Google has launched a new campaign designed to help businesses optimise their websites for mobile devices, its called GetMo. Yet again showing the level of importance Google is placing on Mobile and how imperative it is for new sites to be Mobile accessible and discoverable.

The New Google initiative is based on a recent Google HowToGoMo U.S. Campaign, and features an online test environment, developer guides and resources and case studies to help webmasters and developers optimise their sites for mobile platforms.
By helping its users to improve mobile compatibility Google will be able to improve the quality and diversity of its mobile search results, providing its users with a higher quality service. This in turn will increase the advertising potential of mobile search and increase the Google’s Mobile Market Share.

“As the smart phone explosion continues, more consumers are looking to engage with brands by searching for them on their mobile phone,” said Ian Carrington, head of European mobile advertising at Google. “Yet the majority of businesses don’t have mobile sites or a mobile strategy for connecting with them.”

Google have acknowledged the importance of mobile search and has noted a 400 percent increase in the past two years. With over 84% of UK consumers claiming to have used there mobile device to research local information, the Mobile marketplace just cannot be ignored. With an increase in the quality of search results Google is set to dramatically improve the user experience, delivering more refined and trusted result, which will increase mobile usage on both tablet and handset.

Article by Creative SEO

Google Announced yesterday that Encrypted or Secure search will be expanded to international Google Domains after a period of testing on Google.com. Is Google “Search Plus Your World” about to be rolled out internationally? Is SEO about to change and will social marketing become a key factor in SEO?

Encrypted Search will unfortunately result in a reduction in recorded search query data, this is all thanks to the SSL or Secure Socket Layer Google has enabled on all logged in searches, not carrying over search query data for organic search results. So how will this affect you?

Google will be introducing encryption to its local domains over the next few weeks, i.e. google.co.uk, google.fr etc. The move is to ensure greater levels of user privacy, allowing user search result pages to be displayed using HTTPs by default. This is obviously great for user privacy but there is a draw back, search query string data is not being transferred from the secure Google search session for a click on an organic listing. This is resulting in a huge increase in “not provided” search query string data within Analytics and third party tools. This is a big blow for Marketers, providing incomplete keyword performance monitoring data, unfortunately not allowing Marketers to accurately gauge keyword performance and influence for logged in Google users. The click will still be identified as coming from “Google” and from an “Organic” source, but the keyword will not be attributed to the click.

The move to Encrypted search is controversial enough, with a change to Google’s privacy policy, but Google has very kindly left a loophole in the policy allowing Google Advertisers to see the encrypted data. This has caused outrage within the SEO and Online Marketing communities raising a very important point. Google is happy to help protect its users privacy but only to a point where it does not effect Google advertising sales, allowing paying advertisers to access the data and thus protecting its own profitability and product marketability above its users privacy.

Encrypted search was rolled out on Google.com in October 2011, in January it became clear why this had happened, as Google launched “Search Plus Your World” which requires Encrypted search to protect personal user search data which is published directly into a logged in users search results. “Search Plus Your World” incorporates, by default, “Personal Results” from social interactions, which personalises your search based on user behaviour and social connections; this will include content shared with you through your Google+ Social network. Potentially making Google + an essential and influential marketing channel. So as an example if a user was searching for a restaurant in a city and if one or more of the users Google + friends had mentioned a restaurant in the area within their Google + Feed, the results would be incorporated into the users search results. Providing real and potentially trusted experiences from actual people and incorporating their opinions into a Google search. Powerful stuff if it actually works, but the success of this will rely on a proactive network of friends and as yet Google + does not have the reach of networks like Facebook or Twitter.

“The social search algorithm, and the personal search algorithm, and the personalized search algorithm are actually one algorithm now, and we are merging it in a way that is very pleasant and useful,” said Amit Singhal from Google, who oversees Google’s ranking Algorithm in a talk with Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land.

To find out more about “Search Plus Your World” please check out this great article from Danny Sullivan Click Here.

It’s clear to see the influence and importance social content will have as a ranking signal in Google in the future. Google is open to adding social content to the Google “Search Plus Your World” results from Facebook, Twitter and perhaps even more networks. This does potentially mean a complete change to the way search results are served, promoting the opinions of friends from social networks as influencing factors when a user researches a topic. The impact of this on SEO has yet to be fully assessed but it’s clear to see that Social and SEO are now one in the same. Google acknowledges that existing social interactions are monitored and used as a ranking signal within its algorithm, is this the end of SEO as we know it, are we seeing the mainstream birth of Social SEO?

