What Google's Mobile-First Index Means For Your SEO Strategy

Super relevant article on some of the lessons learned from last week on Google. Basically, Google is indexing (looking at webpages) through the eyes of a mobile browser first and a desktop browser second. This was previously reveres, but because today's users are accessing more and more web content via mobile devices.

They are not going as far as penalizing web pages for not being mobile friendly, but are encouraging sites to become mobile compliant.

A nice description of how this will impact SEO is said in the following paragraph:

"Instead, the impact of mobile-first indexing will come into play if your mobile and desktop sites are significantly different. For example, if the mobile version of a page of your site has significantly less content than the desktop version, the mobile version will now be treated as the primary version, which could have a significant bearing on your visitors’ impressions of your brand and site."

 A game changer for ROI of mobile ads and other KPI's measured for website visibility.


What Google's Mobile-First Index Means For Your SEO Strategy

Conflict of Interest in Promoting Google's Own Products in Search?

This is a very interesting article, the subject of which will likely get more press in the future as Google expands into different revenue areas: http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-uses-its-search-engine-to-hawk-its-products-1484827203

The article discusses the apparent conflict that could be happening as Google's own products, such as Nest and Home, seem to be appearing as the top paid result in the majority of related searches. The article even points out how the WSJ called Google out on a specific search and saw the results drastically change just a week later. Google claims that each one of their products have marketing budgets, just like any other product, and they effectively bid on ads just as others do. Even if this is accurate, it begs the question if this is enough as they are paying themselves for the service and benefiting from the effect this has on raising the average bid prices for keywords. Facebook faces a similar problem.

It is not uncommon for a company to offer its own products as well as those of others (think Department store that has their own brand in addition to others) but Google is a little different because of the veil that exists masking the algorithm. As Google moves into other new products, this will likely become a bigger issue and perhaps will lead to them needing to completely separate their search business from their various products.

Here's How Many Bad Ads Google Blocked In 2016

The big "G" was busy blocking ads in 2016, the company states that they blocked 1.7 billion "bad ads" last year. Many of these "bad ads" have shifted from what we may think, they are not spam or adult content based. Many of the "bad ads" targeted by Google are ads that lead to misleading products (weight loss pills), mislead users to install harmful software, or even ads that offer predatory lending.

It is clear that Google has not yet mastered the art of blocking these "bad ads" and predatory companies were quick to adapt to the new rules blocking the Google algorithms. A simple change of APR rates was enough to make these ads reappear. Other innovations in the "art" of bad ads include hiding the ads as tabloids ("tabloid cloakers") and fake news. These ads will often lead to misleading products.

Here's How Many Bad Ads Google Blocked In 2016

Snapchat's Misguided Views on Targeting

Snap Inc announced this week that Snapchat would begin to apply third party data to ad serving, leveraging the Oracle data cloud. This is meant to play "catch up" with other blue chip social media sites, most notably Facebook, and is seen as table stakes for major networks at this stage of digital ad targeting evolution. Snapchat was slow to match these stakes for several reasons, the primary most likely being Facebook's superior development and adaptability to new targeting, but also because Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel made a promise two years ago to not be "creepy" when it comes to leveraging personal data for ad targeting. 

​While I admire Spiegel's ambition to avoid "creepiness" in an age when ever-improving targeting technologies make it seem as though brands and publishers are following users around the web, the idea that embracing the best of ad targeting is inherently "creepy" is a flawed one and has hamstrung Snapchat in advance of its IPO.

Unless Snapchat pivots significantly and engages a "pay" model, Snapchat will make its money by serving the best, most engaging, and most relevant ad creative possible. Ad targeting allows for creative served to be highly relevant, benefiting the consumer and the medium alike, and contributing to a thriving consumerism-driven economy where people are spending on the best, most relevant, most innovative products. Advertising matters, both to consumers and to a vibrant capitalist system, and effective advertising elicits benefits to all parties involved. Brands save money by serving creative only to relevant audiences, and consumers save time by being served only relevant advertising.

A corporate culture at a behemoth like Snapchat should embrace new targeting technologies as a power for good (and profit), and then on the back end be wary of technologies where data privacy is threatened, and where any other unethical activity could emanate. Spiegel decided to approach ad targeting the other way around, decrying methods as "creepy" and then being delicately approaching targeting capabilities that enhance user experience. Being late to the game in his embracing of targeting has resulted in a rush for Snapchat to catch up in advance of their anticipated IPO, which they will do, but should learn from its mistake of calling targeted ads "creepy" at first blush, rather than embracing innovation in the space, and being advocates for the security and safety of data that brands leverage in ad serving.

