The Adido Digital Blog

Top Tips for Creating a Mobile PPC Campaign

2012-04-30T09:53:00.003+01:00

Over 7.1 million people in the UK access the internet from their mobile phones, and the number of mobile internet users is set to surpass that of desktop users within the next five years.

With this in mind, never has it been more important to make sure your site is optimised for mobile phones and other mobile devices such as IPads and related tablet devices.

Not only should you make sure your web build and design is optimised for mobile devices, you should be taking advantage of mobile marketing options.

It’s pointless having a mobile friendly site if your PPC doesn’t take this traffic into account.

Here we provide our top tips for creating a mobile PPC campaign.

First of all, pick your search engine. Google is by far the most dominant search engine across all devices; so you should start here.

Keep keywords simple and relevant

Unlike standard PPC campaigns, mobile users will tend to use short, generic terms to find what they are looking for. Your keywords and key phrases should therefore reflect this and be kept simple to reach your audience most effectively.

Choose keywords that relate closely to one another and to the ads in the ad group. Remember to limit how often your ads appear on content network pages with irrelevant themes through negative keywords.

Separate your keywords into themed ad groups of 5 to 20 keywords that relate closely to one another and to the ads in that ad group.

Use direct and compelling ad text

Mobile ads are shorter than standard ad text and are formatted to fit the small screens of a feature phone with a character limit of 18, as well as one description line instead of two.

Using direct and compelling ad text will maximize qualified clicks received. Include strong call-to-actions (“Call now” / “Click to register”) to set user expectation and define your intended goals and conversions.

Highlight special offers and features including product prices that will help you stand out from competitors.

Use promotional language and mobile-specific copy to appeal directly to the mobile user, for example, “book today from your android”.

Create new campaigns for your mobile ads

A new campaign should be set up for any mobile ads as mobile-specific campaigns have seen a 12% increase in average click-through rates and a 29% increase in clicks over hybrid campaigns.

Keep smartphone and WAP campaigns separate as they will require different settings.

Set up extensions on your ads

Give your customers the right information about your business, leading to a higher conversion rate.

Location extensions show your local business phone number, while phone extensions show your national number.

Both extensions are available to customers using a smartphone with full browser capabilities.

Optimise your landing pages

Optimise your landing pages for mobile to contribute to your Quality Score and furthermore keyword positions.

Landing pages need to:

Be kept simple and concise.
Be easy to navigate with buttons that are easily clickable.
Avoid using flash.
Contain the most important content at the top.
Scroll down, not across.
Make conversions easy and obvious.
Minimize load time.
Have short URLs / page titles.

Analyse keyword performance regularly

After your ad group has been allowed to run, you will start to gather valuable data that you can turn into action items.

You need to understand how your ads are doing in terms of:

ad performance
placement performance
ad group performance

Monitor what specific keywords and ad text is performing the best, and where. Such insights will be valuable in the adding or removing of priority keywords / negative keywords and key phrases.

Combine this information with your analytics data to make informed decisions about the success of your campaigns.

Test, improve & refine

Understanding what works is essential to identifying key target areas for your campaigns and showcases what matters to you as an advertiser.

Measuring these results against your KPIs (number of unique visitors from each advert, no. of pages browsed, length of time on site) will establish what can be improved, optimised, changed or even removed.

Test your initial campaign and highlight patterns into what variables deliver the highest conversions in terms of users, timings, advertising and landing pages.

Measuring ‘post-click behaviour’ will give insight into real goals such as form completion, click to play and ROI.

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Advertising opportunities presented in the rise in smartphone ownership

2012-03-30T13:14:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the world of the mobile.

The digital era is rapidly evolving and marketers should be at the forefront; jumping on the mobile bandwagon and falling in love with the prospects it presents.

Mobile usage is arguably the fastest growing digital marketing opportunity since social media, with 89% of the UK population now having or using a mobile phone. It is, however, the impressive growth of the smartphone that has really knocked socks off.

With YouGov predicting that 68% of the population will be upgrading to a smartphone in their next contract cycle, reaching out to existing and potential customers has never seemed so easy.

Or has it?

Even though mobile advertising has been described as something of a ‘Shangri-la’ for online ad networks, low marketing usage up-to-date suggests otherwise.

Consumers are mobile. But mobile is personal; with many users anti receiving such direct advertising.

So we ask (and answer!), what real advertising opportunities are presented to marketers by smartphones?

A good platform?

Smartphone allows more innovative and interactive ways to connect with consumers. But what happens when users don’t want to connect back?

With a recent survey by YouGov identifying 86% of users ignoring mobile advertising, the use of current advertising mechanics at present may not always strike the right chord with consumers.

A good example of this is in the somewhat outdated SMS advertising, with users receiving alerts when coming in a certain distance of a store. A recent Econsultancy survey found this too intrusive.

Given such exponential growth over such a short period of time, confidence is however improving and attitudes are changing.

Mobile is fast-paced, on the go, convenient and immediate. It’s like a conversation - talking at your customers will make them switch off as quickly as they have switched on.

The advertisers’ challenge is to therefore instantly highlight user benefit from responding to such targeted advertising.

Why this channel?

Mobiles are, well, mobile.

As a dream advertising platform for marketing goes, it doesn’t get much better.

Devices are carried with consumers everywhere, and are typically always on. Penetration of smartphones is also growing and set to overtake desktops in 2014/2015.

The best advertising opportunities that smartphones can present is through the ability to target.

From cruising round Tesco online, to tweeting about @katyperry, mobiles are used for different objectives and can be placed in a variety of ways, places and means.

Interaction with users can also be made in different ways including: SMS messaging, voice, codes, images and video.

In its simplest form, the channel of smartphone advertising is ideal, but it’s always the hardest channel to get right.

Ask yourself how mobile advertising differs from desktop – and what precisely should marketers be doing?

Make it responsive

Let us start at the very beginning (a very good place to start!)…as stupid as it sounds, make your mobile pages mobile-friendly.

Customer expectation for mobile sites is high.

Recent research by Gomez suggests 74% of users will abandon trying to connect to a site within 5 seconds. It is important to think your mobile user journey – limit scrolling, strip back navigation, optimise content and think about pageload time.

Search is different

Whilst Search Engine Optimisation for mobile has the same principles for web, online user behaviour is drastically different.

Mobile users are in a different mind-set to those using a desktop and click-through rate is much higher. Getting a site to the top of engine results and making your site super mobile-friendly could make a real difference.

Mobile searches are location-based and made up of shorter keywords / key phrases, so optimising your mobile content is a must for climbing SERPs.

Don’t forget PPC

Once a website is thoroughly optimised and mobile-friendly, it makes sense to open those virtual gates to the mobile public.

As users are more impatient, PPC advertising could be seen to receive the most clicks as the top ranking search positions are so important on a smaller screen.

Creating a mobile specific campaign, keeping keywords relevant and simple, and using direct and compelling ad text will all contribute to grabbing the attention of a smartphone user.

Email not snail mail

It’s no surprise that in a recent review by JupiterResearch, 18% of users were utilising mobile devices to sort email accounts. One of the first objectives of smartphone giants was to create a smooth transition for businesses, in and out of the office. The social boom has continued to increase email use dramatically, now being regularly used for both work and leisure.

