Search Engine News - PPC & SEO Blog

An article from the US caught my eye this week as it suggested that Google is struggling - not something the world normally hears about the rapidly rising search behemoth.

Adam Lashinsky, writing for CNN, comments that the company still has only one way of making money - search. Although this is a “gusher” in his words (is everything in the US about oil?), it is just one source of income - the multitude of other projects it operates are not money makers.

Furthermore, the commentator asserts that Google is haemorrhaging the bright young talent which it needs to succeed. Staff have a time allowance which lets them work on their own ideas (for which I am grateful. How else could we have been offered the Elmer Fudd Google page?).

However, while this encourages innovation, Lashinsky suggests employees do not want someone else to own their ideas and leave to try and replicate Google’s success themselves.

My thoughts on this are that people have been speculating about the collapse of Google for a while and so far, it seems to be doing okay. Even if the firm’s other projects are minor compared to its main operation, that “gusher” is hardly going to slow - the ability to find relevant information fast is just too vital.

Europeans made 24.6 billion searches in March alone, a new report has revealed.

Research published by comScore has shown that in that one month, 221.2 million people in Europe made an average of 111 searches each.

Here in the UK, 32.4 million unique people made an average 124 searches each, with only Germany’s 36 million individual users beating our figure.

Interestingly enough, the information showed that - while Google was by far and away the most used search portal if them all - in Eastern European countries a number of local engines are being more commonly used.

However, despite the increased popularity of websites like Russia’s Yandex, Google was still the engine of choice for eight in ten queries, the report showed.

While it is interesting to watch the battle of the search engines, there is one consistent fact illustrated by reports like this. Search engines are a vital way for consumers to navigate the web and their importance is unlikely to diminish any time soon.

It sometimes surprises me how little people consider how search engines choose which websites should rank highly.

Britain is a well-informed country – people select a newspaper which suits their opinions and watch different news programmes depending on whether they want to hear about Madonna or Mandela – yet very few seem to consider the power search portals hold over the information they receive.

I think that as an SEO professional, I sometimes forget that not everyone understands or has even considered the control the big search providers could exert over the internet if they chose to.

Now and again, a newspaper will illustrate that the majority of people do not understand the way search engines work by publishing a lengthy explanation of website optimisation, like this recent one in the Sunday Times (which described SEO as “part crystal-ball watching, part trial and error”).

It is unlikely that any search engine would ever threaten its commercial position - in the UK at least - by exercising an unhealthy level of editorial control or imposing a political slant on the information its users could easily access.

However, the general lack of awareness about the search portals we use everyday makes me glad there are so many companies and SEO professionals whose job it is to watch and analyse changes to the algorithms they use. There are thousands of sector workers who rapidly discover and discuss changes in the generation of search results through their blogs and various marketing forums. It can only be healthy.

It happens all the time - an employee spends considerable time researching the benefits of search engine optimisation (SEO) and other online marketing endeavours only to discover their boss fails to share or even understand their enthusiasm.

There are so many businesses out there which are not exploiting the potential of the web - sometimes because the boss’s son built a homepage for his IT GCSE and that is considered sufficient.

Often an employee can have just a few minute of their busy employer’s time to persuade them that they need to invest in online marketing and, as there is often a lack of understanding, there can be a lack of interest.

Fortunately for you frazzled folk, here for your convenience is a list of reasons and research to persuade even the most miserly boss to cough up cash for online marketing.

Reason Number One: The consumers are online

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2007 15.23 million British homes had web access, which is more than six in ten. Furthermore, above 50 per cent of those used broadband to access the internet at speed. It just makes sense to promote a business through a platform consumers regularly see and - since the vast majority of firms cannot afford the television - the internet is a cost-effective and targeted alternative.

Reason Number Two: Your competitors are online

Employees should explain to their bosses that everyone else is doing it! The world is using the web to shop, bank and socialise and a company is potentially losing a large amount of potential business to their competitors if they are not online. Recent research published by the Internet Advertising Bureau revealed that last year £2.8 billion was spent advertising online. That is a hell of an advantage everyone else has over an offline firm.

Reason Number Three: Consumers are spending online

A boss might now point out that the take-up in broadband does not necessarily mean that people are actually shopping online - they could just be emailing and accessing Freecycle. Now is a good time to show them statistics published by the Interactive Media in Retail Group which revealed that during February - despite the doom, gloom and predictions that negative equity was going to kill us all - online spending reached a record high. An astonishing £4.2 billion was spent through the web - equivalent to £69 for every UK resident.

Reason Number Four: Search engines drive the traffic

Information published by watchdog Ofcom has shown that the “vast majority” of online experiences begin with the user accessing a search engine. Furthermore, Hitwise recently published research which revealed that more than one third of British web traffic is directed through just one search engine - Google. Businesses cannot afford to miss out on such vast levels of traffic - they should fail or succeed depending on the strength of their product, not because no one knows who they are.

Reason Number Five: Move now or miss mobile search

Search marketing is not the next big thing - it is not something new and a little quirky. It is a staple part of many marketers’ day to day activities. The next big thing is ensuring a website is optimised for mobile search as, according to Juniper Research, more than 30 per cent of mobile users will be accessing local search by 2013. By failing to optimise a website, a company is seriously hamstringing itself for future marketing endeavours. No one wants to be playing catch-up.

