tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182667372024-03-13T02:06:09.898+00:00Andrew R H GirdwoodAndrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comBlogger1201125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-74377559700214287522022-08-22T15:00:00.000+01:002022-08-22T15:00:28.763+01:00Google's algorithm update versus your brand<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google made the (still unexpected) decision to </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://blog.google/products/search/more-content-by-people-for-people-in-search/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">announce a core update</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> before it happened. It's called the "helpful content update" because that makes it hard for people to object to it and because it readies an army of SEOs to now push their clients to have more helpful content. I have no objections to the tactic.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">At first blush, the update makes sense. As so strongly signposted, the goal is to reward helpful content, and the expense of content made just for search engines.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD5Z_1yX6Fs7rPdMMDmOj_Lk8reo-YR4pUboBp50u2mTY3JfbvumltVBn4mfGktxCyMN7bToWTHi7F00ZpBxAX9NgV-sFz8qNrHXbkFzdS0LuZO0TuTT26z2ZIy5Sia4L3-FY0U81THtjEym7Bt1Cwdqy9mDGr_GOXggspE0PhX8k7IPZT5KM/s6650/tim-mossholder-DZcZ4Kskq6U-unsplash.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4433" data-original-width="6650" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD5Z_1yX6Fs7rPdMMDmOj_Lk8reo-YR4pUboBp50u2mTY3JfbvumltVBn4mfGktxCyMN7bToWTHi7F00ZpBxAX9NgV-sFz8qNrHXbkFzdS0LuZO0TuTT26z2ZIy5Sia4L3-FY0U81THtjEym7Bt1Cwdqy9mDGr_GOXggspE0PhX8k7IPZT5KM/w640-h426/tim-mossholder-DZcZ4Kskq6U-unsplash.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">You can imagine the latter type, cookie-cutter templates, low-quality churn, and if you're imaginative, you might even waggle a warning finger at all those guest posts which are variations on a theme. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Brands that care about their content, and most do, should have nothing to worry about. This update is about moving some search oomph off the internet's lower end to reward the content creators' upper tier.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">In just a bit, I want to explain why I've titled this post "Google's algorithm update versus your brand" if that assessment of brands and the strength of their content is accurate.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google has a second, </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Search Central</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> post to explain what "good content" looks like.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It's people-first content, which means;</span></p><ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">content that satisfies the needs of your current audience</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">content demonstrate first-hand expertise</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">a focus</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">a satisfying user experience</span></li></ul><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">In contrast, search-first (bad) content might be;</span></p><ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">written just with SEO in mind</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">chasing topics and trends with search volume in mind</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">heavily automated to pursue a broad spectrum of topics</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">leaning too heavily on summarising others without adding your own value add</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">not answering questions</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">short on expertise</span></li></ul><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">For example, if Google changes their logo to celebrate an artist's birthday and links to that artist's search results, you should not expect to rank by copying quotes from Wikipedia, experts or other sites into an aggregated collage of content on the said artist.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google's algorithms will make a call, and whole sites, not just bad pages on the site, will be affected. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I see two devils in the details, and the first is your brand.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your brand</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I've worked with brands that have their own terms to describe things. For example, they might say "denim" rather than "jeans", "teeth brightening" rather than "teeth whitening", or "early learning centre" rather than "nursery". </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It's Google versus your brand because the search engine does not care what your brand positioning is or if people are using terms the way you want them to. Google is rewarding people-first content, not brand positioning. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I've worked with brands that insisted they add paragraphs of text to every page because an SEO said so, or commissioning articles tangentially related to their businesses or, more commonly, having a "skinny jeans" approach to content, not saying much in fear of answering one question comes at the cost of not answering two. In this update, Google's even called out writing to SEO / length rules as a red flag.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Here the platform does not care what you want as a customer brand experience. It's Google versus brand because the search engine will determine what it considers a good user journey and will hold you accountable to that unknowable truth.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I frequently encounter brands where the marcoms teams do not have easy access to the professionals and experts who work for them. These companies often have content from in-house or agencies, rarely from the people who provide the service. Equally, I often work with brands that would rather say nothing than say something wrong or which might be changed later. For example, a brand might announce that a new product is to be released, but the date of when that particular product will be in stores omitted, never to be mentioned on the site, and left to the retailers to publicise if they want.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I argue this is also Google versus your brand as the concerns above are valid but also instances of not being able to show first-hand experience or actually answer the specific questions searchers might have.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I've been delaying buying a new smartwatch for years, and I'd like my replacement, when it finally comes, to be a Pixel Watch. If I search Google for the Pixel Watch release date right now, I get lots of media speculation about what we know about the watch and commentary on rumours as to when the release date might be. Potentially, the Helpful Content Update could be impactful here.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your brand values/vision/mission or marketing strategy was not on the list of things Google considers good content. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Curation</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I said I saw two devils in the implicit details of this update, and the second is curation via reviews.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google's been making many changes to how it handles reviews, around but not exclusively with schema. In the main public blog post about this coming <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/more-content-by-people-for-people-in-search/">update</a>, reviews are mentioned twice and used as an example once.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Here's the example;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></span></p><blockquote>For example, if you search for information about a new movie, you might have previously seen articles that aggregated reviews from other sites without adding perspectives beyond what's available elsewhere. This isn't very helpful if you're expecting to read something new. With this update, you'll see more results with unique, authentic information, so you're more likely to read something you haven't seen before.</blockquote><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I think this is a fascinating example. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Firstly, there is a strong focus on what I've seen before. This leads to the question, "Does this update up weight my search history in the algorithm? ". Also, "How does Google know what I've read before?" </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Secondly, reading a summary of critic or pundit reviews on a movie seems like an excellent user experience and far superior to reading through all those separate reviews.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Combining this anti-aggregated post view with the ongoing efforts from Google to tweak how it handles reviews makes me wonder what the search engine has planned. It's pure speculation, but perhaps the search engine with the mission to organise the world's information sees itself as the natural curator with no desire to facilitate intermediaries. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">For example, if I want to know about a new movie and an overview of what many different critics might have said, then perhaps Google could (and will) use its natural language processing to compile that for me. They already do, to an extent, but imagine what that might look like extended to retail, travel, or real-time analysis of fact versus opinion on a topical subject.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVFyJCx_BQFEHlc42gD-AkknpodK1FSFx6nKqKHQynX0D0NkckSguw0xUlaLyqQr-h2_Cb6HiSjr3ssprFWcZR4tsEMMfL8-0iTiHwkHhlZ4etP1_OyLeDWpzG7TOrWqQsSJSI3i8NUsHpCT753udkzE5OYCYtgHF7tDZGiNor6nujGULP8A/s1399/Screenshot%202022-08-22%20at%2014.22.05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="837" data-original-width="1399" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVFyJCx_BQFEHlc42gD-AkknpodK1FSFx6nKqKHQynX0D0NkckSguw0xUlaLyqQr-h2_Cb6HiSjr3ssprFWcZR4tsEMMfL8-0iTiHwkHhlZ4etP1_OyLeDWpzG7TOrWqQsSJSI3i8NUsHpCT753udkzE5OYCYtgHF7tDZGiNor6nujGULP8A/w640-h382/Screenshot%202022-08-22%20at%2014.22.05.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">What do you think? </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Image credit: </em><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/DZcZ4Kskq6U" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Tim Mossholder</em></a><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">.</em></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comEdinburgh, UK55.953252 -3.188267-24.165754533222788 -143.813267 90 137.436733tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-64418030113583146612022-03-16T09:41:00.007+00:002022-03-16T09:46:59.931+00:00Hell is frosty: Google shares some affiliate marketing tips but skips on ethics<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I'm thrilled </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://creators.google/en-us/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google for Creators</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> is a thing. The search giant is trying hard to help people make the internet a better place.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I'm surprised and still pleased that Google is even helping affiliate marketers. Just briefly, Google once owned an affiliate network, as mergers and acquisitions brought the platform with another deal. Google continues to dabble with CPA deals in Google Ads too.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">More typically, though, Google seems to be cautious about affiliate marketing and is wary of "thin pages". These are pages that offer no other value except to point people elsewhere. Google's job is to take people straight there, so it's easy to see why they wouldn't like that.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">First, look at the video Google and the smart </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://christinagalbato.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Christina Galbato</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> put together. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="451" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vJi16L65_L8" width="543" youtube-src-id="vJi16L65_L8"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The trailer Google shared caught my attention. It promised that Google would reveal the three best affiliate solutions. What on Earth would Google recommend? Who?</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Would it be Impact? Would it be Awin? The Google VC backed Viglinks?</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">No, spoilers. The three are;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #0e101a;">Amazon</span></li><li><span style="color: #0e101a;">Booking.com</span></li><li><span style="color: #0e101a;">RewardStyle (which is now known as LTK)</span></li></ol><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">These are all good programs and could well be Christina's top tips, some are available on aggregators, but I find it interesting that none are strongly branded with their third-party or network tracking.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">I note that the 5-minute video makes time to define what affiliate marketing is, and it's not, therefore, expert level.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">However, I am surprised it entirely skips the importance of disclosure, which is about ethics and a matter of the law. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">I can't and won't give you legal advice, but content creators must disclose any financial relationship with anyone they write about.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Here in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has plenty of rulings on this area, such as this one on </span><a href="https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/matalan-retail-ltd-A19-1020138.html">Matalan</a><span style="color: #0e101a;">. That's one <a href="https://blog.arhg.net/2019/10/severe-problems-with-asas-ruling.html">I blogged about previously</a> concerned how Matalan was barely involved and yet carried the consequences.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">For her part, Christina Galbato clearly as a line to talk between "do it for the money" and "be helpful to readers". I noted how Google dislikes skinny content, and here Galbato recommends round-up posts to quickly send people elsewhere. I think she succeeds here; I think the case is made, perhaps implicitly, that these round-up posts must still be helpful.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Timing allowing, Google might also want to have asked Galbato to mention the "sponsored" relationship to put on affiliate links. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Perhaps this intro-level one wasn't the video for it, though. However, what percentage of people watching Google's own content creator support videos are true newbies. I wonder. I suspect Google could and should be pitching these videos at a higher level, skipping the basics and getting deeper into the ethics, wisdom, strategies and hard-fought tips from seasoned affiliate marketers. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The only area I'd disagree with Galbato is on the term "passive income", and that's a phrase that makes me cringe, and it's MLM horrors from the early days of the internet.