We already talked about the value of putting video onto your website in order to convert your visitors, but it can also help with search engine optimisation especially if you use YouTube to upload your video too.

There are a few simple steps you can take to maximise the traffic your video will send to your website, these are detailed below:

1.  Make sure that you include your priority keywords in the title and description of the video clip, and, very much like a blog post, chose keyword rich categories and tags. This is how the search engines know what your video is about so ensure that you use the tags to maximum effect. (This may require you to complete a keyword research if you haven’t already done so)
2. Once your video is uploaded and your tags are neatly in place you can then promote your video to all of your followers and friends on your Social Networking sites (Facebook / Twitter). In your account settings you will find the option call ‘AutoShare’ – once you have connected your accounts this will be done for you.
3. Promoting your video further afield is the next step, simple things you can do are embed the code into your blog and website, or you might want to use the video as part of an email newsletter, all these are great inexpensive ways to get your message to your audience
4. Pay for your video to be seen: Did you know that, like Google Adwords, you can promote your videos across YouTube through a dynamic, auction-based marketplace. (and as YouTube is fast becoming as big a Search Engine as Google this is a good move) The tool that enables you to do this is promoted videos, and like adwords the visitors find you using keywords, but a better feature than adwords is that users can interact with video and leave comments and ratings – a really powerful marketing tool. You only pay when someone watches the video and you can chose which related subjects you want your video to appear alongside… very neat.
5. Finally test and measure, Insights will give you exactly that – reports into who is watching your video and where in the world they are based.

We think that promoting your video via YouTube is a great way of generating more traffic to your website, just some other useful stats on YouTube

It Is:

•  # 1 entertainment site on the Internet, and #4 largest Internet destination
• Unique monthly visitors: 90 million
• Average monthly time spent on site per user: 54 minutes
• Monthly pageviews: 5.3 billion

So get videoing, it’s a much more personal way of getting your company message and personality onto the Internet, need some help? get in touch with your local IRUN representative who can help you put your video message together.

Universal search, or blended search, refers to the mixed variety of search engine results returned on one search including video, shopping, map and news.

In the search below for “pizza” you’ll see web results, news results and map results.

Universal search

This type of search result likely garners mixed reviews from the businesses listed. While Domino’s and Pizza Hut are probably pleased to be in the top spots, I doubt they like the negative press that follows in the news results. Likewise, small local joints like Barley’s and Bertolo’s are surely thrilled to beat out the big guys and appear on page 1 thanks to the local map results. But it’s safe to say Little Caesar’s is less happy to have been moved below the fold as a result of the map results inclusion.

Despite being the 5th web search result, Little Caesar’s is placed as if it were the 15th result because of the news and map listings, which is a far less satisfying ranking.

It is important to constantly monitor your ranking and reevaluate your SEO strategy if you find you are getting knocked out of rank by other forms of universal search. If you find your former #1 spot is now filled by a video result, perhaps consider adding your own videos to YouTube. If you are being beat out by map listings, consider adding your information to Google Local Business.

For more universal search tips, head over to Search Engine Land.

After our weekly workshop finished it made us think of the main mistakes that we see when users are creating and maintaining their own Pay Per Click campaigns, in no particular order we’ll list them below:

1) Creating one campaign and ad group and stuffing it with multiple keywords

This is sin number one, and amazingly probably the most common. You will never create a great ROI on a pay per click campaign that has all your keywords in one adgroup …Why?…

Well because your quality score looks at the relevancy of your keywords in conjunction with your ad group, if you’ve got twenty keywords assigned to just one ad then you can bet your bottom dollar that 85% will not be relevant…and you’ll never be able to use them all in your advert there is just not space. Our advice is to create mulitple campaigns with multiple ad groups and few related keywords in each. The result a good quality score and high click through rate.

2) Only creating one advert for your campaign

Google makes it so easy for you to be able to split test your advert, most of you will know that the headline is most important, and subtle changes can bring about big results. The same is true for your PPC ad – changing just one word can make all the difference to your click through rate. Do use the split testing option, you know it makes sense.

3) Not allowing enough budget

If you have an inadequate budget for your campaigns then your ads will only appear for a very small period of time during the day – typically first thing in the morning before your money runs out. If you can’t get an adequate budget together our advice is to find some niche keywords that don’t cost as much – or perhaps can you localise your search? Both will stretch your budget that little bit more.

4) Landing your advert on your home page

This really is the worst thing you can do, please land the visitor on the page that is most relevant to your ad, 9 times out of 10 this won’t be your Home page. You don’t want to leave your prospect fighting through your navigation or not knowing what to do next – they will leave your website immediately and you have paid for that priviledge.

