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5 Ways to Maximise Your Guest Blogging Strategy

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 -1000

No longer a mere vent for interests or complaints, blogs have become one of the primary means by which brands garner recognition, authority and loyal fans that turn into customers. And with guest blogging becoming prominently popular, blogs have also become a mainstay for those in charge of search engine optimisation. Since the rise of Google Panda, guest blogging has become as Search Engine Watch would put it, “a key link building practice that is based on exchanging worthwhile content for improved rankings”. SEOMoz CEO Rand Fishkin sums up the many other benefits of guest blogging in saying that it is “a fantastic strategy to build your brand, get in front of new people, earn some links back to your site, and earn the recognition from other communities that can lead to all sorts of good marketing opportunities in the future.”

In this sense guest blogging has become an indispensable SEO strategy, unfortunately like so many well-meaning strategies it has not avoided being erroneously used. With an intense focus on the benefits of guest posting to SEO some would resort to spammy, low quality, deceptive and manipulative blog posts that never bring any long-term success and instead downgrade a site or brand’s authority and image. To avoid such erroneousness and ensure that you get the full value of guest posting, we’ve listed down several of the best guest blogging practices below courtesy of Search Engine Watch and SEOMoz’s Rand Fishkin.

Find Relevant Target Blogs. Before any guest blogging can begin, you of course have to start by looking for a really good blog of which you can be a guest contributor. There are several ways to do this:
- Using Google search or any other search engine type in variations of "guest post" or "guest contributor", such as "guest posting guidelines", "guest authoring guidelines" or "guest blog guidelines" and add your keyword or topic to it.
- Search Engine Watch suggests clicking on “blogs” at the left side of the SERP to further limit your results to blogs only.
- Fishkin suggests going to Google Reader, which lists blogs and their subscriber counts (that can tell you a lot about the blogs’ popularity), or searching blog directories such as BlogHer, Technorati and Alltop.
Fishkin points out that blogs which rarely have guest posts (meaning their primary writers supply most of the content) or typically non-blog news and content sites that have guest authorship opportunities are often excellent, quality targets.
Determine the Value of a Blog. Search Engine Watch recommends several tools to determine the level of authority of your target blogs, tools like Open Site Explorer, Blekko or Google Webmaster Tools to check backlinks and Rank Checker Firefox extension to check PageRank. After that, it’s all a matter of considering for yourself the following questions:
- Does the site have an About section?
- How frequently do they post?
- Is the content consistent?
- Are people commenting on the blog posts?
Reach Out and Build a Relationship. One cannot simply promote a brand or a belief without knowing the person behind it first, so don’t expect blog owners to welcome your content with open arms without knowing you first. Before you jump right into asking complete (albeit authoritative) strangers to post your blog on their site, get to know them and let them know you first, and be completely transparent, personal and genuine in your intentions. “Let them know that you're a real person,” says Fishkin, “that you know who they are, that you've researched them, that you've been in touch.” Fishkin further suggests getting in touch via social media, leaving comments on their blog, or helping out in some way. Do these for at least a month before popping the big question – “Will you post my guest post?”
Optimise Your Content. Before delving into content creation, check your target blog or site’s guest post requirements as some may require author bios, pictures, etc. Once you’ve fulfilled these, make sure that whatever you write or make will be relevant to the blog site you are targeting and the audience that the site already has. You can base your content on previous posts and comments from the site’s audience, and you can also add interesting and informative infographics to your content to make it even more shareable. But never forget that you are writing not just for a link, but for your content to spread and make you an authority in your own right, so investigate what the audience wants, what they are asking and start writing from there.
Earn Outsized Returns from Your Guest Post. Search Engine Watch recommends getting contextualised links as these are more relevant and more likely to get clicked, but more often than not, these kinds of links won’t be allowed due to their tendency to appear spammy. If that is the case, Fishkin suggests having embeddable content, like images and other interactive content that you can reference back to your site. He also suggests other ways you can get more out of your guest post:

Ask if you can do a series of articles on a certain topic, this will get you more familiarity with the audience, better branding and more links.

When writing a guest post for one target blog, link to your other target blogs. This will help develop a relationship between you and these other blogs that will open doors for more guest posting opportunities.

