Website testing regularly causes tracking issues and contained below are three basic checks as soon as any new test goes live:

(Assuming website test went live on = www.mywebsite.co.uk/test)

1. Is your site listed under the referrals section within analytics?

Yes – Since Implementing The Test

If a significant portion of your traffic is listed under the referrals section, it is highly likely that there is an issue with your tracking.

Yes – Including A Time Period Previous To Test Implementation

Your tracking has probably had issues for a while, and this should definitely be investigated further. At a guess, likely to be a result of subdomain/cross domain tracking issues or a combination of code placement and site speed.

No

Good, no issues so far.

2. Have you seen a sudden spike in Organic Traffic, Direct Traffic (or in fact, any traffic source) that coincides with the test?

Yes – Since Implementing The Test

It is likely that the source has been lost for an alternative traffic source such as paid search. Try navigating to the page that contains the test.

Now there are two main ways to see both test variations, use two separate browsers, navigate to the test page, and keep clearing cookies on one of them until you have a browser set to each page (an uncouth but still effective approach).

Google Analytics Specific

(The principal still applies to other tracking solutions)

Force analytics to show you a version by the addition of variables, add the following onto your URL and change the value after preview to view different versions:

# utmxid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX;utmxpreview=1

To obtain your utmxid for website optimiser, preview your experiment and take the id from the preview URL. More details can be found here:

http://support.google.com/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=63841

e.g.

www.mywebsite.co.uk/test#utmxid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX;utmxpreview=1

This should then allow you to choose which variation you are shown.

Now try adding ‘?utm_source=TEST’ into the URL, after being re-directed by the test, does the utmx cookie still contain TEST as the source value?

If not, it is likely the analytics cookie has not been set before the re-direct occurred, thus losing the original source. You need to ensure that the cookies are set before the re-direct takes place.

No

Perform the test above anyway, just in case a random traffic surge masks any spike you may have noticed (unlikely you say, at least until it happens to you).

1. Appear to have a small spike yet cannot find an issue?

Segment your traffic. If a specific traffic segment is causing the spike it is likely that that particular segment has an issue. It may be that your site breaks for all mobile traffic, does not work in IE, Chrome, Firefox or even the tracking above could be breaking on a single segment. Segmentation should help you narrow down any analytics problem to the source, not just for website testing.

Any questions or comments? Please leave them below or on Twitter -@JamesMHolding

The policy continues down the road of Google’s long term goal where they see internet users never having to leave Google when using the internet.

This focus has been seen by many as Google operating a monopoly on the internet after Larry Page launched “Google Plus Your World” earlier in the month.

The new privacy policy incorporates all of Google’s services, including YouTube and Gmail, enabling Google to share data about a user’s behaviour across these different platforms.

This means for example, that if you’re emailing your car insurance provider about renewing your policy from your Gmail account, when you pop over to watch that clip of the funny cat on YouTube, you would be shown adverts for car insurance before the video played.

Or it may be that you are searching for things to do in New York when you visit next month and are presented with hints, tips and photos from recent trips your friends have made that have been posted by them on Google+.

Alternatively you may be navigating through rush hour traffic using Google Maps when Google Calendar suddenly informs you that unless you catch the 8:27am train, you’ll be late for that important board meeting.

According to Google, this collation of data across all of Google’s properties will create a much more relevant internet experience for the user by only showing them adverts and information that is related to their own personal needs, interests and preferences.

In terms of SEO, it is yet to be fully seen how this will impact. However in theory it could force new avenues to be explored.

Search Engine Optimisation could require a far more socially aware aspect to campaigns that interacts with specific user groups across all of Google’s products. Rather than concentrating almost solely on rankings within Google’s search engine, more focus may need to be put on Google+ and YouTube.

A far greater synergy between organic and paid activity may also need to be developed. Aside from just working together to establish maximum visibility within search, SEO and PPC could be required to combine in other ways to ensure that a user’s activity with one of Google’s products is effectively targeted over on another.

What are your thoughts? - @PG_Martin

The most recent change to the algorithm has been geared to punish websites with excessive “above the fold” advertising, sites that stack the top of the page with nothing but advertisements.  According to Google, the changes are to encourage websites to be more user-friendly, stating that “rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see that content right away.” This could result in Google dropping any ad-heavy sites from its search results.

Although Google states that this change will only affect about one in 100 searches, with only the sites deemed to “go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree,” it is still vitally important to consider how these changes could affect your SEO campaign.

The main thing that jumps out with these changes in mind is that banner advertising, although it may still be of some SEO benefit, it may not be as useful to your campaign as it once was and will definitely mean that you will have to be much more selective with which sites you choose to advertise on.  The changes will definitely lead to much more creative approaches to an SEO campaign, and creating interesting and original content that can be promoted by other sites, also ensuring your own website is constantly updated with fresh content, although this was important before will now be even more crucial. This will be important if you are to effectively drive traffic to your site. I wouldn’t heavily rely on banner ads or put any focus on acquiring links Google could deem as irrelevant to the site user, as theses will have less and less effect on your campaign.

If we have learned anything from this latest update from Google, it’s that it is now, more than ever, extremely important to keep up with the algorithm changes and adjust your SEO campaign accordingly.

What are your thoughts? – @gary_greenall

It is very useful to monitor these metrics, especially the Lost IS (Budget). This shows what percentage of impressions your campaign did not receive because of budget restrictions. If a campaign is showing a level of lost impressions, the advertiser can then decide what changes to make to improve performance, either reducing bids to get cheaper clicks for the same budget or increase the budget.

According to the Google Adwords blog, the impression share metrics will soon be available at ad group level. The Lost IS (Budget) will not be available as budgets are not set at ad group level, but we will be able to see the impression share, lost impression share due to rank and exact match impression share. These three column options will soon start to show in Adwords accounts at ad group level.

Exact Match IS and Impression share have been available through the dimensions tab previously but we will soon be able to see all three in the ad groups tab.

This will give us more insight into where a campaign is losing out on impressions. We will be able to see if a very strong performing ad group is missing out on impressions compared to other ad groups in the same campaign, and make adjustments to improve the performance.

Once this becomes available I will use it to see how I can make improvements to ad groups and will report back any findings in a future blog post! – @aimee_roberts

Like most tools, its usefulness depends on your ability to analyse the data presented to you and selecting the options most relevant to you or your business.

Let’s take the current trends in the UK over the last 7 days (if you’re not sure how to do this, simply leave the search term field blank and change the date range to ‘Last 7 days’ and hit search):

Why are these topics trending? Netflix as a result of their online movie streaming service launch in the UK, Georgia Salpa is a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother (I’ve had to Google some of these to find out I swear!), Beyonce Baby due to the birth of her first child Ivy Blue Carter… all very interesting I’m sure you’ll agree, but not massively relevant for most digital marketers.

Instead, here are some scenarios and uses of the tool that could be extremely useful.

Scenario 1 – The Electronics Store

Let’s say I own an online electronics store and I’m quite keen to gauge how interest for 3D TVs has been increasing in recent years.

If I wasn’t aware already, it’s clear that interest is on the increase year on year and I could expect this growth to continue going into 2012. If my range of 3D TVs on my site isn’t that comprehensive, it’s probably about time I started increasing it! Or from an SEO/PPC perspective, this is certainly an area I need to start investing some time and money in.