Instagram Stories Release New Ad Formats

News link:
Instagram Stories and Snapchat Release New Ad Formats, Facebook Live Rolls Out More Features


-Instagram Debuts Full-Screen Ads in Stories and New Stories Metrics

After adding the "story" feature like Snapchat, yes...Of course Instagram is doing so. Although it seems that Instagram just copied Snapchat to launch this feature, we can not ignore the fact that Instagram story is becoming more and more successful and gaining daily users very fast. Instagram has some advantages over Snapchat, and more brands have Instagram accounts before they have Snapchat. Its story also adds some unique features such as "@" and Boomerangs to make itself slightly different from Snapchat and more interactive.

Instagram organic reach declines in 2016, which means brands' post frequency increased but interactions from followers declined. Brands therefore need to adjust strategies to drive engagement. Comparing to building brand content on its official account, this new feature opens a window to increase brand engagement. The ad content in stories is extremely important, since users can skip it at any minute when they are interrupted by the ads. Creating seamless and immersive content that can attract users in the very first second becomes crucial. Another important thing for brands using story ads is we need to keep in mind that, driving clicks to sites is always one of the goals. No matter how good the storytelling is in the ads, it only presents for a short period of time, and consumers are lazy to check it afterwards. Instagram enables brands to leverage its interactive feature, and a strong call to action to drive users to visit the brands' sites or official account can help achieve conversion.

YouTube gains access to Google account data for ad targeting, teases new measurement solution

Google announced yesterday that YouTube can now start using google info to serve ads on YouTube. The example given in the article is a retailer that shows an ad for someone who searches for a winter coat can then target the same consumer on a YouTube ad.

Some people may find this practice intrusive but in my own personal experience I believe it is a genius maneuver for both sides. For the retailer it is likely lowering their cost of acquisition since they will be serving fewer ads to more interested parties.

As a consumer it is optimal. I have always appreciated the banner ads that correspond to what I have been searching for throughout the past week/month. If this wasn't happening and I was being served random ads like the old days then I would turn off and start ignoring the ads.

Knowing this recent development at Google I may watch the ad vs. getting ready to hit the button that says "you may skip this ad in 12 seconds."

If you are interested in reading more please click below:

http://marketingland.com/google-youtube-signed-in-data-targeting-204061

Voice Search is on the rise. Foolish to ignore this trend in SEO!

Among what we learned this week, what surprised me most, was professor Kagan’s repeated emphasis on voice search.

Honestly, I never thought about voice search as a trend before. Why? Because I never use voice search. So I took it for granted that most people don’t use it. See, that shows why a marketer should never speculate on consumer behavior based on his/her own habit.  Same for keyword planning in SEO!

I read this article today reminding me again that voice search is a trend now. The writer says that a survey found making calls and searching were the top 2 use cases in voice search. In addition, “60 percent of voice users want more answers and fewer search results.”

Given that voice searches are on the rise, how to optimize search engine ranking for this new type of search?

First, there is a huge opportunity for local business. Many people use voice search looking for business nearby, like “flower shop near me.” Accordingly, make sure that your business profile is accurately listed on Google My Business or Bing Places.

Second, use long-tail keyword phrases in conversational language. Think about what questions might be asked from your customers, then tailor it to naturally spoken phrases which simulate what people usually say in voice searches.

Third, make a FAQ page for your online business. A voice search is usually a question, which begins with “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” “why.” Having a FAQ page with similar-structured questions may appeal to search engine.

Fourth, optimize your mobile site experience. Most voice searches are done on mobile devices, therefore, a mobile-friendly site is essential to retaining customers who click into your site.

Your 2017 Digital Plan

While searching for trends in digital marketing, I came across an article in Forbes about things you should add to your digital marketing plan this year. Interestingly, top three suggestions were influenced by Google. 

Suggestion to have outstanding content make sense. It’s fair to assume that people will prefer to visit a site with better quality content. 

Since more than 50% search queries now come from mobile devices, it’s no surprise that mobile optimization is one of Google’s ranking factors. This will probably make SEO a bit more challenging as most sites will require SEO for both desktop and mobile. After all, the other 50% searches are still coming from desktop or laptops. 

