While I am not going to tackle the “what has changed?” question within this post, I do want to get you thinking about some of the signals that Google may well use to assign value to a particular link and hopefully you may be able to formulate your own opinions about where we are at and more importantly where we are likely to be going.

PageRank(TM)

There is no escaping PageRank(TM). A large part of Google’s success rest on this relatively simple formula for ordering documents. The important thing with regard to PageRank(TM) is that it likely only plays a small part (if any at all) in ranking. It is more-so used as a metric to gauge how much worth your site has from an indexing and resource allocation standpoint.

PageRank(TM) has likely already been as watered down as it possibly can be with regard to its impact on rankings and is therefore unlikely to have been what Google alluded to.

Authority

Understanding the authority of a site is a very important thing for a search engine. In theory, Authority Rank, Trust Rank, whatever you want to call it, is much harder to game and provides a truer value metric across a whole domain.

A link from site A to site B is a connection within the authority algorithm. Your own authority is dependent on all of the links pointing to you and their distance from the best or worst sites. Low authority links reduce your authority as they move you closer to the worst sites, while high authority links do the exact opposite.

Authority is an easy target for tweaking. One of the major problems Google faces is how to negate the value of bulk comment spam and various other shady techniques. If Google were to say that a site below a certain authority threshold plays no part in the authority algorithm, they could instantly reduce the impact of low authority links.

Anchor Text

The clickable part of a link (the anchor) has long been an obsession with people working in search. Apart from the techniques used in the creation of the links themselves, anchor text is the most overly manipulated facet of the link building process.

The common belief is that anchor text that matches your target keyword will improve your chances of ranking for that term and this does seemingly hold true. It is however very un-natural for people to link to each other using keywords as opposed to URLs or brand terms.

Given that Google is able to understand the meaning and themes of a webpage and a whole site, anchor text usage is an easy way to gauge natural link activity. How prominent is your brand? How manipulative is your overall spread of anchor text?

Anchor text is by far the most likely link signal to come under fire as Google tries to reduce the impact of manipulation.

Content Relevance

Have you ever looked at a site and thought “why on Earth are they linking to such-and-such a site?” This lack of an obvious relationship between the themes of two sites is easy for Google to work out. By modifying the value of a link based on the thematic relationship of two sites or even two pages, Google is better able to work out exactly what links should be considered of benefit to the rankings of specific terms.

This is another area that is a likely candidate for tweaking – especially when combined with a downgrading of anchor text. In theory it could easily replace anchor text altogether.

Position / Proximity

The vast majority of manipulative links, be they paid for or automated, appear in distinct places such as the footer, comment area or right sidebar of a site.

Again, it is very easy for Google to work this out based on block-level segmentation principles and the proximity of a link to other links (especially where no content is found surrounding or between the links).

With these areas identified, Google is able to downgrade the value of links found in these areas, making this another viable candidate for tweaking. This is however a downside in that not all links of this nature are manipulative. This means these links are unlikely to be negated altogether due to collateral damage (if you believe Google cares about such things).

Age

Here there are two things worth considering. Firstly, blatant paid links are often leased rather than permanent and therefore have a six or 12-month life cycle. You could potentially give extra credit to links that persist over time periods greater than 12 months.

The other consideration regarding age is “was the link there when the page was first discovered?”. Most manipulative links are added to a site because that site or page is perceived as having value. For a page to have gained value it must be indexed so Google already has a snapshot of what the page looks like.

Common manipulative link techniques such as content spam, link injection and paid links appear as additions to a page 99% of the time. By comparing the modified page to its original state it is relatively easy to see what has changed. Was the link there when the page was first discovered? If not, why would someone add a link to a post later?

Yes there are instances where adding links may be natural such as a genuine update to an existing post. These updates however usually happen within a small time window. Once this time window has passed, alterations usually come in the form of a new piece of content that references the old.

Sitewide

When a link is placed on every page of a website it is more likely to be because of some kind of relationship, rather than the link being of benefit to a particular piece of content.

While sitewide links don’t harm, it is common belief that they are devalued (likely to be considered on par with internal links) or have no benefit beyond a single link from the domain.

Yes it is easy to argue a case against this, but when you look at how sitewide links are used across the majority of the worldwide web, the bulk are blatant relationships.

Conclusions

The aim of this post is to get you thinking more about the value of the links you build and how they may be perceived at present or in the future. The current action Google is taking is likely to be the tip of the iceberg, and although manipulative techniques still often work, at some point their shelf-life will be greatly reduced or their value will be removed all together.

The more you think about these things now, the more likely you are to be ahead of the curve thanks to your future-proofing efforts.

Good luck with your future link building!

The use of social media continues to grow at a rapid pace, with platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and LinkedIn hungrily consuming the attention of the masses and connecting them with almost everything they buy, watch and read – online and off.

State of the Media: Social Media Report Q3
(A Nielsen report which analysed the level of influence social media has on consumer behaviour)

With all the social networking channels available, today’s consumer voice can be heard loud and clear everywhere. It’s influencing the consumer’s entire buying process. If brands don’t pay attention, not only will they risk losing customers, but could be easily upstaged by their once small and powerless competitors. Social sites, such as Twitter, provide outlets that empower customers to raise their voice about their experiences and opinions. The anonymity and safety of this outlet allows a confident expression of true feelings about brand interactions and product reviews. A couple of statistics I came across re-iterated my own experience:

• about two-thirds of customers use information found through social media to influence their buying decisions
• 67 per cent of customers are likely to pass this information on to others
• over 60 per cent trust information they find through social media more than traditional advertisements

I was facing a significant purchase decision – one that could potentially save my life, and not the kind you want to take lightly or get wrong. It’s perhaps a bit dramatic, but any biker would agree that choosing the right body armour can be a tough decision. The market is saturated with brands, each claiming to have been awarded all manner of safety awards and recommendations, each using a different ‘number one’ type of safety material. I needed to buy a back protector – this sounds easy enough, but a quick Google search reveals the countless brands, styles and prices ranging anything from £20 to well over £200.

So where do you start? Like many others, I hold the reviews and opinions of friends and like-minded contacts in far higher regard than any sales person or kind of advertisement. I don’t even trust online reviews as they are too easy to manipulate. So, I headed straight to my social networks to find out what the online biker community had to say.

I don’t personally know many of those who responded to my initial tweet, but I know they are all genuine, experienced bikers who were offering opinions of the products they use themselves. With no concern of ulterior motives in their words, I felt confident to take their advice on board. My tweets even attracted the attention of some social network savvy brands that got in touch immediately to offer recommendations and discount codes – it was good to see them on the ball.

The best response came from @thinkhugger (the face of Norfolk’s biker road safety initiative) who not only offered very helpful, totally unbiased advice, but also introduced me to a latest innovation in body armour that I’d never even heard of – a great example of the power of social networking. The ever-trusted word of mouth referral now has a much wider reach in a fraction of the time, compared to the pre-social network era.

With all the recommendations received and responses swaying in one very specific brand direction, I headed down to a local bike shop to get the best fitting of the determined manufacturer – another piece of key advice from my biker tweeps. It’s fair to say that when I come to make my next motorbike related purchase decision, or any big purchase for that matter, I know exactly where to go for a useful input.

So… who wants to help me with #househunting ? If social media has influenced any of your purchases recently, or if this is something you specifically try to embrace or avoid, let me know – @Heather64.

Myspace shot to success after its launch in August 2003 and became the most visited social networking site in the world from 2005 until early 2008, even surpassing Google as the most visited website in the US in 2006. It allowed users to customise their profiles, and even upload music and videos to the site to be streamed in a similar way to that of YouTube.

