Top 10 Google Products you might not know about

A lot of people who aren’t interested in search engine optimisation might not realise the quantity of products that Google offers outside search.  Google spend a lot of time developing new and innovative features to strengthen their hold on the search engine market and advertising, that generates the majority of their revenues.  They also build and own many products outside what would typically be thought of as’ search’, and some of their most notable products include YouTube and Android...

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Google personalises your search results even further with “Search Plus Your World”

Google recently announced another feature they have included in searches they dub “Search Plus Your World”, whose rollout began today. It’s a new idea that brings public and private search results together into one mixed set, giving a diverse set of results tailored only to you. Not everyone will see the change yet as it is still rolling out, and is currently only for those searching in English and are signed in to Google.com. One of the first concerns of this new feature is privacy. Private content...

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Is ‘Search Plus Your World’ anti-competitive?

I know what you’re thinking, not another ‘Search Plus Your World‘ article!  It’s true that that the blogosphere has become over saturated with commentators analysing the update from every angle you could possible think of.  Is it a positive move?  Is it anti-competitive? Is it an attempt to get Facebook investigated for privacy violations? Is it damaging SEO? Is it improving SEO? Should more brands adopt Google Plus profile pages?  Somewhere, all these topics and more will have...

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Can SEO still be effective without Social Media Marketing?

The start of a New Year marks a time when significant voices within an industry begin making their predictions for the next twelve months within said industry.  This is very much the case in search engine optimisation, and numerous ideas and theories have already been put forward about what 2012 holds in store for SEO.  One suggestion that really jumped out at me came from Rand Fishkin at seoMoz, who said, “SEO without social media will become a relic of the past“.  I’m a big fan...

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Need Good Content? Learn from the Best

Whilst there is much more to making your site successful than writing content, the vast majority of your visitors will notice if you gloss over it. At the very least, content should tell the reader where they are and what they can expect to find within your site. Beyond that? Well, that really is up to you. But what if you have no idea where to start? When looking to strengthen the quality of your site’s content, studying trusted sites which rank highly can be a fantastic way to pick up some tips....

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Twitter the first for big news?

Last week I read an article about the new Google initiative Search plus Your World. In this article Twitter argues that this new search innovation will make breaking news harder to find for users also stating that Twitter is first for big breaking news. The article can be found here: After reading I couldn’t help but wonder is Twitter becoming the best for breaking news? Some eye opening points were made in the article like how many tweets are made per day (250 million!) most of those tweets will...

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Make Crowdsourcing part of your SEO Strategy

One of the best things I have found about working in search engine optimisation and internet marketing, is that you come to really come to appreciate the great ideas and innovations on the web that might pass by people whose understanding of SEO is relatively limited. I was recently shown a blog hosted by Starbuck’s called ‘My Starbucks Idea‘, where members can suggest ideas they have for products.  These ideas are then voted on and discussed; as the suggestion gains the attention of the community,...

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Google updating privacy policys

In just over a month, Google will be making some changes to their privacy policies and Terms of Service. Google have over 70 privacy documents covering all of the different products which is somewhat complicated so they’re rolling out a new main privacy policy that covers the majority of products and explains what information they collect and how they use it, in a much more readable way. Some privacy notices will have to remain separate however over 60 will be consolidated into the new main privacy...

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24 Signs (You’ll Recognise) That You’ve Been Doing SEO Too Long

1: You’ve spent longer than 30 minutes crafting a title tag. 2: You tell your colleagues that it’s “all about TRAFFIC, not RANKINGS!”. Yet you are secretly as obsessed as they are. 3: When you’re not at work you check rankings on you’re phone, making sure to go through a proxy to get desktop SERPS, naturally. 4: You’ve been so happy that a website was finally ranking on first page… before realising you’re signed in. 5: From now on you’re OCD to check you’re not signed in, your location is set...

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SEO strategy tips for Mobile Apps

Search Engine Optimisation techniques are well documented throughout the internet and are consistently applied to websites all over the world on a daily basis. Yet with the growing importance of SEO for mobile web applications, these techniques seem to be getting overlooked. The fusion between Desktop and Mobile worlds has been created by the explosive popularity of apps which is reshaping web links around the App Store and Android market. The most popular apps listed in the App Store and Android...

