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Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
General Motors, one of the biggest advertisers in the world, says it is no longer going to pay for advertising on Facebook – as the popular social network readies its initial public offering on the stock market.
Facebook is a free service with some 800million users worldwide: it makes its money from data-related, targeted advertising. The IPO valuation puts the company somewhere around the $100bn mark – based on potential revenue streams such as paid ads.
The timing of GM decision could prove to be the first dent in Facebook’s IPO plans.
According to Reuters, the company is yet to confirm the reason behind its decision. GM was thought to spend around $40m a year on Facebook – with around $10m of that paying for advertising.
GM has been one of the biggest proponents of social media ads – even using an entirely digital strategy to launch the Chevrolet Sonic last October.
The move to withdraw from Facebook’s advertising appears to be down to a lack of return on investment.
GM is quoted by Reuters as saying it will continue to maintain its free Facebook brand and car pages, as these continue to be “a very effective tool for engaging with our customers.”
GM said: “It’s not unusual for us to move our spending around various media outlets. In terms of Facebook specifically, while we currently do not plan to continue with advertising, we remain committed to an aggressive content strategy through all of our products and brands.”
Conversely, Ford Motor Co – another leading company in the world of Internet marketing, and an early embracer of social media – says it plans to boost its spending on Facebook, including paying for more adverts.
Around 20% of their marketing budget goes on social media marketing initiatives – including a huge push for the Fiesta, a car absent from the US market for almost 30 years. As a result of that campaign, costing $5m, Ford claims 60% of Americans were aware of the brand – something which may have cost $100m to achieve with traditional ads and marketing.
Whether GM’s decision does eventually impact on Facebook’s IPO, raises questions about the longevity of its financial strategy, or causes a cascade of advertising pull-outs from big brands remains to be seen.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: advertising, budget, cars, facebook, Ford, GM Motors, internet marketing, IPO, online, Paid Ads, Social network, US
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Thursday, May 10th, 2012
By Ali Harris, content manager, ClickThrough Marketing
I just did a search for “Internet marketing”, out of interest, mainly, and I was bit surprised by Google’s first page of results.
The Internet marketing industry is currently feeling the harsh end of Google’s brickbat – with the Penguin update playing havoc with rankings as the engine looks to end webspam and keyword stuffing.
Examples of bad results have come up on various forums – we wrote yesterday about searching “Paypal France”. That term returns a whole load of spammy results.
That, suffice to say, wasn’t Google’s intention with Penguin.
We wrote earlier about another mistaken side effect of the algorithm update: the potential for successful negative SEO campaigns.
But until there are proven examples of negative SEO bombing an otherwise entirely reputable website, it’s the organic results that matter.
And the organic results remain skewed. I just searched “Internet marketing” on organic Google, without logging in, but with local UK search on (not by region, just country).
Two of the top five organic results are spam. That’s almost 50% spam. A few weeks ago, the top results for Internet marketing were all SEO companies.
So in this case, Penguin has made Google 40% more rubbish than it was.
Try it yourself: you’ll find returns for a telecoms company which offers phone numbers and telephonic systems – but has absolutely no apparent content, services, or information about “internet marketing”, as well as a site pertaining to offer the ‘new rules’ of Internet marketing, but actually only featuring two measly pages of absolutely terribly written content, and a seeming focus on Forex.
I’ve had a look at the sites themselves and can’t really see why Google thinks they should return in the top five results for an “internet marketing” search.
Maybe the search engine is having a laugh at the SEO industry – who are making money off Google’s free product (search) when Google would far rather they used its paid-for products (paid search or pay per click).
Or maybe this is another example of the recent Penguin update getting things very wrong indeed.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: Black hat, Google, internet marketing, irrelevant, Keyword stuffing, optimisation, penguin, ranking, search, SEO, spam, update, white hat
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
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Thursday, May 10th, 2012
The Google Penguin update, launched last month, punishes sites participating in dodgy paid link schemes by removing them from the search results.