While MySpace was one of the first social networking sites to become a success story, it is now firmly in Facebook’s shadow. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was launched in 2004, and boasts more than 800 million active users to date. Although initially being limited to Harvard students, it was rolled out to other institutes and then eventually anyone aged 13 and over. It is now the most visited social networking site in the world, evolving with apps for mobile phones and regular make-overs. Facebook continually develops, offering cutting-edge ways to remain in touch with friends and professional networking, allowing it to compete with sites such as LinkedIn.

Over recent years other social networks have been launched, with varying degrees of success, Twitter being a simple idea that is one of the most talked about services in the industry. Allowing users to post and receive messages to their contacts, it is favoured by the celebrity world. With top celeb Twitter users including Lady Gaga and Barack Obama, the site offers a unique opportunity for users to follow their idols.

Professionals seeking contacts are also catered for in the social networking world, with LinkedIn being the most favoured. The site allows users to register their interests and upload a CV-style profile and is widely used in the recruitment industry as a method of headhunting those not actively seeking work.

While other sites have tried, it seems Facebook is here to stay, offering users the best bits of its rivals rolled into one. Want to live chat with friends? Facebook chat. Want to upload pictures and videos? No need for YouTube, just Facebook it. Want to advertise your car for sale? Facebook Marketplace. The list goes on. The site has managed to roll together the likes of MySpace, eBay, YouTube and LinkedIn etc, providing users with a one-stop shop for all their internet needs. To add to this success story, the Facebook film ‘The Social Network’ was released in 2010, winning three Oscars and receiving numerous other nominations.

The current speculation is that Facebook will go public this year. It’s thought that Facebook’s Initial Public Offering will raise $10 billion, which places the company at a value of $100 billion. What does this mean for Zuckerberg? Well, it’s simple – with his 24% stake he will be a very rich man. To put this into perspective, only three other US companies have had IPOs valued in excessive of £10 billion: AT&T, General Motors and Visa. With its likely overall value, Facebook will be worth more than McDonald’s ($95.6B)

The reasoning behind the success of these sites remains a phenomenon, with research even hinting that the number of Facebook friends you have can affect different areas of your brain. It remains to be seen how this industry will develop – it is clear social networking is a lucrative venture – but will any be able to top the success and popularity of Facebook?

The travel industry has experienced a major change in the past couple of years; mainly due to the world wide web. Many years have gone by since consumers were at the mercy of the major brands.

In the not so distant past, consumers sat in the high street travel agency, the employee sat behind a small computer monitor, tapping away entering your desired holiday requirements, while aiming to find you the ‘best deal’ with no way for you to compare otherwise. The power was well and truly with the major brands in those days, but the internet has brought the power to the consumer!

The package holiday has been affected by the increase in ‘build your own’ holidays online. Since 1996, websites such as Expedia, Travel Republic, Holiday Hypermarket and many more have been offering consumers a way to create their perfect holiday step by step. Consumers have embraced this new idea over booking more traditional package holidays with major travel brands. For example, gross bookings from 2010 for Expedia were at a staggering $25.9 billion dollars!

The basic idea of ‘build your own holiday’? You, the consumer now have complete control. You book your preferred accommodation, flights and transfers, resorting in a custom-built unique holiday and at a generally cheaper price than the more traditional package holidays.

The main way consumers are accessing this level of personal choice? Search. It has been estimated that in 2012 there will be 117.6 million online travel researches in the USA alone, that’s 61% of America’s internet users and of these, 98.3 million will actually book online! (Mashable – Online Travel Infographic).

Search is the key ingredient in the 21^st century way of shopping for a holiday as well as many other consumer products. According to a Travelport report “The Well Connected Traveller – the changing face of today’s travel consumers” online search accounts for 66% of leisure travellers and 59% of business travellers. It’s an indication why the major travel brands are investing heavily in marketing – particularly search marketing.

According to a report by yStats.com, by the end of 2012 online travel bookings will represent almost a third of worldwide volume on the internet. A quick search on Google shows just how popular the internet is with holiday shoppers; the search term ‘Holidays’ comes back with 887,000,000 results and searching for ‘Package Holidays’ yields 218,000,000 results! This vast amount of results indicates just how competitive the online search market is for the travel industry and how important search is to travel companies in order to make a profit.

Searching for holidays online is here to stay for the considerable future and, just as it has done for many industries, it has completely changed the game for major brands. Those offering ‘package holidays’ have had to keep up with consumer behaviour and offer package holidays at similar prices to build-your-own holidays.

Will search continue to be the consumer’s method of choice when looking for their next holiday? Only time will tell, but for me using search always works a treat!

While their mission buzzwords – Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value (QSC&V) – would have been appreciated by adults, they didn’t exactly get kids excited.

According to an article entitled ‘We Need to Talk About Ronald’ by Greg Beato, a McDonalds executive spoke candidly to Time magazine in 1973, recalling: “our move to the suburbs was a conscious effort to go for the family business. That meant going after the kids. We decided to use television, so we created our own character, Ronald McDonald.”

The introduction of their mascot demonstrated McDonalds’ desire to be seen as up to date with the youth of sixties’ society.  Ronald insisted that he knew what kids liked; in a very early TV ad he says: “I know we’re going to be friends too because I like to do everything boys and girls like to do” predictably adding “especially when it comes to eating those delicious McDonalds hamburgers!”

McDonalds used TV to reach out to kids in more ways than one; they ran adverts for the screen but they also suggested their product would add a new, fun, dimension to the pastime by having Ronald say “Hey, isn’t watching TV fun? Especially when you’ve got delicious McDonalds hamburgers.”

The timing of these ads was important too. Greg Beato notes that according to a report in the New York Times in 1967 McDonald’s was the “only business of its kind with network commercials on the Saturday morning kiddie cartoon marathon.” Ronald became a part of the fun, “soar[ing] through the air on a flying hamburger and compet[ing] with a bad guy named Mr. Muscle for a McDonald’s meal.”

So the mascot was fun, he was cool, and most of all he loved hamburgers. No wonder he was an instant hit. But if they had today’s technology, the 1966 advert’s “newest, silliest, hamburger-eatingest” clown could have got the kids hooked in so many other ways…

With search capabilities, the TV advert could have got kids voting for the clown to win or lose the battles he fought with Mr. Muscle. Searching ‘Ronald to win’ or ‘Ronald to lose’ could have taken them to specific parts of a McDonalds webpage, allowing the company to track the success of their ad campaign, not to mention judge public feeling for the clown! The ad could have given a choice of prizes for the winner to receive; a Big Mac, some fries, an extra thick milkshake; any combination of products they wanted to promote that week.

Ronald McDonald himself could have proved his ‘down with the kids’ credentials by making use of the latest technology that kids would be interested in. In the sixties it was TV, but with today’s advances sent back in time, Ronald would have his own Twitter and Facebook accounts where he could Tweet and post about “those delicious McDonalds hamburgers” to his heart’s content. There would still be room to mention TV; a couple of posts a week, possibly including video clips, about the coolest kids shows he’s enjoyed lately would keep his finger on the multimedia pulse, as would a review or two about the fun kids websites he’s visited.

By creating a stronger presence for Ronald in other media forms and simultaneously running an SEO campaign on the McDonalds website, the company’s page would gain visibility in results pages and increased traffic levels. The campaign would open up the search criteria so instead of McDonalds just appearing in the results of a keyword search for ‘hamburger’ or ‘fries’ for example, the name ‘Ronald’ would also direct crowds of searchers to the McDonalds page.

If Ronald McDonald had his own blog on the McDonalds webpage, which he kept up-to-date with fresh and unique content, Google would recognise the page as highly relevant and authentic, awarding it more authority. This would improve the page’s ranking; good news for McDonalds who would naturally want their web pages to come top in a keyword or phrase search.

These advances could have seen Ronald become a followed, supported and even idolised figure in the sixties; a Facebook friend who provides the daily temptation of a Big Mac and fries to kids everywhere.

