The data we often have access to via either internal reporting tools or web analytics tools such as Google Analytics is great, but those tools never highlight where the opportunities lie. Instead they simply report on what is currently happening or what has happened in the past, which is extremely important, but it isn’t going to help show you a path to further growth.
There are high end tools available on the market which highlight trends and opportunities within your industry although these are often out of reach for most companies due to the price. Thankfully, there is another way to identify annual search trends within your market with a bit of research.
The two main methods of researching how people are searching online for your products and services throughout the year include Google Trends and the new Google Keyword Planner tool which is starting to roll out and replace the old Keyword Tool.
Gathering Annual Search Trends from Google Trends
Google already provides trending data through Google Trends which allows you to see how different keywords are being searched for throughout the year. Google Trends is an ideal tool for a quick snapshot to see how people are searching, although it doesn’t really provide great insights when you want to dig a little deeper and use this data for planning.
The main limitations with Google Trends is that all of the data is indexed against each other between 0 and 100. What this means is that if you are looking at a single keyword such as “Halloween” then you can see that this keyword increases in popularity up until the end of October when people stop searching for Halloween related items.
Halloween annual search trends on Google.co.uk
No surprise there then, this follows what you would expect to see as a popular date in the calendar approaches. The same trend can be seen when searching for “Easter” and “Christmas”, the difference being that when you are comparing these against each other the data shows which keyword is the most popular;
Annual search trends on Google.co.uk for Easter, Halloween and Christmas
Again, no real surprise about when those keywords are searched for. As mentioned previously, all of the data on the graph is indexed against each other from 0 to 100, so “Christmas” in this instance is more popular and is useful to see like this, but the data doesn’t say how many people are searching for the specific keyword.
Google Trends is also indexed as a whole against the total number of people searching on Google. What this means is that if more people are searching on Google, and the same amount of people are searching for your brand online then this would result in an apparent decrease in searches on Google for your brand – when in reality this is not the case.
Below is a graph to illustrate how your branded searches are increasing over time;
Actual branded searches over time
Below shows a graph to illustrate how the total number of searches on Google has increased over time;
Total searches on Google.co.uk over time
As you can see there is an increase in both of these pieces of data. What this means for Google Trends reporting is that since more people are searching online then the increased branded searches is indexed against the growth in overall searches. So the data is benchmarked against the total number of searches to show how the keyword has performed either ahead or below the market as a whole. What this means is that the increase may not be as much as reality when looking at the data through Google trends which can be quite misleading;
How Google Trends would display branded searches over time
As I say, the tool is great for quick snapshots of data, but it is always worth understanding how the tool works before using this data in your decisions. As with all data, there are discrepancies and things to bear in mind.
With this in mind, the next tool to look at gathering some more accurate data is from the newly updated Google Keyword Tool, the Google Keyword Planner tool which gives you more accurate numbers in terms of how many people are searching for specific keywords opposed to just trending data that is indexed against the total number of searches on Google.
Gathering Awesome Annual Search Trends Data through the Google Keyword Planner Tool
Recently Google announced they are launching a new Keyword Planner tool and one of the more interesting updates as part of this is that the tool will now allow you to download trending data for your keywords over the past 12 months. This is something that was previously restricted to accessing via their AdWords API, so this change now makes this data accessible to everyone without having to need to pay for access through the API.
So let’s dig into some of this data starting off with the obvious ones again as outlined earlier, “Easter”, “Halloween” and “Christmas”;
Annual search trends on Google.co.uk for Easter, Halloween and Christmas
As you can see above, this data is more interesting and insightful than the Google Trends data above since it clearly shows how many people are searching for the different keywords each month. Knowing the amount of people searching, opposed to their relative popularity, can help build a picture of which keywords are more popular and by how much in terms of real people searching.
You may also note that this data for “Halloween” and “Christmas” both have high searches in the relevant months, which differs from the data from Google Trends graph isn’t shown earlier. This discrepancy is due to the indexing that happens on Google Trends as explained earlier.
As always, the data is never 100% accurate although it is far more accurate than the Google Trends data.
Insights into Product Search Trends
Ok so the examples given so far are nice to highlight the type of data that is accessible for viewing annual search trends using different tools, but what about more commercially focused keywords. Well from here on we are going to look at the Google Keyword Planner data since this is far more insightful and we are going to look at a few different industries to see how these differ.
Budget Travel
Below is a graph for three keywords related to budget travel, which shows how the searches for the different destinations differ throughout the year and where they lie in terms of actual numbers of people searching;
Budget travel annual search trends on Google.co.uk
What is interesting when looking at this data is that you can easily plan your marketing activities around these times. The above data suggests the most popular time people are searching for “Cheap Tenerife Holidays” is in January, whereas there are more people searching for “Cheap Ibiza Holidays” in the summer months.
The question is, does this tie up with what traffic your website is getting for these keywords throughout the year? And most importantly, if not, then what additional activities can be done to capture some of these searches.
Luxury Travel
Below is a graph for three keywords related to luxury travel, which shows how the searches for the different destinations differ throughout the year and where they lie in terms of actual numbers of people searching;
Luxury travel annual search trends on Google.co.uk
Again this highlights some interesting data that people are searching more luxury destinations in January to March along with a spike for St Lucia around September and October time.
Gadgets
Moving over to the technology and gadgets area, it is interesting to see how people are searching for these types of keywords throughout the year. One item to note here is that the annual search trends are based on the previous 12 months of data that Google makes accessible, so as you can see the spike in September for “iPhone” related queries, this was due to the launch event in September for the new iPhone 5.
Gadgets annual search trends on Google.co.uk
Branded Queries
Now taking this annual search trends one step further, how about taking a look at what your competitors were doing last year. By understanding previous trends this will help you plan marketing campaigns around your competitors (preferably before they run theirs). Go and take a look at the new Keyword Planner tool from Google to see how your competitors are being searched for online throughout the year, I’m sure you will find some interesting data.
Having this data allows your business to move from a reactive approach to competitors and annual market trends to a proactive approach where you can plan key activities throughout the year to capture the maximum amount of traffic possible.
Spotting Opportunities & Gaps
The next steps is to compare the market trends to see how well your actual traffic lines up with this. If there is a large discrepancy then you could be missing out on huge amounts of people searching throughout the year. Get in touch to find out more about how we can help to plan your organic search campaigns throughout the year to maximise the number of people searching for your products and services online.
The new tool can take a while to get used to since some of the functionality has been moved around within the interface, but it is quick enough to pick up. Once you know how to use the tool the data that is present is awesome. As you can tell, I am a bit of a data geek so I love sifting through data like this to find the nuggets of information and how they can then be used to feed into marketing campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation work.
Notes
All of the historical data within the Keyword Planner tool from Google is for Exact Match data. This blog post helps you to understand the match types within Google.
This week Google announced a new feature on their search results pages, ‘In-Depth Articles’. From now on, when you search on Google.com (in English) for broad queries, people or organisations then you are more likely to see an extra section present within the search results titled In-Depth Articles as can be seen below when searching for “Lego”;
Google search for “Lego”
What this means for brands is that there is a huge opportunity to stand out in the search results from your competitors.
When do In-Depth Articles display?