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Nothing about affiliate marketing is passive, and it takes an active hand, a strategy and quick but proficient tactical execution. My own ethical considerations are clear; if I'm giving advice on affiliate marketing for bloggers and content creators (rather than coupon sites, etc.) then it's picking a niche you can devote yourself to because it requires devotion. </span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-27361939844305745352022-03-15T10:56:00.001+00:002022-03-15T10:56:12.274+00:00On Lumanity and agency brand strategy<p><span style="color: #0e101a;">It was frustratingly annoying to receive emails about "the Enterprise" into my Leith.co.uk inbox, and it went on for months. It was also the right thing to do.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlVLwfEz1nPYRiZsJlwNr3nVSlkSiYUuOneB8sDD_QFsBH75-Zrk8zYdCD61dzDJCZxqdQ-XKUR8zKaUil4Zw1UaAxu0FkTc5DgUbjfncLwIOve6jKwIa6ThrHhBZQBw_tu5Xc9IjXLv2E4R4BBhRcrG_oc0RO55R_lkPfiib7wOMD28go9ag=s6000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lumanity is born" border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlVLwfEz1nPYRiZsJlwNr3nVSlkSiYUuOneB8sDD_QFsBH75-Zrk8zYdCD61dzDJCZxqdQ-XKUR8zKaUil4Zw1UaAxu0FkTc5DgUbjfncLwIOve6jKwIa6ThrHhBZQBw_tu5Xc9IjXLv2E4R4BBhRcrG_oc0RO55R_lkPfiib7wOMD28go9ag=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It was the right thing to do because the agency formerly known as Cello Health and backed by <a href="https://www.arsenalcapital.com" rel="nofollow">Arsenal</a> is buying companies at pace. Identity and culture are at the heart of a successful acquisition, especially mergers, once you're satisfied that the numbers make sense.</p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It was frustrating because the lack of identity and the culture clash between the pharma-centric of many Cello agencies and Leith's creativity couldn't have been made more evident. At times, I wasn't sure which agency I was supposed to be rating in satisfaction surveys and other important bureaucracy. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Lumanity</span></h1><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Lumanity, which drops "Health" from the agency name, but not from Arsenal's interests, was announced yesterday and replaces Cello Health. Leith is untouched, for now, as a brand.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The opening sentence in the press releases I've seen describe Lumanity as;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></span></p><blockquote>... a company dedicated to improving patient health by accelerating and optimizing access to medical advances.</blockquote><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It doesn't even mention agency, but I think that's okay as the role of agencies is increasingly varied and there's a host of businesses now known as Lumanity.</p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Included in the deal are;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Cello Health</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">BresMed</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Guidemark Health</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Cyan Health</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Zipher Medical Affairs</span></li></ul><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I've worked on Google Ads campaigns spending north of a million in Google for health and related products. Health is a valid speciality to get into. The extra regulations combine horribly with the surprisingly slow pace of digital adoption to create an awkward landscape to navigate. </p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Tanami et al</span></h1><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I've been through many rebrandings. A company called Vertigo Web became known as bigmouthmedia.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I remember the farewell party to the bigmouthmedia brand. A road was paved with good intentions, a wind-up teeth pinata was made (the bigmouthmedia logo), and people who had been with the agency barely a few months beat it to death with a stick. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I found it quite moving, but not in a good way. That, of course, wasn't the intent. It was a creative idea to say goodbye with drama and style. If we'd been referring to the agency as "the enterprise" until clobbering day, then the emotional connection would have been much weaker and perhaps even a relief to finally just use "LBi". </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Although it was technically LBi International. I was always frustrated that the acronym meant the agency was called "Lost Boys international International".</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I wasn't involved, as you can imagine - far above my paygrade - with Cello Health et al. becoming Lumanity, but I've still learned from the journey.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Leith is also a bit like Lumanity, its parent, in that it has other agencies as part of it. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Although the founders have moved on, there's Tanami, a video production company with talented staff and name recognition. Tanami doesn't own much of its hardware, not unusual, as it's costly, so renting the latest gear makes sense. However, it means the value in Tanami, beyond the brand name, for Leith is in the staff the video agency currently has and might be able to recruit.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Many agencies say that their people make them unique, and it's actually true.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Of course, I didn't join Leith. I joined an agency that was Blonde becoming Signal. Signal itself was a merger of Cello owned agencies, such as Brightsource and Tangible. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">There were other agencies in the group tool, like TMI, a name which I think had all sorts of complex legal deals in the background and Signal CX. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Parent groups like Lumanity work hard to find brand names that reflect their goals, beliefs and are inclusive as possible of the myriad of talent in their constituent children agencies. Those very same "child agencies" likely have Tanamis and other deals of their own with similar problems to face.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Agency brand strategy</span></h1><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I'm not claiming to be an expert in agency brand strategy (try </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://twitter.com/Phil_Adams" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Phil Adams</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">), but I have lived through a few. As a way of a conclusion, here are some thoughts;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">If people don't have an emotional attachment to your old brand, you've done something wrong, and you need to up your game</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Identify matters because culture matters</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your culture helps you retain expert employees</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your expert employees help you retain clients</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your brand strength gets you invited to pitch</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your brand strength and expert employees help you win pitches</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your domain barely matters</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Your social media handles barely matter</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Use your clients' language</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Embrace change</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Good luck balancing those last two points, but it is worth it</span></li></ul><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Image credit </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Ch3Nv5wRBm4" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Matt Walsh</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-32497342349990716412022-03-03T16:02:00.002+00:002022-03-03T16:02:20.273+00:00Basic SEO should be invisible<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">In my apology post, I argued that SEO lost a PR war it didn't know it was fighting, and one of the reasons was people thought they were </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://blog.arhg.net/2022/02/my-apologies-when-seo-lost-its-pr.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">rockstars</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">. The opposite was the case; for SEO to be impactful, it needed to be mundane.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I want to further argue that basic SEO should be invisible in this post. Good SEO, great SEO, is different but requires a foundation of basic SEO to build on. </p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I don't mean secret and invisible like a spy. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMN4Rr44k33UdfKBw5xzhOh-sacUjuufLPIYZ_HWJ-l4WcCBBDHIBAF6H2SPUaNysmAsB8IrCseGbgeNKMPBbkp04R7CIJbOgtbRSOUXSjiKi-2xUi2qPHZ-ZKL8oo2mv_z0wRvhG-BRcnSO0gTWMUR_YlN3A9uOaGCEYLlGOaPUo2TqO3SBA=s4200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="4200" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMN4Rr44k33UdfKBw5xzhOh-sacUjuufLPIYZ_HWJ-l4WcCBBDHIBAF6H2SPUaNysmAsB8IrCseGbgeNKMPBbkp04R7CIJbOgtbRSOUXSjiKi-2xUi2qPHZ-ZKL8oo2mv_z0wRvhG-BRcnSO0gTWMUR_YlN3A9uOaGCEYLlGOaPUo2TqO3SBA=w640-h502" width="640" /></a></div>There was a time when early SEO agencies guarded their secrets. I remember when fake pitches designed to get an idea of what a response from me would look like would be a reasonably common hazard. <p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Keeping SEO secrets is pointless. Staff move and people figure the same things out, and most importantly, Google makes changes all the time. You don't get to keep an SEO secret; you only get to find the next one.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I don't mean invisible like the proper form of a ringwraith, either, and SEO isn't black magic.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I mean invisible, as in people shouldn't see it. There should be no point in developing a website where some think, "We better insert the SEO in here". It should already be there, and if that's been part of a well-designed process, you won't have seen it.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Customer Language</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">"Supporter language" if you're a charity, "user language" if you're a developer or "staff language" if you're designing an intranet, but it doesn't matter what you call it. What matters is that your site design is tailored for the needs of the people using your site. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">For example, "digital services" isn't a phrase people use to Google people to build websites for them. As a result, your portfolio site should use the phrase "build websites", "website design", or something like that. A failure to do that is poor UX, user experience, at the very least. You should use your customer language as part of your process to build a good site and, in doing so, invisibly tick the first basic SEO box. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">If you want to rank for the term, good luck, and you'll need at least one page all about your web design prowess. Of course, if website design is something important to you, you'll have something to say about it, and this skill of yours will be more than a bullet point on your site. You won't be adding pages because an SEO reminded you; you'll have naturally built your profile around your skillset with case studies, thought leadership, examples and other evidence.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">You'll have done the SEO, you'll be proving your EAT, but you could have done all of this without even seeing any mention of "keywords" or "hub pages". The SEO wins would have been had invisibly.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Invisible Technical SEO</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Even in the era of React or Node.js, you'll have built your site with web accessibility in mind. The chances are pretty darn high that means if you are using React or something similar, you'll have server-side rendering in place.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Googlebot crawls anything Chrome can cope with (should it want to), so the need to avoid JavaScript is less critical than years ago, although still recommended. Of course, the need for pages with specific and unique URLs is still there, but once again, your UX requirements and nod to people sharing your content on social media will want them.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Basic hygiene in technical SEO is achieved without worrying about SEO, and it's another invisible victory.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Knowledge Graph and Schema</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">You also may have all the </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structured-data/intro-structured-data" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">schema that Google</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> would want. It is likely already a requirement. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I concede that this is the weakest part of my pitch that basic SEO is invisible if your web build process is robust enough. It assumes schema knowledge, but that's not Google-specific best practice.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Honestly, I've not seen an RFI in years that doesn't ask for schema, and it's hard to imagine a web build team without knowledge of it. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Brand Relevance</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Anyone reading this far (thank you) might be wondering, "Yeah, what about links and other quality signals?"</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Good point, and I'm going to skimp here and do for three reasons. Firstly, this post is about basic SEO, and I've said that good SEO is different, and earning quality signals should no longer be considered "basic". </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Secondly, this post is about your web build process, not what happens afterwards. If you've built your site to reflect customer language and their needs, you should launch content relevant to your audience. That's the prerequisite to earning links. If you have no content relevant to your audience, you are underwater from launch, and that's not ideal.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Thirdly, this is topic is a post in its own right. </p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">However, in summary, if you then take the necessary marcoms steps to maintain your brand's relevance with your customers and audience, then you'll be taking the basic steps required to build better SEO signal generation. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">To sum up</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I think I've waffled my way through keyword research, site structure, content and technical SEO at this point. I've even set out the basics for how to steer your online presence with SEO in mind after launch.