Google’s emphasis on switching from “http” to “https” is a bit curious. While “https” is secure, not everyone needs it. It certainly makes sense if you are selling something. In fact it shows that you are concerned about customer data. On the other hand the benefit of securing a site with instructions to tie show laces is debatable. Nevertheless, now that Google has made https a ranking factor, it is prudent to switch.

You can read details about the suggestions mentioned above and other suggestions by clicking here.

Tips to Utilize SEO in 2017

Marketers are beefing up their investment on content creation, which could possibly drive traffic and popularity of the websites. But to leverage these efforts, they also need to learn the rules for SEO in 2017. The days when driving traffic equals the use of keywords are long gone. Experts remarked that the SEO strategy revolves around another big-money marketing focus: experience.

Historically, the recommendations for SEO have been focused on keywords. But with the search engine becoming more intelligent, content creators have less control about how their pages are showing up and what words they’re showing up for.

On the basis of an August 2015 study on the future of SEO by Moz Inc., the most important factors for SEO in the next year will be mobile friendliness, simplicities, a page’s perceived value, usage data, and the webpage’s design. In contrast, the influence of paid links and anchor texts will be reduced within in the next few years.

Intention is everything

In the old days, it was all about clicking the links, but now search engines care more about how the customers are interacting with the website. Are they going back and clicking on results, or are they finding the answers they’re looking for when they’re on your site? Satisfying people's needs in a straightforward way matters more today.

Keywords are no longer the perfect tool

Keywords are not that magical today, and search engine, such as Google has new ways to interpret meanings. For instance, if you want to rank the best restaurant in the city, you have to mention “the best restaurant” in the title or content of the article for several times or put it in the meta description. But with the advancement of search engine, the best restaurants could also equal to great dining experience or high rate.

Also, to get the most relevant and accurate results, the search queries people provide should be between three and five words long. If they only type "marketing," or any one-or-two-word query, they will not get the results they want. As content creators, when you are thinking about optimization, you have to take this perspective into consideration.

User experience matters

The original content is more important than ever, whether it’s an image or a video, or long-form content, anything you can put together that’s going to justify someone’s desire to read or share it. But do remember to scatter this original content to different places, making them digestible. If you take content from other website, give them credit and add some attribution to make it yours.

Longer article wins easily

Longer articles, between 1,200 to 1,500 words, (with more words and images to rank on the page) perform better in search, and they’re ranking higher in SEO. Tips for the structure of the article is breaking up long-form content with subheads, bullet points and images throughout the copy to make it easy for readers to scan and digest it quickly.

Optimize for mobile

The number of people reading news on their smartphones is increasing exponentially, so it’s important to ensure that the content is searchable on mobile devices. In addition, making sure that Google can understand the content found within a mobile app, and leveraging the marketing of the app with respect to SEO, is an opportunity on the consumer and business-to-business marketing side.

Use unique pictures

The same image can show up in hundreds of places around the Web, but creating unique content around the images is what makes it stand out. The most important SEO tip for the next few years is to focus on your audience. In the past, what marketers care about is to promote their content, but now it’s about delivering what people actually want to see, and that perspective will boost your SEO ranking. 

THE OH, NO! ROBO

A new robot on the market, Kuri, follows you around the house and promotes a cheerful attitude. But the question is, relating to digital marketing, how do we communicate our partner companies value propositions through a non-display device? Products such as this can begin to make decisions for us on our behalf. The new form of revenue is beginning to be not from advertising but rather revenue from automated purchases made my self-aware products (the empty friendly milk-jug in the fridge) on our behalf, and for our convenience.

Marketing Science: Target your ad to people not platform

Many companies are consumed by clicks and Facebook's VP of Market Science, Brad Smallwood, challenges that theory and suggests people measurement versus platform measurement is more important.
FB is trying to get advertisers and marketers to focus on people as opposed to platforms. Instead of saying "I have $150K to spend on Instagram" FB sales are encouraged instead to recommend: "I have $150K to spend on getting my message in front of this type of person, regardless of platform".
There is far more data and it should be used to implement a far better marketing strategy than 'pay per click'.

Youtube interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDCzuVJk0UE

Google’s Travel Search Dilemma

Google is under constant fire for apparently favoring their own content in searches, which obviously puts marketing and strategy firms, and the companies that hire them, at a huge disadvantage.  Traveling marketers have jumped on the bandwagon to criticize Google as the economy is picking up, and people are spending more money on lavish trips and vacations.  Google obviously knows that they're the biggest search engine in town. As traveling trends increase, marketing budgets will also increase.

