Greenlight's Search Blog

The History and Evolution of Paid Search

The History and Evolution of Paid Search

Paid Search has come a long way since its “official” inauguration back in 1996. Of course, paid search has presented itself in various formats since then and many providers have come, gone, purchased one another, and rebranded.

At Greenlight we strive to be the best at delivering paid search campaigns; we also take a pride in knowing and researching how the discipline has evolved over time.  Has Google always had the greater market share?  How has Quality Score evolved?  Who was the first to offer paid inclusion? These are all questions that we often get asked and hopefully will address in the three page summary below.

In researching this topic we came across a number of sources that also looked at the history of PPC, however most appeared to focus purely on Google, or on a limited date range. Our History of PPC attempts to identify all the key events and dates between 1996 and 2009.

 

We’ve also included a chart illustrating the main factors that Google include to determine how the advertisers’ ad will be positioned and then later how each factor influences the Google Quality Score.  

The factors plotted on the graphs are as follows:

Landing Page Relevancy - Refers to how relevant Google perceives the relationship between the keyword the user searches for and the landing page they land on once they have clicked on your sponsored listing.

CPM (Cost per Mile) - Some advertising formats still use CPM as a metric for charging advertisers. Essentially it refers to the cost per 1000 impressions. So regardless of the number of clicks the advertiser receives, they will have to pay for the number of times their ad is served / displayed.

CTR (Click through rate) - This is calculated by dividing the number of clicks received by the number of impressions served. A high CTR can be a indication of ad relevancy.

CPC (Cost per Click) - Refers to the price that an advertiser has to pay for each click they receive following a users search.

Account History - The account history of your campaigns is a combination of the clicks, costs, CTR’s and all other performance factors’ relating to your account from the current date to the date the account was created on Google Adwords.

Landing Page Load-time - This refers to the time it takes for the web page to load following a click on a paid search advert.

Other Relevancy Factors - There are other relevancy factors on top of Landing Page Relevancy that impacts an advertiser’s Quality Score. These include Ad relevancy, keyword relevancy and domain relevancy.

References

While researching the History of PPC we came across a number of articles that helped to establish accurate dates and events onto the timeline. There are far too many to list them individually, however here are a few that have been particularly insightful.

-           Google Corporate Milestones page

-           Google Adwords Blog

-           Danny Sullivan and Josh Dreller at Searh Engine Land

-           Daniel C. Fain and Jan O. Pedersen - Sponsored Search; a brief history

-           Steve Baker - History of Adwords

-           Aaron Wall - A comprehensive report about search engines history

The need...for speed

Last month Greenlight revealed that 4% of the UK’s most popular commercial websites had page load speeds slower than the acceptable threshold set by Google¹, beyond which the advertiser may see increased click costs. Here are our top 5 methods for speeding you up.

 1.     Utilise content distribution

Much of your page load speed is related to the proximity of your content delivery system to your end users. The most common method of dealing with this inherent problem with proximity is by distributing your content across multiple geographical locations, creating what is known as a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A server in this network is selected to deliver the content based on its proximity to the requesting client, most commonly based on the number of hops away.

Creating your own CDN is typically only possible for large companies. However, smaller companies can use a CDN supplier, such as Limelight Networks or Akamai Technologies.

2.     Reduce the number of HTTP requests

The vast majority of a page’s download time is spent on rendering the front-end. Each front-end component is typically the end result of an http request for it. Reducing the quantity of these requests therefore reduces your total page load speed. Some of the best ways of achieving this are actually incredibly simple and should be considered best practise for your web development team. For example, combining all your CSS code into a single CSS file is relatively quick and simple, and can make a huge difference.

3.     Cache-control and expiration headers

You can further reduce the number of http requests made to your server by communicating to the requesting browser that certain components on a page don’t need to be retrieved again for subsequent pages. With static components you can do this by implementing expiration dates for those far into the future, essentially setting those components to never expire. With dynamic components you can utilise an appropriate Cache-Control header to aid the browser with conditional requests.

 

4.     HTTP Compression

 

You can reduce the response times of your pages by compressing the http response using Gzip. About 90% of the world’s internet traffic goes through browsers that support Gzip so this is a significant and cost-effective option.

 

5.     Externalise JavaScript and CSS

 

Rather than use JavaScript and CSS code as it is required on a page, it should all be externalised in shared libraries which reduces the amount of code on the page and also caches that code too, all resulting in faster loading pages.

Finally, you need to keep tabs on your site download speeds and there are a number of tools on the market to do this. Do a search for ‘page speed tools’ for a wide range of options, including off the shelf and open source provisions.

