‘SEO’

What do you love? The answer is simple and yet so complicated. Google has quietly launched a new search interface bringing together a full twenty of their products at one page. The interface is still in progress and if you are already curious you can type www.wdyl.com in your browser address bar. Don’t leave out the www. as without it, you will get the 404 error message.

WDYL is the latest in a range of products added to the Google product stable. The Google Social Network named Google Plus has also been rolled out recently, but you need an invitation at this stage to join. “What do you love?”  is a question that provokes an answer and hats off to Google for the new service. In short, it is a search interface with simple search bar and the question of “What do you love?” The user can type in a search phrase, press the heart and get numerous Google services and products about the topic or covering the topic on one page.

Must admit, it is at first a bit overwhelming when all the widgets appear at one page. It works best with broad terms and as such is the ideal tool for the person who wants to know everything there is about a topic or wants to start a search, but doesn’t want to have to click on every Google product and then return to the normal search page for additional searches.

WDYL is the search tool for people not familiar with all the Google products and thus the ideal introduction to such. Most people don’t think about the 20 different products every time they type in a search, but with “What do you love?” you can get a quick view of how the topic is covered across Google products. With a message at the bottom of the search page stating “more coming soon” we can expect even more of the product in the near future.

Example Of How It Works

Upon typing in a search for paintball at the “What do you love?” search page, the results page delivered several means of exploring the topic further including:

• Explore paintball in 3D.
• Measure popularity of paintball on the web.
• Watch videos of paintball on the web.
• Find books about the topic.
• Translate paintball in 57 languages.
• Start a discussion group about the topic.
• Call someone about the topic.
• Scour the earth for it.
• Find patents about it.
• Search blogs about the topic.
• Arrange an event.
• See pictures of paintball.
• Email someone about it.
• Get alerts.
• Search for it on the move through mobile search.
• Organise a debate.
• Get news on the topic.
• Find paintball nearby.
• Access stuff on the web faster.

At the upper right corner of the search engine page you still have a search bar which can be used for more searches. Don’t even think of being too specific as the results will be disappointing, but if you plan to create awareness of a product searched for, it is the search engine to use. You can in an instant add an event to your Google Calendar as reminder about the topic, email people from your Google mail account, create a discussion group, organise a debate, and get more alerts about the topic.

No Facebook

The Google +1 button is neatly tucked on the left side of the search screen just below the scrollbar. You can utilize the scroll bar for easy navigation through the long list of product pages. From Picasa to YouTube, Google Maps, and Books are represented on the search page. You can view posts about the topic searched for at Blogger or quickly create your own about the topic. If you wanted to know how popular the term is one the Net use the trend finder.

Although tech savvy SEOs may be well aware of all the Google widgets, the average user is not and for such it is a great service. With WYDL, Google gets the chance to market these widgets to the general search population. With the Voice, Gmail and Moderator widgets Google tempts users to make use of the services. In a sense, “What do you love?” is almost just another version of iGoogle, just more user-friendly and visual.

It is amazingly easy to use. The first fear of being taken away from the page upon selecting one of the widgets was ill found. Google has thought of everything and upon clicking the Gmail option, another tab opened with a little message about “paintball” already in the message box. All that needs to be done is to add recipients before clicking the send button. The recommendation words “Hey this is awesomely awesome” are already placed in the subject field of the Gmail message. Google obviously ensures that should you want to recommend WDYL that you will not have a hard time in doing so.

You will find Google Buzz, SketchUp, and Chrome, but you will not find Facebook like options. Facebook and Twitter once again fall to the side. The Chrome feature is just as useful for further web searches and for anyone who has to do a school project on a broad topic, WDYL will work great.

Will WDYL Replace Normal Search?

Not likely, as the organic search results can hardly be displayed effectively on a page full of widgets, but for Google Chrome users it may become their new homepage and a good starting point to search. Since each widget opens in its own tab while the “What do you love?” page remains open, it is simply the new search interface. For a broad search you will use the search at WDYL, but for more advanced searches you will make use of Google Chrome.

Will “What do you love?” Take Off?

Well let’s hope so. Launching a product without even discussing it on your blog is secretive and with such the average user who isn’t following the latest Google trends will hardly become aware of such, unless someone notifies them. Looking at the Gmail message composition, mentioned earlier, it may just be a case of Google leaving it a secret because people struggle to keep secrets and love to share their new discoveries with other. WDYL, if marketed by means of a secret viral marketing campaign, can thus become the next hot topic at campuses and discussion forums.

