Reading between the lines of various search engine marketing forums and clients’ analytics data, it does seem as though something might be happening within the  largest search engine in the world. There have been fluctuations in traffic and rankings -  something which we tend to only see before large updates are rolled out.

Google had, until last year, quite consistently launched algorithm update every Christmas, the most famous update being the Florida update of November 2003 which caused widespread issues with lots of businesses online.

We have already had a large update this year when Google rolled out Caffeine which, according to experts at the time, was going to cause problems to lots of sites though nothing huge ever really materialised.

Marketing implications: As with all search engine updates there is very little you can do to prepare for what may happen. All we recommend is this:

• Make sure you are ticking all the boxes within Google’s current guidelines.
• Keep generating & sharing good quality content.
• Get regular ranking & traffic updates from your agency or internal team.
• Keep a sharp eye on Google’s blog, and visit the GA blog for up to date news.

Last week, Bing and Facebook announced a partnership that will allow Microsoft’s search engine to return results based on the Facebook “Likes” of a searcher’s friends. With Real Time search already well underway on Google, this is the next logical step towards showing results tailored to a searcher’s existing social footprint…

Until now, search algorithms have used machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict which of the billions of pages available on the Internet might be most relevant to your search. Now, at least on Bing, they’re going to have access to something even more precious: the knowledge of who your friends are and what they like.

So, let’s take a look at how these ‘liked’ results on Bing will work… Say you’re looking for information on the new Paranormal Activity movie. On Google, you would be served up the most relevant, popular pages to your search.  On Bing, as of now,  it will return the regular Google-style results as well as a module that shows pages your friends have liked – including, for example, movie reviews. You no longer have to trawl through search results to figure out which of the pages you trust the most to tell you whether the movie’s a hit or a flop. Instead I would look to work colleague Jade’s recommendation within the results (Jade is GA’s in-house horror and scary movie expert).  I would certainly click on the page she ‘Liked’ to read more.

Will this new search innovation affect SEO strategy? I think the answer is yes. There will be changes to the way in which SEO professionals run their clients’ campaigns and this ’social searching’ trend will certainly affect the industry as a whole. SEO professionals will have to constantly adapt and grow alongside the search engines to ensure that searchers get the results they need.

We have already seen certain Twitter feeds included in Google search results. Before long, results may integrate other social networking sites, like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and myriad other sites that haven’t even been developed yet. For SEO professionals, this change highlights the need to integrate social networking if they haven’t already.

The example below shows a search for Google TV and a friend who liked a page about Google TV:

Now, six months later, almost half (47%) of 18-24-year-olds use real-time search results. However, just 8% of these users find them useful (according to research by Tamar).

But what about other types of search results?

Interestingly, by looking into the search habits of 2,210 people, Tamar’s report also showed that just 4% of people would choose paid search results over natural search results, down by 1% on 2009 and down 6% on 2007.

The research found that people over 55 were the least likely to trust paid search as a trusted source with just 3% choosing it over natural search results.

Younger people are increasing their use of mobile to search as 14% of both 18-24-year olds and 25-34-year-olds use mobile search every day.

Neil Jackson, search strategy director at Tamar, said, “Consumers have decided that natural search is the route they trust more and this defines the strategic starting point for all brands, which need to focus on being highly visible ‘naturally’ through campaigns that reach effectively across a wide range of media and devices, especially mobile – a huge growth area for the search engines.”

Although this news is nothing new, the topic of brand name bidding re-emerged when, earlier this week, an article published in NMA stated that, according to a report sent to them by Marks & Clerk: “[out] of 266 UK marketers and business executives, 71% were “uncomfortable” with Google allowing brands to bid on rivals’ keywords, with 63% saying it’s unacceptable when a brand is protected by a trademark.” (NMA, Trademark bidding may be controversial, but is it common place? May 28^th 2010).

However, the overall gist of NMA’s article was that although some brands are bidding on their competitors’ terms, it might not be happening as much as one might expect, and that additionally, it might not be as detrimental an effect on brands as was once expected. This was the conclusion arrived at after researchers at NMA looked at all the main department stores and supermarkets on the UK high street. They found that the only brand bidding on a rival term was House of Fraser on Debenhams.

