Let us for a moment imagine that your company, after identifying the importance of SEO and investing the time or budget into optimise your site, decided as the credit crunch hit a few years ago that you could not afford to allocate marketing budget to the continual optimisation of your website. You wanted an immediate return on your advertising budget and felt the mid to long term plan of establishing your site on the Search Engines did not offer this immediate gratification. Your site continued to develop, new pages added, pictures uploaded, those 10,000 links pointing at your Home page built a few years ago are more than your competitors have got, so what’s the point of SEO now? Anyway, Social Media is the thing now, and you’ve built a Facebook page and opened a Twitter account, so that will improve my rankings wont it?

So, while companies have been standing still, Google has surged forward, as it must do in order to keep searchers and advertisers coming back.

The most recent of these has been the Panda updates, brought in to try and counter the increasing rate at which URL’s are being registered each month, the majority of which are very poor sites whose sole purpose is either spam or link / advert farming. In this clear up, a lot of directories and article networks that display duplicate copy dropped down the rankings or disappeared completely. It is fair to say a great deal of link juices sites had built up a few years ago was wiped out, having a knock on effect on the sites linked to them. So link building undertaken in the past that wasn’t complemented and strengthened with the continued sourcing of good quality links, were effectively wiped out.

However, this update has also inadvertently affected legitimate companies who have simply fallen behind in their SEO practices, especially those with eCommerce solutions.

It is essential if you have an eCommerce site that you optimise your online stock correctly, ensuring that you have unique descriptions for your products to avoid and duplicate content issues that could lead to penalization. While doing this it is also advisable to ensure that the images on you site are tagged also. This goes for all sites, whether eCommerce or not. Google has increasingly started to include images within its blended search results and can provide vital collateral to a company’s search engine presence. If you have been neglecting the optimisation of your site, there is a fair chance you are missing out on this opportunity.

The same goes for Google Places (nee. Local). The past few years has seen a strong focus placed on Local Search by Google, with the search engine trying to return the most relevant local results in what was previously a flawed system of simply claiming your position on Google maps that saw many companies without a physical address hijacking local postcodes. We now see much more consistent results when we search locally, with more emphasis placed upon customer reviews and citations from other reputable local directories taken into account when ranking. We have also seen Google Places blended with Organic Search results which enable companies to claim prime position at the top of the 1st page for location based keywords a great deal quicker than pure organic optimisation.

(The screenshot above shows the local search results from 2009, with the Google Places listings clearly differentiated from the organic listings, while the screenshot to the right taken in 2011 demonstrates how these Google places entries have been blended into the organic listings, providing the companies with a stronger presence and ultimately increased click through rates)

The results page landscape has also recently seen Real Time search results garnered via Twitter, Google News and Facebook fan pages come and go, although these are temporarily absent, the importance of optimising your company’s social media and news releases has been demonstrated and I predict it won’t be long before we see these return with G+ offering the Social dynamic to this.

Baring this in mind, importance placed on reviews, recommendations and Social Media interaction looks set to have a greater impact on Search Results in the future with the emergence of G+. With Google Places reviews and the Search Engine admitting that as part of the Panda project that they have been manually manipulating the search results based on user recommendation, G+ offers a further opportunity for the searcher to tell Google what content they find appealing, whether this be a site, blog or product in an eCommerce product.

The Search Engines are evolving and elevating the importance of ranking factors that benefit the user rather than the Search Engine, making it far more difficult to manipulate the listings with spammy links.

Therefore, this brings us all the way back to the fundamentals of SEO. If Google are going to start ranking sites on vote not via links but by user interaction and recommendation, it is vital you can be found by your audience and that the content you deliver to them is good enough for them to endorse you. Companies are constantly trying to get customers to engage with their Social, so now it’s time to get them to engage as much with their website, and with the Search Engines starting to take sites authority and trust into account when linking, a great deal more care and consideration needs to be taken in your link building process.

Businesses need to aware of this changing environment and potentially game changing developments within the way Google ranks websites in the future. The fundamentals will still remain a good site structure, well optimised copy and relevant links are always going to get you found one way or another. However as a company you can’t afford to stand still while Google is surging forward as the cost of catching up, both to sales and budget, could become very damaging indeed.

Further down the line we could also see Google infinite scroll being thrown into the mix too.

If you have any further thoughts on this changing landscape I would love to here your comments below.

Soon, talk of the ‘ten blue links’ could become a thing of the past as they look to scrap the page system and follow the scroll for results mechanism that people are already familiar with when searching down Twitter and Facebook. This way of delivering search results has already been rolled out onto Google Images and looks set to implemented on the web results page anytime soon.