Cleverly create bio links. With some clever rewording, you can get anchor text and branding within your bio. An example stated by Fishkin was how he discreetly links to his wife’s travel blog in his bio with a statement like, “Rand's wife, Geraldine, chronicles their adventures in her Serendipitous travel blog.”

Lastly, instead of targeting your primary keywords in somebody else’s site or not targeting any keywords at all, target your secondary or tertiary keyword phrases. “Remember, guest posts, especially on powerful blogs... earn lots of links,” says Fishkin. “They have high potential to rank, and of course, if they do that and they earn lots of nice link juice, the links pointing back to you are going to be authoritative and helpful for your own SEO.”

Why Professional Web Design Companies Are a Must

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -1000

Professional web design - who needs such a service? Actually, you might! In fact many companies do but unfortunately, it is commonplace not to realise such until after the fact. Often, when business owners start out they rightfully become excited to begin setting up their own website. A decent site is sometimes then created after a considerable amount of effort, combined with what initially seemed like a low time investment that eventually turns into a much larger one than anticipated.

Do-it-yourself web design software is great for personal sites and hobbyists, but rarely cut it for business websites that require luring a significant number of visitors, not to mention converting them into buying customers. Online, websites are the storefronts of businesses, so they cannot and should not look and work the same way as hobby and personal sites do in order for the endeavour of creating one to turn into a successful venture. This is analogous to a physical storefront looking like a residential building – it simply does not work well.

Business websites need to be professional and a step ahead in order to gain and retain customers, and this is why professional web designers exist. Experienced ones make sure that your website delivers the right combination of beauty and functionality, while simultaneously sufficiently selling your brand and product. If you are still sceptical, then take a look at our list of reasons why you might want to reconsider.

Tips for Seeking Web Design Company

First impressions matter. This is a golden rule that applies to websites as much as anything else. Websites need to be beautiful and yet functional, as well as unique and alluring to capture the attention and interest of users at first glance. But websites also need to be highly effective at the same time, and professional website designers know and understand this balance very well. They know what works and what doesn’t. They also know how to seamlessly make websites look more professional, a look that unfortunately, many do-it-yourself websites tend not to carry. Web professionals know how to marry beautiful aesthetic elements with the technical elements of a website. If you are the leader or aim to be the leader in your industry or among other competing businesses, your site has to look the part.
Customisation. Online, businesses have millions of competitors worldwide. In order to set your business apart, you have to make sure your website is fully customised with the many elements unique to your business. Web designers have a leg up when it comes to customisation, as they can give a personal touch that no ready-made software could. Some web design companies have even become experts at targeting specific local audiences, such as our company that caters to all of Australia, but where many customers find us after searching Yahoo for website design Sydney or by through a referral from an existing client. With professional web designers, you benefit from expertise in rendering the details that can make your online property more unique and more effective.
Professional Website Designers do this every day. Online marketing, landing page optimisation, search engine optimisation and making websites mobile-friendly are just a few of the things they study on a daily basis. Unless you went through the same training and experiences they had, it is highly probable many of these factors will be lacking in a web presence if you try to build it by yourself. There’s no point in having a beautiful website if nobody can find it on the major search engines. Ensuring an expert is on board will make sure you not only have a fantastic looking website, but one that gains visibility and attracts customers.
Web designers solve problems. There is an undoubted sense of pride in creating your own website, but is it worth the potential opportunity costs? When using professional web designers, you don’t have to worry about the areas outside your company’s focus- not the upkeep, ranking in search engines, or the design elements. Well of course, you likely will want to monitor how it’s doing as the website and business owner to make certain the expert is adhering to your vision. However, you can rest assured that no matter the problems encountered, there is an expert you can turn to who can easily solve any issues the moment they pop up.
Web designers are privy to the latest techniques and experienced ones will keep you properly updated. There is a lot to catch up on when it comes to web design including fonts, layouts, colour schemes, QR codes just to name a few. Do you have the time to follow the latest trends on an entirely different industry to your core business? This brings us to the final point worth mentioning.
Expert designers save you time. Let’s face it, no matter how easy or fast it may seem to build your own site, you still have to spend quite a lot of time to learn everything for you to achieve desired results. Professional web designers on the other hand, are already experts in their field and know how to deliver the results you want in a timely manner.