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I hope I've done that in a way that argues it's all best practice anyway. Basic SEO comes your way by stepping empathically into the shoes of your audience and customers and paying attention to their needs. If I've done that successfully then I think you'll see why basic SEO is invisible; it'll happen, it'll be there, but you won't necessarily see it.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Unlike the original Invisible Man, who thought he was someone special, SEOs shouldn't. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Image credit </em><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/vLmo8kAVVt4" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Michael Dziedzic</em></a><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">. </em></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-56568776865358429312022-02-20T14:35:00.003+00:002022-03-04T08:32:36.698+00:00My apologies: When SEO lost its PR moment and didn't notice<p><span style="color: #0e101a;">I'm an avid blogger and write a dozen blog posts every week, but evidently not on this blog. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Let me quickly tackle that and then get on to the thoughts swirling through my day, which I'd like to share. I'm hands-on with business as usual (or business as unusual, which seems more fitting for marketing) than I have been in yesteryears, which means testing innovations and theories rather than blogging about them here. I've geeky and test blogs for other projects.</p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">But today, I want to write about search engine optimisation or the business of SEO at least. ARHG.net feels like the best blog for it. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVIsWxW9_4AZjAHMSW2aC7KXVlhNnAK6IOXiscSasnFS4PPvYd4a6m-3fdipLuWMOql2k6Agip3CAKA-WF4DdBKncKng0ufncR93aXBPISmWAd_n455v1WMAgNb25nmB61tiIIgw0carAXzwps9w3vR6DiR6UtyItlv2VY09BXI3LyNo3LRzA=s4032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2693" data-original-width="4032" height="429" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVIsWxW9_4AZjAHMSW2aC7KXVlhNnAK6IOXiscSasnFS4PPvYd4a6m-3fdipLuWMOql2k6Agip3CAKA-WF4DdBKncKng0ufncR93aXBPISmWAd_n455v1WMAgNb25nmB61tiIIgw0carAXzwps9w3vR6DiR6UtyItlv2VY09BXI3LyNo3LRzA=w640-h429" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I'm part of Ashely Friedlein's Guild, which has become a much better networking platform for me than LinkedIn. I'm there as I was invited into a group called Digital/Marketing Pioneers and flattery works. In that group, Michelle Goodall, the CMO, shared an excellent article from Tom Critchlow, which asks <a href="https://seomba.substack.com/p/is-seo-worth-it">Is SEO worth it?</a>, and added her own question, "Is SEO having a PR moment?"</p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Do read Tom's post. It's wise and articulate. I'm going to do the great dishonour of digesting it down to two points;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><ol style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">SEO costs more than the SEO strategy.</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">SEO is impossible to measure, but we need to anyway.</span></li></ol><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I might return to explore those later if the muse persists, as I agree.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Tom's post was inspired by a Tweet lamenting firms being willing to spend on paid, but not on SEO, and he argues that SEOs need to understand, wise up, and stop bitching about it. Tom wants readers to understand what SEO really costs. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I add that you can't just grouse at public opinion; you need to take steps to change it. That, I think, was why Michelle suggested it's a PR moment for the industry.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">SEO's PR moment happened ages ago</span></h2><div><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></div><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I was part of this era, and, as a result, I carry a great deal of responsibility myself. I apologise, I have regrets, and I wish I could TARDIS.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I argue that SEO's PR moment happened when we started calling ourselves ninjas and rockstars, held conferences with black hat speakers and told clients what Google really meant to say. That sounds cringeworthy, right? That sounds like a textbook PR disaster, right? It still happens. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">We didn't care about integrating SEO. We wanted it treated differently, as a special value-add, because we saw the value and desired it, and us, to be remarkable. We engineered our 'own out-of-touchness' by placing ourselves out of touch of a pedestal. It was the business model. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Getting called guru or Yoda, although never in malice, was what it took to slap me out of it. Although I hope, I was always against the black hats at conferences. I stopped going, after all.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">But it's not this hubris that's the heart of SEO's PR failure. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">SEO screwed up when the industry failed to recognise that change was needed; change in how SEO is practised and how SEO is preached.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">You might be tired of reading blog posts proclaiming "SEO is dead", but they have a point because if the early practitioners of SEO had done their job right, we wouldn't still be talking about SEO at all.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">If SEOs had successfully convinced brands, companies and people that making sure people have good search-led experiences of their site was a no-brainer, then it would all be happening automatically by now.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">And it doesn't.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">People often build sites and apps, only then to say, "Hey, let's make sure we do SEO too".</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I often see website build requirements that include SEO and where SEO turns out to be nothing more than following Google's bare basic technical requirements. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">One of the reasons this has happened is because, like some rockstars, SEOs, as a group, seems to be really reluctant to change. From the illusionary safety of out-of-touch pedestals, we call down, "Now you need an expert to review your work" because that's the business model we need to protect and righteous conviction that felt comfortable. We should have been doing the opposite, arguing that it wasn't special or remarkable but entirely sensible and happily business-as-usual when it comes to marketing and growth. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">No wonder brands and decision-makers sometimes struggle to get SEO. This weird hybrid of old-SEO-with-grudgingly-accepted-modern-SEO is polluted with myriad contractions. People signing off budgets have no desire to build on foundations that seem so unsound.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The SEO industry lost its PR moment and didn't notice by insisting that its audience was wrong, always would be wrong, that change didn't happen. The SEO industry lost its PR moment and didn't notice when it didn't even pause to consider that there may be PR moments it would need to win. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Update: I've written a part 2 - Basic <a href="https://blog.arhg.net/2022/03/basic-seo-should-be-invisible.html">SEO should be invisible</a>. </p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Photograph credit: </em><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/PuJPk_5jzqE" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Karsten Winegeart</em></a><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">.</em></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-79934031152188586912021-12-02T09:08:00.002+00:002021-12-02T09:08:53.052+00:00Google changes the SEO rules with a small nudge and a big signal<p> <span style="color: #0e101a;">I know it's rare for me to write about SEO and on this blog these days. However, it's also rare for Google to talk explicitly about how to improve your SEO rankings. How specific have they been? Down to the link. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">In this case, it's a small nudge, an update on </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/12/product-reviews-update-and-your-site" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">product reviews</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">, but it's a big signal.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FpVeAcfCvUk/YaiMS83A1HI/AAAAAAADghs/ktIvmBbvMDkPBh4V2iE4dPUT2emKntz5ACNcBGAsYHQ/s1406/two%2Blinks%2Bupdate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1013" data-original-width="1406" height="462" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FpVeAcfCvUk/YaiMS83A1HI/AAAAAAADghs/ktIvmBbvMDkPBh4V2iE4dPUT2emKntz5ACNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h462/two%2Blinks%2Bupdate.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google says people want choice. They often say this. They said that for the Florida update, which rolled out around this time of year back in an earlier era of SEO.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google also says;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><span style="color: #0e101a;"><blockquote>Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.</blockquote></span><br /><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">So, that's clear. One link is not the best practice. More than one link is.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">They also say;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><span style="color: #0e101a;"><blockquote>We are now rolling out a new update, the first major update since April, that may change how your product reviews rank in search results.</blockquote></span><br /><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">That's also clear, right? </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It's not just the link that's best practice. Content quality is also included in the update. It's as you would expect; all about E.A.T. Google wants to see reviews that an expert (such as finding more than one retailer), authoritative (links and research to support your write-up) and trusted (evidence with photographs and other proof).</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><span style="color: #0e101a;"><blockquote>Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.</blockquote></span><br /><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I think this is bigger than it looks</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I concede, on the outside, this looks reasonable, restricted to just product reviews, and that's not an area big brands outside of media get into and just the official codification of what probably feels like in practice best practice anyway. (Out of practice best practice is also a thing, fyi.)</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">What may now happen is that bloggers, especially affiliates, who actually want to rank with their reviews will start to link to more than one retailer.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">This is what Google wants. I accept; also, it's what readers want.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Is it what retailer brands want, though? I can easily imagine retailers engaged in the somewhat shady business of trading freebies or other perks for reviews with SEO links in mind won't be pleased that;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">For every review they pay for (in effect), a competitor also gets a link.</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Every reader of that review is told about an alternative to them.</span></li></ul><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It's easy for me to imagine this as I've spent a professional lifetime refusing to do shady linking for brands and have countless fights about it.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I'm also a blogger. I get daily outreach emails sent to me, good and bad.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">As evidence, here's an email shared by another blogger on a Facebook group. Not only is the client brand being sensitive to hiding the fact that the review feature is solicited (which is likely a breach of UK law, a bribe at the worst and most scary end of the consequences-if-caught curve), they don't even want it to appear as if the blogger is in communication with any PR firm.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">-- ✂ --</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1d_eNAoKwhc/YaiMBj5xepI/AAAAAAADghk/XoRQ448KH2oN2yH-Wd7adsTf8JdVV38pQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1241/work%2Bwith%2Bme.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Blogger asked to remove the "work with me" section from their nav" border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="1241" height="114" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1d_eNAoKwhc/YaiMBj5xepI/AAAAAAADghk/XoRQ448KH2oN2yH-Wd7adsTf8JdVV38pQCNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h114/work%2Bwith%2Bme.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">-- ✂ --</div><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">In short, if this update widely affects blogger behaviour, then "review for link" posts and arrangements become;</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">less attractive for brands</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">less attractive for bloggers</span></li><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">less likely to happen</span></li></ul><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The Two Link Update could just be the start</span></h2><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">And this might just be the first shot on a broader exchange.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Google might well be explicit about this requirement for two links or more for the best ranking on other types and topics of content.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Two Links or more is an easy thing to remember, repeat, and therefore catch on.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It's a small nudge now, but the Two Links update might become a big SEO change. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><i><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Photo credit: </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/hpQAUR9jkaM" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">David Clode</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">. </span></i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-77169685701555283042020-04-18T00:39:00.001+01:002020-04-18T00:39:49.893+01:00Arrogant black hat outreachBlack Hat SEO is either SEO that defies Google's terms and conditions or SEO that endangers clients' futures by risking the wrath of Google. I'm not sure it matters which definition is right, most people seem to use the former, but I prefer the latter.<br />
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I, therefore, define Black Hat outreach as outreach that puts the blogger at the risk of the wrath of Google.<br />
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If you run a blog and are an SEO, then you'll know exactly what I mean. You'll get emails offering a guest post or even money for a sponsored post but what they're after is a link. To be precise, these emails are looking for an undisclosed link (which could be considered an illegal advert) and a link without nofollow or sponsored in the relationship attribute.<br />