¹ Greenlight Blog,  20, 01, 2010 - 4% of websites have page load speeds detrimental to their search marketing efforts

Integrating Social Media with Paid Search

Social media is user generated content - effectively consumers creating, sharing in two-way discussions about their interests, experiences and frustrations.  Social media advertising plays out almost before the buying cycle where the consumer might be thinking indirectly about a product or brand - and therefore is quite a way off from the consideration or purchase decision.  Social media advertising is incredibly influential and therefore is invaluable before the search journey for assisting in the creation and shaping of a brand. 

Social media for search can play out in three ways, the first ‘sharing the experience’ - whether it be positive or negative.  Very much like brands such as Trip Advisor or Reevoo who provide open consumer feedback and scoring on products and brands.  The second ‘thought of mind placement’ - similar to contextual search, e.g. Google AdSense, display or even offline advertising - mass media advertising but targeted to a particular demographic.  And third ‘integrated social and search strategies’ - actually using the same or similar messaging in copy across both mediums for consistent branding.  Using all of these methods is advisory but analysing the results and the search behavior is pivotal to finding the right customers at the right time.

Social media advertising very similar to display activity has found a companion in search marketing - where the two appear to work hand in hand - allowing seamless messaging across a multitude of channels. 

Social media advertising is massively influential and interactive (real-timein some instances) this also offering an advantage to search marketing through complementing the strategy - especially if integrated well.  It also allows for another but effective outlet to online marketing.  Looking at example of Facebook’s placement targeting - over the last 12 months we have seen an increased investment from advertisers wanting to appear across programme.  The ‘new improved’ demographic breakdown launched in November 2009 - allowing an advertiser to target a specific group of consumers - has actually delivered some very promising results.  While social media advertising has been seen very much as a branding tool - it is positive to note that affordable cost-per-acquisitions can be acquired if used effectively. 

With the introduction of social media and the related advertising, consumers are finding themselves in control of what they see, where and when.  Allowing brands to identify and interact with them.  Such learning’s doesn’t have to be restricted to just search - in fact using the data shared from social media advertising can have an positive influence on other channels such as display or search, especially if testing contextual search whereby you have the option of targeting your audience down to geography and demographic.  

Social media advertising does have its challenges though, the two major ones including tracking performance and controlling the ‘free spirit’ in social media. 

With consumers creating and shaping your brand via social media - an advertiser will need to ensure it’s in control of what is getting out there (buzz monitoring).  Monitoring and taking part in discussions is essential - whether it be blogs, forums.  Ensure your brand has a voice, especially if the subject matter becomes negative.  Ensure you target the correct demographics if using social media for text or image advertising – being in the right neighborhood is key.  Use the results of your advertising to understand more about your consumer, therefore allowing you to get closer and retarget your message if necessary.

Tracking the effectiveness of social media advertising is also critical.  While most outlets will not have a tangible return on investment – understanding the relationship between how social media influences your other channels, for example, Client A (retailer) - initially saw a massive increase in ‘branded search terms’ as a result of advertising banner ads in Facebook’s placement targeting.  Allowing us to quantify the investment and align the two channels into one overall online strategy.  Client A (retailer) also used Facebook’s placement targeting to change the way in which their consumer search - by incorporating their own brand/product terminology, e.g. ‘hair styler’ instead of ‘hair straightener’.   Within weeks of going live with the Facebook’s placement targeting campaign, we saw an increase in searches on the brand/product terminology (‘hair styler) - as fewer competitors were bidding on these keywords, the costs per clicks paid were marginal in comparison - delivering more cost efficiencies .   Client B (international mobile operator) - used Facebook to advertise (again via banner ads) their ‘free SIM’ card products at a very cost effective acquisition, in fact the returns delivered, were to the same value as their Google AdWords programme.  Not only is the performance measured down to placement type, but also cross channel - allowing us to see how Facebook influences their PPC and SEO strategies as well.

All this said, without sufficient tracking in place (3rd party sources only - Facebook for example doesn’t offer any conversion data) advertisers will quickly pull away from the social phenomenon as it may somewhat still feel like an extravagant investment if the return cannot be measured.

Finding efficiencies with integrating Search and Display advertising

 

The phrase “Online marketing prides itself on its tracking efficiencies” is regularly heard in the marketing world. With the dawn of the 2008/09 recession many advertisers curtailed much of their offline budgets in favour of online channels, due to the belief that return on investment (ROI) and other key reporting metrics could be tracked and accounted for more easily and thus allowing profitability to be maintained. Indeed this can be correct if the right tracking is in place, however if online channels aren’t connected this approach may not only inflate sales and ROI, it can also lead to the inefficient allocation of budget, which in the long run will undoubtedly be extremely detrimental to both the online marketing channel and business as a whole.

