The History of SEO 1994-2011

With SEO being one of the more fickle and unpredictable industries to be involved in, it’s quite fitting that the practice is still but a teenager. 14 years old, in fact, if we count her birth as the year in which the term “SEO” was first used (1997). And hasn’t she grown up fast! Search Engine Journal have documented the milestones and main developments in the search engine marketing journey from 1994 to 2011 in the nicely presented infographic below:

Source: The Evolution of Making Page 1 [INFOGRAPHIC]

New Google Top vs. Side Tool is a Game Changer

On Wednesday 13 July 2011 Google AdWords launched a new Reporting Tool called Top vs. Side.

Top position ads are displayed above the natural search results (top of your screen) and side position ads are displayed in a column at the right hand side of the search results page.

The new tool provides clear stats on how your ads perform in each of these locations.

The tool can be accessed at all account levels, Campaign, Ad groups, Ads or Keywords. Here’s how to access it.

1. Click on the Segment button in the tool bar above your data.
2. Select Top vs. Side form the drop down menu. See below.

Above, the results have been segmented top/side and the results are astonishing.

The ads on the side have a considerably lower CTR and conversion rate. With the recent introduction of extended headlines we wondered if these trends were influenced by the new ad format.

No change. Looking at historic data the performance trends are consistent.

So what does this mean for Advertisers?

Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian says on the Adwords blog ‘this distinction is important, since, on average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the right-hand side’.

No change there then!

On a positive note the CPC’s are lower for the top positions.

The obvious tactic is to target the top positions aggressively:

• Increased traffic for a lower CPC
• Increased CTR – helps quality score
• Increased conversion rate – more sales

Not quite that simple. From an advertiser’s perspective the targets haven’t changed. It may not be feasible to target the top positions for all terms.

There will be a spike in clicks when increasing positions. This could lead to meeting your daily budgets quicker. You’ll need to adjust and manage the daily budgets accordingly.

If you don’t have sufficient budget to support the increase in clicks implement day parting tactics so you target the top positions at the right times for your business.

What is Google +1?

Since the late ‘90s, Google have prided themselves on providing the answers to some of life’s most pressing questions such as Is Elvis dead? or What’s up with Charlie Sheen? But then Facebook came along with their shiny Like button and suddenly everyone was sharing what they thought was cool with, well, everyone. And Google didn’t have an answer to it…until now.

In March 2011, the world’s most popular search engine announced the release of their +1 button. Unofficially, this is their answer to Facebook’s ever popular “Like” button. But what is it? How does it work? And, more importantly, when can we use it?

1. What is Google +1?

In Google’s own words: “the +1 button is shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.”

The button itself appears on the right hand side of a listing or paid advert on the search results page, and is a way of sharing websites you think are worth a click with your nearest and dearest.

2. How does it work?

Sign into your Google account. Search for something interesting and take a look through the listings. If you find a website that well and truly blows you away then let your Google contacts know about it by clicking the +1 button.

The theory is: the more +1s a page has the higher that site will sit in your (and your contacts) personalised search results.

3. How can I use it?

At the moment +1 is mainly available for users of English Google.com with UK users only able to join the experiment. However, there has been definite talk of an embeddable button to go side by side the “Like” and “Tweet” buttons on a landing page of your choice.

It remains to be seen whether this is just another disastrous plunge into the world of social (remember Google Wave?) or if it will actually have a deep impact on both SEO and Social Media. But with Bing incorporating Facebook Likes into personalised search since 2010 one thing’s for sure, expect this digital dog fight to get hotter and hotter.

Google’s Panda Update

Image by Kevin Dooley

It might sound like breaking news from London Zoo but Google’s latest update to their search engine algorithms could be affecting your website. But what exactly is this Panda Update all about?

What is Panda?

Panda is an improvement to Google’s ranking process which, they have openly admitted, impacts 11.8% of US search queries alone. The official line is that they’re targeting sites that are low in value, copy content from other websites or that just aren’t very useful. But, taking into account Google’s stance on search engine spam, it’s well known within the SEO world that this update has been designed specifically to tackle content farms.

What are content farms?

Content farms are websites full of low-value content geared specifically towards gaining an advantage in search engine rankings. Google are focused on providing the highest quality results to search terms as they possibly can. Content farms and their shallow content have long undermined this aim.

How can it affect you?

If your onsite content strategy has always been quantity over quality then the Panda Update could affect your site. Pumping out useless copy for the sake of page 1 wins could land you in deep, murky water with a nasty dip in traffic to your site.

I’ve been hit. What next?

Time to rethink your content strategy and claw back some of those losses. Use Google Analytics to gauge what pages have been affected and start creating quality content that is both useful and relevant to the user and the search engines.

PPC creative testing

While at PubCon in Las Vegas I had conversations on PPC ad testing and thought I’d share our approach.

There are many ways to test ad copy and most SEM’s have their preference. Common tactics include:

• Creating multiple ads and allow auto optimisation is the most common.
• Change ads in line with price/offer.
• Our way

To get the maximum learning it is important to isolate each segment of the ad. (MVT for ads)

• Title
• Line 1
• Line 2
• Display URL

First you write the messaging/copy.