If you were planning a campaign for the launch of McDonalds, using today’s channels – how would you do it?

This allows Google to bring the analytical advantage of paid search advertising to video content by applying the same bidding model. In addition the change will enable advertisers to demographically target users on YouTube.

Within the Adwords for Video reporting interface you will be able to see who’s viewing your video, how long they’re watching your videos, and what actions they made after watching your video e.g. selected ‘like’ your video.  In addition you will be able to see what videos users watched on your YouTube channel after arriving via a video ad; therefore showing the follow on viewership. You can also see how many further free views to your channel that advertising can generate by using the Downstream Analytics tool.

In order to link your YouTube & Adwords accounts you need to select ‘Link YouTube account’. Then enter your Google account email address and password associated with your YouTube account.

Adwords for video allows you to buy TrueView ads; by using TrueView you pick the audience you want your video to reach and only pay when those viewers choose to watch your video. Furthermore you only pay when a user watches your entire video ad (instead of clicking the skip button in the first 30 seconds or before the end your ad).

TrueView ads can appear in four types of format:

• In-stream: pre-roll to other videos
• In-search: in search results
• In-slate: at the end of other videos
• In-display: in the related videos section

These determine where you want your ads to appear on YouTube and the Google Display Network.

In order to set up a video ad you just need to follow the simple steps listed below:

1. Firstly create your campaign name, then select your location and language targeting.
2. Next create an ad by selecting a video already within your YouTube account. You can search for a video by channel or keyword (if you know the title of your video), or by video URL (if the video is unlisted). Select a video by clicking anywhere in the row.
3. Then you will see the network and format selector. The default setting is to run on all four TrueView formats (listed above) and all networks that they’re eligible to run on; therefore maximising the reach of the campaign. You can opt out of individual formats by clicking ‘let me choose’.
4. Next you will need to define your ad attributes: create your headline, description, select one of four thumbnails, define the website where you want to take the users once they click, and then create a meaningful name for the ad.
5. Select save and continue to targeting.
6. Targeting: Name ad group (for example all over 21), define max cost per view, define demographics such as gender and age and then you can further enhance targeting by defining the below demographics:

• Interest/Topic Targeting – This allows you to target users based on their interests and topics that they like.  Interest/topic targeting is now likely to have a broader reach now that Google’s privacy policy is now applicable to YouTube.
• Keyword targeting – target users based on their search queries
• Remarketing lists – target select users that you have included in your list e.g. all those that have landed on the homepage of your website.
• Placements – target particular websites on the Google Display Network

7. In addition if you are unsure which targeting to select you can also ask Google to search for targeting suggestions.
8. Next click save and enable targeting.

Best Practice

Video ads are most suitable for products/services that cannot easily be described by text, such as the make and model of a TV, but instead need sight, sound and motion to fully communicate their value.

To keep costs down you should make your ad as a teaser for you YouTube channel by highlighting the interesting content you have on your channel; therefore generating more downstream clicks on your channel.

When creating your video think about which TrueView format and placements you would like to us; for example In-Search ads might suit longer and more informational content whereas in-stream ads might need to be much shorter and instantaneously engaging.

In order to decrease your bids focus on increasing your view rate (like you would focus on click through rate in search) by enhancing user engagement by optimising; placements, ad timing and demographics.

Have you used video ads? If so, let me know your thoughts below.

As anyone working in the SEO industry over the last 12 months will know, these are turbulent times. The last two months alone have seen an unprecedented volume of changes to Google’s algorithm that has resulted in rankings rising, falling, disappearing and re-appearing like never before.

As anyone who works in a client facing position in the SEO industry knows, such changes to the algorithm are having an impact on businesses across a myriad of sectors at the moment, and questions are naturally getting asked:

1. “Why has this happened?”
2. “What is the answer?”
3. “When will we recover?”

All pertinent questions that naturally lead from one to the other, but any knee-jerk answers would be ill advised. In order to understand the plan of attack, it is imperative to know the enemy, the size of the task, and what you are up against. Now more so than ever, the time needs to be put into answering question one before you even think of tackling questions two and three

To nod back to my opening line, William Wallace wasn’t faced with a solitary Englishman, he was faced with loads of the buggers, coming from everywhere. To rush in to attack as the first man appeared on the horizon would have been foolish, as he’d soon find himself up against an impossible task. And so too do SEO professionals who react to the first sign of a change in Google’s algorithm.

In order to ensure you take the right course of action, it is key that we take the time to fully appreciate the size of the task ahead of us, and this achieved by spending the time to collate the data on each change we see, analysing the correlations between ranking fluctuations across sectors, scouring link profiles etc…  And then, when we fully appreciate the task ahead, and only then ensuring we act. Our approach is always the same and is always driven by data and always needs to be.

Google isn’t our enemy of course, but we need to know it and taking the time to do this ensures we always have the right plan of attack.

Pepsi are yet to announce which artists will be involved in the concerts that will begin in the summer, but expect Nicki Minaj to feature, given that the deal also includes a TV ad with the Superbass singer.

This looks to be the next stage in the famed Cola Wars, following on the back of rival ­Coca-Cola announcing a deal with online music provider Spotify, which will see the music player integrated into Coca-Cola’s Facebook page that also happens to have a fanbase of 41 million users. A Facebook Spotify app is also being developed.

I expect that the powers that be at Pepsi have seen the power of the hashtag with the countless trending topics from the Beliebers, One Directioners and the like. This campaign will provide Pepsi with the opportunity to have their hashtags, videos and other ad content to go viral.

Although Pepsi are yet to reveal the full details of the campaign, they have a great opportunity to really engage with their fanbase here. No doubt they already have their artists already lined up, but will Pepsi allow their fans to vote for who they want to see in concert? If the artists buy into this, they could follow the example of NFL star Cam Newton, who posted videos online for why he should be voted onto the cover of the 2012 version of Madden, the famed American football video game franchise.

How about asking people to demonstrate how they are “living for now”, as the slogan goes? With the tie in to Twitter, this could use the 140 characters allowed in a tweet, or ask people to post a video on YouTube; they could even use the social network of the moment Pinterest to show what “living for now” means to them.

If you were Pepsi, how would you look to engage with your fans with campaign? Who would you want to vote to see in concert?

It would be great to hear what you would do, either here or on Twitter @andrewlowdon.

Microsoft says the revamp comes following research which highlighted that “90% of people consult with a friend or expert before making a decision”.

“Increasingly, the web is about much more than simply finding information by navigating a topically organised graph of links,” said Qi Lu, president of Microsoft’s Online Services Division. “We’re evolving search in a way that recognizes new user paradigms like the growth of the social graph.”

The most significant development will see the introduction of a new toolbar, which aims to help users connect with friends and other online users. The toolbar – which will be located on the right hand side of all search results – will enable users to connect with Facebook friends whilst searching.

For instance, if you searched ‘Miami hotels’ you would continue to receive all of your standard search results, while Bing would also suggest Facebook friends who may have some knowledge around the topic. The social search results are to be based upon what online users ‘like’, where they’ve lived, shared photos and any other public Facebook information.

Along with Facebook, the toolbar will also flag up topic ‘experts’ from Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare, Quora and surprisingly Google+.

Although the Bing update is set only to be implemented in the US for now, Microsoft’s new addition could mark the first real solution to integrating social networking information into a manageable and legible order.

What do you think to this update – is it something you would consider using?

Firstly I’d like to say I was unable to sign up normally and had to sign up through Facebook in the end. I was concerned this was going to paste ‘I LOVE LADY GAGA’ all over my Facebook wall which would have been highly embarrassing – it didn’t!