 

If implemented correctly however, online channels, in particular Search and Display, can drive the customer journey whilst at the same time improving brand awareness. Search as a standalone channel can be great for delivering high ROIs and tight cost-per-acquisitions (CPA), due to its ability to target at a very granular and specific level. However as a branding tool it is not so efficient and depending on the industry, an advertiser’s ability to convert high core generic activity may actually depend on their brand being recognisable outside of the Search environment.

 

The car insurance industry for example has seen great expansion online over the past couple of years. A look at the Search landscape for key generic terms shows that 80%+ of the paid listings are brands that have injected a great deal of budget towards branding both offline and online. It is not a surprise therefore to see the likes of GoCompare, who have managed to instil their brand in the marketplace, in the top paid position on Google for core terms such as “car insurance”.

 

With the GoCompare example in mind, by successfully using branding channels such as Display and TV, the volume of brand searches an advertiser receives on Google and other Search networks can, as a result, benefit. The advertiser’s ability to deliver cheap brand clicks to their site and, depending on the product and site usability, improve conversion rate, will likely increase. Added revenue abound, the advertiser will then have more budget to drive into the core generic terms, further enforcing themselves upon the market and aiding the sales cycle once more.

 

At the start of this I mentioned the ability to track multiple channels effectively. More often than not Display advertising can suffer and indeed struggle to deliver direct CPAs and ROIs that are comparable to Search. It is therefore important to understand the importance and role of Display advertising as well as other offline branding channels. Search can be great at closing sales, however as mentioned previously, the role of the brand in many industries will be key in allowing the Search channel to actually perform in this way. As with all channels the monitoring of Display activity is obviously required in order to ensure that the overall marketing channel is profitable and performing, however advertisers should try to not fall into the trap of scrutinising Display based on the direct sales volume that it delivers. Instead the use of third party tracking tools can help identify user journeys between both media and site activity, allowing blended CPAs and attribution models to be implemented. Most third party tracking providers allow such models to be implemented including Tagman, Doubleclick and Omniture.

 

Integrated tracking between media channels will enable an advertiser to efficiently allocate budget. Duplication has previously been and in many cases still is rife across media channels especially when the channels are managed by separate agencies / departments who use their own tracking tools. Tools such as Tagman have helped tackle the problem of duplication; however they can only truly work when all media channels have been connected into them. This approach also advances the way in which advertisers attribute sales and set targets per channel. The last click model quickly becomes redundant when a centralised tracking tool is completely biased towards one channel. With this in mind it is therefore the role of the online marketer to educate the business on the necessity of other channels. This can be aided by the use of attribution models which distribute sale revenue across the individual media exposures that make up a sale. Due to the possibility to now track by post impression, Display has also sought to shorten the performance gap between Search and itself. Whilst it is important for an online marketing manager to identify realistic cookie lengths so that over-inflated sales aren’t reported from post impression data, it can be used to effectively measure the impact of a Display campaign on the Search channel for example. 

Thinking of going global…multilingual Paid Search.

“Going global is not an act of good will; it is a smart and necessary business strategy. Establishing a global web presence provides one of the most affordable means of tapping into the international marketplace. 

An information-rich, well published web site sells your products and services to potential clients around the world 24/7. In addition, multilingual content optimises the effectiveness of your site by communicating with your customers in their language.” ¹

The potential in the global marketplace is huge, with almost two billion people (1,733, 993, 741) accessing the internet, of which up to 70% will speak a language other than English.  Asia for example, has the biggest internet population with over 738 million internet users.  Research studies prove however, that when a user searches the internet, they are still most comfortable with native search engines.  Although this doesn’t mean to say the big three (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) are struggling to make an impression.

In fact a recent study by Greenlight - ‘How search engine market shares look around the world’ - illustrates that Google has secured more than 50% of the market share across most of Europe and North America.  That said, local engines continue to take the lead in Asia and Eastern Europe.   

For example, 62% of Russia’s internet population prefer and trust Yandex - Russia’s local search engine.  While Google still commands almost 35% in this market, most users will use Google for research but buy in Yandex.  The same occurs in China; Baidu takes almost 52% is prefered  for making purchasing decsions. In addition the recent events where  Google is threatening to pull out of China, could allow  Baidu to pick up the remaining share.  Similar to Russia and China, we found this to be an increasing trend in other countries, including Germany many years ago when gmx.de (a previous local engine) was in operation.

