I recently took part at the Econsultancy Digital Cream event where client-side marketers discuss approaches to improve their digital marketing.
I was moderating the SEO roundtable where we discussed the main challenges and opportunities marketers were seeing with their SEO.
These were the main topics which were of interest to the 30 or so marketers at the roundtables:
1. The impact of social signals on rankings
The announcement that social signals now influence SEO rankings is well known, so this has to be a big issue to consider, particularly since many companies don’t have a blog and/or it’s not so well integrated into their site products and services pages.
At each of the roundtables we discussed how to integrate the type of content that will be shareable and linkable into commercial, non-publisher sites. Methods to gain backlinks are unsurprisingly still a major concern.
Even before this announcement I noticed many companies making efforts to integrate their SEO with online PR and social media. There seem to be more joint responsibilities for SEO and social in the larger companies that get it, a good move I think.
Many of the challenges for larger organisations involve getting SEO specialists to work more closely with other parts of a company or agencies working on online PR and social media initiatives.
2. Mobile search
Google revealed recently that over the past two years, its mobile searches have grown by more than five times.
As I showed in my last ClickThrough post, you can see how much this matters for your sector using Googles own tools.
3. Local search
Closely related, following an algorithm and interface update towards the end of last year, Google Places has become a lot more important for local searches involving the name of a location plus a service.
If you see the tell-tale red balloons dominating the search results for searches related to your services in an area, that’s a sure sign you need to take action.
4. Video search
Did you see the stats showing that YouTube has become the second-most important search engine in many countries? That suggests the opportunities for video SEO should be explored alongside other forms of blended search, if they’re not already.
5. Opportunities to engage on other sites
There’s a tendency within SEO to think inwardly about driving traffic to your sites and gaining links on other sites. But as the social web has evolved there may be new options for reaching an audience on other sites which perform well in the SERPs.
I see these types of sites as increasing in importance – often within the SERPS:
Few of the companies attending had been directly affected suggesting that if a site is a recognised brand producing unique, quality content, this update will have a limited impact.
6. Site migration
I chaired 3 roundtables and was surprised to see, in each one that, at least one person mentioned their concern of how a site redesign or relaunch affecting their URLs might impact in SEO. This was based on their experience of previous refreshes. All of this just goes to show that as well as reviewing new approaches, it’s important to know how to get the basics right too.
In light of the fact that mobile search volume has more than doubled on the year, Dr Dave Chaffey gives some pointers on how you can approach a mobile strategy and target those looking for local services.
The increased popularity of smartphones and mobile apps was one of the defining features of 2010 for Internet marketers. The increased usage of mobile devices suitable for search led to an increased use of mobile for searching.
Within Google the volume of mobile searches increased by 130% year-on-year (in Quarter 3). Looking further ahead, research by Cisco predicts that Global mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold between 2010 and 2015.
So every marketer should be asking about the relevance of mobile search for their markets and which steps are needed to take advantage of these trends.
Recent developments in analytics tools can help you work out the relevance of mobile search for you. Here are the steps I suggest you take to review the relevance of mobile search for your organisation:
Step 1. Review current usage of your web sites by mobile devices.
Google Analytics enables you to review the current number of visitors to your web sites through mobile devices broken down by platforms such as iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Mobile device usage of your site is within the Visitors section of the reports.
If you find that the percentage of visitors has crept over 5% as it has for some companies, then it’s certainly time to formulate a plan. If not, it’s likely there are other priorities for you. Although it may be that mobile search is important, but you have poor visibility. The next steps will help you decide the future potential.
Step 2. Analyse the volume of mobile search demand for your products or services.
Early in 2011 Google introduced information on mobile search volumes by device for certain keyphrases in its Keyword Tool.
So you can use this tool to assess the number of searches occurring for your target keyphrases on mobile and compare this to the actual number of visitors.
Step 3. Assess the relevance of mobile + local search for your customers.
If you offer local services by stores or other outlets, using the same tool I described in Step 2, you can now also see how many people are searching for services within a town or City using their mobile phone. I was surprised to see that for some phrases related to London, over 20% searches were from mobile devices.
Within Google, Google Places has become a lot more important for local searches involving the name of a location plus a service. If you see the tell-tale red balloons dominating the search results for searches related to your services in an area, that’s a sure sign you need to take action.
Step 4. Review your current visibility for mobile searches
Once you know the volume of relevant phrases for your market you can complete a gap analysis to see how visible you are for your phrases and giving you an idea of the opportunity.
