As we have mentioned before, many people are incompetent at search, and the search engines and SEO experts (as well as hardware manufacturers) have not been slow in taking this into account.
In a video from the Google stable, we hear about how Google is taking into account the changes that are occurring in user behaviour and needs, as well as the interfaces being used to search for content and the content being created. Daniel Russell, who presents the video, has the rather marvellous job title of Uber Tech Lead for Search Quality and User Happiness.
It is interesting to see how search is changing, particularly with the influx of social media and the ever-increasing need for real time searches which bring up breaking news, for example.
It is worth watching the Google Maps example given from 9mins onwards. This example shows how Google has enriched the results during the period 2005 to 2012, by changing the underlying dataset from an outsourced dataset to Google’s own. Whilst many of us may not have noticed the sometimes subtle changes which each iteration has brought, it is difficult to miss the vast changes that a mere 5-6 years has had on our comprehension of what search is, and therefore how as search marketers we have reacted to those changes.
From ensuring that a client’s address was listed on Google Maps (and then Local before returning the name to Maps), through to ensuring that there were photos of the location or shop, to adding Products into what was Google Base and is now Google Shopping, to encouraging customers to review the products and services, and so on and on….. through to the latest development in search which is ensuring that as Google moves to integrate all products together, we are being actively encouraged to use the rel=author tag to have content by certain individuals showing up in search results.
In talking about social and how it will affect search in future, we find ourselves falling into the world of big data (which, in case, you have not heard yet, is one of the buzzwords of 2012). So, for instance, whilst you may think you understand all about social networks, try looking at stackoverflow.com which is a great example of a niche social network, where big data is created, along with answers to complex problems, simply by the members of a community of interest.
As Google gets a handle on more of this type of social activity, and therefore advances Google+ beyond being a Facebook repro, then we will see more and more results in the SERPS which reflect the social activity from authors within our immediate or extended circles. And especially from those who have been canny about including keywords when creating content, as well as using that rel=author tag!
One of the problems with the ever-increasing creation of content is that it is, of course, becoming ever harder to index this and provide the results in a meaningful way using algorithms. After all, the search algorithms do not know whether you are looking up “polar bear hide” for a research project, because you are shopping to make a furry belt, or you actually mean a hide as in somewhere to hide from polar bears.
The examples given include 48 hours of video uploaded to Youtube every minute, or the equivalent of the Library of Congress added in information each day to the Net – and the rate of acquisition of new content is accelerating, fast. This means that, theoretically at least, if you can craft the right search, the amount of time spent finding the data you require is decreasing, day on day, as companies such as Google do the hard work for us. BUT, many people, as we said at the outset, quite simply do not know how to search, and hence find the results they are seeking.
So, for those interested in search, the really interesting part is about critical thinking skills and educating users to develop these skills so that they can more accurately access the information they are searching for (24mins). Which, hopefully, is of course, your website!
How do we, as search marketers, solve the problem of directing the user to a specific client website via a photo of a particular meal that their colleague has recommended at the restaurant if the only info the user has is: “It was ‘beef and rice’”? And how do we convert that search into a booking and a satisfied customer who leaves a tip, a review on our site, checks in on Foursquare, leaves a comment on our blog, signs up to our newsletter and eats in the restaurant on the discount coupon they received as a loyal customer?
After all, isn’t that why we want them to find the website in the first place?!
This type of search query may well be where Google Goggles come into their own. Not just the smartphone Google Goggles app, which has been on release for some time, but the physical version of Google Goggles – smart shades or something similar they will undoubtedly be called.
Being able to take a photo of a real world object and then search for the answer to your query is undoubtedly a goal of all search engines, because it can be so difficult to phrase the question to find the right answer using only words. Adding images to the mix takes us into a whole new realm of optimisation for search marketers. Then there’s Siri and voice, sounds and music, videos….you get the drift? If you thought search engine marketing had got a whole lot more complex over the last few years, with client fees staying fairly static but the workload increasing exponentially……it’s about to get a lot, lot harder!
Where else do you see search changing over the coming years as users become prosumers, hardware becomes more affordable, the disconnecteds get connected, and the volume of information, particularly real time social data, continues to increase by the hour? Do you envisage your task as a search engine /internet marketer becoming harder or more easier as tools for automation become available? As a user, do you see it becoming simpler to find the results you seek or more complex? How can website owners ensure that their sites remain optimised for the correct keywords?
Lily Bowron, SEO Executive at ClickThrough, explains why TDKs are an important part of on-page optimisation.