Scenario 2 – The Travel Agent

An online travel agent will clearly know that they operate in one of the most seasonal industries out there, but what can Google Insights for Search tell us more precisely?

We can clearly see a pretty standard seasonal pattern year on year here – a spike at the beginning of the year as people start to research holidays for the upcoming year. This tails off quite quickly, before a gradual increase each month leading to a spike once again around August time at the height of summer (or most likely, the summer holidays for kids). Clearly this is extremely useful data – digital marketers can use this to plan out their promotional activity across the year, whether that be in email, PPC, SEO or display advertising.

Scenario 3 – The Newspaper Publisher

The way people are reading their news is changing. The rise of smartphone and tablet devices has inevitably lead to greater visits ro online versions of newspapers and magazines. Can Google Insights for Search show this shift more precisely?

As you can see above, I’ve compared two trends in this example. The blue line represents searches for newspapers, whilst the red line signifies ‘newsnow’ which is an online news portal/search engine. Clearly you can see that as newspaper searches have been on the decline, news searches have been gradually increasing year on year. This data would certainly show the importance of investing heavily in optimising online newspaper sites or downloaded app versions for people to read on the move.

Scenario 4 – The DIY Store

You’re a huge stockist and always looking to increase your range to meet potential customer’s needs on your site. Furthermore, the ‘real estate’ space on your homepage is a key area of the site, so you’re always looking to display the key types of products users are looking for.

You adjust the filter on this occasion to ‘Product Search’ instead of ‘Web Search’ and instead of all categories, select ‘Home Improvement’ with it being most relevant to your business.

On this occasion, we don’t need to focus on the trend line graph, as it’s too general in this instance. Instead, if you focus on the top searches and rising searches in this category, it can provide a wealth of data.

All the products mentioned above indicate users’ needs at present, so it would be worthwhile to ensure these types of products are featured heavily on the site and in any promotional activity.

Are you running a PPC campaign and are you bidding on these types of product categories? If not, now would be an excellent time to start.

The scenarios above are just a few of the ways the Insights for Search tool can be incredibly helpful to business owners, digital marketers or online advertisers in a wide range of industries. I’d be really interested to hear about other ways you’ve used the tool for your business or clients, so feel free to drop me a comment below or tweet me @PeterGould83

Search plus Your World involves three new features introduced by Google:

• Personal Results – this finds information specifically for you ex.) Google+ photos and posts. This includes not just your own but also those shared with you that only you will be able to see on your results page.
• Profiles in Search – both in autocomplete and results; this would enable you to quickly find people you are friends with or people you may be interested in following.
• People and Pages – this would help you to find profiles and Google+ pages  related to a specific topic or interest, and enable you to follow them in just a few clicks.

By default, you will be shown the Personal Results view i.e. search results based on your behaviour and social connections. However you will also be able to see what your search results look like without personal content via a toggle, as shown below:

This new addition will largely benefit those involved in search engine optimization as it allows you to switch between personalised and unpersonalised results. Unpersonalised will not provide results from your friends, private information or any personalization based on your Web History.

Obviously there are a number of security concerns but Google has informed us that any information provided by signed in users is secured by SSL encryption. Therefore protecting your search results which includes private content by the same high standards of encryption as your messages in Gmail.

Currently, Search Plus Your World does not cover any other social network where content is shared such as Facebook, Twitter or Flickr. In other words, Search Plus Your World is currently only displaying content from Google+. It will be interesting to see whether or not Facebook allows Google to start using their content despite already partnering with Bing. This would allow them to personalise its search results based on a searcher’s Facebook friends’ likes.

Will this enhance your experience whilst searching on Google? Let me know your thoughts.

Readers in the UK now have access to the world’s largest e-books collection, with hundreds of thousands of e-books for sale – from major UK publishers like Hachette, Random House and Penguin – as well as more than two million public domain e-books for free.

Google is now offering independent bookstores access to sell through Google Books.  This means that independent stores will act as an affiliate and can add the Google e-bookstore to its website. Stores will then receive a commission for sending a customer through to Google Books from their own website. This is a smart move by Google but one of the major concerns with the growing popularity of e-books is the extra strain it will put on independent book stores.  However, by offering to stand alongside the independents, Google is giving stores a chance to get involved with the increase of sales.

Whilst Google’s library is in no way bigger than Amazon’s, Google has the benefit of data! It has access to information that no one else has and when users are searching for authors and book titles, they can take advantage of this.

There are still some uncertainties relating to search however:

• How will Google determine the relevancy of search results in Google Books?
• How will it decide what order to show the books in?
• Who will get the coveted first position?

Unlike websites, there are no links in books that Google can index, there isn’t an internal link structure, and there aren’t separate pages with unique title elements or meta data.  Without any of these elements, Google needs to use other signals to determine rankings.  In June 2011, Google got a patent for ‘query-independent entity importance in books’. The patent is for a computer-implemented method for presenting entities mentioned in books. The abstract from the original application describes it as:

An entity importance engine that analyzes the information in the corpus to identify the entities mentioned therein, and ranks the entities using query-independent importance scores. The importance scores can be based in part on the contexts in which the entities are mentioned by the books. A presentation engine enables searching of the corpus to identify books satisfying a search query.

I don’t think authors will consider these ranking signals when they are writing books any time soon but it’s an interesting concept.  In the future are we going to see these signals weaved into books – especially for books on SEO and ranking success?

Please leave your thoughts below!

Product Listing Ads are made up of an image of a product related to the search term with a brief description of the product, the price and the company selling it.

The screen shot below shows two of these ads and from what I have seen, there is usually between one and three of these types of ads shown at one time.

I have been using these new ads for a while now and have seen a very good performance from them so far. The click-through rate and conversion rate have been higher than other campaigns using text ads within the same account, and has had a very positive effect on the overall account performance.

Interestingly, they have also performed better than text ads with product extensions included. This has been tested during a peak period so it will be interesting to see how it performs during times with lower volume.

I would recommend testing this for advertisers with a Google Merchant Account and a good product feed. You need to ensure the account is linked to your Google Adwords account.

Go into your Google account and select the Auto Target tab and select add product target. You can either select All Products or break it down to into more targeted groups. Many people have recommended starting with All Products and then trying to be more targeted once you have more experience and data with these new ads.

If you have any feedback of your own on these ad formats, please do share it, as it would be interesting to hear how they are performing for other accounts.

@aimee_roberts

When it doesn’t work too well, you often have no choice but to turn it off, until now.

Google doesn’t make it easy for you to see which search partner sites you appear on.

But there is a way to find the poor performing websites in your search partner’s campaign and have them switched off.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Identify the Problem

Dive into your Analytics and create a new filter using the settings below. Here is a quick guide to creating a filter (if you have never done it before). This filter will allow you to see the referring website from the search partner network.

This filter only works prospectively, so you will have to allow a week or so for it to collect data (depending on your volumes).

Once you think you have collected enough data, open up the Adwords campaign report in Analytics. Pick the e-commerce tab, then select the campaign drop down box (just above your campaign names) and change this to User-Defined Value.

Now, find the high-traffic, low ‘per-visit value’ websites that stand out. In my case, it was Amazon and EBay.

Considering I am paying about 20p per click on the search partners network, I would like a per visit value of at least 30p+ to be making any real return. The other search partners have a per visit value of £1+, so I feel I could benefit from having these two switched off entirely.

