Last updated 1 year ago
"Google's search results are undergoing their most radical transformation ever, as a new 'Search Plus Your World' format begins rolling out today," states Danny Sullivan on Search Engine Land.
Google's latest rollout utilizes both content shared with you privately along with matches from the public web to create a single set of mixed listings. In the Official Google Blog, Google states, "Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. These wonderful people and this rich content is currently missing from your search experience...Today we're changing that by bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search."
As a searcher, what does this mean for you?
On the plus side, life might be much easier with results that are customized explicitly to the type of content that has been shared with you privately as well as material from across the web all rolled into one search result listing.
At the same time though, the new rollout by Google does pose some privacy concerns since your private content may appear as if exposed publicly (it is actually not though). Additionally, it can cause further concern with friends and family whose privately shared content may become more visible than initially intended.
Since June 2005, Google has personalized results from across the web by giving certain rankings a boost because they were deemed especially of interest to someone. These boosts were determined by the users personal behavior and interests. "Without the boost, these results might not have made it into the top listings for a particular search" states Sullivan.
In 2007, personalized results were expanded and presented in a new format. And in 2009, you no longer even had to opt-in to receive personalized results. Google enabled them for everyone, even when you weren't signed in to Google, to some degree. And since October 2009, Google has even had social results. Also a style of personalized results but moreso based on the people you know rather than your personal behavior. Initially separated these social results were seamlessly blended into regular results in February 2011 and expanded to include "not just content created by those you know but also content shared by them through a variety of social networks" (Sullivan).
Google Now: Personal, Private and Public All Blended Together
With Search Plus Your World, you now have a "personal results" view. Your "personal results" view "personalizes the listings you get based on both your own behavior and social connections, similar to what previously happened. In addition, content that's been shared with you through the Google+ social network now also appears" (Sullivan).
Amit Singhal, who oversees Google's ranking algorithms, states the following about the new features: "The social search algorithm, and the personal algorithm, and the personalized search algorithm are actually one algorithm now, and we are merging it in a way that is very pleasant and useful."
How will you know when you are receiving personalized results? The graph below highlights (by the 2 arrows) the indicators you will see notifying you of your personalized results.
Private Content in Your Web Results
To summarize, Sullivan lists the following what your personalized web results can include:
- Listings from the web
- Listings from the web, boosted because of your personal behavior
- Listings from the web, boosted because of your social connections
- Public Google+ posts, photos or Google Picasa photos (all of which are also listings from the web)
- Private or "Limited" Google+ posts, photos or Google Picasa photos shared with you
Private or "Limited" posts are considered the most radical change since it will seem that private content is now visible across the entire web. Below is an example of what some of the "shared private content" looks like.
You can see via the arrow how one of the photos is showing with the note "You shared this - Limited." The world "Limited" indicates that this has been shared on a limited basis rather than with the entire world.
Prior to the change, this type of photo wouldn't have been found on Google search results because since they were shared as "private" Google couldn't see them. And while Google is accessing some privately shared information, they are still not privy to the content shared on Facebook so you will not see that content in your search results.
In fact, Search Plus Your World doesn't include content from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or any social network or place where content might be shared to a more limited audience. As Sullivan states, "currently, 'Search Plus Your World' would be better described as 'Search Plus Google+'."
Why is content from the other social network sites not showing?
Singhal tells Sullivan, "Facebook and Twitter and other services, basically, their terms of service don’t allow us to crawl them deeply and store things. Google+ is the only [network] that provides such a persistent service."
Personalized has now become the new norm.
What are your thoughts on these changes to how search results at Google will be displayed?
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To learn more about these changes, check out Danny Sullivan's article Google's Results Get More Personal with "Search Plus Your World"
Images and partial content from Danny Sullivans article above.
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About TeamBishop: TeamBishop (Dawn Bishop & Leslie Whittaker) are Internet Marketing Consultants with ReachLocal in Orlando. Our mission is to help you grow your business by increasing your leads and revenues and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven online marketing strategies. Call at 321.422.6600 x122 to schedule your free consultation.