Lily Bowron, SEO Executive at ClickThrough, explains why Titles, Keywords and Descriptions are an important part of on-page SEO optimisation.
Writing the best Meta Titles and optimising Meta Descriptions has been a constant struggle for many websites since the dawn of SEO. With Google continuously moving the goal posts, and high competition for specific keywords, making the most out of the display space offered by a Google search has never been more important.
When it comes to optimising a web page, the first port to call for most is TDKs:
For years, ‘guidelines’ have circulated the Internet, providing glints of hope and some kind of direction as to how many characters to use for a description, in order to maximise conversions. Sadly, it’s often the case that people are left grasping at straws looking for authoritative sites to show them the way, so their descriptions don’t get cut off half-way through, and end with the dreaded ‘…’
Anyone else confused? Still looking for an answer? Here are some examples of previous guidance:
Guidance 1
65 characters for Meta Titles
Google displays about 150 to 160 characters for Meta Descriptions
Guidance 2
70 characters is the maximum for Meta Titles
Roughly 155 Characters for Meta Descriptions
Guidance 3
“Google shows 69 Characters (including spaces) for Page Title.
Google shows 156 Characters (including spaces) for Meta Description.”
Well, the answer is … drum roll, please! …Well, the answer actually depends on the letters you use.
Don’t get more confused. It’s quite a simple premise. When it comes to choosing your letters, some obviously take up more ‘font space’ than others. For instance, ‘M’ and ‘W’ are much wider characters than ‘I’ or ‘J’. Therefore, descriptions or titles with space-hogging letters or characters will provide much less space to display your targeted keywords than descriptions using thinner characters.
Writing a word like ‘Woolworths’, for example, would take up considerably more space than other, more svelte ten-letter words, such as ‘Illiterate’:
Now, knowing this, you may look at your wording choices a little differently in future. You could use alternative words, which may have the same number of characters, but use letters with less width. This will allow you to show more keywords for both searchers and Google robots, especially for words that are not a priority, or wide conjunctive words which are necessary to help the flow of your sentences.
For example:
Call instead of Ring
Note instead of Memo
Female instead of Women
Heater instead of Warmer
Cupboard instead of Wardrobe
Exclude instead of Without
This month, I will be researching the text shown by Google for a variety of search terms, then comparing the displayed number of characters depending on the use of thin and wide letters.
This, I hope, will provide a better indication as to how many characters will be shown on Google searches, depending on the specific letters used.
Follow this blog to find the ‘Perfect Size’ for Meta Titles and Descriptions, rather than the ‘Magic Number’, and it could help you get the most out of your Meta Titles and Descriptions.
In my next post I’ll be looking at title tags in more detail.
Lily Bowron, SEO Executive at ClickThrough shares some thoughts on optimising title tags
Lily Bowron, SEO Executive at ClickThrough, offers up some thoughts on changes affecting page title tag optimisation for search engines.
You may have noticed recently that Google seems to be altering title tags for branded pages – or rather, it is altering the way that a title tag is displayed, depending on the user’s search query relating to brand searches. This is frustrating when SEOs like us spend a long time writing and optimising TDK’s (Meta Titles, Meta Descriptions and Meta Keywords) to improve search rankings and maximise clickthrough rate.
For example, let’s say that your client sells unicorns (let’s keep it simple), and their page title is a simple, straightforward brand name:
Unicorn Corp
When users search for this brand, the page title would be displayed ‘verbatim’ – using exactly the same text as the search query.
Let’s suppose that your strategy is to show that your client’s website specialises in other mythical creatures, as well as unicorns, and you want to attract a user’s attention with additional title information. In this case, if Google decides to display the text in a different way to your carefully optimised, keyword-rich title, it would be very frustrating. For example, Google may not display the title below as originally optimised:
Unicorns Corp | High Quality Mythical Creatures | Fairy Tale Animals
The question therefore is, to what level do we spend time deliberating over our titles, if Google then decides to veto titles for the best interests of its users relating to brand names? In some cases, I can understand how it could be beneficial if the user was looking for something very specific such as:
Rangemaster Toledo 110 Duel Fuel Stainless Steel Chrome
In this instance, displaying exactly what the user had typed could increase clickthrough rate. But at what point does Google decide to change the Meta Title of a site? If the top 3 search results are all similar selling the same brand or product, would it display the same ‘Google-edited’ title for each of them?
At the moment Google seems to be experimenting with this idea of ‘Title Tailoring’, stating that changes are more common with sites that have left their titles blank – or pages with the title ‘Home Page’, which is not descriptive or useful to the user.