While the printed Yellow Pages played an important role as advertising medium in the past, it is now overshadowed by online marketing. No doubt, the offline directory offered superb value for money considering that every household in the specific geographical area received one in addition to every business. As such it is a well distributed directory. It was also an easy source to use considering the alphabetical index according to subject categories.

Today, however, most people make use of the Internet in some form or another to locate businesses, services, and products. With Google Maps you can easily locate a business address and even directions. Online directories have made it easy to find businesses in a specific category and with effective online marketing, users can simply type in a category and town name to find business websites offering a particular service in the town of choice.

Focus Change

The focus has changed. If you are not making use of online marketing today, you will only attract a very small segment of the market; the small group of people that still uses the Yellow Pages to find an electrician or lawyer. The rest of the market is thus completely untapped. Not only is your market now smaller than before when placing an ad in the Yellow Pages, you also have a static advert versus a flexible and dynamic ad forming part of online marketing.

With a pay per click (PPC) advertising campaign as offered through the Google AdWords program, you can adapt your keyword selection, headlines, landing pages, and where the ads appear. You pay for click through rates and actual sales. With the Yellow Pages your ad is printed and will stay in the same location with no changing information for a year. If you in the mean time relocate the business or change its main objectives, such will not be reflected. If the advert words are not effective, you will not be able to change such until the next subscription period.

Difficult To Compete

One of the main advantages of online marketing is the ability of a small business to compete with large corporations. You don’t need a huge budget to get started and can add to the budget as your business grows. With the offline Yellow Pages, you are limited to your budget at the time of advert placement. If you could only afford a small ad, your ad will stay unseen amongst the many other bold and large adverts. It does seem a bit unfair, but that is how the offline media works.

Apart from pay per click Google advertising, you can also engage in search engine marketing, banner ads, Facebook and other social media marketing and viral advertising as part of an online marketing strategy. This will ensure high visibility and since you can change your strategy to adapt to the changing environment you will not get left behind. With online promotion you can place press releases, get your business listed at Google Places or in an electronic directory such as Mbendi or even the online Yellow Pages.

Advertising In The Yellow Pages Is More Expensive

Given the nature of printed media, it is not surprising that even a small ad can cost a hefty price. True, the advert life is a minimum of one year and it is distributed to a relatively targeted area, but given the space that you get and having to compete against large ads, online marketing is more cost-effective. It is rather difficult to calculate the return on investment with Yellow Pages advertising whereas online tools can be used to calculate the return on investment for every online marketing strategy used. The initial capital lay-out for web design can be high and to get a comprehensive marketing campaign of the ground can take some time, but every well-written page added to your site and every well planned pay per click campaign will deliver long term results. In addition, the flexibility of online marketing ensures that you can adapt to the client search behaviour and requirements.

Total Reach

The Yellow Pages reaches a specific group of households and businesses whereas the Internet covers a global area. You, however, can limit the target area with pay per click advertising to specific users and geographical areas. It is furthermore possible to limit the area by means of keywords. If you want to expand your market beyond traditional geographical boundaries, it will cost almost nothing extra.

Interactive Nature Of Online Marketing

With a printed advert in the Yellow Pages there is no interaction with the client. You placed the ad and wait for responses. The user must phone or fax you. If you have a website and still advertise in the Yellow Pages, you can list your web address and email details. In this sense, you thus cover both the offline group of users and the online group. Provided you have the budget for such, it may not be an entirely bad idea.

Many new website owners complain that they have already paid their subscription to the Yellow Pages and because of the capital lay-out have to get a return on investment before they can spend more money on online marketing such as pay per click advertising. Considering that search engine placement as well as affiliate marketing and pay per click advertising can bring in hundreds to thousands of visitors in the market for your product against the small number of daily callers from the offline media, you will agree that it is worth the money to start with online marketing sooner rather than later.

How To Unsubscribe From The Yellow Pages

Unfortunately payment of ads takes place before placement or by means of monthly payments. Unlike a mobile service contract which can be stopped by means of a written notice of 60 days, the Yellow Pages place the ad for an agreed period. They cannot wipe the ad from the page and since the directory is already distributed they will not be able to cancel the ad. As such you will have to keep paying until your advert period expires. It is important to cancel the next year’s subscription at least 60 days before the current subscription ends. Do so in writing and ensure that you have received confirmation of the cancellation. You need to ensure that the contract is not automatically renewed as you will then be liable for further payments.

Apart from customer loyalty gained, credibility development, visual attractiveness and gaining a competitive edge, online marketing is more cost effective than a listing in the Yellow Pages. Don’t delay; get help from iLead Online in gaining maximum visibility and traffic by means of effective SEO, PPC, and general online marketing. Contact iLead Online for assistance today.