Smartphone users will check regularly and respond quickly; meaning that email campaigns should work harder for mobile devices through personalised subject lines, simplicity and urgency.

It’s all about display

A variety of aggregators are available as platforms to manage mobile banner advertising and display marketing.

Admob, one the world’s largest mobile advertising networks, describes mobile devices as a critical media platform to enable every business on earth the opportunity to leverage mobile.

An aggregator will charge you to buy and place campaigns across a mobile network, and is an easy platform to help meet ROI objectives.

Having a clear strategy and defining your audience are essential before focusing on a compelling design and strong CTA. Unnecessary images and vague headlines will merge into the ‘ad noise’ and will fail to stand out for consumers.

According to research carried out by e-Dialog (2011), 27% of users would be happy to receive special offer messaging. It is therefore arguable to be specific with your ad content and where your ads are shown.

The list goes on

Other advertising opportunities are available to leverage users of the mobile network, in order to increase brand awareness and generate sales.

An App is a good example of an opportunity that needs to be well thought through in terms of customer need and want. Apple is strict in its approval process, making sure advertisers have built an App that is genuinely fulfilling an objective.

QR codes have already proved successful as users must scan, and consequently ‘opt in’ to the campaign before being pulled through to the message / website etc. In the same way, Augmented Reality (AR) helps to merge the online and offline world by scanning ‘real life’.

The Adido Viewpoint

It’s clear that no advertiser is clear of the mobile world.

Even if you have no interest and are happy with a normal website, it is more than likely that consumers will at one point or another, access your website by smartphone.

They will be put off quickly and easily, and often for life.

Our advice: invest in responsive design.

Take baby steps in making sure your website is fully optimised and attractive in the smartphone world.

Then, and only then, can you begin to think about paid advertising and hitting the mobile ad network running.

With such a fast growth of smartphone users year on year and current low online advertising usage, mobile marketing should be carefully thought through in terms of its objectives and benefits.

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Why your site needs to be mobile friendly

2012-03-30T13:09:00.000+01:00

As you might know, we’ve recently written a White Paper on mobile marketing and why your site and marketing campaign needs to be optimised for the ever-growing amount of mobile users.

You can access this excellent document here.

Did you know that smartphone internet connections are predicted to exceed those by desktop computers by 2014? If you didn’t know that then you’re in very good company.

Mobile marketing is hot property and it has never been more important to make sure that your site and the marketing of your site is catered for mobile users as well as people who find you with a laptop, tablet device or PC.

A massive 32% of adult users connect to the internet through their mobile phones, most of these are under 34 and social networking is the most popular activity by smartphone users by far.

However, more and more people are using their mobile phones to order pizzas, buy clothes and even pay their bills.

This is why you need to be on the ball and make sure your site is mobile friendly.

Adapting your site to mobile users

The most important thing to have in order for your site to remain current and relevant as technologies change and diversify is a fully responsive website.

Yes you need your site to look great on a desktop PC of laptop, but as we’ve said above, more and more people are accessing YOUR site using mobile phones and tablet devices.

So what is a fully responsive website?

Stanford University defines a responsive website as:

“A website that responds to the device that accesses it and delivers the appropriate output for it uses responsive design. Rather than designing multiple sites for different-sized devices, this approach designs one site but specifies how it should appear on varied devices”

A responsive site adjusts to the device it has been accessed from – see below:

The image above shows the differing appearance of the Postgoldforcash.com site when accessed from desktop and mobile devices.

Key points to consider when building a responsive website

Don’t worry if your site looks different

The screen size is so different that getting all of the main information onto a mobile site may involve a dramatic redesign of the page.

As long as it is on brand, it’s fine if your site looks very different to its desktop orientated counterpart. In fact, this is normal.

Consider touchscreen users

Most people find it annoying when buttons are too close to each other or two small to use properly. With touchscreen users (the vast majority of the smartphone using population), it’s important that the buttons aren’t too close together for large fingers!

Speed is even more important

Mobile users are even more impatient than desktop users and the vast majority (around 74%) will abandon a site within five seconds if it hasn’t loaded.

A surefire way to increase the speed of your site is to ensure it isn’t loaded with lots of graphics as these will slow down loading times.

If your site is not optimised for mobile phones

Find out more about mobile marketing – including how to optimise your advertising for mobile devices – by accessing our excellent white paper now.

Alternatively, please call one of our talented team on 0845 260 2343 to see how we may be able to help you.

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Adido get their wellies on to take part in ‘Those Who Plant Trees Plant Hope’

2012-03-15T14:48:00.003Z

In the spirit of ‘Doing Better’ and looking after the beautiful Dorset countryside surrounding our offices, Adido recently took part in Rock Recruitment’s 2012 Tree Planting Event.

The annual event is in association with The Bournemouth Echo and East Dorset District Council and was held at Penningtons Copse in West Moors.

Jo, our Digital Media Account Manager, headed down to the woods armed with a pair of Wellington Boots and got stuck in with the day’s activities.

Tree planting was first on the agenda. This involved planting 3 5-6ft high whip trees. After this came the Rhododendrons clearing.

Attendees were taught about the management of local forest habitats by Education Rangers from East Dorset District Council and given information about the trees that grow in our local forests.

Once the trees were planted, Jo and the other participants were taught how to make a natural willow birdfeeder to take back to their offices.

To complete the morning, lunch was served in the woodland clearing; allowing the participants to relax and chat to representatives of other local businesses.

It was a great event all round and we look forward to seeing the article in April’s Dorset Business Magazine, which will provide more coverage on this event.

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Social Media – Quantity Vs. Quality

2012-02-24T09:51:00.001Z

The social media landscape is exciting, fascinating and incredibly fast moving. Never before has it been so easy for companies to touch base and keep their finger on the collective pulse of their existing and potential customers.

With research by the Chartered Institute of Marketing stating that 34% of businesses do not believe social media marketing has much of a positive effect on their businesses, it’s time to look at social media marketing and ask ourselves if it is really that essential that businesses are on every social network out there or whether they would be better off improving the quality of the connections they already have.

So we ask (and attempt to provide an answer to) this two part question:

Is it better to have a presence on all of the popular social networks or to establish your brand on one or two of the most popular sites like Twitter or Facebook?
Does the quality vs. quantity debate also apply to the amount of connections/friends/fans or followers you have on these social networking sites.

The argument for quality over quantity

Time

For a start, the great thing about social media is that it gives companies a chance to develop genuine connections with their customers.

If you are managing your presence on ten different sites and have thousands of connections on each, how are you ever going to keep in touch with them all?

Companies would need to employ whole teams of people just to manage this.

Conversion of connections into sales

As Jamie Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Analytics says to Socialmediatoday.com, your bank manager isn’t going to give you a loan based on how many Twitter followers you have. As Jamie quite rightly says:

"Ironically but inevitably, the key measure of your social media success is offline: how many new customers did you gain? How much new profit did you drive as a result of your online presence?"

"If your business model depends on authentic relationships, on credibility, on influencing the offline world - that does not scale in a linear fashion. For most professionals, and even many corporations, quantity is over-rated."

