Micrositez are a multi award winning digital marketing agency, with offices in the UK, UAE and the USA.
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Uncategorized
The answer is yes. Since Google’s announcement of Search Plus Your World, two weeks ago. The world of SEO has been up in arms over concerns that this is one more attempt by Google to push themselves to the front of the queue, in the world of social media.
However, #SPYW as it’s known on the twitter feed isn’t just be a matter of concern for SEO experts. The changes will also impact the way Pay per Click campaigns are formed too. Here are a few areas we should expect to see affected by the new feature, which I have separated into a pros and cons list.
Positives:
Concerns:
Ultimately the biggest battle with SPYW, for PPC strategists, will be the battle for clicks. Now when users conduct a search Google will present them with a mix of social and search information fused together. Despite the backlog of complaints made against Google and this new feature, by unhappy rivals. Both paid search teams, and businesses will have to keep in mind some of the above pointers in moving forward with any PPC strategy.
Micrositez is a digital marketing agency offering PPC.
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Google’s latest blog post, Search, plus Your World, came at no great surprise to many industry insiders. The merge between search and social has been on the cards for a number of years now, but many are calling it “a bad day for the internet.”
Google announced that their latest step in the direction of social search would transform; “Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.”
The changes, which come in the form of three new features;
• Personal results
• Profiles in search
• People and pages
Will, according to Google enrich users’ experience.
What does this mean for users?
It means that when you’ve signed into Google+ and search for information on a particular individual Google will help you by drawing out relevant information from Google+ pages, and display them for you in the first few pages.
The response seemed positive, at least for a few short hours. Twitter was among the first to raise its angry feathers making the following statement;
“As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter, as a result, Twitter accounts and tweets are often the most relevant results. We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organisations and Twitter users.”
Search strategist, Rishi Lakhani, shared his views on the news in a recent report by Econsultancy; “I think it’s a desperate attempt to make a rather poor product become mainstream. Google has the largest universal audience base, but not the largest social network. So what they are doing is to try and compete with the powerhouses that are Twitter and Facebook, by using the one super strong property they have, search.”
The changes will only be available for users in the US via their Google account.
Welcome to part 2 of what’s next blog series that aims to highlight key topics and trends taking place in the world of digital marketing over the next few months.
We talked yesterday about the integration between SEO and social media, and touched briefly on how social media is affecting search, by its popularity and personalisation. Today we’ll look at two more areas;
1. Personalised search
We are already starting to see changes being made by Search engine giant Google, to take a more local search approach where studies have shown an increase in the number of users making choices based on Google place listings. So if you haven’t got a places page then, we recommend you get one, and make sure you fill in those details correctly, to be easily found. The more recommendations you gather from aggregators will also help build your online presence, so don’t miss out and gather. And finally, to fully take advantage of this growing trend, make sure you are clearly labelled, and include relevant links back to your site.
2. SEO for mobile platforms
With more users jumping on their mobiles to surf the net, whether that person is in transit from place to place, or sitting in front of their TV screen with their laptop and smart phone in hand, (studies have shown this to become more common). It stands to be the case that as more searches are conducted on mobiles now than any other device, marketers and businesses must adapt and adjust their SEO strategies to become SEO mobile friendly. According to one study Google currently own a 99% piece of the mobile search market pie. Just this week, Google adapted their search options to offer a mobile app filter that enables users to locate apps from popular app providers including, Apple iTunes App Store, Google Android Market and many more. These apps are already being indexed now too.
3. Search v Display
Just a brief point we thought would be worth mentioning as these two separate areas normally compete with each other. We believe next year there will also be integration between search engine marketing and display advertising, something we’ll cover more in next week’s blog, which focuses on PPC. Combining both could potentially produce very interesting results, utilising the strengths of both and putting them together could create one very powerful source – one to watch out for.
Micrositez Digital Ltd is a Search Engine Marketing Company.
Google, organic search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, search engine optimisation
This week’s ‘What’s Next’ blog will take a look at what’s current and what’s still to come for SEO in 2012. We can’t cover it all, but we will offer up a few snapshots of what’s taking place within the world of SEO and worthwhile keeping an eye on for 2011 going into 2012. If you’re a business with a website, then an SEO campaign is something you should either be aware of and weighing up, or something you already participate in.