Step 2: Solve the Problem

A quick call or email to Google highlighting your issues with particular search partners should be enough for them to review your targeting, send them your findings and you should be in a good position. They can manually switch off certain search partners, but be warned, it can take a couple of days to get things sorted.

Step 3: Review the Results

If your account is anything like this one, it will see an improvement for most metrics. The most noticeable being: Revenue Per Click

Return On Investment

Let me know if you have any success with this @matt_buckley

The social data hub aims to enable social network partners to submit their activity streams, making the data available to Google Analytics users within a set of social reports currently in development.

This means that GA customers will be able to determine down to the activity level – e.g. +1 button, comment, vote – what activities are taking place relevant to their content, when, by whom, and how they help achieve goals.

This comes as an extension to Google’s recent development of default integration of +1’s into Google Analytics.

The social web offers a great opportunity for brands to engage with customers in relevant and genuine ways, but social measurement hasn’t kept up. The goal of the new social data hub is to provide marketers and publishers with a comprehensive view of how social helps customers discover their brand and drive sales.

Google has partnered with several social platforms allowing Google Analytics users to integrate their activity streams straight into GA.

The launch partners are:

• Digg
• Reddit
• StackOverflow
• TypePad
• Delicious
• Gigya
• LiveFyre

and of course

• Google+
• Google Blogger
• Google Groups

Google will be following the Activity Streams specification, an industry format for describing socially interesting events, or “Activities,” about the people and things an individual may care about. In its simplest form, an activity consists of an actor, a verb, and an object. It tells the story of a person performing an action on or with an object. For example, “Geraldine posted a photo” or “John shared a video.” Any of the data submitted may potentially be used but it must adhere to the specification. Detailed requirements are available on the GA Developer Documentation site.

This is another fantastic step by Google. There are already paid services that exist in this field but this now makes Google Analytics an even more valuable tool to SMEs as they can really begin to get a handle on the social web without it costing the earth.

What are your thoughts on this announcement? -@danpeden

There are obviously a lot of differences between online and offline advertising, but what are the similarities? Let’s take a look at one online advertising platform, Google AdWords, and see how some of its options can be compared to techniques used in offline advertising.

Now the whole idea behind searching for a specific product or service, and being presented with a list of companies or providers is old news. Think directory books like Yellow Pages, pick your keyword from the index, turn to that page and there are your search results!

So what options within AdWords could you say are borrowed from older offline techniques? How about location targeting? After all, regional yellow pages meant I was always looking for local suppliers. I didn’t look up a mobile car repair service, a builder and a vet from the other side of the country that time I swerved my car into my garden wall whilst trying in vain to avoid my neighbours escaped dog.

How about the option of advanced bid changes? Do you ramp up your bids to 130% of their default between 2 and 4pm because that’s when most people are searching for your product? Does a sandwich shop send out someone holding a sign advertising their new thinly sliced ham with homemade mustard between 12 and 1pm because that’s when most people are looking for sandwiches? My sandwich shop would.

Do you run on the display network? This is a network to get huge impressions for your ads from people who may or may not necessarily be looking for you or your product, possibly as a way of building up brand awareness. Sounds like those carefully placed billboards I pass every day on my way to work.

What about mail shot remarketing through your letterbox? I once ‘showed an interest’ in being updated with the latest developments in the world of Lego (I was mainly in it for the free lego astronaut they were offering in exchange for my address) and some years later I’m still being updated on the new Lego Atlantis range. Some of the best campaigns now include some sort of remarketing i.e. a way to display your ads your message across again to those who showed an interest by visiting your site but maybe didn’t convert.

No matter how many adverts you see and how many third party endorsements they put on there, you’re always weary that their ultimate aim is to make money from you. So are advertisers trustworthy? Sure they are governed by certain standards, but no better endorsement exists than word of mouth. When one of my friends recommended a local barbers for their discreet and professional nose hair trimming service, I knew I could trust them.…. +1 on your AdWords ads?

These are just some ways in which older offline advertising techniques may have influenced current methods of online advertising. Can you think of any others? -@Nastino

Out-of-date content is a major issue for both search engines and users. If the creator of the content chooses not to explicitly state when the content was created, how can a search engine or user ensure that the content is still valid?

Query Deserves Freshness was a major leap forward in ensuring that for trending topics (topics that have a burst of activity), a mixture of fresh and authority content was shown. Here Google takes a risk in saying that we are willing to make X% of the top ten results available for the latest content rather than relying on the algorithm to order results.

Google Caffeine was a major infrastructure update aimed at allowing Google to improve all areas of their search functionality including breadth and speed of indexation. Suddenly it became common place for new content (especially on blogs etc.) to be indexed within seconds.

The new freshness update, announced officially by Google on 3 November, takes QDF to a whole new level, in effect switching QDF on permanently for a range of queries.

This makes a whole lot of sense in that a vast amount of search queries are directly targeted towards the most up-to-date results. “Jamie Oliver Book”, “Leeds United Result”, “Olympics” etc. all have an unstated intent to find the latest information, and these are the queries that Google is targeting with the freshness update.

Although Google originally stated that the update will affect 35% of searches, they later clarified this to be in-line with how it expressed the impact of past updates. So six to ten per cent of searches will be noticeably affected by the update. When you consider the kind of searches this is meant to target, it makes more sense.

How will this affect sites?

The vast majority of commercial sites will be unaffected as their primary goal is not to provide time critical information. A search for “beds” or “accident claims” will remain static as there is no noticeable benefit from having fresher results over authoritative.

Information providers such as the press, blogs and niche / fan sites will be affected as they sit firmly within the domain of this update.

How can sites benefit from this update?

For sites affected, this update is a double-edged sword. Long term rankings will be easier to achieve through good content without the need for a massively trusted parent domain. That being said, fresh content will rank and provide traffic but this will diminish over time as fresher content appears.

To gain any kind of benefit you have to timestamp your content. In an ideal world every piece of content should have a date on it but this is never going to be the case. Google understands this so will be likely looking at three key areas:

1. Date Created – a web server passes details of the document you have requested along with the actual document. One of these details is the creation date, another is the last modified date. Ensure these are correct (you server may be set to 1990 without you knowing it) via checking your header information.

2. XML Sitemap – keep your XML sitemap up-to-date but not only by including new pages. Also ensure that the last-modified field is used whenever a page is updated.

3. RSS – Google own Feedburner. This means they have had access to a massive quantity of RSS data for a long long time. It therefore goes without saying that at some level this update was born out of the analysis of RSS data. Ensure that any form of time critical content is presented via RSS, be it blog content or news.

This leads back to a particular gripe of mine when sites have “blogs” that are not actually blogs as they don’t use any standard blogging software and therefore can’t be recognised easily as a blog. Solutions such as WordPress automatically handle pinging and RSS which all assists with the Freshness update.

So in a nutshell, ensure you produce an RSS feed, an updated XML sitemap and your server is time-stamping correctly. Then keep on producing great content that positions you as a thought leader and authority in your particular niche.

Good luck! - @SEOMalc

The blog claims that, on average, ads at the bottom of the page performed better than when the adverts were shown on the right hand side of the page. This was based on click-through from tests they previously ran. I wrote a blog post on this, which you can read here. Please see screen shot below of how it looks.

This means Google is also changing the Top vs. Side split in your Adwords account. This will now be Top vs. Other, and the other will include ads shown on the right hand side and the bottom of the page.

