Google’s Chrome looking to shine as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Security Alert announced

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100 days after the launch of its browser ‘Chrome’, Google announced that it will take this out of beta phase, probably secure with the fact that 10million people have downloaded it.

The announcement couldn’t be more time as Microsoft announced last night that it has some serious security issues with its Internet Explorer browser as recently reported on the BBC

On the official Google blog, VP of product management Sundar Pichai and engineering director Linus Upson said, “Since we released Google Chrome, the development team has been improving the stability and overall performance of the browser. In just 100 days we’ve reached more than 10m active users around the world and released 14 updates to the product.

“Chrome is a better browser today thanks to the many users who sent their feedback and the many more who enabled automatic crash reports, helping us rapidly diagnose and fix issues,” they added.

Chrome has quite a way to go before it catches up with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer but I remember someone back in 2001 at AltaVista saying the same thing about a little company called Google….

The importance of SEO in ecommerce

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When putting together an SEO proposal for a client recently It became apparent that many companies are still operating with outdated websites that were built with no consideration for the purpose of a business website: to drive sales and grow the brand.

It’s quite understandable that a business that is not online orientated will lack the in-house know-how and skill sets required to work with these goals in mind, it is more often the employed web design company that are at fault. The fact is however that no company can afford to ignore SEO when developing their website.

The culprits (if I can call them that) are companies that have not updated their website in 5 or more years, back when META tags were enough to get you listed in search engines and online sales were a drop in the ocean. Projections vary but in the next five years online sales are expect to account for between 30 and 50 percent of all retails sales, such a large amount that those not online and not competing are going to suffer hugely.

Now for an analogy: Imagine a shop selling exclusive designer clothing that all the stars are wearing and millions of people want – they’re going to do great business! Now imagine the same shop is located down a back alley in a quiet part of town. Suddenly this great product that’s in huge demand isn’t being sold because no one can find where to buy it!
If you’re now a little worried there are a few basic checks you can make yourself:

  • Are you using keywords you’ve specifically chosen to attract visitors and are they used in the right places?
  • Are other sites linking to you? How many? Check in Google by typing “link:www.yourdomain.com”
  • Have you included Meta Tags? (Specifically Keywords and Description)
  • Is your content unique? Do you update regularly?
  • Are you using an Analytics tool to monitor progress?

This is a very brief checklist - there are many other issues a serious SEO campaign would go into but it should be enough for you to decide if you need some help. Even if you pass all of the above points it may still be worth contacting a professional SEO company with good experience to guide you. The internet opens your business up to millions of customers but it puts you in competition with just as many businesses.

Predictions in Search for 2009

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Though Google is not the only Search Engine out there it is by far the biggest when it comes to users searching its index. From a search marketing perspective it is a must have in a schedule in any campaign. So, when the internet giant’s Webmaster guru Matt Cutts talks about his prediction for 2009, the industry takes note.

In a recent article on the excellent WebPro News Matt Cutts gave his predictions for the ever changing search arena in the coming year. These views were timely as they come hot on the heals of Bruce Clay’s comments on how Personalised search will lead to a more Behaviour Based Search Ranking. This sparked a major debate on the value of ‘ranking’ and the phrase “Ranking is Dead” being touted for 2009.

To try and deliver some perspective, Matt Cutts added his personal thoughts and views.

Jason Lee Miller conducted the discussions and they were joined by Google’s Senior Support Engineer Maile Ohye.

Does the age of a website/domain affect its ranking?
Ohye answered this way: a site’s reputation can be a indicator to search engines, but of course, it’s not everything. Having a site for a long period of time can establish credibility with users, and as a search engine we also want to reflect this type of credibility. Of course, newer domains can also gain users and credibility. It seems like running a good site is a bit like running a reputable business. So yes, if your domain has been credible for years it can help. If you buy an old domain and put all your content on it in hopes of getting instant rankings, that’s not the best idea.
But, when the question was rephrased from another webmaster, Cutts answered: In the majority of cases, it actually doesn’t matter–we want to return the best information, not just the oldest information. Especially if you’re a mom/pop site, we try to find ways to rank your site even if your site is newer or doesn’t have many links. I think it is fair for Google to use that as a signal in some circumstances, and I try never to rule a signal out completely, but I wouldn’t obsess about it.

