Bharati Ahuja

The Impact Of Google Instant On Search , Searchers (The Users) And SEO

By now the whole SEO fraternity and the web industry knows that Google had a press conference yesterday wherein they announced the launch of Google Instant which aims at making the search experience more fast , fluid and fun.

Google Instant Launch Event

The 3 main components around which Google instant revolves are :

Instant results,
Predictions
Scroll to search.

Google Instant has an impact on the display of search results, the searcher and of course the SEO industry. Let us first talk about the searcher as the search industry cannot exist without him.

Google Instant churns out predictions for what the searcher may be searching depending on the most likely terms possible which are smarter offering a suggestion to the searcher as he keys in every character. Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help to guide the searcher. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

In short people who are not sure about the query they want to search they get the suggestions as he/she types but this time along with the display of SERPs changing accordingly and instantly without hitting the ‘ENTER” key. The arrow keys are to be used to make selections.

What is important to note is the speed with which it all takes place. Its fast and really fast. Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search. Google claimed yesterday that in just an hour that Google Instant has been up it has already saved 36,542 hours of our time. Well if time is money then it surely has added that much productivity potential also to every industry as search is a vital aspect for research and knowledge for each and every industry.

Marissa Mayer of Google who presented this concept stated that Google Instant isn't search as you type, it's search before you type. She even mentioned in an interview that Google Instant is to search what power steering is to a car and it surely helps people with slow typing speeds.

Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search

With Google Instant

Before Google Instant

Google Instant is starting to roll-out to users on Google domains in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia who use the following browsers: Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8. Please note, users on domains other than Google.com can only access Google Instant if they are signed in to a Google Account. Google will continue to add new domains and languages over the next several months. Google Instant is not yet available on mobile, but Google plans to release it soon.

Last but not the least the impact on the SEO industry. SEO has its bread and butter coming from search so it is highly important to know and analyze the impact of Google Instant on SEO.

Google Instant Should Make The SEO Industry Flourish Rather Than Perish.

Whenever there is any new technology or update released related to search people keep on making predictions and statement like SEO is dead but as Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land tweeted during the launch of Google Instant –

The Tweet- “ironically, SEO keeps living despite "SEO is dead" predictions that keep dying over the years. there's been plenty’

Yes, SEO cannot be dead because as long as there is search people will work on their website to make them rank higher. Hence SEO and Search go hand in hand. With Google Instant the need and importance of SEO remains the same or infact is much enhanced as people would like to see their websites rank for all the possible predictions related to their terms and would surely be ranked in the first 3 of page 1. This should make the SEO industry flourish rather than perish. So SEO is not dead but has become more exciting and challenging.

Google instant has not affected the rankings. The basics of the search are the same. So for whatever terms your site has been ranking it continues to rank for them on those SERPs. But, in the long run there is a possibility of the search behavior changing.

When the searcher gets the predictions and results at the speed of thought his patience to scroll down to other lower results and going to the next page for searching may diminish. Of course only time will tell and this will solely depend on the quality of the search results on page 1 especially the first 5 . If Google keeps on ranking Wikipedia and other such websites for initial rankings people will be forced to scroll down but that may have an adverse effect on Google and people may shift to using Bing for a traditional kind of search experience.

Well only time will tell what will be the actual impact of Google Instant on the search behavior but it surely will result in smart search and thereby saving a lot of time and thereby reducing disguised employment.

Google / SEO - 09/09/2010

What Is Landing Page Optimization And Why Is It Important ?

A landing page is the page on which the visitor to your website lands on or views as a result of clicking on the link available to your website from various sources.

A visitor can reach your website via various resources. It depends entirely on the footprints that your website has created on the web.

The major sources, from where the visitor can arrive at your website or your online office/store are:

• Search Engines
SEO
PPC

• Direct Visits

By Directly keying in your website address for a HTTP request

•Referrals

           Banner Ads
         Social Media Sites
           Affiliate Advertising
           Directory Listings
           Various Articles where your website has a mention
          Email Signature Links
          Others

As you can see that from whatever source he lands up on the specific URL of the page if the page has the relevant content and gives more information about what he read at the source point then the interest level of the visitor will get enhanced which can get converted to an enquiry for further details. If the site is an ecommerce site it even has a possibility of a direct conversion i.e he may buy the product online.

So, the landing page content enhances the interest level but there are many other subtle factors which work in the background for the positive influence of the page on the visitor. Firstly when the visitor lands on a relevant link of your website if the design is clutter free and has a balance of images and content and the readability and navigation has an easy flow then that interest level gets retained for a longer time increasing the time spent on the site and also reduces the bounce rate.

