As we get closer to the Facebook IPO people are starting to examine more closely where the potential threats to facebook might come from.
I think before we go any further I should lay my cards out on the table. I admire what facebook has accomplished, I’d be a fool not to. Where my views apparently differ from the mass media is on its future prospects for growth. I’m not alone in this wilderness. There are some even more vocal apponents to the current pre IPO stock valuations.
OK so we could touch on the obvious stuff here. Revenue has fallen in this quarter compared the last. Profits have fallen over a period when user numbers increased by over 30%. Click through rates on paid ads fell and continue to fall. Although they claim to see the future as mobile (dont we all) they’ve a poorly executed mobile app (on all platforms). Only a fraction of their income comes directly from mobile ads, something no one has yet to accomplish at scale. Oh and last and not least, the jury is still out on social media ROI, at least when compared to the much more transparent established search marketing channels.
Anyway the point being, the list is pretty long and getting longer as more of what goes on behind their closed doors becomes public.
All these topics have been covered at least in part by other industry commentators. So what I’d like to discuss here is something more fundamental in terms of threat to their future growth.
If the future truly is as mobile as zuckerberg believes, then central to that future internet is hardware. One might argue that its in fact hardware thats facilitated the growth in mobile internet rather than consumer demand. The iPhone has taken us from the old mobile wap world into a 4G, app driven version..
As the speeds of mobile internet increase it’s easy to believe the bulk of our social interactions will be via mobile devices. They are the ideal delivery mechanisms for this type of information. Foursquare, instagram, path, twitter and yes even google+, are all potentially standalone mobile apps. In the case of path and instagram they already are.
So what happens if that social aspect is baked into the hardwares operating system? Apple already has plans to integrate photo sharing in its next release of iCloud. Facebook’s photo sharing is seen as its core feature. What if apple was able to make photo sharing seamless? Photos taken and shared appear on friends phones without the need to load a browser or an “app”. A kind of next generation instagram. Fully integrated with your phones camera. They’re already part the way there with the current iCloud version, imagine what 3 versions from now is going to look like?
Twitter is already built into iOS at a core level, and although Spotify already shares your music across facebook, its not a huge leap to believe that apple will step into the music streaming business in the near future. Their last major itunes update took them a step closer to that end goal.
Apple already has a notifications screen (following androids lead), which is an, admittedly raw, events feed right now. But again imagine a version thats two or three revisions from now. We’ve already seen the latest release of windows mobile really pushing the bounderies of whats possible on a mobiles homescreen. Android is not far behind.
I propose that if you had a device which shared music, status updates and photos in a way that was passive to friends and family (meaning there is no NEW social network to join) there would be massive adoption. On a scale no web platform has yet to witness.
Apple is moving every closer to that illusive mobile to browser to TV operating system. The summer release of OSX is going to see us take another step closer. Incorporating messenging and reminders across all devices. Joining the existing music, photos, TV, movies.
So when people claim apple has failed at social media, I think they’re missing the point. They already have the network in place with well over 100M people using it on a daily basis. Ignoring ipads, they sold more iPhones in the first quarter of 2012 then babies were born on the planet!
Ironically facebooks only really viable defence comes from its current number one enemy. Google. The rise (albeit shaky in recent months) of android has at least slowed apples mobile domination. Its possible that iPhone & iPad adoption, fuelled by an integrated social platform could be a tipping point the likes we havent seen in 30 years. As windows was and continues to be to the desktop, so too will iOS be to the mobile. The one remaining questions is in a world where mobile internet rules and is run by apple, how long before the subservient desktop operating systems follow suit?
Google PageRank is one of Google’s original algorithms designed to rank an individual page on a website based on the number on inbound links that page has.
How is Google PageRank determined?
Google PageRank is determined by the number of inbound links to a page and the quality of those links.
Pages are ranked on a scale of 0 – 10 with 0 having little or no inbound links of poor quality, and 10 having a large amount of high quality links.
How is Google PageRank used?
Google PageRank is only used to determine the rank on an individual page; it is not applicable to a domain as a whole.
If two pages have the same content, Google will use PageRank to determine which page is of more importance, i.e. has more high quality inbound links.
How does Google PageRank affect SERP listings?
In theory, Google PageRank doesn’t affect SERP listings as the relevance of the content on the site to the search query is what decides which results are shown.
However, in the case mentioned above where two sites have the same content that matches the search query; Google may use PageRank to decide which site to displayer higher up in the SERPs.
How does Google PageRank affect link value?
The higher the PageRank of a page (which therefore means the more quality inbound links that page has), the more value that page is seen to have.
A page with 100 links from high quality sources and pages with higher PageRanks, will have a higher PageRank than a page that has 10 links from low quality pages.
Whether you’ve just started experimenting with AdWords or you’re a long time veteran, you will appreciate the importance that Google’s quality score plays on your AdWords campaigns.