Talented marketing and strategy firms should look to capitalize on these trends.  I think the firms with a great track record of SEO will benefit the most.  With Google under more and more pressure, it will take talented teams to maneuver and successfully market their clients content despite many considering the system rigged.  I also think marketers should take advantage of users social media (mobile) experience and look to continue to target potential clients, particularly in the traveling/high income space. Those marketing firms that can successfully get their clients to the top of searches the fastest will obviously prove their worth, which should be evident in ROI.

5 Things to Add To Your 2017 Marketing Plan

Interesting article that reflects what Patrick Ambron spoke about in yesterday's class - that if you don't stay on top of your internet presence, it will have significant consequences on your reputation.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianrashid/2017/01/20/5-things-you-need-to-add-to-your-2017-digital-marketing-plan/#618822746d04

Why the Hemingway App revolutionized my approach to blogging... and is now available for desktop

As someone who regularly writes and approves other's written and visual content for a corporate website and blog, I was over-the-moon when I discovered the Hemmingway App a year ago. It completely changed my approach to writing for the web. This incredible app is an incredibly useful tool that helps make your writing bolder, clearer, and much easier to read for the web.  

And now, according to Lifehacker, the app is now available on desktop for $19.95. The web version remains free if you don't want to pay.

How does it work? The web version is simple. Just paste your content onto the page and it will point out which sentences are hard to read, which words could be simplified/removed, and which phrases could be written more clearly. 

Measuring Digital

2017 is likely going to mark the first time ever that digital advertising spend will surpass television.

“In 2017, digital ads will bring in $202 billion—40% of all ad spending, according to industry forecaster Magna. That compares with 36% for television.” – Barron’s. January 21, 2017.

As digital advertising becomes an increasingly larger part of ad spend, it becomes clear that those people making ad investment decisions are going to demand better ways to measure the performance of their ads.

The implications for the industry are significant. What tools are available for advertisers to best measure the efficacy of their digital campaigns? And, in light of recent headline news about hundred-million dollar ad fraud, how do advertisers make sure that their tools for measurement aren’t incentivizing others to game the system?

It's hard to imagine that as more and more marketing dollars get allocated to the digital space that the ability to measure how successful these ads are doesn't start to become one of - if not the - most significant decisions for those controlling the budget. As this space continues to grow, it seems publishers will start to prioritize those channels that are most measurable, whether or not they are the most effective.

Online to Offline Tracking

After displaying an ad to a potential customer, it has been hard to know if that ad led to an offline purchase. Facebook released an update that attempts to solve this problem, by using the location data provided to them on your mobile devices. This, in combination with matching data records across a variety of services, such as Square, can give the advertisers better knowledge of how their digital marketing efforts are creating conversions. While this is not new, it is a maturing area that is continually becoming more intelligent. Another area where privacy concerns turn up.

Tracking customers via physical location is becoming even more accurate as well. Not just what stores they have visited, but perhaps even what aisles they walked through, as mentioned in this article: "The level of precision is "almost 'has this consumer walked down aisle 3?' said Mr. Collins. "That is one of the great benefits that comes with beacon-based data.""

This could give stores with a variety of products knowledge of what each customer is looking for, providing even more targeting data that is also timely. 

It makes one want to shut their phone off, as some of these collectors are surely selling the data upstream.

Reputation risk vs Utility

Reputation risk vs Utility

 

We learned how to manage reputation risk on the internet personally. When we consider using social media or other user participatory communication platform for business, we would have similar issue but with a little different dimension. The definition of the “risk” in that case would be uncontrollability, unpredictability and impossibility to recover (as mentioned in the guest speaker discussion). Many people could be involved with company-managed SM for example, which means far more uncontrollability/unpredictability compared with individual case. One partial solution sometime used is restricting the use of those SM to CEO of the company only at least internally. This would be somewhat helpful to reduce uncontrollability/unpredictability.

 

However, if we pursue this idea too much, those communication platforms could be called into question their raison d'etre as efficient business tool. Here is an extreme example. A couple years ago, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) and the Finland embassy in Japan had a limited-time twitter conversation to establish a further friendly relationship. The response from the Finland embassy was very quick. But that of MOFA was extremely slow because they obtained an approval from the top for every single tweet considering potential diplomatic problems. In the end of event, Finland embassy tweeted in casual Japanese “Looks like it’s time to go. I wanted to chat more.” This is too extreme but also shows that balancing reputation risk vs utility is not so easy once organizations are involved.