Google has changed the SEO landscape considerably with Panda, the +1 Button, Social Search, and now the author rank algorithm. Web marketing companies and publishers need to make changes in their online marketing strategies or have their sites end up on pages five or six in the search results.

With the authorship mark-up announced, a tag can be added through semantic HTML to allow for searching of works by the same author in a particular website. In addition, the tag allows for directing to an author’s bio page which should be at the same website. With another tag, a link can be made to a profile at an external page or all pages displaying the author’s work.

Benefits For The Reader

The authorship mark-up enables users to locate articles written by a specific author. If an author has thus written informative and high quality articles, the recognition will be valuable. Users will not have to utilize the find option to locate works by a particular author at a website. In addition, the author rank system makes it easier to find articles written by a particular author in the organic search results of Google. The author’s page will include a list of articles or content pages created by the author and some biographical information. The days of the faceless content writer seem to be over.

Why The Authorship Mark-Up?

Google intends to deliver the most relevant and highest quality content in response to user searches. What makes it a bit tricky is that the author page must be located at the same website where the content is delivered. The user will have to rely on organic searches to locate works by the same author at other websites.

Implications For Freelance Authors

The author ranking system will benefit freelance authors who write quality articles. An author will think twice before spinning out superficial content for the sake of search engine marketing. Once the author’s name is connected to an article or press release, the author will rethink the content. As such freelance authors may in future decline projects where the focus is on articles about similar or rather similar keywords for the same site.

Authors writing for numerous sites may have an initial disadvantage because they write on a wide variety of topics and may find it difficult to develop a reputation of being an expert on a topic. Whereas an author may not have minded writing about a particular topic in the past because there was no name attached to the content, the reputation of the author may become more valuable and as such many freelancers may decline previously accepted projects to protect their reputations.

Authorship Mark-up And Author Rank

Google Authors by jimboot

The authorship mark-up is a tool to be used, simplifying the process of identifying and locating work of a particular author at a website. The author rank is a content metric to help measure the quality of articles and importance of a web page based on the reputation of the author. With author ranking then Google will be able to identify high quality articles and content pages and thus ensure more relevant search results. Google is also planning the implementation of trust metrics such as the Google +1 button and user feedback which will help to ensure accurate results. Users will appreciate other features such as Google Preview showing parts of a work and perhaps an image of the author as well as a short bio on the author.

Implications For Search

It would be naïve to think that the author ranking metric will not influence search results. Users may be influenced by the images of authors and the trust indicators. With a positive image and thus trust associated with an author, the user is more likely to click on the result. SEO companies and publishers will thus have to ensure that their content writers develop solid reputations in specific areas of writing and carefully select the topics to be written about. By taking pro-active steps in the matching of author and topic, they can thus ensure higher click-through rates based on the reputation of the author.

Authors will have to create Google profiles to which the authorship mark-ups can link. It will give them more control over their content in the sense that their content will be protected against scrapers. Ownership of the works will thus be easier to substantiate.

Reputable authors will rank higher with the author rank system ensuring better search placement for well written content. With the authorship mark-up tools webmasters will be able to also link to other web pages and the author bio ensuring that authors will play an all important role in placement of web pages in search results at the end of the day. Multiple profiles can be linked by using a mark-up such as rel=”me” to ensure linking between various profiles.

With the system in place, the content created by high ranking authors may even be indexed before there are links created to the content. If a webmaster therefore uses a reputable author with an excellent ranking, it could mean quick indexing and with this improved traffic. The focus in content generation will thus also need to be on improvement of author rank.

Search engine marketing through content generation in future may heavily rely on top quality content of high ranking authors. Even if an author is relatively unknown at the start of the author tag usage, the scene can change quickly as some freelancers write numerous articles for one site during the course of a month. The author could develop a reputation for writing excellence on the topic within a relatively short period, which will ultimately benefit the website owner.

Combine the author rank with the muscle of the Google +1 button to recommend sites and you have powerful tools for better search results placement on a specific topic. Professional web marketing techniques become all the more relevant for top ranking. Contact us to help your site reach top ranking and sustain its search engine placement.

eCommerce has been rather slow in South Africa over the past few years when compared to that of the UK and the USA, but a report published in 2010, by World Wide Worx as a South African research company, indicated that online shopping in South Africa is picking up in pace. According to their report, the number of South Africans with Internet access grew with 15% from 2009 to the beginning of 2010.

