23 February 2010
Is personal search about semantics?
I was recently reading an interview with a director of Bing, Stefan Weitz about the future of search. Stefan has said that one of the biggest problems that search engines have is trying to ascertain the intent of the searcher. This problem has been around for ages and the example we use at Bruce Clay to properly illustrate it is; if you type in java in the search box, are you trying to find information about the coffee, the programming language or the county? Without any additional keywords within the search query, that intent can be difficult to discover.
Photo by dullhunk via Creative Commons |
The next minute I was reading yet another article on personalised search and had a thought, maybe the predominant reason Google instituted personalised search was to better understand the intent of the searcher based on previous searches in terms of language surrounding the query. For example if your personalised searches show 20 previous queries relating to programming language with no queries relating to coffee or an obscure Indonesian island, then it could be assumed your single "java" query would in all probability be related to the programming language. Stefan argues for the need of the search engines to put context around the language and perhaps Google is using personalised search to do just that.
In fact, in the Google video announcing personalised search, they mention that one of the things they hope personalised search will improve is the ability to better determine the searcher's intent. The point I'm trying to make is that with all the negativity surrounding personalised search, perhaps its benefits, particularly surrounding the better identification of intent has been glossed over.
During the course of a regular day I run alot of queries through Google and although I dont have any concrete evidence, I do feel that since personalised search has been turned on by default, my SERP's have got a little better, especially with the search engine seemingly reading my intent better.
While we are on the topic of personalised search, Rand over at SEOmoz had an interesting idea; essentially, he says, "Personalized search is now on by default. This means that every click, branded search, and expression of a "brand preference" or "brand affinity" in Google's results is likely to result in preferential biasing towards that domain in future searches. A "Google" Pontiac message during this Superbowl wouldn't just send users to their site, it would also mean that tens of millions of searchers would now be "personalized" towards that domain."
It's an interesting idea, if you were sure that your company comes up first for a brand search i.e. Nike, then maybe these big corporations should start having "Google Nike" instead of the URL on their brand messaging. This would lead to more people searching Nike and therefore possibly meaning that the Nike web site would come up tops for the search "running shoes" due to your personalised search history.
There are a few caveats for recommending this:
1. Google can decide that personalised search is actually making things worse as supposed to better and just turn it off
2. Users who are not logged in will only have their history tracked for 180 days so you may need a sustained advertising campaign to take advantage of this
3. If you don't appear for your suggested keywords in the organic listings you risk sending a different site your traffic
4. If you are paying for your clicks (eg "search potential" by AmEx) then the traffic to your site is costing you twice (once for TVC, once for adwords click)
There has been a lot of debate within the SEO industry as to what personalised search means. I think anything that helps match a query with better SERP's, is a good thing and to be honest that's why I think Google turned on personalised search for everyone.
Posted by Marc Elison on 23 February 2010 at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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18 February 2010
The State of the Australian Search Market
Australia has always had a healthy obsession for a few things that make this country great. Things like your favourite sports team, a great day at the beach and a backyard BBQ, are topics that can consume a large amount of time and conversation. There is one oddity that continues to boggle my mind, which is the focus on PPC when it comes to online marketing spend with lower regard for other search activities, like SEO for example. Even now with more and more knowledge emerging it seems that PPC still has the advantage on SEO in Australia by a large margin.
When online marketing came to the fore a few years ago, the benefits and how to implement PPC were almost immediately understood while SEO was portrayed as a mystical black art, with a bunch of geniuses sitting in a closeted room deciding the movements of Web sites up and down the rankings. Even now with more and more knowledge emerging it seems that PPC still has the advantage on SEO in Australia by a large margin.
Specific search spend figures for the Australian market are a little hard to come but IAB reports that the total search spend was around $900 million for 2009. Of that figure, the brain's trust at Bruce Clay Australia believes that approximately $100-$135 million is spent on PPC management fees (that doesn't include the actually money spent with Google and other services for actually buying the keywords) while roughly $30-$40 million was spent on SEO billings. SEMPO International 2008 data indicates that out of 100 percent of search spend, 87 percent is spent on paid placement (PPC) while the remaining 11 percent was spent on SEO (the remaining budget was spent on paid inclusions and SEM technologies). Yet PPC is said to yield a much lower volume of traffic. It is estimated that it is that 70 percent of Google's search enquiry click-throughs are to search listings provided by the 'natural' search results. So people are more likely to click through to 'natural listings' and it has a significant long term ROI benefit so why do companies and agencies insist on using the majority of their online spending budget on PPC .
