Highlights bought to you by Search Lately at SMG this week include: Sites Go Offline in US Privacy Law 2012: Rise of the Tablet? Search Alliance Enters Testing Phase Top Tips to Blog Effective Google – Ad Level Impression Share Dealing with SSL Encryption Search SEO Changes for Search Plus World Brands Hit By Google Ad Scams Loss of Data? Loss of Sight? Anti-trust Issues – Industry Reaction Browse last week‟s Search Lately for more details and initial reaction from industry experts on recent hot topics.
Sites Go Offline in US Privacy Law - 18th January 2012 A number of websites took part in a 24 hour „black out‟ protest against two bills (SOPA, The House of Representatives' Stop Online Piracy Act & PIPA, the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act) currently being considered by American Congress to tackle long standing copyright infringements. The arguments for the two bills lie in the ongoing battle of people downloading and copying material free of charge, while those that create the material lose out. The main argument against the two bills is that they are badly written and as a result could seriously affect people‟s freedom on the internet. Wikipedia was the most notable site involved in the blackout protest and Google US posted a link in support, advocates for both sites claimed that the bills, if passed, would seriously infringe on the way in which they conduct themselves. The digital battle against protecting IP in a time of file sharing is a turbulent one, the article puts across a few interesting points but conclusively it appears that SOPA and PIPA bills lack a certain complexity that is needed to deal with the intricate problem at hand. At a time when a number of anti-trust and privacy debates are going on elsewhere the outcomes of these recent issues could have serious implications for online websites. -
Hannah Struve
Related sources: www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16604990
2012: Rise of the Tablet? – 17th January 2012 If last year was claimed to be the year of the mobile then this year will surely be the year that tablets really take off and become even more mainstream. Figures released by InMobi show a mammoth 771% increase in in-app ad impression for Q4 2011 year on year is evidence shows that this channel is growing fast! Search volumes since the festive period have also been rising rapidly with an great influx of tablets into the market and a specific tablet strategy for search activity will be vital as people become more a accustomed to searching on the move on. Even more so than on mobile, users are increasingly willing to make a purchase on tablets with the same ease of navigation associated with desktop websites. Advertisers can no longer ignore tablets a core channel for driving search traffic, maybe even more so than mobile as the propensity to convert is higher due to the similarity with desktop websites. A recent survey by location-based company revealed that while 8% of public Wi-Fi users in UK came from tablet devices in the build up to Christmas (1st Dec – 24th Dec), this has figure actually rose to 12.7% post Christmas (25th Dec – 31st Dec). This research further highlights the rise of the tablet as customers are increasingly shifting from laptop to tablet devices for on the go search needs. -
Kevin Ting
Related sources: www.nma.co.uk/news/in-app-ads-spur-250-increase-in-mobile-advertising/3033337.article www.nma.co.uk/news/december-brings-rise-in-public-wi-fi-use-via-tablets/3033378.article
Search Alliance Enters Testing Phase - 17th January 2012 Yahoo! And Microsoft announced in the past week that they will be embarking on an initial testing phase in preparation for the Search Alliance launching officially later in Q1 2012 for UK and France. As Yahoo! and Bing searches become powered by the same engine, volumes will rise as more time and money will also be spent this platform. The degree of success will ultimately depend on a radical shift in consumer search behaviour (away from Google), which will lead to significant search volume changes between these giants. In reality, such a drastic shift in power would seem surprising with Google‟s current stranglehold on the search network, but the more privacy issues that Google gets involved in the more people will start to mistrust them and look elsewhere for search needs. The Search Alliance may however arrive just in time to reap the rewards from recent highly publicised controversial changes to the Google search engine. -
Kevin Ting
Related sources: news.accuracast.com/technology-7471/microsoft-and-yahoo-search-alliance-creepsforward-in-uk/
