So yesterday, when Google announced a small change to the way visitor sessions are calculated in Google Analytics, I couldn’t wait to dive in and find out more!

Accurate analytics data is a vital component of any successful online marketing campaign, and understanding the way visits are interpreted by your analytics engine can provide a clearer understanding of how visitors interact with your site.

So what does that mean?

Essentially, this change allows Google Analytics to track attribution data more accurately. With the recent addition of Multi-Channel Funnels, which allow you to track the attribution of a conversion from the first-click source to the last-click source, more accurate attribution data means a more effective model of your users’ engagement with your site.

What actually changed?

To understand what any of this means, you need to know how Google Analytics used to track sessions compared to how they are tracking them going forward.

Before today, Google Analytics ended a session:

• When more than 30 minutes elapsed between pageviews
• At the end of the day
• When a visitor closed his or her browser

If the visitor returned to the site after one of those events occurred, a new session would begin.

Starting today, the following changes have been made to session tracking:

• A session is no longer ended when a visitor closes his or her browser window (which means a visitor can leave and come back within 30 minutes on a given day, and their session will continue)
• A session will now end when the traffic source for the user changes. This means that if an organic search visitor leaves the site and comes back through a Pay-Per-Click ad, his or her previous session will be ended and a new one will start.
• As before, the end of a day, or the passage of more than 30 minutes between pageviews, will cause a session to end.

Google has stated that this change may slightly increase the number of visits tracked to a site, but based on their research, “most users will see less than a 1% change”.

If you’ve seen any surprising changes in your analytics data since this change was implemented, please leave us a comment, or drop me a tweet @CliffyKOnline. I’d love to hear about how your data has been affected!

According to the article, Internet users in America engaged in over 6.2 BILLION video viewing sessions in June of 2011 – the largest amount of viewing ever recorded - with the definition of ‘engagement’ in a viewing session as “a period of time with continuous video viewing followed by a 30-minute period of video inactivity.”

Leaving all the granular stats to your own reading pleasure with the article itself, what this means for online video is continued massive upward growth. For producers of web videos, look for more new clients to jump on your bandwagons as they realize the reach and ease of web video as an advertsing and marketing vehicle. For businesses especially trying to reach the 20-to-50 year-old consumer demographic, your best shot at listening ears and watching eyes for your brand messages and commercial pitches is through Internet video. It’s that simple.

Fathom makes great-looking and impressively priced online videos for commercial B2B customers of all types. Reach out and contact us today to discuss how our Internet video marketing can help your business reach new heights in leads and sales.

1. Have you ever wondered whether PPC ads cannibalize organic traffic? In other words, if you paused your PPC ads, would organic traffic see a spike and make up for the lost paid traffic?

The answer: A definite NO!

2. Have you been hesitant to run paid search because you thought the traffic would be redundant in light of your already-successful organic search results? In effect, that you would be paying for something you currently get for free?

The answer: YOU ARE NOT!

Now let me explain.

Google itself was also wondering about these issues and conducted a study that detected click volume in the absence of paid search ads.

The results showed that 89% of paid search traffic is NOT replaced by organic clicks when the ads are paused. This statistic was consistently high across verticals.

What does this mean for businesses who want to maximize online marketing results?

• Great organic search results do not necessarily mean you’ve tapped out your search market.
• Paid search brings unique value, i.e. leads and sales you wouldn’t otherwise be getting.
• On the fence about budgeting for PPC? Tapping into it could mean a lot to your bottom line.

Why wouldn’t you want to spend a little more to make a LOT more?

***

To learn more about PPC dynamics or determine a winning paid-search strategy, request a free evaluation today.

Now that I have your attention, let me clarify. There seems to be a correlation between people adding you to their Google+ circles and your ranking on Google search results.

In a recent blog post by Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land, he stated that by liking a certain brand or person on Google+, they are more likely to show up in your search results. For example, he found if you became a “friend” of the Ford Motor Company, one of the few companies with a test brand page, they would be more likely to show up in your top results. However, if you signed out of Google+, Ford may not show up in the top results at all.

