Google announced the rollout of its Knowledge Graph, which will cause a big change to how results are delivered in the SERPs. Basically, the intent behind the Knowledge Graph is for search engines to think more like a human — and deliver results that reflect that. It’s gradually rolling out in the U.S. as we speak, but you might not see it for yourself quite yet. After the initial rollout is complete, Google will expand the Knowledge Graph to searches on mobile and tablet devices, then to languages other than English.
As Google puts it, Knowledge Graph, “taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do.” Wait. What exactly does that mean? Let’s take a deeper look at this rollout, and try to make things a little clearer!
What is Google’s Knowledge Graph?
To explain the Knowledge Graph, let’s all pretend we’re conducting a search in Google for the term ‘Taj Mahal.’ Before the Knowledge Graph, Google simply saw that query as a string of characters; but it means much more than that to you, a human, right? If only search engines could understand ‘Taj Mahal’ like you understand it, the results would be much more relevant to you! That’s exactly what the Knowledge Graph will help Google do, and as a result, users will see improved search results.
On April 24, Google released an update that’s designed to target those who have been spamming Google through activities such as keyword stuffing, cloaking and link schemes that violate Google’s guidelines.
The update is called “Penguin” and is also known as the “webspam algorithm update.” Google specifically points out that the goal of this update is to punish outright spam.
Every business should know the SEO tactics that are being used to build its search rankings. Many SEO firms don’t reveal their tactics and their clients have no idea whether or not they’re at high risk for Google penalties. We are transparent; we believe in honesty. Everything we do for your SEO campaign is displayed on your dashboard.
We continue to stress the importance of diversification for both SEO and online marketing to help you maintain well-rounded strategies that keep you on a steady course through updates and other changes. We encourage all our clients to use a variety of online marketing channels, such as social media, email, PPC, guest blog posts and press releases. Call us for more details on our online marketing services.
Thousands of Yahoo employees are out of a job due to layoffs earlier this month.
Since August 2010, Bing has powered Yahoo’s search results and in October 2010, Microsoft adCenter began powering paid search for both Bing and Yahoo. Rumor has it that Yahoo is discussing a renegotiation of its search and advertising deals with Microsoft, and Yahoo is “in active discussions” with Google about Google taking over Yahoo’s search business.
Google powered Yahoo’s search results from 2000 until Yahoo went independent in 2004. Yahoo partnered with Google on advertising in 2008, which attracted the attention of the Department of Justice–Google pulled out of the deal later that year over broader antitrust concerns and fear of being labeled a “monopolist”. Seems unlikely that Google will go down that road again. Google is under antitrust scrutiny from the FTC because competitors charge that Google is using its search dominance to promote its own services at the expense of competitors and consumers.
Recently, Google identified a number of blogger network sites that existed purely to build links to websites. Google targeted one of the larger blogger networks called “Build My Rank.”
The Build My Rank site was de-indexed, along with an overwhelming majority of its posts. Businesses that were over-reliant on the links from Build My Rank (and other blog networks that may be facing de-indexing) saw a significant drop in rankings. Businesses that used Build My Rank but also acquired links from a variety of other sources fared much better. The more you diversify, the less impact a Google update will have on your rankings.
We have always stressed that SEO and marketing overall needs diversification. Links should come from as many different sources as possible and be relevant. Diversity coupled with relevant and useful content is what builds value. Our diversified approach to link-building in combination with your relevant and useful website content (we cannot overemphasize the importance of relevant and useful website content!), puts you on the path to improved search rankings. If you’d like to diversify even more, consider adding pay-per-click advertising, email marketing and/or social media to the mix. Let us know if you’re interested.
While search engines’ tracking of Internet activity is great for online marketers, allowing for more targeted advertising, the government and many Internet users disapprove. The Federal Trade Commission and The White House want more transparent privacy options for consumers, like an easy to use “do not track” option. Some browsers have tracking protection but the concern is that they’re not easy to use, not very effective, or both.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz is pushing for five key “do not track” principles: universal implementation, ease of use, no option to override, no technical loopholes and the ability to opt out of not just targeted ads but all behavioral data tracking.
On February 1st, Facebook filed for an IPO and expects to begin selling shares by the end of April.
In 2011 Facebook reached profits of $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion. 85% of that income came from advertising and the rest from games and other fees. The Social Media Giant plans to raise at least 5 billion and hopes to raise over 10 billion when it begins selling stock in April or May. This is probably going to be the biggest Internet or technology IPO ever.
For online marketers, the message is: social media must be embraced! Its impact is growing and growing every day. Facebook and other social media websites will continue to be aggressive in looking for ways to compete with search engines. Besides having a presence on social media networks, many marketers are including Facebook PPC to their advertising strategies. From 2010 to 2011, the number of pay-per-click ads displayed on Facebook grew 42% and the average price per ad grew 18%. Consider that it’s easy to make expensive mistakes when you first venture
into social media marketing. Contact us if you want help with social media.
