Dave Naylor (DaveN)

Company: Bronco

WHO?: One of the ‘big dogs’ of UK search marketing, Dave started working in the SEO industry over 10 years ago.

WHY: Hugely popular, highly respected and well worth following

WHERE: https://twitter.com/DaveNaylor

Jon Myers

Company: MediaVest/MVi

WHO?: Head of Search at MediaVest. Industry veteran (sorry Jon)

WHY: Widely respected and a regular speaker on both the SMX and SES speaking circuits.  Amongst other things - he’s my boss.

WHERE: https://twitter.com/JonDMyers

Andrew Girdwood (aka Girdy)

Company: BigmouthMedia

WHO?: Head of Search at Bigmouthmedia.

WHY: Hardcore Search Marketeer - and ‘face’ of Bigmouthmedia (erm :)). Passionate about all things search, and if that bores you, theres always his gaming.

WHERE: https://twitter.com/AndrewGirdwood

Patrick Altoft

Company: Blogstorm/Branded3

WHO?: Director of Search at Branded3.

WHY: Been a magic year for Patrick and the Blogstorm blog.

WHERE: https://twitter.com/patrickaltoft

Jim Connolly

Company:

WHO?: Marketing Expert @ jimsmarketingblog.com

WHY: Hugely experienced marketeer and VERY well connected (Over 16000 followers on Twitter)

WHERE: https://twitter.com/Jimconnolly

Ciaran Norris

Company: Altogether Digital

WHO?: SEO and Social Media Director at Altogether Digital

WHY: Entertaining blogger, and if that fails theres always the music commentary.

WHERE: https://twitter.com/ciaranj

Kevin Gibson

Company: SEOptimise

WHO?: Director of Search at SEOptimise

WHY: Some great posts coming out of SEOptimise at the moment. Worth following for that alone.

WHERE: https://twitter.com/kevgibbo

Mel Carson

Company: Microsoft/MSN

WHO?: Microsoft Adcentre’s Community Manager

WHY: Works for Microsoft apart from anything else (Who would turn down the chance of winning an ‘I’m a PC tshirt). Apart from that his regular commentary is hugely entertaining

WHERE: https://twitter.com/MelCarson

Will Critchlow

Company: Distilled

WHO?: Founder of Distilled with Duncan Morris

WHY: His involvement with SEOMoz is well known, however the site itself is a wealth of information.

WHERE: https://twitter.com/willcritchlow

Rob Kerry

Company: Ayima Search Marketing

WHO?: One of the Ayima Gang

WHY: Entertaining Blogger, and hugely entertaining twitter read not just in terms of latest on hangovers….

WHERE: https://twitter.com/evilgreenmonkey

Others to watch:

Matt Sawyer - DataDial -Online Marketeer, SEO and Social Media Junkie - https://twitter.com/mattuk

Rob Watts - Latitude - SEO - https://twitter.com/robwatts

Stephen Pavlovich - Bonytoad - https://twitter.com/bonytoad

Jane Copland - SEOMoz/Ayima - Only here as she isn’t 100% in the UK yet- https://twitter.com/coplandmj

Judith Lewis - I-Level - Search Director at I-Level - https://twitter.com/JudithLewis

Lisa Ditlefsen - Base One - Head of Search at BaseOne - https://twitter.com/LisaDitlefsen

George Hopkin - Johnston Press - SEO Evangelist - https://twitter.com/GeorgeHopkin

Paul Walsh - Various - https://twitter.com/PaulWalsh

Nikki Pilkington - https://twitter.com/nikkipilkington

Dave Davis - RedFly Marketing - https://twitter.com/daveredfly

Dan Alderson - Amaze PLC - https://twitter.com/pinje

and the final one

Peter Young

Company: MediaVest / Holistic Search

WHO?: SEO Manager at MediaVest.

WHY: Why not?

WHERE: https://twitter.com/peteyoung

Thats just some of my recommendations, Please feel free to add yours…

It is also a time when advertisers will be looking at trimming wastage from their marketing budgets. We have already seen a number of traditional channels seeing significant falls in spend, areas such as radio in particular. Online is not immune from this, and there is evidence of significant reductions of paid search campaigns and display, affiliate and SEO budgets.

However despite these reductions we are still seeing increasing numbers of advertisers shifting budget allocation from traditional channels to online marketing. These are new and interesting waters for everyone. The last time, many people experienced a recession was in the last century, and many organisations such as Google, Yahoo et all were either in their infancy, or not even thought of. For this reason it is difficult for marketeers to draw directly on any previous experience, however that is not to say, previous experiences should not be discounted.