It’s admirable to be enthusiastic about having your own business and then having your own website. However, the enthusiasm could be short-lived if your website does not deliver the results needed. Why take the risk and hassles of tackling such an important and profitable medium on your own? First, truly consider the value of using a professional web designer.

Layout Updated: 07/06/2012

Have a Laugh with Google’s 2012 April Fools’ Roundup

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -1000

Did you all get your funny bone fix last Sunday? Because Google sure did. The leader in online search decided that for April Fools’ Day they would lead in pranks as well, and lead they did with their line-up of jokes ranging from the quirky to the hilarious and downright ridiculous. Search engine optimisation and web design news source Search Engine Watch listed down some of these wacky winners, and here they are plus a few more that gave us the giggles.

Google Street Roo

In an effort to somehow give users top-notch imagery of the Australian outback similar to those of the Amazon that Google Maps gave recently, Google announced via their Australian blog that they would be launching Google Street Roo, a project wherein 360 degree cameras would be strapped to thousands of kangaroos in order to capture images of the great Australian outback. According to the blog, the cameras would be powered by solar panels attached to custom-made roo jackets. These jackets would also come with GPS trackers, and a new software “that will smooth over the bouncing effect experienced with the raw data.” Okay roos, lights, camera, and hop!

Google Racing NASCAR with Automated Vehicles

According to a post on Google’s official blog, after having thoroughly tested their self-driving vehicles they have decided to take the next big step with Google Racing, “a groundbreaking partnership with NASCAR to help self-driving vehicles compete in the world of stock car racing.” The news has its very own video on NASCAR’s official website, starring Jeff Gordon and a couple of other NASCAR drivers, as well as Google co-founder Sergey Brin pretending to be Google’s first NASCAR driver (or whatever you call the person “driving” an autonomous vehicle). At the end of the post though, Google admits to the joke but states that they are looking forward to working with NASCAR on future projects.

Google Maps in 8-Bit for NES

Google announced in another blog post that they had “a version of Google Maps for NES, with beautiful low-res graphics, simple and intuitive controls, and a timeless soundtrack” developed by Google Japan. Before any of you hardcore NES fans get too disappointed, the truth is it’s not a total prank. Although a Google Maps NES game isn’t in the works, by simply clicking on the “Quest” button on the upper right corner on the Google Maps official site, the map instantly transforms into an 8-bit version complete with tiny and pixelated versions of landmarks like the statue of liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and many others worldwide.

Chrome Multitask Mode

Wasting precious time online because you only have one mouse to control? In a video Chrome introduced its Multitask Mode, where you can surf the web twice as fast with two mice, or have multiple users with multiple pointing devices all in one PC. If you think your screen is crowded enough when you go online, just imagine what it would look like with two cursors, or two or more users- the thought is enough to make us sigh with relief that this isn’t actually real!

The YouTube Collection

Have you ever wanted to keep and cherish a YouTube video? With The YouTube Collection, you can! The YouTube Collection is a set of DVDs of all the videos ever posted and will be posted on YouTube. All of them. It’s a good thing this collection is nonexistent- considering approximately an hour of video gets posted on YouTube every second, buyers would have to watch YouTube videos all day everyday for the rest of their lives, and still end up watching only a fraction of all the videos in the collection.

Gmail Tap

Morse code gets rediscovered in this new, albeit fake idea from Gmail called Gmail Tap. Gmail Tap eliminates the “overwhelming” QWERTY keypad and replaces it with just two symbols- a dash and a dot.

Other Google Gags:

Google AdWords Click-to-Teleport – the button that when clicked, allows searchers to instantly teleport to the business location on a search ad. A dream of business owners everywhere which unfortunately, will have to remain so for the time being.
Google Really Advanced Search - Given the detail needed on this search, “really” is a very big understatement. Google’s Really Advanced Search asks for the smallest and most ridiculous of details, like rhyming slang, font and even embarrassing grammatical faux pas. As ridiculous as it sounds though, it’s sure to be the secret dream of every SEO company right now!
GoRo – if GoMo lets you optimise your website for mobile, GoRo lets you optimise it for rotary phones. What for, you ask? According to the phoney (pun intended) GoRo site, “technology is cyclical.”

