Aaron Wall of SEOBOOK gave a webinar last week entitled "SEO strategies for the 21st Century". Overall I am very much on his wavelength, and agree with his outlook for the future of search marketing. Below are the main messages that I took from him.
The first is that to feature in search engine listings, it must be the marketeers' aspiration to be industry leaders in their space. As sponsored listings and "one-box" features built by the search engines themselves appear more predominantly above the fold on page 1 of listings, the squeeze to appear in the mix tightens. Site Index results are another phenomenon whereby industry leaders take a greater slice of the pie on the premium results page. There lies the incentive to control that authority listing, as well as pay for advertising in the sponsored real estate of the page.
With reference to market economics, we know of herd mentality and monopolisation of industries. The same is forecast for the digital space. Only the best will survive and winners will take a disproportional share of market power. To succeed requires social networking. Any presence on the web should add value to the end user, and in fact should inspire your target audience to act as brand evangelists. Review-based marketing is pivotal to success. Fore-runners in this marketing mould, such as Expedia, understood this when they took ownership of sites like TripAdvisor and hotels.com, platforms to forum-based consumer-generated-content which cross-sell Expedia's other product lines and fortify their position as market authorities, as voted by their consumers.
Of course not all of us have the capacity to go off acquiring social networks. We can create our own community peer review schemes internally though. The key is define the offering exactly, and present it in an interactive manner. If a visitor to a website is empowered to communicate with the brand directly, be it through competition, product review, testimonial, or community log-in, they will feel affiliated to the brand, be it someone's blog or an e-commerce site. According to Aaron, "The Cluetrain Manifesto" is a very forward looking marketing dissection that describes markets as conversations, and the powerful voice of the masses. As it is freely available online, I for one intend to read it ASAP.
Another area covered was that of the manifestation of search suggest. Live, Google and Yahoo! have all incorporated this form of pre-emptive search query dynamic drop-down technology. Aaron delivered a telling statistic that he had overheard over at MSN, whereby search engineers reported somewhere in the region of 20% of queries being unique, and not registering previously for search. This emphasises the long tail of search. However with search suggest, that tail shortens and becomes a short head and fat belly, to quote Aaron again. Therefore, popular queries will experience vastly more search volume as they receive click-through from suggestion boxes. Competition for listings on these queries will heighten, as search query analysis returns a homogenisation of fewer high volume terms. Search marketeers then need to understand that it is better to put value on certain niche terms that they can compete on, rather than employ spray-gun tactics. As with migration to social, it becomes imperative to be a pioneer in a specialist subject, rather than a jack of all trades. Finally, these suggestion tool boxes also open up a wealth of keyword research faculties which can be judged against traditional tools such as compete, wordtracker, and overture.
Showing posts with label universal search optimisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label universal search optimisation. Show all posts
29 October 2008
20 October 2008
The Knowledge Era
Two aspects of Nick Carr's book, "The Big Switch, from Edison to Google", strike me. They have ramifications for search marketing, as they do for our everyday lives.
1. Migration to data cloud technology
2. User profiling
1. Salesforce.com and Google are prime examples of this shift to a central grid system of data storage and software application. I now have a clear idea in my mind of how the web environment will operate. I'm already a convert to Google docs and apps. I realise that I do not need to download my mail to view it. I am happy to host my website remotely. In fact, my personal computer is almost devoid of data, it simply runs the software programmes that I use to both interact online, or work offline. Soon that will be an archaic approach. Soon all I will need is a control panel and a connection to the internet. In the case of Salesforce, I will log on, access my purchased software programmes, view and build my projects, then store everything in my personal, private databank. I will not need all the processing power, RAM, or operation system requirements currently weighing my laptop carry-case down. I'll just need a portal to my online home. Initially that will require a type pad and screen, and inbuilt to that screen a wireless modem, but down the line, I hazard that I will not need anything physical to connect and work. Google Chrome marks the way in interaction with the web. It is a project that seeks to remove browsers' reliance on operation systems to function. The idea eventually is that no longer will I need to boot up my Mac OS, and fire up Firefox. Instead, my machine will hibernate in Chrome-mode, an Operation System in its' own right, the mechanics sitting above and before Windows, Linux, or Mac. I'll no longer need to invest heavily in the hardware. It'll all be provided free-of-charge, provided I put up with some advertising resting alongside my window into cyberspace. Nick Carr draws comparisons with the electric grid. It is fascination to look back only a few decades to a time when steam generators and individual turbines powered industry. Amazing then to realise the economies of scale achieved when businesses and households alike plugged into a central energy supply. The same is happening online. Billions of individual databundles (that's us!) are now merging into one voluminous ball of information. We are the knowledge economy because of this shared medium. The intelligence inherent in this web community is greater than the sum of its' parts. As artificial intelligence stages its' arrival, control of this information will dictate who best profits from this new-age economy, and as Mr. Carr predicts, securing the content of the web will be business on a grand scale.