Since 2009, Google’s social search results have allowed content from people you know to rank higher if you are logged in. However, the function has never really worked for brands. If you followed or liked a specific brand on Twitter or Facebook, it was still unlikely they would actually show up in your results because of it.

So what’s the catch? As of now, you can’t create a brand page on Google+. Only a very small percentage of brands are actually being accepted. Eventually this will change, but for now, you can only use your personal page to show up in Google search results.

In the meantime, you can take advantage of Google’s +1 feature to help searchers make a direct connection with you. In the past, Google has mentioned that +1s can influence your ranking for those who have added a +1 to your content.

Want to learn more about Google+? Check out our earlier post on the launch of Google+.

On Wednesday night users were briefly allowed to invite new members, but that opportunity ended rapidly due to the large response rate. However, Google then tweeted on July 6^th that the service is open to anyone with a Google account. All users need to do is go to plus.google.com to sign up.

In just over a week the service has gained enough traffic to easily eclipse Google Buzz, so it will be interesting to see what happens now that it is open to all users who have a Google account.

So what exactly is Google+, and why are people so eager to access it?

Simply put, Google+ is a social networking service that allows people to interact with friends, share content and photos and get the latest news and updates on one simple platform. It’s Google’s response to the success of Twitter and Facebook, and the company’s attempt to gain some control of the growing social sphere.

In Google’s words, this service is designed for “making connecting with people on the web more like connection with them in the real world.”

The main functions of Google+ include:

• Circles: allow users to organize contacts according to their real-life social connections. There can be circles for friends, family members, coworkers, professional contacts and more. You choose what you share with each circle and customize your profile information depending on which circle is viewing it.
• Stream: a place to get updates from friends, view all kinds of content and have meaningful conversations with people in your circles. You can see content from people who have shared specifically with you, content shared by all your circles, and content from people who aren’t in your circles but are still sharing with you. Your stream is where you make your own updates, too.
• Sparks: brings you stories from all across the Web that are organized into interest groups. You choose your interests, so you get to see the latest trending content for the things that matter most to you.
• Photo Sharing: whether you want to share from your Stream, the Google+ bar, the Google+ photos homepage or your Google profile, you can upload photos to share with anyone in any of your circles.
• Hangouts: allow you to hang out with friends who are currently online using live video chat.

There is also a Google+ Mobile application, currently available on the Android platform, and soon to come for Apple users. If you want to get more information on these functions and the other services available through Google+, check out the project overview here.

We should note that although this feature does not currently exist, Google has revealed that it is working on a Google+ experience for businesses that will be rolled out later this year.

A few people here at Fathom were given invites to Google+. Below are the initial things they like and dislike about the service.

Likes:

• The ability to easily manage updates to Circles so that posts can be shown to some people and not others
• The simple interface
• Easy management of profile visibility
• The “follow” circle which allows you to see updates from people who don’t necessarily know you
• The ability to connect with friends and view their profile, but also keep up with celebrities and other notable people

Dislikes:

• Not enough people involved (yet)
• The check-in feature not being tied to Latitude
• Unreliability of the Android app with pushing updates and notifications
• Lack of ability to control the prioritization of your stream. The post with the latest comment is shown at the top.
• Can be difficult to find people if their Google profiles are not already optimized
• “People search” opens up in a new browser tab

Only time will tell how successful Google+ will be at maintaining interest and gaining a share of the social sphere. Let us know what you think. Does the search engine giant have a winning product with Google+? Or will it fail to live up to expectations, much like the failed Google Buzz?

In your search results, you’ll see some black on the top (contrast), plus new color on the side to highlight what type of search (everything, image, video) you’re doing at any given moment. You’ll also see that the URL is now above the description snippet (often pulled from the meta-description), just below the title. This change is definitely for the better, because usually you probably want to know the URL before the description in order to quickly rule out certain sites that may have great descriptions but not authority (e.g. freecreditreport.com vs. annualcreditreport.com for fee-based vs. free credit reports, respectively). Another striking aspect of the new design is what my colleague Joel Milani described as Google’s growing claim to the magnifying glass icon, which is proliferating across its properties—see the red circles in the screenshot below.

