Search Engine Optimisation

What is Google + and does it offer us anything new?

Published: August 25th, 2011

 

Google + is the new social network that has been introduced by the search engine God that is Google. After the failure of both Google Buzz and Google Wave there is hope that it may be third time lucky!

With Google + users are able to share photos and links with their friends and family by targeting who they want to share with out of their connections. This is what they say differentiates them from Facebook and Twitter. By creating “circles” of friends, family, colleagues etc, users can share funny jokes and day to day updates with friends and family while sharing more professional links to articles with business colleagues.

Currently the website is only accessible to those who have been invited by Google or have been invited by other friends who already have a Google + account. Soon everyone will be able to sign up and this may well be the “sink or swim” moment for the network.

To make things simple I have written a list of the 5 main features Google + has to offer:

1. The “ + “

Google + prides itself on its streamline approach towards sharing online. The web is filled with great content and it is only natural that if you find something interesting then you want to share it with others. Google has described this current process as “Awkward. Even broken” And they aim to fix it! The “+” button has been incorporated into the navigation bar above almost all Google products enabling people to keep track of their notifications without having to go back to the Google + homepage.

2. Circles

One of the main features of Google + is its “circles” feature. According to Google this is the one thing that really makes it stand out from Facebook. When sharing pictures, videos and links on Facebook you can only share them with all your friends. Using circles, you can pick and choose by category who you send information to. Google claim “We found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks.” Thus they brought circles to software!

3.Sparks

Google + Sparks enables you to gain information about all your interests (in a very Twitter-esque fashion). Once your interests (for example, films or cooking) have been chosen, a link to them will appear under your profile picture. Whenever you want to know what news there is about your interest, all you need to do is click on the link and it will bring up a page filled with news pictures and links related to that particular interest. At the moment the Sparks feature does not include suggestions from people that the user follows, making it less engaging than was perhaps intended.

4.Hangouts

Although Google + has been billed to mainly rival the likes of Twitter and Facebook, the “Hangouts” feature appears to be targeting the market that Skype currently occupies. It allows users to bring groups together for a simultaneous video chat. Up to ten friends at a time can join the chat at the simple push of a button. The feature has been built into YouTube, allowing users to all watch a video together in real time.

5. Mobile

These days mobile phones are the first place people turn to when they want to share with others when out and about. A mobile phone is almost always with you and almost always online. With the Google + app your mobile can be even more personal and sharing information has never been quicker. Locations can be added to posts and pictures can be instantly uploaded. Using “huddle” everyone in a circle can be messaged simultaneously.

So will Google + take off? And does it really offer us anything we can’t get from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? As the site becomes accessible to everyone I’m sure that it will take off, but whether it stays afloat for long is another question. If you are the sort of person who just likes to have an account on everything then Google + is definitely for you, but for some of us it may just be another profile to continuously check on and interact with, without any significant benefit being visible.

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The increasing use of infographics and a brief look at Vizualize Me

Published: August 24th, 2011

In my last blogpost, I discussed a new website concept from a company called visual.ly. In which I stated in the post that I anticipated other infographic website, similar to Visual.ly being produced.

Funnily enough, I was correct, it was to be fair an obvious prediction, a website called vizualize.me sprung into action and is now taking registration details, into a similar fashion as to Visual.ly.

Infographics are a growing trend in the digital world, but have really taken off in the last year or so, reaching another level in popularity. Many digital agencies tend to use infographics as link baits, providing most of the time useless facts, in a pretty manner.

I’m an avid reader of the Web Designer Magazine, who publish statistics in a readable format called an “excitographic. From a personal stance, I prefer that, for the reason I feel it more engaging with the reader. However, it is more down to personal opinion.

I’ve introduced the website Vizualize.me to you, so why not add some detail surrounding the company, their awards and more:

About Vizualize.me

Owner of the company, Eugene Woo, CEO, is a serial entrepreneur, on his 3rd startup. In which he has over 10 years of software experience in both consumer and enterprise spaces.

The website allows users to turn their CV’s into visual data, such as infographics, graphs and pictures, transforming. Thus helping improve their chances of succeeding in a job application or in a sales pitch.

Vizualize Me allows you the user to sign in with your linkedin profile and turn the data you have into a fancy visual presentation.

In half a day, the website had received an incredible 10,000 views and 1000 sign-ups to the invite list for the launch.

Example of A Vizualize.Me Resume / CV

Award Winning Company & Press Recognition

In a short space of time, Vizualize Me has been recognised by the media and startup companies. For example, they’ve been posted on the Forbes, Mashable, Blogto and Fast Co websites. They’ve also been successful and won two startup awards by design blogs:

Will They Be Successful?

