Happy Birthday Google

Yesterday was Google's 16th birthday.

That means I've been been optimising websites & working in the online marketing industry since Google was a 1 year old.

Makes me feel old!

8 tips to help you climb the Google rankings in 2014

2013 has been a significant year with regards to SEO trends, and updates from Google in particular. Encrypted searching is taking off, and this change from keyword data has left some wondering whether the tactics used by Google to defend against spam will make a major difference in getting your website out there and recognisable. While your approach has to change slightly, the need for an online presence is just as strong, with the competition growing all the time.

1. Focus on content

One important method to ensure success in climbing the Google rankings in 2014 is to anticipate what will happen over time so that you can be better prepared. Websites that use tricks to get to the highest rankings or offer nothing of value to visitors have been targeted to protect quality of both links and content. As a result, you should pay attention to the makeup of your incoming links and perform audits periodically to find and try to trim inbound links that are not put together naturally. As usual, high-quality content will remain important.

2. Increase supporting marketing efforts

Content marketing, previously buzzword focused, will move to a mature marketing method in 2014, and Google will be most interested in companies that have good supporting marketing efforts. This will show them that they are the kind of business worth supporting. To have good content, the information must be relevant to your audience, posted regularly, exude a sign that the website is active and still building, and be backed up by a presentation that shows authority and knowledge about the content being presented.

3. Google+ is important

Google's updates are going to rely on social signals more and more, and a Google+ presence will be necessary. A strong SEO ranking is one that establishes Google Authorship of the content, and ties it to a Google+ account. +1's are becoming a big factor in the "social signals" component of Google's algorithm.

4. Social Media interaction will affect search ranking

Social media has become a primary force in digital marketing over the past few years, and now, it is necessary to be on multiple networks. Strong profiles on websites that matter to customers and search engines, good information, and ease of sharing of that content, as well as being active on social networks that are relevant to your area of specialty, are all critical.

5. Increase content for mobile

Companies looking to rise up the rankings should also pay attention to the role that mobile marketing plays. As the use of smartphones and tablets rises, websites that you're trying to rank must be designed for mobile from the get-go. Semantic search will increase in importance, and this is going to be massive as voice search becomes important. This is a critical area to focus on, with regard to how content is structured and what kind of content you publish.

6. Longer (and shorter) content length

Google values expertise, and as a result, the length of content you should be looking for has grown from roughly 500 words to over 1000 words. But on the other hand, keep in mind that mobile devices will cause people to want shorter content when browsing on an iPhone, and thus creating the challenge of mobile-oriented content that will be much shorter.

7. Catch trends on the way up

Strategies for climbing the Google rankings in 2014 may seem difficult, but it is easy to determine the ways in which trends are going. Continuing the tried-and-true methods and paying attention to the new critical areas that are currently changing will allow you to improve search visibility. The rules will be constantly changing, and being on top of that change will be favorable to you.

8. Diversify your marketing

A few more ways to increase your Google ranking include taking advantage of guest blogging, which is one of the most effective ways of building inbound links, traffic, and brand exposure, locate references to your website that are without links, setting up speaking engagements to promote your website, and simply targeting the right keywords.

Need help?

If all of this seems too much like hard work then angelfysh can help your business in all areas of online marketing and search engine optimisation including blogging, content marketing, guest blogging, social media and Google AdWords.

Get in touch with us to find out how we can help you.

Be prepared to spend more on SEO in 2014 - here's why

Increase your SEO budget in 2014: grow your business online

 

Industry experts are predicting that SEO spending will increase in 2014. Certainly, digital media and digital marketing communications have been gaining more traction than traditional media in recent years. Therefore, not only will SEO spending increase in 2014, but digital marketing budgets are expected to increase overall. I'll show you the figures which support the expected increase in SEO budgeting along with the strategic reasoning behind it which lies in the difference between paid traffic and natural traffic. Finally, I'll give three reasons why you can expect your SEO budget to increase in response to Google algorithm updates.

Market Trends in Digital Marketing Spends

According to market research on marketing spends for 2013, 53% of companies’ budgets have gone to marketing. 75% of the company's marketing budget has gone to digital media instead of traditional marketing and the digital marketing budget is expected to increase by 28% in 2014; while the overall marketing budget is expected to increase by 23% overall in 2014. This research shows that there is a growing trend towards digital marketing, which is quickly gaining preference over traditional marketing tactics. To be specific, Search Engine Optimisation, which intends to capture natural traffic, and e-mail marketing techniques, which intend to retain customers, have received the most budgeting and attention by companies in 2013.

This data demonstrates that companies are valuing retention over acquisition; meaning that they are sensitive to the needs of their technically savvy consumers and are trying to gain customer trust through SEO, online content and e-mail marketing in an effort to create long-term relationships with customers, rather than simply getting a conversion.

The use of SEO techniques and e-mail marketing also affords companies the ability to add variety to their portfolio; not only can companies offer their usual products/services, but they can also use online advertisements and sponsored e-mail advertisements in order to add another source of income. However, these advertisements will only offer a sizable income stream if the company can garner enough viewership from natural search engines, and gain the trust of their viewers through continued effort.

Online content offers a way to connect with people, and build a relationship. You choose the type of relationship you want with your consumers; why not build a positive relationship with mutual benefits?