According to Google, the new look represents “constant revision and improvement” that is  “part of our overarching philosophy.” It also incorporates HTML 5, the latest Web coding language. The company will be rolling out other design changes over the the course of the next few months, not only to its flagship search page, but also to properties like Gmail and Google Maps.

As these new improvements arrive, you should be looking for what Google says are its 3 design underpinnings:

• focus
• elasticity
• effortlessness

I’d say that for this first roll-out, Google has scored on the focus and elasticity aspects. Effortlessness may require more time to judge, so I’ll mark that incomplete for now. Stay tuned to your many indispensable Google products for the next wave of new designs …

1. Don’t confuse correlation with causation. As Rand Fishkin pointed out, his SEOmoz survey illustrates the common factors that industry experts associate with high rankings, not necessarily the components of Google’s algorithm. In other words (using his example), just because a large proportion of high-ranking pages have a large number of internal links doesn’t mean that Google cares that you have a lot of internal links.
2. Users and usability. In a landslide, the 132 experts surveyed by SEOmoz predicted (by general consensus) the following factors to increase in future Google organic search rankings: a) analysis of a site’s/page’s perceived value to users; b) social signals at a page/domain level; c) usage data (CTR from results pages); d) content readability/usability/design [emphasis added].Do you see a trend here? It’s all about the users. Sure, Google has said as much before, but I think it’s telling the way that the SEO gurus expect value, usability and relevance to have more impact in tomorrow’s results pages. After all, if people aren’t getting the best experience out of their searches (see item c. “usage data,” as also justified by b. “social signals”), then Google doesn’t win. And in the end, dominating the search market is a zero-sum game.
3. Social … duhhh! As Charlie Sheen, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber all know, your social Web presence can make you big in all the engines. As search-engine/search-marketing authority Danny Sullivan noted in reference to his SEO periodic table, social activity’s power on search rankings is growing. Along with the SEOmoz survey respondents who predicted big things for social, Sullivan agrees: “…you want a good social reputation in a variety of networks. You want to be shared on a variety of networks. Those are among the most important general social goals you can go after.”
4. SEO need not be a dirty word. Sullivan’s table intro also made an impassioned case for SEO as a legitimate marketing practice that is even encouraged by search engines themselves. “SEO is not a crime, a harmful act nor something that only ‘bad’ people do, despite what you may have seen on The Good Wife,” he wrote. He also talked about the importance of not getting caught up in debating the relative merits of, say, the 188th and 189th factors in the more than 200 that constitute Google’s algorithm (or even trying to guess what those particular factors are). On a related note, Fishkin had similar disclaimers about causation and methodology in the SEOmoz survey intro, reinforcing the message behind each of the publications: Don’t freak out over what we guess the algorithmic minutiae to be, but instead learn a thing or two by studying the general factors for success.

I concur.

***

*My colleague Kurt Krejny was one of the 132 contributors and is quoted in several sections.

Best features:

• a new site speed report;
• previous settings like email alerts and custom reports can carry over;
• date ranges stay the same as you navigate through reports (= less time resetting custom date ranges);
• for multi-client/multi-account users, a new account-level search function (no more endless scrolling).

Other notable improvements seem smaller but still helpful.  In a nod to e-commerce and all the dot-coms trying to monetize the Web, there is also a new conversions report in the left nav, under “visitors,” “traffic sources,” and “content.” You can also more easily activate and deactivate report-level searches, so when you’re searching for how many people queried some variation of “awesome website” to find your business, you can carry the search over more conveniently than before.

Important reminder: Just as in the past, paid search traffic will NOT be recorded as paid unless you have explicitly tagged it first. Newbie AdWords customers, take note!

Bonus: Trend-seekers who want to see the hot stuff quickly will be pleased to know that weighted averages and statistically significant samples will both soon be a part of the new analytics’ “fast-access mode.”

