How Google Plans To Dominate The Travel Sphere

Ever since Google was founded 15 years ago in 1998, the search company has grown and evolved into what it is today: a force to be reckoned with, an omnipresence that spans across online to mobile operating services. The folks at Frontier created an infographic showing the Google infrastructure today: did you know all these services and APIs existed? How many are you presently using?

Notice how Google+ is actually NOT listed as a stand-alone silo but rather stems from the heart of Google Search, the content you share (presumably through your blog, public social platforms and Google+) and the people you share it with, i.e. Your Circles. This says a lot, in particular to those nay-sayers of Google+ as “just another social media”. 

5 Ways To Increase Conversions From Google Shopping

This is a guest post by Bob Lang, leading up to our January 24th Webinar at 11 am PST with ConversionIQ on how to increase conversions. ConversionIQ, a ecommerce conversion rate optimization agency, will be teaching merchants how to increase conversions on their websites, and we’ll be talking about how to use Google Shopping effectively and how to increase conversions there.

Bob Lang has over 20 years experience managing multi-channel businesses. For the past 5 years he has been focused on helping other businesses optimize their on-site revenue performance. Earlier with HiConversion and now with ConversionIQ he has worked with 100s of small, medium and large enterprise ecommerce teams to improve conversions by doing in-depth analysis, gaining insights and validating results using a broad range of optimization tools.

At ConversionIQ we do in-depth analysis into visitor segments and make data driven recommendations to improve conversions based on customer motivation and behavior.  We have found that visitors who come in from product feeds are motivated but skeptical.  Here are 5 things you should focus on to improve conversions for your product feeds:

4 Simple ways to make AdWords perform better

If you’re in to PPC, I’m sure you would’ve come across situations where no matter what Ad text you try, the CTR just sits there, no traction, no improvements what so ever, and you think, what now?

Better performance or better CTR?

Better CTRs doesn’t always mean success though, it depends on what campaign you’re running. But obviously, better CTR means more eyeballs, more traffic and a better reputation. If you have remarketing/retargeting campaigns running better CTRs are a good way to build that initial volume of interested targets.

Well, here are four simple tips to increase CTR on SEM campaigns.

Google Wallet

Google Wallet is the combination of Google Checkout and the Google Wallet product formerly created as just a phone payment system.

Google originally introduced Google Checkout as a method for online payments. At the time it was introduced, 2006, Google wasn't a major vendor of anything but keyword advertising. There was no Android Market/Google Play Store, but there was PayPal, and the move was widely seen as an attempt to compete with the popular payment system. (PayPal has even sued Google over the accusation that Google Wallet uses trade secrets provided by former PayPal employees later hired by Google.) Google Checkout was intended to provide online merchants and easier way to accept credit card payments without having to pay huge transaction fees.

More Google Shopping news: Comparison Shopping Engines are in the mix!

One of the e-commerce experts at ChannelAdvisor uncovered some interesting data that led us to an important discovery about the new Google Shopping / PLA.  Before we jump into the details, let me explain how we discovered it, the CSI work that led to it and then what it means for retailers.

How did we discover this?

The New Google Search: Six Changes That Rocked the SEO World

In a little over a year, Google has rendered 10 years of SEO dogma mostly useless. Go ahead and throw out everything you used to hold dear, such as link building, keyword-rich content, internal links, and tracking results on SERPs. It’s time to start over.

Is all that drama necessary? Yes, it is.

Recently, Google made changes that together have dismantled what we have taken for granted in the world of SEO. Each of the six major changes focused on one aspect of search. The cumulative impact of the changes has me calling for the end of an era.

July 2012 Changes in the World of Search Marketing

There weren’t any Penguin updates this month, but a couple of Panda updates to “refresh”. Google makes these updates and claims 1% of queries are affected. It sounds small, but is actually billions of queries.

