How Google Will Change Web Marketing in 2012

Posted on December 26, 2011 by

In 2011 Google changed how web marketing works and they are going to change it more in 2012.  I recently read a good article on the Harvard Business Report Blog Network on what they believe that Google will be doing in 2012 to change how searches work.  Here’s my summary of the article.  If you want to read more about how Google has change web marketing in 2010 read my blogs on the subject by clicking here.

Search results will include more direct information.   

For searches that are questions, the answers will be displayed.  It will no longer be necessary to click to the website to read the answers.  This will be done using metadata tags that contain such items as hours of operations, products, FAQ and anything else you can think up. 

Clearly this is better for the person looking for an answer, but it removes the opportunity of people coming to your website and then going to deeper pages.

Google is entering new industries and markets.

Google bought ITA Software in 2010.  ITA is a provider of airfare and travel management software.  Google has worked hard to position its offering ahead of others.   For an example enter LAX to SFO.  Notice where the Google Flight Search Results is presented.  Right under the ads and on top of the natural search results.   If you click on their information you can book a flight through their service.  This is a advantage that others can not match.

If you are competing against a Google service and you want to run ads, you must pay Google in order to compete against it.

The data that Google makes available will be reduced.

Google has already reduced the amount of data that webmasters get about how and where visitors found their websites. About 10-15% of visits no longer contain that information.  It’s expected that this trend will continue and there will less free data available to marketers to understand their visitors’ behavior.

Expect More

It’s expected that these changes will continue in 2012 as Google search establishes stronger relationships with its own products and affiliates.  It’s important to understand how you are positioned with the search giant and it’s interests.

To read the whole article click here.

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Google Winning War on Content Farms

Posted on December 17, 2011 by

NewScientist.com asked computer scientist Richard McCreadie of the University of Glasgow, UK, to determine if Google’s Panda update and Microsoft Bing’s efforts are winning this war. The answer…. they are.  

Here’s some quotes from the article.

As recently as March, for example, the first 10 results from a Google search for “how to organise your desktop” contained nine links to pages churned out by “content farms” – websites that publish reams of articles, often of dubious quality, that aim simply to attract clicks and advertising dollars.

The results are striking. In the case of the marathon query, sites that contained lists of generic tips, such as “invest in a good pair of running shoes”, were present in the top 10 in March but had disappeared by August, while high-quality sources, such as Runner’s World magazine, now appear near the top. Similar trends were found throughout the 50 queries.

Check out the whole article here

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Shifts in Internet Marketing

Posted on December 17, 2011 by

Huge shifts are occurring in how internet marketing works.  Publishing content has become more important in how search engines rank you site.  Blogs are a great way of creating content that can then be posted to your social media site making the content more easily found by search engines. 

However, it’s easy to waste your time by writing ineffective posts.  A good post has a short title and provides useful information.  It needs to be short and to the point. 

Then you need to set up your blog to post also on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and your other social media sites. 

Setting this all up can be a little complicated.  It’s a good idea to hire someone to help you set this up and keep it running.

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The Mobile Web – A New Wave in SEO Landscape

Posted on December 15, 2011 by

Internet, this word stormed the world two decades ago. At that point of time nobody was aware about its potential to change our lives. In the year 2000 the dot-com bubble was creating buzz but the Internet marketing industry was still in it nascent stage. Rapid changes in personal computing accessibility and unstoppable growth of search engines opened the floodgates for Internet marketers.

Since then this industry has made tremendous progress largely because of rapid innovations in technology and continuously increasing customer skills.  Software will undoubtedly continue to impact Internet marketing.  However, it is hardware that is now taking its turn to shake up the industry and potentially change the working landscape for Internet marketers and website owners around the world.

SEO - Convergent eMarketingMobile is bringing another big transformation in our world. Mobile Internet usage will take over laptop and desktops usage in next 3 years. The concepts of the Internet industry will also change and SEO is not an exception – the way people use mobile devices to browse is way different than laptop or desktop browsing. This will open up the whole new world of opportunities.  

Here are some of the ways Internet (and search) usage is likely to change.

Shorter keywords for search – Mobile device browsing will be dominated by short keywords, predictive text or Google suggest. This will necessitate changes in the way sites optimize for search engines.

Voice Search – This is a trend which is rapidly gaining popularity due to its ease of use, Apple’s Siri is the latest and best example. This will influence keyword targeting because people tend to search differently when speaking, using more of a conversational sentence structure. And this will turn mobiles devices into “virtual personal assistants”.

Socialization – Social networks have impacted search trends immensely and mobile usage is going to increase the intensity of this impact. Searches are turning social and Internet marketers have to engage on a social level with groups & individuals else they will be missing out on a large part of the mobile Internet population.

Image Search – Technological innovations have enabled Internet users to search via images; a rapidly increasing trend.  Mobile is just going to add new dimensions to this trend. It will be important for sites to optimize image and contents for mobile searches.

Targeting – Search results will fluctuate more on mobile devices due to their use at multiple locations. Making sure your website’s local offering is up to date should be towards the top of the priority list.

Mobile Internet use is still in its early stage.  We have already started to see its impact on people’s Internet use and search results. It has already changed industry trends and it is set to transform the Internet Marketing world around us. 

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Is Social Media Overwhelming You?

Posted on December 13, 2011 by

Everywhere you look these days you see an article or an email or a seminar which basically says that you need to use social media to promote your business.   It can be a bit overwhelming.

How much time should you put into your Blog,  posting on other blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube or any of the other social media platforms that seem to be popping up like weeds?  If you spend 30 minutes each on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn, you’ve used up 2 hours of your day.

You need to have a strategy for using your social media to avoid it becoming a black hole of your time.

Successful Social Media leverages content from different sources.  Some will be content that you generate, some will be content from others.   The goal is to provide content that is valuable to your existing and potential customers.  You want people to say that your information helped them, because in a social media driven world it is more important what others say about you, than what you say about yourself.

Convergent eMarketing helps you manage your Social Media so you don’t fall into the black hole.

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