If you’re not converting your Twitter followers into cold hard business, then why waste time and money getting thousands of followers?

Social media noise

Lief Larson from Business2community.com talks about how being on every social networking site blogging, Facebooking and tweeting away can simply create the effect of noise.

Everyone’s doing it.

He asks: how are businesses differentiating themselves from their competition?

He has a point here. Customers want to feel talked to, not talked AT. Mass noise doesn’t allow for dialogue.

The beauty of using social media to connect with your customers is the fact that you can engage in dialogue with them that makes businesses seem more human and less faceless. This makes your posts seem less like noise and more like content that your customers want and need to come into contact with.

It’s an old cliché but people buy from people.

Can’t buy me love

A great example of this is the experience Southwestecommerce.com had when they decided to pay a company to get them “fans” on a social networking site.

Graeme Olsen told Socialmediatoday.com that the company had decided to buy fans for their social page that targeted people in the UK and Australia:

“We paid extra for the “targeted fans” option [but] it became clear early on that all fans were from the USA.”

Graeme also noted that fans were posting identical “weird/random” comments on both pages, leading them to suspect that “many of the fans (or at least the ones that comment) are either junk profiles, or perhaps paid to join our page and comment.”

A strike back for quantity over an overreliance on quality

Well-known LinkedIn personality Ron Bates seems to disagree. The search consultant was once lauded as the world’s number one LinkedIn user and says “there can be quality in quantity”.

According to Bates, having lots of connections across social media sites means that the odds of making a valuable connection are higher.

Bates also makes the point that customers buy from companies they trust and that companies with a high social presence across social networks are more likely to be trusted. If your nearest competitor is on Twitter and you are not and a potential customer searches for your company on Twitter, how likely do you think you are to get the business?

Social networking is such a core part of many people’s lives that companies without an established presence on these sites can be seen to have less credibility than a competitor who has popular and well maintained Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Pinterest, Google + and LinkedIn profiles.

Broadcasting messages to large groups of people on people on different sites might not generate revenue immediately via a sudden increase in sales but companies will increase their brand presence and could find themselves the first port of call for people when they need something the company offers due to having placed themselves in the immediate radar of their customers.

For example, a photographer that has profiles on Facebook and Twitter, posts video montages of their work on YouTube, creates beautiful pinboards of their favourite images on Pinterest.com and invites customers to check in via Foursquare could pop up in the mind of one of their connections when they need such a service or know someone who does.

An important point to make in the favour of quantity is that social networking sites all have different advantages. For example, Facebook allows users to post multimedia content of all kinds which is easy to share and comment on whereas YouTube allows engagement in a visual way.

Depending on the market niche of the business, they will find different uses for the different sites.

This in theory allows them to engage with their followers/fans/friends in subtly different ways.

There is much to be said for casting the net as wide as possible

The Adido viewpoint

We think that while both quality and quantity have their benefits – quantity because it gives the high breadth of web presence which we have seen can engineer feelings of trust in customers and quality because it allows businesses to connect properly with their audience, finding out their wants, needs and desires; we can’t help but feel that taking the best bits of both is the answer.

While breadth is great, depth is more important. It’s far better to be on three social networking sites and post regularly, engaging with fans, friends and followers as human beings than to tick the boxes and be on everything knowing that no one will never be able to devote a tremendous amount of time to any.

The key is to avoid the “one size fits all” perspective and tailor the social networking to both:

The aims and needs of the business
The aims and needs of their customers
What networks target customers are on
What competitors are doing
How much time is available for social media marketing

With regards to whether it is better to have lots of friends or a select few – we think that Ron Bates has a point when he says that having presence online tells customers you are more trustworthy. It is also clear that if you have twenty friends on Facebook, you’re theoretically going to reach less people when you update your status than when you have two thousand.

He also has a valid point when he says that the more sites a business is on and the more friends they have, the greater the odds are of finding valuable connections and converting them into sales.

Better social media filtering

However, we’ll carry on with the Facebook example by saying that with news feeds being more and more geared towards what people do the most on Facebook, your chance of reaching two thousand people with one status is less than it would have been two years ago.

Also, why cast your net too wide and wait for your customers to come to you? Targeting a smaller but more relevant core market via your social networks makes it easier to go to them, to post content you know they will love because you will have researched their potential habits and tastes – you get the point.

Yes, a lot of fan and group pages send out notifications when posts are updated, but users can hide these for evermore with one click of their mouse. The days of spamming are over!

Nowadays, the only way to be sure you reach thousands of people on Facebook is to pay for their (admittedly effective) advertising.

The argument veers back towards quality. News feeds on Facebook, like Google searches, are based on presenting the data users most want to see when they log in. This is ascertained by an algorithm that looks at the people the user interacts with the most on Facebook and the pages they comment on.

It therefore makes perfect logical sense to make friends with the core market on a social network like Facebook and interact with them regularly, posting content they are likely to want to share and comment on. This will mean the business/profile page is more likely to appear in newsfeeds and make an impact.

Give us your views on social media!

What do you think? We love feedback and comments so feel free to leave yours under this post. What do you think is more important about social media? The quantity of friends and networking sites you're on (breadth) or the quality of the connections you make and the relationships you maintain (depth)?

Or do you think the ideal situation is a mix of the best bits of both?

Adido is a cutting edge digital marketing and web design bournemouth agency that is highly skilled in all aspects of digital marketing and research. We work hard to always do digital better than last year, last month and yesterday which is why we're thought leaders in our field.

Request your free SEO report now.

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Google Search Plus Your World

2012-02-23T17:28:00.004Z

One of Google’s recent innovations is the introduction of ‘Search Plus Your World’ to their own social media channel Google+; when you type something into Google and have a Google+ account, you not only get search results from Google's algorithm but also from content that has been shared with you privately.

Although there was outrage by a few industry experts (for example Twitter citing it as a bad day for the internet) it does seem to make sense. In a study undertaken by Nielsen it was stated that 42% of people trust search engine results, while a huge 90% trust recommendations from people they know.

The Implications for SEO

The introduction of Search Plus Your World shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to search engine marketers and has been welcomed by many who are already incorporating social media into their SEO strategies.

Since Facebook and Twitter started their online domination many SEO companies wondered when not if, the huge amount of likes, shares and re-tweets would influence the Google search results.

Google suggested that it had started to take into account social signals in the results it served up, but it was never going to be a partnership of open information sharing between staunch rivals Facebook and Google.

So in June last year Google introduced the beta version of its own social network Google+, +1 buttons started to appear next to organic search results and then they started to influence results. This cemented the use of social signals in influencing search results.

However the introduction of Google+ and +1’s didn’t cause many ripples in the SEO world, especially as the official branded company pages only became available in November 2011.
Many saw it as a desperate attempt to keep up with the increasingly dominant Facebook and the underdog Twitter. The introduction of Search Plus Your World in January 2012 gave search engine marketers an insight into what Google is planning for the future – personalised search results dependant on the content online that your connections like and share.

What this means is that gaining good rankings on personalised searches will depend on having fresh, interesting and shareable content rather than depending on links and domain authority.
And don’t think that personalised results are isolated; Google has hinted that personalised results will influence the public algorithm and therefore general results.

