Archive for category Google
Online Ad Spending set to double to $50 Billion by 2015
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google, SEO on July 28th, 2011
Industry analysts have estimated that online ad spending will reach an astounding figure of $50 billion by 2015. This will be almost the double of online ad spending in 2010 which $26 billion.
This is largely due to increase in banner ad marketing. These figures highlight the fact that internet marketing is growing at a frantic rate as well as increased usage of internet all over the world.
For any business making its presence felt on internet has now become a very crucial step. It has reached such proportions in some advanced economies that companies without any web presence are in danger of becoming irrelevant soon.
Online shopping is surging, more people are on internet thanks to Smartphones & tablets, Facebook and social media sites have made people addicted to internet. With such huge usage of internet, companies have figured out that reaching their customers where they spend most of their time make more sense. And hence, huge increase in online ad spending is being predicted.
Apart from online ad spending another type of marketing is also being adopted by most companies. Search engine marketing or SEO aims at promoting a site on search engine such as Google & Bing. Almost everyone must have used search engines to find some services or products. Most likely, you must have clicked at top listings of the search results. SEO company use various tactics to rank websites higher up in search listings.
In the last few years, Social Media Marketing (SMO) has also emerged very strongly due to increased popularity of sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. While exact figures for SEO and Social Media marketing are hard to get, it can be safely assumed that they match Online Ad spending and will only go north in next few years.
It is very vital that any organization keeps a part of their marketing budget for online whether it’s banner, PPC, SEO or SMO. Because if you don’t now then you may soon perish!
Enovabiz Solutions provides website design, development and promotion services. “Websites that bring business”
Google Panda Update 2.3 Live: What’s your experience?
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google, SEO on July 27th, 2011
As widely mentioned in media and confirmed by Google, a minor Google Panda update has been made.
The recent update is one of the about 500 changes Google is making to their ranking algorithms every year.
Google told Search Engine Land, “this update incorporates some new signals that help differentiate between higher- and lower-quality sites.” “As a result, some sites are ranking higher after this most recent update,” Google added.
We also noticed improvements in many keywords in three of our own sites. Were you affected? Share with us your results and observations
New Google Layout: Have you seen it yet?
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google on June 30th, 2011
Google has finally changed its home page. The new look is more contemporary and neat. The way the search results are shown has also changed a lot. Things that have changed (& i have noticed are) :
1) Black bar running across the screen at the top
2) Smaller fonts
3) Listings page changes :
a) URL now directly after the listing Title
b) Cool search button
c) Icons changed for search options on left navigation
d) Timeline is open and no longer an option. Right indented and in different color.
e) User details also in different color and right indented
f) The “web” search option is now gone. Everything encompasses all searches.
If you find any other changes do comment and let me know
7 Deadly SEO Sins
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google, SEO on June 20th, 2011
Even after so many years, SEO industry is still misunderstood by many people and even by many SEO practitioners themselves. Last few months have been very turbulent for SEO industry. First there was a hype about content farm dominating and spamming Google search results. Google in response brought out Panda update which further muddied the already muddy waters. Panda update failed miserably and ended up creating an image that Google is selectively targeting rival sites and sparing sites associated with it (like eHow.com). Panda update also garnered harsh reviews because of it inability to make distinction between thin content farms and many genuine small sites. In the process, many smaller websites and genuine good quality were also penalized.
Google’s ways for judging a site are still thought by many to be shrouded in mystery. Google has a reason to do so, to prevent people form gaming their search algorithm. But that been said, there are some basic factors which can be followed to avoid penalties and to be in good books of Google.
Today, we will discuss 7 deadly sins of SEO which are still committed by many SEO consultants and webmasters with alarming regularity
1) Excessive use of Flash, JavaScript, Ajax, Images: Many web designers pride in developing all Flash websites. Flash websites may look beautiful but serve very little purpose most of the times. Similarly, sites using JavaScript extensively for menus are also quite a norm. Such sites more often then not do fare badly in search engine rankings. The reason is that search engine spiders cannot read the text embedded in the Flash and hence cannot determine what the site is about. This is a great barrier for search engines as there will be very information for them to evaluate and rank a website. Similarly, websites with JavaScript menus are not easily navigable for search engine bots. Bots rather than trying to figure out may well leave your website when faced with a dead-end.
Amazingly, a lot of websites are made completely with images. Whole paragraphs after paragraphs for content are embedded in text.
What is not surprising is that these websites do badly in search engine rankings.
2) Improper Use of Title tags: Title tags are perhaps the most important part of a page. Not just search engines but users also use that information to glean information about a website. Embed your most relevant keywords in your title tags. And make sure you use those keywords in your content also. Sites with irrelevant title tags will never be found in top pages for search engine results for any decently competitive keyword.