Google is going to be changing its policies on its advertisers’ collection of personal information. According to a May 4th post on its official Inside AdWords blog, the 3 new requirements that will take effect on May 17th (1 week from today) are as follows:

1. “Clear, accessible disclosure before visitors submit personal information”
2. “Option to discontinue direct communications”
3. “SSL when collecting payment and certain financial and personal information”

Read Google’s post for a full explanation and additional explanatory links.

Broader online privacy concerns
As consumer privacy is getting a lot of attention in the news these days, I suspect this is Google’s way of trying to stay ahead of the curve. Just in the last couple weeks, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS mobile operating systems were smacked on the wrist in national media for their perceived lack of consumer privacy protection. Apple even issued a software update (iOS 4.3.3) to the latest versions of its iPhones/iPads/iPod touches to reduce and delete location-tracking database caches and back-ups. Senator Al Franken’s Protecting Mobile Privacy hearing is scheduled for today, as a matter of fact.

Get legit
Make sure your company is in compliance with the new AdWords requirements by May 17th, whether you manage your Google PPC campaigns in-house or outsource them to online marketing firms like us.

A very beneficial feature of this release is that, for now, users previewing your pages does not count as a click.  As always, you will only be charged if a user actually clicks on the ad itself. This will hopefully save your campaign some money in the long run since someone who wouldn’t convert on your page anyways will be less likely to click through if they’ve already seen your page and know it’s not what they are looking for.

What does this new feature mean for optimizing your paid search? For one, landing page presentation has never been more important. Not only are you trying to out-rank your competitor but you have to have the more appealing page to land on. This will most likely lead to fewer clicks for those landing pages that are not “quite” up to par. Google makes it no secret that they want to provide the best user experience possible, Instant Preview helps them with this goal.

If this development has you worried that your landing pages might need a face lift, it may be time to speak to one of the conversion experts at Fathom! Looking for other money making optimization tips? Learn about Fathom’s approach to managing PPC today!

What changes in traffic will I see?

Google’s aim here is to draw people to ads that friends and family have essentially recommended.  It should be no surprise that users are increasingly paying more and more attention to reviews and opinions of peers (hence Facebook’s tremendous growth), so the concept seems sound. If you have useful ads pointed to incredibly relevant content the +1 experiment can only help!

What will happen to my click-through rate?

Hopefully it will go up! One really cool thing that stuck out to me is that organic +1’s will also show up in ads.  So if someone visits your store and “+1’s” it organically, their +1 will show up in in paid ads.  This could definitely bring a better sense of synergy to organic and paid listings. Advertiser’s who are doing everything run should only see increases!

Will this affect my quality score?

Google claims that no, this will not directly affect your quality score.  Although, while they say that quality score is still determined by overall ad performance, +1 could possibly have an effect on your performance or that of your competitors.  Therefore, it might be best to keep an eye out for any changes.

How can I tell if my ad is receiving +1s?

As of now, reporting is not available but once +1 is in full force, you will be able to monitor them through the dimensions tab in AdWords.

Can advertisers opt out of +1 feature?

In short, probably not.  If +1 makes it past its trial phase this will be a default setting so ready or not, users will have access to +1 any advertiser they choose.  However, in order to see +1s, you will need to be signed-in and searching in English.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t see +1s popping up on your ads right away.  As of now, the experiment is a limited release.  That said, if +1 ever makes it off the launch pad, it will be very interesting to see the impact of social input on the top search engine.

Remarketing, also called “Retargeting,” as well as “Remessaging,” is an automated display media that allows advertisers to publish image or text ads on partner sites around the web to users who belong to selected audience lists. These lists are made up users of who have picked up a targetable cookie during the course of web browsing. When a user acquires a remarketing cookie ad servers are able to recognize them as special in the ad auction and display the appropriate ad. The length of time these kinds of cookies stay active (duration), and correspondingly the length of time a user sees your remarketing display ads, are all controllable by the advertiser. Impression frequency caps are also often employed to tailor the media run to fit an advertiser’s needs.

A slightly “creepy” media?

