Category: Industry Insights

So it’s been about nine months since Google unveiled one of their latest- and largest- endeavors: Wave. For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with Google’s global takeover, Wave is a real-time communication platform that has the potential to completely revolutionize or even replace standard email. It rolled live on September 30 of last year and I was lucky enough to stumble upon an invite, so I’ll share my findings with you here.

Google Wave combines email, instant messaging, and social networking into one, easy to use interface. You can create waves with one person or your entire contact list, so conference chats and meetings with business partners or employees becomes incredibly easy. All waves can be viewed in real time and you can respond to previous entries much like a forum. This can be both a good and bad thing. I’m sure I’m not the only person who types out a response and then goes back to edit or erase it altogether before hitting “Send.” I’m not sure I want other people to view what I write in real-time. Also, the forum-like interface can lead to cluttered and convoluted waves. Some of this can be avoided with the playback button, which replays the entire history of the wave. A collapse function could also improve this shortcoming.

Another cool feature is that anyone can edit previous entries to correct false information. This is another one of those bittersweet functions that can be considered both a pro and a con. You can also invite other people at anytime during the wave.  Don’t want them seeing the previous conversation? No problem. Anybody invited can be set to only view limited info.

One major pro is that it makes attachments a thing of the past.  Anything you want shared can just be dragged and dropped into the conversation and it shows up in the wave for everyone to view or download.  Also, any wave can be instantly embedded onto your blog or website. These are two functions that email doesn’t have and can only be viewed as pros in my mind.

In terms of what it can offer SEO, it’s lacking… for now. One of the best things about Wave is that it’s open source.  This leaves the door open for nearly limitless SEO possibilities.

In summary, Google Wave is a pretty great idea. However, sometimes it seems like reinventing the wheel. Most of the features it offers can be found with email, chat, or even Google Docs. The draw is that it combines these three into one fairly easy to use interface. It can seem unnecessarily complicated at times, but you quickly get used to it. I think the largest downfall is that not enough people use it yet, but even email and instant messaging were once seen as novelties. I think with enough time and improvements, Google Wave is the only contender that could possibly replace them in the future.

Special thanks to Lovati and Juergenfenn for the great images!

The majority of plastic surgeons have a robust before and after image gallery on their respective websites.   With a strong plastic surgery client base, in addition to other industries, we pay attention to the images and their inclusion in the Google Image search.

In the last week, our SEO team has noticed a severe and dramatic drop in referrals for a few plastic surgeons from Google Image search, which historically has been a strong referrer to the before and after image galleries on the websites.

Some reactions from our team ranged from the incredulous “Can that be right??” to the flummoxed, “That is totally weird.”

After seeing the first plastic surgeons’ site data with a flat line, I asked a designer with whom we work frequently, Aimee Ellingsen, plastic surgery website design, “um … have you guys replaced or removed all of the images on client X’s website?”  Right.  As if she would completely replace every image in the image gallery … but this data is obviously a problem with images, so I went to the source.

Aimee’s team looked into it and astutely suggested it was safesearch.  Safesearch is a setting on an individual users’ Google search preferences, so what are the chance that hundreds, thousands, of people have changed their settings on the same day?  That was my first reaction.  … Then it hit me …

Oop!  The new Google Interface!  Doh!

Google Support today says:

“You can choose from among three SafeSearch settings:

• Moderate filtering excludes most explicit images from Google Images results but doesn’t filter ordinary web search results. This is your default SafeSearch setting; you’ll receive moderate filtering unless you change it.
• Strict filtering applies SafeSearch filtering to all your search results (i.e. both image search and ordinary web search).
• No filtering, as you’ve probably figured out, turns off SafeSearch filtering completely.”

I don’t know what the Google Support said before they launched the new Interface, but what we used to see and now can’t see (unless we change our settings) suggests that it’s a new default implemented with the new interface.

