SEO

Posted by Aleyda Solis We live in a multi-device world, and if you're still focused on improving your visibility, traffic, and conversions solely for desktop users, you're losing a great opportunity. This gap, coupled with the fact that you're probably staying behind your competitors and unconnected with your audience, is not great for business. Not convinced? Let's see some data... Mobile search is booming. It's already driving important multi-channel conversions. However, we're still not doing our best for mobile and are losing opportunities. Despite the multichannel conversions that mobile search drives, we're still not making the most out of it. There are people that feel it is still too complicated and insecure to purchase goods on their smartphones: Unfortunately, what are now fundamental aspects on our desktop-focused optimization activities are sometimes still unknown when developing a mobile-focused presence, even for some very important websites. For example: A. Some websites don't have a mobile-focused presence Remember that, despite having an audience that may be using the most advanced smartphones and tablets, they still need an optimized offer that fulfills their specific behaviors (not necessarily the same than the one from the desktop users), providing the best experience according to their device characteristics (and device-specific restrictions). For example, can you guess which of these two sites provide me the best experience, is really optimized for me, will make me stay (as a consequence), and have a higher chance of conversions from me? Although I have an iPhone 5 and my fingers are tiny, it's very difficult for me to browse, interact, and consume information if the site doesn't have a version well-optimized for the device I'm using. B. Some sites have a mobile presence, but forget about optimization fundamentals On the other hand, other websites have a mobile presence (websites and apps included), but that doesn't mean they're really optimized. As I mentioned before, basics from our day-to-day "desktop focused" optimization activities are for some reason forgotten when we go mobile or tablet. For example, many websites love promoting their apps with intrusive interstitials that disrupt the user mobile web flow, requiring interaction from the user in order to continue: What about relevant, descriptive titles? This optimization basic is frequently forgotten, even by big websites when they go mobile (although these are well-optimized in their desktop versions): How about businesses that forget to create a landing page on their site for their own mobile apps? When you search for the app, you get the first results with iTunes store profiles that may confuse you (which one to choose?) featuring not-so-great descriptions, along with some posts with negative reviews: Time to get better control of your own app web results? Yes, please. Two questions arise from these situations: Can you blame people for not converting from their mobile devices? How can you change it? First, let's acknowledge the challenge of a multi-device ecosystem. Once we get a handle on it, we'll have an overall vision in order to make the best decisions, optimize your presence accordingly, and maximize your opportunities. Mobile, Tablet, Web vs. App: The Segmentation Challenge Usually, the first question we need to answer when we go mobile (whether smartphone or tablet focused) is: do I develop a website or an app? As I shared in this State of Search post, your decision should be based on certain factors such as your business model; the goals you're trying to achieve; how important is for your content to have a wider reach, and if it is web indexable or not; whether or not you need to provide a complex functionality that requires

Google and NASA joined forces to establish the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab that to research artificial intelligence using quantum computers. The lab will use a D-Wave 2 computer that is priced at around $15 million.

A quote to note from “Google Faces New Pressure over Tax Claims.” “I have handed over everything to HMRC and I am looking forward to finding out what they make of it. I really loved working for Google. The company has got a strong tradition of being self-critical to make sure that they are consistent with their ideals. I see my allegations as simply being part of that process,” he said. Does the Google not require a confidentiality arrangement regarding its documents? If not, perhaps the Google should consider this step. If yes, perhaps Google has allowed the lasso to loosen. Looks messy to me. This UK tax issue may be difficult to put back in a locker. Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2013 Sponsored by Augmentext

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

YouTube has been serving its clips of animals, planking, people falling over and monkeys in sheepskin coats for eight years. The video streaming website launched eight years ago with a single video. Now, 100 hours of video are uploaded per minute.

