A recent study by Think Eyetracking shows that visitors are less likely to look down the SERPs than they were 3 years ago. They are significantly more concentrated on the top of the results than ever before.

Anyone in organic SEO knows how hard it it to get into the top 3 for an even remotely competitive term.  In the past traffic could be gained from lower positions but the trend is now moving towards real success only coming from the top 3.  That’s the bad news for SEO.  In a later post we will be looking at how you can capitalize on other traffic from multiple channels and reduce your reliance on Google organic.  Reliance on Google organic was never smart but the reality is that when you are in the top spot it can be very lucrative and sends many companies chasing the prize.

Is Google Becoming More Relevant?

While this question is subjective and beyond the scope of this post, the results from this study seem to indicate that people have become more used to finding the answers to their queries within the first few search results, which in a way means they’re more relevant to them. Searchers have become so confident in Google to answer their query that they no longer place the burden of proof on the search engine to come up with the right answer. If what they are looking for does not come up in the first few results of Google, searchers have assumed they are at fault and not searching correctly. Many will refine their query instead of digging deeper into the search results.

“… when asked afterwards what they would normally do when they couldn’t find their desired search result on the first page of Google, 87% respondents replied that they would modify the search terms or refine the search by category.”

Searchers Trust in Google Makes SEO More Difficult

Before Google dominated search, it was possible that high rankings in Yahoo and MSN would drive significant traffic. Over time there will be fewer organic listings that will generate search traffic as Google has carved out a dominant share of the search market and users look at a smaller share of the search results due to amount of confidence they place in Google to show them the best results at the top of the SERPs. The amount of traffic achieved from high rankings in MSN and Yahoo don’t seem to drive as much traffic as they once did, making those spots in the search results continually less valuable. As searchers continue to become more accustomed to finding what they need at the top of the SERPs and Google continues to gain an even larger share of the search market, there will be fewer and fewer spots in the SERPs that matter.

Naturally this makes those top spots significantly more competitive. The days when mechanical SEO could get you to the top of the search results are over. To compete going forward it will take creativity and building a site that people want to talk about. As usual those that adapt will thrive and those that continue to do what they’ve always done will be slowly pushed down the SERPS to anonymity.

I have been meaning to download the new Google’s new Chrome Browser still in Beta.  Part of me wants to try it out and part of me says “Is this another step in Google’s web world dominance plan”.  In this interesting article titled “How to Chrome your business” from  Harvard  Business Publishing, Umair Haque sees Google’s chrome as an excellent way for a company to grow its brand and provide free sharing that benefits all.  I am not so sure about Google’s motives.  Google is one the smartest innovative companies on the planet.  However, I feel that Chrome is more about their dominance of the online ad space and beating Microsoft than to use  Umair’s own words  “Chrome is a shared resource that ensures the sustainable growth of a larger ecosystem” 

Google makes money one way and that is through its ads.  I believe Chrome is part of their overall strategy to collect more information, more data and make their ad serving more relevant leading to their own bottom line performance and profits. I agree with some of the respondents on this blog post who feel Google would have done the OS community a greater service if they had invested in Mozilla Firefox instead.  This is why my suspicion about Google’s real business objectives are a little more cynical than Umair’s

Walt Mosberg wrote an intereting article in the WSJ on the 3rd of September about his test of Chrome.  It is very detailed and a good read. 

All in all though I think I am ready to test Chrome I doubt I will ever me as detailed as Walt but its worth taking a look at. 

I attended what turned out to be one of my favorite sessions at Search Engine Strategies, San Jose recently called “Why does search get all the credit”  Bill Hunt who was moderating started the session by saying that that major brands are still only spending a small percentage of overall ad dollars on search as little as 7.6%.  You can read more here.  This is very disheartening and its hard to figure out why the major brands are still not moving more budget to search given the high value of search how easy it is to measure success and ROI.  Measurability was discussed in detail and some very interesting points were made.  Search often gets all the credit  as its the last house on the block.  However, it is essential to track the actions through the cycle to ensure budget is being allocated correctly.

There is still friction between traditional marketers and online and the siloing of departments causes many problems in measuring the succes of campaigs through multiple channels.  Bill talked about double counting of sales and in one instance search was not getting any credit for leads as the leads where being allocated to the individual sales rep in the CRM and the original source (search) was completely lost. 