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Well for one PPC is a lot easier to explain and understand than SEO, especially when you are trying to explain the differing concepts to a client with limited expertise. Spent $5,000, made $20,000 is a lot easier than explaining that the new optimised content you have written had gained 1,000 visitors and 875 uniques with a decreased bounce rate due to the longtail traffic targeted. Another reason for the promoting of PPC over SEO is that the ROI is actually easier to measure with PPC campaigns. PPC is more like traditional billboards than SEO so traditional advertising agencies have an easier time understanding it as an old fashioned media spend and it's easier to recommend and deliver to their clients.
SEO also needs more feedback and initiative from the clients' side. It means working with the client to conduct keyword research and may even require substantial technical investment on the client's Web site to make it 'SEO friendly' whereas with PPC, clients can have a more peripheral role with the running of the PPC campaign with less demands placed on their time and resources.
Yes, PPC results are immediate and the budget can be controlled. Yes, you can geo-locate advertisements to appear in certain states and towns. Yes, PPC campaigns are relatively easy to implement and fairly easy to measure. However, many reports indicate that the long-term ROI of PPC campaigns are limited, while the opposite occurs with regard to natural or organic traffic (as can be seen from this graph to the right from elliance.com).
The good news is the tide is turning, a quick Google trends search worldwide shows how SEO has slowly eroded the lead that PPC has had and even overtaken it (red is "PPC" while blue is "SEO"):
The chart below is for Australia and shows a similar phenomenon as to what is happening worldwide (red is "PPC" while blue is "SEO"):
A report from Eyeblaster in October 2009 found that "Australia and New Zealand are among the least likely nations to click or dwell on online display advertising". The explanation given by Eyeblaster was as follows "In less mature markets, where users are novice in online advertising, they receive ads with more open arms. When the market matures, the users' fatigue together with increased competition for their attention reduces engagement significantly. The users' propensity to engage with ads should be taken into account when comparing benchmarks between geographies and verticals."
Essentially Australia is becoming more 'ad-blind' and this is extending to PPC advertisements. SEO has traditionally been giving a bad rap, and the constant flaming efforts by some people in the industry to create linkbait certainly have not helped. However, there is a movement growing behind the art of SEO these days and education is the key. More and more CEOs and CMOs are becoming educated due to more and more SEO information filtering into the mainstream news. More SEO companies are also taking it upon themselves to educate potential clients through free and paid training sessions. The decision makers are beginning to see the value of SEO over PPC, if they need some further proof, here is a great infographic from DIYSEO.
PPC is also becoming more expensive. With more and more companies becoming active and visible in the online realm, more bids on terms will push prices for high visible PPC positions higher and higher, good for Google, bad for companies using PPC to advertise their wares. In fact research suggests that the cost of popular keywords on Google has increased by up to 300 percent in the last three or four years in Australia. SEO has been criticised for its lack of transparency in the past, i.e. how and what exactly we do to help our clients achieve SEO key performance indicators. The industry as a whole has recognised this and most reputable SEO services providers have tried to make their workings as clear and transparent as possible to appease any uneasiness associated with the so-called "smoke and mirror" approach of the past.
I have a dream. I have a dream where PPC and SEO can exist peacefully and co-inhabit our online world; where these two technologies will be used together to create a symbiotic relationship that will increase ROI for the companies and agencies using them. A recent report by Frost & Sullivan states that "Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) continue to attract advertiser spend in Australia and in a change to previous patterns, the two strategies are becoming more widely adopted simultaneously rather than exclusively" and I think that's a pretty good direction for the Australian online market to be moving in. Studies shown by iCrossing show that clicks, actions, orders, page views, visitors and time on site all increased when SEO and PPC were used together in a complimentary fashion.
I myself am an organic search evangelist. It's something I live and breathe every day. Sometimes I want to shout from the rooftops Gordon Gecko-esque "SEO is good", and a strange shift is slowly happening. Many other people around Australia are starting to feel the same way. We can see that by the way that SEO is catching up to PPC in not only ad spend but searches and mentions around the Web. The more transparent we make the SEO process and the better the education and news around SEO becomes, the more traction it will get and I can't wait for SEO attain its true place alongside PPC in the Parthenon of online spend.
Posted by Marc Elison on 18 February 2010 at 9:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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12 February 2010
The Complexity of Deciding Which Web Analytics Solution To Use
The majority of online businesses need a tool to measure traffic to determine sources of visitors to their web site and how visitors interact with their site. These measures help determine profitability and areas of the site that are performing well and others that visitors are having difficulties with. As many business owners are aware, the solution to obtaining this data is by using a Web Analytics program to measure and track your site statistics. Using Web Analytics software is integral to your search marketing strategy and is the key to keeping on top of your search traffic, referrals, visitors and more. With paid and free Web Analytics providers which one should you use?
