only happens once a year, it takes far longer for people to tire of it – and there will still be some people online who have yet to discover this day dedicated to all things Piratey.
What’s the lesson for marketers? Well, creating “event days” have long been a mainstay of marketers, where they seek to “own” a day each year for their brand. In recent years, many brands have decided to launch their own music festivals and sporting events (e.g. Innocent Fruitstock, Ben & Jerrys Double Scoop Sundae and Red Bull X Fighters) to create an evergreen marketing vehicle that chimes with a particular demographic. They can create fantastic PR, generate oodles of unique content and provide opportunities to develop “money can’t buy” giveaways for consumers.
And what about the benefit in recurring events for online marketers? This chart from MajesticSEO for talklikeapirate.com show that even 16 years after launch the site still manages to gain links in the months surrounding the annual event, which can be very valuable as many of these will come from reputable and authoritative news sites reporting on the event on the day itself.
MajesticSEO - talklikeapirate.com
If you have run a one-off online event that has gone well, consider whether it can be repeated again – don’t assume that you target market has grown tired of it – or even that they all heard about it the first time around!
So, I hope ye enjoyed Talk Like a Pirate Day, ‘n I look fore t’ seein’ ye soon!
BTW – Have a go at Talking Like a Pirate yourself with this handy translation tool!
In August, Google announced a new feature which has been dubbed “mega sitelinks”. Although this seems to be a small change which wasn’t widely reported, we think it is important.
The reason, is that for every site of a well-known brand, the most important searches by volume are brand search terms. Sitelinks give an excellent opportunity to engage both customers and prospects by highlighting the best content.
If you’re not familiar with Sitelinks, they are the listing of extra links below the brand main site description when you search on a brand name. Before this change site links in the natural search results gave just a series of links. But this example showing the new sitelinks for ClickThrough Marketing, shows that they now take up much more of the page with 8 to 12 alternatives and include more detailed descriptions.
ClickThrough Marketing - Mega Sitelinks Example
We suggest you take a look at your sitelinks and those of your competitors and answer these questions:
Most established brands will already have sitelinks, so you can skip this question. If you’re a small business or not in the top position the change won’t help you, in fact it could push you down the search results page.
If your sitelinks are wrong or have glitches like an unsuitable title or error page, then it’s worth changing these – this can be done in Google Webmaster Tools as explained below.
Since Google’s site algorithm is automatic it does a good job of highlighting the most important and shared pages on a site – typically those within the main navigation. But also other popular or shared content.
You can’t tell Google what you DO want as a sitelink, but you can tell it what you DON’T want. This is where you go to in Google Webmaster Tools and the new Google facility.
One of the big changes is that the new site link adds a description – if you want to change this, you can through editing the meta description of the page through the CMS.
The most important description is for the home page – often this doesn’t explain the site value prop well, but this one does.
Adwords now has its own “Ad Sitelinks” above the natural listing – you may want to use these to highlight offers that are popular in your natural sitelinks – or missing! These work well for many ClickThrough clients already.
This is where people search for the brand name plus a product or service. It seems that Google may include more of these now, so you check your analytics to see whether Brand plus phrases are driving traffic for you.
You can use the Landing page report in Google Analytics to see the importance of different brand phrases in driving traffic. This graphic summarises the steps to tackle this.
Alistair Harris - Online Copywriter at ClickThrough
In this team member profile we meet with Alistair Harris, Online Copywriter, to get his take on online PR and content creation, the rapid change in journalism, and which Sam Mendes film floats his boat.
Who are you? – Alistair Harris, Online Copywriter at ClickThrough.
When did you start at ClickThrough? – Start of June 2011.
What will you be doing at ClickThrough? – I look after our news, content and copy service for clients. We write unique news and content for a range of clients, which is either distributed through online news networks and RSS feeds, or hosted on clients’ own websites. We can also provide social media integration – something we’re hoping to expand on, along with more traditional PR and copywriting services.
What were you doing before you arrived at ClickThrough? Where did you work? – I’m a fully-qualified senior journalist – I started my career at the Lichfield Mercury in 2002, before moving to the Nottingham Evening Post in 2004. I went freelance in 2008, and have spent the last few years in a variety of in-house and freelance public relations and press office roles.
What accounts/clients have you worked on before? – I’ve worked for a wide range of organisations, from the UK’s largest conservation charity to local NHS bodies. I’ve written news stories, features, reviews and blogs on really diverse subjects, from interviewing Slash from Guns ‘n Roses to producing a series of front page features on anorexia, special education, court cases, murders and manhunts. PR clients I’ve written for include TV Hits, the BBC, Environment Agency, NHS, Driving Standards Agency, Aggregate Industries, healthcounter.com, Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the Independent on Sunday.
What are you most proud of in your career to date? – Winning the Newspaper Society’s Reporter of the Year 2002 Award, in my first year as a journalist.
What do you love about your job? – I love being creative. I really enjoy writing, and I’m very passionate about effective, meaningful communications. Working for ClickThrough provides the opportunity to think creatively for clients, to provide content that has value for their business and their customers, and, although it can be a challenge, it’s always interesting.
What do you think is the number one thing for online journalists to watch out for in the next year? – Traditional journalists have seen their industry absolutely cut apart by the internet. Some news organisations have kept up – such as the Guardian – but others are still missing a lot of opportunities to grasp the global potential of the internet. The written word will survive – it always has, in the face of radio and TV.