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I get dozens every week. Today, though, a @gmail alias called "Robert Oldman" annoyed me with the sheer brazenness of it all. Here's the email exchange, censored.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-opAT3afVZjw/Xpo-E5z0ACI/AAAAAAADTvE/ndPjR1Eil_k_5yuScfsSt3pVu1YzeoW1gCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/robertoldman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="1089" height="505" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-opAT3afVZjw/Xpo-E5z0ACI/AAAAAAADTvE/ndPjR1Eil_k_5yuScfsSt3pVu1YzeoW1gCNcBGAsYHQ/s640/robertoldman.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Why do I find this outreach so annoying?<br />
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I guess it was the complete turnaround. There's no chance I believed Robot was a fan of this particular blog (not arhg.net, another I run), but the transition from pretending to be a fan and wanting exposure to being angry that they had been denied a fake editorial link.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-52703122278141496962020-03-21T19:54:00.000+00:002020-03-22T12:30:56.162+00:00The privacy lobby has made Covid-19 hurt worseIt's easy to be annoyed at the privacy lobby as your daily internetting is disrupted dozens of unnecessary clicks to dismiss privacy notifications but consume far to much time reading the fine print of the very same announcements to make sure you do not agree to something unpleasant like spam.<br />
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As Covid-19 sweeps its cultural change through Europe and America, we are seeing shopping centres opening early or taking other steps to look after the elderly or infirm. If you have an underlying health condition then, thankfully, some shops are adapting their physical retail to assist you.<br />
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Have you seen anything similar on the digital front?<br />
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Right now; I haven't.<br />
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In other words, it's not currently possible to rock up to Tesco, Sainsbury's, Amazon or Waitrose <i>online </i>and let them know that you're in an at-risk group.<br />
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The mood music has been entirely the opposite. How dare these retail monsters know that you might be vulnerable? What fines can we position against them so that they've no way of knowing you a different from anyone else?<br />
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Pave a path with good intentions and look where it gets you.<br />
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These well-intended privacy concerns and a terrible lack of agile development mean that eCommerce solutions are lagging in responding to the Covid-19 crisis. Digital is slower than meatspace. Who would have thought it?<br />
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The solution? Amazon, John Lewis, Sainsbury's et al. should be able to know when a customer needs priority treatment confidently.<br />
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That may be a privacy advocate's nightmare, but tough. It's needed.<br />
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<b>Update: 22nd March</b><br />
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The latest email from Sainbury's leans heavily into this point, the challenges and potential solutions. Here's the key snippet;<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Many of you have also asked me about priority online delivery slots for elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We have been able to identify a number of customers as elderly and vulnerable based on the information they have given us previously. These details would include date of birth and if you have ever used our vulnerable customer helpline. For all of these customers, we will email you today (Sunday) with information on when slots will become available. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you do not receive an email and you consider yourself to be vulnerable, please visit our Groceries Online website on Monday for information on how to contact us. We are also working as quickly as possible on an option for people to register themselves as disabled and vulnerable on their online shopping accounts.</blockquote>
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Photograph credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/@yoelpeterson?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=photographer-credit&utm_content=creditBadge">Yoel Peterson</a>.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-46928007088486311982019-10-31T11:29:00.000+00:002019-10-31T11:29:05.629+00:00Severe problems with the ASA's ruling against MatalanYesterday, the Advertising Standard's Authority ruled <a href="https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/matalan-retail-ltd-A19-1020138.html">against Matalan</a> after a content affiliate linked to them.<br />
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I have considerable problems with the ruling. Fundamentally, there was no advertisement, and the ASA should not have been involved. <br />
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I've made several calls to the ASA but, as of this morning, they're yet to connect me to someone who can talk about the case. I'll add to this page, or blog again if we connect and I learn something new from them.<br />
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In summary, in a post on The Londoner called <a href="https://www.thelondoner.me/2019/05/our-moroccan-hideaway.html">Our Moroccan Hideaway</a> there's a picture of the blogger and her child. Below the photograph is the phrase "red dress / yellow dress" and links to where you can buy those dresses from Matalan.<br />
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Matalan did not ask The Londoner to do this. Matalan had no control over the text, message, picture or anything on the blog (although they've previously paid The Londoner for influencer work). <br />
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The "red dress / yellow dress" links pass through an affiliate network, and so The Londoner might earn a commission if someone visiting Matalan after clicking on these links makes a purchase.<br />
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One person complained, and the ASA decided to investigate.<br />
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The ASA ruled that Matalan was in breach for failing to disclose an advert. The suggested remedy is to put the phrase #ad in the copy as if the blog mention was a tweet or Instagram post.<br />
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Previously, the ASA had made it clear to me that they only investigate when an advertiser has been involved in the message of the ad. <br />
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Deciding to investigate this case takes the ASA into new territory.<br />
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It's frustrating that they're treating an independent publisher's website as if it was social media. The word "blog" is unhelpful. Do they really expect people to add #ad at the end of sentences, mid-way through a paragraph? Apparently, they do. <br />
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I can't prove it, but this was a malicious complaint. Anyone who can identify affiliate links and then make a case to the ASA is not a naive member of the public.<br />
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The ASA's ruling says it is insufficient to have a page on your site explaining how you are funded. <br />
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As Matalan was not involved with the post and didn't ask the Londoner to say "red dress / yellow dress" to describe a red dress and yellow dress the ASA is saying that because there is a (possible) financial relationship, then the phrase becomes an ad. This is despite recognising the post as editorial.<br />
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The ASA does not rule on technology. It rules on ads and content. Presumably, the ruling would be the same if the link to Matalan was generated in JavaScript. The decision would stand if there were a commission earning QR code beside the picture. The ruling would be the same if The Londoner had written "red dress / yellow dress from Matalan" and there was some sort of affiliate relationship in place that tracked sales despite the lack of a link.<br />
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If the ASA tells me that it was explicitly the link that made the phrase "red dress / yellow dress" and ad and not just the possible commercial relationship with Matalan, then this is a game-changer. The ASA needs to very clearly define which technologies magically turn editorials into ads, and which do not. For example, do the presence of coupon codes, phone numbers, turn an editorial into an advertorial?<br />
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Here are some scenarios to consider.<br />
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Sky offers £50 in Marks and Sparks vouchers to customers who recruit their friends and family. If I send an email saying "You can watch Game of Thrones on Sky" to a friend and ask them to put my name in the referral section of the sign-up form - is Sky in breach of the ASA? <br />
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I would say no; the ASA's Matalan ruling would suggest otherwise because I did not tell my friend their action would generate vouchers for me.<br />
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If I run a free event on SEO and Affiliate marketing in the backroom of a pub where I'll be paid my deposit back if at least 30 people turn up, do I need to mention the deposit deal on my tickets (and with every mention of the event) or be in breach? <br />
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I would say no; the ASA might now accuse me of having an undisclosed financial relationship.<br />
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If I run a newspaper and decide to introduce a weekly column about investment ISAs to attract (and be paid by) more financial advertisers, do I need to disclose that the decision to write about ISAs is commercially minded?<br />
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Hopefully not, but even this seems to be caught up in the "a-ha! but there's a possible financial relationship" clause the ASA has invoked.<br />
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By the way, I have to say "possible financial relationship" because just by linking through an affiliate platform does not mean that the publisher has any relationship with the merchant. Sometimes they might. Sometimes they might not. There will likely be conditions on what sales earn commission and which do not. <br />
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Here's another example. If I'm the ASA and I write up a case about Matalan, mentioning that Matalan sells red and yellow dresses, but fail to disclose that as an advertiser Matalan funds me, am I in breach? I've just talked about Matalan but not mentioned my financial relationship with Matalan. Uh-oh! Undisclosed commercial relationship.<br />
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Thanks for reading. This blog uses Skimlinks. That's the technology that automatically and without my control or influence spots words and phrases to turn into affiliate links. I don't know which brands the algorithm might pick. I don't know which products or services might earn a commission. Therefore, any link you see on this blog post might be a commercial one.<br />
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In the future, I might use other technologies. They might also transform this post in such a way that helps monetise this content. Who knows what the future will bring? However, to stay compliant with the ASA, I'm pre-warning that anything anyone says anywhere at any time might, at some point, co-exist with a commercial relationship. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-30853219256486499712018-06-21T21:48:00.001+01:002018-06-21T21:48:24.935+01:00Trends from FeedlyI went to Feedly after Google (foolishly) killed off Google Reader. It was the right choice. Yes, Feedly has had some missteps but they do try new things.<br />
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This 'Feedly Trends' is new to me. The platform detects when RSS feeds are filling up with a similar topic and let you know. As a blogger, this is helpful because it highlights stories you might want to jump onto or miss out on.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-12161122742266331372018-01-02T09:03:00.002+00:002018-01-02T09:03:42.668+00:00A quick observation on Voice Branding<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Are companies going to have to think differently about branding as we use Voice more and more?<br />
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This Christmas my little apartment swapped from being a primarily Alexa-led area to Google Home. The main reason for the switch was Google Home's better ability to distinguish between different voices and automatically associate the right Google profile.<br />
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Amazon forced me to say 'Spotify' all the time to get my music out of Alexa. The default music app was, of course, Amazon. I'd have to say "Alexa play 'Discover Weekly on Spotify'" to get that algorithmically determined collection to play. While Amazon was trying to relegate Spotify to a tier-two music provider what I actually noticed was that I was using Spotify all the time. It wasn't any harder to say the brand. Making me speak it just reminded me that I didn't consider Amazon's music offering good enough.<br />
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Google Home is different. I don't need to say Spotify and I can make it the default player. "Hey Google play 'Discover Weekly'". After a week or of this the fact that I'm paying Spotify to make this possible is easy to forget. It's Google that I notice. They're the brand I associate with my music solution.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-41850300065136172762017-01-27T15:26:00.000+00:002017-01-27T15:26:20.852+00:00The most expensive domain namesI rather like this infographic from Nimbus Hosting. It seems terribly rare to get some actual visual analysis rather than just a storybook infographic. I'm reminded just how good the former is with this radar graph at the top of this where we can see just how travel dominates the domain price wars.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-80553771394331900122016-09-12T16:36:00.004+01:002016-09-12T16:36:54.847+01:00Is inoffensive marketing offensive?Will brands ever worry that they’re not being offensive enough?<br />
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It sounds like an absurd question but I think there are issues around being too safe and bland worth considering. I’m not suggesting that I’ve the answer here. I certainly don’t. I do wonder whether I’m alone in spotting this rising conflict between respect and expectations so let me know your thoughts in the comments below. <br />
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When Snapchat’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37042475">Yellowface filter</a> was in the news and labeled as a mistake I saw the issue discussed, in Facebook, by anime and manga fans (most of whom were younger than 25). The group’s conclusion was the filter wasn’t racist, it was funny, and people should get over it. This was the same network of fans who were outraged at Scarlett Johansson being cast as Motoko Kusanagi rather than an Asian actress. <br />