This will obviously have far reaching implications in terms of how people search and how they interact with the search results before them.

From an SEO point of view I believe there will be an increase in the number of sites previously on the 2^nd or 3^rd page of Google getting clicks. Previously the user would have to make the decision to move on a page, however, with this taken away, I believe the user will search deeper in to the results. This will in turn have a negative impact on sites listed 6 to 10 who had previously been benefactors of the page system. As a SEO’er I will certainly be watching with interest the keywords I have listed between 11 and 30 and would expect these to start generating much more traffic for my clients. It would also be a very good idea to take advantage of this increased exposure and review all the descriptive text that gets displayed in these positions as a good enticing bit of text could be make you stand out from the crowd.

So why has Google decided to take this step, if indeed the rumors remain true and they eventually do?

I believe that mobile has a great deal to do with this.  With people now so au fait with checking Twitter and Facebook on a mobile and tablets and the touch screen making it much easier to scroll down than click to change pages, I believe Google is preparing the landscape for what they see will eventually be the primary devise in accessing their search results. As even few people will go beyond the 1^st page when searching on a mobile than on a desktop, they want to be able to maximise the number of options their users are faced with.

Also, imagine how many Adwords they could now display (or am I just being cynical?)

Facebook’s “Like” button came out a year ago and spread across the web like wildfire, so it is no surprise that Google have developed their own tool to act in a similar fashion as they have seen social recommendations becoming more and more important to how people search for what they are looking for.

Just like Facebook’s “Like” button, all the sites you “+1” will feature on the user’s personal Google profile forming a public list of recommended links, similar to that of Delicious, whose future looks uncertain and I’m sure won’t welcome this latest Google development.

The video below explains +1 in more detail

The basic idea is a good one. While searching you’re able to see what other people and friends recommend right in the search results page, and although Google have said that +1 doesn’t affect the algorithm for creating a page’s rank (for the time being anyway) it will surely affect individual users when they use Google. Sites that might sit 3rd on Google’s 1st page of results might start to see an increase in traffic because there are recommended by more people than the 1st and 2nd results. The feature also applies to Adwords, meaning that sponsored results/adverts can also be recommended.

This latest development by Google is a good step forwards but I feel it doesn’t fulfil the requirements of people using Google. Facebook’s “Like” button was designed to share information that someone finds interesting with their friends, while the +1 button acts as a recommendation for the website and this begs me to ask, “What are they recommended for?”. I might come across a website through certain keywords or a phrase and see a website that has been recommended, which is all fine as long as that recommendation came from someone who was searching for the same thing as I was. Are people recommending that site for the same search term I found it with or the product page I was deep linked into or that site in general?

Please let me know your thoughts?

Whenever something new like a phone is made people ask “Is it an iPhone killer” or the latest social media development being “The next twitter killer”. Facebook unveiled its latest developments with the message service it provides, which people suddenly jumped up and declared that it was “a Gmail killer” despite Facebook claiming the improved service is not email. The Facebook “non-email” is only available via invite but will be released to the public soon.

Facebook to provide @facebook.com email

Google will tell you that their phone, the Nexus One, despite poor sales was a great success in showing phone developers and users what the Android Mobile OS is capable of. The phone was launched in January but discontinued 5 months later and you wouldn’t think badly of Google to not try again and remain being an operating system provider. It was quite a shock when leaked photo revealed images of the Nexus S.

Nexus S revealed

Google seems to love nothing more than keeping SEO experts and executives on their toes. Google launched its Instant Preview feature where the user is able to view a preview of the website found while they are still in the search engine results page. This feature provides a snapshot of the page the result navigates to and although it might not affect SEO to much it will make websites visuals even more important.

Google Preview is launched

Apple has a special effect over many people around the world. They have managed to position themselves where they need to do very little PR to create a buzz because the word of mouth between their fans is so strong. By simply putting up a message on iTunes saying “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget” discussions all over the internet developed on what it could be, including iPad cameras, OS4.2 update but the most popular was the iTunes Cloud. When it was announced that it was the Beatles back catalogue was available of iTune the digital exhaled in disappointment. No doubt people will get excited when Apple are about to announce something else, lets hope it lives up to the hype that’s created.

Apple release the Beatles back catalogue on iTunes

DKNY are the latest company to feel the negative effect that social media can create. It’s no surprise that large numbers of the public started protesting when DKNY announced a Rabbit Fur coat in its new winter collection. A protest started by PETA developed and in addition to various fashion shows the DKNY Facebook page was also subject to the protest where 13 creative individuals changed their profile pictures to single bold letters and posted on the wall in order to spell out DK BUNNY BUTCHER.

