Posts in SEO/SEM
Google's 2009 Search Engine Results Page Change - Behavior search
In other words, your particular search results will be tailored to your pattern of search and your geographic location (called behavior based search). Google will begin to give personalized Organic search page results as well as more targeted Pay Per Click ads on a world wide basis. More...
Not optimising your PPC campaigns can harm you
I was doing a bit of research earlier and noticed the following ad appearing for the search term "injury caused by an animal":
The SERPS look something like this:
Presumably, as shown by Google's organic results and the top 3 sponsored results, somebody searching for information about injuries caused by animals either wants a solicitor to advise them on filing a compensation claim or statistics about the numbers and types of animal injuries. Certainly the searcher is not looking to buy an animal - even for a charitable cause.
In this instance, only four ads appear which suggests that the offending ad will be shown every time this search result appears - and is unlikely to get many clickthroughs. More...
Average Brit makes four internet searches per day; receives over 2000 commercial messages
According to ComScore via the latest issue of Revolution magazine, we Brits make an average of 4.1bn Internet searches every month. If the UK Internet population is around 35.6m, then I calculate that the average UK internet user makes around four internet searches per day, every day.
According to some sources (in this case, a report touting the benefits of railway advertising), the average UK person is on the receiving end of over 2000 commercial messages every day.
I appreciate that a Google/Yahoo/MSN search isn’t the only way we seek out information (we talk to people, we still watch TV, we still read newspapers), but the contrast between how much we pro-actively seek out information via the Internet (commercial or otherwise) versus what gets pumped to us (whether we want it or not) seems huge. More...
To get real attention for your web site - build a brand
This is, of course, no surprise - but it does show us something interesting. People are using search engines to find brands, such as Facebook or PayPal, when all they need to do is type the brand name into the address bar to be automatically taken to the brand without conducting a search. More...
Why don’t we ask more questions via Google Search?
SEO keyword firm Wordtracker have released a new free tool that allows you to see the most popular questions people ask in relation to a specific keyword or phrase. For example, the most common phrase associated with public relations is: “what is public relations?”.
According to Wordtracker, by creating content related to relevant questions, you may improve your search efficacy - although they freely admit this is a “long tail” technique.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, questions are mainly of a Socratic variety ie “What is X?”
But it did make me wonder why we don’t ask more questions via Google? If you were looking for the best digital PR consultancy for example, wouldn’t it make sense to at least ask the question, just to see what results Google brings back? As I’ve blogged previously, this clearly isn’t the way we use Google (and it seems to apply across the board). More...
PR still stuck with traditional mindset toward online news releases: ROI of Online Press Releases Survey
Further evidence (if it were needed) that most PR professionals are still putting the old wine of traditional press relations in the new bottle of online PR.
A new survey from the Society for New Communications Research into the ROI of Online Press Releases has identified that: “traditional patterns of press release usage might keep public relations practitioners from adapting press releases to online contexts and new audiences.”
According to the SNCR: “PR professionals were consistently more interested than marketing professionals in reaching traditional media. More...
Search goes social as itsmy.com selects Taptu mobile search engine
Recently I had the chance to meet and interview Steve Ives who is the CEO of Taptu so I’m happy to post the release below verbatim. Well done Taptu!
Taptu chosen to provide search functionality for over two million users and enrich itsmy.com’s revenue earning potential
LONDON, Nov 03, 2008 itsmy.com www.itsmy.com, one of the largest global mobile communities has chosen Taptu www.taptu.com, an award-winning, pure-play search engine designed specifically for mobile, to provide itsmy.com’s growing community with a super fast search service, and access to an index of mobile-friendly web content. More...
185 million reasons for UK car dealers to be worried?
According to Google, UK internet users searched for the term “cars” on Google 185 million times in October. The historical 12 month average has been 226 million - so there has been an 18pc decline in search term usage.
And as we know, new car sales in the UK slumped 21pc in September.
Should we draw any connections between these statements? Before I have any Freakonomics fans on my case, the answer is - not necessarily.
For a start, I’m still trying to get my brain around the figure of 185 million. If we accept that the UK internet population is around 35.6 million, that would mean we online Britons searched on the term “cars” over 5 times each last month. More...
Are only 36 people in the UK interested in retaining customers?
In which case, you might think that people would be searching for information about how to keep customers. However, according to Google, the search term “how to retain customers” was searched for a paltry 36 times in the UK in October. And over the last 12 months, the average was around 58 - so the trend is declining.
So does this mean that there is a universal lack of interest in customer retention? No. More...
UK Cycling Director shows the way ahead for Internet marketing
This morning, Brailsford was interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live and was quizzed about the stunning performance of the UK cyclists. Are they set targets, he was asked. His reply was of immense importance to anyone in business, striving to achieve greater success.
Yes, they do have targets, said Brailsford, but - this bit is important - they are not the usual kind of targets you hear about for athletes. More...