I know that Kevin has touched on the marketing implications of the change in Google’s trademark protection laws but I just wanted to flag up some interesting figures I came across today.

From May 5th, Google is to allow all companies and marketers to bid in order to place their paid search advertising alongside search results for any term. Specifically, firm X can now place its adverts alongside the organic results for its main competitor Y.

Importantly, research and analysis firm Hitwise has published a report which shows that currently in the UK, 91.8 per cent of people who search for a particular brand end up on the website of the appropriate company.

However, in the US - where Google has never exercised such trademark control - that figure is just 84.2 per cent. That is a potentially massive drop in traffic for brands and, even worse than failing to gain visitors in the first place, means businesses regularly shed clients to their competitors.

The report from Hitwise concluded that brand owners are going to market themselves more aggressively in response to the move.

Interestingly enough, though, Tesco has now waded into the fray. Word on the web is that the supermarket giant has stated it will not bid on competitors’ trademarks and hopes that others will follow suit in order to keep the price down.

Google is staffed with clever people, it must have questioned whether British industry could behave in such a friendly way in order to mutually benefit. Furthermore, it must have concluded that businesses could not, or that only a few sectors would do so. It will be extremely interesting to see how this develops – particularly within the search marketing sector!

Yahoo! has launched a preview of its new SearchMonkey tool and is requesting developers go and have a play.

The ideas behind SearchMonkey were first shared with the online community back in February, but now website owners and developers are being encouraged to sign up for the SearchMonkey, check out the demo and even attend the launch party. Yahoo! is doing the thing in style.

I like SearchMonkey. It will give websites the chance to build enhanced search results, meaning they can annotate the information supplied alongside their Yahoo! search listing. The search engine hopes this will enhance the usefulness of such results to the user.

Furthermore, Yahoo! believes that by allowing websites to annotate their results, developers will be able to drive increased amounts of quality traffic to their sites.

Moves to enhance the usefulness of search results are always welcome. Not every consumer will understand or appreciate the level to which the portals refine their results but all web users will notice when their engine of choice offers them more useful and relevant information.

Has anyone signed up for a go yet?

Thanks to the value of the inbound link, the internet has become a massive information resource. Industry figures are actually competing to share their opinion, to offer up their expertise for free as they claw their way to higher rankings.

Because of this, valuable knowledge has become free – a fantastic situation for a new SEO professional or a marketer keen to grasp the basics.

Of course, those new to the sector have to be careful – there are hundreds of thousands of blogs and sites filled with nothing more than regurgitated information from other pages which is sometimes years out of date.

However, for the discerning reader - or someone using a tool such as Digg or Sphinn - the web is awash with fresh advice and information from experienced and dedicated professionals.

If you look to the right of our blog, you can see the top ten most popular articles. Although they cover a wide range of subjects and skill sets, there is a common theme. They are pieces of relevant information which has not yet dated, which are still relevant. Ten ways to achieve X, How to do Y, The Real Secret to Z.

A major part of the sector’s voracious blogging community is enthusiastically sharing interesting news and sector gossip with other professionals. They are debating and discussing the latest events and building on relationships developed at conferences and online. However, it is vital to remember that a massive amount of the online audience is simply silently searching for information and advice.

Internet advertising in the UK grew to be the third largest such sector last year, a new report has revealed.

The study, conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau alongside PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Centre, has predicted that the amount spent promoting through the web will overtake the amount spent through television marketing by the end of 2009.

It also asserted that paid search tactics are being used more carefully, with greater thought and awareness of consumer behaviour being put into keyword and phrase selection, which is generating a greater return on investment.

The research also found that there are now 32.5 million people online in Britain and the average broadband user is spending 16 hours a week logged on!

Such development in marketing opportunity is really unprecedented – even print and the widespread adoption of radio and television cannot have moved as quickly as the World Wide Web.

An interesting reference to search engine optimisation made by Ofcom seems to have gone widely unnoticed, perhaps because it was buried down at the end of the report. In its second public service broadcasting review earlier this month, the watchdog referred to a SEO “arms race”.

It noted that search portals are now the main starting point for the “vast majority of online experiences”, with 88 per cent of all searches conducted by Britons being made through one single provider - it is not too hard to guess which.

However, Ofcom claimed that there is a battle underway between search providers and marketers - namely between those focused on offering the consumer relevant results and those determined to drive valuable traffic to their commercial website.

It suggested that this puts public service content, such as news, at a disadvantage as providers of that kind of information do not have a similar commercial drive.

Now, Ofcom is questioning what to do to ensure such important content is not buried beneath an online content avalanche. Is intervention necessary to ensure audiences can easily find public service information? Should steps be taken to enhance the online presence of such content?

This is a difficult issue. If search engines are to be made to prioritise certain content then what agency or person should be the one to exercise editorial control over what makes the grade? It really highlights the difficulties of policing or controlling something as stuffed with information, opinion and assertion as the web.

The SEO industry is an exciting place to be; it has developed rapidly over a considerable period and it is still such a comparatively new sector that it is filled with entrepreneurs – people who saw the industry potential way back when. Many of our clients understand the sector or have researched all aspects of online marketing before they approach us.

However, a considerable number do not and will not grasp the finer points of SEO – and why should they? They have called in professional help and that should be enough. Except they also, understandably, want to know exactly where their budget is going - these people are company bosses for a reason - and you often find the same misunderstandings perpetuated around the web.

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