Hence, when we talk about landing page optimization, we are in the sense referring to the harnessing of all these factors like web design, color combo., ease of navigation , quality content and the right first impression because in this kind of optimization we are catering to the psychology of the visitor and trying to finalize a sale. Unlike the SEO where you have to keep the search engine robots in mind while the optimization process so that the targeted market can be reached.
So ,SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about the marketing of your product on search engines and Landing Page Optimization is all about ensuring that the marketing effort gets converted to sales on your website. Your landing page is your efficient salesman online , making your potential customers feel welcome.

In order to acheive success online a holistic efficiency is required on all spheres marketing, sales, accounts (your online payment gateway) , delivery of the product and order tracking.

SEO - 09/07/2010

It Is All About Integration When It Comes To Internet Marketing Success.

The Online marketing scene keeps on changing at a very fast pace and every year we have new trends emerging unlike the traditional form of marketing where more than the trend it was the strategies which had to be kept on changing.The emerging online marketing trends are due to the technological changes and the improvements in the internet services which have reached even to the remote and not so developed places .

As the year end approaches we keep on hearing that one form of marketing is a passé and some new form of marketing shall rule the roost in the forthcoming year. We have heard statements like Banner Ads. Are Dead, Email is Dead, SEO is Dead in the past years but inspite of all these claims we still see that these banner ads., email and SEO are still very much alive along with the fast emerging trends like social media.

So, when you have more no. of options available the right attitude, is to make the most of all that you are offered and wisely decide which method of marketing is more suitable for the kind of product or service your company offers.

Every form of marketing has got its strengths and weaknesses and the wise thing is to select a right mix for the best way to promote your product and protect your brand image.

The main challenge lies in integrating all types of media and working out a right strategy based on the location, mindset and the product or service concerned.

All marketing campaigns, are people centric hence the people you want to reach out are the focus of any marketing campaign .

Identify which age group you want to cater to , on which sites is this group available online, work out a strategy to have the right approach, reach out to offer help and information, keep a watchful eye and ear on any negative word of mouth being generated by any social media so that you can make amends or clarify your stand accordingly. In order to do all this it is essential to be at the right place at the right time 24 X 7 X 365.

With social media becoming the main tool for communication and PR Customer Service is the new form of marketing. Right from the stage of enquiry to the stage when the enquiry gets converted to a valuable customer, the attention and service he/she gets can itself be a marketing campaign which is running subtly in the background.

The immediate response , attention, information the enquiry gets gives the impression about how serious and professional your team is and you never know he might be tweeting every experience on twitter or sharing it on facebook with his friends and relatives. Mind you these followers , friends and relatives could be your potential customers. Social media has magnified the reach and influence so when you are having one person having a good word about your brand there are so many others out there in the virtual world gathering impressions about your brand.

The very thought the social media word may reach out to exponential numbers should not make it sound that it makes the brand vulnerable to competition attacks and a bad WOM generated by maybe some psychic and irate customer. Hence it is essential to monitor the buzz around your brand to keep yourself aware of it so that the eventual control is in your hand and you can gear the complaint conversations to fruitful discussions and positive mindsets to keep up the online reputation of your brand.

In one of my earlier jobs in a reputed computer training institute one of the newly enrolled student had a bad experience and had sent me an email sending the details and I had to clarify the whole situation and make her start attending class again and it was done. But the media used here was email so the conversation and clarifications were limited to both of us and of course the team in the organization. Today, this very experience will be shared by such a student on twitter, facebook and maybe her blog also. So you can realize and calculate the damage that social media can have on your brand image if you lack a social media presence.

Well all said and done I do not think that any word written above is new to any person involved in marketing. The only thing which is new and has to be taken into consideration is the large number of people you can reach out with just one click which again has a possibility of exponential reach due to the viral nature of this media. Every media has its pros and cons integrate the various media for the optimum reach , influence and benefit.

Does your brand have a social media presence?

Social Media - 09/04/2010

Is Your Internet Marketing Plan Creating A Valuable Long Term Online Presence Of your Brand?

Marketing is active storytelling , PR is reactive storytelling - Internet marketing is real time, active and reactive and has a local And global reach.

Everyone in the corporate world is aware of the need to advertise, market and brand the product of their company. Even though there are so many books, experts and plethora of online information about all this available, putting all the 4 Ps of marketing together and being at the right place at the right time with the right message is always a challenging task.