Read our client testimonials to learn more!
Last updated 1 year ago
Search Engine Land reports that Borrell Associates has come out with an extensive new report about small business (SMBs) and their social media adoption.
According to this report between 45 percent and 70 percent of SMBs say they already have a presence on social media sites (mostly Facebook).
More SMBs are using social media platforms now than ever before.
- Borrell reports that between 60%-64% of SMBs have formal presence on social media sites
- Palore reports that 58.2% of SMBs are either on Facebook or Twitter
- MerchantCircle reports that about 70% of SMBs said they promote themselves on Facebook
What does this mean for you as a business owner?
If you're not using social media to promote your brand, your competition most likely is. And as a result, they are able to capture far more of the market.
With social media marketing just behind paid-search for SMBs in 2011, one could expect that social media advertising and other promotional spending could surpass paid search in 2012.
According to the graph below 15.1% of the online ad spend was for search engine marketing (pay per click) with social media marketing coming closely behind at 13.7% of the online spend.
How are you determining social media success?
Most SMBs, according to Borrell's report, measure social media success or ROI in terms of "new customers" as the key metric (but it's not clear how many actively track that or successfully track it). Additional fans/followers comes in as the secondary key metric for determining social media success.
The graph below illustrates the most important metrics for measuring social media marketing.
According to Borrell, "on average each SMB has a network of more than 4,000 friends and followers. But this statistic is skewed by a few respondents who claims tens of thousands or more. Perhaps a better gauge is the median reported: about 250 followers."
Palore's mid-2011 study argued that about 38% of SMBs on Facebook had very few fans/likes and very little engagement.
Overall though, what the Borrell report does illustrate is that there is an increasing demand for social media marketing among SMBs.
Are you increasing your social media marketing efforts this year? If so, what strategies are you implementing?
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If you liked this article, check out the following articles related to social media:
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About TeamBishop: TeamBishop (Dawn Bishop & Leslie Whittaker) are Internet Marketing Consultants with ReachLocal Orlando. Our mission is to help you grow your business by increasing your leads and revenues and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven online marketing strategies. Give us a call at 321.422.6600 to schedule your free consultation.
Read our client testimonials to learn more!
Author: Leslie Whittaker
Graphics and partial content from Search Engine Land article "Report: Social Media Spending Threatens to Overtake Paid Search Among SMBs."
Last updated 1 year ago
I've heard it countless times, "no one clicks on pay-per-click ads anymore so why should I spend money advertising there?"
Before I answer your question, let me first ask you, "do you still currently spend money advertising in the yellow pages?"
If you are like most business owners I work with, you answered yes to this. Why are you more inclined to spend money here than online where people are actually searching?
Still believe those yellow page listings are your best option. Well I suppose that could depend on your demographic. For instance, if you cater to those who are 50+ years of age, I guess I can see why you would still believe the yellow pages is actually your best bet on getting a return on investment for what you spend.
Even so, if you are a business who targets, even as the smallest percentage of your market share, consumers under 45 then pay per click just isn't a smart marketing strategy it's a necessary strategy. Here's why. For as long as I can remember, my family has received multiple versions of the yellow pages. And for as long as I can remember, we have always thrown them out almost as quickly as we recieved them. Until about a month ago, I didn't even really know how to use a yellow pages to find a business (and I'm 29) but I can find a business on Google in about 10 seconds. And if my parents are in need of a business, do you think they go dumpster diving to find that chucked phone book. Nope - they call me and I find the business for them.
Pay-per-clicks works in a very similar fashion to yellow pages advertising. A consumer has a need, they are ready to make a purchase (or are at the very least in the researching phase of purchasing a product) and, twenty years ago they picked up the yellow pages to search for your business (really convenient if you are somewhere where there is actually a phone book). Today, they hop on their lap top, mobile phone or iPad to find the business they need.