But does this present an unfair advantage to those sites that have not taken the time to optimise specific titles to specific page… ?
Will Google now add search-query influenced titles to these pages if the title tag is left blank… ?
Will this increase the popularity of these sites and result in competitive disadvantages to those sites that have taken the time to submit their own TDK’s…?
THEREFORE… Should we all delete our TDK’s relating to our brands and let Google do the hard work for us…?
Unfortunately – for the moment, at least – there seems to be no clear guide as to if and when Google may change Titles. Despite the efforts of many bloggers, the lack of clear information means that we’re in a ‘blind leading the blind’ situation. In our opinion, Google is experimenting with title tailoring to examine the change in clickthrough rate (CTR) if a branded page’s title tag is changed.
It would, after all, be a logical experiment to examine the CTR of a brand-only title for a home page, versus a title tag edited by Google. We just wish Google would make it clear when it is altering site search results in this way, so we could also measure it too. Otherwise Google is affecting our CTR without informing us, leaving us faltering in the dark, trying to justify any unusual activity. We can only hope that Google’s testing is reaping interesting CTR results, and that – hopefully – they will share these Title-editing gems with us in future.
We will keep you posted on how this testing should alter your search engine optimisation strategy…
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.
Since the Google Search Plus changes recently, there appears to have been a backlash from players such as Twitter, as well as the SEO industry and users.
Google has led the way in search since its appearance on the market, replacing such well-loved engines as Altavista as well as the meta search engines – Dogpile etc. Microsoft created Bing in a long delayed response to Google as a ‘decision engine’, and there are computational knowledge engines (Wolfram Alpha), as well as new and novel engines such as DuckDuckGo.
Until recently, none of these engines appeared to threaten Google’s position as the world’s best search engine because Google did one thing better than any other – relevance. However, the latest inclusions of social results and the seeming preference given to Google properties before, for example, original content rather than a discussion about said content, has caused an upset. Whilst the social results can be switched off, many users find the fact that an ‘opt out’ is required an additional niggle to the already heated discussions about Google properties listing above seemingly more relevant non-Google properties. In addition, Google’s removal of Boolean operators (which Bing permits) feels like an unnecessary dumbing down of the search process.
There are many pieces in the blogosphere detailing Google vs Bing vs other search engines, giving examples of where Google has failed to produce the relevant results, compared to the other engines. As Google have always said, the user is only one click away from using any other engine and it seems there are now many changing teh default search engine in their browser to Bing and other options. However, there is a percentage of Internet users who seem entirely unaware that there are other search engines, particularly since many began to use the Net after “Google it” became the replacement term for “search the Internet”.
For internet marketers, the process of SEO has always been a constantly shifting set of sands; however, this latest change to Google’s search results may result in users, especially the more savvy folk, seeking alternatives to Google. For a marketer, this presents a further challenge, particularly if new search engines continue to appear which return to Google’s initial USP – relevance – which Bing appears to be achieving after a shaky start.
It is unlikely, in the short term at least, that Google’s dominance of the market will plunge dramatically. But for those who are seeking to shop or conduct research, the prevalence of social and Google results above independent sources may be irksome enough to prompt a move away from Google to other search resources. And for those whose product set and content is not specifically enhanced by social results or is directly hampered by social SERPs above theirs which lead to less relevant content, it may be time to consider paying less budget and less attention to high Google SERPs.
After all, if your target audience include those who are dissatisfied with Google and who will only hear of you elsewhere, then you will need to increase your marketing efforts across those properties to capture their attention. Are you optimising specifically for other search engines or are you simply increasing social media marketing to stay/regain top SERPS on Google?
Let us know.
According to a recent article published on CMO.com, 73% of the world’s online population is made up of non-English native speakers. That’s a massive proportion of the online marketplace that – for many companies – simply goes untapped.
Due to recent recruitment in our client services team, ClickThrough Marketing now has increased multilingual search marketing capabilities. We are able to offer in-house localised search optimisation for French, German, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian speakers.
We can also help with your multilingual online marketing campaigns in other languages – please contact us for details.
Here are three ways that a multilingual approach to search engine optimisation could improve your business’s position on a global level:
Showing your customers that you care
As Dr Patrick Dixon, chairman of Global Change Ltd pointed out in his speech at the Google@Manchester event in December, the future focus of online marketing will be on building and maintaining emotional relationships with consumers. And there are few more significant obstacles to emotional engagement than mutual language barriers.
