Category: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google’s core search algorithms update

A company’s online presence greatly determines its online revenues and ROI in obtaining online business. For this, search engine algorithms will play a key role in positioning your brand on the first page based on your SEO efforts.

As SEO marketers or business owners, we all have a fair idea about what it takes to rank high on SERP. However, many of us would have been surprised at a shift in rankings without any issues from our end. This may be because of a significant change in Google algorithm update recently.

What is covered in this update?

Just a couple of weeks ago, at SMX West, Google’s Quality analyst Nathan Johns featured in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session with Michelle Robbins. There was a considerable amount of light shed on topics related to search engine developments in this AMA. It also covered a bit about the changes the update has brought about.

In his interview, Johns said that the search engine algorithm changes are an ongoing process. These changes would be made in order to bring to light those sites that otherwise go unnoticed and hence “under-rewarded”. He also added that a “speed update” is coming up sometime this July, thereby ensuring mobile-friendly and speedy searches.

Core engine update?

In the same session, Johns agreed to the fact that Google underwent a substantial search engine algorithm update. If you’ve had a webpage whose SEO ranking has been acting shifty lately, you’ve got nothing to worry. You need not think that your page has been punished. Johns confirmed that this is just a minor shift and is not punitive in nature by any means.

To authenticate the matter, Google tweeted about the same.

Which other features have been introduced with this update?

Voice search:

A series of sessions conducted during the SMX West addressed one of the most endorsed features of Google – Voice search. Ranking your page as per Voice searches is apparently a totally different scenario, and now site owners can optimise their websites and/or their content to surface during voice searches also.

Johns may have lacked the specifications in the matter but generalised the concern satisfactorily by saying that it is growing and progressively getting better constantly.

What about the Nofollow feature?

In the AMA, many questions regarding this particular feature were asked. The crux of all the answers suggested that there is no evident change in the way Nofollow functions.

The ones who come clean

Johns added that those who have been optimising their websites in a prescribed manner have nothing to worry about at least, not regarding “negative SEO”. He is of the opinion that using the disavow tool on Google Search Console will rid you of those apprehensions.

Catering to the needs of the user remains to be the central ethos of the existence of Search Engine Algorithms, and that should be the focus no matter what. Familiarity with the overall functioning is important and one is expected to know how it all works. The only guideline you can use when it comes to figuring out the correct method to up your SEO ranking is to improvise. Improvising is something that happens when you incorporate the feedback you receive from your users.

Do write to us and let us know if your website too has been getting mixed SERP ranking signals.

March 23, 2018
Google Assistant Gets Exciting Updates in Language Support and Routines

In a significant push to fend competition in the AI-based voice tech space, Google recently announced a slew of measures for Google Assistant. With this move, the compatibility with Google Assistant will now reach 95% of the eligible Android devices in terms of language support.

Users who speak more than one language can now interact with Google Assistant. If you are a person who is comfortable conversing in one language at home and another at work, then this new change will be a good fit for your multi-language skills. The first few languages to be paired with Google Assistant include Hindi, Thai, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, and Norwegian.

What this also means is greater scope for deeper integration of voice into devices other than the Pixel. With such deeper integration into devices from OEMs like Samsung, Xiaomi, and LG, the Assistant can answer user’s questions around carrier related services and plans bundled with the device. So, the mobile carriers too can look forward to delegating some of the routine interaction tasks to the Assistant.

Routines and Reminders too have expanded

Among a slew of announcements (which included the above update), the other exciting change was an increase in the number of ‘Routines’. Routines are nothing but a string of actions stitched together for a better user experience. For example, if you say ‘Ok Google, I am home’, it will carry out a series of steps like turning on the AC, putting on some music, configuring your residence’s thermostat etc.

With location-based reminders, users get to carry out tasks based on their location. So, for example, they can build a shopping list for Walmart and be reminded of this list when they are actually at a Walmart store.

Why the need for this change?