From March 1, 60 of the over70 Google privacy policies of its various pratdorms (Google search, Gmail, Android OS, YouTube, Google+ and others.) will be merged into one, simpler policy.
In their blog, Alma Whitten, director of privacy, product and engineering, posted “The new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine the information you’ve provided from one service with information from the others. Shortly, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our platforms, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.” Google says that its privacy controls are unchanged.
Google’s announcement that it will create one comprehensive profile for rvery user and will share data across all of its services has been a big public relations challenge. A high number of users are alarmed that Google can to collect data on everywhere they go and everything they do. But, is this really any different from what Google is currently doing? Data is already shared across at least sseveral of Google’s platforms–consider that Adwords ads are being shown to Gmail users based on the text of private emails. And last January, Google released Search Plus Your World, a search format that cmerges content that’s been privately shared with users combining it with public results.
Google and its user experience is constantly evolving. For a company that controls over 60% of the search market, it’s normal to hear the question, “How many visitors can we expect, if we rank in the position [x]?”
There have been many changes to the Google user experience since previous studies/surveys were published years ago. There’s a new algorithm, a new user interface, increased mobile search, and social signals. On top of that, the blended SERP is riddled with videos, news, places, images, and even shopping results.
These calculations revealed an 18.2% Clich Through Rate (people that actually click on the search results and enter the website they’ve found) for a No. 1 rank and 10.05% for No. 2. CTR for each position below the fold (everything after position #5) is below 4%. An interesting implication of this CTR curve is that for any given SERP (Search Engine Results Page), the percentage of users who click on an organic result in the top 10 is 52.32%. This makes sense and seems to be typical user behavior, as many Google users will window shop the SERP results and search again before clicking on a domain.
THIS MEANS THAT IF YOU ARE ON THE POSITION #1 YOU WILL GET 18.2 % OF ALL THE VISITORS THAT ARE SEARCHING FOR THAT KEYWORD.
How does this applies to your business? Think of it as If there were 1000 possible clients per day walking by your door, being number one will make 192 of those possible clients enter.
Social Media can be very useful for getting your message out but you have to put some thought and effort into it.
If you create a Facebook page for your business and don’t actively promote it, it’s pretty useless. But if you put a “follow us on Facebook” button on your website and encourage your customers to “like” your Facebook page, you’ll start to build an online community of customers.
You have to remember, Facebook is the world’s largest social site and that means that many of your customers and prospects use Facebook (most of them spend more time there than they’re willing to admit). There’s no cost to set up an account.
Another free and simple way to communicate with customers and prospects is Twitter. But again, you have to work it—add the Twitter button to your website and give customers an incentive to follow you.
Pay close attention to mentions of your business on social sites. If people do a search for your business, social mentions often show up at the top of the search results. You can’t stop people from writing a negative review or comment but you can take actions to help push them down on the search results page. If you need help monitoring and managing your social media mentions or advertising on social media, we can point you in the right direction. Just ask!
Not so long ago, you’d look around and see people with their cell phone attached to their ear, engrossed in conversation.
No more. We’re using our Smartphones and other mobile devices to do so much more than talk. It shouldn’t really be a surprise that according to recent reports, mobile search now accounts for 5% of paid search spending.
If the current trend continues, that number could be 10% by year’s end. Google still rules paid search and that includes mobile search. “Clearly, this is the future of search in the Internet,” said Google Senior Vice President of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg during the company’s third quarter 2010 earnings call in October. “Our mobile search queries have grown five times over the past couple of years, and of course, a lot more of those queries are now coming from Android phones.”
The top Google mobile search query is for restaurants 29.6%, followed by automotive related 16.8%, consumer electronics 15.5%, finance and insurance 15.4% and beauty/personal 14.9%. If you’re running a pay-per-click campaign, you may want to consider experimenting with mobile ads but keep in mind that the average cost-per-click for mobile ads tends to be higher than that for PC ads.
People searching for a business on their iPhone or Android mobile device can use the new Google filter “Show Businesses Open Now.” A business that has claimed their Google Places listing and reported their hours of operation may get a little boost in the mobile search results when this feature is activated. If you haven’t taken advantage of Google Places listings, we recommend you do it now and be sure to include your business hours. After all, it’s free.
Thousands of Yahoo employees are out of a job due to layoffs earlier this month.
Recently, Google identified a number of blogger network sites that existed purely to build links to websites. Google targeted one of the larger blogger networks called “Build My Rank.”
While search engines’ tracking of Internet activity is great for online marketers, allowing for more targeted advertising, the government and many Internet users disapprove. The Federal Trade Commission and The White House want more transparent privacy options for consumers, like an easy to use “do not track” option. Some browsers have tracking protection but the concern is that they’re not easy to use, not very effective, or both.
Social Media can be very useful for getting your message out but you have to put some thought and effort into it.
Not so long ago, you’d look around and see people with their cell phone attached to their ear, engrossed in conversation.