Now, it is more challenging as all this has to be achieved on the internet. Though the virtual world is the reflection of the real world and basically the same laws of ethics and business intelligence apply to both. But yet due to the aura of online marketing media which is new to most of the corporate world to chalk out the path that needs to be followed is still confusing for many.

Internet marketing is a very wide term it includes the presence on search engines , affiliate marketing, social media, Press releases, Banner ads, etc. So the million dollar question is how to decide the right marketing strategy and allocate budgets to get a good ROI?

First of all, take a deep breath and tell yourself that online or offline marketing fundamentals are the same but the only difference is that online presence is about a global reach at the maximum speed if the right online marketing mix is selected.

Next, when your internet marketing company approaches you and starts giving you the information for their SEO packages, ask him to give you a holistic marketing mix overview quote as just SEO of your site is not enough. Share your budget details with him so that he can suggest the best possible immediate marketing mix needed for your brand.

Trust me only getting ranked for organic search is not enough. Your brand should have its presence felt on the web organic search no doubt but on all the options of the search results page found on the LHS of the Google results page.

Search Options On The Search Page:

i.e on the complete list of options in the image above. The efforts required to be put for attaining a presence on all these options is a part of the complete holistic SEO project as each and every effort for attaining presence on one of these options is going to be supplementary and helpful eventually in making the presence and enhance the rankings on the other platform.

As each and every search platform links to your website in some way or other. Apart from these options it is essential to be on the local search platform also as any business would like to be visible locally and globally.

For that the website needs to be added to Google places with the required verification procedures.

Local Search Results:

Pay Per Click Results (PPC)

And if need be incase of a start up or a website with no footprints on the web initially a PPC program also can be decided upon keeping in mind the requirement and the budgets in mind.

Now, when you decide upon the complete SEO program, please do not expect results instantly. Its just not possible. A true SEO will try to establish the long term presence, help you create a brand and set the right footprints at the right place and if possible try to erase any erroneous footprints made earlier. This takes time but the brand visibility created thus generates a lot of credibility for the brand and when people see the same brand on all the search options and on the local and global search platforms it also has more recall value.

We just cannot neglect the social media as only this media can help you know where your brand is heading to and what is the buzz around your brand. In short you can monitor your online reputation by keeping a watchful ear and eye on the social media. Social media sites are many but the largely visited ones where netizens gather to share and exchange news and views are Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and YouTube for videos.

There are many ways by which these conversations about your brand can be tracked and monitored. By creating Google alerts is one of them. Though it is important to have a twitter or a facebook account but having a blog is actually mandatory keeping the current online scenario and the future trends in mind . Blogs are the only social media platform for which you have total control and the social interactions recorded here shall remain till you maintain the blog. Blogs also help add fresh content which helps in the whole SEO program. The social link graph also helps in the overall search presence.

Lately Google started ranking as many as 8 listings for organic search results for a particular brand if the search query is a specific query for the brand.

These searches reflect your online brand presence and reputation.

Hence, plan and chalk out the complete path for creating an online long term presence which will ensure that the brand value is created qualitatively on the internet.

Do not just rush for checking the rankings, the site is bound to get ranked high if you have great content, SEO optimized images and videos, have added the site for local search and maps, maintain a blog which is regularly updated with related fresh content which keeps the business objectives in mind and also creates an interest and makes the reader comment on the topics posted, issue press releases and have a voice on the social media.

Then it is certain that the Word Of Mouth generated thus is going to become the World Of Mouth in a true sense with an increase in traffic to your site for conversions.

Google / Social Media - 09/01/2010

Is Social Media The New Marketing Mantra Or Just A Fad?

By now everyone a casual net surfer or a serious professional in the web world must have seen this video on YouTube.

The prime takeaways of this video are:

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers

• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year have met via social media

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest

• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world

2009 U.S. Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students outperformed those receiving face-to-face instruction

• 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum

• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees

• In 2009, Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen

People adapting to social media sites in such exponential numbers indicates the shift to the way people want to interact and initiate any conversation or deal, make friends, keep in touch with relatives overseas, discuss about some product, service or brand, get after sales attention or make celebrities eliminate the dependency on journalists and print media and directly connect with fans.

The merging of the real world and the virtual world is a constant evolution happening right from the day people started using the internet. Some time back email management was a task which needed training and setups at the offices in the corporate world. Today majority of these corporate people who may not be tech savvy flash a smart phone with ease for receiving and sending emails.