What does this mean for your search engine strategy

What we have to remember is that Search Plus Your World is still in its infancy and is only relevant for a small minority of people who are actively using Google+ enough for results to show.

With many people dismissing it as just a way for Google to give life to its own version of a social network, it is however still a sign of things to come as social signals and peer recommendations become ever more important in the search engine results that are served. And although Google+ is used by a fairly niche audience at the moment it has huge potential for growth, as this chart shows comparing it’s growth to Facebook and Twitter:

It has also given clout to Google+, with many people now seeing it as a more sophisticated version of Facebook that integrates all your online experiences.

The next step for Google is to ensure it filters out spam results and ensures privacy issues don’t tarnish what it is trying to achieve. And In order to live by their mantra to serve up the most relevant results to searchers they also need to incorporate other social network’s results as it did in it’s now legendary Real Time Search results (pre-Twitter and Google breakup).

The Adido viewpoint

We feel that Google Search Plus Your World is a really exciting development and is a great insight into Google’s vision of the future of search.

We are strong advocates of brands creating engaging, shareable content and already work with many brands to create meaningful relationships with their customers through social media.
With social media, SEO and PR becoming increasingly intertwined we are looking forward to working on some really strong integrated strategies for our clients. We do a lot of SEO work and are sick of seeing websites sneaking into good search engine positions because of their spammy backlinks and outdated SEO practices.

There is always going to be an element of gaming Google but we feel that Search Plus Your World is going to force brands to pull their socks up and work hard to gain those good rankings through genuine customer service and engagement.

What do you think? Have you had any experience of Search Plus Your World yet? Are you or your brand on Google+? We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

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Why your business needs a responsive website

2012-01-18T16:58:00.003Z

Responsive web design is a solution that deals with the ever changing technology hardware that consumers are using to access the internet.

It has become a necessary aspect of the design and build of websites in 2012 because it is vital to ensure your website is as usable on every browser size and every mobile device on the marketplace.

It has been forecast that by the end of 2015, more users will connect via mobile devices to the internet than PC’s which just shows the speed at which this change is moving.

Smartphone sales have already surpassed PC sales, which gives us a clear indication with regards to where the market is going.

Changing the web

In short, a responsive website is a web build that adjusts itself according to the screen resolution of the device you are accessing it from.

Seems simple, but it has in actual fact been a difficult thing to implement.

Let’s show you how it works. One excellent site that has implemented responsive web design is http://foodsense.is/

When looking at it, note how it automatically adjusts the content when you resize your browser.

This technology is exactly what is needed in the current digital climate and is the future of web design.

Joel Draper, technical web design expert at Adido says:

“A responsive website is the way forward and will benefit our many clients considerably. Having a site that is optimised to show the most important content, no matter if is accessed from a mobile phone, iPad or PC, is vital and means that potential customers on the move can find the information they need quickly and easily".

"I think that by the end of 2012, responsive websites will be standard because of the increasing popularity of mobile devices”.

Other aspects of responsive websites

As well as making your site more friendly to many types of devices, your content - arguably the most important thing on your site – is also adjusted with the general layout of the page so that it reads well no matter what the size of your browser is.

This content - as stated on Trentwalton.com now fits “its container”.

We can’t help but add a water metaphor here when we say that web content now has the potential to be like a fluidic substance. The particle structure of water enables it to adapt to fit its container and content on responsive web sites is designed to do this in a similar way.

Like water, we suspect responsive web design may not make all content fit its container and there are still issues relating to HTML/CSS compatibility with browsers.

However, with these problems ironed out, we can see that - with the technology refined – responsive web design can really help your business by making your content readable and engaging, no matter where it is accessed from.

Find out more about responsive web design and what we can offer your business by going to http://www.adido-digital.co.uk/services/creative/fully-responsive-web-design.aspx

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Adido’s Predictions for Digital in 2012

2011-12-23T14:54:00.002Z

As a forward-thinking and strategic digital marketing agency and web design company, we like to keep on top of what is happening in the digital world.

As you may remember, we held a very successful seminar in November 2011 that discussed what we think will happen in the digital world in 2012. The digital sphere is a fast-changing place, with many exciting innovations happening all the time with regards to search, advertising, web design and usability.

So, what do we think will happen in 2012?

Social and User Signals will be more influential in search

We have already seen this start to happen with Google +1 but this will really explode in 2012, with social likes/retweets and shares becoming a lot more influential in the search engine rankings.

Google is the number one search engine in the world, it has this position because it gives people what they want and they obviously want to maintain it. Prioritising content that has the most positive feedback is therefore the logical way to go surely?

Google has already revamped the way it looks at sites - who can forget the numerous Panda updates that saw some sites completely drop in the rankings overnight? It was a frightening time for businesses and it looks like Google will continue to update its algorithm in 2012 to make sure that users get the content they like. This is where “Likes”, shares and comments will most likely come in.

As mentioned on State of Search, there have been studies that show a positive correlation between Facebook “likes” and Google rankings. Whether this is merely because popular content is likely to come from big, world renowned brands that have already spent millions on their search marketing is unknown.

Google has already admitted here that it uses Twitter when ranking sites.

So, expect to see social factors influencing search in 2012!

Brands will up the ante to build social media relationships with consumers.

Another thing that will become more apparent in 2012 is the use of social pages to create relationships between brands and consumers. Of course we all know this has been going on for years on Facebook; but never has it become harder, yet easier for big brands to interact with their target audience.

Let’s explain. Brands now have more information on us than ever thanks to sites like Facebook. You can now find out which songs their target audience are listening to and what content they’re reading. Brands can also target their social recruitment advertising campaigns to people dependant on whether they are single, married, have children over 16 or are in certain jobs.

But, making advertisers nervous is the fact that Facebook has never been busier. Now, users are updated the very instant their friends do something on Facebook or listen to a song on Spotify.

The new Timeline feature also complicates matters somewhat, as well as the fact that it is now easier than ever to hide and filter what content you see on Facebook.

Brands will have to work harder than ever in 2012 to snare their target market and keep them in their grasp.

Humanising big brands is the key, and we think Timeline will play a huge part here.

Brands haven’t been given Facebook’s new Timeline feature yet, and Facebook hasn’t ever confirmed that they will. However, we predict that the first half of 2012 will see Facebook making an announcement that brands will be given the feature. Mashable has mocked up what McDonalds would look like when switched over to Timeline.

We also predict that more integration between Augmented Reality and social media will be the key to doing this.

We mention Augmented Reality a little further on, so keep reading!

Web design will become much more abstract and minimal

Again, this is already happening, but will become much more common in 2012. We’re loving the postcard-esque, image led designs that we have come across in the last few months and are excited about where this trend will go.

Fonts will also become more “handwritten” in the way they look, leading to websites having more of a personal feel. Also, as speculated on in this article, designs will be more all-encompassing, taking into account the fact that people now buy products across a wide range of digital platforms.

Designs have also become a lot more textured, with a more 3D feel and look to them.

Whereas, 2011 was all about content, 2012 is all about the visuals and texture baby!

