I have seen a few ads in the “premium slots” that have contained a ratings link as well. The ads with rating information stand out significantly. I have not seen one with the Google checkout icon and the rating link yet, but if those are in existence, the CTR of those ads could be huge.

One ad I found with a rating link was for a company that did not list any items within a shopping feed, so this could enable service companies, restaurants, etc. to have their rating links added to AdWords ads.

According to the Google AdWords Blog, the ratings will show up if:

• You have 30 reviews or more
• You average 4 stars or better

With more and more information being placed on a search page (maps, product listings, social features, etc.) and AdWords ads becoming larger, the organic results keep being minimized. How long before Google gets rid of them on some searches?

Here is an example:

Search Results:

BookSurge

CreateSpace

Notice that each site is offering the same free book as well as having an almost identical layout. The one site even states that the sites have aligned to offer services to authors.

The issue is not unique to these Amazon owned companies. Check out these double serving complaints on the Google AdWords support forum. Do large spenders get a pass on double serving? I’ve been in the publishing industry and have a pretty decent idea what the self-publishing arm of Amazon is spending per month. Is Google looking the other in order to not impact Amazon’s overall paid search budget?

Here is the Google policy on double serving. Notice the large bold text that says: Don’t Do It

Thoughts?

If a user then thinks, “oh, hey. I know PING.” and then clicks the PING brand in the area between the paid and search they will then see this result:

Now the results change.

In other searches I conducted the brand that shows up nowhere on the unbranded search organically is now at the top of the list after adding the branded term via the Google brands link.

A few thoughts:

• This will make bidding on Competitors names even more essential.
• Longtail keywords will be increasingly more important than “head” words (great point by Linking Geek Brian Chappell).
• Google is caving to big advertisers who are consistently getting beaten at SEO and PPC.
• How does Google decide what brands to show?

If I’m a smaller company with a product that is just as good, or better, why can’t I have the same opportunity to get exposure in that same slot? Is a Google engineer making the decision?

This all reminds me of this Great Gatsby quote:

They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft, where we are hard, cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand.

and this exchange as well:

Fitzgerald: The rich are different than you and me.
Hemingway: Yes, they have more money.

I could be reaching there, but hey, I was an English major. My earlier point is still valid. Google knows where there money comes from: big brands with deep pockets.

A bit more on the branded results subject from Barry over at Search Engine land

Google Ad Innovations

A couple of items really stand out with these changes/new features:

Re-marketing – This is huge. Knowing now that I can target users who have been to my site and not signed up for a free file sharing trial is a great feature. Many banner networks offer re-targeting, but having the ability to make quick changes via Google is much easier.

Video Ads – The targeting within a certain video via keyword is also a great new feature. I’m not sure what kind of impact this will have, but being able to target videos on YouTube could enable marketers to put ads on competitor’s videos.

Google Stars for Search

We’ve long believed that personalization makes search more relevant and fun. For nearly five years, we’ve been tailoring results with personalized search. Today we’re announcing a new feature in search that makes it easier for you to mark and rediscover your favorite web content — stars.

Oh boy, “makes search more relevant and fun“. I’m not sure if there is any SEO impact or not. If a SERP gets starred by multiple users, will that listing get a bump?

Real-Time Search

I’m not a huge fan of real-time search results as I don’t want the latest result, just the “best” result. When I am looking for real-time results I either use a search column in TweetDeck or the search functionality at Twitter.com.

Bing’s Search Updates

Bing announced a number of changes at SES NYC including:

Quick Tabs – These tabs are meant to help the user refine their search. Bing stated 42% of all search queries required additional searches.

News – Real time searches not only give the latest results from the leading news sites, but also provide the most popular shared links from that publication.

Maps – Bing added Foursquare integration into the mapping functionality.

The Google “Caffeine” updated that was supposed to be launched during the post-holiday season has still not been pushed live according to Matt Cutts. I’ve seen some significant adjustments in the SERPs that are close to what was on the Caffeine sandbox, but I’m not sure if that is due to the update actually being pushed live or just a coincidence. I’d love your thoughts in the comments.

My presentation:

Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Google recently rolled out some changes to how personalized search will work. Many people believe that if you log out from Google OR turn off web history and search that you will be given “clean” results. This isn’t the case. I’ve done quite a bit of research within ShareFile for terms that we have been targeting and found that when I search for them within the office that I rank high for each and when I search from home, I am ranked a bit lower.

I have had numerous people do the same searches for me out of state and found that they each have different results. I have conducted the searches logged in and logged out, and even on different computers. I have had others within our office conduct the same searches and found that their results in the office often mimic mine, but differ outside of the office. The results even differ depending on the browser used.

While this does create a major headache when trying to check rankings for key terms I feel that the bigger issue is that when searching for general terms, I do not necessarily want to see the same site over and over. For example, I search for “hockey gloves” and click on a site. I go to the site and buy them. Now, the next time I need hockey gear, I will most likely search for the website name or just go directly to the website. If I do search for “hockey gloves” (or another similar term) again after visiting that site, it would be because the site did not give me what I needed or gave me bad service and I was looking for an alternative. I’d rather see a clean list of sites and not ones that I might have clicked on in the past. In my opinion, search engines are for discovery and comparison shopping while bookmarking sites are for repeat visits.

