By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch, Sep 22 2010

In the last couple weeks we’ve seen the introduction of Google Instant results and subsequently a heap of excited blog posts about the impact it will have on the industry, SEO, and clients the world over. As often happens, the news became a trending topic on the media industry-heavy Twitter, and the impact of Google Instant on people who actually use Google for something other than their job was slightly lost in the noise.

Early results suggest it hasn’t actually changed anything to any large degree. Certainly my mother still doesn’t know what it is and my wife found it irritating and switched it off as soon as I showed her how. I’ll stick my neck on the line (hey, why not?) and bet that it will have disappeared by February.

While the impact of Google Instant is interesting for SEOs, there are plenty of other interesting strategies to discuss that can actually have an “instant” impact. Today.

How about a website ranking number one for [car insurance] with only four links pointing to it with “car insurance” as the anchor text? Pretty interesting, right? For such a competitive keyword you might expect somewhat more volume than this, out of a total number of inbound links less than any other site on the first page…

Last time, we discussed why you shouldn’t be afraid of URL links, and why they’re actually more likely to suggest a natural link profile. There have also been some other more detailed posts looking further into this and so it wasn’t much of a surprise seeing that a number of sites with very spammy-looking backlink profiles were penalized — it’s not like Google hasn’t been warning people about this for a while.

Right now we have instances of clients who are well-known within their markets — good websites providing useful content — but they aren’t ranking precisely because they have too many site-wide links, too many links that are dofollow, and too many contextual links (remember I said last month a good link looks like this — cheap viagra? — well forget it).

By “too many,” I mean as a percentage of overall links, all adding up to a link profile that is completely unnatural. We’re improving their positions by actively removing links, and the only links coming in are branded, URL links from highly relevant sites.

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The challenge this poses for some SEO agencies is that they have got their approach to link building so ingrained that they haven’t spotted some of these trends. Instead, they put more effort into building the wrong kind of links, making the situation worse for their clients.

This means that SEOs and agencies need to consider not just how to build quality links for clients but how to actively manage the link profile and ensure that the right links are being built.

For some, this will mean the normal contextual links, derivatives of them, and a few branded, long tail and URL links as well. For others, it will be weeding out site-wide contextual links, replacing them with higher quality branded and URL links, and even building some nofollowed links from social media and PR sites.

In short, it will pay to be able to take a step back from what you’re doing and analyze what the client needs in a bit more detail.

Yesterday I posted a FAQ on Google Instant and discussed if consumers will hate it.

Today I’m going to look at what this might mean for campaigns; the reality is nobody will know for sure until they have gathered data over a decent period of time, roll-out has finished to eligible computers – and consumers have got used to the feature.

US and UK Rollout – A Big Difference

Below are my thoughts from a UK point of view – Steak NYC will be posting their thoughts shortly, too. There is already an important US to UK difference – in the UK, you have to be logged in to a Google Account for Instant to work; in the US, all consumers will see it if their browser etc supports it.

Here are my (UK centric) thoughts:

Impressions on Generic Terms to Rise?

The idea is simple; as consumers start typing, they may be driven by Google’s suggestions to use generics more (either by clicking through, or by reading search results for more than the 3 seconds Google requires to count an impression). I’m not so sure this will happen – see my comments on the long tail below – and I think this would provide consumers less relevant results; a real threat to Google’s loyal user base who love it’s relevancy.

Impressions on Brand Terms to Rise?

I’ve seen a lot of brands appear in results when I start typing – for example “e” brings up eBay results, potentially increasing impressions for this brand term. The same is true of many other letters in the UK and US, and no doubt this spreads to other brands 2 or 3 letters into typing.

If a consumer is starting to type in a non-brand search, and happens to be shown a relevant brand by Instant, then there is the possibility they will go to that site straight away – robbing competitors of the opportunity to compete for them in “normal” non-brand search results.

Brand CPCs to Rise?