When doing the tour I realised it was a combination of what’s already out there in social media platforms. Some of the key features of the site are:

• User profiles for ‘Little Monsters’
  • Have a biography about yourself
  • Set tags for interests, music, skills and websites you like
  • Get fans and become a fan of other ‘Little Monsters’
  • Show all your posts, likes, comments
• Online chat rooms and ability to create your own
• Events list
• Centralised hub for all Gaga related discussions, images, videos and news

After snooping around I realised I was actually quite bored, maybe this is because I’m not a fan of Lady Gaga so find the content quite dull. Maybe it’s the community of little monsters that are posting on the site. All I know is that some of the language used is offensive for such an open platform of varying ages! It’s also like trying to find a needle in a haystack trying to find a good bit of content as most users are posting comments such as <3 IM IN LOVE WITH JUDAAAAS – Well that’s a surprise, a ‘Little Monster’ loves Gaga! Maybe if I was a teenager again this would be the best thing since sliced bread or maybe if it was someone I was a HUGE fan of then I would have more appreciation.

Concept wise it’s another step on, instead of having a fan page why not create your own social media platform, I applaud that! I just wonder with all the platforms already out there, is this a step too far or is it the next step for all celebs and their fans?!

At first glance, your eyes would probably be drawn to the blob of green pins in northern California or Silicon Valley, which is home to eBay, Facebook and Google and quickly being nicknamed the tech capital of the world. Then you would probably move your eyes to the second blob of green pins in the east, which would include Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong where most mobile technology is dreamed up.
You would probably even see green pins in New York and Stockholm but what about the UK? Where do they fit in this green/red pin scenario? Five years ago I would have said the UK was definitely full of red pins but now, cities like Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool are raising awareness of the local digital talent.

However, the city that made headlines in 2011, both locally and nationally, is Leeds.

Some of the most innovative and successful digital agencies are based in Leeds and it is obvious with the fresh and unique talent showcased all over the city.  However, in the last two years agencies in Leeds that are in high demand and ahead of the digital curve are rebranding and revising their strategy to include more than just the basic digital marketing offering. By adding innovative designers and marketers, agencies are able to utilise the local talent and offer world-class services for their clients.

Keith Wakefield, Leader of Leeds City Council, said he agrees and is devoted to making Leeds one of the best cities in the UK with a thriving digital sector to match.

”We are a hugely ambitious city. To remain competitive our businesses have to be in a position to take advantage of the opportunities enhanced digital connectivity provides.”

One opportunity for businesses to do this: the Leeds Digital Festival, which will be held for the fifth year in 2012. Thousands from Leeds celebrate the digital technology scene in November with events, seminars and social events that not only showcase the true spirit of ‘digital’ in Leeds but also its uniqueness. While the last three years have seen a great representation of support, it was last year’s festival that really made an impression on other agencies and digital enthusiasts across the UK and world. From digital lunches to digital photography projects, the 2011 Leeds Digital Festival definitely got the attention it deserved.

”There is no doubt we have the talent,” said Councillor Wakefield. ”The Leeds Digital festival provides a great example of the creativity and dynamism that exists within our digital sector.”

Leanne Buchan, who headed the festival last year, said that while cities like Manchester may have a stronger reputation and legacy of being ‘digital’, the scene in Leeds is newer which is much more exciting.

”The thing I loved most about the Leeds Digital Festival was that it was about Leeds. It’s important to look at other cities and keep up to date with what’s happening but the digital festival was the first time we collectively created events and a platform that was purely about what was happening in or of interest to the Leeds digital scene. It was also the first time this event became relevant to a national audience as it was simply about great digital work, or issues relevant to that sector and less about trying to pitch us against another city.”

So why does Leeds have such a thriving digital scene? The honest answer: while I don’t think it necessarily earns the accolade ‘digital city’ of the north, Leeds has indeed earned the right to be a front runner for other cities who deem themselves the main contenders. The one thing Leeds continues to play on is its ability to be unique. Rather than the inclination to compare, I think Leeds is in a league of its own.

”Digital is so prevalent and such a growth sector that even London doesn’t have the stronghold it once had anymore,” said Leanne.’ ‘As technology continues to grow and push boundaries, the focus becomes less about who’s top dog and more about the quality of the work, the ethos of the community and ability to stay competitive in a tough market.”

While the recession may have blown a strong wind over the UK economy, leaving cities like London out in the cold, Leeds’s digital scene is safe and sound, stuck in tight with its green pin.

If you have been to the Leeds Digital Festival, what did you think? Share your experiences and comments below.

Further research suggests Dan Weiden actually took the idea from Gary Gilmore’s last words – “Let’s do it.” – spoken before his execution by firing squad (he was an American spree murderer of the late ’70s). Weiden (or indeed Nike) would not wish to be associated with the words of a murderer, thus it stands to reason that the original source be kept quiet.

After stumbling badly against arch-rival Reebok in the 1980s,

Nike rose about as high and fast in the ’90s as any company

can. It took on a new religion of brand consciousness and

broke advertising sound barriers with its indelible Swoosh,

“Just do it” slogan and deified sports figures. Nike managed

the deftest of marketing tricks: to be both anti-establishment

and mass market, to the tune of $9.2 billion dollars in sales

in 1997.

                                   Jolie Soloman,  “When Nike Goes Cold” Newsweek, March 30, 1998

A Modern Take

In many ways advertising has changed a lot since the late ’80s with the advance of the internet. The advent of both search marketing and social platforms as an advertising medium are revolutionising some companies’ fortunes, especially those who ‘Just do it’ right (yes Old Spice, I am thinking of you).

How could Nike have taken advantage of these developments if the campaign was to run today?

The Backbone of the Internet

Search has become synonymous with advertising and any self-respecting advertising campaign would be backed up with a search campaign. Obligatory campaign-related terms would contain references to both the slogan and brand, helping to re-enforce the messaging in the new campaign. Specific use of ‘Just do it’ could be combined with a separate campaign site, containing related content and viral material.

Search engines are the starting point for many people accessing the internet, and would be vital to improve the visibility of a large-scale campaign. Search would be vital in promoting visibility of the campaign, even if they rely on other mediums to make the first contact.

Celebrity endorsements were vital in the original Nike campaign, helping to improve the desirability of their products. Search could be turned to this advantage, displaying adverts for searches on sponsored celebrities or high profile sports figures would help to synonymise the brand with those figures (and subsequently improve the desirability and quality associations these celebrities provide). In order for this to be successful, the pages would have to contain relevant content and information about each celebrity – a small setup cost given the long-term brand perception benefits.

Spoofing the Google Search Home

The ‘Just do it’ slogan lends itself nicely to a functional spoof of Google’s homepage, replacing the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button.

Social Advertising

Social networks are a great catalyst when trying to generate buzz around a topic, and could be the life or death of such a campaign. In 1988 these adverts would have been talking points in both the playground and office, whereas now they are the ‘meat and veg’ of social networks.

Short memorable videos, with the potential for viral activity, could easily have been produced to fit the ‘Just do it’ slogan, especially videos that would have appealed to the target market. Many extreme sports and internet clips (those that populate the hundreds of TV clip shows) would be ripe for use when coupled with this slogan.

A more risqué approach could be adopted to broaden the viral appeal; however it takes a brave brand to risk association with such themes.

If you were relaunching a classic advertising campaign using the new channels available today to include search marketing – what would you do differently?

We’ve made an infographic to explain exactly what the ePrivacy Directive is and clarify the options available for complicancy to the new regulations.

Please feel free to share this infographic using the embed code below -

<a href="http://www.epiphanysearch.co.uk/blog/has-the-cookie-crumbled-infographic/"><img src="http://www.epiphanysearch.co.uk/media/59169/cookie_infographic-01-01-1.jpg" alt="Has the cookie crumbled? [infographic]" /></a>

It is part of the PeerPerks campaign, where Reebok will identify 1,000 fitness freaks that talk about health and exercise on Facebook and Twitter. The brand’s campaign will be giving away 1,000 CrossFit personal training sessions – a popular strength and conditioning programme from the US. On top of this, the top 100 will win a pair of Reebok’s RealFlex trainers. To win, users must log in to the campaign’s microsite, where they will be told whether they are influential enough to make the team (UK users that log in are restricted to training sessions in either Leeds or Manchester).