Just because you are logged out, does not mean that Google does not know who you are and where you have been. The influence of others in the same office and network is also something to watch closely. I’m not sure I like the idea of a “hive mind” within my search results.

For some data on personalized search visit HuoMah Seo Blog.

Photo Via: Wheatfields

My stance: I still use it and will continue to use it. Why? I’m not saying.

Of course, people have asked me, “but Dan, now your competitors know what terms you are targeting.” My response has always been, “If they are looking at my meta tags in order to optimize their site they obviously lack the SEO skills to actually rank on those terms.”

Just keep making good content and having a well-structured website and you will rank. Hard work pays off. Trust me.

Google Japan vending machine image courtesy of Gyazickr.

The video

SEO for Social Media – Panel from #SMBF “Social Media: Search Engine Marketing’s Best Friend” from Alter Imaging, Inc. on Vimeo.

Special Thanks to Charlotte Web Design firm Alter Imaging for capturing the video of my session.

The post talks about how Google uses historical data to predict the search volume of certain terms during a certain time period.

As we see that many of the search trends are predictable, we are introducing today a new forecasting feature in Insights for Search, along with a new version of the product. The forecasting feature is applied to queries which are identified as predictable (see, for instance, basketball or the trends in the Automotive category) and then shown as an extrapolation of the historical trends and search patterns.

The post is a follow up to an earlier post from back in April of this year, Predicting the Present with Google Trends. This post included the white paper of the same name that is a MUST READ for all search marketers.

The post from April has some interesting information in it as well.

Google queries in a category like “Automotive/Vehicle Shopping” during the first few weeks of March may help predict what actual March automotive sales will be like when the official data is released halfway through April.

Very interesting information and a great tool that I have been using since it has been launched.

Google Trends
Google Insights for Search

Photo Credit: Dullhunk

Here are five reasons why SEO needs to matter more for all small businesses looking to be more successful online.

1. It’s Free! One of the biggest benefits to SEO is that it is often toted as being a “free” form of advertising. Any small business manager realizes that the time and resources needed to implement SEO tactics costs money. However, the impact that SEO can have for an online small business is tremendous – and the results are long-term. SEO can give you long-term success that your business can enjoy for years to come.

2. Overall Improvement: Oftentimes, SEO will significantly improve a user’s experience on the website while simultaneously appealing to the search engine spiders. After all, the search engines reward those websites that have the most relevant content and the easiest way to search the website. SEO puts these “best practices” into place.
3. Increased Trust with Customers: If your website shows up first on the search engine results pages, your customers are immediately more likely to trust the website. A lack of trust is one of the biggest hurdles for ecommerce and lead generation websites. However, if search engines like Google and Yahoo! trust your website, your future customers will trust in it as well.

4. Long-Term Success: SEO can take weeks to take hold. However, once the SEO tactics are fully in place and recognized by the search engines, your placement at the top of the search engine results pages will ensure higher traffic and sales for months.

5. Simplicity: Unlike a number of other online advertising efforts, SEO can be easier to implement. Through methods such as copywriting, link building and more, any small business can work to implement the SEO steps that will ensure future success.

I have found that I can take advantage of a hot topic by checking the top 15 or so in the morning and seeing if any of the terms make sense for any products I am pushing. For example, A few weeks ago I found that the term “Susan B. Anthony” was Volcanic. I did a search through my product list and found that I had a number of books about Susan B. Anthony available. I quickly created a campaign and was able to push a number of sales through a term that I wouldn’t normally have in my account (my specific industry is a bit different and does not really fit into the mold of having the long, long list of long-tail keywords).

I take a look at the campaign after a few hours and decide to kill it or keep it going. This is 180 degrees from my usual campaign management. I like to run for a week before I tweak, but in this case, I make a quick decision.

There are a few other great search trend tools that I use and will be writing about in the next few weeks.

As i clicked on the app, I remembered that I could do a voice search and figured I’d give it a shot. It asked to use my current location and all I had to do was speak the name of the restaurant and I was given localized the search results. It found the closest location to me and I just touched the phone number in the listing and the phone dialed. The process was so easy. Of course, after we ordered I kept playing with the app to see exactly how well it worked. The success rate was pretty high. I even did some non-localized searches and got the right results. The app is ideal for trying to get a phone number, but I still like searching within the iPhone map app to do searches for local stores or locations that I am driving to.

The Google Voice Mobile App for the iPhone Features:

Voice Search. Speak your queries without even pushing a single button.

Search with My Location. Search for business, weather, and movie information without specifying where you are.

Local search suggestions on a map. See nearby business suggestions on Google Maps — just tap the “near me” suggestions.

Instant access to search. Start a Google search with just one click.

Google Suggest. Get relevant search suggestions as you type, saving you keystrokes.

URL suggestions. Get to popular web sites quickly by tapping site web address suggestions.

Contact search. Quickly find contacts in your address book.

Search history. Get instant access to your previous searches.

Easy access to other Google products. Launch other Google products like Maps, Gmail and News from the Apps tab.

Here is the Google Voice Mobile App for the iPhone official page