Mobile devices will overtake the desktop PC and laptop

Pretty soon, it’ll be hard to imagine a world where people didn’t order pizzas, buy furniture and book a restaurant table from a mobile device such as a smartphone or IPad.
It'll also be hard to imagine a world without responsive web design. Responsive web design is where a website will automatically resize to scale if you reduce the size of your browser. This is perfect for sites likely to be accessed from a variety of devices.

This future for web design is crashing towards us at breakneck speed, and it is clear that mobile devices are going to rise to the top of the tree in 2012; becoming the default choice for most people.

With the news reported here that the number of active mobile devices in the US now actually exceeds its population, this is not surprising at all really.

CNN reports here that tablet devices are not just alternatives to laptops and desktop PCs; they are replacements and will sweep their older versions away gradually in 2012.

We’ve already seen sites specifically built for mobile devices, but 2012 will see sites built that work excellently across multiple platforms.

It will become very important to make sure you website design is fully responsive to every device a user decides to surf with. 2012 will be all about ensuring your website is compatible with every size to maximise conversion and customer satisfaction.

Augmented reality (AR) will start to have a definite role within digital advertising and marketing

Augmented reality is already seen in advertising, but will become more and more commonplace as we advance through 2012. Augmented reality, unlike Virtual Reality, works with your actual environment and enhances it, providing users with fresh and interesting content and new and exciting experiences.

Previously famous examples include the excellent Rayban Virtual Mirror (which allows you to virtually try on Rayban sunglasses from the comfort of your bedroom) and We Are Autobots (self-explanatory and totally awesome!).

Augmented reality is now being touted as the future of advertising. Apps like Blippar demonstrate this by allowing you hover over a brand with your camera phone and access content that has been put there for Blippar users only. It’s like the QR code, only not boring. The fact that we can now whip out our Smartphones and scan our environment, finding out live information is incredibly exciting for the advertising and marketing worlds.

Considering apps like Blippar are free to download and provide original content to users on the go, this could explode in 2012 and we think it will.

Tell us what you think of our predictions for 2012!

We’ll look back later in the year and let you know if we were right!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the Adido team.

Find out more about the amazing services we offer by having a look around our site! We offer excellent services like web design and SEO.

Call us now on 0845 260 2343 to find out more!

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Google +1’s; Search Flop or Search Success?

2011-12-15T11:35:00.000Z

As the world falls deeper and deeper into the arms of the Social Network phenomenon, Google was not going to let it go unnoticed. With the launch of Google +1 in June and the subsequent launch of Google+ a month later, what has this meant for the world of SEO and can it actually aid ranking results?

The buzz of Google +1’s on the twittersphere has always been positive with the majority of expert search gurus giving it the ‘thumbs up’… or the ‘+1’ as the case may be. The notion that people will all be +1’ing their most favoured URL or relevant and useful URL’s they may have come across is still under debate. It is supposed that this may become “old hat” after the initial buzz and the likelihood of users continuing to actively +1 URLs will dwindle. Whether this is what actually happens, the jury is still out; it ultimately is all in the aid of search results (Source: Read Write Web blog.)

Timothy Jordan, a Development Advocate at Google was quoted in a recent Search Engine Watch blog post to be reinforcing the use of the +1 button by mentioning the callback mechanism. This is where a user may click the +1 button on a specific product they may find on a site which essentially bookmarks it so it is easily found when they return later.

Timothy goes on to mention how webmasters can be utilising this click instantly via the +1 data callback mechanism whereby similar product recommendations can be made on page immediately after the click. In light of webmasters actively jumping on board in terms of utilising the mechanism in this way, it is highly likely that it will aid search massively.

The need and want for internet users to find the most relevant website for their search is obviously paramount. Surely it should be a logical step that users will embrace the +1 process in favour of optimising their future searches, furthermore, optimising Google to be their most trusted source of providing quality search results every time.

Here at Adido, we have a sneaking suspicion that sooner or later, +1 may actually begin to assist rankings and do what it was designed for. Again, it may be too early to truly make an educated assumption, but with the spotlight always on Google and their 80-90 per cent market share, we would all like to think that they know what they’re doing… right?.. RIGHT?

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Social Metrics; What Does it Mean?

2011-12-15T09:50:00.000Z

Tracking and reporting social media results still proves to evade certain attempts of analysis, and accurately translating what the key performance indicators (KPI’s) are actually showing you is not an exact science. Whilst you may be clocking up 100 more likes or followers a day, are you actually reaching the right community for that client?

It seems that measuring certain metrics for some marketers is less important than others, similarly any measurement needs to be in correlation to the needs of the client. Finding the right balance for you as the marketer as to be able to accurately express and explain effective results efficiently is important. It can be something that develops over a period of time due to the continuous changes and developments, but you will definitely get there.

Whilst analysing Facebook insights and targeting specific KPI’s, the addition of “Klout” into your analysis is a simple and effective way to strengthen your findings. For those who may not be too familiar, Klout is a social analysis platform that can give you the results of your social media campaign using a simple 1 – 100 scoring system; the higher the score, the more influential your campaign has been.

With the aid of Klout, it can show you how much you influence people as well as showing you your true reach across not only your immediate network, but your fans extended networks also. Displaying this knowledge in such simple a format is handy for explaining results and your analytical findings to clients that may not be too familiar with social media marketing. As a digital marketing agency in Bournemouth, the smaller clients definitely find it useful to analyse any social media work we may have done for them via the results from Klout.

Are you looking for more of a presence online? You could do a lot worse than to contact a SEO company Bournemouth like Adido who can help you showcase your products and services to the right audience.
Call us now on 0845 260 2343 to find out more, and feel free to leave a comment below. We always appreciate feedback and debate about the subjects we cover in this blog.

Until next time.

The Adido Team.

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Adido goes to the V&A London Design Festival

2011-11-14T11:41:00.000Z

Adido’s senior creative designer Laura Cannings took a trip up to London to be inspired and impressed by the offerings from influential creative minds at the annual London Design Festival. What better place to host the main events than at the beautiful setting of the V&A museum?

The festival hosted many free exhibitions that were quirky and thought provoking such as Grey Matter by artist Man Bartlett. Over two days, visitors to the Digital Design Festival were invited to leave their answer in response to the question, “Where are you from?" via Twitter.

The artist then translated the answers (viewed via a live video link) into a weave of colours, demonstrating how he was geographically inspired to create a multi-coloured tapestry.

Exhibitons such as Grey Matter led the mind to naturally open up for seminars such as The Post Digital Culture with guest speakers: Tom Uglow (Google creative labs), Katy Beale (Caper) and Filip Visnjic (Creative applications network) to name but a few running throughout the day.

The Post Digital Culture seminar was aimed to stretch the imagination of the digital future beyond social media and look at how the boundaries between physical reality and online are being blurred. Speakers asked the audience to participate in live creative activities (such as The Jonny Cash project where the user can help to generate frames for a music video) and watch films such as Augmented City, which showcased beautifully that what was once a “sci-fi film futuristic” effect seems not far from our digital grasps.