Use the following hierarchy to ensure you have covered the most important USP’s.

Keyword relevance

Including your keyword in your copy assists quality score and helps create instant affinity for the user.

Offer/Price

Vital in pre-qualifying the user, we don’t want wasted clicks.

Only want clicks from users that are genuinely interested in price/offer.

Call to action

Use buzz words to provoke an action (back to your traditional marketing roots).

• Buy now
• Buy today
• Buy online
• Call today
• Enquire online
• Offer ends etc

Brand

Using the brand in the ad is a bonus and only do it if you have sufficient character allowance. It’s easier to mention the brand in the title and it’s already in the display URL so it’s not imperative to include in the copy.

Now we have our control message we can begin the first phase of testing.

Before beginning your test make sure you have your campaign settings set to ‘rotate ads evenly’.

Create ads with the same message and display URL but each with a different title.

E.g

1. Static keyword/product
2. Dynamic keyword insertion (DKI)
3. Brand

Once you have enough data find the winning title and create new ads with the control message. Now create multiple versions of the display URL, e.g.:

• www.Test.com
• Test.com
• www.Test.com/PPC*

*Suffix used in the display URL must be found in the actual destination URL.

You now have a winning title and display URL. Time to test the messaging.

Most ads end with a call to action. Try swapping line 1 with line 2. Start the message with the offer & call to action. Does this provide an uplift?

Test the call to action being used, what buzz word do your users associate with? Cheapest vs. Lowest vs. Discount vs. Buy Online vs. Order Today etc

Once completed you will have the right structure for your ads, title, order of messaging, call to action and display URL.

When analysing performance there are two key metrics that need to be monitored.

• CTR
• Conversion Rate

CTR has huge influence on quality score but it’s more important to look after conversion rates and ultimately your bottom line before catering for to Google’s Quality Score. More clicks doesn’t always mean more sales!

How Google Instant affects PPC

With the launch of Google Instant today the search marketing world is questioning what impact this could have on PPC.

Here are our thoughts and pointers…

Firstly it’s important to state that at the moment you will only be exposed to Google Instant if you are logged in during your search.

Potentially Google Instant could influence your PPC performance and results.

Scenario 1 – Click Through Rate and Quality Score

The first thing that jumps out is that, particularly in the short term, impressions could increase for generic/short tail terms. For Google to count as an impression the ad must be present for at least 3 seconds. With the product launching today users will be playing with the functionality (as you do with any new toy) and there will be more chance of the ads being present long enough to clock up impressions.

If users continue with their full search query and generate impressions along the way then CTR may take a hit for generic terms. Will a drop in CTR mean Google deems your ad to be less relevant or have they factored in this into their algorithm?

With CTR influencing quality score you should monitor your QS for generic terms and in turn look out for any CPC movement.

Scenario 2 – Are Google trying to slash the long tail?

Using Google’s own search insights we can see that generic one word searches have been on the decline in recent years (see below screenshot). We are becoming more sophisticated in the way we search, we understand that the longer the query the more targeted the results… most of the time.

Scenario 3 – Less clicks for your budget

Users could now find what they are looking for prior to completing their search and click on the ads displayed. Potentially the percentage of traffic generated by generic terms could increase.
What does this mean? This could mean that you generate fewer clicks for your budget.

For those of you thinking that nothing will change because you will continue to control Generic spend via daily budgets, consider this…

…searches for Generic terms could increase. If you are ads are in rotation, i.e. you don’t have the budget for 100% exposure for generics, you could now be faced with even heavier rotation if you don’t increase your investment.

In short do you want less visibility and reduced brand awareness?

What we recommend

Don’t panic, whenever Google launches a new product it causes a stir but the hype is invariably scarier than the reality. Allow the dust to settle before making decisions.

Remember it is only available to users signed in.

If you run your own PPC account keep an eye on the generic traffic, CPC’s and performance over the next few weeks. You may need to make some budgetary tweaks.

To help manage your daily budget for generics you may need to implement a day parting strategy to ensure the budget you have is working its hardest at key times & days for conversions.

What might be next for Google?

It would be great if Google improved the quality of their location targeting in the UK off the back of Google Instant. It seems that there is now a greater importance in targeting the user with the correct location/ad. While in Google Instant is defaulting to Leeds during my search for a ‘gym in London’ search, see example below.

Wasted impression and not in keeping with Google’s relevancy is king theory.

Google Places display football screening icon during World Cup

Google local business listings, now known as Google Places, are supporting the World Cup by offering an additional feature to specify that you are screening live football matches. A small football icon is displayed at the bottom of your local listing with the text, Showing football matches.

Quick, clear and easy communication with users informing them they can watch world cup matches while at a David Lloyd club or during their stay at a Best Western Hotel.

If used correctly the local listing can sit next to a local business ad (which works on a CPC basis) and can communicate key information without the need for the user to click through to the website. Through efficient management the user experiences a positive experience, always good for brand perception.