Official translation: Sometimes, when we say it does.

GOOGLE STRAIGHT TALK

Do 301 redirects carry over PageRank?
Where appropriate, ranking signals will be transferred across 301 redirects (if the same page has moved from one URL to another). This may take some time, so you should probably leave the redirect in place as long as you have control over the URL.

How many 301 redirects are acceptable?
It’s ok to chain a few together. The HTTP 1.0 standard allows for a maximum of 5 redirects for a URL, so keep it minimal.

Why do pages translated into different languages each have different rankings in their respective engines?
Google looks at content on a URL-by-URL basis, so even if you have translated top content from one language to another, Google might not treat it the same way as they would treat the original content. It’s also possible that the translated content is not as relevant as other original content in that language. Generally speaking, making sure that your content is as unique and compelling as possible for the users in that target market is the best thing to do.

Do backlinks from bad sites negatively affect my PageRank?
Those links might be positively affecting your PageRank (PageRank does not go down from “bad” links like those from adult sites). In general, you don’t have to worry about bad links like that which point to your site that aren’t under your control.

How often does your search algorithm change?
We change the algorithms all the time - last year we had over 450 changes.

Could sharing an IP address with a bad site get my site penalized?
The situations where it would matter are when the server is overloaded (can’t respond to your visitors) and when it’s incorrectly configured (not returning your site to your visitors). But otherwise that is no longer a concern.

Does Google have a problem with rank-checking software?
Rank-checking software is against Google’s Terms of Service and could result in blocking your IP address, and it doesn’t really help, especially when it comes to personalized or geotargeted results.

CIRCUITOUS ROUTES AND TRANSLATIONS

Question: Is there PageRank boost from .edu or .gov links?
Google’s Answer: You don’t get any PageRank boost from having an .edu link or .gov link automatically. If you get an .edu link and no one is linking to that .edu page, you’re not going to get any PageRank at all because that .edu page doesn’t have any PageRank.

Translation: If the .edu or .gov page is linked to, then yes, because that webpage now has some authority, just like with any (non-.gov or .edu) page.

Question: Does a page load time play a crucial role in Google Page Ranking? If yes how important is it?
Google’s Answer: I think the more important issue here is user experience. If your site loads fast, your users will be happy; if it loads slow, users will be less happy. Make your users happy, right?

Translation: Yes, and as important as 200 other factors.

Question: Aaron D’Souza of the Search Quality team was reported as stating that publishing the same content on two separate geotargeted paths under your domain will not trigger the dupe content filters. Is this correct?
Google’s Answer: In general, in a case like that, we’d try to pick the best page based on various factors, including geotargeting and language choices. If that page is one which is also available for other geotargeting/language choices, we will generally try to pick the version that our algorithms feel makes the most sense.

Translation: Yes, we think.

Question: I have reported sites that clearly have paid links (e.g. the backlink page says “Advertising” above the link), but Google does not seem to take action. Why would that be the case? These are .orgs who are clearly selling their .org juice.
Google’s Answer: While paid links and spam reports are being taken very seriously by Google, the results may not be seen immediately for users or even not at all. This does not mean no action is being taken on the offending sites. Also, the TLD of the sites should not be a factor being taken into account. For this reason reporting both, web spam and PageRank passing link selling makes sense and contributes in an important way to the quality of Google’s index.

Translation, partly based on .gov/.edu response: Google treats all top level domains the same, so a .org would have no more juice than a .com or .info. Further, clearly marked paid links (ones on pages labeled “Advertising”) are not necessarily violations of Google’s guidelines. If the links you reported were found to be nofollow links, then no action would be necessary. But keep trying to sabotage the competition. Business is war.

Question: Is it true that the fewer the links FROM your website, the more influence they have on the sites receiving those links?
Google’s Answer: PageRank is split up over the links from a page, but I would recommend not concentrating on this (as you won’t be able to “measure” and act upon it anyway) and instead making your site as usable as possible for your visitors.

Translation: Yes, the more you link the more the link juice passed on is diluted, but don’t go trying to figure out the formula in order to game the system. We’ll figure you out. We’re Google.

Question: Does getting a lot of comments in a blog help in being well indexed/ranked by Google?