As we all know Mark Zuckerberg started working on Facebook so that all his college mates could remain connected to each other. Other people started using the Facebook for the same reason and today it has become such a phenomenon that every one has a Facebook account and thereby an online identity. It was Facebook that created such a stir in the online social scenario. But, it could have been any site which would have offered the features and the accessability like Facebook and could have been an overnight success.

What I mean to say it was not Facebook but the idea of keeping in touch, interacting and sharing online with so much ease which was a big hit. So it created an online social culture which was accepted at an universal level. Google achieved for search what Facebook achieved for social media.

Social interaction is nothing new, since ancient times humans have been interacting. Every one must have read the sentence which is usually the first sentence uttered in any lecture on Sociology, Psychology, History or Moral Science - ‘Man Is A Social Animal’.

So the urge to communicate, connect, interact, share is very basic, normal and at the core of human psychology only it is the medium which varies from time to time.

Hence online social media is the new way people want to connect personally or professionally.

Facebook may be a fad, Twitter may be a fad as only the future developments will tell us which social media site will have a longer online life . Tomorrow it may be an XYZ site which catches the fancy of the netizens but the fact remains that using online media for personal or professional interaction is here to stay and evolve.

Keeping the online internet marketing aspect in mind which is one of the professional interactions which has an added flavor of reaching out to everyone at a subtle personal level, according to me Social media is here to stay as the new marketing mantra.

Social Media - 08/29/2010

How To Price An SEO Campaign

Every company has got its own pricing policies and especially when it comes to SEO many times the SEO companies and the clients who want to avail of these services are not sure of deciding upon the way the whole SEO campaign should be priced.

Any pricing for any service should be fair to the service provider as well to the client.

Normally, many SEO companies charge on per month basis and I have seen the demand for this mode of payment internationally also.

But, according to me, charging the client on a per month basis for an SEO campaign is not correct at all. As, when we consider an SEO project we know that

• The results will take time to be reflected on the search engines.

• It has to be a yearly project .( If proper results and search engine presence is needed).

• The rankings for some long tail keywords or which are location specific may start showing results in 2-3 months but for the specific keywords for which the site is being optimized might take at least 10-12 months.

• The SEO efforts (On-Page and Off-Page) put shall start from the very first day after the initial analysis of the site.

• No SEO can say that the Meta tags shall be put on the first month and then in the second month the sitemap.xml file shall be submitted. What I mean to say every SEO project needs to be given an overall tuning and that starts from day one.

In short it is just not possible to break up the work on a monthly basis and charge on a monthly basis if you are looking at a complete SEO campaign and search engine presence. Such a mode of payment does not do any justice to both the parties.

The best way is to split the payment into two installments of 50% each. i.e you charge 50% when the SEO contract is signed and the balance when the rankings start appearing in the search engines i.e usually after 3-4 months. The installments can be split into 2 or 3 depending on the mutual convenience of both the parties.

If the budget is a constraint for the client but search engine presence is what the client wants to start off with then the company can have packages suited to give a start by local search, only basic on-page optimization services which can be comparatively low priced but with definite results and later on there can be an option of upgrading these packages to the yearly plan by the client.

This kind of pricing is fair to both the parties i.e the SEO services provider and the client. Moreover, the SEO project gets a complete holistic approach by both the parties. The client also is mentally prepared that the SEO results are not going to be achieved in a jiffy, it will take time and this makes him develop the patience for it.

SEO - 08/27/2010

Just SEO Is Not Enough .You Need A Web Culture In The Organization For Overall Online Success. How Healthy Is The Web Culture Of Your Company?

If You Think That You Have Signed A SEO Contract And Now You Are Going To Win The Web Market Then You Are Wrong.

SEO is the art and science of understanding the technology, the EQ , the IQ and of course thereby the algorithms of the search engines to make the websites rank high on the search engines to tap the targeted market.

The SEO knowledge is open and anyone following the ethical way and having the right SEO knowledge, patience and perseverance can reach the top rankings for the targeted keywords sooner or later. (Thats what my experience says).

But, search and internet marketing is much more than just ranking high on the search engines. Just as in the offline traditional way of marketing just giving an Ad. on TV , magazine or newspapers is not enough to get the footfalls in your store or make your phone ring repeatedly for enquiries, there needs to be a full plan of the whole marketing and sales circle. Similarly, online marketing also needs a complete plan to ensure the success of conversions of the online generated inquiries.

An SEO can help you achieve rankings but along with that that the most important thing to focus on is to find the answers to the following questions.

• Are the clicks generated as a result of SEO getting converted into enquiries ?

• Is the landing page giving the right impression about the products, services and the company?