Google has plenty of other pranks including Google Voice for Pets, Google Weather Control (that appears to let you control the actual weather of your chosen region), Google Fiber (it’s no fibre optic network, but an actual fibre bar that claims to have 100 times more fibre than any source of fibre available today), Google Analytics Interplanetary Reporting (why track only human visits when you can track non-human ones from outer space?) and various quirky changes to their search page. With such a plethora of pranks, how will Google top themselves next year? We’ll just have to wait and see!

Apple Faces Refunds and Settlement for iPad 4G Claims

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -1000

The new iPad was first sold in Australia last March 16 and as expected, throngs of people dashed to the nearest Apple stores to get it. Apple boasted of the iPad’s new and impressive 4G system on their website and practically every other medium of online marketing available. However, when Australians started trying to connect to 4G networks using the new iPad, they got disappointing results – it turns out, the new iPad’s 4G capability just isn’t compatible with Australia’s existing 4G network.

In light of this, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took immediate action, stating that it would pursue injunctions, fines and other remedies against Apple for apparently misleading the public about their product’s capability. According to the BBC a full trial will be held in May, but as of now Apple has decided to offer refunds to customers in Australia who may have felt misled about the new iPad’s 4G capabilities. ABC News reports that the company has stated that it will email purchasers and offer a refund if they believe they were misled, and clarifications would also be made at the point of sale.

Misleading Claim?

According to Macrumors’ reports, the ACCC has pointed out that the problem stemmed from Apple’s use of the term “4G”. While the iPad is 4G LTE compatible, its compatibility is only limited to United States and Canada due to differences in frequency bands for LTE used in different countries. The Guardian states that “Australia does have 4G service on the Telstra network but the new iPad connects to 4G on the 700MHz and 2100MHz frequencies”. Australia’s current 4G network uses the 1800MHz frequency.

The ACCC has alleged that Apple’s advertising of the new iPad has broken four sections of Australian consumer law and has brought the case to court. At a preliminary hearing, Apple’s lawyers argued that the company never specified the iPad could connect to Telstra’s network, and that the device is compatible with other networks that by international standards are considered 4G. The ACCC fired back, stating that they had expressed their concerns the day before the product was launched, and so the company already had knowledge that the device would not connect to Australia’s 4G network.

Ongoing Settlements

Macrumors states that “Apple has added fine print in several places on its website to clarify that LTE connectivity is not available in most countries”, but the ACCC feels this is insufficient, insisting on corrective advertising for the iPad and the company’s cooperation to stop using the “4G” term when marketing the iPad in countries where the device is incompatible with the LTE network. In response, Apple has agreed to publish a clarification that the new iPad is not compatible with the Telstra network, but it will not stop stating that the product supports ultra fast mobile networks, nor will it agree to the ACCC’s proposal to force the company to place stickers on the iPad’s packaging.

According to news.com, both parties still have not agreed on how information should be conveyed to consumers, and settlements are still ongoing.

The Guardian reports that currently, the new iPad has not been advertised by Australian carriers Telstra and Optus as 4G compatible, but as the "new iPad on our data + tablet bundle" and “Wi-fi and 3G device”, respectively.

12 Steps to Showing Off Fully Optimised PPC Ads

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -1000

So you’ve successfully launched a beautiful website that’s got everything you ever wished for – impeccable website design, lots of quality detailed and precise content, and of course, all of your products and services laid out at their very best for all web users to see – problem is, no one’s really buying, because no one seems to be seeing them. When it comes down to this, the real problem could lie with your online marketing, specifically your paid search ads.

There are many factors that affect the effectivity of a paid search or PPC ad, but as Search Engine Watch writer Miranda Miller puts it, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. What could prove effective for one ad may not be as effective for another. Fortunately, there are best practices and a few good tricks to optimising PPC ads that have been tried and tested by various experts who were generous enough to share these tips and tricks with us. Online ad management and optimisation companies Marin Software and BoostCTR both conducted studies on these best practices and following are some of their top recommendations:

Get multiple writers to write for the same ad group.