PeerPerks digital marketing manager Mark Allin stated that the campaign is all about engaging users both online and offline to encourage people to think about steps to a more positive healthy lifestyle. He said: “We’ve worked before with members of the CrossFit community, but this campaign is about attracting new people and raising awareness of Reebok’s affiliation with the programme. We are aiming to add to our online community and develop more long term engagement with fitness enthusiasts. We are confident that the people we are targeting will talk about the events on social media so that puts the pressure on us to deliver a good experience.”

However, the CrossFit campaign also acts as a recruitment channel for a new TV series Reebok is launching in partnership with Eurosport, which will be called The Box. This programme is about competitors from countries in Europe who battle it out in fitness tests as part of the CrossFit Fitness Championships. In the UK, there has certainly been an absence of competitive fitness shows, with the exception of the well-known Gladiators – one of my personal favourites! The new programme should resonate with a wide audience, from fitness fanatics to couch potatoes.

With social media being used to communicate breaking news, conduct surveys and gather followers, it is now being used by brands to recruit the most influential individuals into TV programmes such as The Box. Is it a clever tactic or risky exercise? What do you think?

Know your market
The first thing you will be asking yourself is: how can I use Pinterest to get myself some links? The answer really depends on the type of site you are working on. Crafts, art and interior design makes up a big proportion of what people are pinning and interacting with, so these are the kinds of sites that will reap the most benefits. Fashion is another big area, along with, to a lesser extent, geek culture. If you work in any of these areas then Pinterest is probably worth your time and effort.

Explore and make connections
Before you do anything, though, you need to get an account and dive in. Explore, have a play and follow a variety of boards. Boards are essentially categories that house your ‘pins’, which are images from around the web that you like. If you run an architecture firm then make an ‘inspirational architecture’ board to start with. Subscribe to other people’s boards and get commenting and re-pinning. This will allow you to form relationships with users and make them more open to working with you in the future.

Research influential users
You will soon find that there is an elite group of people who earn themselves hundreds of re-pins and likes from their boards and these are the ones who obviously hold a massive amount of sway. If you’ve got something big you want to share, then these are the people who could spread the word like wildfire. They will usually list their social contact details, such as their twitter handle and sometimes they will even have their own site, which could turn out to be a great bonus. But as with any outreach, don’t pester them. If you want them to check out the great infographic you’ve created, just a friendly tweet will do. Don’t bombard them!

Use Pinterest to reinforce your blogger outreach
More people are adding their Pinterest account link to their blogs and this provides a massive opportunity for you to connect with bloggers on a more personal level. Their wants, inspiration and desires may not always be completely apparent when you read their blog but perusing their Pinterest boards will show you exactly these things. Crucially, it will also likely build up a better picture of their personality, since people usually have more than one board for each interest they have, so Jenny Blogger might run a flower arranging blog, but her boards may reveal that she loves urban vinyl art and Atari. It gives you another hook in which to relate to the blogger and provides you with a better chance of forming a partnership. You could also incentivise them by offering them a gift based on things they like and pin. Providing them with something they really love is a great way of building a relationship.

This list isn’t exhaustive, but it should give you a good idea as to how to go about using Pinterest to build relationships and get the links you want. Remember, there’s no point in using Pinterest for the sake of it – you need to make sure that what you’re offering is relevant and will interest users who are into a more visual way of networking.

There’s nothing worse than a confused Rambo.

I found Doctrine 2 to be an excellent ORM with great documentation. It takes much of the pain out of hooking up PHP objects to the database and persisting the data. From a mapping definition file (written in YAML in my case), Doctrine2 provides tools to generate both the PHP Entities (Models) and to actually create and apply a database schema. Effectively, once the mapping file has been written, it is a matter of executing two commands and then the developer is able to write code using Doctrine models.

The mapping file itself is something that is not particularly intuitive, and could be quite tedious to write, but essentially, it defines field/property definitions, formatting and the relationships between entities. Each Entity has a single mapping file.

Editing a model using ORM Designer

ORM Designer allows a developer to create a UML diagram. Properties and relationships, default values, and validation can all be defined with its simple GUI interface. The model can then be saved away, and possibly built upon later as the project grows.

I was able to configure ORM Designer to export the model, as YAML mapping files, directly into my Doctrine2 mappings directory with the click of a mouse button. Following this operation, it was just a case of running the two commands to automatically update the database schema and the Doctrine Entities.

Not only is this tool useful for turbo-charging the creation of Doctrine2 Entities, but it provides a visual representation of your data model that is likely to be useful while conceptualizing your project before any code has been written. It can be used as an aid for communicating the workings of your system to other members of the team or a client, but most importantly, it can be used as a definitive reference and point of update for the data model of the project on which the code depends.

ORM Designer also allows export of its models to Doctrine, Propel and CakePHP although I’ve not tried these. In summary, I’m impressed! ORM Designer is not overly complex but it does what it needs to do very well.

If you have tried ORM Designer, or have another recommendation – let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Previously, with exact match, your ad only showed if the exact term was searched for. This is going to change. Google has announced that it is going to allow your ads to show for close variations of a keyword, even on exact match. This means that although you are bidding on a keyword with exact match, your advert could show for other variants of this exact term. Adwords has defined what it determines as close variants below:

           close variants include misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings (such as floor and flooring), abbreviations, and accents

This could be good news as it means your ads should show for relevant variations of your keywords, such as plurals and misspellings, and this could result in more good traffic. It has been reported that a huge number of searches contain misspellings which means that advertisers could pick up highly relevant traffic they previously would not have.

However, it will be interesting to see how this change works in practice and if it matches to any irrelevant search terms or high-volume terms that were not included in the account for a reason. Also, having less control over plurals is slightly disconcerting. If the plural has a huge amount of volume then this could transform the performance of a keyword quite dramatically.

This change does mean that when managing a PPC account there needs to be more checks about what terms your ads are actually showing for. Below are some examples of what keywords will start picking up traffic for when the change occurs.

This is quite a large change to make from Google, as previously advertisers could be confident in the knowledge that their ads were showing for an exact term only if they set their keywords to exact match. In some accounts there will be a plural keyword separated from the singular term into a different ad group due to them performing very differently. This will make it even more important than it already is to use negative keywords in future to ensure there is no crossover and you have full control over the keywords in the account.

An important question we need to think about is: will a search query report show the alternative variations that an exact match term has shown ads for or will it just show the data for the exact term as it does now? According to Adwords the answer is that we will be able to see the actual search terms used! The match type will appear against the search queries in the report and they will be called Exact match (close variants) and Phrase match (close variants). This change makes it more important than ever to check search query reports for any irrelevant terms your ads may be showing for.

This match-type change could affect performance in Adwords accounts quite significantly, depending on its current set up. It is important to keep note of when the change is happening and monitor any changes in your results.

The good news is that you can opt out of this change if you feel it is for the best; if it has any negative effect on the performance of your account then you can simply change the settings. Within the campaign settings, in the advanced settings section, you can choose to “not include close variant” and so this change will not affect you. Not surprisingly, Google has opted existing campaigns to default to include the new changes.

What are your thoughts on this Google announcement? Leave me a comment below.

Travel industry websites are great test cases because they get extremely large volumes of visitors, are often well-known both offline and online plus many already extensively use cookies in their analytical and advertising practices too.

I’ve scoured the most popular travel sites out there which should fall under the law and the results are very interesting. You can see a full table of results at the end of this post.