5) Using Generic Keywords

If your keywords are too generic then that will pay havoc with both your quality score and also your conversion rate. Just think about using some ‘long-tail’ phrases …what do we mean? well lets give you an easy example to demonstrate, just imagine you make and sell Birthday Cakes. The term ‘Birthday Cake’ is actually quite generic (not as bad as just cake) but if you were more specific ‘handbag birthday cake’ you can see that your conversion rate would be good, someone looking for a football birthday cake wouldn’t click on your ad.

6) Using just Broad Match

This is the default option when you launch your pay per click campaign, but not always the best. The default option will show your advert when someone types in your keyword – no matter what the context or in what order. It might be better for you to be more specific in the ordering of your keywords or even making sure that certain keywords are not included (budget / cheap etc)

7) Not testing and Measuring

To launch a Pay Per Click Campaign and not to test and measure your results is probably the worst thing that you can do. By using goals and funnels in Google Analytics you can easily measure where your visitors are leaving your site (if indeed they are) and also if you add your tracking code to your conversion page (a thank you page typically) this can then be drawn into your ppc campaign so that you can easily see what conversion rates you are getting.

So now you know the seven things not to do in a Pay Per Click campaign hopefully you’ll be on the right path, of course if you need help or assistance you can always contact us and ask for help!

Book your place now on our FREE online Search Engine Optimisation workshop.

In just 1 hour you will learn methods and strategies you can employ which could mean your website appears on page 1 of all the major search engines.

Date: Thursday 11th June 2009
Time: 9.30-10.30am
Venue: Online, so no need to travel

To book: call 01865 920003, email info@irunsolutions.co.uk, or book online.

More FREE training.
Tweet Me

As Web 2.0 really takes off and everyone who’s anyone is taking part, it got us thinking about how important your online profile is, after all this is just like handing out your business card in a business meeting – if you leave information off, how serious do your prospects (or clients) take you – our guess is not!

So we thought we’d give you some hints and tips, or just some food for thought when putting together your online profile (actually its probably the most important part of your online presence so take some time over it)

So your profile needs to establish a few things for you

1) Trust and Credibility – if all your profiles on different websites don’t convey the same message, how do people know and trust what you do?
2) What you stand for – Think about your brand, are you wanting to create a personal one or a business one, consistency is the key and please make sure you can deliver what you promise.

Most profiles will allow you to upload a photo, an online bio, contact information, website details etc so lets tackle these one at a time:

• Your Online Photo: Get yourself  a photographer booked and have some professional photos taken, honestly its money well spent. After all people buy from people and so they are interested in the personal touch…but a ‘home-made’ one looks just that, especially if its taken in your garden after an afternoon of beer.
  People want to know you’re real so a clear professional photo is the first step.
• Your Online Bio: This is the area of your profile that might be limited to a few hundred characters, we recommend that you spend a bit of time creating some different length bios that you can simply copy and paste depending on the space you have got. Please remember to try and weave some keywords into your Bio, after all if people are searching for you they’ll start with your keywords  – best they find you first and not your competitors.
• Contact Information: Do fill this out, especially with your website address (a valuable inbound link for SEO), after all if people are searching for you and then can’t get hold of you the whole exercise is pointless. Make sure they can get hold of you using one of your contact methods.
• Other Details: Some sites will allow you to put in your experiences and education. Do take time to fill this out, most of the social networking sites use these details to put you in touch with former colleagues that you are no longer in touch with, it can be a very valuable way of extending your network. The more you  put in the easier it will be for people to find you.
• Customer Reviews / Testimonials: If there is an opportunity for your customers to write something great about you encourage them to do it – a third party endorsement is probably the strongest sales tool you have – use it!

…and the final point, don’t just see this as a one time exercise, make a diary date in the future to review it and make sure its still current, after all in 6 months time will you have another accreditation to your name, or taken on another product or service?

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression, so make sure your profile delivers the right one!

A West Oxfordshire pub, Eynsham’s The Talbot Inn, is maximising the potential of the internet and has just enjoyed its best week ever in terms of turnover, thanks to online marketing experts, IRUN, and its new package of internet marketing solutions.

Trevor Johnson, Landlord of The Talbot Inn takes up the story: “Although we previously had a website it was out of date as it was difficult to make changes. With a new accommodation suite having recently been completed we needed the website to achieve good rankings on major search engines to increase direct room bookings, rather than being heavily dependent on agencies which apply a fee of 15% of the booking value. Unfortunately, as the site had no professional copy or search engine optimisation work this wasn’t being accomplished. I felt the old website was of no value to my business and knew I needed a new solution, so I contacted Lynne Jones of IRUN Oxford.”