Google’s answer: Having a lot of enthusiastic users commenting on your posts and doing so generating content on your site, certainly does not harm your rankings. Furthermore, a large fan base gives the webmaster a bit of independence from search engine traffic, which is the reason why generating original and compelling content in order to nurture a group of committed users is something I would highly recommend to any blogger

Translation: Yes.

Question: Recently, you removed this suggestion: “Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!” from your guidelines. Is there any chance that you will be discounting these kinds of links for ranking value in future?
Google’s Answer: There’s always the chance that we’ll discount directory links in the future. What we were seeing was quite a few novice people would see the “directory” recommendation and go out and just try to submit to a ton of directories, even if some of the directories were lower-quality or even fly-by-night directories that weren’t great for users. Right now we haven’t changed how we’re weighting directory links–we’ve only removed the directory suggestion from the webmaster guidelines.

Translation: Possibly.

Question: Until recentley (the last six months or so) a high ranking was achievable by submitting articles to article directories (providing they were 40%-60% unique),  it no longer seems to be the case.  Have links from article sites been de-valued at all?
Google’s Answer: In my experience, not every article directory site is high-quality. Sometimes you see a ton of articles copied all over the place, and it’s hard to even find original content on the site. The user experience for a lot of those article directory sites can be pretty bad too. So you’d see users landing on those sorts of pages have a bad experience. If you’re thinking of boosting your reputation and getting to be well-known, I might not start as the very first thing with an article directory. Sometimes it’s nice to get to be known a little better before jumping in and submitting a ton of articles as the first thing.

Translation: Yes.

Full Article available http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/11/10/google-answers-some-tricky-questions Courtesy of Webpro News

Interflora’s legal wrangle with M&S over AdWords Keyword bidding

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It was widely reported in the online advertising press yesterday within the UK that Interflora were looking to take strong legal action to protect their brand over keyword bidding by the retailer M&S on the Goggle AdWords platform.

A bemused M&S found the action a little heavy and stated that they were doing nothing wrong and their actions fell well within the boundaries of the AdWords protocol and rules.

The key thrust of Interflora’s argument is that while M&S may be acting within Google’s AdWords rules, they may be breaching actual copyright law.

Interflora protect against possible adwords copyright infringement

Interflora protect against possible adwords copyright infringement

Marketing director of Interflora UK, Michael Barringer, spoke with OUT-LAW.com to say;

“The Interflora brand is extremely valuable and we will not tolerate competitors taking advantage of it and infringing our right.

“Throughout its history, Interflora has been forced to use legal means to prevent infringement of its valuable trade marks. This action represents only the beginning of a broader strategy to defend the Interflora mark against infringers.”

This legal action could have other ramifications on how company bid on competitors keywords as well as how they react when being bid against.

Google changed its policy on companies being allowed to bid on their rivals’ trademarks back in May 2008 – the result also had a positive effect on the search giants share price. The change in May allows advertisers to bid on any brand names, but prevents them from using a rival’s trademark in the text of the ad that appears in the sponsored search advertisement.

TTFN to BPF – the end of Google’s Best Practice Funding

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It is often said that the difference between goodbye & au revoir are often mistaken. In the case of Google Best Practice Funding (BPF) it will more than likely be the former rather than the later.

The BPF programme was a commission based system that allowed Google to pay commissions to 3rd party companies, mainly advertising/media agencies and search specialist agencies, for work they carried out on behalf of their client to help plan, facilitate, execute and report on Google AdWords Advertising. The system was introduced for a variety of reasons though the smart money was on the fact the original commissions paid by Google (alongside other media owners and networks) was being abused and in some case being paid back to clients so certain agencies with buying power could negotiate ‘cost-effective’ deals with their clients - these pigeons have now come home to roost.

Like the credit crunch, the impending demise of the BPF has forced those agencies that integrated their business plan with commission, to think again or take a seriously hard look at the business they’re in – maybe even saying with a bah humbug,  TTFN to the business.

BPF - Volume or Value? Digital Clarity’s view

The imminent demise of Google Best Practice Funding (BPF) is one that for those unprepared will require a period of adjustment. Digital Clarity has always felt that sharp practice by larger players in the market lead to quality and delivery being superseded by those concerned with blurred cost effective media schedules.

