When Google launched Local Search, it introduced personalization, the art of guessing where you are and what you wanted to find, and presenting search results to suit. Since its debut in 2009, the local map feature has been ever-present, highlighting locations that are in the geographical area indicated by your IP address, or, if you dare provide it, by your recorded location. People were already uneasy about Google’s data-collecting activities. As early as December 2008, the New York Times highlighted concerns that personal privacy might be the trade-off for convenience in retrieving information from the web. Google conceded that it collected a wide range of data, but that it “did not threaten anyone’s privacy.” Skeptics from all corners reserved judgement, and the debate...
Some SEO experts believe that building too many links within a short span of time and which is based on a similar anchor text can caused the website to be red flagged by Google since it may give the impression that the those links have been acquired abnormally by using automated scripts or link building software. This may result in the Google BLOOP or the “Backlink Over Optimization Penalty”. It is caused by the some inexperienced...
Susan Wojcicki presents the new update for Google Analytics, flow visualisation. She began the presentation with a quote by John Wanamaker, who was an innovative retailer in the 19th century. He said that “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.” Susan explains that this is exactly how anyone who is running a business feels like. They want more data from their visitors so they can...
You have just gotten used to Tweeting updates about your website, and Facebook has been a resource for years, but now Google has come out with Google Plus (G+ henceforth) and you are wondering if it is a useful property for future promotions. The short answer is that every avenue is useful, but the cost versus time equation comes into play. There are a few ways of looking at the real meat of the problem, so...
Currently, search engines rank their web pages based on a number of things, including; the number of visitors, the amount of keywords, how long the domain has been in operation for, how many back links the website has, its page rank and a few others. However, it looks like this is about to change. Here, we will explore if this is the case. Google filed a patent (on the 24th Feb 2011), which detailed how...
Google+ shows tremendous potential when compared to Facebook popularity. And, to all of our educated guesses, people are excited about this cold war. Questions I am stuck with: Who wins? Who looses? What is going to happen next? How this is going to influence our social media marketing plan? Is it good or bad for everyone related to internet world? How great and different it is from Facebook applications? Is it...
In 2011 Google rolled out one of the biggest updates to its search engine, the Google Panda update, also referred to as the Farmer Update. The first tranche of the update was in February 2011 and affected all English language sites in America. The second tranche of the update was in April 2011 and affected all other English language sites. There is a lot of conflicting opinion on whether this update was good or not. Many...
An AdSense arbitrage campaign consists of placing ads with Google AdWords (or one of their competitors like Yahoo! Publisher Network) at a lower cost-per-click that directs people to a website that displays higher paying Google AdSense ads. Although, AdSense arbitrage is not as easy as it sounds. The success of an arbitrage campaign depends heavily on the actual click-thru percentage of your AdSense ads. For example, if you spend $100 in one month advertising your website,...
Google’s introduction of Instant Preview, which displays a snapshot of your landing page when you click on the magnifying glass next to search results and Ads, has shaken the ground we search on. The plan is to make it ‘even faster’ for users to choose the right result. Google have found through testing that by adding instant previews they should make people around 5% more likely to be happy with their results. However, we’re not talking about...
The Google suite continues to expand with various tools available to help you with your business, your website, and your marketing – pretty much anything. One such tool is Google’s Ad Planner, which can help you target specific websites which your potential customers visit so you can know where to put your advertising dollars. In today’s marketplace, advertising online is a must. With the huge amount of online traffic happening every day for any given topic...