Trevor continues: “I already had a professional relationship with the Lynne, spanning several years. Having worked together in the past, I was confident with Lynne’s proposal for a complete internet marketing package, including a new website, search engine optimisation and a customer relationship management system would help boost business.”

The first stage of the process was to build an interim website using IRUN’s WebBuildPRO package. The WebBuildPRO system is 100% internet based includes a full set of management tools which would allow Trevor to update the site whenever he needed to.

Lynne comments: “Having this new site live quickly meant IRUN’s Customer Relationship Management system, InTouch, could be integrated straight away. InTouch enables the Talbot to efficiently manage customer information and communicate with them quickly and easily by sending out a monthly email newsletter with details of special offers and upcoming events.”

Lynne continues: “The Talbot’s website has recently been upgraded to IRUN’s fully flexible solution, iCMS. This system allows for future adaptability of the site so the pub’s future aspirations and growth can be managed easily and effectively. We have also provided a complete web-to-print service for all printed promotional items including advertisements, brochures, business cards, menus, wine lists and customer comment cards.”

Trevor comments: “Providing good service is not enough, to be successful you need to work to attract new customers, look after them, find ways to stay in touch and persuade them to visit more often – either that or become one of the 40 pubs going into liquidation each week”.

He has also had an increase in direct room bookings, and has received many fabulous compliments about both the site and the email newsletters being sent out.

Trevor concludes: “IRUN is very straight and direct in their approach which I appreciate. Lynne and her team have been absolutely fantastic with the delivery of their package of services, as well as providing a level of ongoing support, which is second to none. Although it is very early stages for the whole marketing solution I am very excited to see how it progresses.”

The historic Talbot Inn in West Oxfordshire offers beautiful en-suite accommodation, an award-winning restaurant and all the charm of a traditional English inn. As the Talbot is part of the Swindon-based Arkell’s Brewery, it is expected the marketing products and solutions provided to them will be rolled-out to the entire Arkell’s pub network, and beyond, as a vertical market solution.

Hungerford-based grounds maintenance provider, Gibbons Gardening, is using the internet to build its business via its new website from online marketing experts, IRUN.

Ruth Larson of Gibbons Gardening was introduced to Karen Chapple of IRUN Newbury when Ruth expressed an interest in purchasing the company Gardens4You, formally owned by Karen’s husband, Graham. However, Karen sold Ruth internet services instead!

Ruth takes up the story: “We originally had a very inexpensive website that did not reflect the company well in terms of the professional, reliable and high standard of service we provide and our level of knowledge and experience in the grounds maintenance sector. We needed a new website to drive new customers to our business and therefore being on page 1 of Google was a priority to help us achieve this objective.”

After discussion between Karen and Ruth it was decided IRUN’s WebBuildPRO package was suitable for Gibbons Gardening’s needs as it would provide a professional and cost effective website in a very short space of time. All the WebBuildPRO packages are 100% internet based so there is no software to load or update and they include a full set of management tools which allows the client to update the site anytime, anywhere, with no special skills required.

Ruth continues: “Karen provided a comprehensive service which included website copywriting, design and search engine optimisation. To help us achieve our objective of being on page 1 of Google we have an ongoing monthly management package with Karen which includes keeping the site up to date with the latest news, writing industry-related articles, finding links and writing our blog.”

Karen comments: “The new website now reflects the high quality of work Gibbons Gardening provides as well as their comprehensive portfolio of services. Since going live the new site has achieved the objective of being featured on page 1 of Google for the search term ‘grounds maintenance Hungerford’.”

Ruth concludes: “Working with Karen has been very rewarding. She listened to what we wanted the website to achieve for our company and proposed a solution which was totally in line with our needs and budget. Karen made the whole process very easy and the result is a new website which looks fantastic and showcases our services perfectly. We are pleased to be continuing our work with Karen and look forward to developing our online marketing strategy further.”

Based in Hungerford, Berkshire, Gibbons ground maintenance deals with the commercial and corporate sectors. They work closely with facilities managers, estate managers and surveyors to ensure their grounds are well maintained and managed. Clients include The Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Hoopers Barton Sheltered Housing Scheme in Frome and Milford Lake House at Highclere Stud.

We’ve had a lot of conversations with our clients over the past few months who have said ‘I logged onto Twitter, posted once and now I don’t know how to use it properly.’