• Is somebody in the organization responsible for the handling these queries with a responsibility attached to it?

• Does my company have a voice and approachability on the social media?

• Who in the organization is managing the social media?

• Do we have a legal policy if things go wrong or some web online policies, rules and regulations so that things do not go wrong?

• Is my staff who manages the social media cyber savvy or is he just typing in the tweets and posts?

• Does my site appear in all the search options of the search engines?

• Does my company have a blog?

• Is it being updated regularly?

• What is the focus of our blog?

In short there has to be a web culture in the organization so that every person in every team whether marketing , technical or operations understands the benefit of web presence and becomes a part of it.

Previously, when the email culture was introduced in the organizations in mid 2000 each and every person in the company was supposed to know how to send and receive mails else they were trained for that to ensure the smooth flow of communication.

So now when your SEO company tells you that your organization needs training in getting familiar with the internet marketing culture and develop the right web attitude please listen to them and be the first ones to take the initiative to become an organization where each and every member of the organization knows what online presence the company has and is confident about what their web culture is. As every member contributes to the marketing, sales, WOM, profits culture and image of the company.

Every employee in the company should easily relate to the virtual office (the website) of the company the way they relate to systems and procedures in the offline office. After all the virtual office or store is nothing but a reflection of your offline real presence.

How Healthy Is The Web Culture Of Your Company?

Social Media - 08/25/2010

Who Should Manage The Social Media In Your Organization?

Every marketing campaign involves social interaction. As social interaction online is possible through the various social media platforms like blogging and micro blogging. In an online or internet marketing campaign social media is surely something which is catching up with the netizens.

Currently, the social media sites which have gained popularity are Facebook and Twitter. Hence, most of the companies have a facebook and a twitter account but not many of them are using these accounts in an effective way.

By just having an account on social media sites and assigning it to any Tom, Dick or Harry from your organization is not going to ensure success from this media. Every marketing campaign succeeds due to its planned, systematic approach. Moreover, every marketing campaign requires constant review at every stage to see and check where the campaign is getting directed to.

Interactions on this media are not a casual chat and neither it is a soft board where you regularly pin the announcements, requirements and achievements of your company . It is neither a market or a mall where you directly sell .

Social media is all about influence and reach. It is about establishing your online reputation. It is about networking and developing an online rapport with every person who may have the potential to directly or indirectly be associated to your business.

This surely needs to have a planned systematic approach and also the identification of the right person who shall be responsible to handle this task.

In my opinion, as this medium is still at an evolving stage and all the people involved in social media are still experimenting and exploring the potential of this media, the CEOs or the top management personnel are the right people to handle this task. Interactions on this media can either make or mar the reputation of your business. People who are highly concerned about the growth, reputation and WOM of the company are the right people to be allocated this task as there is a lot of human technology involved in this interaction rather than computer technology.

Again it is the person and not the post which should be the deciding factor. As the person identified should have the care and the concern for the online reputation of the business, should have a flair for interacting with people and should have the responsibility to make commitments and claims publicly and at the same time be answerable for every word on this media if the need arises.

It is not necessary that the posts and tweets of this person managing the social media accounts for your company should have the Pied Piper's magical music whereby all the netizens start following him but should surely have the sense and the sensibility to make the followers get interested in the products and services that your company offers.

Social Media - 08/23/2010

You Can Verify The Ownership Of Your Site In Google Webmaster Tools Using the Analytics Snippet

No one likes duplication of efforts and especially when they are mundane repetitive tasks like verification of accounts in the webmaster tools. Google seems to understand that and has added another option for verification in webmaster tools.

Google will find all Google Analytics tracking codes that are active on the index page for this site. Ownership of the site is established if you are an administrator for any of the Google Analytics website profiles found. The Google Analytics tracking code is used only to verify site ownership.

This only works with the newer asynchronous Analytics JavaScript, so if you haven't migrated yet, now is a great time.

Once you've verified ownership, you can add other verified owners quickly and easily through the Verification Details page. There's no need for each owner to manually verify ownership. More effort and time saved.

The other ways of verifying are:

• Add a DNS record to your domain's configuration You can use this option if you can sign in to your domain registrar or hosting provider and add a new DNS record.
• Add a meta tag to your site's home page You can choose this option if you can edit your site's HTML.
• Upload an HTML file to your server You can choose this option if you can upload new files to your site.

The verification of the site via the analytics snippet is surely a time saver. A very big thanks to Google indeed .

Google - 08/22/2010

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At WebPro, we see AI not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a tool that helps us raise the standard of excellence in the content we share.

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