BoostCTR reveals that this allows you to test multiple perspectives simultaneously, and see which ones work best for your brand.

Attract attention using Dynamic Keyword Insertion.

Keyword insertion is a vital feature which must be used in your Google Adwords management. Using dynamic keyword insertion in your headline will allow you to dynamically insert a keyword from your Ad Group directly into your ad copy if triggered by a searcher's query. So if someone makes a search for any of your keywords, you will be able to show those keywords on your headline and catch the attention of the searcher who sees the direct relevance of your ad to his/her search through your keyword.

Test stronger calls to action.

This can be varied depending on your product or service- maybe stress the importance of your product or service, limited stocks, speed of delivery, etc.

Test benefits vs. features.

When writing the ad copy, figuring out whether to give more emphasis on the features or benefits of your products or services has always been a delicate balancing act. The combination always differs for everyone, but there are ways to figure out the perfect combination for you. BoostCTR suggests constantly asking the question, “what’s in it for me?” with the users’ perspective in mind to arrive at the best benefits to include on your ad copy. Online marketing expert Mona Elesseily suggests talking to the people closest to your target customers (i.e. salespeople, customer service people, etc.) to figure out what the biggest customer concerns are and address these first when making your ad copy. Conducting a focus group to find out what these concerns are could also work really well.

Alternatively, BoostCTR Director of Marketing Noran El-Shinnawy points out that ad copies need not be only one or the other, solely focusing on either benefits or features. It is possible to have a benefit-laden headline with a feature-rich body copy or vice versa. Just as it would be worthwhile to test both feature-focused and benefit-laden copy, it would also be beneficial to test a combination of both.

Make ad copies specific.

Ad copies should be specific to a product or service or to a certain group of buyers. The more specific it is, the bigger the chances it will convert. “A big reason for this,” notes Elesseily, “is that it’s easier to hone in on relevant keyword terms and include them in ad copy headlines and descriptions.”

Use an ad group optimiser.

Ad group optimisers help you evaluate the relationship between creative and keywords within ad groups. Marin states, “This will provide you with a workflow to do things like clustering keywords by quality score, moving keywords with low CTR and quality to new groups, etc.”

Set up goal-based bidding.

Marin notes that this will allow you to “maximize performance objectives, such as cost per lead, return on advertising spending, margin, or custom targets.”

Set up performance filters and alerts.

This will help you manage large scale campaigns by exception, identify high-impact keywords and creative for analysis, and get alerted when performance drops or spikes in order to address issues proactively.

Elesseily suggests a few other tactics to try to boost PPC ad performance, including:

Geographic targeting.

If there are specific geographic areas performing better than others, think about ways to increase volume in those regions, such as adding a geographic qualifier to any of your search terms.

Ad scheduling.

This is similar to geographic targeting but focuses on time rather than location. If there are times when your traffic converts best, relocate your budget from the poor converting times to those good converting times to make the most of your company’s ad spend.

Call tracking.

According to Elesseily, call tracking gauges the true impact of a campaign, both in online and offline conversions. You can do this by assigning unique phone numbers on PPC landing pages and seeing which ones make your phones ring most often, or assigning codes to landing pages and asking callers for the code when they call. Elesseily notes that you will need to sync up codes to your ads on your back end and optimise accordingly when doing this.

Adwords campaign experiments.

Conducting Adwords campaign experiments is another way by which you can test theories with a system that lets you easily revert an unsuccessful test group back to the original. You can test various hypotheses, split traffic evenly between a control group and experiment group and see results at both the ad group level and the keyword level. Elesseily notes that this will also allow you to solve internal or agency-client debates about “best” practices.

Once you’ve followed through these steps and improved your PPC ad’s visibility, conversion and overall success, your beautiful site, products and services will surely get the recognition- and purchases – they deserve.