But journalism is evolving – content remains king, but journalists now have to think more creatively about how to present news in an engaging way. The old letters pages – usually a staple of a newspaper – have been replaced by instantaneous comments, which allow journalists to react more quickly to major issues. But they are competing against social media, YouTube, and a worldwide network of industry insiders and bloggers, which all carry relevant and interesting content.
The media is therefore becoming more homogenous. The internet provides the opportunity for news to be presented in a more convergent manner – and the biggest challenge for journalists is to find new and unique ways to provide video, audio and written content that has a purpose and meaning for readers.
What is your favourite book? – I absolutely adore Roald Dahl. I know that might sound immature – and I haven’t read many of his books for the last 20 years! – but his writing style, ability to manipulate words and language, and sheer inventiveness for plot and character has inspired my sense of humour and my own writing since I was very young. More contemporarily, I really like Robert Rankin. If you haven’t read any of his books, I’d recommend ‘The Fandom of the Operator’. It’s absolutely brilliant.
What is your favourite film? – American Beauty. It’s almost perfect. The writing is gobsmackingly good – I truly believe if the script had been written back in Shakespeare’s day, we’d have all been made to study it at school. I love the fact it’s basically a murder mystery, but you almost forget that until the final 20 minutes of the film. Sam Mendes’ direction is absolutely incredible, too. I love the running theme of red, the music and all the actors’ performances are amazing. I must give special mention to Mulholland Drive and most Charlie Kaufman films too, though.
Name your top three songs? – 1. Videotape – Radiohead. Beautiful, haunting, Radiohead at their best. Amazing piano, amazing lyrics. Amazing. 2. When Good Dogs Do Bad Things – Dillinger Escape Plan. When I first heard this song, it turned my head inside out. Dillinger is my favourite band – they’re technical, aggressive and difficult to get into, but it’s some of the most rewarding music I’ve ever heard. 3. Tenderfoot – Lemonheads. I don’t really like Evan Dando, but Tenderfoot, from Car, Button, Cloth, is a heartwarming little ditty and once which I used to cover regularly at open mic nights. The closing lyric: “It’s irrelevant, I’m an elephant, she’s a mouse” is a brilliant metaphor.
What do you like doing in your spare time? – I play guitar, but not as often as I used to. I’m really into online games, I play a variety of time-wasting silly games on both PC and Xbox, usually as part of a team. I’ve recently taken up freestyle Frisbee, which, it turns out, is really difficult. You have to keep the disc spinning on the tip of your finger, and build in an array of throws, catches and ‘tricks’. The pros – if you can call them that – can spin it on their teeth. It’s quite impressive. I’ve only just mastered getting the spin right though, so I’m some way off from showing off my skills in public!
In my post last month I talked about the increasing need to focus on social media optimisation (SMO). Part of this activity is finding ways to make your content more shareable.
Research suggests that sharing amongst friends, families and other “tribes” is becoming more important.
ShareThis and Starcom MediaVest recently released a study. The study focuses on ShareThis’ database of sharing activity for it’s widget in March 2011.
Social sharing now produces an estimated 10 percent of all Internet traffic and 31 percent of referral traffic to sites from search and social. Search is around twice as big.
It’s a big sample; 7 billion shares, 300 million users across the top 1,000 publishers. So remember – it’s more typical of new sites than most businesses selling products and services online.
The details of what is clicked when shared shared shows that Facebook accounts for 38 percent email and Twitter are both second with 17 percent each:
So what are the implications for non publishing businesses?
1. If you don’t have blog, customer magazine or similar “content hub”, then you will be missing out on introducing others to your brand via the network of people who know you already.
2. Having a defined content strategy to define the right content to engage and how to promote is needed to underpin your content hub.
3. Since sharing signals are now used by Google and Bing for ranking as I explained in my previous column, so you are also missing out on the potential ranking boost.
4. Email sharing is still important and often more personal, so don’t exclude this!
5. Encouraging sharing of other product and service content is also important.
6. You can encourage sharing after purchase too.
7. There are many free tools like AddThis.com and ShareThis.com which make it easy to integrate sharing on your site. Paid solutions to consider include Gigya and Janrain.
8. Many of these tools provide “social sign-on” which integrate with a users social network account to make it easier to share.
Whilst Google+ is the big story of the day, Matt Cutts has just posted on his wall about a blog post that may have fallen under the radar about content creators being credited on search results.
For anyone who creates and authors content, this is a great new way to be recognised, found, and to promote your work in the search results, including with a photo.
There are a couple of very simple steps to being found by the algorithm which will be powering this addition to the SERPs. Full details can be found on the Google Webmaster help pages, but in essence, all you need do is:
Add the content pages where you post content to your Google public profile, and then paste a Google + button onto those pages. Like this:
Your own content will be automatically +1′d so it should create an archive of all your content over time for people to easily access from your public Google profile page. (This profile page is going to become as important as your LinkedIn profile, your Twitter bio etc, so be warned!)
Obviously, it is algorithm driven so your position in the search results and even whether you are listed will be down to good SEO and making sure you are putting out all the right social signals too.
So, it is always a good idea to tweet all of your fresh content, and make sure that it appears on other social networks as well as social bookmark sites such as Digg, Stumbleupon and Delicious too.
We’ll be playing around with this far more in the future to see how we can improve content rankings on behalf of authors and clients to establish a wider range of listings in the SERPS. Content that is well-written should have longevity on certain subjects, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out as a traffic generator.