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I was surprised when a similar demographic divided into warring factions on the infamous Gamer Gate scandal. The same people who would defend your right to cosplay as anyone you want, despite your gender, size or colour, became extremely agitated at the suggestion fewer computer games should cast sexy princesses needing to be rescued (for example). The loudest voices against the ‘social justice warriors’ where the young female computer game fans. So what was going on there? Defending a culture against perceived ‘meddling from outsiders’?<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QuaczseWD7Y/V9bKoFLN1TI/AAAAAAACPKA/55IyhCIPLIEeiwsYznpu7-_8Nrc3Ar0PgCLcB/s1600/stephen-fry.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QuaczseWD7Y/V9bKoFLN1TI/AAAAAAACPKA/55IyhCIPLIEeiwsYznpu7-_8Nrc3Ar0PgCLcB/s400/stephen-fry.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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These are just snapshots, of course, and it is always dangerous to generalize from individual pockets of opinion. After all, it might just be a coincidence that I keep on bumping into them. I keep bumping into them. Increasingly I’m encountering people who are offended at how easily other people are offended. Yeah, there’s an irony there. <br />
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More recently, a series of adverts created for the Paralympics by Mars for Maltesers created some chatter. Was it a good idea to be making sex-meets-disabilities jokes in order to sell chocolate balls? From the reactions I saw: it was.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YgUqmKQ9Lrg" width="560"></iframe><br />
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At the time of writing Mars have over 6,400 thumbs up on that video with only 800 or so thumbs down against it. It seems to me the ad was well worth doing - even if it offended some people.<br />
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It's not easy. It's not as if we don't still have loads of work to do in representing women and all cultures in ads (in all media). The Maltesers example shows that us discovering ads treating disabled people as people are still so are that they’re a talking point. <br />
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Launch a new product for a female audience that’s essentially a pink coloured version of an established product and you’ll find out what I’ll mean. Some data, somewhere, will have said it was a good idea – that you needed to get women to buy your product – but the internet will soon rip you a new arsehole for being so stupid. Ask the team behind “Bic for Her”.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WCEAJL--dE0/V9bKw1F-AiI/AAAAAAACPKE/763oMa5Vl4gS6mqL6HzcU-BBUD39DKdugCLcB/s1600/for-her.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WCEAJL--dE0/V9bKw1F-AiI/AAAAAAACPKE/763oMa5Vl4gS6mqL6HzcU-BBUD39DKdugCLcB/s400/for-her.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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As I said, these are just snapshops, but I think they’re symptomatic of a larger issue; of a diverse and changing cultures. <br />
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It feels to be me that a growing percentage of potential customers are turned away by a lack of respect but also by a lack of guts. <br />
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The challenge is finding that balance. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jeb_ql5jLvo" width="560"></iframe><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-21094368971265700152016-07-06T17:08:00.000+01:002016-07-06T17:08:23.607+01:00Affiliate Huddle 2016 and SEO valueSearch Engine Watch have just posted my <a href="https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/07/06/nine-considerations-for-movie-based-seo-outreach-campaigns/">Nine considerations for movie-based SEO outreach campaigns</a>. My final tip is to consider your affiliates.<br />
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If you have an affiliate campaign you've dozens, perhaps hundreds, maybe thousands of micro-publishers hungry for your content. Using them to ignite interest in your movie-related offering should be a no-brainer and certainly far cheaper than getting a different agency to approach the same people.<br />
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The post reminded me I hadn't shared or blogged about my Affiliate Huddle 2016 presentation from a few months back. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="420" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/EMy0DsudAJSQjJ" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #ccc; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="510"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/AndrewGirdwood1/making-the-most-of-the-long-tail-of-content-affiliates" target="_blank" title="Making the most of the long tail of content affiliates">Making the most of the long tail of content affiliates</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/AndrewGirdwood1" target="_blank">Andrew Girdwood</a></strong> </div><br />
In this I make the point that affiliate marketing needs to break itseld out of self imposed silos. That's true. I stand by that. However, it's fair to say that if other digital marketing channels new a little bit more about affililaite marketing then it would help!<br />
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Last month I was at <a href="http://www.affiliateexpo.co.uk">Affiliate Expo</a> making the case that merchants and networks could do more to help content affiliates (unless they're happy with the current cash back and voucher code situation - then don't bother) and a common grumble back at me was "but it's too expensive".<br />
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No, it isn't. The key thing is that brands are doing this sort of activity anyway. It costs nothing to let your affiliates know. <br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-9344290898765356982016-03-15T15:49:00.000+00:002023-07-14T15:51:44.058+01:00Using Kickstarter to battle tired tropes: An interview with Monica Valentinelli<p>Monica Valentinelli is one of the two editors of <a href="http://www.apexbookcompany.com/">Apex Publications</a>’ proposed project “Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling”. </p><p>It’s a proposed project because the publishers have turned to Kickstarter to raise the funding. At the time of writing the project will be a success; over 800 backers have pledged contributions worth over $13,000 which beats the $10,000 funding goal. There are nearly two weeks left to support the project and you can follow <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apexpublications/upside-down-inverted-tropes-in-storytelling-anthol?ref=zebraeclipse">progress here</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO9K8FwVVKt51Ah15S_xHpFNlH53EuHtFZcY9Utr6yuuC9onxNCyRQ1TaMSBtBPo_2qq0nLOhajv9Zh79rMoHo7b85KITFrGyaQZghpGYrpRo7xdMtOntEHK5H4BWmZ2iHUeA0-tAm_wUvigLbdNW7TsrNd3JUe23g1GkDStWszUW1zji7sVLBaA/s1051/Upside-Down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1051" data-original-width="680" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO9K8FwVVKt51Ah15S_xHpFNlH53EuHtFZcY9Utr6yuuC9onxNCyRQ1TaMSBtBPo_2qq0nLOhajv9Zh79rMoHo7b85KITFrGyaQZghpGYrpRo7xdMtOntEHK5H4BWmZ2iHUeA0-tAm_wUvigLbdNW7TsrNd3JUe23g1GkDStWszUW1zji7sVLBaA/s16000/Upside-Down.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>We asked Monica about the Kickstarter. Zebra Eclipse’s focus is very much on the evolution of marketing and publishing (they’re merging as they evolve) but commercial model in this instance is just as exciting.</p><p><strong>What's wrong with tropes? </strong></p><p>Tropes and cliches, by themselves, are powerful because they are omnipresent and resonate throughout our media. Over the years, however, as we continue to produce and enjoy more stories, games, comics, television shows, and films these same devices need to be examined for many reasons. Overused tropes regarding gender and race, for example, perpetuate stereotypes that have been around for decades and feed into the popular narrative. By ignoring tropes and cliches, writers run the risk of boring or alienating readers who are sensitive and aware of the tropes rampant in many genres. And, even more so, works presented may be considered poorly researched or written--simply because the writer defaulted to a crutch without considering it further. Thus, tropes and cliches tend to generate a lot of discussion when they don't work--and we hope to do exactly the opposite, to show what happens when they're used as the basis for a story in new and interesting ways.</p><p><strong>You have a stretch goal at $15,000 which is of interest because it offers backers nothing new. Instead you'll be paying contributing authors more. What helped influence that decision? </strong></p><p>We've already achieved our first stretch goal, which was to add critical non-fiction essays to the collection. Our stretch goals include two pay bumps; one for our authors and the other for our essayists, editors, and marketing folks. We felt that these stretch goals would be a show of support on our part for the work our authors have done to think about and research various aspects of their stories as well as market themselves and their stories. After all, six cents a word may be the industry standard, but that is a base amount that doesn't cover marketing or research costs.</p><p><strong>Is a Kickstarter needed for a trope-busting collection because the anthology wouldn't be commercially successful otherwise? </strong></p><p>Most anthologies are, quite frankly, not commercially viable for small press publishers for a number of reasons ranging from the need to produce significant up front costs to building enough marketing buzz to cover the number of copies sold before turning a profit. There are also logistical concerns, too, which can effect an anthology's efficacy. With a novel or short story collection, a small press publisher works out a deal with a single author as opposed to making arrangements with the many people involved in an anthology. So, in many cases, anthologies aren't smart to pursue without a mechanism in place, like Kickstarter, to make it worth a publisher's while. Kickstarter allows us to pay writers professional rates and cover the costs of printing, layout, marketing, and distribution that a publisher would normally have to pay up front and out-of-pocket.</p><p><strong>How does running a Kickstarter to fund and launch the anthology affect the marketing of the book? </strong></p><p>I'm of the mind that Kickstarter is marketing, because it brings awareness to a project and encourages backers (800+ and counting!) to financially invest in the idea in order to bring the project to life. This tool allows us to reach out to backers, to communicate directly with them, to get them excited about an anthology that couldn't be possible without their help--both during the Kickstarter and afterward.</p><p>Regardless, successful Kickstarters tend to be at the center of a marketing plan before, during, and after release, for the backers need to be notified and taken care of before sales are opened up to the general public. Since the Kickstarter still lives on the site long after the campaign ends, many readers discover the campaign at a later date and anticipate the upcoming release, with the understanding that the core audience (e.g. backers) do come first. In this way, Kickstarter serves as the center of a book launch, and that success/enthusiasm helps fuel a launch.</p><p><strong>How does a publisher's commitment to promote a book differ from when dealing with an anthology rather than an author's own title? </strong></p><p>
</p><p>I'm sure the amount of attention to marketing books vs. anthologies is often contingent based on the people and marketing knowledge/experiences involved. In our case, Apex Publications is an established small press publisher that has produced novels, non-fiction books, and anthologies. We view Apex Publications as a partner as opposed to a mere client, and that furthers our ability to remain visible and connected to their future plans for marketing the anthology once it's been released.</p><p><br /></p><p>--</p><p>Monica's interview appeared first on <a href="https://zebraeclipse.com/">Zebra Eclipse in 2016</a> and then, in 2023, was moved here. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-76185501570788177932016-02-24T15:07:00.000+00:002016-02-24T15:07:15.200+00:00Facebook's new Like alternatives present brands with measurement problemsI like to warn brands – be careful what you measure as you tend to get it. An example of this would be brands who optimise their Facebook activities around the number of Likes they get. A Like is rarely a meaningful business objective. Facebook strategies can still be shaped in order to boost the number of Likes, though, sometimes at the expensive of better objectives. <br />
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But at least a Like is a countable, understandable and comparable metric. A post that scored 100 Likes was liked twice as much as a post that scored only 50.<br />
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This means Facebook’s new range of responses: Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry will present some brands with measurement problems. Does a Love count the same, or more, than a Like? Should a Sad subtract from the total?<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbOWHU5Xx8o/Vs3G3u52zhI/AAAAAAACKFQ/kYtGxgSKxZo/s1600/facebook-reactions-animation.gif" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbOWHU5Xx8o/Vs3G3u52zhI/AAAAAAACKFQ/kYtGxgSKxZo/s400/facebook-reactions-animation.gif" width="400" /></a><br />
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Each reaction is still an engagement. Perhaps Sad is the correct response to a post designed to pull on the heartstrings.<br />
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We don’t yet know how Facebook’s algorithm will respond to the data that the new reactions generate. Currently, Facebook rewards posts with exposure if their engagement metrics are good. Will that change if Facebook’s algorithm notices that people who have to rate posts with Sad tend to spend less time on the platform? <br />
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It's hard to measure if we don’t know the value of beans we’re counting. It’s even harder to strategize if we don’t know the effect. <br />
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My advice, as always, is to think like a publisher. <br />
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Your goal is to grow your business; to get more from less while making sure you’re future proofed. Connect with potential audiences and grow their ranks. Your audience will include potential customers, advocates, SEO signal generators and, of course, current customers. Your Facebook strategy should be all about monetising the relationship you have with that audience, which means being useful to them, while sticking to your brand’s ethos. <br />
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While Facebook begins to study how today's rollout of new reactions means for the algorithm – so should you. This will likely mean doing your own analysis and, the scary part, it will mean producing content to explore the 6-wide new range of response emotions. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-82677515618417014252016-02-23T10:28:00.000+00:002016-02-23T10:28:20.218+00:00Google's big changes mean you should review your affiliate PPC strategyA big piece of news this week is Google <a href="http://searchengineland.com/243057-243057">dropping right rail ads for desktop</a> and moving to sit above the organic results only. In a bit I’m going to explain why this means brands should re-visit their affiliate tactics. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ufAqgmi6888/Vsw0C4oQRRI/AAAAAAACKCA/WgxpWKOpKyg/s1600/new-world-ppc.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ufAqgmi6888/Vsw0C4oQRRI/AAAAAAACKCA/WgxpWKOpKyg/s320/new-world-ppc.png" /></a></div>In addition, for some competitive query there may be as many as four PPC ads at the top of the page. <br />