Remarketing is often described as advertising that “follows” users around the web. While it is hard to argue that it does seem slightly “stalker-ish,” it is important to point out that these ads are actually great relationship building tools (following people around in real life, however, is not). This technology allows advertisers to display ads targeted for very specific user groups – oftentimes offering them special discounts and messaging made specifically useful for them!

How Google makes this easy!

Remarketing is not a new concept. Cookie-based targeting has grown steadily over the past 6 or 7 years and more recently has become an incredibly versatile tool, especially for marketers with access to the major ad exchanges, which act like “giant cookie databases,” allowing advertisers to slice and dice who they want to “follow” around the web! Fortunately for the rest of us, Google has taken a different approach, and has made remarketing an incredibly simple tool to use by building it into adwords as a “self-serve” component.

The key to writing content that will not only attract relevant traffic, but also increase conversions on your site, is to connect with your users.

The days of writing strictly for the search engines are gone. In today’s SEO arena, the most successful players are those who master the practice of connecting with their target market. The search engines help your website get attention, but if the searcher who arrives at it doesn’t find what he or she needs, your high ranking is useless. Google is not your target user, so you shouldn’t write only to please its algorithm.

The best way to connect with your users is by taking the time to get to know them.

Put yourself in their shoes and ask these important questions:

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can begin developing a content marketing strategy that will speak to your target audience. Understanding what is most important to your users is critical to providing them with the information and solutions they need.

Why You Need to Know Your Users’ Intent

Whether users are in search mode or information-gathering mode will greatly impact what kind of marketing grabs their attention. Searchers who know specifically what they want will look for information differently than those who are trying to gain knowledge about a particular topic.

Your goal should be to help your  target users understand exactly what you do, and  how you can make their life easier.

In addition, it’s important to make sure your website is equipped to back up the claims your content makes. If you preach a strong commitment to customer service, make sure your company has the proper resources in place to support your users’ needs. If your goal is to have a big social presence, you need to be regularly engaging with customers in the social channels they are most likely to use.

The needs of your target market should dictate the structure and purpose of your website’s copy. Once you learn to connect with your users, you will have the tools you need to turn them from searchers into repeat customers.

Need help developing a content strategy that speaks to your customers? Contact one of the Internet marketing professionals  at Fathom SEO today.

Image provided by cbcastro on Flickr.

It began in early September with the launching of Google Instant, which changed how our PPC ads are displayed. Then in late October, Google integrated “Google Place Search” into the SERP’s which threw PPC another curve ball for the following reasons:

1. The Google map (promoting competitive businesses) now appears on the top right hand side of the page and floats over the paid ads when you scroll up and down the page.
2. Reviews are now integrated into the organic search, as well as phone numbers, addresses, and other information steering more users away from the paid ads.

Unfortunately, this means our PPC ads will be generating a similar amount of impressions but now potentially receiving fewer clicks. This would then hurt CTR and Quality Score significantly.

What is the impact for PPC Managers? I’m glad you asked.

• Due to the floating map, it is now more important than ever to make sure our paid ads appear in the top three positions. This means more competition and thus we pay a higher CPC.
• We should setup various types of Ad Extensions to capture the users’ attention in order to compete with these organic listings.
• PPC ads must become more localized given the changing dynamic of the SERP’s.

In conclusion, Google seems to be putting the organic experience ahead of PPC. While these changes are frustrating, there are plenty of opportunities for fast-acting advertisers. Don’t get left behind!

With the holidays around the corner and chilly winter weather coming fast, buying new clothes has been on my mind.  When I heard about Google’s latest venture, www.Boutiques.com, I knew I had to check it out.

What is Boutiques?  Boutiques.com is basically Pandora for fashion.  The site, geared towards women and e-commerce, offers content from independent and large retailers.  Boutiques is built around collections of fashion picked by “taste makers” (i.e. celebrities, designers, bloggers, etc) and it attempts to mimic the in-store shopping experience by allowing you to browse the fashion trends and get inspiration.  Individual users can create their own boutique and any boutique can be followed by others.  The more followers your boutique has, the greater exposure it’ll get.  Since the site sounded so easy to use, I decided try it out and here’s what I experienced.