Well in our experience you can’t ‘tweet’ effectively without an effective tool to help you. There are many out there but our favourite is Tweetdeck and believe me you do need this in order to tweet effectively and not waste your time scanning through lots of tweets that are just not interesting. 

Why do people find Twitter difficult to use?

We believe that most people get a bit overwhelmed, immediately you post a tweet you start getting followers and before long your page is filled up with information that quite frankly is not important or relevant to you or your business. Instantly people give up and move on. However if you have an application such as tweetdeck you can very quickly get rid of the ’spam’ and identify those followers and individuals that you can form a relationship with. Like anything else in business the 80/20 rule applies. You’ll really only be interested in forming relationships with 20% of your audience and Tweetdeck will soon help you identify these people.

Tweetdeck, the application to manage twitter

How does it do that?

Well you can create groups of people and easily identify quickly the users that you want in your 20%. For example you might group your followers in these ways

1) Experts in your field, these people will inspire you and provide information that you can ‘re-tweet’
2) Your prospects, if you know your prospects are ‘tweeting’ what a great way to stay in touch with them throughout the sales cycle
3) Your customers, Enhance your customer service levels, and keep building the most important relationships
4) Local Tweeple, (yes there is a twitter word for everything!) keep in touch with your local community.

The tweets that then just came into one giant ‘inbox’ separate into their relevant groups and instantly you can respond to your top 20% and just scan the rest. Over a period of time you will block certain followers from your main group and promote ones to your priority groups.

What else can TweetDeck do?

1. You can post directly onto twitter from it – direct messages, replies, retweets (even if you have multiple accounts – more on that another time)
2. You can easily shorten the URL’s you are using
3. Follow topics in real time and save prefered searches
4. Keep on top of local trends and news

So don’t be overwhelmed, spend a few minutes downloading tweetdeck and sorting your followers into groups of people (start with our suggestions and then add more of your own!) you’ll soon realise that you can’t tweet without this tool!

Der Linkvendor-Blog analysiert: Schon jedes 150. Google-Suchergebnis ist ein Video

Schon vor ein paar Wochen hat Marcus Tober von Searchmetrics in seinem Linkvendor-Blog eine aktuelle Analyse der Google Blended Search (auch Universal Search genannt), vorgelegt. Für andere Laien wir mich: die Blended Search ist die gemixte Darstellung von Text-, Video-, Bild-, Map-, Shop-, News- und Blogsuchergebnissen.

In seinem lesenswerten Beitrag Steigende Relevanz der Google Blended Search kommt er u.a. zu folgenden Ergebnissen:

• der Anteil der Videos an Google-Suchergebnissen stieg im April auf 0,671% an – damit war etwa jedes 150. Suchergebnis ein Video. Zum Vergleich: etwa jedes 350. Suchergebnis war entweder ein Maps- oder Shoppingergebnis, etwa jedes 475. ein Bild.

• Aus meiner Sicht noch wichtiger: Für jede dritte Suchanfrage wird mindestens ein Video unter den Ergebnissen der ersten 10 Seiten gefunden (bei jeder 16. Anfrage mindestens ein Maps-Ergebnis).

• Und: die Anzahl der Blended Search-Suchergenisse hat sich seit Dezember 2008 auf nunmehr 0,8% annähernd verdoppelt. Das klingt nicht viel, doch bei fast 40% aller von Tober gemessenen Keywords kommt mindestens ein Blended Search Ergebnis vor.

Für mich bestätigen diese Analysen: Je mehr die Universal Search kommt, desto wichtiger ist es für Unternehmen, auch mit eigenem Videomarketing im Web präsent zu sein. Über die Suchergebnisse wird sich schon bald ein Druck aufbauen, auf den so manches Unternehmen hektisch reagieren dürfte.

Wie hatte Tober doch in einen älteren Beitrag zum gleichen Thema aus dem vergangenen Dezember so schön resümiert? “Also baut euch ein schallisoliertes Studio mit ner guten Cam und fangt an Videos zu produzieren.” Wir von SightseekerMedien könnten da auch helfen

Like any mountain  you’ve got to climb, its always best to take one step at a time with a solid route to follow. That way you won’t stumble off the path and waste time trying to get to your goal, and this is very much our approach with the Social media aspect of marketing. There are literally thousands of sites out there that you can subscribe to and try and ‘work out what they do and how they do it’ but before long, what started out as a very productive exercise just wasted your whole day.

So how can you take advantage of what is becoming the new way to market to your audience?