I am curious why Google has started doing this. It seems to me they are clearing space on the right hand side for other adverts. I have noticed the Product Listing Ads appearing more and more recently. These ads don’t include a message but just show a product image with the product name and price. These ads come from an advertiser’s Google Merchant Account. A screen shot below shows how these adverts look on the results page. This could mean that Google feels these product ads are more relevant to users than the paid search ads not in position one to three.

I am dubious of whether this will increase click-through rate or not but I will be monitoring the effect, if any, very closely.

If you have any of your own insights from this, please do share! - @aimee_roberts

The word from the horse’s mouth?

Perhaps the most obvious place to begin with regards to Panda’s impact on content farms is the publishers themselves. One of the most notorious in this respect was Demand Media, purveyors of the aforementioned water article and owners of eHow and Livestrong.com. Prior to Panda, they were frequently singled out as producing content which was lowering the quality of search results.

In a telling move, the company recently announced to their freelancers that there would likely be a downturn in work given to them.

“Looking ahead, as we continue to publish articles for eHow and our other sites, we want to be sure we are building on what already exists, not replicating it. This is not to say we will stop assigning standard titles in How to and Topic View format for eHow.com. But it does mean that we will have fewer eHow.com assignments for the foreseeable future.”

According to Searchengineland, Demand Media appears to have been forced to take a new approach focusing on fewer, higher quality articles in the face of the successive Panda updates. It’s perhaps hardly surprising for a site that saw an 84% drop in visibility following the first version of Panda, but perhaps not indicative of the overall impact that the algorithmic changes have had.

Impact and exceptions

If you look at the current state of search results, it’s clear that Google is having a harder time controlling content farms than Demand Media’s volte-face might suggest. Indeed looking at the latest figures on the Panda 2.5 update released by Search Metrics, one could even argue that Panda is failing in its stated purpose.

According to the figures, certain high-volume content producers such as PR Newswire and Businesswire have seen a fairly sizeable loss of visibility since the latest update. Yet some publishers, that were initially hit hardest by the changes such as Hubpages, have not only recovered all lost visibility but have in fact exceeded their pre-Panda positions in this respect.

Given that Hubpages’ initial decline was undeniably due to the low quality of content being produced by them, such fluctuation suggests one of two things. 1) that Google is having a harder time eradicating poor quality content than initially thought and 2) that as in the case of Demand Media, publishers are becoming more aware of how to combat the updates and regain lost ground.

Strangely though, one content farm that seems to have suffered no ill effects is Google’s own YouTube, which has seen a 10% increase in visibility since the last Panda update. As Aaron Wall of SEO Book stated on Search Engine Land:

‘Before the first Panda update happened,YouTube was capturing just over 3% of downstream Google traffic. Now they are likely up to [around 9% or 10%]. That means Google is sending YouTube hundreds of millions of referrals every single day.’

If content farms are bad, then why is it that virtually no one is questioning why Google’s content farm keeps going up and up?

It has to a plan for YouTube to grow as a % of overall results. That sort of growth isn’t accidental or driven by an unbiased algorithm (after all, only one site has seen that sort of explosive growth in the SERPs since Panda). I wonder if Google search engineers feel just a tad bit sleazy or if they are just ignorant of what’s in the search results?

Clearly this throws a third and more intriguing possibility into the mix: perhaps certain content farms are seen as less damaging to search quality for whatever reason and thus treated differently. Yet if this is the case, can Panda really be seen as tackling the issue?

Whatever the case, while Panda has had some impact on the practice of content farming, it would be far from true to say that it has managed to eradicate the practice completely. For the time being, it appears that content farms are here to stay. Tech-aware publishers such as Demand Media, have perhaps been squeezed just enough to prompt them to change their ways. However, the algorithm itself clearly seems to be failing in controlling other sites and in some cases, seemingly rewarding content farming. Whatever direction they choose to take, moral confusion and technical hold-ups aside, Google will eventually catch up to the content farmers and when they do, will anyone honestly say that they miss them?

How do you see the current state of Panda? Is it clever content farms, a struggling update or conspiracy? – let me know your thoughts @jameshale88

Google has always been good at adding a bit of fun to their users otherwise humdrum day, and it is not just for fun either. It is a really good way of keeping your users talking about you.

Most people are looking for a moment of delight in their day and some companies are really good at providing these moments with their products or services.

I’ll never forget the first time, during a commute home, I was listening  to music on my iPhone, and received an incoming call. I was amazed when the music faded out when my call came in, and then faded back in when the call ended. That was a revelation! I simply didn’t expect a phone to work like that.

It is things like this that define your product and are a great way to encourage users to talk about your brand.  Googles Doodles are an unexpected distraction to your otherwise goal-orientated search. Similarly, the bottom of an Innocent smoothie carton is not where you expect to find a cheeky message.

By focusing less on the basic design needs of the user, and more on the higher level functions that aim to make the user happy by doing something unexpected, you can best demonstrate those intangible brand values that a traditional approach to brand building can not reach.

My favourite Easter egg of late has been from fashion site www.wakakuu.com. Try typing the following when on the site : ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → BA and see what happens.

What are your favourite unexpected features that brands offer? -@iamgaz

Google+ Business Pages – What Is It?

With a similar feel to Facebook Pages, Google+ Business gives companies and brands a platform to share and connect with their customer base through content such as photos, videos, blog posts and status updates.

Like with the Google+ profiles for individuals, Google+ Business Pages also provides users with ‘Circles’ to help group together people to share content and converse with them based on their interests.

Want to take your customer engagement further? Host a ‘Hangout’ session where you can connect with a group via a webcam for feedback sessions or planned conversations with your most passionate customers.

As Google states:

“The goal is to help you communicate in more intimate ways with different groups of people.”

How to Setup a ‘Google+ Business’ Page

1. If you haven’t already, set up a Google+ account.
2. Once on your Google+ profile page, click on ‘Create a Google+ Page’
3. You’ll then be taken through a simple setup up process including the type of business you are, your company tagline and a few photos that show what your business is all about before viewing your Business profile.
4. Hit ‘Finish’ and you’ll be shown your business page.

At this point it will look pretty empty. Focus on the basic set up which will include the following:

• Add a company logo
• Prepare up to 20 posts so you have content on your page straight away
• Upload any videos and photos and share those on your main page.
• Setup your tag line if you haven’t already
• Link to any sites that are related/relevant to your business including your own company website. You have space for up to 20.

That is your Google+ Business Page set up.

Be sure to plan what you will be posting and how frequently to give your viewers a reason to come back. This could be status updates, videos, photos, latest blog posts or special discounts to name a few.

Google +1 Count Versus Followers

Google+ Pages have both a +1 count and a follower count (see to the left of the above image). What’s the difference? The followers are those who have added the company to one of their circles; these followers will see that company’s updates within their own content stream.

The +1 count is a sum of all those users that have shared the company Google+ page with their own network. Whether the +1 number will contribute to rankings within Google is yet to be known.

How to Add the Google+ Badge to Your Website

Along with the release of Google+ Business Pages, Google have also launched the Google+ badge that can be added to your website to inform visitors that your company is active on Google+. To add the G+ badge:

1. Copy your profile ID (this will be the number in the URL when on your profile page).
2. Head over to the Google+ badge configuration tool and add your profile ID where prompted
3. Choose one of the badges underneath and a code snippet will show.
4. Copy and paste the code to a suitable position within your website’s source code.