So, never one to be out done, I conducted a little research of my own, but this time looking at smaller, more high end brands…

One of the first brand names I researched was ‘links of london’. The results were surprising. In the sponsored links, were a host of counterfeit websites with ‘links of london’ in the URL but with no use of the phrase in the ad text (Google will investigate ads which are using the brand keyword in the ad text). Some websites listed in these paid for links were so similar to the real thing, that it was quite hard to tell the official from the fake. Damaging? I think so – especially to luxury or high end brands. The same went for other luxury brands which returned sponsored links that the official brand might not be too happy about.

However, I would agree with NMA in that it is probably not happening as much as we all expected when Google first broke the news. In fact, during my search, I found few reputable, well known brands which had bid on other, similar sized, rival brands. In fact it tended to be poor quality, counterfeit or little known websites which had bid on bigger brand names (when the brand was not available to buy on the site in question – instead offering an alternative or fake product). That, or the listings were genuine stockists of the brand.

Therefore, in conclusion, although rival companies do not seem to be bidding on their competitors as much as expected, it is still damaging to a brand who does not want to see their product flogged on a discount or counterfeit site. Additionally, according to studies conducted back in 2009, the sectors most affected by the change was the travel and insurance sectors (ones which I did not research this time round).

So, what should a brand do?

Firstly, as demonstrated by Google vs. LVMH, there is little to be gained in taking legal action out against an online giant such as Google. Therefore, I would persist in arguing that brands need to remain focused on their organic search listings, and not focus solely other types of online brand building activities. Any brands’ strategy – large or small, should include organic SEO so that they appear at the top of Google’s organic search results.

Do not rely on paid listings to avoid good, old-fashioned search engine optimization – consumers still prefer organic listings over paid for links. Regardless of what’s going on in the paid section, ensure your site and brand shows up at the top of the natural, algorithmic section of the search. This alone will reinforce the relevance of your brand to the search term entered.

Well, not a lot to be honest. As it turns out, fewer than 1% of search queries will be affected by this change and, if you were going to be affected, then you would have been already. Nevertheless, with all this talk about site speed and page load times, why not use a free tool to evaluate the speed of your website…

• Page Speed – an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.
• WebPagetest – allows you to provide the URL of a webpage to be tested. Provides a waterfall of your page load performance as well as a comparison against an optimization checklist.

And, on a final note, with the focus now firmly turning towards user experience (in that fast loading webpages = happy users) is the end of slow to load Flash websites on the horizon? Add this to the fact that plugin technology is on the way out (think of the devices that don’t support Flash – the old iPhone, iPad…) and it certainly is not looking good for Flash heavy sites. We’ll just have to wait and see…

Add to this that videos, when properly submitted, are just over 50 times more likely to generate a first page Google results ranking (according to Forrester research), and the case for using this medium to leverage your SEO efforts are clear.

But wait, there’s more! Because search engines also favour video content. This is because Google, and other search engines, aim to have a mix of content types displayed in the search results. Therefore, they give a higher ranking to video content to ensure mixed search results. For an example of this, try typing the word “eyeliner” into Google.

Using video for SEO

So, how do you ensure that your video content ranks high in the search engine?

Well, similar to traditional SEO, there are some best practice steps which you can follow in order to optimize your videos for search.

1. Keyword research:

Before even producing your video you should have performed a keyword audit to identify the top performing and most commonly searched for keywords and phrases.   Once identified, these can be embedded into your verbal script or commentary. They should also be placed within the title, description, file name and URL (wherever possible).

2. Video production:

When creating video for the web you can either hire someone to do it or, do it yourself. Try to think about your audience. Do they need a professionally created video, or will semi pro suffice? It is often said that videos which appear too polished can turn users away. So there’s something to be said about producing a more down to earth, behind the scenes type recording. Other things to consider include video length (the rule of thumb here is anywhere between 30 seconds to 3 minutes) and how to make your video stand out. Always keep in mind the possible viral nature of video content.

3. Landing pages:

Before uploading and publishing your video, have a think about where you would like to direct your viewers. You’ll need to think about the call to action that prompted them to click through, and then designate a suitable landing page that will provide the relevant information. This landing page could be a Facebook page, blog, or web page. Think about clear calls to action and how to turn that visitor into a conversion.