Well there is no use just stabbing in the dark, you do have to put together a strategy to make best use of the sites that will be the optimum ones for you. If you think about it any ‘collaborative’ website is only as good as the number of people that subcribe to it. After all you don’t want to be sending out lots of good content if no-one is listening, also the networks need to be credible. You too will want to follow the experts in your field so you will need to do some research to find the Social Networks that they are on and make sure you subscribe. These may vary depending on your expertise and interests.

What do we recommend as a general starting point for Social Networks?

Well the most popular social networking sites are as good as any to get you going. As a starting point Linkedin is probably the best ‘business network’ that is around at the moment.  Gaining ground very rapidly is Twitter, this micro-blogging platform is sweeping the nation and is great for posting out quick messages to your followers, and don’t under estimate Facebook, a lot of people still think that this is for ‘Socialising only’ but with the introduction of their fan pages, this too has turned into a very valuable tool.

Before you get started on these three sites there are some considerations

1) Do you want to promote you or your company?
2) How do you want to present yourself, formally or informally?
3) What is the overriding message that you want to send, make sure its something you can stick to and deliver!

Once you have worked out your messaging now is the time to create your accounts and profiles – these are really important and should convey the essence of your brand. We advise that you create yourself a ’social media worksheet’ so that you list all the sites you subscribe to, how you use that site, information about that site (is it niche or general, how many users etc) your username and password (believe me you’ll need some memory jogger) and you might want to put into a column when you last updated that network and what keywords and profile descriptions are associated.

You might think that this sounds like a lot of work, and in reality it is just to get you started, but if you’re foundations are right its easier to keep up-to-date with everything thats happening so that you get a holistic view of your Internet Landscape.

Managing multiple social networks will become hard work to remember to do unless you’re lucky enough to have a virtual assistant that can do it for you. However there are lots of tools out there that can help save you time as they post in mutliple places for you

Our Favourites are:

ping.fm : Update your status on all of your networks with one ‘hit send’ button – just perfect
Gravatar : Upload you image once and it follows you around every network that requires a photo (neat if you like to change your photo a lot)
Twitterfeed: You can automatically send you blogposts to Twitter without doing anything – just great

Now is time for you to ‘get involved’, will spend more time on this later, but for now we suggest that you spend a little bit of time listening and understanding what happens on these networks before jumping in with both feet.

But our last piece of advice, once ready  – Don’t be a spectactor – partake… like anything in life you’ll only get out what you put it!

These days when we talk about online marketing we typically talk about your customer experience. Everything that we do online should be to enhance the experience your customer (or prospect) has of your online presence. So just having a great website is not nearly enough, as we are becoming more sophisiticated and as the Google Universal Search (launched way back in 2007) is now blending our search results its important as business owners that we understand the impact this will have on our online business and how we can combat it.

Basically users on the Internet expect to receive great relevant information coupled with a little bit of entertainment on the way, and as fundamentally people still buy from people, if they can get to ’see’ you on the web so much the better. So to combine multiple marketing initiaitives consistently and continuously over all of the Google Vertical search links will give your clients what they expect to see. (with vertical search you slice through one topic area – see diagram below)

Google Vertical Search

 To take advantage of this opportunity in your market place and to increase your blended search visibility on the Search Engines, there are a number of core activities that need to take place in order to hit all of the vertical search links and therefore to achieve this blended search.

The diagram below segments them into Top Level activities for you:

Blended Search

 We will cover this subject in a lot more depth as time goes on, but in the interim take a look at your own marketing plan and see how many of these activities you are covering. If you want to talk to us about it then please don’t hesitate to pick up the phone or join one of our many free online training sessions.

Owning Your Online Search

Blended Search Project @ Horespower Marketing

Blended search is a relevancy strategy, but it is also a business and profit strategy. The firms that own their category will begin to push their competition off the first page of the search.

Starting with a video, Horsepower Marketing will develop a strategy to test the implementation process of utilizing blended search in an Internet Marketing strategy.

Case Study: Successful Use of Blended Search
Product: D&D 2 into 1 BOSS Fat Cat
Objective: Determine how to take advantage of Blended Search

What is Blended Search
The whole purpose of Blended Search, or Universal Search, is to bring different file types from many different sources onto one results page. All of these sources were previously available, of course, but they were locked in vertical channels, such as video, local search, and so on.

Blended Search Process
We will implement the following process to create a baseline rate of success.

• After the video is completed we will uploaded it to YouTube, AOL Video and Metacafe.
• Then, we will connect to various social-media sites and social-bookmarking sites like Delicious and StumbleUpon and tagged it.
• After that, I we will email to friends, associates and family, asking them to play the movie, being sure to play the whole thing, and then go to Delicious and StumbleUpon and tag it.