When an important and broad phrase is searched for, In-Depth articles are triggered to display high quality content that covers the topic in detail which allow you to find out more about the subject area. A few examples of when Google triggers In-Depth Articles include searches such as;
Population Growth
Google search for “Population Growth”
Death Penalty
Google Search for “Capital Punishment”
E-Waste
Google search for “e-waste”
Censorship
Google search for “Censorship”
Android
Google search for “Android”
Barack Obama
Google Search for “Barack Obama”
David Cameron
Google search for “David Cameron”
Just in the interest of fairness, looking at a search for Nick Clegg didn’t produce any In-Depth Articles, so make what you will of that;
Nick Clegg
Google search for “Nick Clegg”
How to display In-Depth Articles for your website
Google selects websites and content pieces to display within In-Depth Articles based on algorithmic signals, which means there are ways to help guide Google to choosing your content. Below outlines the key requirements that can help Google select your content to be displayed within the new In-Depth Articles section within the search results.
Schema.org Article Markup
Schema.org Article Markup can be summed up as special tags and attributes (i.e. pieces of code) that you add into your content that is designed to help search engines understand the content easier. Without going into the technical details of this implementation, there are key facts that Google is wanting to know about for inclusion within In-Depth Articles;
What is your article headline?
What is your summary or alternative headline?
What image best represents your article?
What is the description of your article?
When was your article published?
What content is the main body of the article?
By implementing the correct markup on your articles, this helps Google to index the content much easier which can provide a positive signal to Google for including your articles within the In-Depth Articles section.
Authorship Markup
Authorship markup has been designed to display a photograph of the author who wrote the article within Google’s search results pages as can be seen below;
Google Authorship displaying within search results
To allow Google to understand who the author is for certain articles there are a few key steps required which include having a Google+ profile with your photo as a good recognisable headshot as can be seen in the screenshot above.
In addition, you then need to either verify that you are an author of that content by linking your content to your Google+ profile using a verified email address, or, setting up authorship by linking your content to your Google+ profile.
Again, there are no guarantees that Google will show the authorship information for your website, but by having this in place it will give positive signals to Google.
Pagination & Canonicalisation
Some publishers display content that is split between multiple pages. In these cases, it is important to use all of the guidelines in addition to using correct Canonicalization along with Rel=Next and Rel=Prev markup.
The implementation of this is really important to get correct, not just for being included within In-Depth Articles, but also for allowing search engines to easily understand the content throughout your website. Below is a visual representation of how to implement without going into the technical details of this;
Technical implementation of multi-page content for inclusion in In-Depth Articles
Website Logo
Another step in the process to be included within the new In-Depth Articles section includes specifying to Google which logo you would like to use to represent your business. You may have noticed organisation information being listed on the right hand side when searching for branded queries as can be seen below when searching for “Lego”;
Lego organisation markup for inclusion on Google
To be both visible within the right hand side of the search results along with being included within the new In-Depth Articles section you need to inform Google which logo to use to represent your business. To do this, there are two options which are either creating a Google+ Page and linking it to your website along with choosing an official logo or icon as the default image, or, using Organisation markup on your website which specifies to search engines which image on your website is the logo.
Implementing this markup is in the exact same way as with the Schme.org Article markup outlined above, whereby special tags and attributes are wrapped around your content within the source code of your website.
One thing to bear in mind is that it can take a while for logo changes to be reflected within Google’s search results, so this one may need a little more patience than the other areas.
Paid Content
Some publisher websites are paid for and subscription based which means that often search engines cannot index the content. To allow search engines to include your content within the new In-Depth Articles section then it is recommended to implement a First Click Free policy whereby users can see one page of content before they have to subscribe. This change will also allow search engines to easily index your content.
Create Awesome Content
This should go without saying, but to be included within In-Depth Articles your content must be….In depth. So go and create some seriously awesome content then implement the above changes to your website and Google+ profile.
Summary
While the In-Depth Articles update is starting as a trial on Google.com in the English language only, it will likely be rolling out to the rest of the world over time as most official changes by Google do. This gives UK publishers and brands the time to prepare for this change by implementing the changes required.
Google does state that you must be a “well known” publisher to be included within the new In-Depth articles section, so implementing this on a much smaller website will unlikely work initially, although there is no harm in trying.
Implementing all of the above changes is no guarantee for being included within In-Depth Articles, as with all changes by Google the final decision as to whether you are or aren’t included lies with Google. These changes can help improve your chances of appearing within In-Depth articles though, so if you fall into the category of a well known publisher and the above changes are implemented then this is highly likely that you will be included.
If you need any help taking advantage of these new changes then get in touch and we can help guide you through the process.
This week Google announced a new feature on their search results pages, ‘In-Depth Articles’. From now on, when you search on Google.com (in English) for broad queries, people or organisations then you are more likely to see an extra section present within the search results titled In-Depth Articles as can be seen below when searching for “Lego”;
Google search for “Lego”
What this means for brands is that there is a huge opportunity to stand out in the search results from your competitors.
When do In-Depth Articles display?
When an important and broad phrase is searched for, In-Depth articles are triggered to display high quality content that covers the topic in detail which allow you to find out more about the subject area. A few examples of when Google triggers In-Depth Articles include searches such as;
Population Growth
Google search for “Population Growth”
Death Penalty
Google Search for “Capital Punishment”
E-Waste
Google search for “e-waste”
Censorship
Google search for “Censorship”
Android
Google search for “Android”
Barack Obama
Google Search for “Barack Obama”
David Cameron
Google search for “David Cameron”
Just in the interest of fairness, looking at a search for Nick Clegg didn’t produce any In-Depth Articles, so make what you will of that;
Nick Clegg
Google search for “Nick Clegg”
How to display In-Depth Articles for your website
Google selects websites and content pieces to display within In-Depth Articles based on algorithmic signals, which means there are ways to help guide Google to choosing your content. Below outlines the key requirements that can help Google select your content to be displayed within the new In-Depth Articles section within the search results.
Schema.org Article Markup
Schema.org Article Markup can be summed up as special tags and attributes (i.e. pieces of code) that you add into your content that is designed to help search engines understand the content easier. Without going into the technical details of this implementation, there are key facts that Google is wanting to know about for inclusion within In-Depth Articles;
What is your article headline?
What is your summary or alternative headline?
What image best represents your article?
What is the description of your article?
When was your article published?
What content is the main body of the article?
By implementing the correct markup on your articles, this helps Google to index the content much easier which can provide a positive signal to Google for including your articles within the In-Depth Articles section.
Authorship Markup
Authorship markup has been designed to display a photograph of the author who wrote the article within Google’s search results pages as can be seen below;
Google Authorship displaying within search results
To allow Google to understand who the author is for certain articles there are a few key steps required which include having a Google+ profile with your photo as a good recognisable headshot as can be seen in the screenshot above.
In addition, you then need to either verify that you are an author of that content by linking your content to your Google+ profile using a verified email address, or, setting up authorship by linking your content to your Google+ profile.
Again, there are no guarantees that Google will show the authorship information for your website, but by having this in place it will give positive signals to Google.
Pagination & Canonicalisation
Some publishers display content that is split between multiple pages. In these cases, it is important to use all of the guidelines in addition to using correct Canonicalization along with Rel=Next and Rel=Prev markup.
The implementation of this is really important to get correct, not just for being included within In-Depth Articles, but also for allowing search engines to easily understand the content throughout your website. Below is a visual representation of how to implement without going into the technical details of this;
Technical implementation of multi-page content for inclusion in In-Depth Articles
Website Logo
Another step in the process to be included within the new In-Depth Articles section includes specifying to Google which logo you would like to use to represent your business. You may have noticed organisation information being listed on the right hand side when searching for branded queries as can be seen below when searching for “Lego”;
Lego organisation markup for inclusion on Google
To be both visible within the right hand side of the search results along with being included within the new In-Depth Articles section you need to inform Google which logo to use to represent your business. To do this, there are two options which are either creating a Google+ Page and linking it to your website along with choosing an official logo or icon as the default image, or, using Organisation markup on your website which specifies to search engines which image on your website is the logo.