As usual, over the course of today and tomorrow we will highlight just a few important SEO topics we believe you should be aware of. Today, we will cover:
SEO v social media
The integration between search and social data will continue to be a big part of SEO’s future, as the power of social search in power networks such as Facebook, Twitter and open source content management systems like WordPress and other blogging platforms puts pressure on search engines to produce the freshest, most relevant results in real time.
Just a few weeks ago, search giant Google announced a bunch of algorithm changes which reward fresher content – A clear move by Google to ‘adapt to survive’ from the rising power of social rivals such as Facebook and Twitter as ticker and timeline feeds becoming an favourable alternative to search.
Does this mean the end for SEO? Not at all, statistics have shown that people are still more likely to buy in to search results offered up by old timer search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Google. That being said, as the integration between SEO and Social media continues to merge search engines will be pressured to make changes much like Google are introducing at the moment, and more.
Still wondering what Google means by raising the bar for fresher content?
Ultimately, this will be relevant for bloggers and businesses that should all by now have a blog integrated within their website. We should all be striving to produce fresh and engaging content as good practice anyway, which ultimately impacts your rankings too. Google has been building on its on-going effort to make recent events, and more popular content appear higher up in search results. Demanding higher quality of content from our CMS will also mean less risk of your fresh content being duplicated too.
This is definitely new ground for search and social as the pair can no longer be separated. Both hold exceptional influence over search rankings and as we move towards a world that’s much more consumer-driven both will hold equal importance when trying to achieve a personalised online experience.
Join us tomorrow for part 2 in our ‘What’s Next for SEO in 2012’ blog series, where we will be looking at Search v Display and Mobile Search.
Micrositez: SEO Marketing Company
search engine optimisation, Search Engine Optimization, search engines, SEO, seo packages
Head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts recently clarified Google’s thoughts on SEO during one of his recent video blogs, (as featured below).
“SEO is not spam,” Matt said.
His statement was welcomed by many digital marketers who are already aware of this, but often spend a large majority of their time explaining the value of SEO to those led to believe differently. For anyone who doesn’t work in the SEO industry, SEO can often be linked directly with the term spam. As Matt explains in his video, this is not the case.
SEO, otherwise known as search engine optimisation is a great way to get your website performing across search engine platforms. Some of ways in which Micrositez operate, Matt outlines in this video. For example;
These are just some of the white hat tactics adopted by Micrositez. Although we are not denying back hats tactics used within the field of SEO, Micrositez are proud to not be one of them. The obvious differences are black hat swap search engine results pages, (SERPS) where white hats don’t.
Matt on goes on make some valid points, including the following statement, (one we are extremely passionate about) that is; “SEO can be enormously useful.”
Micrositez: Digital Marketing Agency and SEO.
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media, Uncategorized
It looked like Microsoft could have it in the bag… And then, search giant Google raised their hand of interest in the potential take-over, and auction of struggling search rival, Yahoo.
It’s no secret that media companyYahoo have been struggling for sometime, trying everything in their power to turn the company back around from its disappointing results.
Appointing Carol Bartz, back in 2009, was part of that recovery plan. However, it became clear those plans had failed, which then led to the firing of Carol Bartz from her position as CEO, on 6th of September this year.
Yahoo has around 700 million visitors to its website every month, and although Google primarily dominates search in the UK. Yahoo does have significant influence across America as one of the largest websites in the US.
Benefits of a Google or Microsoft take over are clearly circulated around the trio’s interest in internet advertising, and the combination of Yahoo’s existing network, which includes email services, and advertising partnerships are clear attractions.
It’s thought Google in particular will be particularly keen on any such acquisition of Yahoo, as a clear benefit for Google’s strengthening arm in display advertising.
Yet, despite having the interest, and the cash to buy, we suspect the regulation factors will shout the loudest and impact any decisions to be made. The conglomerate, are already under the watchful eye of the US Federal Trade Commission, who are reviewing Google’s business practices.