Now, post-Penguin, the Internet marketing industry is debating whether the algorithm change has become a charter for negative SEO.
Negative SEO is essentially search sabotage: giving competitors a Google Minus, if you will.
The idea is to use underhand, blackhat SEO techniques on a competitor’s website – as though the competitor had done it themselves. Google sees dodgy SEO activity on the competitor site, and downranks it as a result. Your site then sails up the rankings as your sabotaged competitors disappear.
It’s a horrible strategy.
Penguin’s introduction was supposed to bolster honest, white hat SEO: not destroy it.
But some commentators claim that by arbitrarily downranking sites with unnatural link profiles, Penguin has made negative SEO strategies a very stark reality.
One of the main problems is that most small websites can’t actually control their own inbound links. Bigger companies can afford lawyers to run round getting dodgy sites to remove links. Smaller sites cannot.
If you run a small e-commerce site, which currently ranks on the first page for your core products, will your business survive on Google’s first page if a nefarious competitor aims 50,000 bad links in your direction?
Some experts say it would be too hard to make negative SEO foolproof, and it would essentially be impossible to downrank well-established sites because of Google’s other ranking factors.
Negative SEO has always been in existence and it’s not something Google would want to promote.
Yes, Penguin has made backlinks a dangerous factor for all sites, but in reality, it shouldn’t really increase the prevalence of negative SEO campaigns.
That’s partly because backlinks are just one metric Google uses to analyse the quality of a website. The basic idea is the more backlinks a site has, the more trustworthy it must be, the more useful its content must be, and the more valuable it is to a searcher.
Sites like the BBC, Daily Mail or Wikipedia have massively strong link profiles, and they rank very well for a huge number of search terms as a result. Their SEO work, compared to smaller, less-known sites, is pretty much an effortless process.
Smaller sites are judged on the same metrics as massive global brands, and that includes backlinks.
Some experts have cited examples of negative SEO campaigns actually working on smaller sites – especially as SMEs don’t have the international recognition or consumer loyalty of bigger brands.
The advice for vigilant SEOs is to stay vigilant. You should be checking sites for evidence of negative SEO campaigns anyway – and there are some steps you can perform to help protect you against this kind of underhand campaign.
If you notice a spike in unnatural-looking backlinks, work quickly to try to get them removed. Contact sites who have given you positive links and establish a line of communication. If those links are suddenly removed by a fraud, you have more chance of getting the link back.
Other negative SEO tactics to look out for include crawlers sent to your site to scrape it and slow down load times – this can cause visitors to bounce very quickly, so you should always be checking the IPs visiting your site, and blocking potential crawlers.
Stealing content from competitor websites before Google has indexed it is another means of sabotage. If Google sees your content on a competitor site first, it will discount yours as duplicate or plagiarism (even though you wrote the piece). Using rel=canonical tags can help prevent this.
Other tactics can be harder to deal with: this includes spamming review sites with bad reviews, or even with good reviews, as a huge swathe of positive reviews (especially from the same IP address) would immediately appear dodgy to Google.
The first iteration of Penguin was always going to have a few creases to be ironed out.
It’s unlikely Penguin can be refreshed to recognise whether a site owner or webmaster has paid for backlinks, or whether a competitor has attempted to sabotage them.
But it’s also highly unlikely that Google will allow negative SEO success stories to become the norm.
Something’s got to give.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: algorithm, backlinks, canonical, Google, internet marketing, link profile, negative seo, online marketing, penguin, spam, tags, unnatural, update, webspam, white hat
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
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Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
Google’s Penguin update has sent the SEO industry into something of an ironic flap.
Almost a fortnight after Penguin went live, webmasters are still moaning and complaining that Google got it wrong.
And in some cases, the detractors have a point.
Penguin was designed to destroy the dark arts of SEO. Black hat tactics – such as keyword stuffing, or paying for spammy inbound links – have been utilised by cheeky webmasters attempting to manipulate the rankings. And Google’s had enough.