Thoughts of the day:

What next for the digital world? It would seem that we are all so immersed in the digital world; for example we take notes on an ipad rather than a notepad and use chat to ask people questions rather than get up to talk. Digital has become such a natural part of everyday life.

It was highlighted by each speaker that the next step is more human interaction with the online experiences of everyday – Augmented Reality! The examples of how brands could promote themselves further through AR were inspiring and something every digital agency should prepare for!

Until next time.

The Adido Team!

Facebook changes and the F8 Conference!

2011-09-26T11:19:00.001+01:00

As you may know, Facebook held a conference last week to announce the changes they have made to the world’s number one social networking site.

This latest version of Facebook is its second major overhaul since it launched in 2004, the last revamp was in 2008.

Here we’ll discuss some of the changes that have been made and analyse how they could affect user interaction with Facebook.

So, what changes have been announced?

Facebook’s aim is “To make this profile the best way to share everything you want and the best way to express who you are” - Mark Zuckerberg at the F8 conference 2011.

He went on to say that “The next era [of Facebook] is going to be defined by the apps and the depth of engagement that is now possible, now that everyone has their connections in place and this network is already established.”

In a nutshell, users will be able to add and find out more about their friends and have more access to more multimedia than ever before.

So, the major changes to expect when you log in to Facebook are:

Timeline:

Described by Fastcompany.com as a “reverse chronology of everything a user has done in their lives.” Facebook collects this data “as a user adds status updates” but users can also go back and fill in past details and events going all the way back to their birth”.

(screenshot from zdnet.com)

Watch Facebook’s video on timeline

Lists

Users can now select their close friends, family and colleagues on Facebook and subscribe to their updates, they can also subscribe to yours. You can also subscribe to updates of people you’re not friends with on Facebook. They will have to approve this before you see anything.

The key feature of this is that you can write something that only your close friends can see. This is very much like the Google+ ‘Circles’ functionality which was seen as one of main differentiators when it launched.

This benefits users because they can update their status to say “Good morning all” or something and make sure via a drop down box that only the people they have selected to be in their close friends list can see it.

This is perfect for people who have a lot of friends on Facebook they don’t speak to for whatever reason.

Timeline: More updates on your friends

Lots of people don’t get to log into Facebook very often, maybe once a week or once a month. The new timeline features allow users to get a summary of what their friends have been up to when they next log in.

As well as this, users will be updated in real time when a friend does something on Facebook.

Apps and content consumption

Once upon a time in the dark old days, users would have needed to view and listen to content outside of Facebook whenever anything was “shared”.

No more! Now Facebook has partnered up with media providers like Spotify, Yahoo, Vevo and Hulu.

These media providers have built apps into Facebook to allow Facebook users to consume content inside Facebook. Some sites like Yahoo will still send you to their site to read the content there but Spotify will allow you to click on a link inside Facebook and listen to music without leaving the site.

Information on media consumed will then be sent to friends in real time - you won’t get asked if you’d like to share your choices at the time of consumption. You’ll be warned up front that your choices will be shared when you install the application.

It’s not just the music you listen to that your friends will know about in real time. Every time you “like” something, comment on something or become someone’s friend, your friends will see it on their real time ticker (just about the “chat” box on the right of your profile page.

Benefits and Concerns

Of course, nothing on Facebook is ever done completely altruistically. As this Fastcompany.com article rightly points out, it’s not just friends and subscribers that will know more about you. Facebook will.

This information is gold dust to advertisers who are always trying to find better ways to target potential consumers. Now they’ll have information on what your favourite songs are, how often you go to the gym and how long you have been engaged.

Identity theft is a real concern. Of course, you can choose who you share your information with, but issues can still arise.

The major benefit of the new real time updates that appear just above the chat box is that you can interact with your friends without necessarily having to go to their page. For example, if your friend updates their status, you’ll know about it immediately and be able to comment via a pop up without having to go to their page. This new feature is very much a direct attempt to compete with Twitter.

It’s unconnected to chat though, which means that even if you make yourself unavailable to chat, you can still see your friends’ updates.

With regards to convenience, the new changes to Facebook couldn’t be better. You can see everything that’s going on from the comfort of your Facebook page, which means you can sign in but get to do other things and check in occasionally as it all updates in real time.

(Screenshot from Tecca.com)

What are the potential benefits to businesses that have company pages on Facebook?

At Adido, we have many clients who run social ad campaigns with us or have “fan” pages that users can “like”.

For our clients, it will be far easier to target relevant users who will be far more likely to convert.

With regards to the “interests” section, the broad category targeting has become a lot more niche, with advertisers being able to target people who like certain films, songs or cats for example. You can also target users who have an IPhone, have been engaged for 6 months or are parents to a child under three.

Of course, to be targeted, consumers would have to provide that specific information about themselves.

With this new tool, we can make our campaigns far more effective, really getting granular in how we target our ads.

Search Engine Watch describes this as “a marketer’s dream” in this article.

Conclusion

The changes made to Facebook will give friends much more information about each other than ever before, however, with the new lists feature, you will be able to control who sees what better as well.

We love the new lists feature, and the real time updates.

We’re also big fans of the timeline feature, as long as people are happy to share that level of information with other users and are educated in the various ways they can choose who sees their data.

Make sure you read the small print when installing an application to your profile. Many manufacturers will tell you up front whether everyone can see what you do on it. You won’t get any other warnings.

At Adido we’re happy that advert targeting will now be even more granular than ever before, this will save time and money in the long run.

Find out more about Adido and our excellent work by going across to www.adido-digital.co.uk.

Would you buy a car from this Computer?

2011-09-22T09:56:00.002+01:00

One in five of those surveyed believe they will buy a car online in the future, and men are more likely to do so than women – 20% compared with 13%. And the under-55s were the most likely to buy online – 24-28% – compared with 12-17% of those aged over 55. A report showed from consumer magazine Which?

And if a consumer has already bought a car online, the likelihood of doing it again rises to 74%, showing a high level of confidence and satisfaction in this purchase route. The breakdown of responses to the survey into consumer’s likelihood to purchase a car online showed

Not at all likely	42%
Not very likely	33%
Fairly likely	13%
Don't know	6%
Very likely	5%

New and used car dealerships should be turning the concerns about buying a car online into ways to drive footfall to their showroom from their dealership website.

Digital marketing company Adido produces websites for car dealerships and has advised clients on the best way to not only present their stock online, but also how to engage with users of their website and encourage them to take the next step by visiting the showroom, booking a test drive or request more information.

Adido’s Sales Director, Gary Seneviratne commented on these findings, “We understand the online market and that for major purchases the consumer is still very wary of completing a transaction on the internet. This is why we work with our clients to use their website to build trust and engage with their customers and make their website visit the first part of an enjoyable purchasing experience and a channel through which the dealership can maintain communication with customers and encourage repeat business.”

Social Media’s Role in the 2011 UK Riots

2011-08-24T11:13:00.001+01:00

The UK riots have racked up considerable column inches since they began on the 6th/7th August 2011 in Tottenham, London.

There has been a lot of talk in the industry regarding the use of social media in the planning and organisation of the rioting and looting activity; and also how social media networks like Twitter and Facebook were both vital in telling rioters where the lootings were taking place. A lot has also been made of how rioters used encrypted instant messaging service Blackberry Messenger (BBM) to work out where to meet.