Implementing this markup is in the exact same way as with the Schme.org Article markup outlined above, whereby special tags and attributes are wrapped around your content within the source code of your website.
One thing to bear in mind is that it can take a while for logo changes to be reflected within Google’s search results, so this one may need a little more patience than the other areas.
Paid Content
Some publisher websites are paid for and subscription based which means that often search engines cannot index the content. To allow search engines to include your content within the new In-Depth Articles section then it is recommended to implement a First Click Free policy whereby users can see one page of content before they have to subscribe. This change will also allow search engines to easily index your content.
Create Awesome Content
This should go without saying, but to be included within In-Depth Articles your content must be….In depth. So go and create some seriously awesome content then implement the above changes to your website and Google+ profile.
Summary
While the In-Depth Articles update is starting as a trial on Google.com in the English language only, it will likely be rolling out to the rest of the world over time as most official changes by Google do. This gives UK publishers and brands the time to prepare for this change by implementing the changes required.
Google does state that you must be a “well known” publisher to be included within the new In-Depth articles section, so implementing this on a much smaller website will unlikely work initially, although there is no harm in trying.
Implementing all of the above changes is no guarantee for being included within In-Depth Articles, as with all changes by Google the final decision as to whether you are or aren’t included lies with Google. These changes can help improve your chances of appearing within In-Depth articles though, so if you fall into the category of a well known publisher and the above changes are implemented then this is highly likely that you will be included.
If you need any help taking advantage of these new changes then get in touch and we can help guide you through the process.
We are delighted to announce the launch of our integrated online marketing agency Contrado Digital, specialists in Search Engine Optimisation.
We launched Contrado Digital because we believe the key to successful Search Engine Optimisation is about integrating Search throughout your organisation. We have found that by breaking down the silos and joining teams together this helps achieve awesome results.
Who’s Behind Contrado Digital?
Michael Cropper Founder & Managing Director
Contrado Digital has been launched by Michael Cropper who has vast experience working across a range of industries including Luxury Travel, Budget Travel, Charity, Transport, Building, Trade Insulation and Ink & Toner. Michael has helped consistently deliver results on both the client side and the agency side throughout his career and decided it was time to branch out and help more businesses succeed online.
We work with a team of search specialists, infographic designers, content writers and web developers to help deliver the best results possible for your business.
Watch this space as the Contrado Digital team grows – we have big plans for the next 12 months and are always looking for great people to work with us!
Why Integrated Online Marketing?
The online environment is more competitive now than it has ever been, with more businesses aiming to capture the billions of people searching online every day for different products and services. We believe that to succeed long term online is ultimately about improving your whole business so search engines see that you are an authority in your industry.
Size of Google’s Index Back in 2008
Integrating Search throughout your organisation leads to a deeper understanding of your customers. This leads to better products and services being tailored to what your customers want and need.
Integrating Search throughout your organisation helps teams working together to achieve a common goal – increased traffic and sales from Organic Search.
It’s all well and good saying these things, but what about a few examples to illustrate how integrated online marketing can help your business grow.
Example 1 – Call Centre Support / Live Chat Functionality
Do you run a call centre or live chat to support customer queries? Have you ever thought about how Search can be integrated into this area?
What areas or topics are customers continually asking you about? What are their common queries or questions about your products or services? Continually reviewing this can be a fantastic source of information which can help feed into your content plan on your website.
If customers keep asking common questions about a product, then create some content on the website that answers their question. This will lead to a happier customer who now has the information they needed sooner. It will also lead to higher quality content being displayed on your website, which we all know is what search engines are looking for. As an added bonus, this is also likely to reduce call centre costs.
Example 2 – In-Store Staff
Bridge the gap between offline and online
Do you have physical stores on the high street or branches customers can visit? Have you ever thought about how Search can be integrated into this area?
Your staff are interacting with customers on a daily basis and will gather a phenomenal amount of information within this time about what customers are looking for when purchasing your product and service. Looking at ways to capture this information then feeding it into your website content plan can be extremely valuable.
What are your customers using the products and services for? What information do they need before making a purchasing decision? What other considerations are they making? All of this information can be understood and utilised to create content on your website. Again, this additional content that helps your customers is also going to help drive additional traffic to your website from Organic Search.
How about your in-store staff encouraging customers to engage online. Encourage them to ‘check-in’ to your store. Encourage customers to review your business after they have made a purchase. Encourage customers to share information socially once they have just made a purchase. The opportunities to integrate offline with online are endless and can seriously help your Search Engine Optimisation strategy.
Example 3 – Marketing Efforts
Do you regularly run TV campaigns, special promotions or competitions to engage your customers? Have you ever thought about how Search can be integrated into this area?
If you are running a TV campaign, then why not integrate this ad on a page on your website then promote this page socially. This will not only increase the reach of the campaign but also help drive additional social shares and backlinks to your website. To generate additional traffic, you could also promote this on YouTube to capture the huge audience that visits the website daily.
If you are running a competition then instead of running the competition on a social platform, why not look at setting the competition up on your website. By promoting the competition page on your website this will help increase the number of backlinks, increase social shares and drive additional referral traffic to your website.
If you are creating a promotional page for a marketing campaign, then why not see if there are any specific keywords that could be targeted on the page. This small tweak can lead to additional organic traffic landing on the promotional page which may even perform better than other channels.
Integrated Online Marketing
Hopefully that gives a few examples of how Search can be integrated throughout your organisation. to help drive awesome results for your business. Integration takes time, effort, collaboration and creativity to make things work better.
What Does Contrado Mean?
Contrado is Latin for “to deliver together” and is the foundation of how we work and our beliefs. We work with your organisation to deliver results together. You are experts in what you do and we like to think we know a thing or two about what we do. Together we can deliver results to help grow your business online.
The phrase “to deliver together” also links with integrated online marketing. Successfully integrating marketing and business activities ultimately means working together towards a common goal. This is something we strongly believe in and have seen time and time again how this process helps achieve awesome results.
Stay in Touch
Keep in touch with us socially on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and subscribe to our Newsletter to stay up to date with all the latest news and trends in Search Engine Optimisation and the Digital Industry.
Looking to find out more sooner? Then get in touch to see how we can help grow your business online.
We are delighted to announce the launch of our integrated online marketing agency Contrado Digital, specialists in Search Engine Optimisation.
We launched Contrado Digital because we believe the key to successful Search Engine Optimisation is about integrating Search throughout your organisation. We have found that by breaking down the silos and joining teams together this helps achieve awesome results.
Who’s Behind Contrado Digital?
Michael Cropper Founder & Managing Director
Contrado Digital has been launched by Michael Cropper who has vast experience working across a range of industries including Luxury Travel, Budget Travel, Charity, Transport, Building, Trade Insulation and Ink & Toner. Michael has helped consistently deliver results on both the client side and the agency side throughout his career and decided it was time to branch out and help more businesses succeed online.
We work with a team of search specialists, infographic designers, content writers and web developers to help deliver the best results possible for your business.
Watch this space as the Contrado Digital team grows – we have big plans for the next 12 months and are always looking for great people to work with us!
Why Integrated Online Marketing?
The online environment is more competitive now than it has ever been, with more businesses aiming to capture the billions of people searching online every day for different products and services. We believe that to succeed long term online is ultimately about improving your whole business so search engines see that you are an authority in your industry.