Penguin aimed to torpedo sites which used keyword stuffing to trick spiders into thinking their content was relevant, whilst also blacklisting sites which had paid for dodgy incoming links in an attempt to falsify credibility.
But Penguin clearly hasn’t worked exactly as Google planned.
Search industry forums are reporting examples of apparently ‘white hat’, honest websites being downranked, with examples of horrific, spammy ‘black hat’ sites suddenly displaying on the front page of Google for completely unrelated search terms (see below).
The thing is, though, is that Penguin hasn’t altered much in reality. It’s certainly not a game changer.
Google has always had good practice guidelines. But it hasn’t always had a way to police whether sites are adhering to those guidelines.
Penguin, therefore, is essentially a Google search copper, plodding the everlasting beat that is the results pages, looking for traces of the notorious Internet crimelords Webspam and Spammy Links, and attempting to bring the perpetrators of online offences to justice.
Now, the problem. It’s bit like a search version of RoboCop – Penguin appears to have been appointed judge, jury and executioner by Google.
And that, it seems, is where the problem lies. Penguin is programmed – it has been coded to look for telltale signs of black hat SEO. It’s not a human, and it’s not capable of rational thought (unless Google’s keeping something from us).
As such, Penguin was always going to be prone to mistakes – especially after first launching. That in itself should account for the ‘funny behaviour’ reported by webmasters immediately after Penguin went live. Some went as far as to claim Penguin “broke Google” – others petitioned for the update to be reversed.
Google realises that placing arbitrary decision-making into the hands of a dumb robot isn’t going to reap foolproof results and is prepared to reinstate accidentally downranked websites.
Webmasters who feel unfairly punished by Google can flag up their complaint. Those meeting Google’s good practice guidelines should be reinstated as a result. Conversely, you can also report instances where spammy, rotten sites are returning high in the results when they really shouldn’t be.
This level of teething problems and fall-0ut clearly wasn’t part of Google’s intention with the Penguin update.
Google wanted Penguin to go some way towards levelling the playing field for search engine optimisation. Some feel it’s an attempt to push people towards paid ad-based Internet marketing.
It’s clear Google still has some work to do, either way.
And until then, those genuine sites which have lost rankings – and business as a result – are going to have to weather the storm.
- Have the Rules for White Hat SEO Changed After Penguin?
A Sideways View On The News, by Ali Harris, content manager for ClickThrough Marketing
Penguin wasn’t a game-changer – it was simply a means to enforce the ‘rules’ already laid out by Google.
Those who had got away with breaking, or just bending, the rules for some time have now been penalised. That may’ve meant some previously top-ranking sites suddenly plummeting.
Anyone adhering to Google’s best practice guidelines, on the whole, will have avoided a hammering from Penguin.
The cases where legitimate sites got downranked are few and far between, and Google has set up the right channels to rectify this. If Google refuses to reinstate a site, chances are, there’s some spam, links or some other ‘black hat’ problems somewhere.
That said, respondents on a handful of search forums have provided examples of spammy, rubbish websites which are now appearing on page one of Google.
One great example is to search “Paypal France”. The first page of results for this search returns no fewer than three websites selling viagra.
Not only are these sites totally unrelated to the search term “Paypal France” – they’re also stuffed with keywords.
In terms of content, it’s nasty. Really nasty.
In fact, these search returns are exactly what Google engineer Matt Cutts said Penguin would whitewash.
Yet, it hasn’t.
Even the page description, displayed directly under the website URL, shows how badly stuffed some of these pages are.
One reads: “During relative of pele’s observing sugar in brazil there was no rheumatoid film viagra paypal france.”
It’d be hard for anyone to argue that this search result:
i) makes any sense
ii) is of any use to anyone, ever
iii) is not blatant, keyword-stuffed spam
iv) should be on page one of Google for any search term other than “examples of ridiculous spammy content”
It’ll be interesting to see how these anomalies iron out in the coming weeks, and whether Google refreshes Penguin so it looks a lot more closely at the factors which might separate a genuine site from a fraud.