Our expectations is that the video will achieved a No. 1 ranking position within 10 days.

Time Frame
The video has been shot. We are currently in post production and expect the video to be completed by end of March, 2009.

Keep Track of HorsePower Marketing

Linkedin

YouTube

Twitter

Twitter Photos

Flickr

Facebook

Panel of media

Control Panel of Social Networking participation including Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and more.

As I’m sure almost anyone reading this blog already knows, 2009 marks a major benchmark in search engine technology advancement. As of 2009 google (other major search providers of course following suit) has begun to display search results differently then it has in the past. After insight from a test group, behavioral search is already in the works.  

Google is making another change, so what?

 They constantly refine their search algorithm to make the most “relevant” search results display for each query, so what’s the big deal if they simply make ANOTHER change?

This change impacts all the work that many companies, teams, and individuals have poured blood, sweat, and tears into; SEO the way it has come to exist up until this point. I know what you’re thinking, “what is he talking about – when I search for something I am still finding what I can, reasonably perceive, is the most relevant results.” Yes, but… Those results are going to become increasingly altered to fit into what the search engine believes is the most relevant search result for YOU!

Great right? Sure, but…

What does this mean for companies who have grinded their teeth and pulled out hair (not to mention probably spent a butt load of money) to make sure their website comes up in the top results when you, Joe Shmoe, searches for diamonds…

It means they may not be there. Behavioral search is intuitive to it’s name, it is based on user behavior. Huh? How does the search engine know my behavior? Simple. Cookies, web cache, and actions taken when logged in (in this case to one of the largest user networks on the planet; Google™). You know that Google™ account you log into everyday to check your email, read news, go through your iGoogle™ widgets… Well, that’s ALL tracked!

A little scary, but the truth. Not only are all of your actions tracked and stored but they are done so in such great volume that Google™ is going to make a decision for you and decide what it is that YOU, most likely, are looking for. Practical application: you, Joe Shmoe, is looking for a diamond necklace for your beautiful soon-to-be doctor girlfriend. Now usually you’re a pretty cheap bastard, but in this case you want to really go over the top and get something exquisite… Well too bad.

Because you are such a cheap bastard on the regular, usually utilizing keywords in your search queries like cheap, low cost, and discount, Google™ is going to refine it’s search results to fit your usual pattern of search behavior. This shift in technology, in my opinion, is to combat the SEO industry (which has made almost as much money selling services that did not exist prior to Google™ as Google™ has on trying to combat it). What this means for SEO’s and major brand players is that sites are going to have to be much “thicker;” going above and beyond in the volume and quality of their content. Also, google and other search engines will be taking a deeper weighted look at website’s “neighborhoods,” or the sites within a particular websites link or content network.

The idea of the SEO neighborhood means that sites are going to have to re-evaluate who they link to, and who links to them. Overall the concept of an SEO neighborhood could be very beneficial, but we will wait and see…

Behavioral search isn’t the only new search engine technology effecting your search results – there is also blended search, which is used, but not for every query. Have you searched something recently on Google™ more than once, in a relatively short period of time, and were dealt a different hand of results then just a short while before? This is thanks to blended search, which does just that – blends a variety of search results from different sources; local, paid, directory, video, etc. Blended search seems to be running rampant in local search results in particular. In some of my recent searches with a geographic focus (philadelphia, conshohocken, etc.) the local search results will display next to an interactive google map, just the same as if you had clicked the local option from the google navigation. In some cases, and this is where I’ve seen inconsistencies, google will display results it deems to have a greater relevance/authority (who knows which) above the local results. I bet you have also noticed (if you’ve done some searching in ‘09) that mixed media will also be displayed sometimes. I’m not talking about the offers and promotions that show up just under, or in some cases above, the sponsored results – I mean the books, videos, interviews, and biographies that show up on the top and bottom of the results page.

So what does this all mean? Well, if you’re an SEO or you offer managed SEO solutions – I hope you have something else up your sleeve, if you’re a cheapskate by tradition – have fun searching for expensive items, and if you’re at work for ABC Paint Company searching for paint stripper on your laptop while at work (on the companies network)but happen to enjoy pornography while logged into a google (at some point) - hopefully you have an office with a door:)

El pasado 8 de mayo tuvo lugar el Online Expert Forum, organizado por Nedstat. En la presentación del encuentro, Patrick Dost, director general de esta compañía especializada en analítica web, provocó a los asistentes con una serie de preguntas: “¿Quién de ustedes tiene una página web?” Casi todos los presentes levantaron la mano. “¿Para qué empresas de las aquí presentes el website  es importante para su negocio?” De nuevo, un semipleno. “¿Quiénes utilizáis herramientas de medición que no sean gratuitas? ¿Qué empresas utilizan SEO y AdWords?” El número de palmas alzadas se redujo considerablemente. “¿Quién cree conocer bien al usuario de su web?” Con esta última pregunta, nadie levantó la mano. Desde primera hora de la mañana quedó patente la necesidad de organizar jornadas como el Online Expert Forum. 