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As you might imagine there been plenty of discussion about this. Clients want to know what this means for PPC campaigns. Agencies are sharing their viewpoints. Rightly so.<br />
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I’m not going to use this blog post to dig into the PPC discussion. The summaries agencies and pundits are producing pretty much agree; competition for fewer spots means higher prices so the usual tactics of finding out exactly which keywords to target and refine are even more important. The main disagreement from agencies seems to be whether this is a good, long term, decision that helps align desktop with mobile, or a bad idea. <br />
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There’s also been chat about what this means for SEO. It’ll certainly influence clickthrough rates for organic positions. The more expensive the PPC and the harder it is to appear on the first page means that SEO success becomes even more attractive. It may also be the case that for some queries there’s above the fold real estate for organic results. Overall; let’s call this a score draw for SEO.<br />
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Google’s own advice to websites is not to load the top of the page with ads. Let the jokes fly.<br />
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I’m yet to see much discussion on what the changes mean to affiliate marketing. I think, for some brands, this change represents a huge opportunity and therefore a challenge.<br />
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The default affiliate strategy these days is not to allow affiliates to bid on brand terms, on related terms or straight through to the merchant’s site. Affiliates have to build their own niche sites, that aren’t anything like a merchant’s site, and look for matching niche keywords to bid on. Coupons and voucher codes grew from niches into a huge industry.<br />
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There are other strategies though.<br />
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<strong>Search term domination</strong><br />
Affiliates can be used by brands to dominate the PPC results. Imagine you’ve a brand and two affiliates, driving traffic to allied sites, bidding on key brand hybrid terms. In Google’s old PPC landscape that wouldn’t have filled up all the paid search results. In the new PPC landscape that could (add one extra affiliate to make sure). <br />
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Further supporting this approach is the news that Google will <a href="http://searchengineland.com/google-compare-shutting-down-us-uk-march-23-2016-242310">shutdown Google Compare</a> in a month. This removes one of the ways competitors could get some of their financial products in through your PPC wall of domination.<br />
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<strong>Cost optimisation</strong><br />
This is very much in the test and learn category. Usually, an analysis of whether it makes sense to let affiliates bid on key terms (especially brand or brand hybrid) comes to conclusion that it is not cost effective. Letting the affiliates in simply increases the action in the auction and therefore pushes prices up.<br />
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Will this be the case in the new limited space auction? It might be that the bid prices competitors are coming in with are above that of affiliates. If so then letting affiliates in won’t affect your bid price, if you’re determined to have a winning placement, but might act as a secondary catchment.<br />
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<strong>Performance PPC</strong><br />
On the far end of the ‘cost optimisation’ model is to run a brand’s PPC campaign entirely as a performance model/affiliate deal with an agency. The agency is paid a commission based on profit rather than a management fee. <br />
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Performance deals tend to be most popular with brands when it is hard for them to run a profitable PPC campaign in-house and when it doesn’t make sense to look for economies of scale by awarding a media agency combined PPC, display and other biddable media responsibilities. <br />
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If Google’s new PPC landscape makes it very hard to make a margin on PPC in some verticals then brands may well start to look around again for purely performance-based partnerships. <br />
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<strong>Double check brand bidding</strong><br />
By now, hopefully, most brands have a schedule for testing and re-testing whether brand bidding, along with core keywords, makes sense or whether the approach is just cannibalising PPC. <br />
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Google’s changes means that the testing schedule for this needs to be moved forwards. Competitors will be changing their strategy and affiliates, yours and theirs, will be changing their strategies. It’s a new world. Double check the basics. <br />
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What's your take on the new PPC world order? How do you think strategies will change?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-12020649667744900152016-02-18T14:35:00.000+00:002016-02-18T15:16:07.036+00:00What is influencer marketing?I remember debating with an agency-side Head of Social whether influencers really existed. She thought not. I thought so. However, even as I made my case I agreed with many of her points; there’s a big difference between reach and influence. <br />
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For example; I followed Kanye West’s Twitter rant this week, it reached me even though I’d normally have nothing to do with the guy, but he’s not one of my influencers.<br />
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Influencer marketing, I argue, is essentially another spin off from “press relations” and like SEO it should have been owned by the PR industry, it isn’t because it’s heavily digital, and instead is used mainly by SEO, content marketing and social agencies.<br />
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So, what is it? I think <a href="http://www.zebraeclipse.com/">we’re all publishers now</a> which means it isn’t just newspapers, magazines and traditional media outlets that can reach audiences nor is influence the preserve of those channels. Today, celebrities, bloggers, community owners and curators are all capable of influence.<br />
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Influence doesn’t always manifest as encouragement to buy product. Today’s influence might simply be used to generate clicks and valuable impressions, it might spark conversation which could lead to increased social clout or additional editorial coverage, perhaps links, for SEO value.<br />
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Influencers are generally approached to help promote a story. A common tactic is to get the influencer involved in the story thus giving them and any loyal audience skin in the game.<br />
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Influencer marketing is easy to talk about but hard to get right. You can spend a lot of money for very little in return or you can spend a little and unlock great value.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-39Y1mtlxOWE/VsXWUFRRx0I/AAAAAAACJ8k/Cj1I2HCv-wA/s1600/bloglovin.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-39Y1mtlxOWE/VsXWUFRRx0I/AAAAAAACJ8k/Cj1I2HCv-wA/s640/bloglovin.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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This post is inspired by the news that <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/17/bloglovin-acquires-sverve/">Bloglovin’ has bought Sverve</a>. I knew both companies.<br />
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I never got into Sverve, I don’t think, as a blogger. I looked at it but couldn’t quite reassure myself that they had the scale and pitch quite right but always felt they were nearly there. Being bought by Bloglovin’ might be exactly what they needed to push over the success line.<br />
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I’ve mixed feelings about Bloglovin’. I love the community, didn’t need the RSS reader alternative and corrupted the follower count system.<br />
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Let me explain the latter. The number of people following your blog on Bloglovin’ (the RSS reader alternative) is public. The more you have the more popular your blog <em>looks</em>. My problem with that comes from my agency experience; most of the people who use Bloglovin’ are other bloggers. The Bloglovin’ follower count simply measures the echo chamber.<br />
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In some cases I think it makes sense to subtract the amount of Bloglovin’ followers a fashion or lifestyle blogger has from their Twitter or Facebook followers, for example, in order to get a better feeling for what their natural audience size is (sans fellow bloggers). <br />
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The new platform, replacing Sverve, is called Activate by Bloglovin’. Let’s hope it doesn’t lean too heavily on Bloglovin’ echo chamber metrics.<br />
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I think the match up is a good one. I bet Bloglovin was frequently approached by brands and agencies looking to do some influencer marketing. With Sverve/Activate by Bloglovin’ in place they’re better able to handle those requests and turn a profit.<br />
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Hopefully Bloglovin’s awareness of what bloggers are writing about (trending posts is already a thing in their platform) can combine nicely with Sverve’s own influence metrics and the new platform can really help identify a range of influencers (small to large) and empower people to pitch them safely and effectively. <br />
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The proof is in the pudding; <a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/people/andrewgirdwood-17712989">I've signed up</a> to see how things go. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-78043242293229227242016-02-17T10:19:00.000+00:002016-02-17T10:19:41.482+00:00Ecosia is a search engine that plants treesThe UK has a search engine called <a href="http://www.everyclick.com/">Everyclick</a>, that’s powered by Yahoo, and raises money for charity. Thanks to Everyclick I’m familiar with the concept and challenges of third sector search engines.<br />
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That’s why <a href="https://www.ecosia.org/">Ecosia</a> caught my attention. As I search and click (interacting with income generating ads is key) it earns money and then donates that to tree planting progams.<br />
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Ecosia has planted over 3 million trees in this way. That’s about one every 12 seconds.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dJPvwXVZMf4/VsRI01DkCHI/AAAAAAACJ74/JDLCXxrG23I/s1600/ecosia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dJPvwXVZMf4/VsRI01DkCHI/AAAAAAACJ74/JDLCXxrG23I/s400/ecosia.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Bing powers Ecosia’s first page. It’s a good test of search relevancy. Without familiar logos you might well wonder whether you’re looking at Google results. <br />
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As it happens, Ecosia has a Google tab and the search engine has become a new favourite way to compare Bing to Google results. I’ve planted 5 trees with it. <br />
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Is there a catch? I noticed Ecosia wasn’t registered as a charity and asked founder Christian Kroll about that. <br />
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<blockquote>
We believe in the power of social business. Instead of only trying to maximize our profits, we try to maximize the number of trees we can plant in the long term. We make this very transparent by publishing all our <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pfyw4keqm5grw7a/AACRmC2Nr1tXlKMCjkWWsiqva?dl=0">donation receipts</a> and monthly <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/imna50xl2ab42dh/AACYt_95fNZjbexmOIAHGk9pa?dl=0">business reports</a>. As a social business we have the possibility to scale and generate more revenue to donate than we would as a charity. Thanks to its business model, Ecosia has been cash flow positive from the beginning. There is a lot of money in search advertising and we want to make use of that so people can do good without any further costs or effort on their side. We've already been very successful with this in the past, as the number of trees we've been able to finance, shows. Our next goal is to exponentially grow our number of users, so we can reforest the planet even faster. </blockquote>
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So is Ecosia just an oddity and of interest to digital marketing geeks like myself? Perhaps not. The search engine’s market share is tiny but growing. Kroll was able to provide me with some stats;<br />
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<blockquote>
Our worldwide market share might be miniscule compared to a monopolist like Google, but 10% of all non-Google users in the DACH region use Ecosia. This percentage is currently quite noticeably growing in other regions, too. Especially in the UK, probably due to Google's tax situation. The fact that users now change to Ecosia shows us, that the future belongs to tools that capitalize on a daily habit to offer an additional social or environmental benefit. </blockquote>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-28824736517128965212016-02-12T15:45:00.000+00:002023-07-14T15:48:26.695+01:00The Guardian's Key Publishing trends<p>This is well worth your time; <b><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/JessMorton/guardian-publishing-trends-2016-58097540">51 slides on publishing trends</a></b> that you can whisk through in a few minutes.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="486" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/xjACHm0iMI99LG?startSlide=1" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="597"></iframe></p><div style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/JessMorton/guardian-publishing-trends-2016-58097540" target="_blank" title="Guardian publishing trends 2016">Guardian publishing trends 2016</a></strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/JessMorton" target="_blank">Jess Morton</a></strong></div><p></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">The takeaways;</h2>
<p><strong>The adblockalypse</strong> - no answers yet, but all newspapers will be impacted.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - this has already changed the internet, the value exchange of "I read this for free as you included an ad" is no longer understood or accepted.</p>
<p><strong>Planet of the apps</strong> - a new channel that'll get audiences more engaged.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - apps are a challenge to smaller publishers, like bloggers, who don't have the sources to custom build their own one. Off the shelf solutions aren't yet good enough/worth it for them.</p>