This may well happen because of the knock-on affect of more impressions without a click as a result of the above, affecting brands whom are shown for searches where they receive no click – but do have an impression counted against them. However, if the market as a whole experiences this, the competitive affects may be limited – everybody will have the same experience.

Long Tail to Suffer?

I’ve seen a lot of commentary stating that the long tail will suffer, and even that businesses that receive most of their traffic and sales via it will die.

If Google can show search results within a few letters that are relevant compared to the long(er) tail query the consumer was going to type in, then some long tail queries will be diverted onto generic terms of one or two words. However – so far – I’ve rarely had this experience when searching with Instant. No doubt Google will improve the algorithm – it is only day 2, after all.

The more I consider this and talk to colleagues, the less likely this seems, so…

Long Tail To Grow around Suggested Search Strings?

Consumers who are typing in a long tail search know they need to use several words to find what they are looking for – they are taking deliberate action based on past experience. Will they suddenly abandon that behaviour because Google is showing them search results as they type the first few letters? I don’t think many will – if anything, they will “type past” Google’s suggestions to the results they want (i.e. that are relevant) – and maybe add to/edit the long tail search as they see the results it generates. Something they probably would have done anyway, over several distinct searches on the “old” Google.

So long tail might grow – as more consumers notice that the search results change as they type and they think more explicitly about what they are typing, they may be driven to enter more words to refine their search or use the suggested search terms that seem relevant. This would raise long term volumes and, for suggested searches, effectively push consumers onto “predefined” search strings with all the impact increased competition on a term brings for advertisers.

More Keywords To Add?

Google Instant may mean that some consumers start to click through on “half-formed” search terms – e.g. somebody who was going to type in “home insurance” clicking through on a site shown for “home ins”. This may in affect create new keywords to add to campaigns, researched by brainstorming or reviewing analytics/tracking alongside the normal keyword tools. Match type settings will play a part in this coverage, too, for paid search campaigns, and I imagine that Google will ensure broad match covers some of these searches off.

Ranking Even More Important?

As consumers quickly scan results as they type, sites below the fold won’t get any opportunity to catch their eye and draw their click – somebody typing isn’t scrolling. So ranking above the fold will be important in this situation.

Dust-Off Abandoned Generics

A very interesting point Mark in our New York office has made is that brands may need to look at increasing exposure on generic (aka head) terms to ensure they are ranked well for the first term consumers will see results for as they type; so there could well be increased competition for generic, one-word terms. It may be worth re-considering generics previously removed from keyword lists because of high CPCs/competition across paid/ natural search…

Conclusion

I don’t think a fundamental shift to generic terms will occur; I’m increasingly thinking that consumers will start to click through from longer search strings, either by clicking on a search suggestion or typing more words in; if anything Instant will prompt them to improve the way they search.

However, the jury is still out and I know colleagues here at Steak and elsewhere in the industry have different opinions…

So I could be wrong – for all the technology, commentary and gut instinct we all collectively have, consumers can be notoriously unpredictable and the ultimate test will only be time – and data. I can see a long Excel session coming on…

UPDATE:

Our sister agency Minute Steak have also been blogging about Google Instant during it’s beta testing and also their thoughts on the launch and its implications.

This blog post is more of a FAQ on Google’s new feature Instant Search; I’ll be following up with my take on what this might mean for Google, search marketers, clients – and the group everybody seems to be forgetting in the industry press – consumers.

Q: What is Google Instant?

This is a new feature on Google’s interface, only available on the most recent version of web browsers (see below). The Google Adwords FAQ is here.

When a consumer searches, GI will change search results as you type, as well as changing the suggested searches (which already happen). These are based on past consumer search queries, your location and past searches (i.e. personalization).

During the process, Google uses an algorithm to predict what a user means and shows results accordingly – e.g. typing “holid” may mean results for “holidays” appear – see image 1 attached.