Google has in the past used a team of Quality Raters to examine certain search engine results pages, and has expanded that concept to regular web users. There are recent sightings of Google popups asking about the quality of the results. This could be tied into Google+, and could become a powerful social search feature over time.

3 Ways PPC Averages Lie

News organizations love to report averages. For example, in 2002 the CDC released data about the average height and weight of American adults. According to their data, the average adult woman is 5'4" and weighs 163 pounds.

Now think about all the adult women you know. Are they all 5'4"? Do they all weigh 163 pounds? Of course they don’t!

Averages are a necessary evil when it comes to reporting numbers. Averages help us spot trends.

Why the new Google Shopping is bad for eCommerce Merchants

From August 15th this year, Google shopping/ merchant/ base/ froogle/ products etc etc will become a paid service. This isn’t breaking news but for some reading this, it will be a shock. Google has been taking steps recently to force companies into using their services because after all, they are a business and they get no business when we click organic results.

Google, Περισσότερες από 1.000 αιτήσεις λογοκρισίας από κυβερνήσεις

H Google μας δίνει ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον στοιχείο για την προσπάθεια των κυβερνήσεων να λογοκρίνουν το Ίντερνετ, μιας και ο κολοσσός του Διαδικτύου δηλώνει ότι έχουν γίνει περισσότερα από 1.000 αιτήματα από κυβερνητικούς παράγοντες για το κατέβασμα περιεχομένου κατά τη διάρκεια των τελευταίων έξι μηνών.

Good-bye Google Places, Hello Google Plus Local

In another move to drive traffic to its social networking site and integrate its various searches, Google shifted all of its Google Places pages into Google+. Eighty million Google Places pages are now Google+ Local pages, and Google+ users can access a new tab on the left, labeled Local, to get at this information. So what's gained from the change?

Greg Sterling gives a full review over at Search Engine Land. It's a pretty dramatic change, and a big help to Google+ users who might patronize these businesses, as well as the businesses themselves.

Search engines driving less traffic to Facebook Pages: report

Some advertisers may be questioning their investments in paid Facebook ads, but even the brands most unhappy with Facebook's paid advertising offerings are, by and large, continuing to spend big bucks on their Facebook Pages.

Those Facebook Pages may not technically be owned media, but Facebook Pages are free, and brands have more control over them than anything else on Facebook, so they're often treated like owned media.

Up to one million malware-infected users face internet blackout on July 9

Up to one million users face an internet blackout on July 9 as managed malicious DNS servers are due to be shut down. The rogue DNS servers are currently in the control of the FBI, having been commandeered late last year.

It’s all because of a malware threat known as DNSChanger. DNSChanger alters DNS settings of infected computers, allowing cyber criminals to transparently redirect valid URLs to malicious sites. Malicious sites might mimic well-known services in an attempt to lure users to unwittingly handover passwords or credit card information.

6 Clues That Show Your Website Has Been Penalized

For many months now, Google has been rolling out algorithm updates known as “Panda” and “Penguin”.
Hence, many websites have suffered, even those considered authorities on the web. From their high perch in search results, some have fallen to the bottom. On the other hand, a few disappeared entirely.

But not only Google has been penalizing several sites, other leading search engines such as Bing and Yahoo have also been wiping off some portals from their indexes.

Now, this has many owners or developers wondering if SEO still works or if they have even applied the right strategies at all. In fact, a query on Google that starts with “SEO is…” produces the following results (see the next image).

Should You Be Worried about Google’s Latest “Penguin” Update?

You probably know about Google’s “Panda” update last year, which created a major shift in which sites ranked well on Google’s search results pages and which didn’t.
Now there’s the latest update called “Penguin” (what is it with the cute animal names?) that has the internet buzzing again.
Just like with previous updates, some sites have been smacked so hard they’re seeing stars. Others are actually doing better.
As you can guess, you’ll hear a lot more noise from those who were bitten by the Penguin than you will from those who were rewarded.