Clearly, Google is ramping up its voice tech initiatives against competitors like Amazon Alexa. By the end of 2018, its supported language list will spike from eight to thirty. This will take the number of devices with Google Assistant far beyond the 400 million devices as reported recently by the search engine giant.

Another need for this change is that Android is gaining a strong foothold in multiple countries through a global footprint. This makes it necessary to integrate its voice services that have been localised for better user experience for the regions where English is not the native language.

In 2017, Amazon Alexa’s market share was pegged anywhere between 70% and 76%. While it may have had the first mover advantage in the voice tech space, Google is making sure that it is not left far behind. The multiple initiatives around Google Assistant announced recently is a testimony to this fact.

By providing support to far more languages than Alexa and improving adoption rates among native Android users, the company is making sure that it catches up with Amazon and comes up as a leader in the voice-based AI-powered personal assistant technology domain. Stay tuned as we continue to track this exciting and evolving space and keep you posted on the latest developments here.

February 28, 2018
Four Trending Searches That Indulge Users To Download Mobile Apps
With so many apps being developed every other day, it gets hard to reach out to the users. If you are looking forward to developing mobile apps and would like to reach out to the users so that they download it, then this post will help you demonstrate four popular searches that will give you a better idea for the type of app you should focus on.

Popular trends for discovering mobile apps

Google notes that users look forward to downloading apps that they find useful on a daily basis. In addition, apps require more than just a trending approach to keep them glued to mobile devices of users. App developers would need to follow productive methods to get it going. This is where Google comes in to save the day. A 2017 report filed by Google showed what the users search for the most when looking for apps. In addition, that is where four factors were deduced that triggered users to search for apps. These are:
- Gaining convenience and productivity
In this fast-paced world, nobody has time to slack off and perform a task with delays. This thinking is where people tend to search for apps that can provide convenience. For instance, grocery apps that will let users get options like a pickup or home delivery, or a restaurant app that permits them to reserve tables.
- Learning and refining new skills
Another popular trend that follows among app users is to learn and improve skills. This can relate to learning the piano or guitar, or learning a new language, etc. People have been keen to advance their skills, which is why many searches since last year have been focused on apps that help in teaching people something new.
- Desiring a healthy mind and body
To overcome the burdens of life, app users also like healthy bodies. Thus, many of the trending apps downloaded by millions were health-based ones. These apps were focused on teaching various exercises, nutritional plans, or yoga workouts for daily users. Some even come with synchronising abilities that let users monitor their heartbeats using external wearables such as smartwatches.
- Improving their financial assets
Another trending category among apps is the one that offers coupons to save on meals or other items. With a vision to save as much money as possible, people downloaded such apps and looked forward to saving more on their purchases.

Not all apps, which are developed, can achieve the popularity standards of Snapchat, Pokémon Go or Candy Crush. That totally depends on the interaction between the app and the user. If the latter finds good use for the app, then there are chances that the app achieves recognition. Not to mention, a highly useful app may never be known to a user as it somewhat depends on luck as well. Another situation may arise where a user may find your app but may still not feel the compulsion to keep using it. Therefore, it is also necessary that the app developers use interactive methods to keep a user engaged to the app from time to time.
February 16, 2018
Google Releases A Detailed Blog About Featured Snippets

Have you come across the ‘People Also Ask’ section in Google Search results? This section contains a list of questions and answers around your search query to view without having to visit the corresponding site from where the answer was sourced. This is known as the ‘featured snippet’ option. Even in the face of concerns from marketers (e.g. their grouse on users not visiting the site because of availability of answer on the results page itself, thereby decreasing traffic), it is now trying to educate users on the rationale behind featured snippets.

Why the need for featured snippets?

Two key reasons prompted the introduction of featured snippets four years ago – the increasing dominance of mobile searches and the rise of voice-based virtual assistants. The featured snippets deliver immense value for both these use cases. Google doesn’t intend it to be the only source of information though. That’s why regular searches too appear alongside featured snippets.