This is further supported by a recent study published by the Center for Retail Research (CRR) - who state that ‘UK shoppers spent more online than anywhere else in Europe during 2009, accounting for almost a third of all European sales, according to new research.  UK consumers spent £38bn online in 2009 or an average of £1,102 per shopper’.  Furthermore, online sales grew by 12% in Britain during 2009 despite the recession - with online purchasing accounting for 9.5% of all retail sales, and showing signs of continued growth into 2010.  The study then goes on to exploring the differences in Europe, confirming that Germans were the second biggest spenders online (spending £29.7bn in 2009) while the French spent £22bn in 2009.  Poland, Finland and Norway didn’t fall too behind in terms of spend - however the difference between the UK and the rest of Europe once again highlights the slow uptake into trusting online from a conversion perspective.  While all of Europe will use search engines to research and compare products and services - added to the fact that, there is growing confidence in online purchasing.  There is still some work to done around gaining trust - before the rest of Europe follows the same trend as the UK market place. 

So you’re thinking of going global and want to understand the best approach to achieving a genuine but also profitable strategy.  The first step begins with research.    

Do your research…

It's essential to have a strong and accurate presence in the global, cultural and multi language online marketplace but that is no simple task!  Almost every territory has its own preferences as already mentioned.  Experience however, has taught us to localise a search strategy - translation simply doesn’t work. 

Localisation is described as the process of creating or adapting a product to a specific locale, i.e. to the language, cultural context, conventions and market requirements of a specific target market.  For many brands approaching this subject it begins with where they feel they should be advertising as opposed to where their users are searching (geographically).  With this in mind do your research.  When building a multilingual strategy start with where your users are coming from, referral data from sources such as Google Analytics or any other analytics tools will report this information.  Your analytics data should provide an insight into achieved volumes, revenue drivers, performing keywords - and how the consumer buying cycle differs from one country to another.  The supporting image below illustrates Greenlight’s approach to researching new markets. 

 
The next step is to map your own brand learnings to understanding the market itself - what do the consumers look like, how do they shop (keywords used, at what times of day/week do they search etc) , what are the trends and preferences?  For example, users in Italy and France  will research heavily online but prefer to buy offline.  As briefly discussed there are trust issues when it comes to buying online, and therefore any investment into search may appear fruitless however there is a direct correlation between increased online activity and offline sales.  Using a client example - a contact lenses retailer - saw that as soon as they included ‘McAfee SECURE’ (Tested Daily) logo on its site, there was an increase in the conversion rates - gaining consumer’s confidence in the security of the site and their transactions.

Looking at the search channels specifically, you will also need to investigate regulation and laws that may affect you.  Over the last three years many local search engines have followed Google in banning gambling advertising across their networks.  Although Google reverted its policy allowing gambling across key countries, many local engines have still prohibited the advertising of gambling since. 

Brand considerations…

Once you’ve identified the best locations (target markets) - can you actually service these new markets properly?  Part of this consideration should also include full localisation of the site - language and dialect.  Furthermore, you will also need to explore options around delivery fulfilment - this should be localised if possible, as overseas delivery can be seen as an obstacle. 

Having a country level domain is also a worthwhile investment.  Going back the previous client example (contact lenses reseller) obtaining a German domain was critical to their multilingual strategy, as the .com domain wasn’t seen as authentic enough.  Brand trust and awareness, and your new competitor market place - is pivotal to any multilingual strategies.  We have seen instances where brands that are well known and hugely successful in the UK, have struggled to make a dent in a new market.  Certainly for countries such as Germany, Italy, China and Russia - consumers are brand focused when it comes to buying online, and therefore will only research but not buy from what is considered a ‘foreign’ brand.          That said these challenges should be viewed as new opportunities, with each new location having its own unique selling points.

Building a campaign strategy…

In spite of the fact that Google has about 55% of the world search traffic, each market has its characteristic issues.  A good localisation strategy is built from the right research and development in order to make sure the process is up to date and sensitive to all changes in the global market.  Each campaign prepared for a given product or brand has to be designed and disseminated very specifically with a tight focus on the targeted territory.

To communicate and sell in foreign audiences and markets you need to speak in their language.  So, although your customers can find your website, they have to understand your products and brands, otherwise they will turn to a locally based competitor.  Therefore when putting together a campaign start the process from the beginning - getting to know your consumer all over again is important to identifying which opportunities are available. 