The higher the quality score of your ad groups, the lower the prices of your CPC’s will be. It also means that your ads will receive a more prominent placement on the search results page, so it’s vital that you constantly strive to keep your quality score high.
That, unfortunately, is easier said than done but if you’re finding that your scores are a little on the low side there are a handful of basic things you can do to perk them up. Here are 4 tips for improving your AdWords quality score:
Group your keywords together closely
Where most inexperienced AdWords users fall short is their keyword grouping. Always make sure that your ad groups only contain keywords that are closely related to each other. Just a handful of words can throw out the whole group so if you’re finding that your quality score for certain campaigns is low, this is the first place I’d advise you start.
Don’t be afraid to have really small ad groups. If keywords don’t quite fit into your existing groups then put them in their own one! Google recommends grouping keywords into ad groups of 5 – 20, so don’t be afraid to have a group this small. Better to put them on their own than risk them tainting your other groups with their irrelevancy.
Also make sure that you group misspelled and negative keywords together. Although they may seem related to a human eye, to a computer they have no connection. Take ‘Twitter’ and ‘Twitteer’ as an example. Google will recognise Twitter and will be able to associate it with social networks given the related content on the internet, so if you have keywords like ‘social networking’ or ‘social media’ in your ad group, everything should be fine.
‘Twitteer’ on the other hand doesn’t mean anything to anyone, anywhere on the web, it’s nothing but a typo, so Google is unlikely to be able to associate it with the rest of your group, and will therefore reduce the quality score of that group.
Always AB Test/Spit test your ads
This is a fantastic way to improve your quality score. By split testing different variations of your ads you’re able to tell which ones are working better. Having two ads running at the same time means you’re able to tweak an element of ad #1 and test it against ad #2 that has the old element in place still.
It’s a great to test headlines, test, deals, keywords; everything involved in the ad creation process.
A lot of people think that running two similar ads could end up costing them more money in clicks but that’s not the case. Okay, you might get lucky with your ad first time and somehow choose the perfect combination of variables, but 99.9 percent of AdWords users won’t. Running two ads can help you find the weak link in your content much quicker than tweaking a single ad that has no alternative for comparison.
Design specific landing pages for Ad Groups
This means making sure your targeted keywords appear on the landing page. No, I obviously don’t mean stuff the page with keywords, but make sure Google can tell that there’s a link between your ad text and your landing page.
Most people will tend to do this by including their keywords in their page titles and/or H1 tags and headers and obviously creating relevant and useful keyword optimised content is another great way to tell Google you know what you’re doing.
If you’re split testing similar ads always make sure that the landing pages you’re directing traffic to are updated to coincide with your text/keyword updates. You can end up making changes quite frequently when you’re testing ads so just make sure your landing pages are updated to. If Google thinks the relevance of the landing page is starting to loosen, your quality score will too.
Play around with keyword insertion
If you’re targeting loads of keywords then it could be worth playing around with Google’s keyword insertion code. If you insert a certain bit of Google’s code into your ad text, the keywords in your text will be altered to include one of the words from the search query. This makes your ad more attractive to searchers and also much more relevant at the same time.
You need to be careful with this code though and be aware of what keywords are featured on your landing pages. If you don’t utilise the code and landing pages correctly you could end up causing your quality score unintended damage.
The keyword insertion code is an advanced feature of analytics, so if you feel a little out of your depth with it, either consult with someone more confident with AdWords, or just hold off until you’ve had a bit more practice.
Google is seriously stepping it up with the features it’s offering Google+ users in 2012, so much so that it’s given users a full photo editing tool that allows you to quickly add colour and text to images, effectively creating your own meme.
The editing tool (called the (‘Creative Kit’) is, of course, basic; but it definitely does the job of offering Google+ users one more kitsch feature that Facebook and Twitter can’t. Better still, the Creative Kit is really easy to use and obviously completely free.
So, if you fancy jumping on the meme bandwagon here’s how you can create your own meme with the Google+ Creative Kit:
Step 1 – Pick your photo
You can either choose a photo that you already have in your Google+ or you can upload one and go from there (either way, the photo needs to be in your own albums, you can’t pinch someone else’s image).
Once you’ve decided on your photo you just need to click it so it opens in the light box and there you should see a toolbar in the top left corner of the box.
(I’m using the example of the ‘Philosoraptor’ meme, one of my favourites.)
Step 2 – The Creative Kit
In the toolbar you should have a ‘Creative Kit’ button with three little yellow stars as the logo. Click on this and it’ll bring up the photo editing tool for you to play with.
You have the ‘Basic Edits’ tab which will allow you to crop, rotate, resize etc. and you also have the ‘Effects’ tab which will allow you to add an effect to the image; black and white, different fades, softens etc.