An example:

An example of Google UK Instant Search results for "Florida holid"

Q: Why have Google launched this?

Google’s stated reasons:

- faster searches
- helps guide users to searches
- users see results without clicking a button / hitting return and can refine their query as they type based on the results

I also believe this is part of their ongoing efforts to step-up to competing with Bing, whom are focused on interface developments to aid consumers and gain marketshare.

Q: Which Browsers?

This will only work on the latest browser versions in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia: Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8.

If you used Google over the last few days and saw different “swirling” logos, then your browser is compatible.

You can enable it here if not seeing it: http://www.google.com/webhp?sclient=psy

Q: When doesn’t it work?

It won’t work on:

• older browsers
• toolbars
• the address bar
• browser search boxes
• iGoogle
• if you disabled Google autocomplete
• if you disable it via the drop down to the right of the search box marked “Instant”
• if use the SSL version of Google search

Many consumers use the first three without thinking; this will limit impact for the initial search in a session – but not once on Google itself. Google may add this to toolbars etc in future, of course.

Q: What are UK Browser Market Shares?

To give context to whom will see this:

• IE8 – 32%
• FireFox 3.x – 21%
• Chrome 5/6 – 2%
• Safari 5 – 0.19%

= 55.19% of the UK will potentially see this. Source: Statcounter.com

It’s worth noting many corporates use older browsers that don’t support this – including most of the UK Government, many utilities firms and finance companies….so consumers will be getting one experience, and another at work in some cases.

I’ll explain how I think this will affect search and consumers in a follow up post shortly.

By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch, Aug 24, 2010

Search engine optimizers know what makes a good link. It looks like this – cheap Viagra - and it links through to your client’s page selling Viagra.

But half the job of good SEO is also keeping on top of what the search engines look for when deciding what’s important. The rules are always changing.

How Many Contextual Links Really Look ‘Natural’?

There’s a slight problem with doubting the importance of quality links with clear anchor text: they work. Without a doubt, the most important element of improving your natural search ranking is to get quality inbound links with anchor text that reflects your target keywords. SEO is still a numbers game at its heart — do enough of the right things and you’ll rank number one.

But this is where SEOs need to think about what the search engines see when they manually check what results are being served and decide if the best suppliers are ranking well, or if it’s just the biggest spammers.

What Makes a Link Relevant, Important, and Contextual?

There are plenty of examples of links created by SEOs with great anchor text. But if a gas and electricity link near the bottom of an article on cooking is actually “contextual,” then I’m the Pope.

The dictionary definition of “contextual,” just to labor the point, means “relating to, dependent on, or using context.”

Clearly, anchor text doesn’t always make a link contextual. We’ve all seen examples of irrelevant articles with links at the bottom. This is bad practice, bad for the user, and ultimately bad for SEO.

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You can certainly make the case that links with relevant anchor text are all that matters — that “Google isn’t actually as clever as you think” — and the SERPs will back up that view in the vast majority of cases. But staying ahead of the curve is just as important as finding ways to enhance your ranking in the first place. If Google is planning an update to reduce the power of spammers, then this is where they should start.

My Recommendation

Monitor and manage the spread of URL versus keyword-rich links across your client’s profile and don’t be afraid of getting really high quality links that only use your client’s URL.

At a broader level, it’s also important to try and build a database of the most important and relevant sites, and even individuals in each sector you target. Try to genuinely engage with them, through direct contact, through affiliate and display deals, and by using other more creative methods (where appropriate) to build strong business relationships online that add value to users and provide SEO value for the engines.

By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch, July 28, 2010

My last post, “What’s Next for Search, SEO?,” managed to produce some interesting takes on the future, past, and present of devices and how we use them/optimize for them. Thanks for your responses. They got me thinking — what year am I stuck in?

The simple answer is that I never quite came to terms with the ’90s. Having been born in 1980, I just couldn’t accept that a new decade had anything to do with me. Plus, my football team was unbeatable in the ’80s and is now average at best. So if I were really pressed for an answer, I’d say I was stuck in 1988. Early May, to be precise.