Another sin is use of duplicate title tags. Many websites are guilty of using same title tag across all the web pages. This can really confuse search engine bots as they will have tough time to know which page is most relevant for a keyword!
3) Thin content: A lot of sites have low quality content and almost negligible. If you think a subject requires a separate webpage, then make sure the webpage has decent amount of content. Few lines or a paragraph may look like thin content to a search engine bot. With Panda update still ravaging the internet, you have to be very careful on this issue.
A webpage should have both decent quality and quantity of content with appropriate keyword density.
4) Keyword spamming: Over jealous SEO experts stuff content, alt tags, attributes, title tags, meta tags with keywords just like a guy love bombs his girlfriend. But here, search engine Bot may feel offended, very offended. Use keywords naturally. Do not write content for search engines but for real human beings. And you will be fine.
5) Cryptic URLs: Search engine spiders have come a long way. Earlier they used to be absolutely clueless when faced with long-winded, cryptic URLs with punctuations and identifiers. Now, even though spiders can read and parse them correctly, static URLs rank better then dynamic URLs. No reason to persist with them when you have better options.
6) No link building: Many website owners think that just having a website and putting some content on it is enough. They are wrong. A website’s success depends on how much traffic it gets. A site with no promotion will be virtually unknown on internet. The best and most affordable way to spread the word is SEO through link building.
7) Black Hat techniques: Many SEO consultants want quick search engine rankings and try to go the easy way. The easy ways are usually tactics which involve spamming Google’s algorithms. Though, i appreciate the sentiment, the problem is that Google doesn’t. Google comes down hard on such sites by removing the site form search results altogether. Recovering from such penalties is almost impossible. So, better safe than sorry.
Google Buys out Admeld
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google on June 14th, 2011
Admeld provides platform for large ad publishers manage inventory
It has been confirmed by Google that it has bought Admeld a display ad management company. Though, Google refused to reveal the price, industry expects peg it to around $400 million.
Admeld provides technology and services that help large online publishers optimize the inventory , plugging into ad networks and demand-side platforms to assist publishers in maximizing yield.
“The Admeld team is an example of the huge strides the industry is making—it has quickly developed a great service that is helping many major publishers manage their ad space more efficiently and profitably, wrote Neil Mohan, VP of display advertising, in a blog post.
Online ad industry has seen some frantic buying with Yahoo acquiring 5to1, and players like Pubmatic and Rubicon Project growing at a quick pace.
Apple Dethrones Google As The Most Valuable Global Brand
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google on May 10th, 2011
Apple has dethroned Google from the #1 position as the worlds’ most powerful brand thanks to a stupendous 84% surge. Meanwhile, Google’s value was more or less stagnant. It saw -2% in its rating.
According to Millward Brown Optimor’s top 100 BrandZ annual rankings, Apple’s brand value for the year 2011 is a whopping $153 billion while Google came at second spot after 4 years with $ 111 billion.
Apple’s ratings have increased due to continued popularity of its iPhone and iPad.
As for Microsoft, a fellow competitor, came at #5 position. It registered a minuscule but nevertheless heartening +2% increase. If Bing continues to increase its share in search market and Windows phone is successful, we can hope to see some major shuffle next year.
Facebook, made an entry in to top 100 at #35. It’s brand is valued at $19.1 billion. Chinese search engine Baidu also made a strong statement with an increase of 141% and valued at $22.6 billion.
Bing widens its alliance in its war against Google
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google, SEO on May 5th, 2011
Steve Ballmer knows that to beat Google, he has to make alliances. Steve announced partnership with Blackberry which will make Bing the default search on all Blackberry devices.
Bing’s Blog has this post on the announcement
“Central to this collaboration, , Blackberry devices will use Bing as the preferred search provider in the browser, and Bing will be the default search and map application for new devices presented to mobile operators, both in the United States and internationally. Also, effective today Bing will be the preferred search and maps applications with regular, featured placement and promotion in the BlackBerry App World carousel. ”
Given the popularity of Blackberry devices, Bing can be assured of even more users in coming months. Just some time back, MS also announced a partnership with Nokia in which Bing will available on all Nokia smartphones and tablets. This will be in addition to Windows Phones that will be developed by Nokia.
Both these developments will only mean more adoption of Bing search engine which has already won plaudits from experts and public alike.
Microsoft’s search engine Bing is an underdog and is fighting a tough battle against Google. Microsoft which in past had been at the receiving end of negative publicity has changed it tacks. But it seems that MS is bent on making new friends one at a time to shore up its users.