Now Google’s customer education initiative has resulted in a comprehensive blog post on the various aspects of his feature. The blog covers subjects like:

1 – What are featured snippets?

2 – How do the featured snippets work on different devices and screen sizes?

3 – How they interact with voice services, desktop or mobile?

Interestingly, the featured snippet consists not only of text content but also shows up video playback on a particular topic. For Google Home device users this can be a great experience in the absence of a way to see the text.

What’s next?

As a part of the continuously evolving featured snippet ecosystem, Google has a few plans.

1 – It may show a ‘more results’ link under the snippet box to allow users to find out more about their specific search query

2 – It may show important tags to allow for filtering of responses and narrow down search results for improved accuracy

3 – It may even start the results page with more than one snippet box right away.

Whichever the approach (or blend of approaches), it is clear that the mobile user and voice-based virtual assistant user is at the forefront of this section.

What about the search traffic?

Initially, marketers were wary about featured snippet. They felt that since users got their answers in this section itself, they will not visit the site at all, thus, hampering traffic flow from the search page to their site.

However, with time, it was found that featured snippet had a reverse effect – i.e. it led more and more traffic to the site. The reason for this is simple. Only relevant and most meaningful content is displayed against a query on this box. This means that the content and keyword was well-articulated. This, in turn, led to a natural curiosity among users about what other exciting information can be learnt from the site.

Google too played a part in boosting site traffic by providing the url of the site from which the content for building the feared snippet was sourced. This led to ease of site visit to the brand website and hence improved conversions.

Do let us know how featured snippets have improved your search marketing experience. We would love to hear from you.

February 9, 2018
Voice search in retail: How it will impact customer experiences in the future?

Voice technology has come a long way and today is used by many for the ease of access and portability it offers. Smart speakers embedded with assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home have become popular because of their cutting-edge voice recognition and the ability to provide all-round personal assistance to an individual. Voice assistants don’t require multiple applications to be installed on a system, like in smartphones, to do different tasks. A voice assistant can perform almost every function a person asks for, by just listening to his speech. This is the main reason why voice technology is gaining traction and threatening the smartphone market.

Voice technology provides a way for consumers to search for what they want instantly. A spoken query allows the assistant to guess the context, intent, and the emotion behind the customer’s query which helps provide better results for the questions asked by customers. This is the main reason why voice technology is on the rise.

No wonder that Wix predicts 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020.

The increase in adoption of voice technology is sure to provide a better interface and also help companies better their customer experience. Here are some ways voice search will evolve customer experience in the future.

1 – Understand Intent and Context

When a user searches for anything online, there is definitely an underlying intent of that search, and it is fundamental for the search results to resonate with that intent, to satisfy the user. Voice technology is advancing mainly because tech-giants like Google have made significant advancements in improving their voice assistant’s semantic recognition and understand the intent of a user’s search better.

With the rapid development of NLP (Natural Language Processing), voice technology is becoming increasingly accurate at identifying intent and context for users’ searches.

Also with voice technology being powered by AI and IoT, the scope for progress is limitless. This is why many companies are investing in voice technology and incorporating them to gain valuable insights of the market and boost their sales and customer experience.

2 – Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies are essential for a company to outperform its competitors. Different businesses have different core strategies that they follow in order to retain and expand their customer base. These strategies almost always include advertisements, and voice technology is helping companies make the most out of their marketing strategies.

A person using voice search may search for a particular thing, but a company may program their AI assistant to provide results along with some other best-selling products they sell. This not only boosts sales but also helps you record data and understand which product is selling better in the market.

3 – Better Customer Experiences

With the competition growing day by day, companies are striving to provide the best customer experience they possibly can, to retain their customers, augment their bottom-lines, and boost their recommendations and reviews at the same time. Customer experience needs to evolve as the market grows and marketers need to come up with innovative and efficient strategies to stay relevant in the market.

Voice assistants powered by AI can efficiently help marketers by providing retail support. With continuous learning, assistants can gain valuable insights and help companies better serve customers.