Window Shopping the Boutiques  Since the site is really all about window shopping online, I decided to start by browsing the boutiques to get a feel for the site.  I found out quickly that just scrolling through all of the boutiques can be pretty overwhelming.   So instead, I clicked on the “popular” tag and the first celebrity that popped up was Lauren Conrad.  I like her classic, youthful style and so I decided to check out her boutique.  When I got to her boutique, I could look through her personal picks or fashions inspired by the reality show star.  The prices ranged from an affordable $30 top to more expensive designer fashions.  What I really liked was that the items in the boutique were affordable for whatever budget you have.

Creating Your Own Boutique  My tour of Boutiques.com would not be complete without trying to create my own boutique.  Although I love to shop, I’ve never considered myself a fashionista so I was a little skeptical about how easy this would be.  I know what I like, but would the website be able to figure that out?  Boutiques.com actually makes it really easy.  When you decide to create your own boutique, you’re first asked to choose between styles you prefer by looking at pictures of celebrities.  As I scrolled through the pictures and decided which was “more my style,” the site was analyzing my likes and dislikes.   You’re then asked to choose which styles of dresses, tops, bottoms, shoes and designers you like and dislike.  It took about 10 minutes and I wasn’t sure that the site would actually get me right, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it nailed what they called my “classic” style.

Even though there are a variety of options for browsing on the site, it’s actually not all that complicated to use.  You choose the styles that you like based on pictures and there are hundreds to choose from.  Your likes and dislikes are quickly analyzed to give you fashion options that fit your style.  Although you wouldn’t guess that Boutiques.com is at all affiliated with Google because it lacks any standard Google branding, one thing very Google-esque is the ease of usability.

What is RockMelt? It is a new browser that focuses on social networking, and it uses Facebook authentication to synchronize a user’s browsing experience across different computers.  This is possible because RockMelt is the first Web browser to be backed by the cloud, which means all information is hosted online instead of your computer.

According to the RockMelt blog, the browser is “fast, secure and stable because it’s built on Chromium the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser.”

When you log in to RockMelt with your Facebook ID, a thin toolbar on the left will appear with a list of your favorite Facebook friends. Feeds from your favorite sites will appear in a thin toolbar on the right side of the browser window. The toolbar also stores your browser bookmarks and preferences.

Source Mashable.com

When you hover over the pictures of your friends, a summary of their latest Facebook activity will appear. Once you click on their profile photo, a small pop-up window will open. This window again shows recent Facebook activity for that friend at the top and a chat area at the bottom for instant messaging.

If you want to update your own Facebook status, you can do so from the top of the left side toolbar, where you will find your Facebook profile picture. Simply click on your profile picture to post a new status.

The right side toolbar not only displays feeds from all of your favorite sites but it also allows you to add other social networking sites like Twitter. As all of these sites update, an unread count will appear next to the site’s icon indicating the number of new articles and updates.  When you click on an icon from this toolbar, a pop-up window will appear with a summary of the new content that you haven’t seen. To read the full article or update, you simply click on the corresponding link and it will be displayed in the main browser window.

If you chose to add Twitter to the right side toolbar, you can simply click on the Twitter icon to send updates, reply or retweet messages, and access Twitter lists you subscribe to.

Even though your information is saved on RockMelt’s servers to enable a personalized experience from any computer, Web searches and browsing histories are not. The company also has said that personal information is stored as an encrypted bundle and will not be used for ad targeting.

In the past 72 hours since the beta launch, there have been complaints of not being able to log in and not being able to get updated feeds, but the RockMelt team is urging users to have patience.   They explained many of the problems on their blog yesterday and gave some tips for dealing with them.  They also had this to say, “As with any early beta, bumps in the road are not altogether unexpected, but disappointing nonetheless. Our team is working around the clock to fix issues. (Yes, we have beds and even a shower in the office, for which we are thankful – especially for the shower!)”

If you would like to give RockMelt a whirl, you can visit the official site and request an invitation.