He deserves it too. The past year has seen Captain Parks appear in his very own TV advert, get discussed on Real Radio North West, and engage with his customers through his Twitter account @CaptainParks. At the same time www.jetparks.co.uk has been firmly established across the major search engine for all its primary keywords, delivered a 20% click to conversion rate, which has in turn resulted in a 465% return on investment and seen bookings exceed targets by 33%. If this wasn’t enough, the JetParks project has been shortlisted for the Best E-Business Project at the 2010 Big Chip Awards.

So, all in all, a busy year for Captain Parks and JetParks, I’m sure you would agree.

When we began the JetParks project over 12 month ago, we had merely 3 weeks in which to deliver the website, so although we wanted to create a visually aesthetic site, a great deal of the limited time we had available was spent in the development of the booking system and all the other clever under the bonnet techie stuff. That is not to say we weren’t happy with our original design, and the Manchester Airport parking public have certainly embraced the brand, but it was felt, now that the site has proved such a success, that we could revisit the original concept and devote a little more time to the look and feel.

We felt it was better to evolve the design rather than starting again from the ground up. A website is organic and design forms part of that. We started by refreshing the home page and some of the other internal pages, with a refresh of the booking process coming shortly. The design has a bright, bubbly feel all in line with the brand. The Quick Booking area has also been simplified to help the user straight into the booking process, which we hope will further increase the already excellent conversion rate.

We feel that the new design give the site a fresh feel without any drastic alteration to the brand, but please have a look around the site yourself www.jetparks.co.uk and let us know what you think.

For too long now events like this have been the property of London, dragging the digital world to capital and delivering a thoroughly mediocre affair. It’s about time the North had a platform to attract an international audience, and show our selves off a bit.

SAScon is a truly international event, with celebrated practitioners from the US, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Iceland sharing the stage with some of Manchester’s own, Paul Fabretti from Gabba and Neil Hardy from the Co-operative group to name but two. Personally I can’t wait to hear some more on the darker arts of SEO from Ralph Tegtmeier, who, according to Aaron Wall, is “one of the most insightful minds and original voices in the search game”.

A great deal of credit needs to go to SEMPO and Manchester Digital for delivering SAScon at a time when the digital landscape in the North demands it. We have some of the most innovative minds and cutting edge ideas, not just with the digital agencies, but with the digital departments of our regions forward thinking companies.

Up here in’t North have always been willing to take a punt, always keen support and embrace new initiatives, happenings and events, as the success of Manc Twestival proved. SAScon has the potential to be a permanent fixture on the digital calendar for digital marketeers from around the country. If you can make it, please go, it will be great to see you there.

www.sascon.co.uk

@sasconference

#sascon

The Sun has drawn first blood with the sensational headline “Labour’s lost it”. The online version of this article is juicy enough link-bait to already hit the first page of Google for the search term “labour”.

There it is, at the time of writing, in fifth position (not counting news results). Ouch.

As well as associated articles, dossiers and microsites that can be found on the sun website, they are also using PPC as part of their attack strategy.

The terms labour, labour party and labour conference all bring up one of the following ads linking to the topic dedicated Feeling Blue section of their site.

And they seem to be pre-empting a response by buying up their own name.

It’s not been all one way traffic, though. Labour were pretty quick to respond with their own ad that plays on a pretty emotive anti-sun topic: Hillsborough. I took this screenshot this morning:

The gloves are off.

However, Labour don’t seem to be buying as many or as broad search terms. If they want to compete, they should be buying up all the search terms the Sun is and directly attacking the paper on its own turf. That could require some deep PPC pockets. In fact, as I check now the ad isn’t showing. Has the budget dried up already?

The US presidential election digital campaigns demonstrated the importance of rapid response to on and offline trending topics. In particular the paid search campaigns for both camps had to respond quickly and effectively to online buzz and breaking news. Eric Frenchman, the guy in charge of John McCain’s PPC has blogged about using search for political or news rapid response.

So now it’s the UK’s turn and although I hope the tactics might not get quite as… dubious as in the American election, I think Search and social media will be two areas where the battle will be viciously fought.

Interesting times lie ahead.

——————————————-

Update: It seems Labour didn’t have anything directly to do with the Hillsborough ads, the Telegraph reports. The ads stopped showing around 2 the afternoon. Either there was a very small budget allocated or they were pulled. Over enthusiastic supporters or plausible deniability? Either way it’s a shame, I’d have liked to see a real scrap!

I’ve found another blog post here on the same topic that discusses the Rules of engagement for political parties.