Size of Google’s Index Back in 2008
Integrating Search throughout your organisation leads to a deeper understanding of your customers. This leads to better products and services being tailored to what your customers want and need.
Integrating Search throughout your organisation helps teams working together to achieve a common goal – increased traffic and sales from Organic Search.
It’s all well and good saying these things, but what about a few examples to illustrate how integrated online marketing can help your business grow.
Example 1 – Call Centre Support / Live Chat Functionality
Do you run a call centre or live chat to support customer queries? Have you ever thought about how Search can be integrated into this area?
What areas or topics are customers continually asking you about? What are their common queries or questions about your products or services? Continually reviewing this can be a fantastic source of information which can help feed into your content plan on your website.
If customers keep asking common questions about a product, then create some content on the website that answers their question. This will lead to a happier customer who now has the information they needed sooner. It will also lead to higher quality content being displayed on your website, which we all know is what search engines are looking for. As an added bonus, this is also likely to reduce call centre costs.
Example 2 – In-Store Staff
Bridge the gap between offline and online
Do you have physical stores on the high street or branches customers can visit? Have you ever thought about how Search can be integrated into this area?
Your staff are interacting with customers on a daily basis and will gather a phenomenal amount of information within this time about what customers are looking for when purchasing your product and service. Looking at ways to capture this information then feeding it into your website content plan can be extremely valuable.
What are your customers using the products and services for? What information do they need before making a purchasing decision? What other considerations are they making? All of this information can be understood and utilised to create content on your website. Again, this additional content that helps your customers is also going to help drive additional traffic to your website from Organic Search.
How about your in-store staff encouraging customers to engage online. Encourage them to ‘check-in’ to your store. Encourage customers to review your business after they have made a purchase. Encourage customers to share information socially once they have just made a purchase. The opportunities to integrate offline with online are endless and can seriously help your Search Engine Optimisation strategy.
Example 3 – Marketing Efforts
Do you regularly run TV campaigns, special promotions or competitions to engage your customers? Have you ever thought about how Search can be integrated into this area?
If you are running a TV campaign, then why not integrate this ad on a page on your website then promote this page socially. This will not only increase the reach of the campaign but also help drive additional social shares and backlinks to your website. To generate additional traffic, you could also promote this on YouTube to capture the huge audience that visits the website daily.
If you are running a competition then instead of running the competition on a social platform, why not look at setting the competition up on your website. By promoting the competition page on your website this will help increase the number of backlinks, increase social shares and drive additional referral traffic to your website.
If you are creating a promotional page for a marketing campaign, then why not see if there are any specific keywords that could be targeted on the page. This small tweak can lead to additional organic traffic landing on the promotional page which may even perform better than other channels.
Integrated Online Marketing
Hopefully that gives a few examples of how Search can be integrated throughout your organisation. to help drive awesome results for your business. Integration takes time, effort, collaboration and creativity to make things work better.
What Does Contrado Mean?
Contrado is Latin for “to deliver together” and is the foundation of how we work and our beliefs. We work with your organisation to deliver results together. You are experts in what you do and we like to think we know a thing or two about what we do. Together we can deliver results to help grow your business online.
The phrase “to deliver together” also links with integrated online marketing. Successfully integrating marketing and business activities ultimately means working together towards a common goal. This is something we strongly believe in and have seen time and time again how this process helps achieve awesome results.
Stay in Touch
Keep in touch with us socially on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and subscribe to our Newsletter to stay up to date with all the latest news and trends in Search Engine Optimisation and the Digital Industry.
Looking to find out more sooner? Then get in touch to see how we can help grow your business online.
Well Tuesday was a fun evening watching someone relentlessly try and hack into the blog. Thankfully, they didn’t get in. Seriously though – why? Go & waste your time somewhere else instead of trying to actively cause harm. Anyway, I thought it was worth covering what this looks like on a WordPress blog and how it could quite easily have turned into a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) due to the way it was being done. And I guess the most important bit, how you can prevent this type of attack on your WordPress blog with the help of a simple plugin, which thankfully I had installed already.
The Cool DDoS Hacking Attack Visualisation
While I’m sure all of the information in this post will be useful, by far the coolest bit is the fancy visualisation that I was able to create with some handy software. Feast your eyes on this;
The above video shows the attack trying different passwords/usernames on wp-login.php by attempting to force access by guessing the password. The video is just a small snapshot of the attack which was happening for almost 9 hours on and off, I guess someone had the afternoon off work then…
The Data
Being a bit of a data geek, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to dig into this a little deeper. Below shows the number of requests per minute between the time the attacks started to when they finally gave up.
(click for larger graphic)
While these figures aren’t enormous, when the blog isn’t on enterprise class hosting this can slow the website down and more than anything it is just a bit annoying.
Why A DDoS?
Why is this attack different than someone just simply attempting to guess a password? Well, this person is clearly well equipped with a bag full of IP addresses. I’ll explain about how to prevent your WordPress blog being hacked via this method a little later, but what I can say that if it wasn’t for the plugin that was installed, this could have been a lot worse.
Another beautiful graph showing the number of attacks per IP address (this is only a selection);
(click for larger graphic)
I’ve not posted the IP addresses fully as, unlike the people doing this, this isn’t right as they could be hacked computers where these requests were coming from. In total there was 268 IP addresses used during the attack, which is quite considerable! The average number of attacks per IP address was at 12.38, which was no doubt limited by the plugin that was installed to stop people attempting this type of hacking attempt.
How to Prevent a DDoS Hacking Attack on Your WordPress Blog
Do you have a WordPress blog? Then I seriously suggest installing a plugin called “Limit Login Attempts”. What this plugin does is, well exactly as you an imagine, it limits the login attempts based on the users IP address. If someone guesses your login details incorrectly for 2, 4, 8, 12, whatever, number of times then the IP address will be blocked for a set period of time. This type of plugin can further block IP addresses longer term, all automatically, if the same IP address keeps coming back and trying again.
Had this plugin not been installed, I can’t imagine how many requests all 268 IP addresses would have tried during this period. While this was an interesting experience and has produced a cracking visualisation, I hope it doesn’t happen again either to me or anyone else.
At the beginng of 2012 I made some quite accurate SEO predictions so I thought I’d have another go this year and see how accurate they are again at the end of the year. Here are a few predictions that I think/hope will happen at some point in 2013.
1. Restricted API Access
On a couple of occasions in 2012 there has been issues with API access for some large services which have put pressure on businesses to make changes if using these services. The main ones include the Twitter API where their terms of service changed back in August 2012 to make it more restrictive for people using the service.
Another change was how Google cracked down on the usage of the AdWords API by revoking SEOmoz’s access in November andthreatening removing AdWords API access for Raven Tools if they didn’t remove their scraped rankings data.
API access with any service makes it extremely easy to utilise their data by creating more integrated products, services and data intelligence systems. I predict that in 2013 we are going to see a lot more API access restricted throughout 2013 as more people begin to take advantage of this technology, with Google specifically having a large list of APIs they offer.
2. Cross-Device Tracking Becomes a Reality
2012 has been the year where more people are using multiple devices during their purchasing process than ever before. Tracking this behavior is extremely difficult to do accurately due to the technologies all being cookie based for users who aren’t logged in to your website. Access by multiple devices then, in terms of analytics tracking, you are classed as two separate users with no connection at all.
What I would love to see in 2013 is for someone to come up with a solution to this issue and for it to be possible to track across multiple devices during the purchasing funnel. This would enable marketers to fully understand how customers behave and provide data to backup why people need a mobile website, why responsive design is important, how and when people convert, what the assisted conversions are, and all of the other interesting metrics that come along with this type of tracking.