The recent MasterCard Worldwide survey regarding online shopping trends indicated that 51% of the respondents in the survey did online shopping in South Africa, while around 95% used the Internet for email and 74% for bank access. As such e-commerce is definitely still in the infancy phase in South Africa. More than half the users cited that the most preferred products bought online are that of DVDs and CDs. Many of the users make payment through the use of credit cards while users also indicated their satisfaction with their online shopping experiences. Banking, airline tickets, travelling, and general e-commerce sites cash in on the large number of users.

Some of the most popular online shopping sites in South Africa are that of:

• Bid or Buy
• Kalahari.net
• Digital Mall
• MWEB Shopping Zone
• Netflorist
• Look & Listen
• Loot
• Ascot Direct
• Computicket
• CyberCellar
• Woolworths
• Pick & Pay Online Shopping
• Want It All
• Take A Lot (formerly known as Take2)

The MasterCard Worldwide survey results indicated that the number of users who make use of mobile phone access and thus using their phones to do online shopping in South Africa has increased considerably. This can be due to advances in cellphone technology and faster browsing systems. The number of users making use of broadband access has shown a drop from that of 2009. With South Africa being a mobile internet market, it is understandable that more people will do online shopping from their phones.

The question arises whether it is better to add your company products to an online shopping facility create a large eCommerce facility or simply allow for ordering of products at your website? With more and more users of online shopping mall type facilities, one could benefit from such a move. The surveys at this stage indicate that South Africans still use the online shopping facilities mostly for consumer items such as DVDs. Books are also rather popular while entertainment booking is big.

Concerns With Conventional Websites

Users may feel more comfortable now to make secure online payments at large shopping facilities than at for instance, a single website. Fraud is always prevalent on the Internet and many users are still scared to give their credit card details. Companies running their own shopping carts or have one product that can be ordered online, need to ensure that they build credibility with their consumers. Their users will only be willing to part with their information if they feel that the site payment system is secure enough and that they will receive the product ordered in time and good order.

User Reviews Help Sales

At online shopping sites in South Africa such as Bid or Buy, users can check the reviews of suppliers and even though they have to make payment first, they can also make direct electronic transfers or deposits in addition to credit card payments. Having user reviews of the service delivery and ratings on the products seems to help build confidence.

Online Payment Concerns

Users appreciate the idea that there is a large company monitoring the purchasing process and that they will at least be able to get a refund if they are not happy. Online payment systems in South Africa are not yet widely used. PayPal payments are on the increase with users only now becoming aware of secure online payment systems such as Setcom and Monsterpay. Scepticism regarding such can still hinders ordering directly from a website instead of buying through an online shopping portal.

According to the MasterCard Worldwide survey the majority of respondents indicated that they use the Internet to do some research before buying while the merchant website and friends seem to have a large influence on the eventual decision to participate in online shopping in South Africa.

Should a company decide to stay on its own and not link its products to a central online shopping mall in South Africa then it will be imperative to provide:

• A secure online payment system with alternative payment methods offered
• Comprehensive information about the products
• Visual presentations
• User reviews
• Rating system
• Information about deliveries
• Warranty information
• Refund policies
• Various contact  methods
• User feedback forms

Website owners should also try not to add delivery charges or any additional administration charges as such have been stated by some users as reasons for not purchasing online. Difficulty of navigation and uncertainty about the ordering process are more reasons stated for not shopping online in South Africa.

Which Option?

Should you thus add your products to an online shopping facility in South Africa and save the costs of SEO and have the online facility handle the orders or should you sell the products directly from your website? Considering the fact that users trust central online shopping facilities it may save you the costs of having to write copy, update your website and monitor the site. The downside is that your product competes with numerous other products at the same facility. The users can easily do price comparison and one poor rating can cause a severe drop in sales. The solution is to make use of both rather than only using one option.

What is important is to keep a close watch on the return on investment. It is not as difficult as some may imagine to calculate the return on investment at your website. The ROI can be measured by looking at the cost per acquisition known as CPA, the traffic and conversion rate. The CPA entails total cost of website establishment, which is then divided by the total of conversions to sales. The higher the conversion rate, the lower the CPA will be. The conversion rate can be calculated by looking at the number of visits to the website daily and the sales made daily. If you have a hundred sales for every 1000 visits then you have a conversion rate of 10%. The more traffic your site generates, the more chances for sales and thus better conversion.

If you add your products to an online shopping facility as well and where possible create a storefront at such then you increase overall sales and will thus get the maximum benefit of online shopping in South Africa. Contact us to help you get the best possible ROI.