Οι κυριότερες αιτίες για τη χαμηλή κατάταξη μιας ιστοσελίδας στη μηχανή αναζήτησης Google

Έχοντας μια ιστοσελίδα με ποιοτικό περιεχόμενο και νομίζοντας ότι κάνετε τα πάντα σωστά ώστε να ωθήσετε τη Google να σας ανεβάσει στην κορυφή των αποτελεσμάτων της μηχανής αναζήτησης, τελικά παρατηρείται ότι παρά τις προσπάθειες η ιστοσελίδα σας δεν κατατάσσεται σε υψηλές θέσεις.

Παρακάτω παρατίθενται μια λίστα από κοινές παρατυπίες που μπορεί να κρατήσουν ακόμη και τις καλύτερες ιστοσελίδες μακριά από τις κορυφαίες θέσεις των αποτελεσμάτων αναζήτησης.

Αιτίες χαμηλής κατάταξης ιστοσελίδας

Καινοτομία στη μηχανή αναζήτησης της Google

Μέχρι τώρα η αναζήτηση αφορούσε κυρίως την αντιστοίχιση των λέξεων-κλειδιών με ερωτήματα. Το πρόβλημα είναι όμως ότι κάθε λέξη μπορεί να έχει διαφορετικό νόημα ανάλογα με το πλαίσιο στο οποίο χρησιμοποιείται.
Προσπαθώντας να αντιμετωπίσει αυτό το θέμα η η Google ανέπτυξε το Knowledge Graph, ένα ευφυές μοντέλο το οποίο θα αρχίσει να αξιοποιείται σταδιακά στις αναζητήσεις των χρηστών. Στόχος του είναι να κατανοεί τις λέξεις ως έννοιες όπως βέβαια και τις μεταξύ τους σχέσεις.

Google Page Load Speed Analysis Identify Opportunities for Improvement

The widespread availability of fixed line and mobile broadband has made the internet a faster, smoother place for the majority of users. However, it has also significantly raised expectations with the result that sites which are poorly optimised for speed will be ignored in favour of those that load quickly and perform consistently.
Google Analytics regularly publishes Site Speed reports in order to demonstrate which sites are fastest loading and which countries around the world routinely offer the best performance for web browsers.

Αποθηκεύοντας δεδομένα στο «σύννεφο» του διαδικτύου

Η εμφάνιση του Google Drive ενισχύει τον ανταγωνισμό στο χώρο των υπηρεσιών «διαφύλαξης» αρχείων στο Web.

Το cloud computing, δηλαδή η δυνατότητα αποθήκευσης δεδομένων και λειτουργίας εφαρμογών απευθείας μέσω Διαδικτύου, αποτελεί την επόμενη γενιά πληροφορικής. Και το αποτέλεσμα είναι το ενδιαφέρον για τις cloud υπηρεσίες να αυξάνεται διαρκώς, ιδίως για συγκεκριμένους τομείς όπως είναι η αποθήκευση δεδομένων. Ένας τομέας όπου ο ανταγωνισμός γίνεται πλέον όλο και πιο έντονος μετά την παρουσίαση στα μέσα της εβδομάδας του Google Drive, της σχετικής υπηρεσίας της Google, η οποία θα βρεθεί απέναντι στις αντίστοιχες υπηρεσίες κολοσσών όπως είναι το SkyDrive της Microsoft, το iCloud της Apple και το S3 της Amazon αλλά και τα εξαιρετικά δημοφιλή Dropbox και Box.

Four Sizzling Hot Google AdWords Optimization Tips

Apply these four tips to dramatically improve the efficiency and ROI of your AdWords campaigns.

Tip #1:  Beware of Broad-Matched Sponsored Keywords

Are you using broad-matched sponsored keywords in your AdWords account? If so, you need to be careful because Google often triggers ads to display from irrelevant search keyword phrases. Showing your ad with irrelevant search queries costs you money in two ways.