Google Universal Search y Blended Search

Desde que a mediados de los años noventa nació el primer buscador, de la mano de Altavista, los motores de búsqueda han evolucionado mucho hasta convertirse en un auténtico negocio. Un hito en la evolución de los buscadores tuvo lugar en 2007 cuando Google empezó a tener en cuenta lo que había fuera de la página web, por ejemplo, los links que apuntan hacia ella. Jorge Fernández, organic search consultant de Traffic 4U, sitúa en aquel momento el verdadero nacimiento del SEO (Search Engine Optimization). 

Estudios, como el Eyetracking Media España realizado por alt64 en colaboración con la AIMC, permiten saber en qué se fija la gente cuando realiza una búsqueda, estableciendo un patrón de navegación. El Eyetracking Media concluye que el 61% de los internautas mira la publicidad online y, tras una entrevista posterior a la navegación, el estudio indica que un 52,9% de ellos retiene la marca del anuncio.

Jorge Fernández, de Traffic 4U, añade un dato más: El primer resultado de adwords es visto por el 50% de los usuarios. Sin embargo, señala que Google Universal Search (o Blended Search, en el caso de Yahoo! o Ask 3D) ha cambiado las reglas del juego y el patrón porque, en las búsquedas, destaca los vídeos y las imágenes: “Ahora el resultado más visto de adwords suele ser el que está justo por debajo del vídeo”.

Un estudio sobre los buscadores Google, Yahoo! y Life, realizado entre 2400 adultos americanos, alertó de que sólo un 26% usaba el buscador de imágenes; el 17%, el buscador de noticias; y un 60%, no utilizaba ninguno de estos optimizadores. Universal Search y Blended Search mejoran las búsquedas para estos usuarios porque destacan los resultados que contienen fotos o vídeos. Jorge Fernández subraya que el 17% de los usuarios hace click en una búsqueda general dentro de Google Universal Search. Aunque todos estos datos se refieren a Estados Unidos, Google Universal Search y Blended Search están a punto de llegar a España.

Para generar contenido que se posicione bien en Google Universal Search o Blended Search hay que tener en cuenta qué búsquedas se realizan en los buscadores verticales, en qué orden aparecen los resultados y cómo interactúa el usuario con ellos. Jorge Fernández lo explicaba con un ejemplo: “Si busco ‘bandera de Portugal’ en Google, los primeros resultados que obtengo son los más clicados. De estos, los tres primeros corresponden directamente a una imagen porque Google entiende que la mayoría de la gente cuando busca una bandera espera encontrar una imagen, aunque no haya realizado la búsqueda en Google Imágenes”. Google Universal Search mostrará directamente las imágenes, vídeos o noticias cuando considere que es lo que está buscando el usuario aunque no sean los resultados más clicados, es decir, podrán aparecer imágenes, vídeos o noticias salpicados entre el total de los resultados obtenidos. 

Jorge Fernández terminaba su exposición recomendando un par de herramientas para optimizar contenidos en internet, que revolucionarán las búsquedas: Tubemogul (herramienta que permite subir un vídeo a 16 plataformas a la vez y realiza un seguimiento) y Everyzing (herramienta que transcribe el audio de vídeos a texto, extrae automáticamente las keywords y lo indexa). 

Diez años evolucionando

“¿Cuántos navegabais por internet con banda ancha en 1998?”. Sólo dos levantaron la mano. De nuevo una pregunta para dar comienzo a una intervención. En este caso la planteaba Miguel de Reina, director comercial de Expressive, quien echaba la vista atrás y daba cuenta de la evolución que ha experimentado internet en los últimos diez años.

En 1998, un 4,6% de la población estaba atrapada por la red (se había conectado en el último mes), según la AIMC. “1.500.000 ‘frikies’ conectados a internet”, comenta Miguel de Reina. De estos, el 90,5% se conectaban con banda estrecha. “Con ese sonidillo de fax…¿chutará o no?”, ironiza el director comercial de Expressive. “Luego hubo una lucha por parte de los internautas para que, ya que era una pesadilla, por lo menos que no fuera tan cara”, recuerda Miguel de Reina. Entonces sólo un 7,6% de los internautas tenía RDSI.