Quite frankly, I think they’ll be successful in the I.T / Marketing and Media circles, probably the niche that matters most to them.

However it is hard to say if they will break into other niches, such as teachers or other qualified professions.

What do you think about the product or inforgraphics in general?

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Jumbo Site Links: Which brands are missing out?

Published: August 22nd, 2011

I am sure many of you were pleasantly surprised last week when you typed in a clients brand name into Google and were greeted with it’s newest introduction…jumbo site links!

These links are exciting as they take up much of the first page property so are excellent for click-thru rates and online brand reputation. However despite this, I don’t like them; for four principal reasons.

1) This is incredibly frustrating for other companies wanting to rank for certain brand terms. Slightly controversial, I know. It seems intuitive of course that brands should have the majority of the online footfall for their own brand name, and this is certainly what Google is thinking. But what if your brand name is generic? Take, Boots for example. This brand overtakes the majority of the first page when searching for this term, but what if genuinely you were looking for a pair of boots? The same applies to other brands such as Comet and Amazon. Or (perhaps more realistically) you are searching for ‘low cost holidays’ you will be greeted with this:

Excellent for this brand, of course, however slightly more frustrating if you are another holiday provider looking to rank for this high volume and lucrative search term. It seems as though jumbo site links are not only potentially annoying for the everyday user but also to those SEOers and businesses trying to rank for certain terms.

2) On the flip side, it seems as though Google is trying it’s best to combat this problem and many brand terms for which searches may not directly relate to that brand do not have the jumbo site links. Mars, for example or Coke and Dreams, the leading bed retailer, brings quite a different listing.

So problem number 2 is essentially that there is little consistency as to how Google determines what is a ‘brand’ and what is not, meaning that certain sites are missing out.

3) It may be the case that the highest converting or most relevant pages are not shown. You can demote certain pages from being listed however this is still in it’s infancy and sitelinks are not yet fully customisable. High profile blogs too, benefit from jumbo site links (see below) so it would certainly be interesting to find out which metrics Google uses to decide which posts to display.

4) Finally, jumbo site links allow users to skip past the homepage, which could ultimately have a damming impact on advertising revenue.

I have not managed to find much debate on this new introduction as of yet so all comments, disagreements and thoughts are welcomed!

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Top 5 SEO audit checks for an SME

Published: August 8th, 2011

Self-auditing is one of those tasks which always gets over looked when it comes to SMEs. Unlike other types of audits web sites often get over looked when it comes to internal audits. In the same way you would audit stock, computers, stationary etc… It’s imperative that you audit a web site at least twice a year.

When it comes to SMEs it’s understandable that this isn’t likely to happen unless someone schedules it in, or buys in external help from an SEO company. What’s amazing is the number of larger companies or institutions which never even think of it. Even if you site is doing well there is no reason why it couldn’t do better! Even if the company has their own SEO team sometimes a fresh pair of eyes is worth the investment.

Here is my list of the top five onsite items to audit

1. Update your Google Analytics tracking code

Let’s face it most companies use this as it’s free. If you’re using other Analytics software like Omniture then this doesn’t concern you obviously. BUT if you are using Google Analytics then make sure that you are using the newest version which tracks some Social Media Metrics.

Social Metrics are very important for modern SEO, ensuring it’s tracked is your first step to increasing your social profile.

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Why it’s important to be a good guy in the SEO industry

Published: July 25th, 2011

The SEO industry as a whole is changing almost on a daily basis and I’m not just talking about search metrics!

Whilst I have not been in the SEO industry as long as many of my peers I have certainly noticed a few changes over the past few years. When I first started in SEO there seemed to be an unwritten code within SEO-ers that you don’t ‘tell on people’. Ok you might do things to sabotage the competition, for example there was Google bowling, firing porn backlinks at the competition and more recently rainbow tables. But let’s take all that out of the equation as this all very black hat SEO.

In the past if someone were to implement an SEO strategy which impacted on your SERP rankings then you would merely add it to your strategy rather than try to take them down. I know what you’re thinking ‘where’s the fun in that’. The thing is, if you spend your time attacking an individual website SEO strategy, you could be investing that time making your own natural search presence stronger. So in a competitive sector it is pretty pointless implementing anti SEO tactics on rivals. Unless money is of cause no option.

‘All’s fair in love and war’, which let’s face it SEO is?

Over the years I have found 1000s of dodgy things being done by the competition and although sometimes it has driven me wild I’ve always come back to the same conclusion. Good for them!

I have found large Russian hubs, which to this day I still have no idea how many people they must have had employed to produce that amount of spam.

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