<p><strong>Continuous partial attention</strong> - those times where you have someone's full attention are rare and precious.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - one of the attributes of the connected era is that marcoms has become a "many to one" relationship; flipped from the original "one to many".</p>
<p><strong>Curation vs Creation</strong> - original quality content is needed for engagement.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - very true. Curation has its place, but that's limited and still needs to be supported by creation.</p>
<p><strong>New business models for news</strong> - destination vs distribution; open vs walled gardens.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - newspapers should look at the 0/1/100 model that works for many game publishers.</p>
<p><strong>Minillennials</strong> - mobile, will create a band relationship if they want.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - not fond of brands at all.</p>
<p><strong>Podcasting</strong> - a return for podcasting; popular again.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - has the power to connect in the same way as radio does; feels more personal.</p>
<p><strong>The pwoer of visual language</strong> - emotions and visual associations with brands.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - The west catching up with established eastern language constructs.</p>
<p><strong>VR</strong> - the next tech revolution?.<br /><em>My thoughts</em> - VR / AR the terms are blurring already but the potential is huge.</p><p><br /></p><p>--</p><p>This summary was published in 2016 on<a href="https://zebraeclipse.com/"> Zebra Eclipse</a> and then ported over to ARHG, with a backdated stamp, in 2023. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-79221887992497502382016-02-05T15:43:00.001+00:002023-07-14T15:45:12.678+01:00What could publishers offer? An interview with T Q Chant<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5gfa7NUavufU6XxQlXFFyu9JAX1HHrpDTtO8Oc-cZvs0BJR9D39thkGZt8WpCNkhMmuecOJnPhYN6zESLfROyVnI_xdGKNlKYFwZDkl_Glyy6uJkzI9-mfwHGNPeiOozQOlJm-RxQWNvJKEgSihO2B-GkXj91GO4oB2Ai8gbsoLCdoY1jBDeWQ/s500/Sam-Cane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="312" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5gfa7NUavufU6XxQlXFFyu9JAX1HHrpDTtO8Oc-cZvs0BJR9D39thkGZt8WpCNkhMmuecOJnPhYN6zESLfROyVnI_xdGKNlKYFwZDkl_Glyy6uJkzI9-mfwHGNPeiOozQOlJm-RxQWNvJKEgSihO2B-GkXj91GO4oB2Ai8gbsoLCdoY1jBDeWQ/w250-h400/Sam-Cane.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Tim Chant self-published <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01A61DEVO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B01A61DEVO&linkCode=as2&tag=gamewyrd-21" rel="nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e5554e; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Sam Cane: Hard Setdown</a> and the ebook is now available on Amazon. Tim kindly gave me time to talk about the book, about self-publishing and what he might be missing by not having a publisher.</em><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Tell us about Sam Cane: Hard Setdown</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">It’s a tense and at times horrifying SF survival adventure (or so I’ve been told…). It follows Sam, a newly minted security specialist with a shady past, as she arrives on a far-flung colony world only to find the settlement deserted. Stranded by a callous corporation lightyears from help, what follows is a desperate struggle to survive, stay sane and work out what happened. These are the opening shots of a saga that will pit Sam against a ruthless enemy and that will range across the early stages of human interstellar colonisation.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Sam Cane is available on Amazon for Kindle. There’s no publisher listed. Why go it alone?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">Going straight to self-publication became the plan fairly early on in writing this. The SF market is pretty crowded right now, and there’re also some issues in it that I wanted to keep a handle on. The story<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />was in my head, though, and writing it gave me a break from redrafting a much larger work, so self-publication made sense. It’s also done me a power of good just to publish something after years of scribbling – I’ve been far more productive since taking the leap.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">What do you think a publisher could offer that you or a boutique PR agency couldn’t?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">Reach. There’s a lot of good fiction out there and people only have so much time to put into reading, so any help getting noticed would be a massive boost. I’ve been really lucky in knowing some very talented people who have provided editorial input, done the cover art and the proof reading, so yep, marketing is the key thing a publisher could bring.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Talking to authors you’ll sometimes hear Amazon described as the huge villain and sometimes as the saviour of the industry. What are your views on the behemoth?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">I don’t do absolutes – I’d hesitate to describe anything as being absolutely good or evil. I think we have to accept that technology has changed the way we shop for and own everything, and you can’t deny Amazon has been very clever in taking ownership of this change. At a time where publishers are (perhaps understandably) focused on hanging on to their big earners, Amazon has made it possible for writers like me to get our work out there and maybe get noticed – and while other companies offer similar services, I don’t think they’ve got the same market as Amazon. I think this has driven a trend for publishers to consider work that’s been self-published, which I think is a healthy thing.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">What tips and tricks have you picked up?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">In terms of writing? I’ve been given all sorts of good advice, some of which rings true (no such thing as a magic bullet, it’s all about hard work etc). The thing I found most useful when writing Sam was to be transgressive. This started life as a fairly straight-up Mil-SF with a fairly standard main protagonist – what really brought it to life for me was when I decided the main character should be a woman from a multilcultural background (I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that Sam is my first female protagonist) – from there flowed a far more interesting background that has been really helpful in planning out how she reacts to things and what will happen next for her.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">Tips for self-publishing? Plan ahead and do your research – I maybe leapt before I’d looked properly, and while I don’t regret it for a second I could have made some steps of the process a little less stressful for myself.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">What are writer groups and are they important?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">I’d go as far to say absolutely vital, particularly when starting out. Working at its best, a writer’s group is a collection of people who may not be like-minded but are all going through the same process, where everyone puts forward their work for constructive criticism. As long as you’ve got a thick enough skin to take it, rigorous criticism can be very important in tightening and polishing work, getting you to realise that a passage you’re maybe overly proud of doesn’t work, and helping to crystallise your thinking. It’s more than just being critted – reading and commenting on other people’s work and listening to other people comment can be just as helpful in honing your own work, and honestly just chatting over lunch</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">I’ve been lucky enough to be a member of the Edinburgh Science Fiction and Fantasy writer’s group for years now (big shout out to <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-Harold-Page/e/B00FLZP9VY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&linkCode=ur2&qid=1454670167&sr=8-1&tag=gamewyrd-21" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e5554e; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">M Harold Page</a> for the initial invite) and have been critted by both established authors like <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caroline-Dunford/e/B00JO1FBZA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&linkCode=ur2&qid=1454670215&sr=8-2&tag=gamewyrd-21" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e5554e; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Caroline Dunford</a> and those like me who are just starting out. It’s been hard, sometimes, and I haven’t always taken on board all the criticism, but it’s been worth it.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Which books from indie or small press authors would you recommend to readers who enjoyed Sam Cane?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">With a certain amount of chagrin, I must admit that I don’t really pay much attention to who publishes the books I read. I’ve been enjoying the Daniel Leary series by <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Drake/e/B000AP8T1C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&linkCode=ur2&qid=1454670256&sr=8-3&tag=gamewyrd-21" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e5554e; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">David Drake</a> (Baen), sort of Patrick O’Brian in space, and I’m currently working through the first volume of <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/James-S.-A.-Corey/e/B004AQ1W8Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&linkCode=ur2&qid=1454670299&sr=8-1&tag=gamewyrd-21" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #e5554e; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">James S.A. Corey’s</a> ‘Expanse’ which has a similar slightly lower-tech horror feel to it. I’m a slow reader and alternate factual and non-factual books so my recommendations may be a bit lame…</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">What can we expect next from Tim Chant?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">I plan (hope?) to release Sam Cane in 30,000 word or so novellas (in a way, Amazon has allowed a look back at the original SF serial publishing) so keep an eye out for ‘Sam Cane: Hard Lessons’ in four or five months. I’m also finishing a ‘Steamquill’ work which I’m soon going to be sending to agents and publishers, and starting to plot out a turn of the 20th Century naval adventure.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">--</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px;">This interview with Tim was published in 2016 on <a href="https://zebraeclipse.com/">Zebra Eclipse</a> and then tidied over here in 2023. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-34832724412368170162016-02-03T10:27:00.000+00:002016-02-03T10:27:42.327+00:00A world first? Human virus downgrades computer gameWe know about computer viruses messing up computer games but now we have a human virus, which is far more serious, also being able to impact on games. I think this is a sign of the times and an indicator of just how culture is being interwoven with technology.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PHJoDb3IpvM/VrHVruifU3I/AAAAAAACJiA/g8idgG4OYgs/s1600/ingress-rio.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PHJoDb3IpvM/VrHVruifU3I/AAAAAAACJiA/g8idgG4OYgs/s320/ingress-rio.png" width="320" /></a></div>
The game in question once belonged to Google but spun out last year, raising funds on the way. That’s almost unheard of, right? Google just shuts down companies it owns but doesn’t want any more. They didn’t even sell the Google Affiliate Network (once part of DoubleClick). They just closed it.<br />
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Niantic Lab’s Ingress is different. It left Google and then got funded by Google and other backers like the Pokemon Company.<br />
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Ingress is also a different sort of computer game than you might be expecting. It’s a smartphone game that requires you to get off the sofa and roam around your city to play. I’d call it an augmented reality game since it’s a virtual overlay, using your location data, on the real world.<br />
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In Ingress there are two factions fighting for the future of mankind. There’s the Enlightened (in green) who want to harness a mysterious alien energy and help humanity grow. There’s the Resistance (in blue) who recruit agents by claiming the mysterious alien energy (and the unseen aliens) are dangerous and should be opposed but who have now been exposed, in the game’s three year plot, as actually working for a second alien faction all along. Traitors. Yeah, it’s a twisty plot but there’s a summary video at the end of this post.<br />
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The rivalry between the two factions is significant because Niantic organise large clashes, twice a year, known as Anomalies. One of the main Anomalies this year was supposed to be in Rio. This is the same Rio that’s supposed to be having the 2016 Summer Olympics.<br />
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This week Niantic downgraded the Rio event and moved the main clash of factions to Seattle. This makes sense; Ingress is a game where you have to physically be in the right location to play and an Anomaly in Rio would mean players from around the world (and 14 million people have downloaded the game; millions play every month) would have to travel to Brazil.<br />
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In a Google+ <a href="https://plus.google.com/+Ingress/posts/jbad5eLYDAB">update</a> Niantic said;<br />
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<blockquote>
... due to escalating concerns by the World Health Organization regarding the Zika virus, and the challenges it presents, the #Obsidian Rio event has been reclassified as a Satellite Flash Shard anomaly. The new Primary city for the events occurring on 27 FEB will be Seattle …</blockquote>
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In other words; as Ingress blends reality with gameplay an event in Rio would mean exposing computer game players to the Zika virus. <br />
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I think this may be a first. In the future I think we’ll see more real world and augmented reality clashes where events in one affect decisions in the other. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ee2ziqhKhFs?list=PLDEUWItbkQ58tp0PdkuRw7a3cXL3V7G4v" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<em>If you’re interested in joining Ingress, helping the Enlightened fight for choice and turning your daily commute into a game then <a href="http://goo.gl/forms/ujkkzAdkPq">scribble your email down here</a> and I’ll get in touch.</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-10617950919540862412016-02-01T16:14:00.001+00:002016-02-01T16:14:49.223+00:00What's Next ... In MediaDigitasLBi’s “What’s Next” phrase isn’t supposed to be used as a question; it’s supposed to be used in the context of digital transformation and those agencies that can help brands achieve that.<br />
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But I like using it as a question. I like questions. Asking questions is what keeps us savvy, keeps our heads up and eyes open while we predict what’s next rather than just try and cope with it when it comes.<br />