Poco a poco el banner se quedó atrás y las empresas empezaron a ofrecer otros formatos publicitarios al servicio del anunciante. A pesar de la banda estrecha, los anunciantes empezaron a pedir que se vieran spots en las webs. “Se consiguió pero se cometieron muchos errores”, comenta Miguel de Reina. “Nos olvidamos del usuario. Disparábamos el spot al consumidor. Se primó el contenido del spot y no la segmentación”.

Diez años después las cosas han cambiado notablemente. El 41,6% de la población vive online, unos16 millones de españoles. El 91% de estos disfruta de banda ancha, cada vez más rápida y barata. “Ya no hace falta ofrecer ornitorrincos al anunciante. Hemos encontrado un formato publicitario menos atractivo, los enlaces patrocinados, y el anunciante ha tragado”, ironiza Miguel Reina. En su opinión, es una buena herramienta: “ya no hace falta un ornitorrinco, sino sencillez, gracias a la segmentación”. El modelo se basa en exponer el anuncio sólo al consumidor que realiza una búsqueda relacionada. El anunciante sólo pagará cuando le elijan, delimitando el tope que está dispuesto a pagar. Este modelo representa el 60% de la facturación en internet. Otra ventaja es que permite medir el retorno de la inversión (ROI) en tiempo real.

El próximo escalón en la evolución son los Adwords web tv 2.0, que permitirán encontrar un vídeo en los enlaces patrocinados, como resultado de la búsqueda. La diferencia entre un spot en televisión y en internet es, en opinión de Miguel Reina, que “en televisión se sigue pagando en GRPs y además tiene una duración limitada”.

El director comercial de Expressive recomienda crear un canal de web tv porque permite crear una imagen corporativa, programar contenidos, retransmitir eventos corporativos en directo o dirigirte a una sección concreta del vídeo. Youtube, sin embargo, ofrece la seguridad y estabilidad de la plataforma que tiene detrás, además del posicionamiento en buscadores. 

Toma de decisiones online

Para sacar el máximo partido a internet, lo primero que hay que hacer, según David Martín, consultor de Nedstat España, es definir los objetivos de marketing que se pretenden conseguir: Captación/conversión/fidelización. Después, definir los indicadores clave de rendimiento y cuantificar los objetivos. Por último, comprender los procesos que son críticos para conseguir esos objetivos. “¿Cuántas cestas de la compra se han quedado abandonadas? ¿Cuántos formularios no se han  terminado de rellenar?”, reflexionaba David Martín. “Un 3% de conversión significa un 97% de material no utilizado. ¿Por qué nadie lo tiene en cuenta”. Según explica el consultor de Nedstat, se está midiendo el tráfico, pero no la navegación. “Así se pierde negocio porque los que llegan a una web pueden no ser target o no llegar a convertir”.

Nedstat puede medir por ejemplo los términos más buscados y las búsquedas fallidas; los campos abandonados en un cuestionario; el comportamiento del usuario ante un vídeo y el impacto que tiene la pieza audiovisual en una determinada web. David Martín concluyó diciendo que “hay que medir y hay que hacerlo con una metodología seria”.

A continuación, intervino José Antonio Belmonte, jefe de servicio de gestión informática de Murcia Turística, quien contó cómo se creó la nueva web de murciaturistica.es con la asesoría de Nedstat. Su objetivo principal era llegar al cliente final. Para Belmonte, web 2.0 no es una tecnología sino una actitud que supone entre otras cosas no engañar al cliente, darle lo que quiere y escucharle, porque su conocimiento constituye la inteligencia colectiva. La nueva web cuenta con un sección para que el usuario pueda opinar.

En la creación de la nueva web participaron los departamentos de promoción turística, producto, comercialización y publicidad y comunicación. Las herramientas de Nedstat permiten, según comentó Belmonte, realizar informes de analítica web adaptados a los objetivos concretos de cada departamento.

Gracias a estos informes descubrieron por ejemplo que cada vez llegaba más gente a su murciaturistica.es a través de google, buscando sobre todo rutas gastronómicas. Así el departamento de producto se dio cuenta de que tenía que crear nuevas rutas  gastronómicas y el departamento de comercialización trabajó en la misma línea.

Ahora están trabajando en temas de web semántica, para saber lo que se está diciendo de murciaturistica.es y de la competencia en los blogs, así como en la creación de un canal en Youtube. 

Ponencias del Online Expert Forum