Analyst Greg Sterling, at Opus Research in San Francisco told Bloomberg; “If competition dissipates or diminishes, then the hand of regulators is strengthened. If competition is diminished or marginalised, then all the arguments about Google being a monopoly ring more true.”
Yahoo may be America’s largest website, but Google currently hold 65% of the market share in the search sector, with Microsoft just under Yahoo’s 15.5%, at 14.7%.
If Google were to get its hands on Yahoo, it’s certain Microsoft would be completely shut out of any existing relationship with Yahoo, and potential close of any meaningful position in the desktop search market for good.
Micrositez: Display Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation.
Bing, display advertising, Google, microsoft, search engine optimisation, Yahoo
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in link building, pay per click, SEO, Social Media, Uncategorized
Not much, is the answer for now?
Google search has now become fully part of an encryption protocol called SSL. The changes will mean, anyone searching, or clicking on an organic website, or ad will have increased protection of their personal information, and or whereabouts when signed into a Google Account.
Here’s what Google had to say;
“As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver. As a result, we’re enhancing our default search experience for signed-in users. Over the next few weeks, many of you will find yourselves redirected to https://www.google.com (note the extra “s”) when you’re signed in to your Google Account. This change encrypts your search queries and Google’s results page.”
The news won’t mean a great deal of change for marketing agencies, who rely on Google adwords for keyword analysis, as the number of people logging into a Google accounts currently, are of a small percentage.
It’s also worth noting, that this won’t affect paid ads campaigns, which already pay for their data.
However, ranking reports, onsite search, and landing pages will become more relied on by marketers and businesses, collating similar data as part of their SEO campaign.
This will not affect current search activity on Microsoft, or Bing as they have yet to adopt the SSL system.
Micrositez: PPC Management, and SEO Company.
Google adwords, Google search, pay per click, search engine optimisation
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Clients, SEO, Uncategorized
Micrositez have maintained their on-going and successful partnership with Trade Blinds for almost 13 months now.
The UK supplier in made to measure blinds, roller blinds, wooden blinds, blackout roller blinds and any other kind of blind you can imagine, offer an exceptional service and product to meet your household needs.
The roller blinds company, which offers up to 12 months guarantee for every customer seeking a high quality product, has proved a great fit for Micrositez, and we are delighted to have worked with them.
We would like to extend a warm thankfulness to Trade Blinds for choosing one of our SEO packages, and are delighted in the progress made since starting this campaign.
Micrositez: SEO packages, Seo, Web Design Agency
search engine optimisation, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, trade blinds
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Clients, SEO, Uncategorized, Web Design
Known as the crème da la crème of wedding bands Scotland, A-Side Soul partnered with Micrositez just over 10 months ago, and in their own words, “have never looked back.” Helping the guys out, our team of designers got involved in re-designing the band’s website, boasting the bands online potential with one of our uniquely designed SEO packages. It has been great to work with the guys at A-side Soul, and encouraging to watch them go from strength, to strength in such a short space of time.
As part of our SEO strategy, the band now feature first page on Google’s search results for wedding band Glasgow, and wedding band Scotland. Recently performing live on STV’s 2011’s Children’s Appeal, the band continues to grow.
Micrositez: Web Design Agency
search engine optimisation, web design, wedding band glasgow, wedding bands glasgow
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in pay per click, Uncategorized
The search conglomerate announced the birthday of its open source web browser through its blog channel earlier this morning.
A trial version of the browser was released on Windows back in September 2008 across 100 countries, which later lead to a worldwide release by December of that year.
Google have made HTML 5 based interactive info graph illustrating the evolution of the web and various web browsers including Netscape, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Chrome itself.
The Chrome team are the only ones on the graph that have maintained their appearance in those three years, enabling them to focus more on improving the efficiency and speed of the browser.
Since the beginning of Google Chrome, various additions such as Chrome Instant, Instant Pages, Sandbox PDF Viewer, Print Preview, and 3D CSS have been developed.
Micrositez: PPC Management, PPC Company
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Social Media
Google clamps down on malicious online activity by blocking all .co.cc domain names from its rankings.
It’s thought that 11 million websites using the.co.cc name were removed by the search engine conglomerate when security concerns were raised awareness of a serious malware threat.