‘Decorate’ allows you to do Paint-type stuff with brushes and shapes, and it also gives you the option of adding things like pre-designed fake beards and speech bubbles to your photo.
The ‘Text’ tab is obviously the one which will allow you to add text to your photo. It offers loads of different fonts to choose from, and they’re not just your typical MS Word fonts either so you’ve got room to be a little more creative if you want.
Step 3 – Adding and changing text
Finally you’re gonna want to add some text to your photo. It’s easy to do, you just select the font you’d like to use and type your text in the box at the top of the font list.
When you click ‘Add’ underneath the box your text will appear over your image. You can stretch it out, shrink it down, bold, italic, change the colours, rotate, flip etc. all the normal text editing stuff; and if you decided you want to change the font all you do is click on your new font and your text will change; no highlight/selecting needed.
Step 4 – Saving and finishing
Once you’ve added your text and made your meme you need to click Save and you’ll be given the option to replace the existing photo or to create a new one (it will save in the same folder you chose the original photo from).
(Ignore the typo)
Just select and option and voila! Meme created.
Have you created any meme’s on your Google+ page? Let us know in the comments below.
Lately it seems that every article I read about SEO or online marketing techniques is thrusting a new programme or app at me. It’s always ‘the best new SEO tool’ or the ‘app that SEO’s cant live without’ and all I keep thinking is… I’m coping pretty well without this tool already?
In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I’m coping really well without this tool. So if like me you’ve come to that conclusion, it might be time to take a quick look at your current repertoire of go-to tools and show your appreciation for the years of service they’ve given you.
Since my entire working life pretty much revolves around Google, it’s no surprise to anyone that some of my best used SEO tools are courtesy of the Big G itself (and free, of course). So, if you’re not bothered by the latest SEO fad, here are the steadfast Google products that I think every SEO and online marketer should use:
You know how I referenced Google as the Big G? Well to me, Google Analytics is the Bible. No matter what your marketing strategy is, you will need to track it which will probably mean you’ll spend time in here on a daily basis.
Improving for presence in Google Search? Track it in Analytics. Experimenting with different AdWords campaigns? Track them in Analytics. Studying how users navigate around your site? Track them in Analytics.
Webmaster Tools is like your websites doctor, except you go for a check up every day. It can tell you exactly which bits of your site arent working; links, broken pages etc. and for the bits that are working, it can give you various stats like CTRs, navigational patterns, referrers etc.
It can also show you which search queries are bringing traffic to your site, which pages they’re landing on and how many impressions those queries are receiving. Even more recently, Webmaster Tools can show your +1 statistics and which pages are receiving the most +1’s. It’s like the Bible, part 2.
If you’re a content creating online marketer then Think Insights is a haven of sharable information that Google will freely allow you to use in your blogs, articles, white papers, infographics, case studies etc.
If you’re just looking for a little educational material then you can search for journals and studies based on your industry, your media platform, your audience, or your marketing objective. The marketing objective search is really useful as you can search for objectives like ‘Drive Online Conversions’, ‘Engage your Audience’, and ‘Build Brand Awareness’; all great stuff if you need a helping hand.
You can also compare search patterns for certain terms and over certain periods of time. So if you’re really clever you could make an educated guesstimate of which search patterns are likely to emerge and tweak your SEO strategy accordingly.
Given that this is a paid tool, it’s not vital that you use it, but it’s a pretty big part of most online marketing strategies so I’d recommend that you do.
AdWords is a pretty intricate system and can take some time to get used to but once you’ve got the hang of refining campaigns and keyword targeting it’s a great tool for bringing in highly targeted traffic from an audience with the right intent.
It’s likely that you already have a list of obvious keywords you want to try to rank against/include in content/advertise against; but sometimes obvious isn’t enough to produce an effective marketing campaign.
Enter the Google Keyword Tool. Based on a phrase or website you provide, the tool will show you a load of similar terms and how high the competition for ranking is. Its not a tool you need to rely on but if you find your keywords arent putting out the results you’d like, then giving it a go is a good idea.
As you well know, everything you do when it comes to marketing (online or otherwise) needs to be tested. Testing SEO changes is relatively easy in that traffic will either increase or decrease, you’ll either rank or you wont, etc.
Where it does start getting a little tricky is testing how effective actual pages are, and that’s where Google’s Website Optimiser can help you out.
A/B split testing is a pretty common thing when you’re trialling landing pages and the website optimiser will allow you to test several different elements on the same page to see which headlines, content, images, etc. are the most effective. (You can do similar tests using AdWords and running a few different campaigns).
So there you have it, my favourite Google tools for SEO and online marketing! Let me know what your favourite tools are in the comments below. (No, SEOmoz doesn’t count, everyone loves SEOmoz).
This is INTENT, a blog by Serchen Interactive about Online Advertising, SEO, Marketing, Social Media and Online Business. Established in 1997, follow us on Twitter for more information on our products and services.
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