Google+ Direct Connect allows your audience to find your Google+ page easily. By adding a ‘+’ in front of a company name, you will be shown a preview of that company’s Google+ page.

Remember – your website must be verified. To do this:

1. Link to your website from your Google+ Business Page
2. Add a Google+ badge to your website
3. Add the following code to your website (changing ‘[yourpageID]’ to your profile’s ID number):<link rel=”publisher” href=”https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]” />

Want to Know More?

Google has a couple of videos to show off the new Google+ Page features:

Google+ Pages Video

Google+ Direct Connect Video

You can also view a number of Google+ pages that have already been created including:

Pepsi

Barcelona Football Club

Burberry – (Definitely check out their profile photo set!)

H&M

Toyota

WWE

The full list can be found on Google’s own blog post.

Ask Away!

If you have any questions about the new Google+ Business pages, certainly leave us a comment below. And if you’ve set up and are managing a page, we’d love to hear what your thoughts are so far.

Ultimately, Google believes that users signed into their Google account deserve privacy with regards to their search activities.

This is a seemingly noble cause, though there has been much speculation as to whether it will continue once the premium version of Google Analytics has been launched. My personal opinion is that the scepticism is ill-founded due to the huge outcry such an obvious contradiction would cause – a company that commands such public interest as Google could not go back on its declared beliefs in pursuit of Analytics dominance…could it?

Whilst debate over Google’s intentions continues, the impact of the change has yet to be fully comprehended – and in some cases it has been miscomprehended.

How does it currently affect the UK?

As mentioned, the change was only announced by Google as being in effect for signed in users on Google.com. This led some to jump to the conclusion that it was only applicable for users in the US. However, the data I have access to seems to show that it is applicable to users signed in to Google.com in around the world – and has been since the 18th of October.

For example, one site with a significant traffic volume has received almost 6000 visits being specified as keyword ‘not provided’ since the 18th of October. These visits have originated from 134 countries.

Towards the end of last week, there were a number of reports that percentage of keyword ‘not provided’ visits was on the increase. Many webmasters in the US (where Google.com is of course very widely used) reported an increase over and above Matt Cutts’ initial prediction of below 10% of organic visits being affected.

The cause behind the increase is unclear. Looking into the data of the same site mentioned above, it can be seen that additional countries started referring keyword ‘not provided’ visits. Previous to the 31st of October, the visits could be attributed to 88 countries, including the UK. Prior to the 31st of October, the visits have been received from 134 countries.

However, the potential conclusion that the change has been rolled out to further countries is probably a red herring. It seems more likely that the SSL certificate was rolled out to a greater overall sample of Google.com users – no matter what their country of origin.

Again, using the same data as before, the number of encrypted visits originating from the UK increased markedly on the 31st of October:

But this was also the same for visits originating Australia:

Therefore in addition to the number of countries referring encrypted visits increasing, the number of visits from each country increased. Rather than new countries being added to the equation, it is more likely that the sample of users being affected was increased across all countries and this led to a greater probability that a user from a ‘new’ country would land on the site.

To conclude, it seems that the encryption currently impacts a sample of users around the world that sign in using Google.com. This sample was increased last week, meaning that it is applicable to a great percentage of users around the world.

It seems likely that the next stage of the ‘roll out’ will involve making encrypted search applicable to domains other than Google.com – including Google.co.uk.

What will the impact be to my website?

Currently, due to the encryption only being applicable to signed-in users on Google.com, the impact on your website is likely to be minor.

Prior to the 31st of October, the average percentage of affected organic visits across 11 websites (with primary UK focus) was just 0.3%. Following the probable increase in sample size on the 31st of October, this percentage has increased to 0.9%.

Webmasters in the US are experience percentages that around 10 time higher, so we should expect the same when the change is rolled out to Google.co.uk.

I believe the impact will eventually be seen to be widely contrasting according to the target audience of the website. For example, a B2B focused website targeting marketing professionals is far more likely to suffer from a significant signed-in user black hole than ecommerce counterparts.

Early indications (according to data that I have access to) support this notion. Though the proportion seems to be still comparatively very low in the UK, a brief study of 4 B2B websites and 4 B2C websites over for a week prior to the 31st of October shows that the percentage of ‘not provided’ searches for the former was just over double the latter – 0.65% compared to 0.32%.

Obviously this study has limitations, for example the comparative popularity of the websites in question, but the wide contrast definitely goes some of the way to show that B2B sites will end up being hit harder.

What can I do to retrieve the lost data?

Unfortunately, unless the premium version of Google Analytics will in fact contain this data, there will be no way to find out what key phrases signed-in users have used to find your website.

However, there are ways to estimate it.

The best way involves modifying your Google Analytics code to include a custom variable focused on recording the ranking of the key phrase referring the visit.

This will then allow you to discover the ranking of key phrase that referred the ‘not provided’ visit – plus the page that the visitor landed on.

This should at least allow you see when a ‘not provided’ term sends a number of visits to a particular landing page from a certain ranking position – and should allow you to attribute them to one of the small number of high traffic volume ‘short tail’ terms that the page ranks for.

For example, if the page is ranking 8th for a particular high volume phrase, and you receive 10 visits from a ‘not provided’ phrase with a ranking of 8th, then you can be almost certain it is the same phrase that is referring the visits.

@richlawre

1. Open Chrome

2. Type ‘Do a Barrel Roll’ into Google

3. Enjoy!

It’s certainly not the most creative thing Google have ever done but the response on Twitter and Facebook has been huge. This showcases more than ever how something fairly simple can be hugely popular, providing it has the right brand attached to it.

For those not in the know, the ‘Do a Barrel Roll’ phrase comes for the 1990s N64 game Star Fox.

This Google stunt is to showcase the power of CSS3 and this is underlined by the fact that this feature doesn’t work in Microsoft’s ‘ever friendly’ Internet Explorer.

Apart from being quirky, the big takeaway from this is that brands with huge followings don’t need something astonishing to gain social traction. They can create something simple and easily shareable that doesn’t take up too much time – think Angry Birds and you’re probably along the right lines.

What do you think of the ‘Barrel Roll’? – @danpeden

(Photo: WSJ)

Want to know the common denominator of learning here? These questionable historical facts are highlighted and commemorated by Google’s Doodles. They aren’t short of their branding-based campaigns, either; if you’ve ever decided that you’re feeling lucky and simply click the famous Google button without considering a search term, you’re taken straight to the Google Logos page, emphasising just how much the company prides itself on how it responds to “key” events.

This approach has been seen in two different lights by separate camps. You have the side that goes “that’s pretty cool”, as well as the other that says “that’s just utterly ridiculous. Sort it out, Google”. It’s hard to blame either for their statements, though it does beg the question: what forces Google to make its Doodle decisions?

Google webmaster Dennis Hwang makes it quite clear why the company’s Doodles are used. “How far we work in advance depends. Sometimes, we react really quickly to current events,” he explains. “Some logos are created in less than 24 hours, such as the Mars Rover landing doodle. For different countries across the globe, if there’s a special day and we think it’s in line with the Google brand, we want to commemorate it.”