Over the next several days, users will see a magnifying glass appear next to each search result. If they click on a magnifying glass, every result they hover over will produce a small screenshot of that webpage. Users of Google’s keyboard navigation simply need to move their arrow down to the desired result and hit the right arrow to see the preview.

In our test drive of the new feature, Instant Previews worked as well as advertised.  Screenshots are clear representations of the destination sites and appear in less than a tenth of a second. Another nice feature is the orange call outs that sometimes highlight where search terms appear on the page.

While this development is great news for sites that have kept up with regular design updates, it is terrifying for companies that haven’t invested in Web design for years. With Instant Previews turned on, many users will look for sites that feature coherent design, updated graphics and helpful media. Instant Previews effectively exposes poor on-site SEO for what it is – overlong, overstuffed pages that provide no real value.

If your home page resembles anything on this site, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and invest in a redesign to earn clicks from Instant Previews. Even if your design isn’t terrible, you can always improve something to make your page more attractive to users who see your thumbnail in their results.

Improve your Google Instant Preview by:

• Featuring your logo and branding prominently
• Using large, appealing pictures
• Developing and highlighting helpful tools, charts, videos and maps
• Writing large, attention-grabbing headlines
• Splitting content into readable chunks through small paragraphs, subheads and bulleted lists
• Incorporating step-by-step pictures into your how-to pages
• Displaying trust badges like Better Business Bureau accreditation and industry awards
• Improving on your competitors’ design ideas
• Cutting down on the clutter

Innovations like Google Instant and now Instant Previews just reinforce our position that SEO is far more than just stuffing a keyword onto a page as many times as possible. SEO is all about creating valuable content, not tricking search engines. As search engines become more sophisticated, it will be the sites that take a holistic approach to SEO that will eventually emerge as winners.

Do you have any other ideas on how to improve Google Instant Previews? Share them in the comments section. Learn more about Fathom’s holistic SEO services by contacting us today.

Blekko, a new search engine founded by Rick Skrenta and backed by several big name investors, is now officially available to the public. Blekko has developed a creative approach to search that relies on human input instead of complex computer algorithms. Users can insert slashtags ( / ) into their search queries to generate results that are specific to their exact line of interest. According to Skrenta, Blekko allows you to do searches “you just can’t do anywhere else. You can slash in the sites you like and slash out the ones you don’t.”

For example, if you want to find political blogs specifically focused on tomorrow’s election day, you can search for “election day /politicalblogs.” If you want to make sure you only see the most recent posts, search for “election day /politicalblogs /date.”



It seems like a pretty simple concept. Let users specify their search results so that they return only the most relevant information. Get rid of spam and say goodbye to pointless content farm material – two of the things Skrenta thinks are hindering today’s user experience. The approach is fairly old school considering the fact that both Google and Microsoft have for years relied on computer algorithms  to help people find information online. However, it may end up being a welcome change for users who are tired of sifting through tons of results – many of which lack the value they want.

So how does Blekko work?

Blekko narrows searches to groups of websites that people – not computers – have deemed as being the most relevant sources of information on certain topics. Users can browse a list of hundreds of slashtag topics Blekko has already created to help make searches more relevant. These are known as “topic” slashtags. Some of the topics that already exist in the system include animal rights, cycling, fashion, fitness, movies, politics, plastic surgery, technology and shoes. Quite the spectrum, right?

Blekko also offers a list of “built-in” slashtags. These serve as a reference center to help users limit  search results to information on the weather,  news, traffic, Twitter, YouTube and more.

Obviously Blekko doesn’t have pre-set slashtags for every topic a user would ever want to search. In these instances, users can create their own personalized slashtags which they can either share with others or keep private. Even if they don’t want to share their own slashtags, users can still views those that others have made public.

Blekko doesn’t claim to be perfect. At least not yet. There is still the possibility that users will run across a page that seems to be spam, or one they simply don’t like. In those cases they can mark that page as spam and any content from that site will be permanently blocked from their future search results.

What Kind of An Impact Will Blekko Have?