But I’ve also noticed some definite differences in search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns and approaches to SEO from agencies and in-house teams that can give clues about when they last carried out a root and branch review of how they do SEO.

Since 2000, SEO has been developing as an art and as a defined function of marketing. Each year has tended to see specific approaches and developments that have helped to define how you should approach SEO. If 2005 was about internal linking, then 2009 was about optimized PR and advertorials.

What I’m particularly interested in is defining SEO in 2010. This isn’t necessarily about finding something new, more about what seems to really be producing results after the Caffeine update and the May Day changes.

The trend we’re seeing is that highly relevant links from sites with quality link profiles of their own are adding the most value to an SEO campaign, rather than those with outright PageRank (we have also seen a large number of sites suffer ranking drops due to an inordinate number of sitewide inbound links, but that’s another story).

This may not be anything new in itself — highly relevant links have always been important and difficult to come by for a number of reasons. But the reduction in apparent value of PageRank, and increase in the value of a purely relevant site and content, is interesting.

What is doubly interesting (and helpful) is that Google has a tool that can specifically identify what those highly relevant sites might be. (It won’t actually get links from them, you’ll still have to be creative there).

The tool? Google Ad Planner — allowing you to see what sites match the same user profile as your client’s site, and also filter by industry sector/classification of the site, giving a neat picture of what Google feels is a relevant link profile for your client. You can then export a list of the best sites to target for links — it can even tell you which ones are using Google text ads on their site, thereby giving you a foot in the door to discuss advertising rates, content hosting, reciprocal links, or whatever you feel is the right approach for each site.

So, if there’s a theme for 2010, it has to be that taking the time to identify your market and focusing on how to build relationships with those relevant sites will put you above SEOs that are still focusing on optimized PR and advertorials. They’re stuck in 2009…

By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch, June 30, 2010

One of the points that will be high on the agenda at this year’s Online Marketing Show will be that the web has finally graduated from our PC monitors and now exists firmly in the air around us, waiting to be accessed at any given moment. Internet usage on mobile devices is now growing at the rate that was predicted some three or four years ago, making this year definitely, officially, the year of mobile… hooray!

It’s not all about mobile. Any number of devices during the next decade and beyond will be able to access the wonders of the Internet, and all of them will need to be able to search and quickly retrieve the information or websites that people are looking for. This is where search engines need to think about how their interfaces and results will work on any number of new devices.

Even on the biggest, prettiest smartphones, Google’s search results don’t fit on the screen, removing the majority of paid search listings that make up so much of Google’s revenue. If everyone were to use mobiles only to search for info, Google might even go bankrupt!

Google has a separate index for mobile devices, so it’s not as though they haven’t thought about this. But as the web becomes ever more accessible, two questions remain:

1.How will search engines really help users find what they’re looking for, especially on the smaller devices?
2.How will they continue to know what are the most important results for natural search?
The second question is particularly important for SEO. So much of what we do boils down to ensuring that the myriad of connections on the internet make it clear that our sites, or our clients’ sites, are viewed by the search engines as important. Not only important, but important for specific themes and keywords, and we manage this using techniques on and off the website itself.

So how does that change when people are using the Internet in different ways via different devices and potentially being given different results depending on what device they use? How will search engines know what is important, or whether something is more important for a mobile user than a tablet or laptop user?

There are still a lot of “ifs” involved here. Ultimately, the search engines might feel that what exists now is good enough to tell them which are the most important sites.

In SEO we’ve become accustomed in more recent times to viewing off-site optimization techniques as having the biggest impact on rankings. But perhaps there is an argument that for each device you will need a site specifically optimized for each different version of Google. Google for mobile, Google for smartphone, Google for tablets — each version might prefer different types of web property to display higher in the listings.