In light of the somewhat questionable ice cream sundae escapade, it seems clear that Hwang wants to emphasise one thing: “Google is kooky”. It’s something that they do to get people searching for something they may never have read up about beforehand, or maybe it’s just to raise a smile about something good-natured. To other people, however, it’s a simple blip in service. More extreme folk will say they’re attacking America or offending all manner of “regular” people around the globe. People with extreme views tend to exist in every social circle, though, so it’s best to shrug some of these off.

Either way, we can expect that upcoming Doodles will celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee, mark the start of the 2012 Olympic Games, and – in its usual about-face, kooky, and somewhat strange soon-after-death birthday celebrations – celebrate the 60th birthday of Steve Jobs in 2015. If that last prediction comes true, I do believe I’m entitled to become a king or emperor of some sort. Don’t go hi-fiving too much, though; it’s just something that Google would be likely to do to generate a bit of exposure.

What has been your favourite Google Doodle? Let me know below or on Twitter - @matthewgardner

At the time of writing, the search engine has not yet finalised deals with major music labels to back this new service but according to a recent WSJ article, Google will probably proceed without full support from Sony and Warner. However, without the rights to sell music from these two labels, it is likely users will look elsewhere, such as Spotify.

Introduced to the public in 2008, Spotify has built a loyal user base and recently teamed up with Facebook to allow users quick and easy access to share music with friends. When looking at a friend’s wall, Facebook users can see the songs their friends are listening to.

Perhaps Google Music – which has been in the beta stages since May – will be an equal match to Spotify, but what about iTunes, that has been on the scene since 2003?

While iTunes has about 70% of the digital download market, according to an Los Angeles Times article, it has dominated the music scene for almost ten years, so it was inevitable that competitors would soon surface. In addition to this, the cost of new releases on iTunes has risen since last year and has twisted the arms of users looking for cheaper alternatives, such as Spotify.

Since its launch in the US this summer and its collaboration with Facebook in September, Spotify has taken on three million new users. The appeal of Spotify is the accessibility and flexibility of the service: unlimited music for the first six months and $5 a month after that. iTunes will have to examine its priorities if it wants to retain its users, otherwise it risks losing them to Spotify, if it hasn’t already.

Google Music shows how eager the company is to expand its services but like Google+, will this new music service be enough to rival Facebook and its deal with Spotify?

Let me know below or on Twitter - @samiakesseiri

At present, a lot of articles are a little more than speculation, so I have chosen to put together a quick post to highlight the facts within the bloat to ensure the subject lives on and everyone knows the cold facts. The more we talk about Google Plus for Business, the more Google knows we want them.

First things first

Google Plus Business Pages doesn’t exist yet! You cannot and should not try and create a business presence at the moment. In fact, Google is actively removing business style accounts.

Some sites such as Mashable and SEOmoz have already created presences by customising a personal account to look like a business. This goes against the current Google usage restrictions which are tailored towards real people. So Google contacted these people and removed their business style presences.

There may be evidence to show that Google is using key companies and educational institutions as a testing ground. When you set up your education and work statuses, you are presented with some initial options to choose from. This could however just as easily be a database of institutions, their details and logos.

Along with Google actively removing non-personal accounts, they have said that they will not be making an effort to migrate any business style accounts to real business accounts when they launch.

When will Google allow business to use Google Plus?

The only date that has been alluded to at the moment is Q3 2011 so on that note, Google Plus Business Pages should be imminent. Google has already acknowledged the general desire for business presences but remind us that Google Plus is still in very early development in the grand scale of things.

Conclusion

Google Plus profiles will be usable by businesses at some point sooner rather than later. Although you can’t actually set them up at the minute, their impending existence should lead to discussions regarding who will set them up. Who will maintain the presence? How will we interact?

Many companies have already asked similar questions regarding Twitter and Facebook, even employing staff specifically to handle these channels. If you haven’t already then maybe now would be a good time to get the ball rolling. Google Plus is the most likely social data source to be implemented as a ranking factor in the future. Data capture is the fundamental reason for its very existence.

With social becoming more and more popular as a simple means of communication and users demand more interaction from brands, a defined social communication strategy is a must.

You can also read more about this in my other post here.

-@SEOMalc

The QDF factor is a handy algorithm used by Google to bring forward the most up to date relevant content in relation to hot topics or trending subjects.

Basically when a surge of particular keywords or search queries are detected by the ever inspecting Google, it switches into its QDF mode and goes searching for the latest content on that subject and temporarily brings this forward in the SERP.

Due to this, the usual organic ranking landscape is affected and rather than the usual high-profile sites and pages ranking for particular terms, fresh content is given priority.

The QDF factor has been around for a while, but now more than ever its influence on results can be noticed, especially with the introduction of Panda. For e-commerce sites this can be a problem, as content is often stagnant and dedicated to particular services or product. Therefore, when QDF is active, their results are likely to slip down in rankings as Google makes way for blogs and news site that are more likely to contain fresh content on the “hot” topic.

When QDF mode is in full flow, and your e-commerce site has popped off the “G” page and turns up on an “O” somewhere in Gooooooogle’s many pages, it might be an idea to increase your Paid Search. When searchers are more motivated by their relevance to purchase than the organic search results Google has provided and the lazy badgers can’t be bothered to find your page, PPC ads are likely to have and increase click through during this short period. So by targeting the keywords in question and creating relevant ads highlighting your products, your Paid Search may combat some of the impacts the QDF has on rankings.

However an even better tip is to get with the program! Due to the ever increasing use of the QDF algorithm, it’s never been so important for your e-commerce site to have a blog or relevant news section. This will not only help you to gain traffic, but to gain natural links from other sites using your content as a resource.

Occupying top spots in Google’s rankings when QDF is active can reap your site many benefits, not only a massive increase in traffic, but it can help build a more vast and impressive link profile. The Query Deserves Freshness mode gives an opportunity to those sites quick enough to pick up on “hot” news and trends and provide relevant content.

This means when QDF is in full swing and freshness takes priority over ranking factors, sites that usually might not have come into play can maximise their efforts to rank in these times. The key is to create a portal on your e-commerce site for relevant content, and then optimise your chances of ranking when QDF is active by finding news angles relevant to your product or services and beat the mainstream news sites to posting.

To make this work for your site, you need to have an appropriate channel for fresh content in place, in the form of a blog or news feed. Be on the ball with current news constantly, including what’s trending in Google’s search queries and what’s going down with social networks. Following that, you also need to find your angle and beat the bulk.

Making the news and trending topics work for you when QDF is active, sometimes means you need to be a bit creative with your angle and find how it’s appropriate to your brand. Don’t be too ambitious with this as there does need to be a connection between the two (Gaddafi’s death might be hot news and popular in search queries, but I don’t think you can relate that to your e-commerce pet site)! But don’t be afraid to use your imagination and make the most of current topics.

When you have your angle, you need to act fast. This means no matter what time it is or where you are, you need to be the first off the mark to beat the mainstream sites and have a decent crack at obtaining one of Google’s prized top spots. So when you have your angle, get that content whipped and rolled out fast!

Also, look ahead and use your resources. Use patterns and your calendar to stay ahead. Ask yourself: will trends repeat? What’s coming up on the calendar that you can use to gain traffic?

For example, the Olympics, a recurring event that is likely to gain lots of traffic, especially as London is hosting in 2012.