These points prove that voice technology in retail is growing and in the future, will be used extensively to enhance customer experience.

January 31, 2018
3 AdWords features you’re probably underutilising
Most of Google’s revenue is from online ads they provide on their search engine. Google is basically a search engine, and hence their primary focus is to expand their user base more, so much so that everyone starts using Google search. Google, however, provides search results for free, which poses a question of revenue. This is where AdWords come in the picture. Google AdWords are most definitely one of Google’s primary, most important service that generates most of Google’s revenue.

Millions of businesses have used AdWords, and continue using them today, to gain as much exposure as possible on the most significant search engine platform today. AdWords gives companies the freedom to manage their ad campaigns themselves and provide their own preferences for the ads. This feature has attracted a lot of business owners over the years and made AdWords the best medium for expanding the audience. However, people who have been using AdWords for a long time sometimes get stuck in their ways and miss out on attractive features Google keeps rolling out regularly. These features can give you many extra benefits, and you can use AdWords to their full extent. Here are some AdWords features that you should utilise to get the best out of your investment.
1. Gmail Ads
Gmail ads have been available to companies for a long time, but not many have opted for them. This is because ads on Gmail have to be seen in the promotions tab, and not many people check that section. This has caused Gmail ads not to sell as efficiently. However, Google has started dynamic retargeting of Gmail ads, which means users won’t be able to ignore Gmail ad placements completely.

Gmail ads, when paired with attractive images and redirect buttons, can urge people to directly go to your site, which is a significant advantage, considering your ad will be standalone and not with other ads. Hence, people should start considering Gmail ads as a viable option for advertising.
1. Variations
Google AdWords has been a staple advertising medium for many companies and the number continues to grow. Many companies have used AdWords for a long time and are set in their traditional way of advertising. But now, with Google rolling out new features for AdWords, people can essentially utilise AdWords to their maximum potential. The new features rolled out by Google allow the users to try variations and Google will provide regular analysis of how your variations fared, which saves an enormous amount of time and at the same time allows you to understand how you can better your ad campaigns.
1. Experiment With AdWords
AdWords has millions of companies using it and most of them have been using the same ad marketing strategies since they started using AdWords. This is synonymous with running the same experiment for years at a stretch. Sure running the same ad campaign is helping your company, but experimenting can actually boost your business. There is always something to test, and it should be because that test might be your new strategy for ad campaigning and surge your website traffic.

AdWords are a powerful tool by Google, and you should keep trying variations and using all the features provided by Google for AdWords in order to utilise it optimally.
January 25, 2018
Google My Business Now Allows You to Post Videos

Google announced My Business by Google so that business owners can customise their businesses and how people view them on Google. My Business allows business owners with listing on Google to personally customise how people will see their listings. It also provides them with tools to build a website and interact with their audience when they leave a review, and Google will provide all this for free.

What is the benefit of this feature to business owners?

Google has been testing a video upload feature to be added to My Business to enhance it and allow business owners to showcase their products better. Google My Business team finally made that feature available to business owners, and it can be accessed through their My Business dashboard.

This feature can be used by customers and business owners alike. Business owners with My Business can view all the videos uploaded by customers about their business, and also upload a video about their business for the customers to see. Developers at Google say that the video can be maximum half a minute long and it can take up to a day for it to be visible in your business listing.

The feature will also give the business owners the ability to flag and report inappropriate videos by the customers and have them reviewed by Google and taken down. Currently, the video upload option is only available for the desktop version, but Google is planning on adding mobile support very soon, which can make My Business more efficient.

Google has kept the video upload option as accessible as possible so that the merchants and business owners don’t get confused. The option is placed under the ‘photos’ section, at top right corner labelled ‘videos’. To upload a video, just click on ‘upload video’ and choose a video to be uploaded. The video will appear after it has finished uploading. It may, however, take some time for the video to be processed before it can be successfully uploaded. After it has uploaded, it may take up to a day for the video to appear along with your listing on the site, or on Google Maps.