The key messages I got from the session were:

1. Ensure your tracking is set up correctly, 8 out of 10 analytics are deployed incorrectly.
2. Create and attribution model.  Measure succes at the different touch points, for example if there is a huge spike in traffic after a T.V. ad then that credit should be shared with the T.V. campaign. 
3. What will you measure, pre-metrics, impressions clicks cpc, post metrics, orders, sales, customer lifetime value.
4. Define your goals what is the end game, although many other channels push the visitor to search ensure that everybody is on the same page about how they got there.
5. How they get there is important but what they do while they are there is the bottom line.  Did they buy, did they go away in ten seconds.  Anyone can take credit for a 5% click thru rate the real pro can reduce a 95% exit rate.
6. Looks for tools or indicators that you have in other media to help indicate impact and success.  IBM has introduced the word green into some of their ads  and it has created great success.
7. Standardize tracking and marketing apps on one system.
8. Measure all views 1st last and shared.  Create a baseline using last, did they come from a press release, a site with a lot of banners. 
9. Do not overwrite the metrics and objectives track seperately, 1) Aquire visitors, 2) Conversion, 3) Remarket
10. Bring the stats to the budget conversations they tend to take the emotion out of the decisions

There still appears to be a long way to go to make the traditional marketers believers in search however, progress is being made and there is more awareness amongst the C-Level than ever.

Fionn Downhill of Elixir Interactive talks with John Mulligan of SEO-PR about viral marketing campaigns following her “”Igniting Viral Campaigns”" session at SES San Jose 2008. Downhill analyzes negative and positive viral discussion and where a search engine marketer fits in that world in terms of trying to control negative conversations and attempting to foster positive conversations in viral marketing.

When it comes to education, it’s so unfortunate many of our nation’s children are still suffering from the effects of economic inequality. I personally feel it’s important to empower kids with reading skills. This year on October 2^nd, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Campaign will attempt to break a world record by bringing children and adults together to read the same book on the same day. It’s a day to increase awareness of this adverse learning gap in our communities and to bring the power of reading to kids across the country.

While reading more about the event on Jumpstart’s website, I learned a lot about the progress the program has made. Since 1993, the Jumpstart program has helped over 50,000 kids develop the literacy skills they need to succeed in school. Each year they strive to reach more and more children. Over the past two years Jumpstart has been bringing classic tales, such as The Little Engine That Could and The Story of Ferdinand to young minds through their Read for the Record Campaign. This year, kids will enjoy reading the charming story of Corduroy. Kids get to keep and treasure their copy of the book, and for some it will be the first book they personally own.

Supporting the event is easy. You can choose to donate a copy of Corduroy to a deserving child, or make a donation to the Jumpstart program - which provides for one-on-one literacy development for kids each year. All donations made to the Jumpstart program between now and October 2^nd will be matched by The Pearson Foundation, and a copy of Corduroy will also be donated on your behalf. You can also donate your time to a Read for the Record event near you. Events will be held at schools, libraries, hotels, shopping malls, and other locations across the country.

Be sure to share information about the Read for the Record Campaign with your family, friends and neighbors. It really is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to come together and support our nation’s future.

On the 7th of August I will be running a workshop for PRSA Phoenix on Social Media, Online PR and Web 2.0 for PR professionals.  You can read the Press Release here

For details on how to sign up for this event visit the Valley PR blog.  Not only are we planning a great event at  Pearson Education at their new facility at 3075 W. Ray Road, Chandler but all proceeds go to the PRSSA scholarhip fund.

I have had the pleasure of working with Julie Wainwright CEO of SmartNow.com an online web resource site for women over 35.  Smart Now is Julie’s own business venture which she runs with another great woman called Lynn Forbes.  You should check out this great  resource site which has been so thoughtfully  put together by these two great women.

I was particualrly moved by Julie’s article on the five biggest mistakes she made and how she moved past them.  You can read the full article here. 

Ad Age daily  today reports the move by several States to further scrutinize the Yahoo Google Ad serving deal.  You can read the full report here.  This is hot on the heels of the congressional hearing on the same subject today.  According to CNet’s Declan McCullagh its is probably not going to make a lot of difference to the internet public.  Microsoft’s argument is just an echo from the past and its pretty much the same arguement Google put forward against the Yahoo Microsoft deal. 

Whatever happens today I personally think that Google’s dominance is not a good thing for consumers.  I love Google I think they are a first class organization and a great search engine but you can have too much of a good thing.  At least lawmakers are giving this deal scrutiny, it has almost seemed in the past that Google can do what they like.  I was expecting this deal to come under closer scrutiny and its a good thing that it has.  We will have to wait and see what the outcome is I feel that a rejection of this deal would actually be a good thing for the industry and the consumers.  it will be interesting.

On the 2nd of July I was interviewd by RSS Ray on his radio show on the subject of online reputation management.

You can listen to the podcast here.

We moved the mobile version of the elixirinteractive.com site to elixirinteractive.mobi . Anyone accessing the main site with a mobile browser will be automatically redirected to the correct site. This was primarily to aid in correct indexing by search engine spiders.