A local level keyword analysis is essential.  Research the terms used by consumers to search for your products/services and brand(s).  Match types, keyword variations including singulars and plurals, and mis-spellings are all options in each market but will work independently. 

  

Again having that social, cultural and in some cases political awareness can make all the difference.  In addition to the language, think geographically.  In this global multi-lingual landscape, web locale is the combination of language and culture that makes an area unique.  For example:

• Switzerland has three main locales: French, German, and Italian.
• A search for pages in German may bring up results from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
• A search for pages in French may bring up results from France, North Africa and Canada.
• A search for pages in Spanish may bring up results from Mexico, Argentina and Spain...

Many people are bilingual or multilingual, but it is necessary to assign only one language per person in order to have all the language totals add up to the total world population (zero-sum approach).  In these scenarios it may also be a case of adjusting the language to wok better in the different cultural environment.  Using another example, UK English and American English varies quite significantly in how we spell the same words but also how we describe particular products.  The word optimisation would become optimization (spelt with a ‘z’ in the U.S).  Handbag (small bag) would become purse in American English.  Similarly, the term ‘credit card’ is the same as ‘credit cards’ in Japanese - plurals not having the same effect as the English language.  Again these variations just as you would include misspellings, plurals and singulars in a UK English campaign would be vital to adjusting your campaign to the chosen market and its culture.

One other vital point is volumes will fluctuate per country, as the keywords are localised.  With keywords playing a different role in the buying cycle and having different meaning’s - there importance may vary, as will the demand and consequently the associated search volume - again another reason not to translate but to localise.

Following on from the keywords, the messaging (ad copy) must also hit the right mark.  Having cultural knowledge is critical to communicating the right tone of voice.  Again a translation isn’t going to work.  For example the term ‘cheap’ goes a long in the UK market, with many consumers seeing this as a great incentive.  Using the same term in French ‘pas cher’ doesn’t actually work, as translated ‘pas cher’ means ‘not expensive’ and therefore you can see how translating this from English to French would breakdown. 

Last but not least - the usability of your site should also present itself in a local tone.  Again going back to delivery, this should be localised if possible taking away any unnecessary logistical blunders.  Landing pages should always be relevant but localised accordingly.  Going back to a previous example, if you are a ‘foreign’ brand - proving your site is secure and trustworthy is critical - and goes a long way to gaining credibility.

Budget Management and Targeting…

Certainly if you’re advertising via a local engine, the media currency will be local.  However our recommendation is to always operate in local currencies (if possible) with Google, Yahoo! and Bing.  Converting currencies when working out your true cost per sale can become confusing.  From a targeting perspective its worth opening up your options here, especially if the campaign is appealing to multiple consumer types and nationalities.  For example, a Greenlight client (International Mobile Operator) uses their multi-lingual strategy to target ExPats in the UK.  We’ve also utilised the contextual networks to target Polish customers in the UK via Polish websites.  Having a multi-targeted approach will lead to wider opportunities.       

Final Advice…

Whether it’s a full replica site or a micro-site or a project involving different countries and languages, the localisation strategy should work to ensure the multi-lingual side of the offering is as effective as possible. Consumers see the internet as an engaging and important part of the advertising mix, so the point of Internet localisation is to understand the consumers & then to use this understanding to correctly deliver content to each varying locality.

…so if you are thinking of going global remember to localise.  Whether it is booking a train ticket, sending a request for quote or comparing product features, your customers don’t always see your physical presence, just your campaign then your site content.  Both the paid search campaign and the site content stands in the frontline and represents your organisation, so at the very least do it right.

Five considerations for a multilingual paid search strategy

1. Understand local cultures and consumers
2. Research local search partners and search channels
3. Choose new targeted markets based on existing analytics
4. Localise don’t translate your keywords and copy
5. Invest into localising the site - including the domain and delivery
   

1[Source: Maximising Visibility for Multilingual Websites, Huiping IIer]

Greenlight reveals its top 10 predictions for Natural and Paid Search in 2010

As we head into 2010 the big question is what will the year ahead deliver for search marketing.  In its ‘Year in Review Briefing’, Greenlight, the UK’s leading independent search marketing agency, provides a summary of developments in natural and paid search. It outlines what 2009 will be remembered for and gives its top 10 predictions of what’s to come in 2010, from Twitter data itself being relegated to a separate results page limited to signed in users to the potential of Google’s Audio Indexing to be used to analyse the content of videos on other sites, and for that content to be factored into the relevancy score for a page. 