Top Tips to Blog Effective - 17th January 2012 This article includes 21 tips from Rand Fishkin on how to improve traffic to your blog, and depending on the type of blog - not all of these will apply but there will definitely be some you can use. If you don't have a blog - you probably should! Blogs can be used as part of an integrated SEO and social media strategy, and whilst you can blog about virtually anything, key is to be passionate and engaging about whatever you are blogging about so that it flows. Blogs can take a lot of time to build up and really take off so don't start up a blog as a quick fix remedy. Investing time into a blog will really show, and ideally push readers through to your website off the back of the blog. If you are thinking of starting up a blog, it‟s definitely worth taking a look at the list and integrating these into blog plans. -
Jimisha Lakhani
Related sources: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/21-tactics-to-increase-blog-traffic-2012
Other News: Google – Ad Level Impression Share- 17th January 2012 Advertisers will start to have ad level impression share available from January 30 th as Google offer even greater visibility and granularity for aiding PPC management. This is a welcome addition to the wide range of features now available to advertisers for assessing account performance and exploring opportunities to optimise for. Related sources: searchengineland.com/adgroup-level-impression-share-metrics-coming-to-adwords108369
Dealing with SSL Encryption Search – 16th January 2012 With significant amounts of vital data now unavailable to search practitioners, both PPC and SEO will have to work harder as SSL encryption gives less visibility to the volumes of keyword related traffic available. Related sources: searchenginewatch.com/article/2137558/5-Stages-of-Coping-with-Loss-of-Search-QueryData
SEO Changes for Search Plus World – 16th January 2012 The introduction of this Google search update means that SEO campaign changes will be require to really capitalise on the opportunities and challenges that it will arise in the coming weeks and months ahead. Related sources: econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8684-search-plus-five-changes-you-need-to-make-to-yourseo-campaigns
Brands Hit By Google Ad Scams – 13th January 2012 Brands have been hit by a number of scams in recent weeks as Google ads claiming to be from certain sites such as BBC, Independent and Daily Mail are being redirected to manufacturer websites instead. Scammers are finding ways around Google‟s matching URL policy for display and destination landing pages by using “cloaking” devices to fool Google tracking bots. POV: It is virtually impossible to monitor this activity and protect Brand reputation in the search. European guidelines outside of the UK protect advertisers more and one could suggest Google deploy the same level of control and monitoring back to the UK. - Chris Camacho Related sources: www.nma.co.uk/news/brands-hit-by-scam-google-advertisers/3033271.article
Loss of Data = Loss of Sight? – 13th January 2012 Google‟s encryption on signed in users has seen some advertisers see a reported loss of 20% or higher loses in visibility as an increasingly competitive and crowded playing ground loses valuable search query data… POV: While this may make life a little more difficult for advertisers it may encourage and force Brands to work harder in order to get valuable insight into user behaviour. It could also result in increased Google loyalty as user value the heightened security and privacy that SSL encryption brings them, This means that even though advertiser may feel that is a major stumbling block, it may lead to greater Google volumes as well as force a deeper strategic awareness of client user behaviour in and around Google. - Kevin Ting Related sources: searchenginewatch.com/article/2137304/Googles-Encrypted-Search-Data-A-Cure-forVision-Loss
Anti-trust Issues – Industry Reaction – 13th January 2012 Electronic Privacy Information Centre are considering filing an FTC complaint on the premise that Google seem to be leveraging their dominance in the search market to attack competitors in the social network markets. (Read for more industry reactions) Related sources: searchenginewatch.com/article/2137563/The-GoogleMicrosoft-Comparison-IndustryReaction-to-Antitrust-Debate
Sources searchenginewatch.com searchengineland.com www.nma.co.uk econsultancy.com www.seomoz.org news.accuracast.com www.bbc.co.uk
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Follow Us on Twitter @EmergingSpaces @SMGSearchUK @SearchLately Publisher Kevin Ting Contributors Chris Camacho Hannah Struve Jimisha Lakhani