Paid Search vs. Natural Search: use SEO to seize the market

What is even more interesting is the inequity between spending on paid traffic (Google AdWords) and spending on SEO tactics. Currently, most companies are spending up to 20 times more on PPC and other modes of paid traffic than SEO tactics which will gain natural search traffic. This inequity is interesting because paid search traffic only accounts for 25% of all search traffic. Whereas, natural traffic accounts for 75% of all search traffic. Can you see where this is going?

Companies are currently spending about 85% of their budget on paid traffic, when paid traffic only targets 25% of the entire online search market. How much more effective would your marketing efforts be if you spent 85% of your budget on trying to capture 75% of the entire online search market?

It seems that companies put a lot of attention on paid traffic because it's an easy way to get a quick conversion without much maintenance. However, a bit of effort can go a long way and allow you to increase your market share exponentially if you spend more on SEO marketing then paid traffic. Focusing your budget on SEO marketing techniques will also allow you to enter markets that have little to no competition. Hence, you can take advantage of market gaps and opportunities by targeting markets which are not already saturated with marketers.

Think of SEO as like buying a house and Google AdWords as renting.

By spending more on SEO tactics and less on garnering paid traffic, you can effectively target 100% of the online search market and increase your market share exponentially.

Already budgeting for SEO marketing? 3 reasons it will cost you more than you think in 2014

You may have already researched predictions for trends on SEO in 2014, however keeping up with these trends comes with a price tag. I'll give you three areas which will require a greater SEO budget in 2014 if you want to keep in front of market trends and off of Google's de-indexed list.

1.    High-quality back-links

The new Google algorithm updates are expected to instantly spot unnatural back-links, possibly purchased cheaply, and penalize the website for them. Therefore, natural back-links, which have been earned by guest blogging and as a result of social sharing will help your website to rise to the top of Google. While, cheap back-links will definitely make your site sink to the bottom of Google and could even get your website penalized and de-indexed. Expect to not only budget for the creation of new quality back-links monthly, but also expect to pay for an audit of your website’s back-links which will destroy any links that will affect your ranking negatively.

2.    Extensive, high-quality content

Not only will you be expected to have well-written, quality, informative content, but each blog post/article will be expected to be at least 1,000 words. This means that if you're currently paying for 2-3, 500 word posts, you can expect to double your content creation budget. Google's algorithm is getting better at recognizing when an article is trying to game them. They want you to provide valuable content, not just an article that passes Copyscape and repeats the same word a few times. If you aren't a writer, now is definitely the time to hire one.

3.    Outsourced Social Media management

Social Media has become a necessary tier of SEO. Your Social Media interactions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ are expected to factor highly in Google’s PR ratings. Social Media is also a great way to siphon natural traffic to your website, where you can capture viewer’s attention and possibly win new business/increase sales. If you aren't already partaking in Social Media or haven't already outsourced your Social Media management, this service is no longer optional; rather Google has made it obligatory if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

Staying competitive in the online market means trying to ensure your business keeps in front of the trend. Being behind trends in SEO, can make the difference between being on first on Google’s page rankings and being de-indexed. The online market moves so quickly that you need a team of people that can help you manage various aspects of your digital marketing communications.

So take advantage and invest in search engine optimisation, social media marketing and content marketing/blogging that will help you grow your business and scale upwards.

...

Get in touch with Lisa Forster to find out how angelfysh can help you in 2014.

Google revamps logo and search page

Yesterday the BBC published a news story about how Google has redesigned and revamped is famous homepage.

Plus a Google spokeswoman said that similar changes would now be "slowly rolled out" across all of its other products (YouTube videos, Android app Play Store etc).


We chatted to Mike Owen, MD of Violet Bick Brand Consultants, who had this to say:

"It’s great that Google are doing this, the key bit of their ‘move’ from a brand perspective is ‘preventing ‘distractions’’.

Google stands for ‘search’ - so they just focus on search. No distractions.

They can run their other brands (YouTube etc.) to deliver on the promises that they make. 

But it’s nice to see the Google search brand, that clearly has the money and awareness to broaden focus if it wants to, narrow its focus.

All great brands know this - and do this.

Google’s search product brand should get even stronger as a consequence."

So well done Google we say!

Out with the Old and in with the New: Google Keyword Tool becomes Google Keyword Planner

There have been many grumblings in the world of SEO this week as Google replaced the much loved Google Keyword Tool with Google Keyword Planner. 

Google Keyword Tool is (or was) as important for SEO companies as stethoscopes are for doctors.  We used it to analyse an industry’s most valuable keywords – which form the backbone of any SEO project.

So what now? 

Well, we get on with business as normal. 

So here are four things that we like about Google Keyword Planner:

1. You can now target cities and regions.  Previously you could only ‘zoom in’ to see national search volumes (a search volume is how many times a keyword is searched for each month either nationally in the UK or globally worldwide). Now you can ‘zoom in’ to look at searches made within a city. This will help us further fine tune the keywords we target on behalf of clients, especially if they operation regionally.

2. Keyword Planner includes data across all platforms. This includes people making searches from a desktop pc, phones and tablets, rather than just searches made on a computer.

3. Quick access to historical search data. Enabling us to see trends for a search term over the previous twelve months. These trends help give us insights into how people will potentially search for any given keyword in the future.

4. You can now multiply keyword lists. This comes in handy when you have a client offering multiple services across a few different regions, as it allows you to get search data for all of the combinations of up to three lists of keywords.

There are some complaints we could make about the new tool, but that’s always the case with something new because change is uncomfortable for us humans.  

We just figure that we have to get on with it. Google Keyword Tool is gone so we must focus on getting the same deep, granular level, insights into our client’s industries with Google Keyword Planner.