If they do, may I suggest this level of closer inspection should henceforth be known as ‘observing sugar in Brazil’?
- Why call the Google algorithm update Penguin?
The last big algorithm change from Google was called Panda. This one was Penguin.
Speculation is rife that Google is following a pattern with its search engine updates.
The obvious bits are: animals (cute ones at that), which begin with a ‘p’, and are black and white.
Guesses for next update name include Panther, and Pigeon (derived from vowel use: pAnda, pEnguin, pIgeon etc…).
On the black and white theme, some have posited that Google is separating ‘white hat’ tactics from ‘black hat’ tactics via the use of bestial metaphor.
I have my own theory behind the name, which takes us back to the ironic flapping of the SEO industry.
Take Google’s ‘average user’ – someone with little knowledge of anything. Google plays to the lowest common denominator.
If you don’t know anything about quantum theory, and you Google it, you’d want something reputable, trustworthy and reliable to return on the front page of the results. The same goes for any search term.
With webspam sites, you might get a top search result which says “Quantum Theory” on the page name, and includes the phrase in the description too. But on closer inspection, a bunch of other, unrelated words are in the description. This is known as keyword stuffing.
Click the link, and you won’t find a repository of sparkling information about relativity, worm holes, or physics. No. You’ll probably get a bunch of bad links, nonsense sentences, and the odd advert for a miracle diet instead.
In search terms, that result is useless.
Now imagine you’re looking for a bird. You’d expect a bird to fly, right?
Only, Penguins can’t fly.
So perhaps, Penguin was designed to root out sites which seem genuine, which look like they are fit for purpose, but, on closer inspection, are actually technically useless. Like a Penguin’s wings.
Or maybe I’ve overcomplicated it.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: Black hat, Google, internet marketing, Keyword stuffing, links, online marketing, Paid Ads, penguin, PPC, Search Engine Marketing, SEO, white hat
Posted in Search Engine News
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Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
Internet marketing companies and search engine optimisation experts are poring over their websites today, after Google released its latest algorithm changes, designed to weed out “webspam” sites which manipulate search rankings.
Google’s latest tweak will punish sites using dirty tactics to trick search spiders – such as keyword stuffing
Most reputable SEO companies use “white hat” techniques for search engine optimisation and Internet marketing. But various nefarious webmasters ride roughshod over their good work: creating unnatural copy which reads like a random selection of words, or stuffing completely unrelated keyword links into articles.
“Good” SEO involves a mix of techniques – including ensuring onsite copy contains the right keywords in the right volume, writing the right title tags and descriptions, and a mix of regular, quality content updates; meaningful blog posts and newsworthy press releases.
Inbound links are another metric Google uses for PageRank – based on the premise that users will happily share links to sites which host trustworthy, valuable and informative content. Sites full of spammy rubbish clearly wouldn’t be linked as they are useless.
Linkbuilding schemes are a relatively complex area, but a good strategy will ensure the right websites for your industry are hosting links to your content. “Bad” linkbuilding schemes include buying backlinks from random sites, or participating in link schemes where vast swathes of sites backlink to each other in a bid to dupe Google’s algorithm.
It seems Google is actually manually reviewing sites which its algorithm has flagged as having “unnatural links”. Around one-million messages have been sent to webmasters who Google suspects have dabbled in black hat link schemes. The fact Google has done this send-out manually shows how important it is to get this right: webmasters who’ve built links with great content may still be flagged by the robotic algorithm – human review checks whether the spiders were right.
The latest update will see these “bad” SEO practices penalised – so sites who use honest, white hat techniques don’t get pushed down the rankings by cheats.