Ultimately, there isn’t a definitive answer right now. However, in the near future it’s likely that SEO will not only encompass social media (that’s if you believe it doesn’t already), but SEO teams may well need to ensure their skill-sets include a large degree of developer knowledge specifically for ensuring websites are compatible with multiple devices.

By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch, June 2, 2010
The biggest obstacle with actually integrating SEO activities with other business functions is that SEO people don’t talk to other teams enough.

This isn’t as harsh a criticism as it first sounds — we’re all busy in agencies and passionate about the subject and clients. Time is at a premium. So it isn’t as easy as just saying that SEOs are antisocial hermits tucking themselves away in corners.

Good SEO doesn’t happen in a vacuum, as we all know. There are many ranking factors that are specifically aimed at ensuring SEO happens as part of a natural online marketing presence and not just a focus on the one goal of getting traffic from Google.

Happily, there is a big plus side to this for digital agencies, as a good display campaign, affiliate campaign, and social media campaign will all help your SEO progress for a range of reasons. Here’s a quick list of considerations for SEO teams.

Speak to Your Display Team

Always try and negotiate content hosting arrangements with media buys. If you’re buying banner ads on a site, then see if they will also host press releases or product reviews with backlinks.

Alternatively, ask your display/media team for their list of contacts at key industry sites and see if you can negotiate a deal separately.

Finally, see if you can put clean links within display ads so that all ad placements pass direct value back to the client’s site.

Speak to Your Affiliate Team

If you’re running a good affiliate campaign, see if you can negotiate clean links or content hosting alongside your affiliate links. Some sites already add a clean link as well as a standard affiliate link as a matter of course.

See if you can get a list of affiliate contacts and negotiate deals to put useful content on their sites — good quality product reviews, for example, can be of real interest.

Speak to Your Social Media Team

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It may be jumping the gun slightly, as there is no conclusive data or any confirmation from Google, but I’ll join the ranks of SEOs already going with this. A well-run social media campaign will have SEO benefits. If you can get people talking about your special offers on LCD TVs for the World Cup, then you will rank better for related keywords.

One of the benefits of a well-run social media campaign is that key influencers will be identified and directly engaged. Get your social media team to help you out by trying to get that all-important content onto the key blogger sites.

These are some simple solutions to the age-old problem of getting links from important and relevant sites. And remember, if you’re extra charming, you might even get other teams to get those links for you — double whammy!

Steak has been appointed by DSG international plc (‘DSGi’), one of Europe’s leading specialist electrical retailing groups and UK market leaders, to work on behalf of its UK brands Currys, Dixons.co.uk and PC World. The account, won in a four-way agency pitch, will see Steak provide search engine optimisation services to DSGi, creating defined natural search strategies for each of the three brands to achieve online revenue targets and effective integration with other digital and offline marketing activities.

Gareth Owen, Head of Natural Search at Steak said, “This is an exciting opportunity to enhance the digital face of three major retail names and reinforce the strength of their offline brands in the digital space.”

David Walmsley, eCommerce Director at DSGi added, “As part of our strategy to win on the internet and take DSGi’s multichannel business to the next level, it is vital for us to build a stronger search presence. We were impressed with Steak’s energy, insight, expertise, and proven track record in delivering results for major retailers. I’m pleased to be working with Steak on this next phase of business growth, and am confident they will help drive our online brands forward.”

I attended the SEO sessions at SMX London yesterday, there was a lot of interesting data shared by the agencies that attended, thanks in particular to Andrew Girdwood at BigMouth Media, Kelvin Newman at Site Visibility and Rob Kerry at Ayima for their thoughts and to Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz who was clear and concise as always. There was confirmation of a few Google updates, some interesting case studies to show the effects as well. You couldn’t ask for a lot more really!