1. Investment into ‘TwitFaceSpace’ will continue to rise

Although social media sits within its own channel, many advertisers are trusting search agencies with their social strategies and investments.  For paid search specifically, Greenlight has seen an increased investment from advertisers wanting to appear across Facebook’s placement targeting programme.  The ‘new improved’ demographic breakdown launched in November 2009 - allowing an advertiser to target a specific group of consumers - has actually delivered some very promising results.  While social media has been seen very much as a branding tool - it is positive to note that affordable cost-per-acquisitions (CPA) can be acquired if used effectively.  This said it’s all in the tracking.  Without sufficient tracking in place (3^rd party sources only - Facebook doesn’t offer any conversion data), advertisers will quickly pull away from the social phenomenon as it somewhat still feels like an extravagant investment.

2. Google’s Twitter integration will change fundamentally

Google’s “real time search” offering has so far been underwhelming at best (usually replicating or linking to information that can be found in the pre-existing news results), and ludicrous at worst (see Greenlight blog ‘Hold the front page...man has Turkey sandwich’). Greenlight’s prediction is that the Twitter data itself will be relegated to a separate search results page, limited to signed in users as part of search results from your “social circle” or removed from the SERPs entirely. 99% of the time it’s just not useful, nor is it clear that people actually want the ability to search Twitter from Google. Where it is useful is as a barometer of what is current.  Expect to see more subtle integration of Twitter data into indexing processes and algorithms.

3. Google factors the content of videos into page relevancy scores

Google Audio Indexing[1], or “Gaudi” for short, is a system currently in Google Labs. It allows Google to index audio content, specifically from YouTube videos.  Its speech recognition software transcribes a video in order to allow the usual indexing process to take place.  Gaudi can then send you directly to the point in a video where a word or phrase is mentioned. Of more interest to Greenlight is its potential to be used to analyse the content of videos on other sites, and for that content to be factored into the relevancy score for a page.  Natural search may no longer be confined to the written word, with video presenters having to ensure they use their target keywords as liberally as possible.

4. Internet use on mobile phones will accelerate and mobile search will take off

Mobile search and integration will become a more tangible and credible advertising channel.  Google and Yahoo! are seriously pushing this channel again, having invested directly into the product offering and marketing of it. With the introduction of wider advertising opportunities such as targeting maps, street view and the coinciding developments with all Smart phones and not forgetting Apple’s iPhone, and their associated applications - makes mobile a much more attractive proposition for advertisers.  Although the intent to purchase still remains quite specific to certain sectors, Greenlight expects big things from mobile internet search - with it expected to reach 7% of all internet searches by the end of 2010.

   

5. Search will be a two horse race by the end of the year, attention to “Microhoo”

Microsoft and Yahoo! finalised their tie-up in early December, shortly after the competition regulators in Canada and Australia approved the deal.  Greenlight expects other countries to follow suit, paving the way to integration before the year is out.  That will mean that Bing powers the natural search results for Yahoo!, while Yahoo! handles advertising for Bing, leaving the search landscape a two horse race. 

Having pledged 5-10% of their operating profits ($22.5 billion in 2008) to promoting Bing over the next 5 years, Microsoft has a good chance of increasing Bing’s market share over the next year (much as they have in the US).  That could make ‘Microhoo’ worth paying much more attention to from an SEO perspective.

6. Google will find more ways to monetise the excess inventory in AdWords

With the recession kicking in last year many advertisers pulled back their investment in search.  Spending for spending’s sake became something of the past, and was replaced with strict cost-per-acquisition (CPA) targets.  With many advertisers placing more emphasis on understanding their true return on investment (ROI) - Google was left with a surplus of inventory (impression share).  Although the recession isn’t completely over, Google has had to find different cost effective ways of monetising the AdWords programme.  Towards the back end of 2009 Google introduced a few promising beta programmes, allowing the advertiser to spend more but in an effective way.  For example, advertisers invited to the ‘Sitelinks’ beta saw up to a 30% improvement to their click-through-rates (CTR) - ultimately improving their quality score but also seeing a greater return on investment from their advertising spend.  Having already tested the ‘Comparison Ads’ beta in the U.S - Google is about to launch the programme here in the UK.  Where invited, advertisers will be able to set a target CPA against a group of specific keywords - and not have to worry about inflating cost-per-clicks as a result of a poor quality score or aggressive competition.  This programme alone not only assists Google in monetising its excess inventory but also allows the advertiser to have confidence in securing a positive ROI.