Digital Clarity welcomes the move and embraces a new era where client of all sizes can see the benefit of an agencies work over and above volume.

The return of client centered practice alongside lean and value driven pricing models augmented to leading solutions & strategy have always been at the heart Digital Clarity’s thrust and this will continue to be the case – BPF or no BPF.

To have a confidential discussion on BPF or if you wish to discuss how this may effect you business, please contact Reggie James: DCM UK or the Australian office

Australian Businesses Turn to Search…

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… Lucky as most of the online converters don’t know what all the fuss is about!

Frost & Sullivan Australia released their latest digital media advertising research findings recently - in which the Australian search advertising reached a total value of $870 million during the 2008 calendar year making it the fastest growing segment in the local digital media advertising industry. PPC continue to lead demand accounting for 51% or $442.6 million of the total revenue. This was followed by online directories at $264 million & contextual searches at $163 million.

The study also confirmed that the clear market leader for search advertising remains Google which captured 62% revenue share of the total 2008 online search advertising market.

Foster & Sullivan also identified the vast majority of companies (circa 75%) of advertisers are now spending more than 10% of their total media budget on search related activities which is a large leap of 10% compared to last years figures.

This reallocation of budgets towards search is likely to be accelerated by the current financial turmoil. As companies look to find pure accountability for every dollar they spend, as well as taking advantage of the tremendous cost effectiveness of search marketing.

Interestingly 2008 studies showed that some industries are experiencing signs of weaker returns on investment. Digital Clarity Media’s PPC division have noticed some absolutely crazy vertical market trends within search this year so it is not to be unexpected that those that jump onto the bandwagon and receive positive returns with no real strategy in place will soon suffer, this may affect vertical market returns in the short term, however vertical markets traditionally fall back in line with growth predictions and we certainly haven’t seen any significant decrease in returns for our clients, actually they are all reporting strong growth.

Another interesting fact is that with all the talk of the financial strains on the global economy we keep on expecting to see a decline in online activity & returns for our clients. The reality of the situation is that those that are most affected with this ‘crisis’ are the more affluent - traditionally these people are such a small percentage of online converters that returns with well thought out and managed online strategies shouldn’t be affected. The big online converters - those that are sitting in the middle / low income brackets who should be the targets for the majority of online advertisers don’t really know what the fuss is about, ‘what crisis’ they say, in fact they are benefiting from lower petrol prices & interest rates and are shaping up for a nice Christmas.

It is no wonder that search is predicted to accelerate throughout 2009.

Will Chrome outshine the others for Browser dominance?

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Bill Gates famously said “The Internet? We are not interested in it” back in 1993. The rest as they say, is history. Also said with equal bravado by Clement Mok, a famous designer & software developer, “Five years ago, we thought of the Web as a new medium, not a new economy”.

The underlying platform that unites these 2 quotes is Google. Google not only proved Bill Gates wrong and led to his continual game of catch up was the company form Mountain View. Equally, the company that created an economy from web browsing was Google.

Now Google has launched ‘Chrome’ it’s new web browser that will go head to head with Microsoft’s new IE8 browser. Microsoft has dominated the Browser market through OEM bundles with all the major PC and Laptop providers and currently has 72% market share, worldwide.

What has spiced the launch of Microsoft’s IE8 and had all the pundits, blogs and forums buzzing is that earlier in the week, Microsoft issued a statement as part of a press release saying that the NEW IE8 would have a ‘privacy’ button that would wipe and block any third party cookies or tracking elements that shows a users history on the sites they visit. This data is used by advertiser to target their communication to the right people at the right time, to ultimately sell more relevant products or services.

The prospective blocking or erasing of this data would have serious repercussions for banner or graphical based advertising that in many ways has kept the internet free for consumers visiting and accessing data, products and information – YouTube, Bebo, MySpace etc are examples of advertising reliant sites that allow fir mass communication without charging the user and entrance fee or membership fee.

So, why would Microsoft launch this bizarre offensive? Simple, to take a swipe at Google’s recent launch of it new graphical based ad servicing technology after their acquisition of DoubleClick. Feeling threatened and having already quietly developed the browser, Google’s launch of Chrome was another stroke of genius that stamped all over the new improved version of what would be IE8.