Domain names have been available to buy in bulk for as little as five pence a name, which has made it increasingly easier for online fraudsters to exploit.
A spokesperson for Google has said; “To help protect users we recently modified systems to identify bulk sub domain services which are being abused.”
The modified systems may now flag up the whole bulk domain, in more serious cases.
From January 2012 ICANN will be accepting applications for generic top-level domain names, allowing organisations to customise their own web address extensions.
Micrositez: Web Design, PPC
In a mutually advantageous move to strengthen Microsoft’s search presence in China and Baidus profile in the U.S.
Microsoft’s Bing and Chinas search giant Baidu are set to share aspects of their services with searches in English redirected from Baidu being generated by Bing. Similarly Baidu, reputed to command up to 83% market share of search engine use in China, will look to Bing as the vehicle to expand their global reach in to the U.S.
According to a source at Microsoft “The search results powered by Bing will begin appearing on Baidu search result Web pages starting in July 2011,” they went on to say, “We’ve been working with Baidu on the advertising front for some time. In China, Baidu’s ad platform is used and is similar to adCenter in the U.S.”
With the long running saga of Google’s issues in China over censorship of search results and regular statements inferring state involvement in hacking attempts on its users email accounts. The relationship[ being sought by Bing with Baidu in China could prove to be key in attempting to prise some search users away from Google’s global stranglehold.
Micrositez: SEO
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We would like to extend a warm welcome to Scrap-Car-UK and look forward to bringing in those results.
Micrositez: SEO Packages, Organic SEO
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Social Media, Uncategorized
UK rejects calls for regulators to investigate search business practices.
The inquiry stemmed from a dispute between Microsoft and Google over the search giants alleged bullying tactics. Microsoft’s complaint to the European Commission, last week, has also led the US Federal Commission to consider implementing an investigation themselves.
Tory MP Dominic Raab along with other MP’s have expressed their concerns over the Culture minister dismissal of the claims.
Dominic Raab asked Culture minister Ed Vaizey to explain his decision to defer probes into Google’s search product.
“I understand the minister may feel tempted to defer to the European Commission inquiry, but Britain must also ask whether enough is being done to prevent such abuse and why we have to wait for the cumbersome, clumping, clumsy conclusions of the European Commission to preserve our own free market at home,” he said during a Westminster Hall debate yesterday afternoon.
Vaizey responded, “The EU anti-trust probe is, I think, an adequate remedy at the moment, and I gather that the OFT looked into the matter three or four years ago and does not feel the need to do so again at this time.”
Currently Google have 95 per cent share of the European market. The debate and investigation continues…
Micrositez: Search Engine Marketing
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Google co-founder Larry Page returns to Chief Executive Role after 10 years. Known for his cleverly inventive ways, the visionary leader was previously asked to step down from his role back in 2001 for his laid back, rebellious ways, which some have said was a ‘lack of management skills.’
The shuffle at the top is expected to take the business to new heights as Eric Schmidt takes a back seat after a 10 year stint as CEO. Schmidt known to be the ‘Adult’ of Google will shift into new role as Executive Chairman to make room for front man Larry Page, now 38 years old; Larry is said to have grown out of his tardy ways and ready to take on new challenges as Google strive to stay fresh, and ahead of rising competitors such as Facebook, Twitter and Groupon.
Page, said to be worth around $20 Billion, which he gained for playing his co-founding part in the search giant company, is expected to drive the Google cart forward progressively challenging the status quo. Already Google have revealed it will be hiring another 6,200 employees this year, and is expected to reel in $35 Billion revenue this year alone with Larry Page in the Google driving seat.
Micrositez: SEO, SEO Marketing
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Social Media, Web Design
Google could face shut down on their mapping services by 1st July, news reports. The long and weary battle between Google and China has been on of great interest to the world of online for some time now. The strict Chinese government maintain a tight grip of management over their Internet Services, causing Google to back out of chinese mainland last year.
Officials from the State of Bureau of Surveying and Mapping have released a statement of their intention to end all internet mapping services that lack the compulsory internet license. Google had until yesterday to get their application in to the SBSM, the governing body for Internet mapping facilities, to avoid being shut down. With no document having been recieved as yet, SBSM have ensured they will adopt discipline measures to deal with the incompliance from search giants.