You can see from the Google traffic report above that traffic increases during particular periods. Therefore, you should predict where it’s likely to increase again. With the last major peek occurring around the last Olympics in 2008, there might even be a similar surge in 2012. Events can also make for an easy e-commerce content correlation- does your brand sponsor or contribute to the event? What relevant celebrity connections are there? What are they wearing? How are they getting there?

So how can you make QDF work for e-commerce sites:

1)    Create a channel for relative up-to-date content on your site, and blog regularly about your subject to keep Google interested in it.

2)    Utilise the use of this channel when Google is in QDF mode, and be the first to pick up on relevant news and find its connection to your brand.

3)    Be the first to get the word out and let Google take advantage of your fresh quality pickings!

4)    Reap the benefits of a higher volume of traffic and hopefully those juicy little links you can add to your profile!

What do you think? Have you ever had an experience with rankings due to the QDF mode? If you have any particular experience, I’d be happy to hear about them! - @JodieMcDonne11

It seems even Google CEO Larry Page momentarily lost interest in Google Plus, not posting publicly on the site from 15 August to 28 September. Now Larry might just be posting tales about nights out on the lash to his private circles, but publicly it doesn’t look good to the new users wanting to see what Google Plus has in store.

Even though Google Plus has been up and about for a months now, it seems to lack the buzz and quick take that big G expected. In recent reports, there are now more than 40 million users, which seems like a lot; however, out of those early adopters, who knows how many of them are still active? Who is still using it and if will they convert? Although celebrities have taken to the new social network, even Google employees are not completely convinced. Concerns over the content and the platform has people talking.

Facebook has 750 million active users which makes Google Plus’s 40 million debatably active users look a bit measly in comparison. Now that Google Plus has become public and no invite is needed to join, Google has attempted to attract new users, most notably by slapping an arrow on its homepage to try and lure in some new users.

The arrow pointed to a new “You” tab on the Google toolbar, which allowed new users to access the Google Plus social network, but not before you have signed in with your Google account. This seemed to be another hurdle that prevented new users adopting it as readily as Google would have liked.

The arrow however might have just channelled enough traffic to the network to coax a few new users to the network and increase its popularity.

The site is certainly trying to add new features such as video hangouts, which enable you to chat online with your Android phone and see who you are talking to. You can also share what’s on your computer screen with whoever you’re gassing to.

A more interesting feature with regards to SEO is the ability to search within Google from the network, allowing you access to shared social information as well as what’s going down online. This means if a good chunk of people recommend a particular bar, restaurant or service, they will be more prominent in Google’s search results.

However with the lack of users, the debate is still on about how much impact this will have in relation to search results. Although initial interest has been somewhat disappointing for Google and posts seem to be fewer by its current users, did Google’s blue arrow attempt and public invitation attract and convert enough users to make it a success and a real rival to Facebook?

Who knows but I betcha Google won’t go down without a fight. What do you think? - @JodieMcDonne11

Zagat, founded in 1979 by Tim and Nina Zagat, is similar to other review services. Restaurant goers are asked to review their experience on a range of factors, these results are then collected by Zagat and are available in hard copy, and more recently digital form. According to Zagat their guides include ratings and reviews submitted by more than 350,000 people.

Zagat also reviews a wide range of other places including theatres, hotels and music venues. They operate in 70 cities in the US as well as London.

This isn’t the first time that Zagat have tried selling up. Back in 2008 they were on sale for $200 million. However, after they couldn’t sell for that amount, they decided to move forward with an organic growth strategy.

So why has Google bought them?

Google haven’t been as successful with their location offerings compared to their regular search. Back in 2005, Google purchased location-based social network Dodgeball only to shut it down (the founder Dennis Crowley went on and started Foursquare). The more recent attempt ‘Latitude’ never caused much of a stir either. Google then tried buying Yelp in 2009, offering $500 million. This reached the final stages of negotiation but Yelp pulled out for reasons unknown.

Then in late 2010, Google decided to go it alone with location-based recommendation engine Hotpot. However, this has never really taken off or been able to generate the reviews it has wanted since its launch.

Google had also been borrowing from Yelp’s database of reviews but this started causing problems. Google Places was then created and Yelp saw it as a direct competitor. In an interview with the Telegraph, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman stated that:

“We are unhappy with the way Google uses our users’ reviews on its Places page. However, there is no solution to the problem… Google’s position is that we can take ourselves out of its search index if we don’t want them to use our reviews on Places…. But that is not an option for us, and other sites like us – such as TripAdvisor – as we get a large volume of our traffic via Google search…We just don’t get any value out of our reviews appearing on Google Places and haven’t been given an option other than to remove ourselves from search.” Searchenginland

Around a month later Yelp removed its reviews from Google Places but not the main Google index.

Conclusion

In 2009 Google attempted to buy Yelp. This failed so they then tried to create a similar service themselves with Hotpot (borrowing liberally from Yelp). Neither of these ventures have been successful for Google. So they then realised that they needed a solid base of reviews and reviewers to form a working community of users. Enter the opportunity with Zagat.

The attraction to Zagat wasn’t just the database of reviews but also the brand. What Zagat has, and Google needs, is a loyal base of reviewers to carry on writing the reviews. Google has lacked a catalogue of reviews to fill out its own location-based services since their inception, and with Zagat they have bought themselves a good starting position, at least within the US.

But what about the UK and the rest of the world?

From what we’ve looked at here, there’s a high possibility that Google will spend the foreseeable future acquiring as many useful user review-based websites/companies as possible. This would enable them to take a stronger foot hold in the market and bring Google Places growth back up to scratch with its main search offering.

What are your thoughts? Please leave them below or on Twitter - @stevowalker

Both of the updates will allow a PPC Analyst to optimise campaigns better and to work considerably more efficiently.

Online GUI

Google has now provided a new piece of functionality that allows an analyst to see how much you would need to bid on in order to appear in the top three sponsored link positions as can be seen in the figure below:

This removes a lot of the “trial and error” of trying to appear in the top three positions and will allow an Analyst to meet their objectives faster without bidding too high or low if the aim is to appear in or close to the top three positions.

The bid indicated is only an estimate and cannot be treated as “gospel”, as there are other variables such as your quality score that will affect the position you will ultimately achieve. However, it is a very useful guide that will undoubtedly save time and money, and allow you to meet your campaign objectives sooner.

AdWords Editor

Google has also recently unveiled a new edition of the Adwords Editor – version 9.5. This has two key new functionalities that will allow a PPC Analyst to be more efficient.

So how will they aid PPC Analysts?

One feature now allows you to download accounts and get the recent changes in the background whilst continuing to work on your other accounts. With large accounts, it was often a problem to wait until you had finished downloading an account before you could commence any work. This was very frustrating especially if your internet connection was slow and it would greatly reduce your efficiency. Waiting for Adwords Editor to download is now a thing of the past!

The second new feature is another step towards integrating the functionality found in the GUI and making it available within the latest version of the Adwords Editor. Version 9.5 now supports location extensions; this means you can now add, edit and delete location extensions for your ads via the Editor without having to constantly switch between the Editor and the GUI. This will undoubtedly save time as you are not constantly switching between the two tools.

Has anyone had a good experience with these new functionalities? Please leave your comments below.

I think what Google has done is pretty remarkable. Google Analytics is on more than 50% of the busiest websites in the world. To be able to take, crunch and display all that data within one to two seconds is seriously impressive.