However, multilingual marketing isn’t as simple as straight word-for-word translations. Words and phrases, promotional models and search keywords will vary significantly from territory to territory. A sensitively translated website, along with diligent local research, is a shortcut to creating trusting, lasting relationships with customers.
Staying ahead of the competition
By personalising your business’s online marketing strategy for consumers in other countries you can open doors for potential revenue that otherwise would have remained resolutely shut. Globalisation is easier now than it has ever been – even the smallest businesses can promote themselves in a global arena. Inevitably, this means that your competitors are also pushing forward into growing international markets. A multilingual marketing strategy could help to establish your brand abroad, before it’s too late.
Snatch up developing online markets
Internet use in China has skyrocketed in recent years and it now boasts the largest online population in the world, with an estimated 457 million users logging on in 2010 – a staggering amount when you consider that in 2000 there were only 22.5 million Chinese users online.
Latin America, too, has seen phenomenal growth recently. Brazil is the largest online market in the region, with 40.5 million users registered in 2011 and a growth of 20% observed between 2010 and 2011. Mexico also saw impressive development in its online market, with a 21% rise in the same period.
With careful targeting and a considered translation, establishing your business in these markets could well be an investment worth pursuing.
If you are an existing ClickThrough Marketing client, simply contact your account director to discuss our multilingual search marketing services.
If you haven’t worked with us before, call now for a free, no obligation discussion: 0800 088 7486
Adam Symes, senior account director at ClickThrough Marketing, joined senior PPC account executives Meriem Nacer and Samantha Thomas at Google@Manchester last month, as reported in our previous blog post.
But what if you wanted to learn those six things in just 30 seconds? Well, now you can with this handy Infographic…
Google Farmer Update
One of our favourite things about working in online marketing is that there’s always something new to think about. Embracing new technology, expanding our knowledge, keeping up with the ‘new’ and learning from the ‘old’ – these are all essential elements to an effective digital marketing strategy.
That’s why we jumped at the chance to attend last month’s Google@Manchester event – which was led by Google’s director of agency sales, Dominic Allon.
We sent Adam Symes, senior account director at ClickThrough Marketing, along with senior PPC account executives Meriem Nacer and Samantha Thomas, to check out the event and catch up on the latest industry news – direct from Google itself.
They reported back with some intriguing details, and the information that they gleaned from the event confirmed that our innovations in search marketing are very much in tune with Google’s own reports.
That isn’t to say that we didn’t learn anything new, though. So to start 2012 with some fresh industry facts, here are six things we learned from our visit to Google@Manchester – firstly in detail, and then summarised in a ClickThrough Google@ Manchester Infographic:
1. 52% of conversion journeys are multi-click
Shane Cassells, online conversion specialist at Google UK & Ireland, gave a presentation entitled ‘Full Value of Search’, during which he provided some inside information that will be useful for any online retailer. Cassells recommended that the timeout for shopping baskets on eCommerce sites should be extended, and that we should all consider offline sales in our conversion strategies, as it has been shown that 40% of customers will buy offline after researching a product on the internet.
The big statistic to bear in mind, however, is that more than half of conversion journeys involve multiple clicks – whereas nine out of ten PPC conversions are still credited to the final click. As a conversion-focused online marketing agency, this kind of statistic is a nice reminder that we’re doing things properly – understanding that conversion paths are as unique and complex as the people buying your products.
2. Google+ is the fastest growing social media platform in history
Google’s foray into social media has proven to be a powerful marketing tool, with 94% of the top 100 brands already on board. We’ve been keenly watching the progress of Google+ and it will feature significantly in our social media marketing strategy for 2012, as we create and promote Google+ brand pages for our clients.
What Google@Manchester revealed is just how breathtakingly quick the rise of Google+ has been. Despite only being launched in June of last year, Google+ now has more than 40 million members – making its initial growth faster than Facebook, Myspace or Twitter.
To further cement its position as an innovative social networking tool, the portion of the show dedicated to Google+ was delivered as a video conference via the Google+ Hangout feature.
3. Customers are nine times more likely to click on mobile banners
Dr Patrick Dixon, futurist and chairman of Global Change Ltd, delivered a stirring speech called ‘Bringing It All Together: A Look Into the Future’. His scientific approach to marketing had the crowd transfixed – our own Adam Symes described Dixon as “one of the best speakers [he had] ever heard.”
His talk focused on the future of marketing, the emotional effects that marketing has on us and how we can build emotional relationships with our end users – pointing out that 80% of potential customers will lose interest if a process takes longer than 20 seconds. He made enough points to warrant multiple blog posts on this theme alone – but for the sake of brevity, we’ll focus on the intriguing details he offered on mobile marketing.