How well has the new addition been received?

The feature has already created a lot of hype because of the utility and ease of access it offers. The option can be found easily in the overview tab within the My Business dashboard, which makes it easily visible even to people with little knowledge about computers.

The videos uploaded by the merchants and business owners are visible along with their business info, in the ‘by owner’ tab, and the customers’ videos can be found in the ‘Customers’ tab. Customers can shoot videos of the place and upload their reviews to the business listings for other people to gain insight before visiting.

However, a business owner can report inappropriate videos by customers and have them removed after being reviewed by the Google team. The videos uploaded by the owner as well as the customer can be found under the ‘videos’ tab.

Hence, to sum this up, business owners can now add videos of their products, along with local pictures, to boost their businesses more effectively.

January 18, 2018
Internet of Things and Blockchain – The Intersection of Success

The Internet Of Things aka IoT has been advancing at a quick pace in the recent years. Nowadays, everything is connected to the internet through various sensors and embedded systems. IoT utilises the millions of objects connected over the net, and facilitates information passing and evolves over time, learning each and every second.

The ever-existing flow of information has enabled IoT to make businesses more service-oriented, by connecting the customer and the product both with the manufacturer. Blockchain, on the other hand, makes it possible to record each and everything that has been communicated between objects, at that instant, and make the information available to everyone present in the Blockchain network.

How will the blend provide value?

Tech gurus have predicted that the IoT and Blockchain together can provide coordinated, secure and transparent tracking of transactions and activities. This, in turn, can improve the overall value offered by IoT to a whole new level. The decentralised tracking provided by Blockchain can be used for supply chain management, scheduling, repair histories, end-user authentication, asset sharing networks and many other things. This can provide a wide scope of advancement in today’s world, where almost everything is connected.

Many companies have implemented a combination of IoT and Blockchain to measure the potential and scope for improvement. For example, an organisation has started implementing these two to track objects like diamonds to make their forgery nearly impossible. Car companies have used this to track owners and the car itself, to provide a more superior service.

What to take care of in this marriage of technologies?

The idea of IoT and Blockchain together can be a game changer, but there are some issues with Blockchain that can hinder this near perfect combination.

1. Processing

Blockchains are relatively slow in processing data if the current generation is considered, which is why it may be too much data for blockchains to handle efficiently. The processing speed remains a serious issue, but experts say that can be overcome with technologies like Tangle, which are essentially distributed ledgers.

It is essential to solve this issue because IoT generates a lot of data every second, and blockchains should be able to handle the data efficiently and record it every instant to make the information available to the people in the Blockchain network.

2. Scalability

There is also a scalability problem that blockchains are facing at the moment because blockchains process transactions provided to them through machines run by miners. This issue can be resolved by ledgers that do not require human assistance, are completely automatic in nature, and are only software based. This can solve the scaling problem faced by blockchains and make them better suited for processing transactions, as there will be no humans keeping an eye on the transactions. Since the present model of Blockchain has been experiencing trust issues because there is always a possibility that human miners can always check the data obtained for processing.

At a high level, the combination of IoT and Blockchain seems like a great idea. It can add tremendous value to a company’s bottom-lines provided the apparent drawbacks with Blockchain are solved.

January 17, 2018
Secrets Of Successfully Using AI In Your Ad Agency
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more valuable in all industries. The search marketing and advertising can obtain incredible opportunities to act upon. Especially in PPC, the agencies can redefine their work and success with machine learning and AI.