What does this tool mean to me? This is one of the questions I always get asked when I demo a new feature or tell clients about it. The answer in this case is unfortunately very very little as I can currently only see a couple of use cases of this new Google Analytics feature:

1. Monitoring the live performance of a TV campaign
2. Spotting errors and correcting them

I’m still not 100% about the first one.

Monitoring the performance of a campaign as it happens is nice, but what can you actually do there and then if the performance is not what you expected. The answer: nothing.

The error spotting is certainly useful. If your site sees an influx of traffic or errors, you can jump on it quickly and hopefully correct the problem. This is provided you have a developer on call and can make rapid changes. This tool could also provide a free version of some error reporting tools you may currently have installed. However, these typically work best on the server itself.

I think this is one of the first times I’ve actually been disappointed by a new Google feature. Considering the amount of development time, money, and resources it took to create it, I just feel like they could have spent that time elsewhere. Perhaps fixing the bugs of version five or adding more resources to some of the more interesting new features yet to be announced?

I can see why Google has created this but it certainly sits in the ‘selling of the tool’ category rather than the ‘using of the tool’ category.

I’d love to hear some real world use cases for this if anyone out there has one….

-@danpeden

Their announcement in full reads as follows:

When searching on Google, users appreciate results that are relevant and deliver a great experience after they click. In August, we announced trials in Brazil, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Spain, and Portugal¹ that increased the weight given to relevance and landing page quality in determining Quality Score and how ads are ranked on Google. The goal was to improve the user experience with search ads. Based on the results we’ve been seeing, we’re now rolling these changes out globally over the coming weeks.

As the changes roll out, some campaigns will see variation in keyword Quality Scores and typical ad position. Within a couple weeks, things should stabilize and we expect most campaigns will not see a significant change in overall performance.

Just like today, campaigns with better-performing ads for user queries will continue to see higher Quality Scores, lower average cost per click and higher position on results pages. The 1-10 Quality Score in the AdWords interface will continue to represent the general quality of your keyword when exactly matching a search on Google. Increases in bid and Quality Score will continue to increase Ad Rank, and the same basic approach to improving your results with AdWords applies.

This is interesting, as this is effectively the same as saying that they are reducing the role of the click through rate in the ranking algorithm. But the use of click through rate is critical to Google – this is what they use to maximise their revenue from Adwords.

By promoting adverts that are more likely to get clicks and demoting those less likely to get clicks, Google ensures that the adverts that appear in the top positions (with the highest cost per click) are the ones most likely to generate clicks, and that an advert with a lower click through rate has to effectively make up the loss of revenue for Google by bidding higher, in order to get the position.

This isn’t a criticism of Google at all – I believe that it’s generally in the user’s interest to see adverts that they are likely to click on – this is a strong indicator that the advert is relevant to the user. So by moving the focus of the algorithm from pre-click to post-click, Google are likely to cost themselves money. But does this really improve the user experience?

Certainly, if the keyword matches the search query, it’s an indication of a more diligently managed account – a campaign that utilises Exact Match extensively rather than relying on Broad Match requires more work. And more targeted landing pages can be achieved by effective keyword grouping – but does this mean that user gets a better experience?

To be honest, I’m not convinced. I doubt that it will make any discernible difference to users, but anything that encourages PPC account managers to manage their keyword lists effectively (or rewards those of us that do) can’t be a bad thing.

-CustardMite

However, Facebook has also concentrated its efforts on setting itself up as an online advertiser to rival Google and its hegemonic AdWords platform. Along with the gradual spread of Facebook pages for commercial entities, the company has also been pushing its own Facebook Ads heavily, with COO Sheryl Sandberg recently commenting that she won’t “stop until all of them…[small businesses]…are using it to grow their business.” Yet with a recent online study suggesting that 2011 will see Facebook net only 7.7% of total online advertising revenue (compared to Google’s 43.5%), one has to question whether Facebook represents a valuable advertising opportunity for brands or whether the system has simply been overvalued.

Fan Pages Don’t Offer the Exposure They Should

One of the major means by which brands on Facebook can promote themselves is through the use of their page. These commercial equivalents of the standard Facebook profile are intended as a means of allowing brands to engage with their audiences. However put simply, the way in which most brands utilise these pages leaves them largely ineffective as a marketing channel.

Looking at global brands, it’s easy to see a large proportion of them focusing heavily on the number of ‘likes’ the page has and doing everything in their power to increase this number further.

While it’s been seen that 51% of consumers were more likely to purchase from a brand having ‘liked’ it, this figure is often taken as a representation of the number of ‘fans’ that particular brand has on the network and by extension the number of people their particular message will reach. Simple enough? Well not really, as the means by which Facebook displays content to users vastly reduces this number. For updates to be added to a fan’s newsfeed from the brand, they must have engaged (commented) with the brand page previously otherwise these updates will cease to appear.

A study by Market Sentinel however has revealed that the number of fans actually interacting with brands is a tiny fraction of those who initially liked the page. Looking at the most followed celebrities on the network, the study found that the number of ‘core fans’ who interacted more than average on a particular page never totalled more than 0.005% of fans. This meant, that of Cristiano Ronaldo’s nearly 30,000,000 fans a mere 626 (0.002%) were likely to be receiving updates from his page – hardly an ideal scenario. This situation is also seemingly getting worse for brands, with engagement down 22% according to DDB meaning that even fewer people are likely to see messages promoted through pages alone.

Facebook Ads & Apps Offer a Comparatively Poor Return

While it’s clear that Facebook is throwing everything behind their advertising platform, in its present state, the system offers a pretty poor return for brands utilising it. As previously seen, the company’s current market share is lagging far behind Google as well as other major industry players such as Yahoo! – and given the figures, it’s hardly surprising.

According to Market Sentinel, the average click-through-rate (CTR) for an AdWords campaign is somewhere between 0.4-0.7% whereas those for Facebook Ads was a mere 0.011-0.165%. Even at the very top end of the expertise spectrum, Hussein Fazal, CEO of AdParlor, an agency specialising in Facebook Ad optimisation, was only able to achieve CTRs in the region of 0.3% for a client chosen by Facebook for a case study. This in spite of Facebook’s much vaunted ability to target individual demographics better than other advertising systems. Given the recent overhaul of Facebook’s layout, it remains to be seen whether it can improve the efficiency of its advertising system to rival AdWords, but given the launch of Google+, it won’t have long before its major rival has similar social data with which to refine its own demographic targeting.

Coupled with this, the success of apps as an advertising medium on Facebook offers a similarly bleak picture. Of the top 100 apps on Facebook, the overwhelming majority are unbranded – perhaps a further indication of the overall interest in advertising present on the network and the success that brands are likely to have using apps as a medium.

So should brands ignore Facebook?

Put simply, no. Facebook remains the largest social network in the existence with more than 750 million users spending 700 billion minutes a month on the site. With numbers like that, brands can’t simply afford to ignore Facebook completely. Yet brands must be aware of the futility of simply driving as many ‘likes’ as possible, as a means of marketing in itself. Certainly, what the site can offer is increased visibility and the acquisition of ‘likes’ will undeniably act as another signal to aid SEO efforts elsewhere. However, in its current state the network doesn’t offer impressive returns on advertising efforts and marketers must recognise this and decide where their time and money is best spent.

What are your thoughts on Facebook as a marketing platform for brands? - @jhaleseo

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