In particular, during previous recessions - there were examples of many organisations that decided the ‘bunker’ approach. That is - they decided to wait it out, until the recession ends cutting back on assets and investment - including marketing. This often results in an inability to react when market conditions improve - and thus a loss to faster, more nimble competitors. Recessions often see periods of real innovation, and we only have to look at the boom of e-commerce & as a result of search following the dot-com bubble bursting to see how a potential negative can become a positive very, very quickly.

With many downturns, two things often go hand in hand. Accountability on the one , and innovation on the other.  For this reason, I would suggest the winners from this recession are going to be those that innovate during this period - offering clients extra value for their money, and those that invest and provide quality service to their clients.

Accountability is not a difficult thing to cover. In times such as this clients want their money to work even harder. Channels which do not perform will either see reductions in budget, or alternatively the chop altogether. Display for example is seeing falls in budget as marketeers struggle to determine effectiveness.It is therefore imperative, the tools in place to measure effectively - thereby allowing you as the marketeer to make educated decisions based on fact rather than guesswork.  Simple Clickthroughs and traffic are not enough. Conversions and ROI are going to play (and are already playing) a more and more important part - and branding exercises are likely to become more and more scarce.

Spending through a recession may seem like a daft idea, however Dave Morgan of AOL makes an interesting point

“The financial pressure will be severe,” …”When you take out big chunks of money, it’s not just the spend that disappears but also the competition.”

This is likely to mean that two potential scenarios could develop. Areas where ROI cannot be easily determined are likely to see slowdowns in spend (if not reductions) - with channels which deliver on spend seeing increased spend - albeit this comparitively. Expert analysis would suggest channels such as Search (SEO and PPC) are likely to see stability in spend, with other areas such as social media still remaining high on many peoples agendas. Whilst social media has been a bit of a hit and miss channel for many marketeers, there are becoming an ever increasing number of success stories such as Comcast - who have seen successful campaigns on social media platforms such as Twitter, and I would expect the number of success stories to continue to increase in 2009.

Reductions in spend however are reflected in industry figures - E-Marketer have forecast an increase of 8.9% in 2009, from $23.6 billion to $25.7 billion - down from an initial forecast of 14% back in August 2008.  As an agency, we are going to have to work harder to make campaigns work - advertisers are going to be scrutinising all aspects of campaigns, and as a result, I would suggest we are going to see greater movement between agencies over the coming months. It is therefore essential that you get your house in order now - before it is too late.

This is the first post in the Digital Marketing and the Recession series.

For people not familiar with Twitter, Twitter is a microblogging service which allows a maximum of 140 characters, something which allows for a service which in my opinion ends up midway between an instant messsenger and a blog.

Twitter

There are a number of reasons however I may choose or not choose to connect with someone on Twitter - for example:

• No Introduction - Always nice to know a little about you before I choose to follow (or not as the case may be)
• No link to website - If your description doesn’t suffice, then a link is always good, so I can find out more about you.
• What you say - Probably one of the more important factors here. There are an awful lot of people who have over 18000 comments. No offence you either have
  1) Too much time
  2) Write a lot of rubbish. I am one of those that would rather have 500 interesting posts than 18000 telling me that you are in Puerto Banus or the like
  3) Swearing and the like. On personal level I am not one of those that wants to read a load of cussing when looking at Twitter. That combined with 2 is a definite nono.
• Kan jy Engels praat - In english - do you speak English. Unless your Dutch or Afrikaans there is not a good chance of me understanding you so in practical terms there is little or no point me following you.
• Have you written anything. I often receive a number of ‘follows’ from people with no comments. What is the point of me following you - if you don’t say anything?
• Are you a brand - Not a keen follower of brands unless I really like you (@starbucks for example)
• Frequency of tweets - One tweet every four months is not that interesting - unless its worth waiting for (and lets face it 140 characters really is difficult to write something knockout in - although I will stop short of impossible)
• Self Promotion - Shameless self promotion is a definite turn-off. People don’t use twitter for pure business purposes (if you want that LinkedIn or Ecademy is great for you. I tend to find people like to get to know you more ‘personally’ rather than your corporate persona.
• Are you in an industry I am interested in. For obvious reasons, SEO, Paid Search and other online marketing professionals are always an easy win - although Andy Murray (Tennis Player) and MCHammer (Remember him) have somehow made their way onto the list

If you are on Twitter, feel free to drop us a line - twitter.com/peteyoung, if you aren’t give it a try (and forget about your social life - at least without Twitter)