With Moderate filtering:

Without Moderate filtering:

It appears that Google is slowly rolling out the new interface because not all surgeons’ data is showing this dramatic response, but when it does happen, at least we will know what is going on.

Imagine you just pulled into the mall parking lot with your three antsy children who are complaining that they are hungry, need to go to the potty and want to go to the Disney Store… Amidst all of the chaos of getting them out of the mini van and making sure you have your purse (and your sanity), you accidentally lock your keys in the car.  And, the car is still running.  This is so not what you needed!  But, fortunately, you have your smart phone in your purse!  You quickly log onto the internet and search for “locksmith.”  You come across the first listing – A company called 911 Super Ultra Emergency Locksmiths.  You get them on the phone and they are in the mall parking lot within minutes to save you!

Or, {a less dramatic scenario}… You and a buddy are at a conference out-of-town and you have a break for lunch.  Where is the nearest place to grab some sushi?  Thank goodness you have that smart phone to look up “sushi restaurant.”  Ten minutes later, you and your buddy are pigging out on some tuna sashimi and crunchy rolls at the local sushi hot spot!

With the continuous advancements in technology today, small businesses need to stay abreast of the emerging ways to reach their target market.  One of the new ways that small businesses can connect with their customers is Mobile Marketing.  According to Google, “You can easily expand your reach to customers who are on-the-go. Audiences are increasingly stepping away from their desktop computer and searching and browsing the web from their phone.”

In this blog post, we are going to introduce Mobile Marketing rookies to some interesting facts and ideas to consider when budgeting for your next campaign.

In a recent study conducted by comScore that was featured in an article by Jason Kincaid on TechCrunch.com, it was discovered that “45.4 million people in the United States were using smartphones” over a period of 3 months ending in February 2010, “which is a 21% increase” over the 3 month period of time studied ending in November 2009.  In layman’s terms, that’s a whole lotta potential customers…

Google – Go Mobile! recommends some strategies that small businesses can utilize to better reach their ‘local-mobile-searching’ potential customers:

1. Create a version of your website that can be used and viewed more smoothly by a mobile device.  The ‘regular’ version of your website might not load as quickly or be as easy to view and use on a mobile device.

2. Think local by offering information on local events in your area and maps showing locations nearby where customers can purchase your products.

3. Engage your customers by offering a game that they can play while waiting in the doctor’s office waiting room or an application that they can download and use on their mobile device.

4. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.  You have to know who you are competing against.  Give your small business the competitive advantage. “Including an incentive, such as a coupon, really does make the difference when searchers are looking for local businesses,” says Anthony Coleman, Search Influence’s resident Paid Search Marketing veteran.  He further explains, “It is also a good alternative, because many local businesses don’t have the resources to create games or applications.”

5. Go viral.  Create a way for your customers to easily share your business’s information with friends via the click of a button.  As they say, the best publicity and marketing is by word of mouth (or by the click of a button 🙂

6. Get found with mobile advertising.  Create ads that show up when a customer searches for something relevant to your business on their mobile device.  “With smart phones becoming more integrated with local search, Google Adwords is allowing advertisers to display paid ads into mobile searches – by appearing first in a local search, you increase your exposure.” explains Anthony Coleman.  “They are even offering a ‘click-to-call’ option, which allows searchers to call phone numbers listed in paid ads, making it easier for leads to connect with advertisers.”

* A great way to think local, offer specials and get found for no cost is by participating in applications such as FourSquare.  According to FourSquare.com, “Foursquare aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so… As a business owner, you can use foursquare to engage your increasingly mobile customers with foursquare “Specials,” which are  discounts and prizes you can offer your loyal customers when they check in on foursquare at your venue.”  All you have to do is “claim your venue” and get started!

You can even keep track of how many users are finding your business by searching via their mobile device, as well as where they are located, what they are searching for to find you and much more!