What does this all mean for search engine marketeers?
In a nut-shell, more mediums to optimise for and greater inter-relation between these vehicles. As Google surges ahead with PDF crawls, video transcribing, the indexing of entire libraries of books, image association and translation to text, the future is mapped out in colour. We as the end-user will place more content online, and if published for public consumption (and sometimes even if private, depending on our host), it will be spidered, and it may return in search results. One striking example is that of corporate business plans materialising for all to read online. Such is the dilemma and the opportunity for SEO specialists. The other side to it is social referral. It seems clear that Larry Page and Sergey Brin's original PageRank algorithm still holds sway today, though the relational mathematics complicate exponentially. How one piece piece of information relates to another still signals the worth of one vis-a-vis the other. The search engine guru's job has moved on from just web-pages. In fact, it is possible to be a very successful SEO consultant and never optimise a piece of html code. As search continues to forage for rich-media to return in search results, multi-sensory listings will appear in various forms, that is audio, video, image, documents, news, maps, calenders, products and users' social profiles. Optimisation will be conducted by channels, from people search, to product search, traditional entertainment verticals(audio-visual), current affairs, community interaction, and individual publications, be they research, marketing, or location-based. That requires a strong presence across blogger, YouTube, Google Maps, RSS feeds, Google Docs, Google News and Google Base, to name a few. Notice how each of these portals has one overarching similarity. They are all Google-owned. The time is not far off when web content is brought under one roof and we are handed the controls (though perhaps with stabilisers and speed restrictions), much as a Google account now offers. Big question however is who will have or should have the keys to this centralised world-wide web? There's are two conflicting forces pulling in opposing directions here. The internet is built to to be a confetti of decentralised ones and zeros, but the growing consensus, like with Edison's electric grid, is that it needs a revamp. With regulation, comes authority, something the pioneers of the web rebelled against. Until the day comes when big brother is all-powerful, optimise by channel and inter-link these channels via the community at your disposal, the social networks.
2. The gatekeepers that I speak of above are those who understand the movements and conduct of the users of the web. Currently, it is social portals and search engines that hold all of the cards in this instance. I can say this with authority because user profiling is the output of this information filtering and analysis. Who offers the most specific, targeted demographic and intuitive personalised marketing? Search engines like Google and social hubs like Facebook and the Yahoo! content network. These giants know us, and it is coming to the point (not by chance I can tell you) that they understand our patterns, and the patterns of users "like us", to predict our future actions online, before we make them. Case in point, predictive search. For every search and click that a user conducts, these engines receive feedback which better helps them calculate probabilities of others' actions and of this users action in future. Armed as such, marketing can be persuasive and alarmingly accurate. Marketeers who side with this form of testing gain a competitive advantage. Access to analytics accounts is one example. Navigational paths and search query reports return an insight into your customers' mind never before granted. Dissection reveals where users come from, what they originally came online to do, how they found the marketing element, how they interacted with it, and whether they came back for more months after initial contact. Keyword search volume has long been the pillar upon which search engine experts stood. It has been both their strength and their achilles'. I believe it is one of the principle reasons why search engine marketing continues to have a greyness associated to it. It is the intangible mixed with the exact that the lay-man cannot understand and will not stand for. Smugness was the trait-de-jour of techie know-it-alls. White is the new grey, and transparency is the holy grail. Not that I want to be see through, but the concept of an honest, and revealing client/agent relationship is gaining ground. Instead of holding the ace of spades up their sleeve, search engines are opening up search trending data to the public, with innovations such as Google Insight. It may not be even close to the whole picture, and often when drilled down to location and niche market, the data is far from telling, but the notion is applaudable. Good search marketing then will not be identifying where the truffles are and quietly trotting off to reap the harvest. The true test will not be to identify your market, align you message to it and optimise in the traditional manner. That will be assumed. It will be to live the message in the digital community, across the channels, and your success will be determined by the market response as tracked by analytics scripts. It's much like the stock market. Sentiment will go a-long way, rather than a sneak preview to the financial accounts prior to publication.