Overview

• No site surveyed had an explicitly opt-in or opt-out of cookies option
• All sites used cookies extensively
• 53 sites were surveyed on 25/04/2012
• Sites were providers of holidays, flights or holiday review websites

2 Sites Didn’t Have a Defined Privacy Policy
Two sites didn’t have a defined privacy policy at all. Cooptravel.co.uk does have ‘terms and conditions’ and ‘data protection’ pages but not a separate privacy policy page, Zoover.co.uk only has a ‘disclaimer’ with very limited information – it does mention cookies but doesn’t cover any privacy concerns.

8 Sites Privacy Policy Didn’t Cover Cookies At All
Nearly 20% of sites didn’t mention cookies in their privacy policy whatsoever. Some didn’t even have a privacy policy or cover their privacy policy details in another part of their website – such as ‘legal’, ‘terms and conditions’ or ‘site conditions’.

This includes some big names and well known sites such as CoopTravel.co.uk, Sunshine.co.uk, Cruise.co.uk, CostaCruises.co.uk and EasyCruise.co.uk.

26 Sites Didn’t Cover Cookies Well Enough
Just under half of the sites didn’t cover cookies at all or offer any more information besides the generic ‘we use cookies’ statement that is found in the majority of privacy policies and fails to explain what cookies are or how they are used.

3 Sites Had Great Cookie Explanations
Travelocity, Fred Olsen Cruises and NCL Cruises had really good explanations of cookies; what they were, how they used them and how third party’s used them. They were written in clear and easy to understand language.

2 Sites Listed the Cookies They Used – 51 Didn’t
It’s important to list all the cookies that are used on your site. Only British Airways and Fred Olsen Cruises listed all their cookies. Although British Airways did not explicitly give the cookie file name – only their general name, such as “Country Choice Cookie”.

0 Sites Made Their Privacy Policy Details Prominent
None of the sites displayed a link to their privacy information anywhere apart from the footer of the site – the last part of the site. The new law requires that privacy policy information is displayed prominently. Not all sites had a direct link to their privacy policy or cookie policy in their site design.
Those that displayed a link in the footer of their site didn’t make it prominent or stand out, a few were even extremely-hard to find such as the Ryanair privacy policy link.

Some sites had a privacy policy but had not linked to it from their footer or their general site template, it could only be found via Google.

A few sites had a dedicated ‘cookie information’ page, but this was linked to from their privacy policy or other parts of the site. Thomson have a link to their cookie information page in their footer – but it fails to clearly explain what a cookie is.

Cruise Companies are Lagging Behind
Although in general, most travel sites aren’t anywhere near compliancy. Very few of the sites provided much information at all, most of the cruise holiday based websites didn’t explain in their privacy policies what cookies were or how they were used, whereas the majority of other holiday websites did.

Summary

Overall it’s not a great picture, none of the sites comply with the strict letter of the law, none allow the user to opt-in or opt-out of cookies and only two provide both clear and extensive information about cookies, how the use cookies and list the cookies they use on their site – British Airways and Fred Olsen Cruises.

Let me know your thoughts on this directive and compliance to it – leave a comment below.

More information and data can be see here:

The full CSV of data is also available to download here:  Travel-Site-Cookie-Compliancy-Data

Only time will tell whether or not Google+ truly takes off and becomes the big player in the social network market. But early assessments on the success of Google+ show mixed results.

Google initially launched the network in June 2011 to a limited number of users and the early signs for Google+ were good, as when the site was fully opened up to the public in September 2011, figures from web data company Experian Hitwise revealed a massive spike in visitors, going from a million unique users to 15 million in one week!

However the early popularity did not last, as more than half of the new 14 million users did not return to use the site during the following week and since September, Google+ has lost nearly half of the visitors who initially came to the site.

This raises the question; why was Google unable to retain the early interest in Google+? To answer this question, let’s first have a look at the site’s usability; here are my pros and cons of Google+:

Pro: Gorgeous UI

Many Google+ users have commented on the sleekness of its user interface. It’s clean, it’s easy-to-use and it’s not cluttered.

Con: Noise in the Stream

Google+ is designed to minimize noise in the stream through the use of circles, but it is still too noisy for most users. The big issue is that posts are pushed to the top whenever there’s a new comment, something that most users think is unnecessary. There are also still issues with collapsing posts with long comment threads.

Pro: Circles

User reaction to Circles, Google+’s friend list feature, has been very positive overall. Users have commented that it’s the easiest system on the market for putting friends into groups, making it easier to share posts with just your business colleagues or your family.

Con: No “wall”

Instead you “share” your posts with circles directly on your own feed. What this means is there is essentially no point in having a profile as people will not be visiting your wall to share with you.

Overall, Google+’s usability is good, however its failure to build upon the initial interest  means that people are already becoming bored of playing on it as a limited number of people they know who use it. This is obviously a huge problem as people will not be interested in using a social networking site that nobody visits.

In the end, the main problem with Google+ is Facebook. According to dreamgrow.com, Facebook still owns 63% of the market share compared to Google+’s 0.55% and with the majority of social networkers set in their ways, Google will need to find a way to convince the vast majority of Facebook users to switch, otherwise Facebook will still reign king.

Share your thoughts on Google+ below.

I have had the pleasure of working in some excellent traditional marketing agencies, one of which is known the world over as one of the best. Yet, the brutal honesty of the situation is that a search agency has given me, and continues to give me, the sort of creative opportunities which simply were not available in the other agencies I worked in. The reason for this is very simple – The ‘client’ is completely different. When you are creating a website, a letterhead, a brand or a leaflet, the client you are creating it for is the ultimate decision maker, deeming the piece a success, or not. If they’re happy, everyone’s happy; you’ve got the money in the bank and it’s all happy days. But what is so often forgotten is that the real client in all of this is the target audience.

With any good design process, the target audience is always in mind. But in those circumstances, even an understanding client finds it difficult to let go of what is ultimately to be their pride and joy, and can get very stringent and cautious, ultimately signing off a conservative inevitability. Of course, it depends on the client but that is my own experience. In the end, it is they you are there to please, even if you know this isn’t necessarily the best choice.

It is a very different situation when creative linkbuilding is involved. Creative linkbuilding is all about one thing – the links. If you get the links you’re aiming for, then the piece has been an inspiring success.

For a designer, the implications of this are huge, which is why this specific area of marketing holds a holy grail of creative opportunities. Links are created, ultimately, by interesting content, inspiring, challenging design and innovative, attention-grabbing digital experiences.

There’s a word which used to have a bit of a taboo status hanging over it for me, that word being ‘funky’. I’ve always been a fan of design which is relatively fun, has a sense of humour in the right places and tries to do something a bit cool, or maybe even weird at times. So inevitably I’ve always tried to ensure the work I create includes my personal vision of what makes good design. In my previous roles at marketing agencies, although that sort of creativity and graphic visualisation was appreciated by colleagues, ultimately it would be too ‘funky’ for the clients we had. Often those pieces were not even shown to the clients, let alone put through to production. Again, perhaps that says something about the sort of clients catered for but, ultimately, everyone needs their bread and butter and the buck-paying clients tend to be the most conservative. In hindsight, this is entirely understandable.

How times change. Now it seems are we are striving for ‘funky’ because ‘funky’ creates links! ‘Funky’ is that cool, youthful effect used on an infographic. ‘Funky’ is the javascript animation applied in order to transform a flat line graph into an immersive, interactive piece of digital beauty. ‘Funky’ is that subtle css3 transition which adds an extra layer to create a more reactive design for the user. And inescapably, ‘funky’ is sometimes an absolutely fantastic idea because all of those examples make a link more likely to be acquired; they all serve a real purpose rather than being something the design team fancied adding to better promote their personal portfolios!