What is assured is a greater focus on Social, SEO, Local, Mobile and multi channel marketing. This will result in marketers needing to demonstrate more effectively campaign success, measuring engagement, interaction, amplification and applause of online marketing campaigns. Understanding the interactions between search and social and utilising SEO to leverage organic ranking.

Gauging Social Search success, conversion and ROI will be the next big challenge for SEO. The growing complexity of a users interaction with a brand or product and the complex multi channel journey a user now takes when interacting with a website will need to be monitored and quantified by marketers. It will be essential to fully understand the interactions of users across multiple channels in order to quantify campaign success and how visitors convert to sales or enquiries.

Encrypted search is just the start, “Search Plus Your World” is coming and potentially marks the dawn of a new search age, providing intuitive and personalised search results where actual friend experiences influence your decision making process. The importance of Mobile and Local search cannot be ignored and their influence will continue to grow as a greater emphasis is placed on more refined and personalised search results. Is this taking search one-step to far, would users rather research to find new information outside of their social circles? Is this a first step towards Serendipitous Search? Only time will tell.

Article by Matt Blay at Creative SEO
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Matt Cutts, a spokes person for Google, has publicly acknowledged the worth of well implemented SEO and finally has acknowledged that SEO is not spam. Below is the original video from Matt Cutts, it would be great to get your feedback on this, it’s great to finally have an acknowledgement of the worth of SEO.

By creative seo

Adwords users will also be allowed to directly bid and advertise their Google Adwords Text ads under trademark keywords and search terms. Many large online retailers have complained about the current restricted use. An authorised supplier wanting to sell a trademark protected product would currently have to seek permission from the manufacturer in order to use the trademark term to advertise within the Adwords network. Non authorised suppliers, who purchased products through a distributer, usually smaller traders, who not have been allowed to use trademark terms. Many believe that this has lead to the Adwords network being controlled and restricted by big brands for product and brand specific keywords and search terms. Giving the trademark owner the ability to protect the RRP of a product line and preventing independent suppliers from directly competing with the trademark owner.

From September 14^th legitimate Independent suppliers and retailers will now be allowed to use trademark terms to advertise and market their products and services. Google have said

“We believe the right approach is to give users more choices and access to as much information as is relevant to their search or interest. This policy change balances the needs of our users while ensuring that competitive, critical, or negative uses of the trademark in ad text continue to be reviewed and removed per our trademark policy.”

There does still seem to be a number of restrictions attached to the use of the Trademark terms, Google will continue to review Adword Ad text which uses negative, critical or competitive keywords in relation to the trademark term.

“- ads that do not lead to a landing page that clearly facilitates the sale of either the goods and services corresponding to the trademark or parts or components related to the goods and services corresponding to the trademark

- competitive or critical information about the goods and services corresponding to a trademark

- ads that do not lead to a landing page which provides substantive information about the goods and services corresponding to a trademark.”

This seems to be more about protecting the quality of the Adwords network rather than controlling the use of trademark terms, ad text quality is already a key factor in its use.

The announcement will usher in some very positive changes to the Adwords network. Creative, non competitive and positive Ad text content will ensure campaign successfully serving. What will be interesting to watch will be the change in Google Adwords listings for existing trademark terms, and the new strategies adopted by the Trademark owners to combat the changes.

For more information and details about the changes, click here to read the official Google Change document.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Google confirmed the tool will be removed by the 1^st September 2010, old links will be redirected to the new keyword tool and the beta label will be removed from the new version.

So if you want to remember the fun times you had researching keywords, why not revisit the old Google keyword tool one final time, before it is escorted to the Google retirement home…

Article by  CreativeSEO

“Like our design and software guidelines, these privacy principles are designed to guide the decisions we make when we create new technologies. They are one of the key reasons our engineers have worked on new privacy-enhancing initiatives and features” Google Official Blog.

The 5 privacy principles are as follows:

1) Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
2) Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
3) Make the collection of personal information transparent.
4) Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
5) Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

You can find out more at the Google Privacy Center or click on the video below.



Article by Creative SEO

Google Social Search is an innovative concept which allows users to search their own personal social networks, blog posts and other social content for specific information. The possibilities are endless you could look within your own social network to find out firstly who is an expert on a specific topic and secondly who is talking about or has similar interests or opinions. Really this is just the very beginning; the possibilities for research are endless allowing users to network there direct contacts based on keyword search queries.

To get the full benefit of Google Social Search you will need a Google account and you’ll have to be signed in. Within your Google account you’ll need to configure your profile to include all of your social networks etc. Google have also added the service to Google Image search so you can find images based on a keyword search exclusively from your social circle.