“The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines,” said Google engineer Matt Cutts in a blog post. “We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content… our advice to webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Tags: algorithm, backlinks, Black hat, google rank lost, internet marketing, link schemes, links, online marketing, Panda, ranking changes, SEO, spam, webspam, white hat
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
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Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Social media giant Facebook claims seasonal advertising is to blame for its first dip in quarterly revenue in two years.
The network saw revenue fall by 6.5% quarter-on-quarter in the three months to March 31, according to Marketing Week.
Revenue remained over the $1bn mark – hitting $1.06bn – and was still strong year-on-year, up by 45%. However, profit dropped year-on-year to $205m – down 32% from the end of 2011.
Facebook says that dip is due to seasonal Internet marketing campaigns – as brands cash in on the festive rush. The company has also splashed out large sums in recent weeks as it prepares for its stock market IPO. It paid $300m for social photo app Instagram earlier this month. The spend on new acquisitions has overtaken its 45% revenue increase and eaten into profits, Facebook said.
The site also increased spend on marketing and sales, investing $123m more year-on-year to increase its appeal to potential investors ahead of the IPO.
Paid advertising makes up 82% of Facebook’s total income – and has risen by 37% year-on-year. Facebook now has more than 900m active monthly users – generating some 3.2bn likes and comments every day.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: Facebook Marketing, instagram, internet marketing, IPO, Paid Ads, social advertising, social network marketing
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Friday, April 20th, 2012
Pay per click marketing strategies have been given a boost by a new Google tool which claims to show whether a paid ad has been viewed or not.
PPC, or paid search, involves a strategic approach to keywords and display. Unlike organic online marketing, known as search engine optimisation or SEO, which can take months to build, PPC provides a far quicker click journey directly to a sale.
Users searching for a specific products can be given a choice of paid ads – so if they’re searching because they know they want to buy, marketers give customers a direct avenue to the purchase the products they want.
It’s therefore important to ensure potential customers get the right information about right products when they click your PPC ads. Getting the correct landing page could mean the difference between a sale or a bounce.
Whilst strategies understandably focus on these important facets of paid-for internet marketing: like click rate, bounce rate, and conversions, it’s not always been possible to report on the actual visibility of an advert.
Now, Google has said a new tool will give marketers even more information about their PPC marketing campaigns.
The Active View addition is designed to show marketers when an ad has been viewed – meaning advertisers could only pay for adverts that users see. Of course, traditional marketing has always had a more “fish in barrel” approach: pay for advertising (on TV, in newspapers, on radio), and hope that interested customers see or hear your ad.
Online marketing provides a greater opportunity to measure ad engagement. The effectiveness of a full-page ad in a national newspaper could be measured by a spike in inquiries or sales following publication, but this is hardly hard and fast analysis.
If Google is able to program Active View to give a real statistical analysis of ad views – rather than an educated guess – it could become an invaluable way to cut spend and increase conversions at the same time.
Google’s quantification will use the Interactive Advertising Bureau standard: a “seen ad” will be seen on-screen for more than a second.
Even without the ability to track ad views, paid search marketing remains an incredibly effective form of internet marketing: one which can create incredible returns with the right strategic approach.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
Tags: internet marketing, online marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), PPC, search advertising, SEO
Posted in Pay Per Click Marketing
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Thursday, April 19th, 2012
Search engine optimisation remains one of the most effective forms of internet marketing.
All good internet marketing strategies should pay attention to organic search initiatives to ensure a steady flow of search traffic to a target site.
Whilst paid search is becoming more prevalent amongst both search engines and social media networks, organic queries remain the biggest source of traffic, according to stats from Search Engine Journal.
They’ve broken down some of the more surprising SEO stats to show just how important a good optimisation strategy can be: even if it doesn’t yield results immediately, a patient, strategic approach will eventually pay dividends.
The stats show that 70% of links clicked on by search users are organic, with 70% to 80% of users saying they never click on paid ads. 75% said they never scroll past the first page of results.
Companies who post regular blogs have, on average, 434% more indexed pages than those who do not – but only 81% of businesses consider their blogs to be an important asset.