7. Winning the click will be more important than ever

December’s introduction of near universal personalised search by Google means that almost everyone’s rankings are determined in some part by what they’ve clicked on in the past.  If your site is regularly clicked on by a user, then it will start to rank higher across the board.  Conversely, if it’s never clicked on then its rankings will start to drop for that user. In addition one of the ranking methods described in Google’s most recently granted patent relies on clicks to assess what sites should be ranking for the first search term in common query paths.  For example, if enough users search for “football”, then “american football”, then click on NFL.com, NFL.com could start ranking for “football” under the assumption that a significant proportion of users searching for “football” are actually looking for american football”.

8. There will be increased spends across Google’s Contextual Network

According to Google, its content network already reaches 80% of internet users.  From an advertisers perspective the content network has always been a challenge.  ‘So many impressions, but so few clicks…’  However over the last year Google’s made some dramatic improvements, making targeting on the content network a lot easier and effective.  Introducing Interest Based Advertising (IBA) or behavioural targeting, allows advertisers to deliver ads based on hundreds of interest categories driven by previous interactions with users.  Users are categorised according to behavioural trends, for example as sports enthusiasts or potential property hunters.  The interest categories are then used to direct the most relevant possible text and image (display) ads to individual users.  The benefits are clear for both the consumer and the advertiser: behavioural targeting increases your overall visibility in search and adds that much needed relevancy to the content network.  Furthermore, it reinstates confidence in the advertiser, knowing that their brand is in safe hands and not presented in a negative way.  Equally, the investment made into contextual search is now delivering a positive ROI.

9. Latency becomes part of the Google algorithm

Latency, the response time of pages on a site, has long been a factor in the Google AdWords quality score.  At PubCon in November Matt Cutts gave the clearest hint yet that it will soon become a factor in the natural search algorithms too. Benchmarking response times against competitors, and improving those times will become part of search engine optimisation (SEO).  We think pages will have to load in under a second to qualify for any increased rankings.

10. Domain structure will play a bigger role for Paid Search

At the back end of 2009 Google announced the expected change to its display URL policy for the UK (following on from the U.S who saw the change on April 1^st 2008).  In short the display URL must now accurately reflect the URL of the website you are advertising.  It should match the domain of your landing page so that users will know which site they will be taken to when they click on your ad.  The initial worry for all advertisers is ‘how will this affect my quality score’ - as making changes to the display URL will fluctuate cost per clicks.  The second concern is how the change in policy will affect advertisers using tracking parameters that massively alter the URL structure.  From a marketing perspective, advertisers have lost the option of shortening the URL following on from their ad text message - hence the display URL historically being referred to as the vanity URL.  For most of us though, it’s just Google being stricter with its policies - and playing the ‘relevancy’ card (after all it doesn’t make sense to advertise one thing but send the customer to another).  Considering how Google approaches a new dimension to the quality score, it’s quite possible the display URL policy update will have a direct affect on an advertisers landing page quality (LPQ).  LPQ is based on having unique content on your site, and providing a user with a positive and informative experience.  Google doesn’t award a score against doing this well, but will punish sites (advertisers) that present irrelevant landing pages.  Linking the two (display and destination landing page URL) makes perfect sense.

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The UK contributes more pages to the Internet than any other European country

A million new books are published globally each year, a fifth of them in the UK. The UK in fact publishes more tomes than any other country on earth[1]. Is this also the case online? Does the UK contribute more to the Internet’s pages than other countries?

Research undertaken by Greenlight, focussing on countries in Europe, suggests that this is indeed the case. Amongst the 20 largest European countries, the UK has contributed the most pages to the Internet, around 5 times more than France and Germany, the study found. Whilst this doesn’t account for the quality of those pages and who has produced them and for what reasons, it’s a good relative indicator that the UK’s offline publishing leadership is being mirrored online through a combination of corporate and consumer publishing.

Further findings:

•         45% of the pages on the Internet were created in Europe, 8% in the UK
•         There’s a dramatic drop in the number of Internet pages created ‘per head’ as you go from the north of Europe to the south
•         The Ukraine has the most Internet pages per head, almost 8 times more per head than Romania, Greece, or Turkey, who have the fewest
•         The UK has published more pages on the Internet than the 10 least active European countries combined

In addition, data about offline book readership suggests that almost twice as many people, as a percentage of the population, would be classed as heavy readers in the UK, compared to say Spain or Germany[2]. Essentially, people in the UK appear to write more and read more than their European neighbours – online and offline.

Most SEO practitioners will agree that achieving high natural search rankings in the UK is infinitely harder than achieving comparable rankings in other European markets. The sheer number of pages you are competing against in the UK, as highlighted by this research, means that there are more people trying to attract a finite searching audience. This is particularly the case when people are competing in sectors where search behaviour is weighted, in terms of number of searches made, towards a relatively small handful of search terms, such as is the case in the finance and gaming sectors.