Now most people are aware of the lack of any approved SEO scheme by Google, something I doubt we will see for a long time - if ever. Certainly Google seem to be more proactive in terms of SEO advice than they have ever been (the recent SEO guide being one such example), however there is still some way to go in terms of SEO acceptance from Google in my opinion - particularly in terms of how the off-page optimisation is handled. However thats getting a bit of topic , however I would suggest that this does still highlight the requirement to at least get some form of ’standardisation’/benchmark behind the community, so that potential customers are not put of SEO as a whole by unscrupulous search marketeers. As much as we as an industry can drive this, ultimately I would suggest someone like Google is going to have to put their ’stamp of authority’ behind it to give it any real ‘external’ credibility.

In the meantime, if you have time, pop along for a read down at Dave’s blog - if not for that post for the range of other posts on the website.

If the rumour is true, there is likely to be no shortage of potential opportunities for Ms Meyer. Whilst she already lectures part time at Stanford university, teaching computer science - one cannot help thinking a surge of new venture capital opportunities may try and sway her to give a new startup another opportunity. However given the fact that she was/is Google’s 19th employee (aka filthy rich), one would suggest any new venture is unlikely to be financially based.

In terms of impact, it is unlikely to operationally hit as hard as some previous (ex) Google employees - Sheryl Sandberg being one example, however she is a popular figure, both within the Google campus and within the wider community.

Should the rumours be true, I am sure she will make a success of whatever she decides to do.

Below is the snapshot of the twitter post

http://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/1087531183

Exended Snippets within SERPS

Two things strike me, firstly this may indicate a move a shift from Google’s perspective, perhaps away from the usage of the description tag for descriptions on results pages. Google tends to take its description for the results pages from three main sources namely:

1. The Meta Description Tag - many sites optimise this for circa 160 characters
2. Content from the page itself
3. DMoz Directory - however this practise appears much less common if not obselete.

Certainly as mentioned above, the further utilisation of page content for the results snippet may not be beyond the realms of possibility given that Google already determines importance and priority for the usage on Sitelinks. However there is no doubting that the top two (namely the meta description and the page content), hold higher traction in terms of usage.

These changes albeit small could however impact significantly on user behaviour. I remember seeing a panel moderated by Jon Myers at SES 2008 - where an organisation called BunnyFoot were presenting their findings (based on eye-tracking) on the blended search pages (which were reasonably new at the time) and it was suggested that these blended search pages were acting as landing pages in their own right, with people spending longer on the SERP’s page, prior to clickthrough. Such actions mean browsers are spending more time assessing their results prior to choosing a site, and thus any signals to a potential customer at these early stages are important.

I would suggest a similar example is the case here. Certainly the extended snippets give SEO marketeers/webmasters more resource in terms of provoking interest and encouraging clickthrough beyond the previous remit of circa 160 characters - particular as these results become more optimised in their own right - which the vast majority currently aren’t.

Certainly the use of longer snippets still appears to be in testing phase - with results sporadic. However given Google’s recent flurry of new ‘improvements’ , one can’t discount that this may become more mainstream in the coming months.

Unsuprisingly, online ad spend is still forecast to increase (we do keep hearing that don’t we), with search advertising again being the major driver - unsuprising given the accountability in comparison to many other online and traditional offline channels, something any marketeer requires during difficult time such as this. However when one looks at the forecast below - it makes stark reading.

Broadcast Television Networks: We are lowering our Broadcast Television Network advertising revenue estimates for 2009 and 2010 to down 10.0% and up 3.0%, respectively. Our previous estimate was for down 8.0% in 2009. We expect the national broadcast advertising marketplace will hold up better than local.

TV Stations: We have lowered our broadcast TV local and national spot estimates for 2009 and 2010 and now estimate a decline of 15.5% in 2009 and a decline of 1.1% in 2010. Previously, we were anticipating a decline of 8.9% in 2009.

Cable Networks: We are lowering our estimates for 2009 and 2010 Cable Networks advertising revenue to down 3.0% and up 5.0%, respectively, given the deteriorating consumer economy. Previously, we estimated revenue growth of 1.8% for 2009.

Newspapers: We are cutting our 2009 and 2010 newspaper advertising revenue forecast to down 17.0% and down 7.5%, respectively, vs. our prior 2009 estimate as of one month ago down 14.0% and down 12.0% as of our ad forecast report in October. Specifically, in 2009, we estimate retail down 11.0%, national down 17.6%, and classified down 27.9% (help wanted down 44.7%, auto down 37.5%, and real estate down 28.8%). In 2010, we estimate retail down 5.0%, national down 7.0%, and classified down 13.5% (help wanted down 15.0%, auto down 12.5%, and real estate down 12.5%).