A smart move considering Google search engine is making enemies as if there is no tomorrow. Google search results are indundated with spam results and despite its overarching powers has failed to punish guilty sites.
Bing Surges at Google’s expense
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google, SEO on April 14th, 2011
Hitwise’s March 2011 search market share report has showed us the signs of the things to come in very near future.
Bing has finally achieved 30% market share while Google has dropped to under 65%. Google is the market leader for now but on the face of multi-pronged attacks from rivals, government agencies, and search users, it is still to be seen how Google transforms it’s image from an internet tyrant to a benevolent giant.
Google’s share declined by 3% while Bing gained 5%.
Over the last couple of years, Google has managed to antagonise every group which was once aligned with it. Users are angry with the level of SPAM lurking in Google searches. SEO consultants are getting increasing vary about incessant & drastic yet ineffective updates. Search experts even have questioned Google’s intentions.
With such mounting troubles Google is faltering at every step while Bing is single-mindedly trying to provide the best research results.
Will SEO companies start recommending Bing more? With millions of sites at their disposal, it is not too difficult for all SEO companies and webmasters to mount a campaign against Google and influence public opinion.
Can it really happen?
Want to know about Google Instant?
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google, SEO on April 8th, 2011
Google Suggest is one the best known and most useful feature of Google search. Till now, i had very little idea on what goes behind its working. A very detailed article on http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592 explains it.
Here are few main points from the article
Suggestions are based on real searches: I have thought so. Though popularity is taken in to account as shown the example.
Google Suggestions may vary by Region & Language: A user searching in India will get very different result from the one in US.
Search History is also shown: Previous searches made by you i.e. if you use web history feature.
Suggestion Rankings: Are determined by relevancy rather than popularity.
Deduplicating & Spell correction: are done and correct terms are suggested.
Freshness: “Freshness Layer” is at work here. Spike in popularity of a term can also result in its inclusion. But such terms are dropped when they are no longer fresh/relevant.
What to learn from Demand Media?
Posted by Aniruddha Badola in Google, SEO on March 14th, 2011
Demand Media’s success has created a lot of material for analysts to chew about. Their sweatshop model was recently explained in an article in Wired.
It explains the whole process on how Demand Media uses latest automated techniques to churn out articles especially created to fill public’s demand for knowledge. The sheer scale of this operation and ambition is something which can even amaze most experienced industry expert.
Demand Media’s low product cost and high output model certainly resembles China’s economic model. But there are much more serious issues with Demand Media.
The issues are about credibility and quality. With the runaway success of their model, Demand Media is getting highly ambitious. But only to produce low quality mass produced content where they can put their Google adsense ads! Millions of pages filled with crap is not going to help internet users but Demand Media doesn’t care to think so.
But there are many lessons to learn from Demand Media. Some are worth emulating and others are what you simply should not
1) Before writing content always do proper keyword research: Demand Media mines millions of search data to find the best keywords and then create title with help of highly sophisticated algorithms and cheap proofers.
If you also want to succeed, then you will also have to learn how to research for the best possible keywords. Find out what people are looking for and write about that topic. People search on internet for “Why”, “Where” and “How”. And advertisers place their ads in pages answering these questions.
2) Keep costs low: Demand Media knows that revenue from each article is not too much. Therefore, it has to keep its cost low by using powerful softwares, cheap writers and producing millions of articles every month.
Even big media groups are bent upon lowering their costs all the time then small companies like us also have to invent new ways to keep our costs to minimum. Demand Media’s process can give us lot of ideas on how to do so
3) Quality matters: Even though Demand Media is the toast of the town right now, it is increasingly getting bad press because of its bottom-of-the-pile quality of articles. The standard of information is low.
You should not emulate this step. Always create high quality content. This may not be apparent now but in near future this will play a big role. We can already see that happening with Google’s Panda Update
4) Credibility matters even more: Demand Media chain of sites have very low credibility because of all the fluff they produce. People have complained about rephrased, low quality and generic information on it’s pages. People on street know this too well and many have even stopped clicking on its links in search results.
As a small business owner credibility should be of highest importance to you. If you provide verified, high quality information you will be respected and deemed an authority. And this will never harm you!
5) Business Model: Demand Media’s business model is based on revenue from Google ads. Though, it has avoided censure from Google till now because of its relations with YouTube, it cannot bank on it for too long. Google has been criticized for spam from content farms such as Demand Media dominating search results.
Google will have to weed out low quality pages sooner then later to re-instate its credibility. This will mean a huge chunk of web pages from such content farms will simply vanish from search results. This will hurt their revenue model.
Never base your revenue model on just ads and never get too dependent on Google.
Many have learnt it the hard way. Make sure you do not!