Reports like this one on Storify.com have also come through that social media helped people stay safe and avoid troubled areas while the riots were occurring.

As a result a very blurred image of social networks including Facebook and Twitter has been portrayed in the popular media in the last week and a half.

There have even been calls to switch off social networks until the furore has died down. This has, quite understandably caused anger. This article on Wired.com explains it quite well.

So, here is our analysis of the role of social media in both inciting and avoiding violence.

The Good

Police were able to prevent one of the riots after monitoring Twitter. From looking at the social network, police in London received intelligence that areas including Oxford Street and the Westfields shopping centre were the rioters’ next locations to target. Police were then able to secure these areas quickly, thanks to tip offs from both rioters’ tweets, and tweets from those uninvolved in the riots trying to prevent more trouble.

Leon Piers, a Bristol resident, used Twitter to help calm down violence in his local community. He set up a Twitter account under @BristolRiots and cycled around the Bristol area tweeting information about where the riots were and details of what was happening. Piers was annoyed with the mass media misreporting what was happening in his area and also that people were using Twitter to spread false rumours about the riots. His real time social journalism approach can only be admired and adapted by those in the ever changing digital industry. Piers tweets helped police and the emergency services calm the area and told people where to avoid. This undoubtedly kept many people safe and helped prevent the riots spreading further.

Twitter also helped clean up an area of London. Within hours of the riots, #riotcleanup was trending on Twitter after the @riotcleanup profile was set up to get people to clean up Clapham, which they did in spades. Other areas affected by the riots were soon seeing flocks of tweeters keen to help clean up other areas of the UK including Birmingham and Manchester, with all planned clean ups posted from location specific ‘riotcleanup’ twitter accounts. This article provides more information on the London clean up.

This article on Storify.com includes screenshots of some touching Tweets sent out to calm the violence and make sure that vulnerable people were taken care of.

The Bad

Although not a social network, Blackberry Messenger has been blamed for a lot of the violence as it emerged that people had been using the encrypted service to organise where to meet. The instant messaging service gives users a special PIN number and you can send messages that only users utilising that PIN can access. Therefore rioters could easily contact friends and gangs via BBM to plan their next attack without the police knowing.

Facebook has also been blamed for inciting a lot of the violence with pages being set up with times and dates for people to meet. Currently, many teenagers are facing lengthy stays in jail for trying to start riots in the towns that they lived in.

Conclusion

So, social media did a lot of good with regards to calming the trouble down and containing the violence but also did its part to start and enhance it.

Requesting that social media sites be shut down however is not just unfair to the millions of users who had nothing to do with the trouble; but it takes away a key freedom and leaves people bereft of real time instant information, a real bonus that Twitter brings to the journalistic sphere. It has also enabled some excellent citizen journalism with Leon Piers being an exemplary example.

We have seen the use of social media in rallying people together to do positive things like praise the police and organise a mass cleanup of affected areas across the country. The future potential that social media has on top of its existing potential is sky high and the minority that used it to incite violence should not ruin the experience for those who opposed the rioting.

Tell us what you think by commenting below or Tweeting us @adido. We’re really interested to get your views, predictions and analysis on social media in the current political and social climate!

We’ll be back with more digital media news and analysis very soon! Keep watching for new posts from the Adido team.

Adido is a full service digital marketing agency specialising in all aspects on online marketing from web design, usability and content management systems right through to SEO, PPC, online PR, social media marketing and copywriting.

Call us any time on 0845 260 2343 to find out more!

What Car Buyers do on the Internet

2011-08-05T14:55:00.002+01:00

Buying a new car online is the least use of the internet by consumers. Researching their next purchase is the biggest reason by far to browse car dealership websites.

A Survey by consumer magazine Which? found that half of consumers made use of the internet to search for cars for sale, review cars, compare specifications and prices.

The table below breaks down the way consumers were found to use the internet in connection with buying a new or used car:

Reason	Percentage of people
Look for car reviews	52%
Look for car specifications	49%
Compare price of different cars	46%
Looking for cars for sale (new & used)	38%
Did not use internet at all	29%
To find a dealer	24%
Assessing availability & cost of car insurance	22%
Assessing availability & price of car accessories	10%
Placing order & buying car	5%
Booking a test drive	2%
Don't know	1%

Today a car dealership website makes a fantastic shop window and a chance to engage with browsing customers like never before. A new consumer survey into car buying habits carried out on autotrader.co.uk has revealed that more than two thirds (70%) of shoppers now use both the internet and mobile site before deciding what vehicle to purchase.

Adido raises £200 for Youth Cancer Trust

2011-07-28T11:36:00.000+01:00

You may have heard that we have recently launched our exciting new branding; this includes a new website, logo and “Do Digital Better” branding.

To celebrate this, we held a party for clients, colleagues and friends at the Royal Bath Hotel. The party launched the new logo and branding and also gave us the chance to announce our chosen charity: Youth Cancer Trust.

We have chosen to work with this charity because, like us, they always try and do better than they did the day before. At Adido, we never rest on our successes and always strive to improve ourselves every day; this is why we were pleased to see that reflected in the work that Youth Cancer Trust does.

As part of our work with Youth Cancer Trust, we will be doing some exciting fundraising work for them.

We started this at the party with a fun charity raffle and a highly debated “guess the number of millions” challenge!

The prizes and winners are as follows:

One case of Bollinger champagne (donated by Additional Media) – won by Lindsay from Postgoldforcash.com.
One case of wine (donated by AJI Interactive) – won by Natalie King, Project Coordinator at Adido.
A selection of executive gifts (donated by BH1 Promotions) – won by Derek from Youth Cancer Trust
Two games of Bowling and a meal for six (Donated by Bowlplex) – won by Lauren from Business Link
A free email newsletter set up with Adido Mail and worth £500 (donated by Adido) – won by Paul from BCHA
A night for two in Park Central Hotel (donated by Park Central Hotel) – won by Jenny from Vocalzone.

The raffle and “guess the number of millions” challenge raised £200 for the charity!

We’re very pleased with the amount raised so far and hope to raise even more with our impending charity bike ride in September.

Want to take part or sponsor us? Simply go to http://www.adi.do and contact us!

We are a vibrant full service digital marketing agency in Bournemouth specialising in search marketing, site usability and design and other exciting aspects of the digital world!

Call now on 0845 260 2343 to find out more about the outstanding work we are doing and our exciting new branding.

Surviving Panda 2.2

2011-07-26T10:47:00.001+01:00

As you may know, there was another tweak to the new Google algorithm in June that saw many sites losing their PageRank and SERP rankings.

Even the mighty Google.com went from PageRank ten to PageRank nine, which suggests the changes were a lot more severe than Google has originally hinted.

What has changed?

Anyone in digital marketing not living under a huge rock will know that Google updates its algorithm several times a month. Most of these are tiny tweaks that only make small differences to search. Others, like the Panda update in March have had more catastrophic repercussions for webmasters and online businesses.

The latest tweak to Panda has been rolled out to tackle more “scraper” sites that actually outrank the sites they have stolen content from.