Changes to PPC & Search Engine Optimisation Impacts

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -1000

At the rate that people are using the internet nowadays, it probably does not occur to most what kind of PPC ads are turning up on their pages anymore. Ads and various other forms of online marketing, such as search engine optimisation, have become part and parcel of every webpage’s landscape, and not until people accidentally or purposefully click on an ad do they realise how deceptive or totally off-base from searches some of these ads can be. Fortunately, primary PPC ad operators Google and Microsoft have been paying real close attention and decided to make some major modifications to make these ads better for both users and advertisers. Last week, in their official blog Google announced the introduction of certain improvements to their online ads system Google AdWords which were aimed at detecting and removing questionable ads, landing pages and even advertiser accounts, promoting better AdWords management. Following in Google’s footsteps, Microsoft revealed to Search Engine Land Contributing Editor Pamela Parker this week some changes that it would be applying to their very own adCenter.

Google AdWords: Serious Safeguarding

According to Google’s official blog, aside from continuing to adhere to their ad policies which guard against ads with illegal or harmful products, misleading claims, fraudulent scams and unclear billing practices, it would be implementing a new automated system designed to “detect and remove ads for malicious download sites that contain malware or a virus before these ads could appear on Google.” These automated systems would also scan and review landing pages and advertiser accounts, and once flagged, will be reviewed in detail by Google’s policy specialists to determine a proper course of action.

Additional improvements to Google’s systems as stated on their official blog include:

Improved “query watch” for counterfeit ads – involves wider proactive monitoring of sensitive keywords and queries related to counterfeit goods, stopping them before they even appear on Google.
New “risk model” to detect violations – upgraded engineering system is made even more precise in detecting advertisers who violate ad policies.
Faster manual review process – for ads requiring manual review, the internal processes and systems have been sped up, enabling specialists to be faster and more precise.
Twenty-four hour response time – along with a faster manual review process, a maximum 24-hour response time will be followed from the moment a reliable complaint is received about an ad to make sure responses and reviews are given in a timely fashion.
Update on policy ads related to short-term loans – for short-term loans, advertisers are required to disclose fine-print details such as overall fees, annual percentage rate and implications for late and non-payment to protect people from misleading claims.

Take from Search Engine Optimisation News Website

Google’s changes appear to primarily benefit users, but Google has made some changes to AdWords as well that most, if not all advertisers will benefit from. An article on search engine optimisation news site Search Engine Watch states that Google has recently widened its AdWords account limits, giving advertisers the freedom to have up to 10,000 campaigns (including active and paused) per account with 20,000 ad groups per campaign. The limit for keywords has remained the same at 5,000 per ad group, but given that the limit for campaigns used to be 500, the change is still quite significant.

Microsoft adCenter: Some Google-like Changes

Also making some changes is one of Google AdWords’ biggest rivals, Microsoft adCenter. Most of adCenter’s changes are still in the development process with some very closely resembling features already present in Google AdWords. Pamela Parker of Search Engine Land lists down Microsoft adCenter’s changes follows:

Broad Match Modifier –this targeting feature is similar to Google’s Broad Match Modifier and will allow advertisers to create keywords with greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match.
AdCenter Express – Parker notes that this feature is very similar to Google’s AdWords Express, and automates the process somewhat to make it easier for small businesses to manage their ad campaigns. This feature is said to officially launch sometime by the end of the year.
More integrations in Bing – this allows users to complete tasks and engage with advertisers more simply, and can enable users to shop, make reservations, etc. directly on the Bing page instead of going to an advertiser’s site.
Dynamic Location Extensions and Sitelink Extensions – this allows advertisers that have multiple locations to set up ads that serve the most relevant or closest (in terms of location) result to consumers.
More detailed quality score data – advertisers will soon be able to get data on their quality scores for various match types and for mobile-only targeted ads.
Desktop Tool for Mac – this software will enable advertisers to manage adCenter from the Macintosh.

There’s certainly a lot of changes to look forward to in the PPC world, and whether you’re simply an everyday user or advertiser you can be sure to benefit in more than one way to these changes, even if only to make you more aware of PPC ads the next time they turn up on your page.