Of course, it must be added that we need to be able to rationalize our input, but as long as we have the links in mind then we will always end up with a highly creative piece. Variety is the spice of life, and the diversity of the work we are doing, both in terms of the medium and stylistic challenges, is truly refreshing. Ironically, this diversity meets one of the aims most traditional marketing agencies dream of fulfilling: it provides a freedom to designers, based upon its positive impact to our clients.

During the first quarter of 2012, revenues jumped to $10.65 billion (£6.61 billion), which resulted in net income of $2.89 billion (£1.79 billion), or $8.75 (£5.43) per share. That’s good going for investors. Ultimately, it means that Google has increased its revenue by a massive 24 per cent in just one year. After taking into account its ad commissions, the firm had revenue of $8.14 billion (£5.1 billion) in the first quarter, which outdid analyst predictions by around £31 million.

The main thing cited as the primary driver of this rise in profits is the 39 per cent increase in paid clicks, though interestingly, search-driven text ads continued to fall in popularity, dropping by 12 per cent in the space of 12 months.

Chief executive officer Larry Page was happy to weigh in on Google’s success soon after the numbers were revealed, celebrating the fact that his company had a strong quarter. However, the quarter-on-quarter growth of Google was extremely minimal – it rose by just £37.8 million from the base of $10.58 billion (£6.57 billion) registered in Q4 2011, which is a lot less significant when compared to the £536 million rise between Q3 and Q4 2011. That was also short of expectations, too.

However, the fortunes of Google could be given a great push by its board of directors, which has moved to discuss the creation of a brand new class of non-voting shares that will be given as a dividend to all current shareholders. The idea is incredibly clever in that it protects the long-term direction of the company and preserves the voting power of key shareholders.

Employees given stock in Google in the coming years will get these non-voting shares, meaning that existing shareholders keep hold of power. Page himself has been open about the agreement being announced for the good of the bigger players in Google’s future, but still highlighted how it would be nothing but a good thing.

Page didn’t directly reference the fact that profits would be a major focus of this change in stock policy – which will likely be pushed through in June – alluding to the fact that it could hamper future creative projects. Nonetheless, it’s clear that as more people invest in Google, the company needs to protect itself – don’t be surprised if revenue per share has another 24 per cent increase in the coming year.

Their explanation for this change was that it provided increased security for logged-in users who were using an unsecured connection such as those found in internet cafés or libraries; after some initial expressions of concern from SEOers, web analysts, webmasters and just about everyone in online marketing, everything went a bit quiet.

Since October 19th 2011, organic searches from Google.com have appeared in Google Analytics with a keyword of (not provided), and the number of affected searches increased on November 1st. However, the volumes involved were very small – maybe one to two per cent of searches no longer had keyword details. Yet on March 6th, it was rolled out across all countries, which changed everything. The impact has been dramatic – consider for example this graph of organic search visits with a keyword of (not provided) for one of our clients:

Overnight, the number of searches not tracked at keyword level for this client increased from 500 per day up to 5,000 per day – around 15 per cent of all of their organic traffic. If this sounds quite serious, other advertisers have seen as much as 33 per cent of all of their organic traffic losing its search-level data.

So what is the loss of this data to websites going to mean for businesses that are getting a lot of their visitors from organic search?

For most advertisers, the reason that they engage in SEO is to drive additional business – typically to generate new customers and additional revenue. By removing keyword-level data, website owners will no longer be able to understand which searches actually drive revenue or customers. While tools such as the Adwords Keyword Tool and Insights will give some indication of which search terms generate large volumes of clicks, they give no indication of which ones convert into business.

While this isn’t quite as serious for organic search as it would be for, say, paid search, any advertiser engaging in SEO (and particularly those that are employing the services of an agency) is very interested to know whether it is generating additional sales, as well as how cost-effective it is proving to be. And looking at top-level figures for organic search won’t give them this information, as it doesn’t allow them to split out their brand traffic.

Even without employing good SEO practices, most advertisers are likely to appear first organically for their brand name, so when assessing the performance of their agency or in-house SEO team, these searches should probably be generally excluded. Of course, without the ability to see the performance at search-query level, this is not practical.

One possible solution to this would be to simply increase the figures to allow for the untracked clicks. So if 25 per cent of clicks were not tracked, increasing the clicks, sales and revenue for the tracked searches would allow for these. However, it’s likely that logged-in Google users are inherently different to those that aren’t. After all, if they weren’t, we wouldn’t see such massive variations in the percentage of searches affected from website to website, so this is likely to give very inaccurate figures.

Another way to “fill in the gaps” is to look at the landing pages for untracked visitors. This may give some indication as to what they were searching for, which will give some insight at least.

Unfortunately, the effect is not limited entirely to organic search – consider for example, somebody researching a product using Google search. They may click on a paid search and find what they were looking for, returning later via a click on an organic brand term and purchasing. Another searcher may click on a paid search advert, but refine their search later (having gained a better understanding of what they want) and click on a non-brand organic search result.

In the first case, the paid search advert is almost exclusively responsible for generating the sale – in the second case, the organic search result is at least partially (and arguably mainly) responsible for generating the sale. But if the user is logged into Google, the two will look the same, making conversion attribution far less effective.

One more potential concern is that landing page optimisation will become much more difficult. It will still be simple to identify landing pages that perform poorly, but without understanding what searches drove people to that page, it will be more difficult to tailor the content to their requirements.

It’s likely that the situation will only deteriorate further, as Google encourage more users to sign up for Google +. This will result in more people signing up for Google accounts, and is likely to cause people to remain logged in whenever they are online…

It seems slightly odd that Google are so keen to protect users’ security and privacy with such vigour, when they are equally determined to gather as much data as possible about their users internally. For example, last year they started collecting detailed information about the interests of each of their users, by monitoring the content of which pages they visited.

I suspect that most Google users are unaware that Google is looking at every page that they visit, and generating a list of their interests in this way – some would certainly perceive this as an invasion of their privacy, I think. The fact that Google then provide this data (albeit in an anonymous way) to their paid search advertisers is morally ambiguous. It could be viewed that targeting adverts more effectively to users improves their browsing experience, but it could certainly be argued that this is more in the interests of the advertiser than the user.

And the fact that they do it in such a clandestine manner is certainly questionable – I would challenge anybody that doesn’t know where to look to find Google’s list of their interests. And the implications of somebody accessing this information in an internet café are potentially as serious as being able to see what searches they’ve been running recently. A quick view of my ‘interests’ shows that I am into Sci-Fi and Fantasy, SEM and Advertising:

What information are other users giving away about themselves in this way?

• City: {lb.city:London}
• Postal code: {lb.postalCode:E3 LON}
• Phone number: {lb.telephone:02000 000000}

How Dynamic Location Insertion Works:

Google works out the searcher’s location (using ip address/search intent) and crosschecks this against a pre-defined list of all your business locations. If one matches, and you have the adverts set up correctly, the nearest business location is drawn into the advert and shown to the searcher.

The location insertion parameters work in a very similar way to the keyword insertion, so most advertisers will already be familiar with the structure.

For example, you could write this advert with location specific parameters:

Trainers in {lb.city:London}
Nike and Adidas Trainers!
Call {lb.telephone: 02000 000000} to order
www.trainers.com/{lb.city:London}

If you have set up a store – e.g. St Albans – in your Places account, and if someone from St Albans is searching for trainers and the advert shows, it should look like this:

Trainers in St Albans
Nike and Adidas Trainers!
Call 02000 123456 to order
www.trainers.com/StAlbans

If someone searches for trainers in a location where you don’t have a store, they see the generic London advert:

Trainers in London
Nike and Adidas Trainers!
Call 02000 000000 to order
www.trainers.com/London

How to Implement Dynamic Location Insertion:

There is a short process to go through to enable this in your account, so here’s the quickest way to do it:

1)      Enable location extensions – you can either link Adwords directly to a Google places account and draw all your pre-defined business addresses into Adwords in one go, or manually add each business location in Adwords. If you don’t have one, I would advise setting up a Places account as it helps with organic listings too and is reusable.