Here are all the secrets that can help ad agencies in successfully leveraging AI.
1. Combine automation with manual work
Only automated work might decrease the value of the services that you offer. There are definitely some parts of the job that require human intelligence. Hence, you need to combine manual work with the AI automation. This way, you can keep the high value of your service packages and ensure the AI involvement as well.
1. Collaborate instead of competing
Studies and research in digital marketing and PPC have presented unique outcomes regarding AI. The experts now know that human factor is still an essential part of deciding the success of AI. Machine learning is like another human being. Just like a person obtains better knowledge by talking to experienced people. Similarly, machines and AI learn better with skilled professionals working behind them. This is why you need to collaborate with AI to enhance the efficiency of advertising strategies.
1. Hire professional data scientists
Moving forward towards the AI collaboration, an ad agency should hire skilled data scientists. They are the professionals who can make a clear sense of the data that is provided by machines. It can be said that the data scientists become a complementing factor to the use of AI in the business. They help the bid management experts to move in the right direction according to what AI says.
1. Test new ideas with AI
AI presents an excellent opportunity to test new ideas faster and gain conclusions. The predictions provided by AI can help in deciding the future steps for a particular project. The importance of the experienced professionals is visible in this process too. It is an experienced team of professionals that initiate the idea. Then, the testing is conducted with the help of AI that leads to potential results.

Indulging your team in such tests definitely allows the company to become more confident with the strategies. Plus, you can prioritise the tasks at hand according to the data and results obtained from AI.

A team of extraordinary professionals and a reliable AI. This is the formula for a perfect Ad agency work environment. The machine takes you very close to the desired results at a faster pace. Then, it all comes down to the experts who complete the rest of the journey with their skills. Hence, you don’t only need AI, but also require a well-experienced team in your ad agency.

Google and other search engines are pushing boundaries with new AI technologies. Hence, PPC management companies and ad agencies need to integrate these technologies into their daily work too. It will improve the accuracy and pace of the work for sure.
January 5, 2018
Email Marketing Trends to Look Out for in 2018
Emails continue to be a vital marketing channel. DMA’s Email tracker shows that on average, email can yield 30x more returns on investment. Hence it is pertinent to review your strategy for email marketing going into 2018. This will help you get more returns per dollar spent and make 2018 a good year for your marketing tactics. Here are some new and some ‘already in place’ email marketing strategies to focus on in 2018:

1. The grand GDPR launch

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will launch in less than 6 months and will have a widespread effect on all businesses that market to consumers in Europe. Earlier it was okay to obtain PII data (names, contact details, email IDs) through landing page and content collaterals like whitepapers and case studies even if it didn’t receive end consumer consent.

This will change as companies look to make stricter use of PII data. Businesses will need to process data legitimately and lawfully, and use it so that individual identities are not exposed.

2. Personalisation is the key

While ‘batch and blast’ approach may have worked in the past, it will continue yielding less favourable outcomes in 2018. In email marketing, personalisation is the name of the game. If you want to send out mass emails, make sure that there is something other than cold generic mails.

3. Interactive mails will increase

Interaction with customers through mail itself will grow as its efficacy keeps growing. You can send out interactive emails that can help interact with readers at multiple levels such as –
- Integrated forms and surveys
- Search within email
- Menu options and navigation within email
- Banners/carousels to improve engagement
- Social sharing options
- Countdowns to nudge customers to take urgent actions
It is clear that the objective is to garner more time with the reader and keep them engaged better as compared to plain vanilla text emails.

4. Mobile first philosophy

Mobile device optimisation is stated as the biggest tactic to use, as per Econsultancy report. As content is increasingly consumed on mobile devices rather than on laptops, it is essential for marketers to adapt to this shift. As more people check emails on the go, it makes no sense to leave out mobile as the key channel for your email marketing. In 2018 more and more businesses will embrace mobile-friendly design to improve UX and boost search engine rankings.

5. Enough of collection, more of action

In 2018, it will be wise to make use of the data collected and start engaging them with a higher degree of personalisation. Knowing about specific customers’ pain points and then personalising your marketing messages to address these exclusively will be crucial for your email marketing success. For this, you may need assistance from other teams (copywriting and graphic design) to shape up the campaign. Factoring in this point will help you roll out the emails on time and thus work as expected.

With these strategies in place, your email marketing plan should be in top shape as we welcome 2018. Do let us know what your no. 1 email marketing approach will be in the coming year. We would love to hear from you.
December 29, 2017

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