Currently, IE8 is now a distant memory and all the talk is about Chrome and the various ASP applications that will become available including a spreadsheet package that will apparently make the ubiquitous excel look like an abacus.

by Reggie James ~ November 24th, 2008

On the rebound, Yahoo! goes back to Microsoft

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It is often said that one should never look a gift horse in the mouth. This little gem of wisdom is always applied with a good dose of hindsight and in this case is applicable to the once mighty search giant Yahoo! and more aptly, to it’s beleaguered Chief Executive Jerry Yang’s attempt at trying to resurrect some form of deal with Microsoft. A deal that Yang and his board walked away from a few months ago.

Though Steve Ballmer, the legendry sales guru and more recently CEO of Microsoft has totally ruled out any takeover, he has left the tiniest of door opening by saying that he may consider some form of tie-up around paid search.
This is a shrewd move by Ballmer who has give the classic corporate stance of ‘Microsoft have moved on’…to knowing deep down inside that any form of collaboration that involved Microsoft taking even the slightest of chunks from mega rival Google’s market share would probably elevate him into demigod status at the Software companies Seattle HQ.

Watch this space…

by Reggie James ~ November 21st, 2008

‘Quality’ Score? More Revenue for Google

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Google’s recent changes to ‘Quality’ score and Minimum bids again raise questions?

It was only a few months ago that Google removed the restriction of bidding on brand term keywords. This created huge controversy and prompted the reaction from the major brands in the market to join sides and avoid bidding on each others brands. Some kept their word and others didn’t as expected.

However, the fact remains that Google is now generating higher volumes of revenue from this simple move. The advertisers pay more to appear on competitors keywords, Google makes more money.

The next step in this process has now been to remove the minimum bid requirements. These were previously in place to give Google the right to stop irrelevant listings from appearing if their Quality Score was too low. This now means that you can bid on any keyword you want as long as you pay the right price.

Google suggest that the ‘Quality’ Score will still be in place to reward and promote the more relevant advertisers and suppress the irrelevant ones. But how much impact will this now have?

Are Google taking a step backward when it comes to providing relevancy? If users are searching on a keyword they want to find a relevant website not an advertiser who has paid top whack to appear at the top.

by Reggie James ~ November 24th, 2008

Digital Clarity Media Expands into Australia

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November 2008: “We are managing the digital marketing for a number of Australian brands from the UK, so the expansion into Australia was a natural step to take”

Digital Clarity Media is a highly regarded Search & Digital Marketing Agency whose doors opened in the UK some 7 years ago; founded by the Digital Clarity Group’s CEO Reggie James, who was instrumental in developing DC Storm, a leading bid & tracking software that is used by many digital agencies around the world.

Reggie says, “We are delighted to announce the opening of our Australian office. This will complement our London & Guilford offices and will enable us to respond to the increasing demand for integrated global campaigns more effectively, we are in a great position and excited to be able to provide Australian companies with a world class digital marketing service”

Using search as the core, Digital Clarity Media seamlessly integrates all online platforms to achieve optimum customer acquisition on behalf of its clients. Digital Clarity Media has a variety of teams now stationed in Australia that work in tandem to ensure a clear line of communication both internally and to clients.

The Sydney office is led by Digital Clarity Media’s Australian Online Strategist Nathan Downs and a dedicated team of PPC experts who have worked structuring & managing online campaigns for Mercedes Benz, Landrover, Audi, Abby Bank, HR Owen, BGR Bloomer Solicitors, Crimson Business to name a few. Nathan says “We have found that the Australian Online Search Market is operating inline with where the UK search market was a few years ago. It is only natural that people that shaped the online success for UK companies then have the experience & expertise to shape Australian companies online success now”

Nathan Continues “We have taken over the management of PPC campaigns for a number of Australian Brands since soft launching in Australia and the results are truly outstanding for those clients; in some cases we have increased ROI by 2,500”

The difference between Digital Clarity Media and other SEM companies is demonstrated by the superior results we consistently deliver for all of our clients in some of the most competitive industries online. Our team has pioneered some techniques & also has vast experience in testing all forms of website marketing, so we know what works and what doesn’t.

Using best practice and a unique transparency in its approach, Digital Clarity Media has built a reputation for Service, Commitment and Results.