Blekko has been in the works for the past three years.  It raised $24 million in funding and found backing from big name investors such as Marc Andreessen, the creator of the first Web browser, and Ron Conway, an investor in Twitter, Foursquare and Google. However, at this point, it is hard to say how much influence this “slashtag search engine” is going to have. It’s doubtful that it will ever replace Google, but it definitely has the potential to attract a good following.

Check out the video below to get more information and see firsthand how Blekko works. Or, go ahead and try it out yourself by visiting http://blekko.com/.

(Unfortunately we were not able to embed the video for you here, but the image below links to it.)

]]> http://www.fathomdelivers.com/blog/index.php/blekko-aims-to-slash-through-spam/feed/ 0 http://www.fathomdelivers.com/blog/index.php/google-ad-serving-what-you-didnt-know/ http://www.fathomdelivers.com/blog/index.php/google-ad-serving-what-you-didnt-know/#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:21:22 +0000 Ben Goldman http://www.fathomseo.com/blog/?p=2996 Most of us in PPC spend a good chunk of time writing ad copy. We all know it can be frustrating to get the text in the “description lines” to meet the 35 character requirements of AdWords Editor. Many of us like to complete a sentence with a value proposition on the first line and a call-to-action on the second line. But once we post the ads, how many of us actually look to see how they are being displayed on Google? Well, it is time to start! 

Google Instant has changed the way our PPC ads are displayed on the right hand side of the page, at least for the time being. Google has reduced the pixel size on this area of the page temporarily, which means there is a narrower space to work with. Therefore, they are testing different ways of displaying the ads by wrapping the lines of text to squeeze all the words in the limited amount of space. When you change the size of your browser you will sometimes notice the appearance of the ads change as well. Take a look at these examples. One ad has 43 characters on a single line, while another wraps to 3 lines in total! 

Google claims they are trying to deliver the best result to the user using as limited space as possible. I take exception to this! 

My personal opinion is that this is counter-productive. After all our time and effort to get the “description lines” just right, the user is not always getting this optimal ad served to them, which I feel detracts from their overall experience. Do you agree? 

In the past there had been some appeal of removing the punctuation (most likely a period) at the line break to save time in preparing the ad. However,  given the ad line lengths can now change, we must include punctuation wherever is appropriate in order to make our ads look professional at all times no matter how they are displayed. 

In conclusion, just beware of Google’s constant changes, and remember to monitor how your ad is displayed. 

Top image courtesy of adworshelpexperts.com

• YouTube perfected for TV – Double rainbows never looked so good! Google TV will optimize any YouTube video for your 50-inch plasma.
• Simultaneous television and Internet – Watch the Oscars and tweet your snide remarks on the same screen.
• Smartphone remote control – As if your iPhone didn’t already do enough, you can now use it as a remote control for GoogleTV.
• Online Web surfing – Access the Web from your couch using an easy-to-use interface.
• Apps galore – Google TV comes preloaded with apps like Netflix, Pandora, Amazon Video on Demand and Gallery. Starting early next year, apps from the Android marketplace will work on Google TV.

Google TV sounds pretty awesome for your living room, but can it really revolutionize the way you think in the board room? Can you expect your online videos to immediately see a 300% increase in views? Will families start gathering around the television to watch the product demo you’ve posted on YouTube?

Probably not.

While Google TV won’t instantly transform the way we think about video, it is one more piece of evidence that should show companies with a weak online video presence that they are quickly falling behind. Just five years ago, it was easy to discount the need for online video when the only place to put your videos was one lonely page on your website. Even as YouTube started exploding in popularity, it was easy to pass off video as something that other industries should be concerned about.

With Internet video on every smartphone and now making its way into the living room, it is impossible to deny that online video makes a difference. Just like even the loudest naysayers ran out of ammunition for shooting down the need for a website, it is getting harder and harder to defend a lack of online video.

If you’re one of the many companies with a weak online video presence, it’s not too late to get into the game. You can start by finding out what your target audience wants to see. If you create videos that have real value to your audience, you’ll be amazed at how much exposure your content will get.  You may even make it onto the big screen.

Get into the game with online video. Find out how Fathom SEO can help you create an Internet video marketing campaign that will get you noticed on the Web.