Since then we have been driving forward an SEO campaign aimed at dominating the market across Google, Yahoo and Bing, for "Manchester Airport Parking" and all related keywords and from a standing start, the green shoots of our industry are starting emerge (it must be all that rain we had over July and August?)

It hasn’t proved an easy task and there is still a long way to go to break the Search Engine monopoly of the large booking agents, but things are definitely moving in the right direction.

So in the last two months, what have we achieved? Well, at the start of the campaign we looked to make an immediate impact on the market by targeting keywords such as "cheap manchester airport parking" and we felt that if we could establish a solid presence with these we would then have the foundations in place to attack the primary keyword, "cheap parking manchester airport"

For each of the keywords we were targeting, our starting position was predominantly outside the top 500 on Google Yahoo and Bing. However, an aggressive campaign of on-site and off-site optimisation saw these positions sore to the top 3 on Yahoo and MSN and onto page 1 of Google.

However, the great success came with the keyword "manchester airport parking" a keyword with 100% advertiser competition and one that would cost up to £20,000 / month to be top of the PPC Sponsored listings. From no-where, we have witnessed a steady rise up the rankings to where we currently reside in position 22, 24 and 19 on Google, Yahoo and Bing respectively.

Now I know there will be choruses declaring you’re either page 1 of Google or no-where, and I agree, however, this position now gives us a great opportunity to aggressively target the keyword and drag it up to its rightful place and with conversion rate from clicks to bookings of over 25% we know if we can drive in the traffic, the site we built will make the customers stick.

The announcement was made on the 10/11th of August that Google had been working for months on a new update for it’s search engine. Code named: Caffeine.

SEO experts hold their breath everytime an Algorithm changes because it affects rankings and they could see their months of work, getting higher up the rankings and developing techniques to beat their competition in the SERPs, all destroyed in a matter of minutes. Others may experience a caffeine kick and jump up the listings.

So the SEO community breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that the Caffeine Update is similar to the Big Daddy Update back in Dec 2005 and that the changes made were “under the hood”. Google describe this update as;

“A next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.” – Google Blog.

Since the initial announcement we have had a month to test the New Google to see how things compare to the old. You can see how your site ranks on both the current Google and Google Caffeine here. WebProNews also managed to get an interview with Matt Cutts about Caffeine at San Jose Search Engine Strategies 2009, where he explains the changes made to the new structure of Google.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovbjCsQtfCk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fuser%2Fientry&feature=player_profilepage#t=41[/youtube]

What does this mean for the average Googler?

The answer: Not really that much. The aim of this update, as with all updates, is to improve the users experience and find more accurate results for them. The person using Google wont notice the fact that speed of the search listings has now be increased, with results returned in 0.19 seconds rather then 0.3, and the number of indexed sites has increased from 752,000 to 1,220,000 (searches done on my name, we all do it), but it does show that the update has improved the indexing capabilities and this should improve the ease for the user to find what they are looking for.

As mentioned earlier on the Google Blog, the new infrastructure is just the first step, meaning that there are more changes to come. Does this mean an algorthim change? Maybe a more decisive move to take on twitter and its ability to provide breaking news?

Whatever Google has planned for the future, the search engine community are watching carefully and preparing for when the Caffeine Update goes live (date yet to be announced).

“4 years of my life, £16,000 and a sheet of A4 paper saying degree on it. Does this mean I should be able to pass it?”

I am happy to say that a Google Analytics Certificate now has pride of place on my wall in the office. Although I find it slightly cheap that I had to print the certificate off myself. Where was the large hall, my name being read out, and me walking up to the stage to collect it out of the hand of Larry Page or Sergey Brin?

I’m the new boy at KMP Digitata and when I first arrived I had no experience of Google Analytics and so this was an opportunity for me to show some ability to learn and work quickly. I was also able show self restraint when I was given the company credit card to pay the $50 for the exam, Amazon did pop into my mind but was forced back by Completion Funnels and RegEx codes.

So now what? What does this qualification mean to me?

For me this qualification brightens up my office wall but more importantly shows my colleagues and clients that I have demonstrated proficiency in Google Analytics. I am now able to manage data to create reports displaying any information required about a website’s traffic and users.

The next step for us here at KMP Digitata, regarding analytics, is to look forward and towards the ‘Google Analytics Authorized Consultant‘ certificate. It’s a lot harder to obtain then the GAIQ award but we have taken the first step, and probably the easiest, by having two Google Analytic certified members at the company.

As for me personally I think I have space next to my Analytics Certificate for another one. Maybe Google AdWords is next……