Search remains the number one source of traffic for a website – it’s a better drive than social media by 300% according to a study by Outbrain.
More than 100 billion global searches occur every month, with Google owning 65-70% of the market share.
Mobile devices are becoming a popular choice for search, too: there were 97.3 million mobile internet users in 2011. This year, that number is expected to top 113.9m. Of those users, 72.8m will be “mobile shoppers” in 2012.
The figures speak for themselves: SEO remains an absolutely vital component of online marketing.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: Google, internet marketing, organic, Paid Ads, PPC, rank, search, SEO
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
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Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Facebook marketing is getting more expensive – even though less users are clicking on ads on the giant social network, according to a new report.
Research from one Facebook-focussed agency and verified by Cambridge University claims advertisers are forking out 15% more per click now than at the same time last year.
The study looked at Facebook advertising in 190 countries, involving 235 brands.
It found that costs per click had risen by around 23% in the top five countries, US, UK, Canada, France and Germany in the first three months of 2012, whilst the average cost of acquiring a Facebook fan has risen by 77% in the UK.
The rise in ad costs comes against an actual decrease in clickthrough rates on Facebook ads – around six per cent less Facebook users are clicking on paid ads now than at the start of 2011.
Facebook is launching a much-anticipated stock market flotation, with a valuation of around $100bn. Having access to 800m+ global users is a huge bargaining tool for Facebook – but the key is whether the social network can make money out of its popularity. Around 85% of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising.
The business-end of the rise of social networks will mean an increased focus on paid-for advertising, making conversions a more important facet of social media marketing.
The study also shows that the UK is now the second most profitable social network advertising market, overtaking Canada and now just behind the US.
One of the biggest trend changes on Facebook is the number of clicks on news items – the launch of the social reader app has seen clicks rise 196% in quarter-on-quarter comparisons.
In terms of click costs, the research also revealed that the financial services industry is paying out more than anyone else for Facebook ads – around three and a half times more than the average food or drink marketer pays.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: clickthrough, cost per click, facebook, Facebook Ads, internet marketing, online marketing, paid search, social media advertising
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
Internet marketers and SEO professionals can learn from the way Microsoft has handled its mobile strategy, according to an article published on the International Business Times website.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system was launched in 2010, and has so far only managed to gain a market share of 3.9 per cent. In comparison, Apple iPhones make up 30.2 per cent of the market, and Google’s Android operating system powers around half of smartphones currently in use.
Microsoft fares a little better in the apps market, with a five per cent market share, compared to RIM’s 15 per cent, Apple’s 30 per cent and Google’s 50 per cent.
According to the article’s author, Ryan Buddenhagen, SEOs and marketers can learn from the way Microsoft has pushed its phone – as the company has tried hard to encourage developers to create compelling apps for its devices, knowing full well that they will shy away from developing apps for Microsoft’s mobile operating system in favour of those with more users.
Microsoft is achieving this by offering excellent customer support to developers, and a comprehensive learning program. Last year, the company hosted more than 850 sessions around the world to familiarise developers with its Windows Phone operating system – three times more than in 2010. In another effort to woo developers, Microsoft is creating new ways for them to make money by selling apps.
Microsoft has reportedly been more attentive to developer queries than its competitors, and it has made its app tools very user friendly, helping to establish better relationships and a sense of trust with its developers. Marketers can learn from this approach by putting customers first, says Buddenhagen.
In the article, Buddenhagen also explains how lessons can also be learned from the way Microsoft is marketing its Windows Phone ‘story’ – or at least in the way it plans to. According to Microsoft, they simply haven’t invested the money needed to tell the phone’s story around the world, but they are sure that when they do, their products will gain support. Rather than relying on cold statistics and features, it is important to establish an identity for a product, and a compelling backstory is an important part of this. SEO professionals can push this story online and drive traffic to web properties that support this story.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: internet marketing, Microsoft, SEO, Windows Phone
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