Radio: We estimate radio advertising revenue to decrease 13.0% overall in 2009, below our prior estimate of a 7.4% decline, and now expect down 1.7% in 2010.

Yellow Pages: We have lowered our expectations for 2009 to down 13.0% vs. our prior estimate of down 9.0%, and now expect down 7.0% in 2010.

Outdoor: We are lowering our estimates for 2009 and 2010 Outdoor advertising growth to declines of 6.0% and 4.4%, respectively. Previously, we estimated flat revenue growth in 2009.

Direct Mail: Given mounting cyclical pressures, we are expecting direct mail to decline 8.5% in 2009 (vs. our prior down 6.0% estimate) but increase 2.5% in 2010.

Magazines: We estimate magazine advertising revenue to decrease 15.0% in 2009 (vs. our prior down 12.5% estimate) and decline a further 5.0% in 2010.

For many advertisers and agencies this could make stark reading, with many traditional channels forecasting significant reductions in budget - I would suggest there could be some hard times ahead particularly for agencies merely focussing on offline.

Mobile marketing is often been forecast as the next big thing, however it has often been the case of ‘always the bridesmaid and never the bride’—as mobile marketing campaigns often failed to deliver.

However in 2008, we have started to see a change. Mobile marketing investment is certainly on the increase. Many organisations previously have been reluctant to invest or merely dipping their toe in the water, now have seen increased traffic volumes and ad networks establishing themselves with media buyers.

To read the full post click here

Search Page Overview

The study went on to say that the majority of UK browsers either have no idea or an inaccurate view of how online search results are generated perhaps indicative of the level of understanding regarding SEO within the general public. Of the 97 percent of respondants who said that they frequently use search engines, only 29 percent are aware that search results are generated based on the search terms and optimisation techniques used by the individual website owners.

Further to this 24 percent of respondents believe that the search results cannot be affected, while 22 percent suspect that results are ordered entirely according to how much has been paid by the websites listed. The report also stated that:

• 19% say they have no idea at all how results are compiled
• 5% believe that search listings are arranged completely at random.

Staggering…..

Further to this, browsers continued to favour organic search rankings over that of its sponsored partners - with 38% of respondants saying they typically ignore sponsored listings. I personally would caveat such a statement by suggesting this figure is likely to change significantly the more brand or product focussed the search term is - and you would typically see clickthroughs on PPC increase significantly in these circumstances.

However the survery highlighted that 33% of respondents believe the sponsored listings to be ‘less worthy’ and ‘less useful’ than main search results, whilst to other 66% report that they always pay attention first to main results. In terms of demographic breakdown, there was also a significant slant with:

• 40% of women vs 34 % of men will ignore sponsored links whenever they appear as standard
• East England seemed to be the most sceptical towards sponsored listings with 45% of Norwich residents and 43% of Nottingham residents not clicking on them - compared against just 12% from Northern Ireland.

Whilst it should be highlighted this was quite  a small study, with only 1636 people surveyed - it does give us an indication as to the level of awareness out there in relation to search - and in particular the importance of an integrated search marketing approach comprising both SEO and Paid Search.

The impact of display ads on search - emarketer.com

The report went on to say that search clickers exposed to brand advertising were 22% more likely to produce a sale than those that did not view a display ad. It should be noted that such increases in performance are not merely limited to areas where just display and search are used. The recent Enquiro/Google study suggested that where priority visibility on both paid and organic search were occupied - brand association and purchase intent increased by circa 16%.

Further to this Microsoft’s Young-Bean Song said in a recent article on Clickz that the study results highlighted that search alone was not a standalone solution to customer acquisition

“The issue we have with navigational search is that it completely obliterates the value we’re creating from other digital marketing we’re doing,” Mr. Song told ClickZ. “The idea that search is this magical fountain of customer acquisition—in many cases it’s not.”

There is no doubting that search is reliant on other forms of advertising, one only has to look at other bits of research published over the last couple of years, such as the iProspect Search influencers study, which highlighted that two-thirds (67%) of search engine users are driven to search by an offline channel (37% of them because of TV advertising), and 39% of those offline-influenced search users ultimately make a purchase from the company that prompted their initial search - to see how much more effective search is as part of a multichannel marketing mix.

As budgets become tighter, marketing spends will have to work far harder - however online does have a significant advantage in terms of accountability, key in an environment where ever bit counts. That doesn’t mean however that other channels should be ignored…