But I already rank high organically so why do I need pay-per-click?Did you know that you can boost the liklihood of someone clicking on your add by over 30% just by having both organic and pay-per-click presence in search engine results? 30%! To me that is enough to validate the money spent on both.
And while organic ranking is good, don't get me wrong, how many keywords do you rank well for organically? I'm betting not more than 20 at most. What about all the keywords you don't rank well for? How do consumers find you then, if at all? And just for the sake of saying it, just because you search a certain way doesn't mean that everyone else does.
Furthermore, do you rank well organically across all major search engines or just Google?
Now that I've hopefully convinced you of the importance of pay-per-click advertising, we'll get back to the original thought - No One Clicks on Pay Per Click Ads.
Do you know how Google makes their money? PPC advertising.
Let's look at a breakdown of Google's advertising revenue's (ie. money from pay per click ads) over the last 5 years and then you can tell me if no one clicks on those ads.
- 2007 - $16.4 Billion
- 2008 - $21.1 Billion2009 - $22.9 Billion
- 2010 - $28.2 Billion
- 2011 - $26.3 Billion (through Q3)
If anything, I'd say MORE people are clicking on pay per clicks ads than ever before. So, tell me again, why aren't you advertising in a place where you can generate qualified leads - we're talking the kind of leads where the person has 1 hand on their wallet and the other hand on the phone dialing your number.
Are you using pay per click ads for your business? Why or why not?
What sort of results have you seen?
What changes have you incorporated in your paid search strategy to make it more profitable?
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About TeamBishop: TeamBishop (Dawn Bishop & Leslie Whittaker) are Internet Marketing Consultants with ReachLocal Orlando. Our mission is to help you grow your business by increasing your leads and revenues and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven online marketing strategies. Give us a call at 321.422.6600 to schedule your free consultation.
Read our client testimonials to learn more!
Author: Leslie Whittaker
Last updated 1 year ago
ReachLocal claims spot #27 on Glassdoor.com's 2011 Best Places to Work.
Every year Glassdoor.com identifies the Top 50 workplaces according to employees who have completed surveys on Glassdoor thus representing the Employee's Choice in terms of which companies take the cake in being the best place to work at.
With 65,000 companies in the running, only 50 had what it takes to make the final list. And ReachLocal is proud to rank #27. And we are in some great company. Here are some other companies on the list that you might recognize.
- #3 Facebook
- #5 Google
- #8 REI
- #10 Apple
- #17 Southwest Airlines
- #33 Disney Parks & Resorts
- #34 Starbucks
- #35 Nike
- #37 Coach
- #40 Groupon
- #47 MTV Networks
Check out the video below about Facebook as the best technology company on the list.
How do they determine the overall ranking for each company?
Rankings are determined by overall rating on Glassdoor which is determined using a 20-question company survey that captures employee's attitudes about: Career Opportunities, Communication, Compensation & Benefits, Employee Morale, Recognition & Feedback, Senior Leadership, Work/Life Balance, and Fairness & Respect ( Glassdoor Best Places to Work).
Congrats again to ReachLocal and all the other stellar companies who made the list!
Last updated 1 year ago
We already know when it comes to social media, Google+ is the latest social media venture to make a big splash when it comes to social networking. And that's great knowledge to have but I'm sure as a business owner you are really wanting to know how to set up your Google+ Brand Page.
Step 1: Sign into your Google account and head to http://www.google.com/+/business/
Step 2: Select your business category.
Step 3: Add info. Enter your business name, website and select additional subcategories.
Step 4: Tagline and Photo. Summarize your business in just 10 words. Then add your image.
Step 5: Spread the word. Tell all your personal Google+ friends about your new business page.
Step 6: Enjoy your new Google+ Brand Page! You're done.
If you'd like a more in-depth video tutorial of how to set up your Google+ Business Brand Page, see the Mashable article "How to Set Up a Google+ Brand Page" by Amy-Mae Elliott.
Or you can watch this video tutorial on setting up your Google Plus Brand Page.
