Last night Facebook revealed changes to the algorithm it uses to determine which stories appear in a user’s news feed.
This was an interesting development for a number of reasons. Here are my five takeaways and learnings for brands
Ever been in a shop looking at the most recent iPhone or the newest DVD release and wondered if it’s cheaper somewhere else?
I recently discussed showrooming on a panel session at IMRG Connect and more than half of the audience admitted that they’d done it.
Can you remember back to those days when you naively viewed the internet as an innocent playground of interesting things, before your outlook was forever sullied by initiation into the digital marketing community?
Before your blinkers were taken off and you realised that 95% of everything on the internet has been specifically put there – after a lot of thought, time and investment, I might add – to make money?
It continues to trouble me just how much dross there is floating about in the world of search marketing. Only the other day, I asked a prospect how their current agency had chosen the keywords that they were currently targeting.
Their response: “They asked us to supply a list of keywords we wanted to rank for and just went with those”.
“Holy crap” I thought, “this still happens?”
There are plenty of good articles out there that talk about how to establish a keyword strategy so I’m not going to cover old ground in this article. Needless to say though, simply asking a client to supply a list of keywords, which are then ‘targeted’ without further analysis or discussion, is pretty scandalous in this day and age.
Unfortunately, this is just one example where agencies and consultants sell ‘search strategies’ that, in reality, are not strategies at all.
Like takeaway food, online video can be consumed pretty much anywhere.
Engaging video, with its heritage in television programming and advertising, is eminently sharable through social media, and can be staggeringly successful, or altogether lacking in umami.
So, which brands are using video, and YouTube in particular, to great success? How have these brands approached the creative in shareable content, and who has yet to nail it?
Back in February Google announced that it was overhauling the way AdWords worked with the rollout of Enhanced Campaigns.
It’s a catchy name that makes the new system sound like an upgrade on the old model, however there was some disquiet among paid search marketers as Google has essentially removed the ability to run PPC campaigns targeting specific devices.
After an initial grace period Google finally forced everyone to begin using the new system in July, and you can find out more about the switchover in our Enhanced Campaigns migration checklist.
To get further insight about the perceived impact of Enhanced Campaigns, we asked more than 500 search marketers for their opinion of the switchover as part of the new Econsultancy/NetBooster UK Search Engine Benchmark Report 2013.
One UK chippy has caused quite a stir among Chinese tourists. The owner Robert Savvides was baffled by the influx of Chinese people for a couple of years until he realised that the power of international SEO can aid many small UK businesses.
An interesting news feature emerged on the BBC News website last week.
It’s a quaint story about a sea-facing Brighton chippy enjoying an influx of Chinese diners…
“Brand” will always be a nebulous term. Arguments rage about its true value. Although recent research shows that it can be responsible for nearly 15% of your total worth (Or much, much more, if you’re J.K.Rowling) It’s still seen by many as the ultimate wooly metric.
There’s no doubt that being a household name will improve your chances of success in social, but just how far will it take you?
I’ve taken a look at the world’s top ten brands, and matched up their profiles across the biggest social media platforms.
Let’s see what’s in a name…
One of the most common obstacles to blogging is the feeling that you haven’t got anything to write about.
This prevents new bloggers from getting into the habit, and prevents more seasoned bloggers from keeping it going.
You want to write, but you need something to write about; what’s your subject going to be?
Sites that have a high number of social shares, comments, tweets and +1s tend to rank better in Google, according to a new report from Searchmetrics.
And of all the four main social networks it appears that Google+ actually has the strongest correlation with high search rankings.
The report is based on analysis of 10,000 search terms from Google UK, using the first three pages of results.
It’s important to point out that this is a correlation rather than causation, so we can’t necessarily say that social signals definitely lead to higher search rankings. But it does seem to suggest that there’s some relationship between the two.
The benefits of video in the ecommerce arena are well known – no other approach generates engagement and sharing, boosts search traffic and conversions to the levels that video does.
But there’s more to video than just creating and posting product information. Are you doing everything you can to make the most of these incredibly valuable assets?
Facebook has recently begun beta testing updated page analytics with a swanky new look.
I’ve been playing about with the new system over the weekend, and while there’s plenty to be said for the new aesthetic, is there really any more useful insight on offer here?
Let’s take a look…