2)      Build your dynamic adverts – using the three parameters above. The same rules apply as for dynamic keyword insertion, i.e. don’t make the resulting advert so long that it won’t show up.

3)      Filtering

If a Google Places account has a lot of business locations, you need to use filters to ensure only the relevant addresses show.

For example:

You have a range of stores, but they don’t all sell the same things, i.e. if you sold trainers & clothes in most stores, but some of your stores only sold clothes. This involves a bit more set-up time, but it’s the only way to ensure the campaign runs properly. Create separate campaigns for the categories – continuing the example above, we will have trainers and clothing as two separate campaigns.

In the trainers campaign:

Check the filter box in the advert extensions and use the category filter. This should reflect the categories you have set up in Google Places.

This will ensure that only stores tagged as having trainers are able to show in your advert!

Get in touch with your thoughts on this, or leave a comment below.

In the UK over half of all consumers book their holidays online. The UK is the largest online travel market in Europe and is projected to remain the largest share of Europe’s online travel market in 2013, followed by Germany and France. So, who will be the online travel industry leaders in 2012? Only time will tell but to get an idea of the ones to beat I’ve taken a look at last year’s stats as reported by Experian Hitwise.

Top Travel Agencies

In the period between May and July 2011 Thomson was the most popular website in the Travel Agencies category with 8.04% market share followed by Expedia.co.uk and Thomas Cook.  Teletext Holidays was the fastest moving agency of the quarter, increasing market share by 1.12%. Expedia.co.uk was the biggest loser of the top 10 losing 1.11% market share.

Top Airlines

UK Internet visits to the Airline category increased by 19% compared to the previous quarter (Feb – April 2011) as consumers looked for cheap flights to go on their summer holiday.

Easyjet.com was the market leader in July 2011 with 21.06% market share followed by Ryanair in 2^nd place with 16.54% and British airways in 3^rd place with 10.15% share.  Between May 2011 and July 2011 TUIfly.com was the fastest moving airline increasing market share by 0.90% and quadrupling website visits.

Top Destinations

The top destination by market share of flight searches was New York, accounting for over 5% of all flight searches.  The most searched for country was Spain with 16.99% share of flight searches in the UK, an increase in searches for the Balearic Islands of Menorca and Ibiza helped Spain keep its position as the most popular destination for UK holiday makers.

Increased searches for Dalaman was a significant contribution to Turkey moving up to fifth place from sixth.

Year on year Australia moved up one place as searches for Sydney and Perth increased.

Top Search Terms

In respect to search terms driving traffic to travel agencies’ websites it seems consumers are focussing on value with ‘cheap holidays’ being the most used term with 0.91% of search clicks, followed by ‘low cost holidays’ with 0.34%.   ‘All inclusive holidays’ has become a popular type of holiday and was the 3^rd most common search term.

You can download the full report from Experian Hitwise here.

These ad blocks appear underneath AdSense paid search listings, however above all organic listings. This has resulted in all of the organic listings for these search queries appearing below the fold in the majority of browsers, meaning they are not visible to the user until they scroll down the page. In not displaying any organic search results above the fold, these ad blocks will seriously impact on click through rates of all sites positioning naturally on page one.

Examples of these ad placements include the terms “compare current accounts” and “compare credit cards”.

What do these affiliate comparison ads show?

Initially, Google are using these ad units to compare different credit card, savings account and current account suppliers and will only be active for Google users in the UK and the US.

The product comparison information is pulled in directly from the Google owned property BeatThatQuote.com. BeatThatQuote was acquired by Google in March 2011 for £37.7 million from British entrepreneur John Paleomylites.

All the services shown are done so via Google; they are not paid for in the same way a company would by AdSense advertising. When a user follows one of these adverts and buys into one of the companies services, Google receive payment via their own affiliate scheme.

Why have Google launched these affiliate comparison ads?

Google have hinted over the past 18 months of looking to move into the affiliate marketplace and this appears to be their first major venture into this arena. What is potentially controversial however is that not only are Google shunning organic results, but they are also positioning themselves in direct competition to their paying AdSense customers.

Many will see this as an attempt by Google to simply widen their revenue streams and it could potentially be viewed to contradict their own philosophy; “Our users trust our objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust”.

What can I do about it?

Whether this is here to stay is not yet know, however I believe there is a lot more to come from Google in terms of affiliates which could potentially branch out into many other areas such as flights, hotels and holidays. In this current instance, if you run an affiliate scheme or wish to begin one, I would suggest looking into signing up with BeatThatQuote.com. Google will always favour their own products, and so being visible within this affiliate scheme will give you the greatest chance of achieving visibility in these new comparison ads.

In terms of PPC, clicks and conversions may reduce in volume due to users being drawn to the comparison ads. Cost per click however shouldn’t alter and so any CPA should remain relatively stable.

In terms of SEO, it reinforces the need to have a strong longtail strategy. Due to the comparison ads pushing all organic listings below the fold for the high volume ‘comparison’ related search terms, there is an increased need to ensure websites are also positioning for mid and longtail traffic where conversion rates are higher and SERPs remain unaffected by the new ads.

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Update

Just hours after launching, Google have already made a change to the rollout. Possibly in order to give organic results a little more visibility, they have removed one of the paid AdSense adverts at the top of the page. With there now being one less slot of a PPC advert to occupy, the cost per click on these competitive terms may increase as more people compete to gain visibility on the first page.

With this being a very new and adventurous implementation, expect further changes over the coming weeks.

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If you have any further questions about the new Google affiliate comparison ads, get in touch with us, leave a comment below, or tweet me @PG_Martin

So, if you have not used PLAs, can you start to use them profitably? And if you are currently running them, what changes could you make to increase profitability?

Firstly, for an overview of PLAs, see the screenshot below and also this earlier post from my colleague, who explains what they are and how she saw some great initial results from these. If you need help on initially setting up a Merchant Center feed to become eligible to show these, there are some great posts out there and a lot of in-depth info on Google Merchant Center help.

So, how to profit? A lot of early suggestions were that you throw all of your products at PLAs and let Google serve them up. Then when people click, they may buy, but you don’t pay if they don’t. But, are you losing value by throwing all of your stock at this?

Consider the following PLAs served up for the search term ‘Proform 300 Zlx Bike Exercise Bike’.

This is a very long-tail search term so, as expected, it is the same product from different retailers in each ad. Given that the price Best Gym Equipment (2^nd ad) is offering is 60% higher than the one quoted by Treadmill Fitness it could be that they are wasting time and money advertising in this way.

Now, consider the more generic search term ‘exercise bike’.

Now suddenly there is a huge difference in the products and, more importantly, prices on offer. With this generic term you have an option of what product to serve up and it looks as though GymWorld.co.uk could be taking the wrong approach.

Probably through a lack of targeting they are serving up a bike at £449, some four and a half times more expensive than the £100 model Amazon have listed. Yet Gymworld.co.uk do offer a bike at £120 which would at least be comparable to the competition in this auction and have a much greater chance of earning them a click.

So, a couple of things to think about for your product listing ads campaign:

• Do you have any items where you are guaranteed to be lower priced than your competition? If so, it may be worth giving them their own labels in your merchant account and bidding higher on these.

• Consider giving your cheapest products in each category a unique label and create a separate ad group to bid higher on these. Even if you are not the cheapest on the market, serving up your lowest priced products instead of a more premium alternative may earn you more clicks on generic search terms.

Of course, your campaign should still be optimised using the same logic as normal search campaigns – i.e. do not pay more for a click than they are worth to you. You may find though that giving special attention to your most competitive products can show more value from each click and allow you to bid more.

I’d love to hear some targeting strategies anyone has implemented with PLAs, so leave a comment.