I have explained the approach to a gap analysis on my previous post on this blog.
Step 5. Implement a mobile search strategy
The final stage once you have mined the insights on your current performance and future potential is to implement your mobile search strategy. Google does have a separate robot “Googlebot-Mobile” which crawls mobile sites and it is possible to direct this crawler to specific mobile content you have developed.
However, since Smartphones are the main way mobile sites are accessed these tend to show very similar results to the standard Google results. There is so little mobile specific content that Google has to feature the results from the regular search to give the most relevant results.
You can see what I mean by accessing the mobile version of Google search from your desktop.
So for me, the largest part of your mobile search strategy after you have done the analysis is to make sure your website renders well and gives a good experience in the main phone types your users are accessing!
You can easily add a QR code to any bit.ly link now simply by adding .qr to a bit.ly link e.g. http://bit.ly/dNcRxx.qr
Now, for some people this may seem gibberish, but it actually represents a great opportunity for forward thinking businesses looking to promote their companies, products and websites, particularly using mobile marketing or social media, such as Twitter.
A QR code (Quick Response code) is a two dimensional barcode, made to be read by camera phones equipped with the software required to read the codes. QR codes are all the rage in other countries, for instance, Japan, and will undoubtedly catch on soon in the UK because of the multiple purposes for which they can be used.
The barcode can link to an image (for instance of a product), open a website in the mobile browser, display text, or you can use them as a kind of digital business card with all your contact information. The list of places where such a barcode can be displayed is endless – think “flat surface”, and you get the idea.
Bit.ly, the URL shortening service, decided last autumn to incorporate QR codes into its service; so to direct people to your QR code for a specific website, you just add .qr to the end of the bit.ly link. The advantages of this could be manyfold, particularly for those who have realised the potential of QR codes for marketing purposes.
Imagine that you can now include an advert or an article with a QR in your target market’s favourite magazine that takes them straight to an online video, podcast, Buy it Now page etc, without them needing to search for you online, type in a long URL etc? Or you decde to conduct a local advertising campaign by putting QR codes on buses, in shop windows, on billboards and so on? Or you can hand out business cards at an industry event or networking meeting that hold a wealth of information on a dedicated website specifically aimed at that audience, and accessed simply by pointing a mobile phone at the QR?
QR codes are free to create and share, and their novelty to many people means that if you are the first to use them, in your sector, region or marketing, and provide compelling content to capture the imagination of your audience, you are likely to be on to a great traffic generator for your online content.
How could you use QR codes in your business today?
In this post, Head of Digital Marketing, John Newton, considers emerging trends in the way that the Travel industry is using social media and offers a few predictions along the way.
ClickThrough have recently been asked to share our views on the how social media will change the Travel industry over the next few years. The short answer is that social media will have a profound effect on the online strategy of many industries, which include the Travel market.
However, here are some more specific thoughts:
1) Facebook has set itself the aim of becoming the ‘operating system’ for many consumers, and this aim looks, in some cases, to already have been achieved.
We believe that it’s vital that Travel brands build their Facebook fan pages just as they first did their email database 15 years ago, and that they recognise that the interoperability of Facebook with other platforms (either social, CRM or ecommerce) provides them with the basis of a long term consumer relationship conducted through one major platform. Almost all social media campaigns will have Facebook as a required element.
2) Although the iPhone has made the smartphone popular, Google Android has made it affordable. The adoption of Google Android by many mobile manufacturers means that Android Travel Apps will become a major part of the buzz around Travel destinations.
Location based apps such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter Locations and Facebook Places (see our Location Marketing white paper) enable Travel brands to engage Travellers (either through real or virtual rewards, or other means) in evangelising about their brands and locations.
3) Although when it comes to social media users are congregating around Facebook, there are also emerging Travel-centric social media vertical platforms. Bumped.in, Exploroo, ontheroad, Tripit, ShareTrip, TravellersPoint and Driftr are all social networks dedicated to Travel and Travellers.
These platforms allow consumers to share travel plans, update others whilst in the processing of travelling and even get real-time travel tips from other users in the vicinity. Travel is a ‘big ticket’ consumer item, and like the Automotive sector, consumers are passionate about sharing when things go better (and worse) than expected.
We believe that utilisation of these Travel-specific social media platforms will play a part in the social media plans of some Travel organisations in the next few years.
4) Consumer reviews will continue to play a crucial part in Travel industry purchases. In the PowerReviews ‘Customer Reviews and Online Shopping Habits survey’ this summer, customer reviews were viewed by 70% of people as having the highest impact on buying behaviour, closely followed by community forums, Facebook wall posts and User Videos.
