Search: Lately Issue 24

Weekly Search Round Up As we click into the New Year, this week’s issue features a number of predictions for 2012 from industry experts both internally and externally and what it all means for Search and advertisers.

For a look back on 2011 and even more tips to optimise search activity in 2012 please see last year’s Christmas Issue...

PPC Resolutions to Inspire You 03 Jan 2012 – A number of non-account specific resolutions for 2012 to develop your PPC campaigns, including improved client communications, campaign automation tactics, training schedules and strategy manifesto tactics for 2012... searchenginewatch.com/article/2133551/7-PPC-Resolutions-to-Keep-You-Focused-andInspired POV: Some of the biggest obstacles preventing campaigns really flying may not be specific to the campaign details but related to the management of the accounts as a whole. Prioritising key contributors to success such continual development through training and utilising the strengths within a team, as well as ensuring communications both internally and externally are as fluid and regular as possible will only help to deliver results faster. - Kevin Ting, Search Executive Expert Advised SEO Tips for 2012 03 Jan 2012 - At the beginning of 2012 a handful of SEO experts have provided a useful list of tips on how to keep websites in the top ranking positions, they include the importance of going beyond traditional SEO of unique content and link building, for example the use of the rel-author tag and the inclusion of rich snippets... edgyseo.com/seo/seo-tips-2012/ POV: With Google becoming more and more sophisticated what is the best way to keep a website at the forefront of SEO? The main argument in this article is that keeping it „personal‟ is the key to success, for example websites should utilise Google+ tools when it comes to social interaction such as Hangouts and public Circles. Furthermore they focus on the importance of the Author Rank which includes “rel-author“ and “rel-me” tags in order for Google to distinguish unique content. In short, keep up with Google products and produce websites that are people orientated rather than produced purely for a Google robot. Be inspired with a few ideas on how to get ahead in 2012.

- Hannah Struve, SEO Executive What is in store for Google in 2012?

02 Jan 2012 – Google will look to push their dominance even further after launching a number of products in 2011, most notably +1 buttons for everyone and Google Plus social network platform. This year expect to see them push forwards with Google Wallet, Google TV & voice search functionalities on mobile. thenextweb.com/google/2012/01/02/what-2012-holds-for-google/

Google Demotes Itself in Search Results 02 Jan 2012 - Google has pushed down Chrome in its own natural search results after efforts to have bloggers promote the Google browser went public... searchengineland.com/google-chrome-page-will-have-pagerank-reduced-due-tosponsored-posts-106551 POV: It's all a bit ironic as Google have been anti paid links and very vocal about this. This was further proven through the Panda updates; reiterating how important fresh, relevant content is for a website to rank well. Google have however, stuck to their promise of taking action as they would with another site and demoted the page; Whilst the download page for Chrome previously ranked at position 2 for the term 'browser' they have now been bumped to position 73 for at least 60 days. Google promise they are „looking at what changes we need to make to ensure that this never happens again' but it‟s happened before, and it‟s highly likely that it will happen again.

- Jimisha Lakhani, Senior SEO Executive Anvil Media 2012 SEM Prediction 30 Dec 2012 – A comprehensive set of prediction supplied by Anvil Media including how they see the next 12 months with a look at areas such as mobile, link developments, SEO & Social... www.business2community.com/online-marketing/anvil-medias-2012-search-enginemarketing-predictions-part-1-0112612 Part 1 – Anvil Media‟s 2012 Predictions

Part 2 – Anvil Media‟s 2012 Predictions

POV: A number of key highlights and predictions with social, YouTube and mobile featuring heavily in prediction for 2012. Anvil Media predict much like other industry experts that mobile will take centre stage next year as technology such as NFC and tablets become even more mainstream. They do however make some rather more interesting predictions by predicting Google will purchase Facebook and rebrand it as Facebook+, while Yahoo become #1 search engine as Google spread themselves too thin and neglect the basics. - Kevin Ting, Search Executive Importance of Mobile in Search for 2012 27 Dec 2011 – Search on mobile is expected to continue its growth this year, as QR codes, personalisation and voice search feature heavily in search heading into 2012... searchenginewatch.com/article/2133514/Search-Mobile-Marketing-Trends-SEOApocalypse-2012 POV: As mentioned in previous issues, mobile will only continue to grow in 2012, the importance of building dedicated mobile campaigns into PPC activity as well as optimising mobile website for search will be even more significant in 2012. Brand‟s can no longer afford to neglect mobile as more and more competitors realise the significance of this channel in the future of search and advertising, as it allows for much greater personalisation and targeting marketing.

- Kevin Ting, Search Executive

“2012 will see the continued improvement of measurement, ad formats, relevancy and segmentation. I predict that by the end of the year, mobile search and tablet devices will continue to grow, PPC ads will be richer in format and download-able apps will form part of the search results.

Aside from these factors, Google's core ethos will remain the same, they will try to make information more accessible to users, by clamping down on poor quality traffic, sites, and content.

Finally, data encryption and privacy laws will make true attribution modelling even more challenging.”

- Paul Kasamias, PPC Associate Director at SMG “I know it may sound trite but I think 2012 will be the year of......mobile (yaaaay!!), in the sense that mobile will become an established channel, with Mobile PPC sitting with a different line on plans.

Mobile search strategies will further differentiate between Smart Phones and tablets; Google will streamline its results even further aligning desktop results to a mobile look-and-feel, rolling out ads at the bottom of the page rather than the right hand side (we have started to see this at the end of 2011 but this year it will roll out globally). I'm expecting to see more mobile and tablet specific types of ad formats. We as an agency will have to sharpen our understanding of mobile's contribution to the overall customers' journey in order to lead clients' strategies.

What will happen to Google+? Will it take off in 2012....?! I think Google still has a lot of work to do on this platform to make it work. At the moment, there may be brand pages on it, but nothing is happening and no one is really using it. In my opinion Google has so far failed to provide a tangible reason to actually use the platform and something unique you can do with it which you can't do on Facebook and unless they find it the whole thing will struggle to take off.

Could the spark be some sort of ultra cool, ultra fast Google + mobile platform?”

- Francesca Gioia, PPC Associate Director at SMG “My prediction for 2012 is that the gap between search and social will become even more blurred and merge. Whilst people will still use search engines to research and find relevant information, the way, why and where they search will be strongly influenced by the social platforms they are engaged with which will in turn dictate the type of search terms, phrases and language used to find information, buy products or engage with brands. The integration of social platforms and social apps across mobile devices in particular, will require us as a business to adapt and evolve so that we effectively and relevantly capture an audience who are searching across multiple platforms and web properties with the same destination in mind.”

- Matt Whittle, PPC Associate Director at SMG “I think we are going to see big strides with our current campaign management technologies where they look to respond to requirements to further integrate PPC with SEO, as well as incorporating other biddable media channels such as AOD, FaceBook API and Promoted Tweets.

We have already seen Beta versions of Facebook API integration through the likes of Kenshoo.

2012 should see these channels come much close together in terms of planning holistically and seeing the results via one platform.”

- Louise Borg, PPC Associate Director at SMG

Sources searchengineland.com edgyseo.com searchenginewatch.com

www.business2community.com

thenextweb.com

Visit Us http://emergingspaces.co.uk http://www.smvgroup.co.uk/

Follow Us on Twitter @EmergingSpaces @SMGSearchUK @SearchLately Publisher Kevin Ting Contributors Jimisha Lakhani Hannah Struve Paul Kasamias Francesca Gioia Matt Whittle Louise Borg