With more and more people being continually logged into Google and Facebook while browsing the web maybe there is a solution to this here to at least provide some useful data across devices. While this is certainly not perfect (and I doubt that any system would ever be!) this could be an interesting step towards understanding the multiple-device purchasing process.
I think this prediction is unlikely to come true, it is more of a ‘fingers crossed’ wish instead!
3. Big Businesses Gain a Deeper Understanding of SEO
Often larger organisations don’t fully understand the bigger picture with SEO. It is often seen as something that is either a one off piece of work or something that you can simply bolt on to projects/websites. A bit like magic really.
With updates like Pengiun and Panda forcing SEOs to look towards the higher quality side of SEO I predict that this will in turn translate into bigger businesses gaining a much deeper understanding of what is involved with SEO. And this is only a good thing.
The better larger organisations understand SEO the more it can be integrated throughout their whole processes to get the best results possible.
4. Google Launches an Integrated Travel Product
With the speed that Google is moving in the travel space I predict that they will launch an integrated travel product which joins up all of their products/services that they have launched over the past couple of years.
Initially it started with purchasing several key businesses in the travel space. This was then used as the basis for creating their own travel products (which were pushed to the top of the SERPs!). The next logical step is to integrate these into something much more useful and that spans across the whole process of booking a holiday or a hotel.
Currently Google have;
Google Hotel Finder (which contain Google Reviews, Maps, Photos, Videos and Streetview inside the hotel itself)
I would be extremely surprised if something like this didn’t launch in 2013. Whatever they launch, I predict that it will be a cross platform device with some kind of social element integrated throughout (Google+ of course!)
Here is what it could look like (okay, I may have gone a little overboard with the ‘book’ buttons…)
5. Google+
I predict that Google announces further spurious statistics about the failing social media platform, Google+. A while back when I attended theGoogle@Manchester Event they mentioned that;
“Google+ as a social network has a total of 400 million users with 100 million of these being active every month.”
According to Wikipedia (so it must be true…) Google has 53,546 employees which would certainly account for around 0.053% of that user base (if my math is correct!). Not quite sure who the rest are though…. For pure amusement and pointless-ness sake, I am going tomake up estimate that each Google employee has convinced 10 of their family/friends to use the social network, of which they have then convinced 2 of their friends to do the same which gives….
53,546 Google employees have convinced
535,460 of their friends/family to join Google+ who have then convinced a further
1,070,920 people to give it a go too.
This leaves us with a total of, 53,546 + 535,460 + 1,070,920 people who are (in some way) related to Google employees which gives us 1,659,926 people who are using Google+ each month – or 1.65% of the user baseare Google ‘related’
As you can see…these figures are based on extremely scientific and accurate data sources so cannot be questioned in any way I also imagine that Google came to those figure it announced in a similar scientific way as well..
6. Forget ‘Big Data’, Businesses Begin to Understand ‘Small Data’
‘Big Data’ – one of the phrases being thrown around throughout 2012. I love data, I am a total geek and love spreadsheets but what I have found is that most businesses struggle to understand small data, let along big data (i.e. think Tesco’s data warehouses for their Clubcard).
I predict that in 2013 businesses are going to get a better understanding of the ‘small data’ that is already available to them and about how this can inform business decisions. There is always so much information available within the data when you are asking ‘it’ (the data) the right questions.
7. Google Jobs Launches
One vertical that Google has left largely untouched so far is the Jobs market. This is a place that is rife with aggregators and, to be fair, a lot of spammy and low quality websites (don’t get me wrong – they aren’t all like that – but there is a lot of junk out there..). This could be an area where Google launch a new Scheme.org/Rich Snippet markup to help Google better understand the jobs that are available.
The next step generally after this happens is that Google create their own vertical to compete against the people who have just handed them the structured data on a plate. While I think Travel and Social are areas that Google is more interested in at present, I wouldn’t be surprised if they begin making moves in this area.
8. Integrated SEO
As I mentioned a little earlier in the prediction for how big business will gain a deeper understanding of SEO, this one follows on from this in the sense that as a greater understanding comes the more integrated SEO becomes throughout the whole organisation. From integrating TV campaigns online, integrating social with other areas of the marketing work and working closer with the PR teams.
I predict that we are going to see much more integrated SEO throughout 2013.
9. Google Monetises More Previously-Free Services
Google currently has a large list of their APIs that are available for people to use. This list has shrunk significantly over the past couple of years which has been due to Google deprecating those APIs or starting to monetise them as they have done with the Google Maps API.
I predict that in 2013 we are going to see Google looking to monetise more of their previously free APIs. It is difficult to say which these could be but some of the more prominent ones could be the YouTube API, Google Webmaster Tools API (this would be a contender after threatening persuading companies such as Raven Tools andSEOmoz to remove scraped data. I imagine next they will be informing them that they can pay to use the rankings data within the Google Webmaster Tools API!).
10. Bing Integrates Search into Other Products
Bing is still one to watch. Last year I predicted that they would gain search engine market share and they did by a small amount. I predict that Bing (or Microsoft specifically) will being to be integrated more and more into other products such as the Xbox and other Windows based devices such as mobile, Surface and other tablets.
Bing has created strategic partnerships with Facebook in the past and to grow further I believe this will be key for them. If Facebook launch their own search platform though, I reserve the right to scrap this prediction all together as this will have a reasonable impact on Bings market share
11. SEO Role Expands
In the past the SEO role can often be quite isolated and looking at things from an SEO point. With Google updates making old skool SEO much harder to game I predict that the role of an SEO will expand further. While I can’t imagine the role will by hands on in the new areas, I believe the additional responsibilities will be to gain deeper understanding of different business areas which will help the SEO team integrate better within an organisation.
These additional understandings could include PPC, Email and Offline Advertising. This can only be a good thing as a better understanding helps people to think more creatively about how to get the best results possible.
12. Businesses Test AdWords for Non-Commercial Keywords
While not traditionally SEO, but according to the above prediction it could well become a bigger part of the role, I predict that in 2013 Google is going to be pushing people to bid on non-commercial keywords within Google AdWords.
Why? Because it is an additional revenue stream for Google that is largely untapped, with the exception of the Google Grants for non-profit organisations. This will likely be pushed more as multi-touch point analysis becomes easier to track. Imagine if you placed an advert for the keyword “Best places to visit in Bangkok” and landed the person on a travel guide style piece of content. Then if you are also advertising for things such as “Bangkok Hotels” then is this user more likely to purchase the product with you as they have come across your brand before? Or not?
The cost per click for commercial keywords is always growing as more people start to bid on them, so I predict that we are going to see more people testing this type of advertising to generate a higher return on investment.
13. Links Become Even Harder to Game
While Google has been making a lot of changes in relation to links over the past 12 months, I predict we are going to see an even greater change for links throughout 2013. Matt Cutts has already mentioned about how Google ‘may’ target infographic websites as these aren’t really endorsements for your website. While I disagree with this for high quality infographic websites, I can understand where he is coming from as there are a lot of junky infographic websites out there.
Google has also mentioned about how guest blogging trend hasn’t been the highest quality in the past and has been done more for the link value than anything else. With working in SEO you certainly come across enough websites while trawling the web to fully understand what he means. I predict that we are going to see a lot less value passed from these types of websites in the future as often they are a bunch of niche websites owned by the same person who is charging for posting. Ultimately, this is just a glorified link wheel with content and no real added value to anyone.
Overall in relation to links I predict that Google is going to crack down on medium quality links and really push people to think about real world and valuable links.