1. Migration to data cloud technology
2. User profiling
1. Salesforce.com and Google are prime examples of this shift to a central grid system of data storage and software application. I now have a clear idea in my mind of how the web environment will operate. I'm already a convert to Google docs and apps. I realise that I do not need to download my mail to view it. I am happy to host my website remotely. In fact, my personal computer is almost devoid of data, it simply runs the software programmes that I use to both interact online, or work offline. Soon that will be an archaic approach. Soon all I will need is a control panel and a connection to the internet. In the case of Salesforce, I will log on, access my purchased software programmes, view and build my projects, then store everything in my personal, private databank. I will not need all the processing power, RAM, or operation system requirements currently weighing my laptop carry-case down. I'll just need a portal to my online home. Initially that will require a type pad and screen, and inbuilt to that screen a wireless modem, but down the line, I hazard that I will not need anything physical to connect and work. Google Chrome marks the way in interaction with the web. It is a project that seeks to remove browsers' reliance on operation systems to function. The idea eventually is that no longer will I need to boot up my Mac OS, and fire up Firefox. Instead, my machine will hibernate in Chrome-mode, an Operation System in its' own right, the mechanics sitting above and before Windows, Linux, or Mac. I'll no longer need to invest heavily in the hardware. It'll all be provided free-of-charge, provided I put up with some advertising resting alongside my window into cyberspace. Nick Carr draws comparisons with the electric grid. It is fascination to look back only a few decades to a time when steam generators and individual turbines powered industry. Amazing then to realise the economies of scale achieved when businesses and households alike plugged into a central energy supply. The same is happening online. Billions of individual databundles (that's us!) are now merging into one voluminous ball of information. We are the knowledge economy because of this shared medium. The intelligence inherent in this web community is greater than the sum of its' parts. As artificial intelligence stages its' arrival, control of this information will dictate who best profits from this new-age economy, and as Mr. Carr predicts, securing the content of the web will be business on a grand scale.
What does this all mean for search engine marketeers?
In a nut-shell, more mediums to optimise for and greater inter-relation between these vehicles. As Google surges ahead with PDF crawls, video transcribing, the indexing of entire libraries of books, image association and translation to text, the future is mapped out in colour. We as the end-user will place more content online, and if published for public consumption (and sometimes even if private, depending on our host), it will be spidered, and it may return in search results. One striking example is that of corporate business plans materialising for all to read online. Such is the dilemma and the opportunity for SEO specialists. The other side to it is social referral. It seems clear that Larry Page and Sergey Brin's original PageRank algorithm still holds sway today, though the relational mathematics complicate exponentially. How one piece piece of information relates to another still signals the worth of one vis-a-vis the other. The search engine guru's job has moved on from just web-pages. In fact, it is possible to be a very successful SEO consultant and never optimise a piece of html code. As search continues to forage for rich-media to return in search results, multi-sensory listings will appear in various forms, that is audio, video, image, documents, news, maps, calenders, products and users' social profiles. Optimisation will be conducted by channels, from people search, to product search, traditional entertainment verticals(audio-visual), current affairs, community interaction, and individual publications, be they research, marketing, or location-based. That requires a strong presence across blogger, YouTube, Google Maps, RSS feeds, Google Docs, Google News and Google Base, to name a few. Notice how each of these portals has one overarching similarity. They are all Google-owned. The time is not far off when web content is brought under one roof and we are handed the controls (though perhaps with stabilisers and speed restrictions), much as a Google account now offers. Big question however is who will have or should have the keys to this centralised world-wide web? There's are two conflicting forces pulling in opposing directions here. The internet is built to to be a confetti of decentralised ones and zeros, but the growing consensus, like with Edison's electric grid, is that it needs a revamp. With regulation, comes authority, something the pioneers of the web rebelled against. Until the day comes when big brother is all-powerful, optimise by channel and inter-link these channels via the community at your disposal, the social networks.