Because of the updates, it has become even clearer that a good PageRank is not going to be something that automatically puts you at the top of the SERP listings.

When PageRank was first brought in it was massively important and was seen as the be all and end all. It was more vital to achieving good rankings in the SERPs and seen as the ultimate barometer on which the worth of a site was based by both Google and users.

Over the years however, this has dropped in importance and is best seen as a rough indication of trust of the page it is showing for.

What is important?

What has become clearer in the recent Google algorithm updates is that content on sites needs to be written for people and not search engine spiders. Not sure what we mean? Go to a site where the content has just been written for SEO purposes and note the differences it will have from original, useful content written for people.

Penalised content which is targeted by the Panda update:

      Is stuffed with keywords.
      Has been found in its entirety on other sites.
      Isn’t relevant to the page it is on or the page it points at.
      Is of poor quality.
      Has other attributes that indicate it has been written purely for search engine spiders (such as high bounce rates and low time spent on page.

How do I survive Panda 2.2?

Make sure your content isn’t just written for search engines.

Make sure the content is written so that people find it useful.

Structure your copy properly, making sure any links are pointers to what the page is about.

Take down any copy that could be found anywhere else on the web. There is really no excuse for duplicate content! A good place to check is www.copyscape.com or www.dupecop.com. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

What to do next?

The repercussions of the Google Panda effect are still being felt by website owners across the world. We guess at this point there is still more to come from Google as it looks to really crack down on traditional link practises and it focus’ more on getting ‘relevant’ and ‘quality’ websites nearer the top of their search engine listings.

Keep your eyes locked on the Adido blog for more news as it happens!

Page Rank is still important in determining the trust your site has, but it won’t save you if you’ve got duplicate content.

Find out more about the excellent services offered by Adido by heading across to http://adi.do now. We’re a full service digital marketing agency and the one stop shop for all things digital marketing (including PPC advertising) for many businesses across the UK.

Google+: Adido’s View on the New Social Network

2011-07-22T10:33:00.001+01:00

Google+ is the latest social network that has been released on the web. As the name suggests, it is run by the almighty Google who owns a whopping 92% of the UK web search market share.

It is currently running in beta on an ‘invitation only’ basis with gmail being a requirement but it has already caused huge hype in the digital world. On a rainy Thursday afternoon we thought ‘hey, why not do a Google+ poll of those in the office?’ Ten minutes later and the survey was up. Here’s a snapshot of our findings from our digital marketing agency (well, those 16 who were in yesterday) and our views on Google+:

68% of our office has a Google+ account
55% of us who have an account use it twice a week, if not more
Out of the 68% of us who have both a Google+ and Facebook account, 38% of us prefer Google+
But… 60% of us think Google+ wont overtake Facebook

Google+ in a Nutshell

Google+ was launched at the end of June 2011 and has been defined by Google as an ongoing social project combining several social services in a convenient collection. It’s rumoured to be Facebook’s new rival but we’ll leave it to you to make your own opinion on that.

One of the main things Google+ does is allow you to segment your online connections by the circles feature. Here, you can group your online connections into circles and then choose when you post information which circles it is visible to. Therefore you can choose what you share and with who, something which is more user-friendly and efficient than creating different friend lists in Facebook.

Your stream is where you’ll see all the updates from people in your circles, much like the Facebook feed.

Hangouts is another main feature which enables real time video chatting online for up to 10 people. You can add yourself to a connection’s ‘hangout’ and ‘hang’ with them in an online real time video chat. Or, if video isn’t your thing you can chat via instant messaging.

Mobile is for mobile sharing. Providing you have the Google mobile app installed on your mobile phone then you can choose to add your location to every post or update you make. Also the feature ‘Instant Upload’ can automatically post your photos to Google+ as you take them.

Will Google+ Overtake Facebook?

Who knows. The thing is everyone who uses Facebook is used to how it works, with a lot of backlash hitting the social network at the slightest change in layout. 60% of us at Adido think it won’t overtake Facebook as it will appeal to tech people mainly, with the average user (someone who doesn’t work in the online industry) not bothering to create a duplicate profile and list of friends to what they have on Facebook.

Annabel, Adido Digital Marketing Exec: “Why would the average user bother to go through and add all their friends that they have on Facebook again on a social network that is essentially very similar to Facebook? On Facebook a user has years worth of photos, links and videos. The only appeal I can see for the average user is the chance of real time video chatting. Otherwise, people are happy using the clunky but familiar list feature in Facebook to segment which information they share and with who.”

Chris, Adido Lead Developer: “Only techy people will sign up. 'Normal' users **might** bother, but won't stick with it.”

Nikki, Digital Marketing Director: “I can’t cope with another social network on a platform that will take work to build up – for now I am happy with Facebook as my social platform and will not be switching. Though I might have to know more about it for clients and monitoring business usage of the +1 network.”

What We Don’t Like About Google+:

More domination for Google on the internet (both in search and social)
Doesn’t offer anything hugely different
Cant post on your wall, only in the stream
Not all Facebook friends are there

The remaining 40% of the team at Adido think that Google+ has a good chance of overtaking Facebook. The majority of this 40% said their main reason for liking Google+ was purely because it’s not Facebook! Results revealed that it is the potential of Google+, the clean user-friendly interface and the fact that it integrates into existing counts (e.g. Picasa) which presents it as a threat to Facebook. Also with Facebook’s numerous privacy issues the idea of a new social network from a trusted company is favourable to many.

Joel, Adido Junior Front End Web Developer: “Google is one of the most popular websites on the internet and a very trusted brand. Facebook has let it's users down far too many times when it comes to privacy.”

Craig, Adido Web Developer: “Google+ will do to Facebook what Facebook did to Myspace. Evolution!”

What We Like About Google+:

Clean and simple interface
Segmenting friends into circles
It’s new!
User-friendly
Features; huddles, video chat

Our Predictions for Google+

The general consensus from the Adido office is that Google+ probably won’t overtake Facebook, but it does have the potential to do so. We reckon Google+ will continually update its features making it bigger and incorporating more of the elements Google has already developed, and elements that they have yet to develop. If Facebook combats its multiple privacy issues and stays as it is, users will have no reason to leave Facebook. If Google+ offers something unique that the average user is after then there is a chance they may ditch Facebook for Google+.

Andy, Adido Marketing Director :“Google+ will become very popular with the tech audience who are sceptical about Facebook but are bought into the Google brand and trust it. With the amount of users there are on Facebook, it is a huge mountain to try and climb. Given that they have diversified from search into a fully functioning media company, getting this to work will be very important to them as part of the wider advertising piece.”

Mischa, Adido Digital Marketing Director: “It will get bigger and try and incorporate all elements of the current Google landscape, videos, shopping, search documents chat, gmail etc - this will allow people to have a one stop shop for everything.”

For the time being, most of us at Adido are going to keep up both our Google+ and Facebook accounts. 25% of those at Adido with a Google+ account will keep it going in the long term as we’re already using it more than five times a week. However, we reckon in a few months Google+ will have dropped off the radar for the majority of us.

Let us know your thoughts and predictions on Google+ by leaving a comment!