In the blog post, “How Much Google Traffic Comes From Mobile Devices – A Quick Study” by Tim Coleman of A Second Opinion, Tim studied a set of local small businesses’ Google traffic from mobile devices.  He wanted to determine the importance of mobile search in relation to his clients, as well as the “percentage of traffic that came from mobile” and if “the percentage of traffic from Mobile varied in different parts of the country.”  He looked at 7 garage door companies across the nation over a span of 2 months and made some conclusions of importance:

• “The small data set follows the general pattern that people in bigger cities (more population) are going to use mobile devices a higher percentage of the time.”
• “Interestingly, Westchester County is the oldest population in this set. Could be that age trumps income when it comes to selecting a small business on a mobile handset.”
• And, “For different types of businesses Mobile is going to be more or less important but overall it’s likely to be less than 5% of overall traffic. Again, this is a small study but Adwords and Google Analytics both provide easy segmentation of mobile traffic. Look in your analytics or call your PPC provider to see what percentage of your traffic is mobile.”

So, the amount of traffic that your site gets from local search via mobile devices depends upon variables such as the age, location, income, etc of the user and, all of this can be tracked and documented via tools such as Google Analytics and Google Adwords.

Small businesses have a lot on which to stay up-to-date, and online marketing and mobile marketing are no exception.  More and more people are buying and using smart phones and it is worth your time and money to consider marketing to your potential customers on-the-go.  There are a plethora of tips to choose from to get your website “mobile device ready.”  And, you can see where your customers are coming from and how they are locating you!  How can you not be interested?!
Resources:

• Google for Advertisers
• comScore
• “comScore: Android Market Share Continues To Gain On The iPhone” by Jason Kincaid on TechCrunch.com
• Google – Go Mobile!
• Foursquare + Your Business
• “How Much Google Traffic Comes From Mobile Devices – A Quick Study” by Tim Coleman of A Second Opinion

Images:

• Andipantz SEPTA Ad
• Maps: Pseudo-GPS
• Circle of Phones
• Foursquare special @ Hotel Murano

“Everything in Moderation,” the saying goes. This can be attributed to everything and anything, almost. It’s important to acknowledge this, especially with such easy and immediate access to your audience. The only thing that comes to mind that this would not apply to in online marketing is link building and networking, if done sincerely.

Over saturation seems to be all the rage and it’s not helping anyone. Like that friend that talks too much- it starts off good, you’re interested and responsive… and then after a while, it’s just noise.  You nod, smile or frown accordingly and pray they shut up.

A few sources that come to mind immediately are Email marketing, Facebook and Twitter. Recently I’ve received so many messages from the same sources I stopped reading them. They are no longer effective. They are annoying. On the other hand, there are so many others that I never hear a peep from. This can be a challenging balance. You need to communicate enough to be seen but not so much that you reach that point of oversaturation.

Here are a few things to consider in the repetition of your message presented in the stylistic fashion an antiquated and overused joke:

You might be reaching over saturation if

1. You loose fans, subscribers and followers like your account was the origin of the plague

2. Your fans, subscribers, and followers walk in your place of business point at their phone and sneer at you (obscenities and other gestures count too)

3. The effectiveness of your message on a bar chart looks like a sliding board

4. You get public responses like “I don’t care” or “Stop it”

5. You can message something completely absurd and no one bats an eyelash

6. You’re used as an example of oversaturation in an article by some smart alec. (If you just looked for yourself in this article you’re probable guilty.)

7.     The folks that run the email blacklist organizations know you by name.

8.     The United Spammers Association nominates you as next years president

9.     Guy Kawasaki is jealous cause he can’t pump out as much as you.

Sincerely, it is a difficult task at times to understand at what point effectiveness weans off. With proper analysis you can get a better view of how to take corrective action. You are tracking everything, right? Hopefully you haven’t lost or lost the attention of too many fans, followers and subscribers.

Stay tuned for Part 2: How to Do it Right (title to come)