2. The gatekeepers that I speak of above are those who understand the movements and conduct of the users of the web. Currently, it is social portals and search engines that hold all of the cards in this instance. I can say this with authority because user profiling is the output of this information filtering and analysis. Who offers the most specific, targeted demographic and intuitive personalised marketing? Search engines like Google and social hubs like Facebook and the Yahoo! content network. These giants know us, and it is coming to the point (not by chance I can tell you) that they understand our patterns, and the patterns of users "like us", to predict our future actions online, before we make them. Case in point, predictive search. For every search and click that a user conducts, these engines receive feedback which better helps them calculate probabilities of others' actions and of this users action in future. Armed as such, marketing can be persuasive and alarmingly accurate. Marketeers who side with this form of testing gain a competitive advantage. Access to analytics accounts is one example. Navigational paths and search query reports return an insight into your customers' mind never before granted. Dissection reveals where users come from, what they originally came online to do, how they found the marketing element, how they interacted with it, and whether they came back for more months after initial contact. Keyword search volume has long been the pillar upon which search engine experts stood. It has been both their strength and their achilles'. I believe it is one of the principle reasons why search engine marketing continues to have a greyness associated to it. It is the intangible mixed with the exact that the lay-man cannot understand and will not stand for. Smugness was the trait-de-jour of techie know-it-alls. White is the new grey, and transparency is the holy grail. Not that I want to be see through, but the concept of an honest, and revealing client/agent relationship is gaining ground. Instead of holding the ace of spades up their sleeve, search engines are opening up search trending data to the public, with innovations such as Google Insight. It may not be even close to the whole picture, and often when drilled down to location and niche market, the data is far from telling, but the notion is applaudable. Good search marketing then will not be identifying where the truffles are and quietly trotting off to reap the harvest. The true test will not be to identify your market, align you message to it and optimise in the traditional manner. That will be assumed. It will be to live the message in the digital community, across the channels, and your success will be determined by the market response as tracked by analytics scripts. It's much like the stock market. Sentiment will go a-long way, rather than a sneak preview to the financial accounts prior to publication.
22 June 2008
Universal search: Optimise across search vehicles
Jonny reviews how search engines globally are pulling content from multi-sensory (maps, images, videos, news, social networks, references sites) portals such as YouTube, New York Times, Bebo, Facebook, Trip Advisor, StumbleUpon, Yahoo! Answers and Flickr. Google and Yahoo! both demonstrate this trend with recent revamps of the search result interface, displaying rich media in preference for html links. Surf Merchant is now coming through for high volume search terms like "surfboards Ireland", but also for qualified searches such as "minimal", "latest surfboards" and "surfboard guide". Our involvement across these verticals must not be discounted for spring-boarding the website and its' associated marketing to dominance.
Observation proves that before long, real estate above-the-fold of search results is liable to be dominated by rich media together with sponsored listings. Google in particular is buying up the authority hubs across the verticals with fury. YouTube is in the bag, Google image is vast, Google and Yahoo! are getting into bed and Yahoo! has incredible network resources at its' disposal (Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, Yahoo! Mail). This finance is not to be squandered on trophy hunting. Ownership brings access to information, all of which will inevitably be fed back to the search user for "better" search experience and the holy grail of relevant search results. To stay on top of the page requires presence in these mediums. It also means we need to kneel to search engines insatiable thirst for data, that is permit access to our profiles. An example would be to link up our pay-per-click accounts to our analytics accounts, opening up internal data on site performance, so as that can feed back into keyword quality score, a result of which will be that CTR(click thru rate) will fall victim to click/website stickiness/lead ratios. The walls are being demolished, and best to be seen to be clean, local, up-to-date and on the brink of digital evolution.
Observation proves that before long, real estate above-the-fold of search results is liable to be dominated by rich media together with sponsored listings. Google in particular is buying up the authority hubs across the verticals with fury. YouTube is in the bag, Google image is vast, Google and Yahoo! are getting into bed and Yahoo! has incredible network resources at its' disposal (Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, Yahoo! Mail). This finance is not to be squandered on trophy hunting. Ownership brings access to information, all of which will inevitably be fed back to the search user for "better" search experience and the holy grail of relevant search results. To stay on top of the page requires presence in these mediums. It also means we need to kneel to search engines insatiable thirst for data, that is permit access to our profiles. An example would be to link up our pay-per-click accounts to our analytics accounts, opening up internal data on site performance, so as that can feed back into keyword quality score, a result of which will be that CTR(click thru rate) will fall victim to click/website stickiness/lead ratios. The walls are being demolished, and best to be seen to be clean, local, up-to-date and on the brink of digital evolution.
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