The Google Social Search, which has been available since 2009, has now been globally rolled out. The search tool is already available in 19 languages, but it is only the start. With some powerful updates to the search tool, Google has succeeded in bringing the social media, opinions and organic searches together for a more personalised search experience, which will also influence search results dramatically.

Friend Opinions Will Count

The idea is that in reality people often make decisions based on the opinions of their friends. If a good friend recommends a movie, chances are that you will buy a ticket and also go see it. If you like it you will recommend it to more friends. If not, well, it will get thumbs down from your side and you may be rather outspoken about why to your friends. As such opinion makes a movie sell or fail.

With the Google Social Search then you can connect to what your friends recommend. Linked to the social networks, and with the option of the Google +1 button for easy like which can be made public or kept private, the user is put in the control seat of how search results will ultimately display. Speculations are that in the near future we can expect to see universal search results disappear and only personal search results displayed. What you and I thus see at the search results will differ dramatically, making the work for SEOs just that one extra notch harder.

Several Changes In Search Results

Previously you would have seen a few extra links at the bottom of the search results page which were recommendations of what you may perhaps like. The information was gathered based on your search usage and the limited information collected about your contacts’ search preferences as well as what is generally sought for when someone searches in a similar way. Tweets, Likes, recommendations, and blog items were used in the gathering of information.

Google Social Search Improves Personal Web Experiences

It has changed since the users can now tell Google a bit more about their friends by associating their Google ID with their various social networking sites including Twitter, Flicker and Quora, but unfortunately not yet, the all powerful Facebook. By doing this one then confirms the contacts and information Google has already gathered, enabling Google to deliver information according to friend recommendations and search behaviour.

If you have for instance, followed a tweet on a particular subject earlier, Google may include it in the search results based on the link. Fortunately with the Google Social Search you will be able to see which ones are Social Search results and which ones fit both categories. As such for people not following the opinions of friends they can still get search results not influenced by what others have to say.

If you thus created a tweet on a topic and hundreds or thousands of people follow you on Twitter, then should one of them do a search for a topic related to what you have tweeted about, their search results will differ completely from those who don’t follow you on Twitter for the same search and are not connected to any of your followers.

Broad Contact Networks Will Influence Results

The Google Social Search goes one step further by also including results where information was tagged by a friend about a specific topic. This can help to bring up a small and unknown blog above one of the big news players. As such the search results will no longer favour over optimised pages. Around 18-22% of search results will be changed when using the Google Social Search facility. For SEO this means a whole lot more work and the average website owner may need to make use of SEO companies that also incorporate social media optimization in their product profile.

The tagged social search results can include articles from Google Reader to which you have subscribed, recommended web content by means of the +1 button, profiles of your contacts at social media sites and images which have been shared by your contacts as well as blogs and any content shared by your friends. The tool also enables more results and filtering of results.

Social connections include your connections from:

• Google contacts in the My Contacts group.
• Gmail & Google Talk chat lists.
• People followed on Google Buzz (which may not be a very long list, given the dismal failure of the social media application) and Google Reader.
• Public connections of your public social contacts including the people that your friends follow on Twitter and the additional people that they have connections with.
• Public connections you have at social media sites including FriendFeed.

The content that you publish publicly and share in the same manner will be visible as results for others, but you can remove or add more links to your profile to ensure more or less public display. One must be signed into a Google Account to see the results of Google Social Search. The more you customize your profile by adding for instance, public connected sites, your e-blogger account, and add friends to your My Contacts group as well as subscribe to public content, the more personalised your search results will become. RSS Feeds, Digg, and more can all be included in the results.

On the SEO part of things it is possible to make the most of the Google Social Search for best results by:

• Getting in on the social media frenzy by creating blogs, Facebook personal and business accounts or fan pages, a Twitter account, LinkedIn,  FriendFeed, and MySpace as well as Blogger (e-Blogger BlogSpot). Facebook is not yet connected, but remember that the Facebook users are often also users of other social media which can be important. Be sure to create a profile at the current Google Buzz which may in the future become Google Circles and build a list of contacts. Don’t forget about Google Talk.
• Don’t just create the above accounts, but become active there. You need to post blogs, and post updates. To boost traffic use similar keywords used at your website. Get as many as possible subscribers.
• SEO must be done for your newsletters which can be posted online in addition to sending such out. Get rid of single image based newsletters and exchange the style to text which can be optimized.
• Go with full text RSS feeds as you will want to increase the chances of your subscription feeds showing up in the search results.
• Build your Gmail contact list and be sure to get in on the lists of others.

Google Social Search will change the way that results are displayed and where pages will rank. Contact us at iLead Online to help your website not only survive, but succeed with top rankings in personalised results.