We believe that finding ways to leverage true grassroots consumer opinion, and leveraging this to business gain, is going to be a major ambition for many Travel companies over the next few years.
5) Some Travel companies may decide to move away from the ‘superbrand’ as a focal point, and instead move towards developing bespoke social content for individual locations and hotels including more blogs for individual properties. Travellers and long term residents may well want to become part of this movement.
6) Consumers like the way that they can access their entire social circle so easily through social media platforms, and this has an implication for Travel retailers, and other brands too. Some consumers are already rejecting email and forms as a means of contacting customer services teams, and are instead choosing to take their business elsewhere.
Tools such as getsatisfaction have helped consumers get the answers they need quickly, but some consumers will expect to be able to use the social tools that they are already using on a daily basis.
Travel companies should expect consumers to use DM (direct messages) on Twitter (e.g. @HyattConcierge on Twitter) and Private Messages on corporate Facebook accounts more frequently to handle booking related issues, and be prepared to train their staff to be able to use these tools.
7) The economy continues to bite on both sides of the Atlantic. Consumers will continue to look for travel bargains, and especially late deals.
Companies that are able to offer same-day Hotel and Travel deals (in conjunction with their revenue/yield Management teams) for unoccupied rooms, leveraging the ability that social media provides for brands to obtain high search engine rankings for short periods of time for specific phrases, will be able to capture more last minute trade.
This is a big ask for the industry, but realising the potential of this hyper-late micro market will help to squeeze every last drop of revenue out of Travel inventories.
In his final post of 2010, Dr Dave Chaffey predicts what he believes will be the major trends in search in 2011, including the importance of social media, understanding consumer intent, video search and local search.
________________________________________________________________
Well it’s that time of year to take stock of which marketing techniques were effective this year and plan ahead to update our investment in different marketing activities.
To help, here are my views on 11 search trends for 2011 from the big to the small which I’ve described in terms of activities that I think are essential to success. You’ll see many are updates on the main trends in 2010.
1. Investing in content
Success in SEO has really always been about the content. In the early days, success was based on relevant copy formatted the correct way to rank well; more recently, content to attract links and today to encourage social sharing and bookmarking. This is just as true in 2011 as it’s always been. But the bar is higher now, brochureware content won’t cut it. Instead you need exceptional content to attract links. That requires investment and process and is increasingly becoming a core marketing activity.
2. Encouraging social sharing
Such is the growth in social sharing through Likes on Facebook; Retweets on Twitter and Shares through Linked-In, Google has a problem. The number of personal and company bloggers has declined as behaviour has shifted to sharing links – it’s far easier. To remain relevant, particularly for real-time content, Google has been forced to use the social graph. Through it’s data share arrangements with Facebook and Twitter it now rates posts, blogs and even individuals on their popularity. Many, including me have suspected for a long time that Google uses social sharing and bookmarking as a signal for quality to content which should be ranked more highly. This recent interview with search engine representatives now proves for the first time social mentions are used as a ranking signal: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-bing-confirm-twitter-facebook-influence-seo.
3. Responding to real-time search and online conversations
From the start of 2010, Google’s real time search box has featured Facebook and Twitter links. I believe overhyped since it currently only tends to feature in the search results page for major trending topics like the launch of the iPad. Still, it does point to the need to monitor online conversations and manage them.
4. Creating your social content hub
Given the trends suggested by my first point, creating quality, timely content is not a nice-to-have, it’s essential for success in SEO. I believe a blog or media centre is essential to most companies to act as a hub to distribute and share your content and offers. This means a big challenge for many companies, because the implication is that the company needs to become a publisher or at least adopt a publisher mindset.
Of course, search marketing agencies like ClickThrough can help here in creating a content strategy and implementing it.
5. Speed matters
Another change from earlier in the year is that Google is using page download speed as a quality signal. If your platform doesn’t deliver the latency Google requires, you may have a problem ranking.
6. Microformats
Microformats are a tactical way to give you an edge in the search results page – think starred hotel reviews from Trip Advisor. These are based on a standard called hReview used by Google, but increasingly they will use this for product information using hProduct when linked to reviews. If you’re involved in publishing, retail or travel sectors it’s worth exploring the microformat options available via Google.