The Advent of Alexa

The Advent of Alexa

By now, much of the world has learned about Alexa, Amazon’s voice control system.  It allows people to talk to their Echo device and order or search for items.  Even more than that, it allows for smart home control, such as dimming the lights and playing music.  Echo has “far-field” microphones, allowing response to voice commands from anywhere within earshot.  By simply saying “Alexa,” you can command it to get to work, bypassing traditional routes of search from your computer or phone.

At CES 2017, which took place in Las Vegas last week, more products were introduced which were powered by Alexa – LG introduced a new fridge, with a 9 inch touch LCD which allows the user to search recipes, play music, and order items through Prime as well as put items in their shopping list.  Lenovo launched an Alexa powered device as well, the Smart Assistant, powered with Harman Kardon speakers. 

Furthermore, both Ford and Volkswagen are integrating Alexa into their fleet.  This allows cars that are Alexa-enabled to do anything the typical Echo device does – music, timers, order from Prime – as well as car-centric features, such as ordering supplies or parts, through their Amazon accounts.

Implication:  It seems that Amazon continues to take steps to capture clients in every aspect of their daily life and increase ease of ordering items through Prime.  This further changes the landscape of search evolution, bypassing the traditional computer and even now, starting to bypass phone use.  Amazon will surely be able to leverage the data they collect to be able to even better predict

consumer needs, and start offering services that are partnered with Amazon – for instance, if it has been 6 months since your last oil change, it may be able to remind you to order what you need through Amazon.

Snapchat will target ads based on what people buy off Snapchat

Have you ever been surfing the internet, cruising on Bloomingdales website for their latest sale, checking out those cool boots on Zappos, or flipping through Amazon for that certain book you can't seem to find at all the closing book stores, and then you switch over to Google and there is an ad for one of those websites you were just on? Google, among many others, uses Oracle Data Cloud to track its customers online and offline purchases and group customers into segments. Just when you thought your every move is being tracked, another social media power house has been added to the list of companies that do this. Joining the likes of Google, Facebook, Pintrest, and other top names, Snapchat will start to target ads based upon what its customers are buying off of Snapchat.

Some thoughts are that Snapchat is looking to beef up its ad revenue for potential sale or IPO later this year. And in addition Oracle Data Cloud will enable Snapchat to see conversion rates- customers who clicked on the ads that then resulted in a sale. This also will be a valuable metric to show any potential buyers.

I think the big question here is- How does this make you feel? Do you care that you are being watched all the time, not only by big brother, but also by tons of companies out there who just want your consumer data? For those that are totally creeped out (like me!!) don't fret- there is a way to opt out of this tracking on the app settings on your phone.

Check out article here for more info!

Snapchat will target ads based on what people buy off Snapchat

http://marketingland.com/snapchat-will-target-ads-based-people-buy-off-snapchat-203936

Trustworthy Content in an Untrustworthy Industry

As today is Inauguration Day, I could not help but find some news article that discussed a correlation between digital media advertising and elections. In his article, "Why Digital Hasn't Lost Its Luster", Andy Amsler discusses the success of digital media advertising (digital advertising expenditures in 2016 topped $1.4 billion), but also the need for firms to recognize its importance as a function of their future marketing success as many partner with agencies "framed by traditional thinking rather than forward-looking strategizing, at the expense of overall effectiveness and impact."

Making the case that digital media advertising is incredibly more effective now than it once was - as it relates to running a modern day campaign, Amsler states: "let’s stop pretending that persuadable voters can’t be reached online and that TV alone holds the key to winning elections or advocacy fights." That said, a successful digital campaign in politics - in any industry really - is the need for advertisers to create content that is trustworthy. "Trust in all forms of advertising is eroding", and as a consumer, I could not agree more. Advertising today does not connect - especially if it's political in nature.

But how does an industry infamously known for smear tactics and propaganda create content that is trustworthy? Amsler argues that if politicians were to create a campaign that was (more) truthful, s/he would experience longer lasting effects and an effect would be trust. If a politician was to establish trust with the help of advertising, one would assume a vote in his or her favor would follow.

With this most recent election, one thing many people can agree on is that the way in which politics and campaigns is played is forever changed. It is likely a safe bet that digital media advertising will play an even bigger role in 2018 and 2020. The challenge to advertisers will be incredible as they will be responsible for creating trustworthy content in an incredibly untrustworthy industry.

https://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/why-digital-hasn-t-lost-its-luster