Google have said they were doing all within their power to meet standards set by the Chinese government. Google have already indicated interest in renewing their license by spending time and money on the relevant staff training but inside sources have reported the application missing.
It would seem Google are still struggling to do business in China after its withdrawal from the mainland in 2010. Google also failed to renew contracts with Tianya and Sina for their search services, and speculation continues to mount over growing concerns that Google China may not pass its annual inspection with ICP either.
Micrositez: Web Design, Search Engine Marketing
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Social Media
Microsoft makes a formal complaint to the European Commission about Google over alleged bullying tactics. The software company feels that Google used its powerful position within the search engine market to edge Microsoft onto market side lines.
The company filed their first formal complaint on Thursday, after urging a formal investigation into the search giant Google last November. Results showed a “significant weight to the chorus of opposition, which has seen complaints to Brussels from mainly small internet sites such as price comparison firm Foundem and Microsoft-owned firm Ciao,” the Guardian reports.
Microsofts general counsel, Brad smith outlined their complaints in a blog stating, “Our filing today focuses on a pattern of actions that Google has taken to entrench its dominance in the markets for online search and search advertising to the detriment of European consumers.”
Those patterns Brad smith is referring too includes allegedly stopping Microsoft Bing from indexing on web content.
It is expected that the European Commission will be in touch with Google in the near future regarding the complaints allowing Google to respond as procedures are followed.
Micrositez: SEO UK , Search Engine Optimization,
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in SEO, Uncategorized
Yahoo! offers up faster search results to users through new service Search Direct, in an effort to compete with Search Engine Giant Google. The overhaul promises to deliver results in real time with an increase in number of results returned, and ads displayed by Yahoo.
Industry experts are open to the success Search Direct could bring if it creates a faster path to the information and compelling enough to provoke people to try.
Yahoo’s aim over recent years has been to contend with Google for a slice of the search engine market. The firm handed over control of their back-end web indexing to Microsoft, freeing them up to improve the consumer search experience.
“The search game is incredibly important to us, because we know it is what people want to engage in. Our job from here on is to find the results for users are quickly as we can,” says chief product office Blake Irving.
Micrositez: SEO Packages, Seo UK
Google, search engine optimisation, Search Engine Optimization, Yahoo
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Comments off · Posted by micrositez in Social Media, Uncategorized
Google’s plan 2 set up the worlds largest library has been shelve today after a New York judge rejects the latest proposed settlement between the Search giant and book publishers.
The judge was concerned the proposal would give Google “a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission.”
Google obviously had high hopes for the project as it planned to scan and digitise every book ever written, as well as all rare and out of print titles. The search giants have been reported to have scanned 15 million books already.
Google’s managing counsel, Hilary Ware, called the decision disappointing and said the company was considering its options.
When asked what Google’s plans will be for the future Ware responded by assuring Google will, “continue to work to make more of the world’s books discoverable online through Google Books.” The Search Engine already host a searchable index of literary works and currently allows readers to access books on wireless digital devices, via Google eBooks.
She went on further to add, “Like many others, we believe this agreement has the potential to open up access to millions of books that are currently hard to find in the U.S. today,”
Despite the set back, the Judge was prepared to acknownledge the desireable benifits Google’s project had to offer, including greater access to information for schools, libraries, researchers, and the disadvantaged populations. The preservation of older books, which have been out of print, and creating new sources of income for authors and publishers by opening up the market to a new and wider audience.
Many voices from the book industry have expressed their opinion on the digital library, “as an idea just waiting to happen.”
Micrositez: Search Engine Marketing
Micrositez are proud to announce new partnership with Waterfront Engineering Services. Waterfront offer a wide range of products such as Flap Valves, Stop Logs as well as other fluid control products. Founded in 1988 the company began providing installation and commissioning of penstock and valves for water treatment plants, to both UK and International markets.
We would like to extend this warm welcome to owner Neil Betteridge and his staff who will be utilising Micrositez award winning SEO package over the coming months.
Micrositez: Search Engine Marketing