7. Think Glocal
Google is getting increasingly good at offering specific content for individual countries and for providing content for local searches which often mean mobile searches. This year Google Local Business Centre was renamed to Google Places and companies with a presence on Places have started to appear more prominently. This is a great opportunity for businesses with a distribution network to boost their visibility via paid and natural search. Read more about Google Places best practice: http://www.smartinsights.com/search-marketing-alerts/3-ways-to-optimise-for-google-places/
The new proximity marketing through the Likes of Foursquare and Gowalla also offers opportunities as we noted in our location-based marketing whitepaper: http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/resources/reports-downloads/location-based-marketing-white-paper
8. Don’t forget YouTube!
One stat that surprised me this year is that YouTube is now the second biggest search engine in the US. This gives opportunities in both natural and paid search. Creating engaging video for natural search is a bit of a hit and miss affair, but within paid search Promoted Videos and Adwords placements give new opportunities to create awareness outside of the text results.
9. Take advantage of new Google Adwords formats
Google innovates a lot to deliver relevance in the natural results, but it’s also keen to maximise the relevance of its ads since that equals relevance so it’s invested in that also. Our clients have seen success this year with several of the new ad formats, in particular the Ad Sitelinks which you can use to advertise specific products or campaigns in response to a brand or navigational search.
10. Advanced SEO = Analytics
I was interested in a recent discussion on seoMoz which asked “what is advanced SEO”? http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-advanced-seo. This is a good question for all agencies and clients to be asking. The use of analytics is what struck a chord with me. At Clickthrough we’re increasingly mining Google Analytics and link analysis tools to identify opportunities for search. One approach which we find works well is the gap analysis segmenting and comparing paid and natural visits which I outlined earlier in the year: http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/the-what-why-and-how-of-a-search-gap-analysis/
11. Understanding customer search journeys
In 2010 Google introduced “Search funnels” (we blogged about search funnels back in August) to tell you whether those 2 or 3 word generic category search terms contribute to conversion since they are often followed by longer product searches or brand terms. With the high cost of clicks in AdWords, understanding which traffic sources influence sale over multiple visits before purchase is important to make the best media decisions. I say can be, because it’s particularly important in more complex, high value purchases. If the majority of you visitors convert on the first visit it’s a lot less significant. Some questions to ask via your analytics are – how many visits does it take to first purchase? What is the latency, i.e. how many days does it take to purchase?
12. Reducing dependence on Google – An Extra Trend!
Every year, the Googlization of digital marketing, all marketing even, seems to get greater. Google has driven the vast majority of searches for a long time, but with its ownership of YouTube and the Google Display Network (formerly the content network which accounts for around 30% of its revenue) this extends far beyond the search box.
So part of digital strategy has to be look for opportunities for de-googlization. Building a memorable brand and an online experience that visitors will want to visit direct helps and Google favours strong brands more and more. Let the affiliates take the costs and risks of Google; find partner sites with low-cost display placements. Try using the Google network for placement targeting or remarketing which was introduced in 2010 and has produced excellent results for some of our clients.
Here’s wishing you every success in your search marketing strategy in 2011!
It seems the new generation of smart phones, social networks and apps all demand a huge contribution from you. What you are thinking, doing, and now – where are you? After all, without those contributions, the networks cannot exist and function.
It is hard not to believe that the top scoring apps are not an endeavour by the human race to return community to every day living. Whether it is gossiping over the garden fence, reporting on a friend’s (or your) whereabouts, encouraging social meet ups etc. Is this not how villages and communities used to exist and co-habit? Learn from other’s daily lives or mistakes? Establish bonds between friends and family? Unsurprisingly, the online social networking tools have shown higher uptake than simple communication or work tools such as Office and email (the equivalents of the flint knife or hieroglyphics in stone age society)
Foursquare etc have grown inordinately over the last few years as people use these type of geographical apps to monitor and report their locations as well as their ‘doings’. Facebook has leapt into the latest social/geographical app with Facebook Places.
What do these mean to businesses? As more people use social networks to reach those in their close social circle (initially) and then to extend that circle – the equivalent of searching out a wider gene or experience pool in prehistoric times – so the options for commercial returns gain momentum.
If you can find who is near to your cave/shop, and reach them easily with an advert for a product or service through such a simple mechanism as their ear/mobile phone, then you can instantly reach all of their network too if they are impressed with your offering. “Roll up, roll up, gorgeous furs and skins to protect you from the winter whilst you hunt wild game” may not be the message you need to transmit (TX) in the 21st century, but at least you know now that the audience who will receive (RX) your message can be global and not just those within earshot. The possibilities for TX to a diverse audience are no longer dependent per se on a drum or word of mouth – you can email, text, tweet, blog, RSS, advertise on TV, radio, print, or create a mobile application.