“While we’ve been enjoying Social Search (and having babies), we’ve been hard at work on new features. For example, we’ve added social to Google Images. Now when you’re doing a search on Images, you may start seeing pictures from people in your social circle. These are pictures that your friends and other contacts have published publicly to the web on photo-sharing sites like Picasa Web Albums and Flickr. Just like the other social results, social image results appear under a special heading called “Results from your social circle” Google Blog.

We’ll update the post to let you know when the service has gone live but in the mean time, here’s a great video, by Google, which gives an overview of what lies ahead.

Article by Creative SEO

Google, Yahoo and Bing continue to fight for supremacy but even with the challenge of the new Yahoo and Bing Partnership, Google’s simplicity of use and popularity have continued to assure its market leading position. Google are set to continue heaping on the pressure with the launch of the new caffeine update, due to complete by the end of January and the introduction of cookie based personalised search results. Google have also mentioned the Page Load Speed will also become an important part of the Google Algorithm, so what is going to happen and how will this effect online business?

Below is a list of Articles from key websites detailing their predictions for 2010, the articles are extremely interesting and show a clear trend of opinion.

Article by Creative SEO

Search Engine Land: Link Building Trends For 2010

Search Engine Watch: 5 New Year Resolutions for Search Marketers in 2010

Acidgreen: SEO Trends in 2010: Search Engine Optimization Techniques for Online Marketers

Internet Marketing Inc.: Three 2010 SEO Trends to Look Out For: Social Media, Onpage SEO & Link Diversity

Small Business Trends: SEO Trends to Watch for in 2010

SEOptimise: 20 SEO New Year’s Resolutions for 2010

Search Engine Land: 6 New Years Resolutions For In-House SEMs

Search Engine Journal: 2010: A New Age For Search Marketers

SEOmoz: 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010

David Harry: White Coat SEO resolutions for the New Year

Search Engine People: My 3 PPC Resolutions – Why 2010 Will be Defined by Mobile, Facebook and the Website Optimizer

PPC Without Pity: Three PPC Predictions For 2010

Search Engine Land: My PPC New Year Resolutions

Search Engine Watch: Search Marketing 2010: Plan ahead by looking back

PPC Hero: 5 PPC Resolutions for 2010

Search Engine Land: Five Search Marketing Predictions For 2010

Web.com: 5 Pay-Per-Click Trends to Watch in 2010

Google: Think2010: Personalization and accountability (Google AdWords video series)

Search Engine Land: 2010 Planning: 3 Tips To Improve Search Results Next Year

eMarketer: eMarketer Weighs In on 2010: Online Advertising & Usage

GigaOM: Will 2010 Finally be the Year of Location?

Local SEO Guide: Local SEO Predictions 2010

Mashable: Location, Location, Location: 5 Big Predictions for 2010

Small Business Trends: Five Can’t-Miss Mobile Marketing Trends For 2010

Search Engine Land: Predictions For The Changing Local Search Landscape In 2010

Marketing Charts: Top 10 Wireless Predictions for 2010

Social Media Explorer: Five Things We Should All Do In 2010

Mashable: Facebook: 5 Predictions for 2010

ReadWriteWeb: 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010

Dan Zarrella: My Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2010

DreamGrow Digital: 22 Social Media Marketing Trends for 2010

Social Media B2B: 11 B2B Social Media Predictions For 2010

eMarketer: eMarketer Weighs In on 2010 Trends: Social Media & Paid Content

Search Engine Land: 12 Social Media New Year’s Resolutions For 2010

10e20: 6 More Social Media New Year’s Resolutions For 2010

Harvard Business Review: Six Social Media Trends for 2010

451 Marketing: Top Social Media Strategists to Watch in 2010

SmartBlog on Social Media: Looking ahead to 2010 with Shiv Singh

Google have launched the Adwords Optimisation Center, a new educational learning and resource centre offering advice, tips and strategies to all types of Adwords users.

The new centre has been designed to help basic, intermediate and advanced Adwords users to get the very best out of the Adwords service; featuring information, tips advice and knowledge from Google’s very own Adwords, specialists who have worked with a variety of different sized businesses and accounts.  This invaluable resource features tips about each major account feature including Ads creation, Keyword usage, Targeting Users, Bidding and Budgeting and Account structure. There is also detailed information about how to improve your ROI (Return on Investment), Improve your Ad position, Increase Sales and Leads and Improve Click through Rates (CTR).

Article by Creative SEO