14. Google’s Pet Panda Goes to Sleep….for a while
I predict that in 2013 Google Panda will become a thing of the past, everyone who has been hit has been hit already for low quality content. Instead this algorithm update will simply be incorporated into the normal search engine algorithm. While I don’t think this is the last we will see with Google targeting low quality content, it will be less prominent throughout 2013.
Who knows what the next big algorithm update will be called, I’m going to hedge my bets on…..The Google Puffin Update. (Black & White = Check. Animal = Check. Begins with P = Check.)
15. Delayed SEO Becomes a Reality
Back in August Bill Slawski did a post about ‘Transition Rank‘ which is a new patent owned by Google which is about delaying the algorithm to make it harder to understand what is happening. I predict that in 2013 Google will announce the implementation of their ‘delayed response’ algorithm that they applied for a patent with earlier in the year.
This will make it much harder to track direct results from specific pieces of work that has been undertaken. This type of change could also contribute towards the SEO role becoming more diverse as it turns more into a marketing role.
16. Web Analytics Tools Become Even More Inaccurate
I predict that in 2013 we are going to witness analytical blindness as (not provided) reaches insane levels. Analytical blindness, not in the sense that there is too much data, but in the sense that there simply isn’t anything we can see there! Some reports are showing (not provided) data anywhere from 40% to 60% of traffic. I know on my blog the levels are currently at around, 60% of organic traffic is (not provided) and while this is going to be higher based on the content of the blog, but it is a signal to where things are heading for everyone.
In addition to Google’s (not provided) data scandal, there are also issues with iOS6 users on the iPhone with their data being automatically encrypted which means…..you guessed it….more (not provided) data.
Tracking results accurately is becoming a joke and being made harder and harder. I predict that in 2013 things are only going to get more difficult.
17. Increased Focus For User Generated Content
I predict that in 2013 user generated content will become a priority as brands struggle to keep up with the requirements for on-going high quality unique and relevant content needed to help sustain rankings. It is clear that several top brands are starting to understand this and have begun engaging a lot more with their customers in better ways than just having a conversation over social media, instead people are starting to use those brand advocates in a way to generate content for them – usually after some kind of incentive.
User generated content can be such a powerful thing when there is simply too much information for one team of people to write about. Content creation is a large resource which is extremely important to have and if you can use your audience as an addition to this work then it is a winning combination. I predict that we are doing to see an increase in this type of content creation through 2013.
Happy 2013 Everyone!
2 thoughts on “17 Of My 2013 SEO Predictions”
Some Great Predictions, many of which are already turning into reality, For example the Delayed ranking algorithm is already being witnessed. The predictions for Unified Google Travel Products might or might not become a reality as then it will highly devalue the search neutrality of Google. Though Google Jobs might be a reality, but we have not seen even a slight bit of indications on this. The most interesting part of your article is the insistence of small data which i interpret as analyzing already available data at micro level or user life cycle level.
Thanks for the comments. For your comment about the ‘small data’ trend, yes this is all about getting people to analyse the data that is already available to people.
As a simple example, within Google Analytics it is possible to segment brand and non-brand traffic. From this you can then identify the differences in conversion rate and ultimately the revenue/profit this generates. Then it would be possible to see if there are any marketing campaigns that could ultimately make pay for their self, such as, “if we can convert 10 people into liking our brand and drive traffic to our website, then they are going to convert at y% more, which means that we would make £z in revenue/profit – hey, that is more than the cost of the campaign!”
It is really simple stuff to do and in my experience it is just something that isn’t often looked at to help with the decision making processes
Back at the start of 2012 I predicted 13 things that would happen in the world of SEO over the next 12 months, looking back on these let’s see how many of these came true.
1. Social Signals Gain Importance
Back in 2011 when Eric Schmidt announced that “The social signal, the people you ‘hang with’ is actually a ranking signal” but has this actually manifested itself into anything with a little more value throughout 2012?
Well I’m not too sure. While there has been tests undertaken to see how well social signals correlate to high rankings, this is certainly not conclusive or likely to be the cause of the high rankings alone.
Then during Matt Cutt’s keynote at SMX Advanced in 2012, he said that while social signals are important they are still nowhere near as important as links. Watch the full video below for what Matt Cutts has to say about social signals compared to links.
So all in all, I don’t think that the social signals have really increased that much in importance throughout 2012 purely for their standard SEO benefit.
That said, in my opinion, I believe that social signals are an extremely important factor for long term success for the simple reason that the more social mentions and shares that you get then the more real people are being exposed to your brand online and this can only be a good thing as these are the type of people who are going to be linking to your website on from their blogs and other communities they take part in online.
2. High Quality Content is Imperative for SEO Success
I think this goes without saying that this is one of the areas that has grown the most throughout 2012 within the SEO community. With further roll outs of the Panda update throughout the year to an almost monthly update then high quality content cannot be more important.
There have even been company specifically re-branding theirself as content marketing companies opposed to traditional SEO companies. Companies such as Blue Glass UK after they acquired Kev Gibbonscompany Quatro in November 2012.
I have seen first hand on many occasions how important quality content is for increasing rankings for both non-competitive and competitive keywords. Write content –> let Google index the new content –> see increased rankings as a result.
John Doherty did a post a post back in October 2012 on SEOmoz which looked at what type of content gets links in 2012 in which one of the interesting pieces of correlated data was that the longer the content, the more links were generated. While this isn’t a specific guide to say that longer content will always generate more links, but it is an interesting correlation non the less.
3. Rich Media Becomes More Important
This one kind of follows on from the previous mention about high quality content, as high quality content to me is going beyond the traditional couple of hundred words on a page to explain the topic. Instead it is about creating high quality content in whatever format is best to get the message or information across to the user.
Another interesting piece of data within the post what type of content gets links in 2012 was that posts with images generate more linking root domains compared to those without. The graph of this data is shown below;
So overall I would say that rich media has become a lot more important throughout 2012 than it has been in the past. More people are producing a wider range of content with Infographics becoming a favourite in the SEO world. While Matt Cutts has announced that;
“I would not be surprised if at some point in the future we did not start to discount these infographic-type links to a degree. The link is often embedded in the infographic in a way that people don’t realize, vs. a true endorsement of your site.”
Personally, I believe this was just a bit of a bluff. People love infographics and they communicate data in a way that is very easy to digest and understand. So while there may be some tweaks into targeting lower quality infographics in the future, this is not specific to infographics but more in line with targeting lower quality content overall. What I took from Matt’s statement was that you shouldn’t be producing low quality infographics purely for links but you should be producing high quality ones because they are genuinely useful for people.
4. Google Providing Answers Directly Within Search Results
Well…where to even begin with this one. There has been so many changes within the search results with Google directly answering questions that there is quite a bit to cover here!
Back in June 2012 Google launched Knowledge Graph to the world which started to answer questions directly within the search results for anenormous amount of queries which ultimately lead to less traffic being received for the websites where this information was scraped.
Since then there has been more and more of this type of content showing up directly within the search results including when you search for “things to do in Paris” which shows a huge list of different points of interest in Paris;
I would hate to think how much of an impact this has had for companies such as Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor as they are some good sources of this type of information, but I imagine they are getting much less traffic now these types of queries are being answered directly within the search results.
Here is another example of this huge bar when searching for “Bruce Willis Films”;
I’m guessing IMDB has had a bit of a hammering from the loss in traffic from this too.
This has been such a huge change within the search results for 2012 I dread to think of the impact this has had on some of these businesses. If anyone has any statistics about websites where their traffic has been hit hard from these introductions then let me know as it would be great to see some actual numbers.