Key things that are worth highlighting are:

• Google prefers cross-domain canonical tags, rather than 301s so if you’re planning on buying a new URL, consider how much effort you will need to put in to make sure all of your existing link authority is passed to the new domain. There are a number of different considerations here.
• Google does try to pass more value through links that are actually likely to be clicked on. There is no fast rule for how they work this out although not using footer links and preferring links in content are two pieces of advice we follow. One other way of trying to second-guess this is if you have analytics on your site, what links does the overlay tool say are being clicked on?
• If you want to appear for a wide range of products, your domain authority and contextual inbound links to category pages won’t work now. Each category page will need its own ratio of brand:contextual inbound links or it will likely suffer by comparison to niche sites focused on one product alone.

To find out more about the themes from SMX, check out the tweets and links on http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23smx

 Gareth Owen, Head of Natural Search

By Gareth Owen, Search Engine Watch, May 5, 2010

People don’t just search on search engines. Think about it – when was the last time you bought something online simply by searching for it and going straight to a site to buy it?

This isn’t a recent trend. Consumers have never acted this simply. They have been much smarter than search marketers have given them credit for since e-commerce was born. It’s only now, as we interact online more than ever, that this is becoming ever clearer and more measurable.

The purchase decision takes place before and after a keyword search – that much is clear. People are searching for information on Facebook, Twitter, and review and price comparison sites for starters, and using the information they find to help them make the right decision.

For example, according to a Forrester survey of adults 16 and up in the U.K. who made a recent purchase, 31 percent used retailer sites, comparison sites, and other websites when starting to research products before buying, and 25 percent used a search engine.

One other clear illustration that these things are important: Google has replicated them all within its search results. For “price comparison and user reviews,” read “Google products.” For “social media recommendations,” check out information on social search results being trialled in Google labs.

Google, in particular, has followed these trends admirably, but hasn’t led them — they already existed. The key is to make the most of this opportunity and see past Google’s dominance, for brands and agencies. So what does it really mean for both?

What does it Mean For Brands?

First, to properly identify the true cause and effect of a range of online activities, brands will need proper tracking and attribution modeling software, which is already an ongoing issue for many. There are a lot of solutions available. The challenge is to find one that works across all of the required channels and can be implemented on your website platform for a reasonable cost. A tag carrier is a good place to start, building in flexibility to use different providers if necessary, and strike direct CPA deals in the display and affiliate spaces where available.

Second, visibility across a range of media is one thing, but the company needs to have a genuine marketing strategy behind their online campaigns — a picture of what they’re trying to achieve before starting, not just an ROI figure in mind. KPIs need to be set for display ads, site sponsorship, paid search, and social media campaigns to reflect the whole online search journey. One key figure rarely taken into account online is the impact on brand recognition and loyalty. It’s not anything new really, complex attribution models have been used for offline media for years.

What does it Mean for Agencies?

Agencies really need to prove their worth. The old argument about search providing a better ROI than other forms of advertising is no longer enough. It doesn’t work in a silo and search doesn’t just happen on search engines.

The real value-add of a good agency is a focus on a set of data and metrics and an understanding of how to improve them. Take that basic principle and apply it to running online campaigns across a range of activities and you have a valuable search agency. Fail, and you’re history.

One specific result of this change is that digital agencies cannot afford to allow PPC, SEO, display, affiliates, mobile, and social media to operate as individual teams. They’re all part of one campaign for one client, so this requires a lot of data and strategy sharing between teams. Sometimes this might mean working closely with a competitor.

Finally, the onus is on agencies to lead clients. This means proving the case by testing different KPIs for different campaigns. Perhaps the best way to visualize this is to go back to the AIDA funnel and think about what activities should sit at each point, the KPIs that would be most relevant at each stage, and build a strategy from there.

Where does Search go From Here?

As a discipline, search will still be focused on optimization of keywords for maximum ROI, but it’s time for companies and agencies to start to put those keyword searches in their proper context within the online consumer journey and consider measuring individual campaigns using a range of different metrics — all of which are available with the right tools.