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Thankfully, the "What’s Next ... In Media" day we held in London last week raised lots of questions. Here’s a quick video summary.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7wcJIhJw4Y8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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Lots of high profile and intelligent speakers. I was very pleased to see a mix of publishers and brands. I’m an advocate of thinking like a publisher. This is not because I’ve a content marketing proposition to sell but because brands have no choice. Brands are now publishers whether they like it or not.<br />
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I think Anna Watkins, the MD of Guardian Labs, made some great points. Many years ago I once called the combination of anchor text -> title tag -> h1 the holy trinity. Those days are long gone. Anna uses the phrase to describe the need for world class content, technology to help distribute at scale and data to target the right audience.<br />
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In particular, I was interested in the challenge around “cut through”. How do you get noticed when everyone else is doing the same thing? This is the media challenge. This is the point of media – creating value from your assets by connecting with audiences. Branded communications, publishing and media campaigns (paid or earned) the overlap is huge. <br />
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Anna said there’s almost an obesity crisis when it comes to creating content. Branded content marketers may have a harder job than journalists (I’d suggest they’re less trusted, certainly). <br />
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I think this “cut through” challenge is both “What’s Now” and “What’s Next” in media. <br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-63044588401747281912016-01-22T13:34:00.000+00:002016-01-22T13:52:10.500+00:00SEO finally comes to organic Facebook postsNoticed how your free Facebook posts have had fewer and fewer people view them? I don’t blame paid ads for this. <br />
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Facebook tells us that on average users would have 1500 updates to see in the news feed each day. Facebook is partially to blame for this as they’ve made so many actions potentially news feed worthy – friends liking stuff, for example. The platform uses interest based filters to decide what to show people. If Facebook thinks a user is likely to be interested in a post then they’ll show it to them. That's tough for marketers. If only there was a way to nudge Facebook's system to consider a particular audience as you're pretty sure they might be interested in your post.<br />
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The problem with the busy news feed is that it’s now full of brands, pages and your next door neighbour all keenly sharing stuff that you might like. Brands suffer the most because they work hard on “branded content” or other expensive, quality, content that meets their own branding rules while trying trying not to look like corporate messaging. Facebook natural reach is declining because it’s busy; not just because there are ads.<br />
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If you’re sceptical then watch this video from Facebook’s Eric Sodomka, which explains this in detail. Watch it before Facebook realises what’s been said and asks the Simons Institute to delete it.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/94s0yYECeR8" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<h2>So what’s this about SEO for Facebook?</h2><br />
Wouldn’t it be good if you could use tags to optimise a free, organic, post so that its targeted specifically at people within your audience who might like that tag?<br />
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Sure, right now you can use Facebook’s <em>Interest Targeting</em> feature to mark posts – but why would you? What Interest Targeting does is to restrict who can see the post to only those who match the interest. Essentially, all that <em>Interest Targeting</em> does is reduce the chances of your post picking up Likes and Shares.<br />
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Today, Facebook has announced that Interest Targeting will go and will be replaced by <em>Audience Optimization</em>. It talks to my SEO genes. <br />
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Facebook’s new <em>Audience Optimization</em> comes in three parts;<br />
<ol><li><strong>Preferred audience</strong> - tags that encourage Facebook show the post to people who might be interested in the tag.</li>
<li><strong>Audience restrictions</strong> - a bit like the old interest targeting; you can say who might not be interested in the post.</li>
<li><strong>Audience insights</strong> - want to see how the content actually performed against your tags? This will show you.</li>
</ol><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VlWyB7XnH2E/VqIvEsC0P1I/AAAAAAACJC4/muU5qKNP8FI/s1600/audience%2Boptimization.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="324" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VlWyB7XnH2E/VqIvEsC0P1I/AAAAAAACJC4/muU5qKNP8FI/s640/audience%2Boptimization.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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To recap;<br />
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This coming week, for English language Pages, you’ll be able to call out interest tags for your posts and Facebook will optimise the delivery of those free posts to matching people.<br />
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You’ll be able to analysis how successful your interest tagging strategy is. You’ll be able to see how different subsets of audiences are engaging with your content.<br />
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<h2>This is powerful</h2><br />
Imagine what can be done with this. Off the top of my head;<br />
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</h3><h3>Sponsorship</h3>Brands will be able to see which of their celebrity product champions actually resonate with their audiences and sports clubs will be able to see which brands might be the best match for them (or take the money anyway and apply <em>audience restrictions</em> to all-on going posts to reduce the impact of the sponsorship to fans who couldn’t care less about the sponsor.<br />
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<h3>Viral building</h3>By deploying a series of test and learn posts marketers will be able to determine which interests in their audience are most likely to trigger shares and likes. Brands will be able to target <a href="http://blog.arhg.net/2010/08/terminology-viral-candidate-video-vcv.html">vital candidates</a>.<br />
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Media companies will be able to see which news angles work best with which audience subsets.<br />
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<h3>Linkbait and SEO</h3><br />
Using Facebook to help connect linkbait content with audiences with a high propensity to create links and other quality signals?<br />
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Facebook’s <em>Audience Optimization for Publishers</em> will allow brands (aka publishers) to refine that strategy; offering up insight on both the type of content to use and the audience to target.<br />
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<h2>I need to know more</h2><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3uA4BlhOGfk/VqIz4BRPFLI/AAAAAAACJDE/N_R8ZO_Blp4/s1600/hootsuite-says-no.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3uA4BlhOGfk/VqIz4BRPFLI/AAAAAAACJDE/N_R8ZO_Blp4/s320/hootsuite-says-no.png" width="264" /></a></div>It’s early days yet. <em>Audience Optimization</em> is rolling out as we speak and needs to be switched on by hand if your page has less than 5,000 likes.<br />
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It’ll take practice.<br />
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Facebook has already published <a href="http://media.fb.com/2016/01/21/introducing-audience-optimization/">Introducing Audience Optimization for Publishers</a> and an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/get-started/audience-optimization">Audience Optimization Get Started</a> guide.<br />
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Here’s hoping your social media platform supports the new feature. Eh, Hootsuite? <div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18266737.post-19832287509070088922016-01-20T14:17:00.000+00:002016-01-20T14:18:20.036+00:00Have we lost it? SEO integration with design and buildThere was a time when websites were built by people who didn't have SEO high up on their agenda. It was common for brands, big and small, to create a whole site and then appoint an SEO agency as part of their launch strategy.<br />
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It was rubbish. <br />
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New sites went live with all sorts of serious problems. Huge amounts of money were wasted as big changes were made. Agencies were left looking pretty silly.<br />
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Things got better. With that much money in the equation progress was inevitable. Four things happened;<br />
<ul><li>Clients / brands understood the importance of technical SEO in the build</li>
<li>Web developers improved their SEO skills</li>
<li>SEO agencies dealt with senior decision makers</li>
</ul>What about the fourth? An important but often forgotten consideration is this;<br />
<ul><li>Google got better</li>
</ul>Search engines can now cope with a wider range of web design and coding techniques. I still wouldn't build a site in AJAX and frames but Google is better able to understand your JavaScript, for example, than ever before.<br />
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<h2>What's the problem with SEO and web build?</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nE4Ts9JpsjI/Vp-WHSRVdLI/AAAAAAACI_4/o58Baod-Tlo/s1600/changes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nE4Ts9JpsjI/Vp-WHSRVdLI/AAAAAAACI_4/o58Baod-Tlo/s400/changes.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>SEO changes. The stage in the web design and build project that SEO is generally thought about hasn’t changed.<br />
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Back in early 2014 I wrote about <a href="http://blog.arhg.net/2014/03/innovation-in-seo-technical-build.html">Innovation in SEO and the "technical build"</a>. My argument back then was that getting the coding right, worrying about URL structures and similar wasn't enough. The build strategy in today's SEO world had to consider how the site would operate now that we're all publishers.<br />
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Examples I gave at the time included;<br />
<ul><li>Having an easy and appropriate location on the site for linkbait publishing</li>
<li>Landing page strategies for retargeting, affiliates, etc</li>
<li>A page retirement strategy built into the CMS</li>
</ul>It's now 2016 and I see very little progress. These considerations, and others related to current SEO techniques, are more important than ever. Sites are going live with an SEO disadvantage and CMOs and CIOs are beginning to waste their money again.<br />
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When was the last time an SEO took a look at a core revenue driving page of your site (a product page, for example) and said "That would be an excellent page for outreach"? Or "It'll be easy to make that page a key part of the publicity campaign"? Have you been asked by the boss to prove that the blog is driving sales?<br />
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<h2>Are we really all publishers now?</h2>Yes, whether it's Facebook updates or your Fitbit sharing your weekly step total in an email to friends; we're all creating content.<br />
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When it comes to SEO this means we've so many more brands competing for attention. Just take a step back and look at all the companies still pumping out infographics. Look at the brands working with bloggers on co-creation projects. There's been tremendous growth in branded communication and content. <br />
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This all equates to publishing. Publishers (games, books, music...) are on the same evolutionary path as marketing agencies. It's about growing audiences and making money from those connections. It’s too early to say where we’ll meet – transmedia campaigns based around IP franchises with profitable commercial models and loyal fans, perhaps – but there will be a meeting. Just look at publishers like Buzzfeed or The Drum who already have their own agency-like agency assisting content units. <br />
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There may be some who haven't come to the same conclusion as the rest of us. They may not think we're in a messy battle for attention. It doesn't matter as even this small tribe recognises that modern SEO is very much about getting certain audiences interested in and aware of certain content (even if they’re just doing it for the links).<br />
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<h2>What does this mean? What do we need to do?</h2>It means that we need to start making web sites - digital assets for our company - that have a fighting chance during the coming years of "peak attention".<br />
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Brands need websites that will be relevant and useful. Having a web site with a blog annex isn't enough.<br />
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Sure, you might have a cool video of a fashion vlogger trying on some of your hats but do you have the means to turn that into a custom landing page, social enough to be interesting and yet ecommerce savvy enough to sell hats? No? Just going to publish the video on a blog post, link to some of your hat product pages and email some fashion bloggers to see if they care? That's not going to be enough. <br />
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In this example, if you had had the opportunity to integrate modern SEO in to your new website then your hat product pages should have been able to display the video. They should have been able to act as a hub or anchor point for the story. If you were, somehow, able to get fashion bloggers interested in the video then such an approach would hugely increase your chances of earning those vitally important editorial links to your product page.<br />
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<h2>This is hard</h2>Yes, this is hard. This is one of the reasons so few people do it. A range of skills and collaboration is needed.<br />
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Another reason why so few sites are built in this way is because SEO is not a consideration while this sort of site design is being thought about. It's rare to find SEO minded people in the room so early on in a new website's lifecycle.<br />
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<h2>But it should happen</h2>My hope is that SEO can get back to where it needs to be when it comes to site design and build.<br />
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New projects like AMP may help - sites being expanded with a Google defined mark-up designed to load quickly in mobile. <br />
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The importance of SEO will help. Savvy client-side decision makers will help too and there are plenty of those (fighting against old company structures and silos, generally). <br />
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<em>Image credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/4233691578/">Kevin Dooley</a>.</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br />[ This post from Andrew Girdwood's blog contains only his personal opinions. ]</div>Andrew Girdwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09402619137250257058noreply@blogger.com