The research also highlights that there is a vast difference in the online maturity of various markets, which will need to be factored into any search strategies involving entry into new markets.

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[1]

[1] Goldfarb, Jeff. "Bookish Britain overtakes America as top publisher", Reuters Entertainment, May 10, 2006

[2]Eurostat Tables 2001

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4% of websites have page load speeds detrimental to their search marketing efforts

Website page load speeds will become an increasingly important factor in 2010 for search advertisers, and demonstrates that page load speed performance cannot be assumed, even for some of the biggest sites in the UK. In a sample study of 100 of the UK’s most popular websites, Greenlight determined that 4% of them had page load speeds slower than the acceptable threshold set by Google, beyond which the advertiser may see increased click costs.

 

In June 2008, Google revealed landing page download time has an impact on a marketer’s Quality Score in Paid Search. This meant that ‘latency’ began contributing directly to a campaign’s performance and ultimately it’s ROI. At the close of 2009 there was also much speculation over whether this would also make its way into its natural search algorithms too. Matt Cutts hinted quite heavily in that direction in a video interview for Web Pro News, where he said:

 

“Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our [natural] search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast. It should be a good experience, and so it’s sort of fair to say that if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don’t want that as much.

 

I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about ‘how do I make my site be fast,’ how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom JavaScript?’”

 

Greenlight took a sample survey of 100 of the UK’s most popular websites across four industries – consumer electronics, clothing retail, travel and finance. These it determined from its independent sector reports which reveal the most visible websites in Google natural and paid search across various industry sectors, per quarter.

 

 Greenlight tested their download speeds at the same time of the day, outside of seasonal peaks in server load and made multiple requests to get an average. Greenlight’s survey found load times ranged from the exceptional (Argos.co.uk at 0.29 seconds was the standout) to the painfully high (a top high street electronics retailer at over 15 seconds), and everything in between.

 

To define what would constitute an unacceptable average load time, Greenlight devised a methodology that mirrored Google’s method of determining an acceptable maximum. The threshold Greenlight determined was 4.97 seconds (i.e. 3 seconds above the national average). Anything above this would almost certainly fall foul of Google’s Quality Score download time guidelines, as outlined here.

 

Greenlight’s results revealed that:

 

·         4% of the sites analysed had average page load speeds far in excess of the 4.97 seconds determined as the threshold and therefore run a risk of seeing increased costs per click

 

·         3% of the sites had average page load speeds in excess of 8 seconds, which research points to as being the point at which users are likely to abandon a site

 

·         The best performing sites, in descending order were Argos, River Island, Holiday.co.uk, Fool.co.uk, and Comet, all of which were exceptional within the group

 

·         There was no industry pattern – all sectors had a broad spread of high and low page load speeds and the size of the company made no difference either

 

Google, incidentally, if it were part of this study would have performed best of all the sites as it had an average page load speed of 0.11 seconds - definitely leading by example.

 

Approximately 4% of the UK’s most successful websites have page load speeds that are to the detriment of their Paid Search Quality Scores. This affects their Paid Search performance and will be compounded further if Google decides to use latency in its natural search algorithms too. Ironically, poor download speed is actually very easily fixed. Businesses need to look at things like content distribution, cache control, and even simply reducing the number of HTTP requests their pages make.

 

As a follow-up to this research Greenlight is preparing a guide to reducing page load speeds that will be released in Q2 2010.

 

How search engine market shares look around the world featuring Bing, Yahoo and Baidu and others

How search engine market shares look around the world featuring Bing, Yahoo and Baidu and others.

Google’s quitting China spells loss of advertising dollars and greater dependency on foreign operators

 Google has indicated it may cease to operate in China following a cyber attack aimed at gathering information on human rights activists.  

If Google quits China, then it leaves MS yahoo and Baidu as the primary sources for accessing the Chinese searching audience. Without Google, assuming Yahoo and Bing remain, that 30% share will re-distribute. Most likely to Baidu, which will further cement its leadership position, and the remainder may not split equally among Bing and Yahoo users, which would further upset the balance of power for one or the other, and means growing in the Chinese market is likely to make it very difficult for at least one of them.   For advertisers looking to target the Chinese market, it means a greater dependency on foreign operators who are less familiar to them, and less integrated with their ad operations.  

For the US and global advertising industry it means ad dollars are going to go overseas into Chinese pockets as opposed to strengthening the US coffers too.