One of the joys of location dependent advertising is that it allows your customers – potential, existing or FOAF (friends of a friend) – to take the first step of advising where in the world they are, which then permits you to target products and services, particularly location dependent, directly to these people whilst they are (interested) in the area using tools such as Foursquare or Facebook’s Places or mobile apps such as StreetSlide. Proof again, if it’s ever needed, that internet marketing continues to evolve.
Microsoft have taken Google StreetView and Bing Maps streetside to a new level, offering interesting future opportunities for shops, Chambers of Trade, and local tourism/retail/business initiatives. Using StreetSlide, you can now create a panoramic image of a row of shops or a high street, with logos to give a close-up for each premises.
It is easy to see where this type of application could be taken by adding hyperlinks to the retail websites, or to further local information e.g. bus stop locations and timetables, events and so on, and Microsoft have already begun to convert this into a mobile application for the iPhone.
Whilst mobile coverage in most urban environments is usually good enough to support such image intensive apps, there are still many market towns etc where mobile coverage is patchy to say the least. The development of this type of application, which could attract visitors or shoppers to the area, may give town councils, Chambers of Trade and trade bodies even more cause to consider setting up wi-fi hotspots (wireless internet access) so that users can access local information as well as the wider Internet.
Businesses need to start thinking beyond just a simple website for their online presence, as more and more people access the mobile web and use the Internet in different ways to find the information they are seeking. Streetslide is precisely the type of application that a business could use to drum up bricks and mortar business, as well as to raise the profile of the company using innovative online means to improve search engine marketing.
There have been growing disputes (finally!) about the terms “SEO and SEM” being outdated.
There are those who define internet marketing as search engine optimisation, PPC and a bit of link marketing. But for those who have been in the business for a while, internet marketing is a much wider subject with far more actions. That is, if you want to see results.
I have always termed the whole process as “Web PR” where PR stands for public relations but not in the traditional sense. When conducting a marketing campaign you need to reach out to people and communicate with them ie relate to the public. As social media has taken off, so the word has got out about engaging with consumers and potential customers, and strategies are being developed to do that.
This is where “Inbound marketing” comes in (see video below!). Traditional marketing has meant spending thousands on putting adverts etc out there that then endeavour to push people to your website, product, service etc. What is now attracting much more focus is the pull aspect.
*You* get out there, rather than your ads, and by contributing, sharing, engaging etc with others, you slowly but surely, pull them into your website with links to your products, information, advice, expertise and so on.
For some people involved in SEO, it has long been known that relying on just the search engines to bring traffic simply isn’t sufficient. However, the majority of SEO agencies became so bogged down in metrics and optimising infinitely to try to improve results, that it is only with the growth of “tools which cannot be ignored”, such as Twitter, that SEM has finally become a more holistic business practice.
And if you don’t get it, try this inbound marketing video for a perfect explanation!!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c15f3803-aaa2-43e9-8425-64079e461bb0)
A new Ofcom report out this week highlights the fact that the UK is fast becoming an advanced digital nation.
Firstly, in adoption and use of new technologies, Ofcom reports that the UK consumers are embracing new digital services, as well as being prolific in their uses of mobile phones, both for calls, texts and now mobile broadband. It is becoming increasingly important to ensure that your website works on mobile platforms, as we have posted about previously.
Although ad revenues for TV are down, and now are being overtaken by subscriptions, the shift for advertising has been to online strategies.
£1 in every £5 of ad spend is now online, making internet marketing in the UK one of the highest in the countries surveyed, and up by a third on 2006. For anyone still unsure about where to put their marketing budget for 2009, this type of research surely makes it a no brainer! Call your Internet Marketing company today!
Is your site mobile friendly? It is going to need to be now! Google have added voice search to their app for the iPhone, and let’s face it, this is one app that is likely to be heavily used by consumers. Particularly as it uses the iPhone GPS to track down local restaurants, bars, garages, businesses etc etc etc using MyLocation.
You can download it from iTunes and judging by the comments today from those trying it out, it seems to be pretty efficient at recognising even complex questions or search terms. We’ve said it before but if your website isn’t mobile search friendly, you are really going to start missing out on custom now this has been launched. Others will no doubt follow suit, and if it really is faster than the keyboard for conducting searches, as intimated, this could well become the mobile search tool of choice for iphone users.
