New research from UKOM – UK Online Measurement – shows that there’s been a significant increase in the amount of time that British residents are spending online. According to UKOM, web use has grown by 65% in the last three years; web users are spending an average of just under a day a month on the internet.
There’s significant change in the way people are using the internet. Social networks and blogs are taking up the majority of time spent online. The growing focus on information sharing and interaction between users and the sites they visit is clearly reflected in UKOM’s report.
What does this information mean for the online marketing industry? An increase in web use means there’s more potential for engaging with visitors. Well, although UKOM’s figures might seem distressing at first, showing a relative 3% fall in the use of search engine websites, there’s a concurrent 10% increase in the use of portals, which increasingly incorporate their own search functions. Think Yahoo!, MSN’s integration of Bing on its homepages, the increasing ubiquity of iGoogle… People are using the web more, so they’re using search more, they’re just getting used to having search come as part of their portal.
It’s the increasingly social nature of web use that presents the biggest opportunities in our industry. Brands and businesses – i.e. our existing clients and our future clients – need to react to this change, and we need to be there to offer them the skill-sets and the tools that meet their needs.
It’s in the interests of the search platforms to facilitate effective advertising and marketing, hence Google’s quick response to changes in web use (Content network remarketing, for example). It’s in our interest, and the interests of our competitors, to do a number of things:
- Continue to develop our analytics methodology so we can deliver actionable insights within a changing online environment.
- Adapt our use of advertising platforms so we’re always exploiting the opportunities that will benefit our clients.
- Ensure that we continue to deliver best-practice SEO which is always centred on the visitor.
We’re well up for it.
Does anyone have any other opinions on what UKOM’s report indicates for our industry? Leave a comment and share your insight.
May 21st, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in General | Tags: content network, google, search stat, seo, Social Media, web analytics
It has been announced that MPs are concerned over the growth of Google’s share of the search market, which increased by nearly 90% in the last year.
Twenty six MPs have strongly requested that ministers “consider measures to prevent monopolisation”, hoping that Google are referred to the Competition Commission.
The MPs and ministers have growing concerns for those who buy advertising via Google.
Andrew Dismore, Labour MP, commented: “A monopoly is unhealthy. Google cornering the market is not good for competitive pricing or quality of service.”
As a search management company we do have a slightly different view, we understand the concerns however with over 90% of all UK searches being performed on Google it is an incredible advertising resource.
For more info and to debate this issue go to Brand Republic.
February 26th, 2009 - No Comments »
Posted in General | Tags: google, search stat
As Mobile web becomes more and more common we start to see new applications and ways to encourage users to get onto go mobile. In the past 12 months we have seen the introduction of unlimited mobile internet from numerous providers around the UK, which is available on a number of different handsets.
Approximately 8 months ago Three made a push to encourage users to talk free with Skype, which seemed like a great idea but with handsets not being able to keep up with mobile speeds and still limit number of people on Skype and other online VOIP applications the success was not as some expected, including myself.
A regular browse on a PDA will show websites, but eh styling of 99% are not web based and even if there are most of the time they never fit my phone quite right. The introduction of automated Mobile Website Creators by taking a standard RSS feed and changing the content to an image free site has changed some sites, but once again cross platform integration is still limited.
So what will the G1 bring? After reviewing all the specs it offers pretty much the same as good old standard windows mobile, a few advancements here and there but nothing that stands out and says ‘ we are now ready for all web users’. Google have investing some time in developing the ‘featured’ products, which are also available through normal browsing but have helped to make the use of them on the G1 much easier and for anyone who users Google for the entire work space it will be a great improvement and time saver.
Other mobile companies such as Apple are working with Google to upgrade their phones standard to compete with the G1 and it will be great to see more web friendly phones and hopefully in the near future the use of social marketing and an advertising sponsored network to boast mobile web into all UK handset owners.
November 3rd, 2008 - No Comments »
Posted in General | Tags: apple, google, mobile web
Google have announced they are to reverse their policy regarding the use of the AdWords by companies promoting gambling sites as of 17 October. Prior to the change advertisers were not allowed to bid on keywords or show ads relating to the gambling industry.
The policy change is currently just for the google.co.uk search engine not the Content Network and the ads will only display to searchers who have disabled the Safe Search filter, via the search options page.
UK companies who wish to make use of this new policy change will need to be registered with the Gambling Commission, those companies who are based outside the UK and within the EEA must be licensed to advertise in their respective countries.
To find out more about this policy change please contact our team on +44 (0)161 427 9304
October 16th, 2008 - No Comments »
Posted in Search Engine Marketing | Tags: content network, gambling industry, google, search network
Ever since the implementation of Google’s ‘Quality Score’ it has changed the way listings have been displayed in the Sponsored links. Not only was your ad important but it also was important to change your landing pages to ensure that the score was not lowered.
In actual fact any landing page should have been relevant to the key phrase already if a SEO strategy was in place, but for those obscure phrases and new landing pages it was emphases even more.
The new Dynamic Quality score works on a number of the same principles as before but it can utilise your landing page much more, with the ultimate goal of helping shoppers find the correct information, which in the long run should hopefully dynamically lower the over CPC and bounce rate for a PPC Campaign.
The Quality score now takes every phrase searched for and looks to the landing page to ensure that it is relevant to the searched phrase. It t hen will dynamically change the quality score, which in turn will adjust the position of the ad to ensure the end user is seeing the most relevant ads for their search. Because exact searches do not differ this will be most widely used on the broad match phrases.
Therefore to ensure that your quality score is at its best take advantage of the dynamic quality score by ensuring that all your landing pages are targeted to a not only your exact match phrase but to those phrase which might come along side your broad match phrases.
October 14th, 2008 - No Comments »
Posted in PPC Management | Tags: adwords, google, ppc, quality score, search network, seo