4. Distribution:

TubeMogul makes the process of uploading video to multiple sites a simple process. It also provides a number of tools and tracking options. However, remember to set up accounts on each video site first. Some of the most well know include: YouTube, MetaCafe and Vimeo. As you upload your video, you;ll have the option to add your keywords and phrases into the title, description and tags for each site. Top tip: Keep your titles and descriptions keyword rich whilst remaining readable (as having a long list of keywords will appear as spam).

5. Analytics and tracking:

As always, tracking and analytics are of the utmost importance, as these stats will tell you what works, and what doesn’t. Use your results to tweak your landing page optimization.

And that’s it! But be quick, because it won’t be long before best practice video SEO becomes common practice…

Upon launch, the new eCommerce website for Temperley London, the British designer label synonymous with timeless glamour, exquisite craftsmanship and collections desired by women the all over the world, was received by a number of fabulous reviews from the online fashion world;

“Plenty of sartorial surprise in store… get ready for the virtual stampede” (Vogue)

But first, let’s take a closer look at how this was achieved…

Objectives:

Firstly, a unique online destination shop had to be created, entirely different to other fashion and luxury brand websites. Secondly, best practice eCommerce functionality had to be seamlessly integrated into the Temperley brand experience. Thirdly, the customer journey had to reflect Alice Temperley’s aesthetic and the distinct style of the stores in London, Los Angeles and New York.

How we achieved them:

Within the new website, all items are displayed using an unconventional but intuitive carousel, designed with traditional rails in mind and far removed from the ‘grid’ layouts of many other online shops. Select a product from a collection/category and a wealth of content appears in scrapbook style including catwalk video, detail views, red carpet shots and design inspiration. All of this supporting media can be viewed in astonishing detail using a full-screen high-resolution product zoom, especially developed for this project.

Items can then be easily added to ‘My Rail’ without disrupting the browsing experience before either purchasing or saving for next time. A special section entitled “We Like” features Alice Temperley’s vacation photos, behind-the-scenes video footage, styling tips and music recommendations. Online visitors can also get a sneak preview of upcoming projects, see footage documenting the creative process behind the collections, and read updates and interviews which offers a unique insight into the world of Temperley.

The result:

Graphic Alliance has brought the world of Temperley to life on screen by re-creating a flash-style website using javascipt and HTML. The customer journey is unconventional yet intuitive; innovative horizontal navigation manages to maintain usability whilst maximising functionality. A huge amount of interactive content – all fully searchable and accessible by the search engines – accompanies each of the individual products and collections.

Stuart Bowler, Project Director at Graphic Alliance, said:

“the real innovation with this site is the way that all of the background supporting media, telling the brand story, has been directly associated with the products. With four collections, well over 100 runway looks, and over 600 SKUs, this has required some intense rewriting of the way eCommerce data works.”

Additional reviews:

“Browsing the new website almost compares to seeing the clothes in person, and that’s as good as it gets from your desk” (Teen Vogue)

“The latest (and very exciting) addition to the internet is here!” (Glamchic)

“The fashionista’s favourite” (Grazia)

But the power of business blogs, most often created by people within an organisation, is often underestimated. So, if you’re thinking about starting a blog for your business read on, because here are our top 10 benefits of blogging…

1. Search engine optimization
Search engine spiders love blogs! The crawlable URLs and structured yet freshly updated content make for spider heaven – just make sure it is well written, routinely updated and keyword orientated.

2. Inbound links
Blogs are an inbound link magnet. They link freely to each other – much more than websites, and the more media available, the more links you will attract.

3. Brand building
Blogs act as another channel on which to promote your company or brand.

4. Direct communication
They provide a way of letting you speak freely and openly to your customer

5. Public relations
A great PR tool, they also help manage your online reputation.

6. Expert positioning
Become an industry expert and showcase your expertise and knowledge.

7. Low cost
Relatively inexpensive to set up, operate and maintain.

8. Competitive differentiation
Why not set yourselves apart from the competition by telling your story or message?

9. Customer engagement
Blogs encourage participation and interaction. Additionally, an active blog community is rewarded by higher search engine rankings.

10. Easy peasy
Blogs are super easy to use and update.

So what are you waiting for? Get blogging now!