Dixon pointed out that whilst standard web-based banners typically have a 0.5% clickthrough rate (CTR), mobile banners boast a CTR that is nine times higher. He also mentioned the fact that mobile users are twice more likely to click on a banner after 8pm than earlier in the day. With only 17% of UK businesses offering mobile-optimised websites, but almost half of online consumers using their smartphones or tablets when researching or buying a product, it’s clear that businesses are risking missed opportunities if they ignore the powerful and growing mobile user base.
4. 60% of organic clicks are from top-three search positions
Dr Dixon also shared this search engine results surprise. We’ve always focused on getting top-tier results for our clients in the results pages of Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other leading search providers – what Dixon’s statistic shows is how incredibly important it is to optimise every facet of your business’s webpage. With an increasingly clued-up online user base, appearing in the first page of a Google search just isn’t enough anymore.
5. 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
Another highlight of the event was the ‘Connected TV’ panel, featuring experts from Google, the BBC and IAB (the Internet Advertising Bureau). Here we learned that video-sharing site YouTube is continuing to grow at a phenomenal rate, and how technology manufacturers, agencies and companies can come together to combine the best elements of internet video and traditional television – with the interactivity and customer targeting of the internet, and the quality and reach that television can still offer.
Perhaps the overarching theme that we can glean from this discussion is that YouTube should not be ignored as an online marketing tool. By their nature, Google+ and Facebook offer a quicker, easier and more cost-effective way of communicating directly with customers. However, when a video booms on YouTube, it really booms – few social websites have the potential for viral marketing that YouTube provides. Rest assured, we have some tricks up our sleeve that utilise the video sharing site that started it all.
6. Digital sales grew by 16% in the third quarter of 2011
‘It’s All About You’ was Mark Howe’s contribution to proceedings. The country sales director for Google UK opened the show by discussing the tremendous growth that was been observed in eCommerce in the third quarter of 2011.
This is good news for any business that uses the internet to promote its products, and further proof that consumers are increasingly turning to online purchasing despite the continuingly difficult economic circumstances. With the rise of price comparison websites, and review portals such as Trustpilot – which provide customers with the opportunity to rate online shops according to their experiences – it is more important than ever to ensure that your online business practice and promotional strategy are up-to-date. Dr Patrick Dixon predicted that price comparison websites will destroy businesses within five years if their prices aren’t competitive enough.
Did you attend the Google@Manchester event? If so, what were your highlights?
The 16 changes that mattered to Google marketing in 2011
Since December is that time of year when we look forwards and also reflect, I’d take a look at some of the major changes in search in 2011. I hope these will act like a checklist helping you think through what you have covered and what you may have missed. My update includes a combination of paid and natural search and some of the changes to Analytics which have helped us improve our search marketing better (and in some cases less well).
There’s been plenty to keep us busy in getting the most from digital marketing and I’m sure there will be next year.
We don’t know yet how many changes Google made in 2011, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Congress that Google made 516 updates in 2010. They tested over 13,000 potential updates!
Well I’ve been tracking the changes carefully and I think there’s far fewer that really matter – just 16 in fact, but do let me know about what I missed – there must be at least 20?
I hope you manage an enjoyable break from the digital world! All the best for a successful 2012.
Let’s go!
The year got off to a quiet start with few changes in January before the major changes in the first part of the year. Read this introduction to finding the volume of mobile searches
The official announcement on Google’s High Quality Site updates
How are finding it so far? See Dan Barker’s analysis of the top 10 new Google Analytics features
View the Google introduction to Google +1
Another of the many ad innovations in Google, this one has been rolled out worldwide. Check Google’s mobile ad features on the Ad Network
Post on Evolving the Google Design and Experience – these changes occurred throughout the yeargoogle
The biggest change to Google Marketing this year. View The What’s New in Google+ page for the latest updates
Not new in 2011, but following-up on site visitors became much more popular in 2011. Read this video introduction to Google’s Remarketing
Read The tutorial from Tim Leighton Boyce on how to use multichannel funnels to help with paid search
The official announcement from Google
Read Dave’s update on ClickThrough’s blog
Read how you can differentially bid for clicks vs calls
These made quite an impact on brand search – did you check the impact? Google’s explanation of the changes to: Expanded sitelinks
See the official announcement for Google+ pages with examples
Social extensions – recommendations appear on your ads – November 2011
Increasing the argument for having fresh content on your site. Read this summary from Chris Soames and see how ClickThrough covered the news.
OK, so what am I missing?