5. Google Gets Slap On Wrist
Finally….finally…well almost. Lots and lots of things happening in this space with Google being sued for countless different issues around the globe. Just to name a few but Google are being investigated for their tax avoidance schemes they have set up and actually appeared in front of the Public Accounts Committee in November (which was a rather amusing viewing if you saw it!).
Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land also wrote a letter to the FTCabout how search engines need to disclose more in relation to paid inclusion although nothing has been received back unfortunately.
And lets not forget about Barry Adams’ amusingly titled Google’s 2012 Clusterfuck Countdown which lists a huge amount of issues where Google is simply being held accountable for different things and generally messing up with things they are doing.
6. Mobile SEO Gains Traction
At the start of the year I predicted that Google would announce some kind of meta tag that would help them understand what the mobile version of a website is and what is the equivalent version on the desktop websites.
And I couldn’t have been more spot on with this. In June 2012 Google announced exactly this information which is outlined in their official mobile website guidelines.
Google recommends;
When building a website that targets smartphones, Google supports three different configurations:
Sites that use responsive web design, i.e. sites that serve all devices on the same set of URLs, with each URL serving the same HTML to all devices and using just CSS to change how the page is rendered on the device. This is Google’s recommended configuration.
Sites that dynamically serve all devices on the same set of URLs, but each URL serves different HTML (and CSS) depending on whether the user agent is a desktop or a mobile device.
Sites that have a separate mobile and desktop sites.
This is a really good improvement that Google have made as it ensures there are no duplicate content issues when displaying different content to people on different devices along with removing the potential for penalties when re-directing users based on the ‘User-Agent’ in the header.
7. Less Importance on Number of Back Links
Need I say anything more than the word, Penguin? Back in April 2012 Google let another one of their black and white animals out of the bag with the Penguin update.
The quantity and quality of backlinks used to be extremely important, and while they are still and extremely important area to focus on it needs to be treated carefully. With the Penguin update actively penalising websites with a high quantity of low quality backlinks then we need to ensure that the links being built are good quality to avoid being placed into this category.
Previously low quality backlinks simply didn’t pass much/any value at all but this update followed by Google announcing that they are sending out warnings to webmasters which state they have got lots of low quality links pointing at their website and they need to do something which isinsane.
After which Google then announced a Disavow tool in October 2012 which is even more ludicrous as it expects webmasters to do Google’s job for them. Absolute non-sense.
8. Only Google Reviews Are Used
No surprise again here with Google deciding to screw over everyone else who previously provided reviews to their products. Instead now Google have built up enough of their own reviews of their own to not have to worry about external reviews. In additional to this Google purchased Zagat back in September 2011 and have begun to integrate these reviews into Google’s services as well now.
Then below shows a screenshot of how Google’s own reviews and their Zagat reviews on the Places pages;
The only place where it appears that external reviews are even being mentioned at the moment (specifically for a couple of hotel searches) is right at the bottom of the Places page (below both Google’s own reviews and the Zagat reviews) which shows;
The same is happening when reviews are included within the Knowledge Graph when that appears for different searches. Whereby there are only Zagat reviews and Google owned reviews which are being displayed.
Honestly though, this should come as no surprise as this is what Google do when rolling out all of their own products and services, they utilise key partners initially until they can build up enough of their own properties first then simply get rid of the people they were previously working with.
9. Bing Gains Market Share
Back at the start of 2012 I predicted that Bing’s search engine market share would grow to around 20% and while it has grown this year it hasn’t quite grown by that amount. Below is the search engine market share data for the past three years sourced from ComScore;
As you can see in the above chart, Bing’s market share has actually been steadily increasing over the past few years which is always a good sign in my opinion as it brings a bit more competition to the search engine scene. Google is still massively ahead of the rest though and will continue to be in this position for quite some time.
Below is a pie chart for the search engine market share in October 2012 which shows Bing as 16% of the search engine market. Which is actually still a very good increase for Bing as previously they were at 15% of the market. So at least they are growing;
During 2012 Bing also launched a campaign targeted at Google called,Scroogled which was a nice way to make people realise that there are other alternatives to Google. Hopefully we will see more of these campaigns from Bing in 2013.
10. Google Gets More Personal
It was looking like there was going to be a lot more personalisation happening throughout 2012 and there has certainly been more updates of the authorship algorithm which allows more people to get their photo listed within the search results next to their own content.
There has been Search Plus Your World launched in January 2012 which has received a lot of criticism since launching but it emphasises how Google is really pushing the personalised search with linking it up with their Google+ social network which is going to be a massive focus in 2013.
11. The Death of SEO
12. Authorship Becomes Essential For Content
With authorship being pushed quite a bit by Google as it links in with Google+ this has certainly become a more important area to focus on simply because with the added image listed within the SERPs this helps drive additional organic traffic through to your website.
The markup hasn’t become essential though for content writers, while it is certainly an area that a lot of people are focusing on it isn’t essential. Currently there doesn’t appear to be any evidence to suggest that if a piece of content is written by an influential person on a non-influential website that this ‘Person Rank’ is passing any additional value or trust towards that website.
Maybe Google will announce something like this next year possibly, but for 2012 while authorship is important to help you stand out in the search results it doesn’t appear to be doing anything more than that at present.
13. Twitter Launches Analytics Platform
Well…it was a bit of wishful thinking Maybe next year!
Summary
Overall though I think some of the predictions I made at the beginning of the year were actually quite accurate;
Social Signals Gain Importance: Certainly still important but haven’t quite had the direct impact that was predicted
High Quality Content is Imperative for SEO Success: More Panda updates, traditional SEO companies re-branding theirself as content marketing agencies and evidence to suggest that longer content generates more links
Rich Media Becomes More Important: Certainly more people focusing on richer content and I can see this being the trend for the longer term
Google Providing Answers Directly Within Search Results: An unbelievable amount of changes in this area
Google Gets Slap On Wrist: Multiple slaps on the wrist
Mobile SEO Gains Traction: Some nice changes to avoid duplicate content and potential penalties for redirects
Less Importance on Number of Back Links: Penguin
Only Google Reviews Are Used: Only Google’s own reviews and Zagat reviews being used now
Bing Gains Market Share: By 1% point, not quite the 5% points predicted but it still gained
Google Gets More Personal: Search Plus Your World
The Death of SEO:
Authorship Becomes Essential For Content: Certainly not essential but it can help stand out in the search results
Twitter Launches Analytics Platform: We can only hope this will come next year!
Out of the 13 SEO predictions for 2012 I am quite happy with the fact that 9 of these have come true. Now time to have a think about what could happen in 2013…
2 thoughts on “How Accurate Were My 2012 SEO Predictions?”
Thanks for the shout out, Mick. 9 out of 12 is a pretty good hit rate (I’m deliberately discounting prediction 11 :)). Statistically you’ve beaten pretty much every other set of predictions out there, including many by professional ‘futurists.’
Often when analysing backlinks it is important to de-duplicate rows and rows of data into some kind of useful list of domains that you can work with. Often this can be quite a tiresome tasks but with a few Excel formulas it is possible to get the domain name from a long URL.
If you are just looking for the quick answer on how to get the domain name from a cell that contains a URL in Excel then it is;
=MID(A1, FIND(“//”, A1)+2, FIND(“/”, A1, 10)-8)
=MID({CELL OF FULL URL}, FIND(“//”, {CELL OF FULL URL})+2, FIND(“/”, {CELL OF FULL URL}, 10)-8)
If you are looking for a bit more of an understanding then read on a little further…
Explanation of Excel Formula
Lets break down the formula into the key components the finally join them all together into the full formula.