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Enhanced Campaigns: “Flexible Bid Strategies” Launching Soon Google will be rolling out “flexible bid strategies” in enhanced campaigns in the next couple of weeks. Flexible bid strategies will allow advertisers to override automated bidding and apply manual bidding strategies within a single campaign or across multiple campaigns. The new Bid strategies tool will be located in Shared Library. You can create a [...] Google Glass Diary, Part 3: How Search Works On Google Glass There are seven voice commands built in to this first “Explorers” edition of Google Glass. Two of those six are search-related: “google…” and “get directions to….” The others are “take a photo,” “record a video,” “send a message to,” “make a call to” and “start a Hangout with.” There’s also the predictive search aspects of [...] AdWords Keyword Planner Officially Launches As of today, all users will see the Keyword Planner available in their AdWords accounts. Keyword Planner combines data from the Keyword Tool and Traffic estimator, both of which will be sunsetted in about 60 days. Users will need to log in to their AdWords accounts to access Keyword Planner. The external version of Keyword [...] Google Testing Ads In New Google Maps, Pushes AdWords Location Extensions If you needed another reason to get your location extensions set up in AdWords, Google has announced its testing new ads in the new Google Maps. AdWords search ads set with location extensions can appear directly below the search box and on the map itself. Ads without location extensions can appear below the search box only and [...] Optimizing Your Digital Assets To Boost Rankings & Branding Let’s say you’re responsible for developing revenues from both traditional and non-traditional advertising. You work with a digital staff of talented people to create lead-generating Web-based content, or perhaps you are in e-commerce and sell products. Maybe you’re a brick and mortar with a website, or perhaps a pure-play Internet business with no physical storefronts. [...] New Google Maps UI Calls For Shifts In SEO Tactics Last week at the Google I/O developer conference, a newly redesigned Google Maps design was introduced. While a number of online commentators have virtually gushed about the new interfacing from an end user perspective, there may be a less-than-rosy view for many local businesses. Thus far, the new version of Google Maps is pretty much [...] Didn’t Win The Powerball Or Mega Millions Jackpot? Try Your Luck At The AdWords Jackpot! Chances are you didn’t win this past Friday’s $190 million Mega Millions drawing or Saturday’s $600 million Powerball jackpot. However, the great news is that if you’re an SEM account manager, you can still try your luck at winning the AdWords Jackpot! What’s An AdWords Jackpot? An AdWords Jackpot happens when all of the paid [...] Google Notifies Sprint Of Spam Penalty; Seeks Advice In Google Help Forums The latest large brand to be hit with a user-generated content spam penalty notification is Sprint, the large US wireless communications company. Similar to Mozilla’s penalty and BBC’s penalty, Sprint was penalized for user-generated content spam on a portion of their site that was open to anyone to post links and content. Also similar to [...] Google Drops “Translated Foreign Pages” Search Option Due To Lack Of Use Google has quietly dropped the “Translated Foreign Pages” search filter from the Google search options menu. Google tells us the option was removed due to lack of use, but they say they are still committed to making the Web available to as many people, in as many languages, as possible. The translated foreign pages search [.

There is now real evidence that cord cutting is happening with actual net subscriber loss. Pay TV lost 80,000 subscribers over the past year, which sounds awful for cable companies until you realize they still have nearly 100 million. But hey, capitalism rules, and I'm sure there's some panic.

Image from: Digital Touch / Shutterstock Attribution modeling vs. path to purchase analysis: What’s the difference between the two? Which model is better? The purpose of both models is to establish optimal touchpoints for consumer interaction with the brand and to achieve the best cost savings and customer experience. Attribution is ad-centric; path to purchase is consumer-centric. Attribution modeling is prompt; path to purchase modeling is deep. In attribution modeling, marketers use the data generated from tagging ad placements to understand the degree of influence each ad has on the consumer. Attribution analysis apportions “credit” for each conversion among the ads, essentially prioritizing which ads are more effective than others.  Marketers can then use that information to change strategies by re-allocating media spend to the ads that had the greatest impact. The path to purchase analysis concentrates on the sequence and intensity of each relevant behavior that may eventually impact a consumer’s decision. Exposure to an ad or a click on a paid search ad are all accounted for (attribution model), but so are the visits to a competitor’s site, a review site, the use of a search engine on an aggregator site, seeing a product placement in a YouTube video, etc. The approach is exploratory – no prior assumptions are made about consumers’ behaviors. So which approach is better? Attribution management, at its basic level, is almost real-time. The results of users’ exposure/interactions with ads are immediately processed, weighted, translated into algorithms and fed into media optimization engines. But in today’s diverse and fragmented media ecosystem, paid ads are hardly the main factor steering consumers to purchase. Other purchase factors include: earned media, word-of-mouth, competitive activity, seasonality and much, much more. Ad credits can only be allocated between the entities that can be tagged, and this external, relevant data (not immediately available) has to be collected, cleaned and matched to campaign data. This turns the entire process into another media mix modeling exercise – and slows the process to a halt. An alternative approach is to identify where and when consumers are most open to marketing messages during the purchase process – and then strategically optimize advertising at the stages of consumer decision making when ads matter the most. The path to purchase approach serves such a purpose. By looking at the entire industry rather than at an individual advertiser’s campaign, the path to purchase analysis discovers previously neglected touch points that result in a loss of prospective customers to the competition. With this, digital marketers can re-allocate resources and spend to remedy the situation. So, which model do you like now?

Yahoo announced last week a partnership with Twitter to integrate tweets directly into its newsfeed. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer says it will "seamlessly include relevant and personalized Tweets alongside stories from Yahoo and our other sources."

It seems as if the second batch of Google Glass Explorers will soon be getting invites to pick up their Google Glass...