Photo by Search Engine People Blog via Creative Commons |
The answer to this question depends on the needs of your business and the type and amount of information that you require. If you're a search marketing agency and measure pay per click campaigns then an Analytics solution will assist in justifying your clients spend and ideally show return on investment (ROI). For those purely interested in organic search traffic then an Analytics solution is the best way to determine and justify your sites return via search engine optimisation. The most popular paid Analytics providers today include Google Analytics, Yahoo IndexTools, Microsoft adCenter Analytics, Omniture, Webtrends and Coremetrics. Another conundrum before deciding on the right solution is whether you want server side Analytics (log file analysis) or client side Analytics (page tagging using JavaScript)?
If data storage is a concern, the best solution is to use a provider that stores the data for you and tracks page visits via page tagging. Otherwise you will need to store the log files on your own server and use a server side solution that does the analysis using your own business resources (the cost of the software, a possible dedicated server, software upgrades, log files maintenance and management all need to be accounted for). Both server side and client side solutions have their advantages and disadvantages as outlined in the table below:
Most solutions today will use page tagging as from a business perspective it is an easier, more accurate and convenient solution. Also as a number of Analytics providers offer the service for free, such as Google Analytics, and therefore the cost of using such a service is a non-issue.
The best solution to deciding which Web Analytics solution to use is to evaluate each product (try and obtain a free trial from paid solutions) and record the key advantages, disadvantages and differences between each and then make a decision on which solution would provide the most benefits to your business/organisation. As Google Analytics is a free and powerful Analytics solution, that has many of the same features of the paid Analytics providers, it is more advantageous to use it than not and it provides a foundation of data in which to compare statistics from other Web Analytics providers during evaluation. It's important to note that no two provider's statistics will be the same and remember it's the data analysts that interpret this data and they need to make the right decisions to justify whether the Web Analytics provider chosen will benefit the business.
Either way I think you will all agree that the only way to gather information in relation to visitors to your site that can help make key business decisions is to choose a quality Web Analytics provider. If cost is an issue, eliminate this obstacle and sign up to Google Analytics today and evaluate whether it is the right solution for your business in 6 months time.
Posted by Grant Hilton on 12 February 2010 at 9:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
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10 February 2010
SEO Factors and Trends Report Released
Bruce Clay Australia is proud to announce the release of our "SEO Factors and Trends" report. This report is a concise yet comprehensive review of the more important SEO ranking factors and the changes made to these ranking factors over the past 12 months or so.
The most important 12 ranking factors are thoroughly reviewed and implications for changes in these ranking factors are also discussed. Ranking factors deemed not vital but still important to your search engine optimisation strategy are also listed and additionally there is a preview of what 2010 might bring us in terms of the search landscape. Download the pdf version of this report from the SEO Factors and Trends report page.
Posted by Marc Elison on 10 February 2010 at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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8 February 2010
Keyword Research-Factors to consider
When doing a keyword research, there are quite a few factors that need particular attention and that are often underestimated. Below are some examples:
- Seasonality
If you base your keywords research only from local search from the previous month, you may be risking basing your research on misleading sets of data. The reason behind this is that search patterns naturally change throughout the year and there a broad range of keywords that might be affected by seasonality factors. Imagine you are a company that sells sports merchandise and that wants to identify which Australian sport is the most popular and searched. If the company decides to run a search in May, it will probably think that rugby is the most searched term - see below.
A good way to evaluate seasonality factors is to use Google Insights (as shown in the example above) and the new Google Keyword tool. This tool is only available through your Google Adwords account. The difference between this and the keyword tool available to public search results, is that this(logged in version) gives you the ability to see traffic data month by month. The representation of the above data in the keyword tool will be as follows:
This shows you in details how the distribution of searches varies throughout the year.
- Search volumes predictions
Search volume predictions can affect your keyword research. For example, in the information technology industry, new terminologies are constantly being created and others becoming obsolete. Volume predictions can sometimes be identified by global search volumes and global search trends. An indication of how search volumes may vary can be obtained with the tools mentioned above (Google Insights and keyword tool).
See below some example of terms that show increase in Google trends, and have high search volumes worldwide but not yet in Australia:
Google Insights worldwide results for "cloud computing"
Google traffic results for "cloud computing" in Australia
Google Insights results for "mobile seo" worldwide
Google Traffic results Australia for the keyword "mobile seo"
Keep in consideration the global trends especially in similar markets; this might give you an indication on how search trends will develop in the near feature.
- British and American spelling dilemma
In the English language, there are a variety of terms that vary according to the British or American spelling. Surprisingly enough there are quite a lot of words that have American spelling but that are highly searched in the Australian market.
See some of the example below:
It is important to not underestimate search volumes around the spelling variation of search terms as they may be commonly used in other markets. Similarly other words belonging to other languages such as French or Spanish might suffer from the same dilemma.
Posted by Raffaella Bronzi on 8 February 2010 at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Marc Elison
Kate Gamble
Martin Orliac