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Google tests direct email subscription in search results

Google is currently experimenting with Adwords and has gone beyond the regular text ads we are all used to seeing and added Google Email Subscription Ads. The new ad format allows companies to buy ads which will automatically fill in the “Subscribe to newsletter” slot with the persons email address (if logged in). If the person chooses to subscribe the email address is sent to the advertiser directly, however this is only made clear to the user if they click on the privacy button which details...

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Google+ Censoring Profile Images

As we all already know, Google+ has been known to actively censor usernames; only real names can be used on Google+. It is however less commonly known that Google+ actively censors profile pictures too. This week, this came quite known after TechCrunch writer MG Siegler’s Google+ profile picture vanished twice. The first time it vanished; he thought it must have been a bug however when he uploaded it again and it then vanished a second time, he received the following message from a Googler: As...

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Pinterest – A New Online Marketing Opportunity

With over 6 million users, and counting, Pinterest is the site everyone is talking about. Created in 2008, but only recently gathering pace, Pinterest has blasted into the top ten most visited social networking sites of the past year, and continues to gain popularity. Pinterest is a social bookmarking site where users can gather images to share with others. It is useful to think of the site as a virtual, interactive scrapbook, where you can organise pictures (or videos) that you find interesting...

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Quick SEO Tip – Internal Linking

Hi guys, I’m going to be starting a new quick tip series for the beginners out there, but there may be some use for the advanced SEO’s out there to maybe recap or spark some conversation. Today’s tip is the truth about internal linking. Internal linking can be useful to improve information hierarchy, help spiders crawl and spread link juice around your site but it can sometimes be misunderstood when we bring search engine algorithms into the equation, take this HTML for example: <h1><a...

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The Facebook Fix

I can’t really decide if the following is good news or bad news. A recent study in the journal Psychology Studies has found that the urge for a ‘Facebook Fix’ if you may, is just as strong, if not stronger than the decoy of tobacco and alcohol. My last blog post for SEO Consult was back in July of 2011, exploring the gamification of social media and in the presence of the social stock market, Empire Avenue. If this recent study is anything to go by, then pardon the speculation, but I’d expect that...

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A new social media player in town…

With a staggering figure of 1 billion users expected to be using Facebook by August of this year, Google + reported to have reached the 100 million member mark earlier this week and Twitter to reach 500 million uses by the end of March, there may not be a better time for businesses to exploit these platforms – however have we got a new player on the social media horizon? Largely gone under the radar of many social media users, Pinterest has slowly become ever more popular over the last year and...

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Quick SEO Tip #2 – Keyword Performance

Hi guys, we’ve got the second instalment in the quick tip series for SEO here. When starting an SEO campaign, create a list of possible keywords to target, that you think are relevant to the site. Pick the 5 most relevant keywords with the most search volume with the least competition. Pick atleast another 5 keywords to use on Adwords. If you find that the keywords that you’ve chosen to use within Adwords are converting well, look to see if it’s possible that you should change the keywords that...

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Website Competitions

We all want to have a chance to win something, it brings a light optimistic feeling being part of a competition you might not win…but still have a chance. Should websites do this in order to add to traffic though? Could prize draws help in overall sales conversions? It’s an idea isn’t it depending on the companies’ budget and scale of popularity of course.Recently Google released a new scheme with Screenwise which allow users to “get paid while browsing the web” (the scheme is now closed)....

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HOW TO: Boost Holiday Sales With Commonly Overlooked Marketing Strategies

You might want to add customer experience to the annual list you’re making and checking twice. Gift buyers are finding new ways to shop with feature-rich smartphones and immediate delivery of digital products and services. Here are a few suggestions to help retailers make one final push for a merry customer experience that will drive sales this season. Digital Gift Cards Shoppers are now looking for digital equivalents to gift cards to bypass the barrage of plastic many receive this time of year....

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The 12 Days of Holiday Revenue Maximization for Your Online Store

Coremetrics data shows that online spending on Black Friday this year was up 15.9% compared to last year, and up even more on Cyber Monday. That is a great start, but it is too early for online retailers to rejoice. While it is good news that more holiday dollars are being spent online, most online retailers will fall short of achieving their full revenue potential this season. For those of you who are committed to maximizing revenue during the holidays, here are 12 ways — for 12 days — to do...

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