MID(A1, … , … )
The MID formula in Excel is translated as =MID(text, start_number, number_of_characters) and is designed to create a sub-string of the original string. This can be very handy if you know exactly what position you want to start at and how many characters you want to put into the sub-string, although domain names are different lengths which doesn’t help much for doing this on scale.
If we use the previous blog post as an example to illustrate this then we could use the formula =MID(A1, 8, 24);
While this is great if wanting to get the domain name from lots of URLs on the same domain (although alternatively you could just type the domain out on your keyboard….) – this formula falls short when you are trying to get the domain name from different URLs from different domains as shown below;
Half of the domain name is missing…Not very useful…
Fortunately we can group this together with other formulas to figure out where the start position should be and how many characters should be included within the sub-string.
FIND(“//”, A1)+2
The next bit to the formula is figuring out where to start the sub-string. To do this we use the FIND function which as you may have guessed….finds something. So if we take the example FIND(“//”, A1)then what this formula is doing is finding the first occurrence of the text// within cell A1 – in this case, it is finding where the http:// bit ends. Why add 2? Because the FIND function in Excel identifies the starting point opposed to the end point as in the example below;
The 6th character in the domain name in the example above is the first forward slash. So if we used that in combination with the MID formula then we would end up with something like//www.michaelcropper.co.uk being returned which contains the leading slash which isn’t correct. So if we add 2 (as in two characters to the right) then the returned result ends up beingwww.michaelcropper.co.uk instead which is what we are looking for.
FIND(“/”, A1, 10)-8
The next bit is figuring out the number of characters that should be used in the sub-string. This is using the same FIND function as in the previous step but using an additional argument within the formula (the 10). The FIND function within Excel works as follows: =FIND(sub-string, string, optional_start_position). So in this example, the 10 represents where the FIND function should begin looking for the first instance of the forward slash.
Since you cannot have a forward slash in the domain name itself and the two initial forward slashes within the http:// are at a maximum position of 8 characters along, then the first forward slash after this point has to be the end of the domain name and the start of the URI.
Why -8 characters? Because the full length of http:// is 8 characters and I am not that interested in that for this purpose so I get rid of it. If you want to keep this in then just remove the -8 bit of the formula.
Joining it all together
So while the initial formula may seem a little daunting at first, when you break it down into its smaller components it is not too difficult to figure out what is going on. If you want to think of the full function as a sentence it can be described as;
=MID(A1, FIND(“//”, A1)+2, FIND(“/”, A1, 10)-8)
Get me the domain name from the full URL which is contained within cell A1. Start the sub-string after the first occurrence of two forward slashes together and end the sub-string at the first occurrence of a forward slash after the first 10 characters.
Real world example
An example of how this can be used is with competitor backlink analysis to quickly identify all of the unique domains that are linking to your competitors websites but not your own. There will be a blog post to follow on this as it is a little more in-depth for what this post is looking at, but the Excel functions described here about how to get the domain name from a full URL can certainly help speed up that process massively.
XPathOnURL is an amazing function within the amazing SEO Tools plugin for Excel that can scrape specific pieces of content that you need when entering in a URL and the XPath of the content that you want to retrieve. This post isn’t going to be a quite to XPathOnURL, nor is it going to be a guide to XPath – instead what it is looking at is a way to retrieve multiple pieces of data when using XPathOnURL. If you are interested in playing around with XPath then download the XPath Helper plugin for Google Chrome that will help you get the XPath of the items you want to scrape.
By default the XPathOnURL function within the SEO Tools plugin only brings back the first occurrence of the item within the DOM (Document Object Model – i.e the HTML of the page..). As an example lets take my blogroll;
When using the XPath Helper plugin for Google Chrome, and tweaking the XPath a little to get what I need, you can see that the XPath present is showing that there are four links present within the blogroll;
All sounds good right. Well not quite, since when you copy this XPath into the XPathOnURL formula as part of SEO Tools then you will only get back the first URL instead of all four of them. Note, you cannot simply copy the exact XPath as shown in the screenshot above since you need to do something slightly different to scrape the HREF attribute using XPathOnURL – luckily I wrote a blog post just about that a while ago!
For the purpose of this blog post, I will use the XPath version for use with XPathOnURL without further explanation about that – read the previous blog post if this doesn’t make sense.
Anyways, back to the point. So when trying to scrape all four of the blogroll links using XPathOnURL you would think it would be as simple as entering the correct formula right? Unfortunately not. Blow is what happens when you try and do this;
While it is useful to get something back, it isn’t quite what I wanted. Instead I wanted all of the links to come back with this query which is more useful than just the first one. Depending on what you are scraping this can be a bit of a pain if there are quite a few pieces of content you want to scrape.
Luckily there is another function within SEO Tools for Excel which is the StringJoin(“,”, “……”) function (information) which helpfully joins together data and separates them by whatever you want – in this case, I have chosen a comma to separate the results by.
How this function can be used in conjunction with XPathOnURL is that you simple wrap it around the previous formula shown above and tell Excel to separate the results using a comma as seen in the example below;
This is a little more useful! So now we have all of the scraped data that we need. From here you can easily count the number of occurrences of a comma in the cell which will tell you how many pieces of data you have scraped. Or alternatively you could use the handy text to columns tool that is built into Excel by default to split out the data into separate columns (if you would prefer it in Rows instead then use the Transposetool)
On a small scale like this it is easy enough to do this manually. But recently I had need to do this for around 500 URLs each with an unknown amount of ‘bits’ on that I needed to count. Life is too short to be doing that kind of stuff manually so found a nice quick way of doing this using a few formulas and a bit of Excel magic. It turned out that the results were over 6500 ‘bits’ which would have taken me an awful long time to count manually!
So hopefully this formula can help save you some time when trying to return multiple nodes using XPathOnURL.
As a final note, as I was writing this post on another computer (and creating the formulas and screenshots for this post etc.), I noticed that the latest version of SEO Tools for Excel actually does this out of the box automatically. So if you don’t want to be doing all of this work manually then maybe it is just easier to upgrade to the latest version of the plugin Below is what it looks like when using the latest version with all of the pieces of data you have scraped separated by a semi-colon ;
Thought I would carry on writing the post anyway as it would have saved me a bit of time earlier if I came across this post as I didn’t realise I wasn’t running the latest version!
I also imagine that Google came to those figure it announced in a similar scientific way as well..
Some Great Predictions, many of which are already turning into reality, For example the Delayed ranking algorithm is already being witnessed. The predictions for Unified Google Travel Products might or might not become a reality as then it will highly devalue the search neutrality of Google. Though Google Jobs might be a reality, but we have not seen even a slight bit of indications on this. The most interesting part of your article is the insistence of small data which i interpret as analyzing already available data at micro level or user life cycle level.
Hi Ved,
Thanks for the comments. For your comment about the ‘small data’ trend, yes this is all about getting people to analyse the data that is already available to people.
As a simple example, within Google Analytics it is possible to segment brand and non-brand traffic. From this you can then identify the differences in conversion rate and ultimately the revenue/profit this generates. Then it would be possible to see if there are any marketing campaigns that could ultimately make pay for their self, such as, “if we can convert 10 people into liking our brand and drive traffic to our website, then they are going to convert at y% more, which means that we would make £z in revenue/profit – hey, that is more than the cost of the campaign!”
It is really simple stuff to do and in my experience it is just something that isn’t often looked at to help with the decision making processes