Apple, Foursquare: Goodbye Google Maps, Hello OpenStreetMap

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -1000

A not so new mapping service has been taking big strides this month catching the attention of large companies like Foursquare and Apple, and has been giving Google Maps a definite run for its money. That mapping service is none other than OpenStreetMap (OSM), the free collaborative mapping project which was created in the early 2000s. According to an article on SEO and web design news source Search Engine Watch, popular location-based social networking service Foursquare was the first major company to switch from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap late last month. Foursquare was cited stating that OSM was “the perfect fit” because of “its design flexibility and it being open source.” Just a little over a week later, Apple was spotted using OSM on their newly launched photo management app, iPhoto. According to a post on OSM Foundation’s official blog, the desktop version of the iPhoto and all of Apple’s previous iOS apps had been using Google Maps until that time, and they were absolutely delighted about it.

A Reasonable Switch

Some might say that these companies had no choice but to switch to OSM because of Google Maps’ recent pricing ($4 for every 1,000 visitors past 25,000). But Apple’s decision to switch had been a long time coming Search Engine Watch notes, given that since 2009 it had been buying up companies in the mapping space including Placebase, Poly9 and C3 Technologies. And although Foursquare’s switch was instigated by the Google Maps pricing the company also had other good reasons to opt for OSM.

Unlike Google Maps, OSM can be freely edited by users, so information and directions are more updated. According to an article on news.com, it “closely follows the non-profit Wikipedia model.” “Anyone can go to the OpenStreetMap website and add or edit information,” news.com notes, “And anyone can use the maps - to find their way or to build their own map-based apps - for free.” These features have made OSM a great help in times of crises. News.com points out that during devastating calamities such as the earthquake that shook Haiti in 2010 and the tsunami that overwhelmed Japan, the geography of these areas changed drastically- buildings were destroyed, refugee camps sprung up and streets were reduced to rubble. In such situations, the ability of users to easily update OSM became very helpful in guiding volunteers and disaster relief workers to their destinations. Likewise, they were also able to edit the maps themselves as they encountered changes in the terrain. News.com quotes OSM volunteer Jonathan Bennett in saying, “the responsiveness of crowdsourced maps to change represents a new way of charting the world.” Bennet adds, “OpenStreetMap can keep up with the pace of progress in a way that no other way of making maps can.”

OpenStreetMap: The Future Google Maps?

Since its conception in the early 2000s, OSM has gained half a million registered cartographers, including 16,000 heavily active contributors. According to news.com Volunteer trekkers worldwide have logged more than 2.7 billion GPS points on the map so far, and are showing no signs of stopping.

Aside from having continuous user-contributed updates, OSM is also quite easy to use. “Using OpenStreetMap can be as simple as going to the main website and searching for a location, as with the popular Google Maps,” news.com notes. And with a price that is just right, it could just be the perfect choice over Google Maps for website developers and website owners, especially if their sites rely heavily on mapping.

Google Still #1 Despite Users' Aversions to Personalised Search

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -1000

It may come as no surprise that in comScore’s Explicit Core Search Share data for February 2012 search authority Google is still at first place with 66.4%, followed by Microsoft sites which include search engine Bing at 15.3% and Yahoo at 13.8%. What is surprising is how Google retained its lead and even gained 0.2 percentage points since January when another survey recently conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project clearly shows that majority of searchers dislike personalised search, a feature which Google has been promoting and which Bing has been quick to emulate.

In comScore’s Search Query Report, Google also took the lead with 11.7 billion queries followed by the same runner-ups: Microsoft with 2.7 billion and Yahoo with 2.4 billion. In the Pew survey results published on web development news site Mashable, a significant 83% of searchers preferred Google as their search engine of choice, further showing that undeniably, Google has not shifted from its place at the top and hence one reason search engine optimisation companies still focus primarily on the rankings in Google vs. the other search engines.

Contradicting Results - Little Impact on Search Engine Optimisation

Alongside these positive statistics though, the Pew survey revealed that of its 2,000 respondents the majority 65% viewed personalised search as bad and limiting to search results one sees. An even larger 73% agreed that search engines keeping track of what you search in order to personalise search results is an invasion of privacy. When asked how they felt about targeted advertising, 68% responded that they were “not okay with it” because of how it tracks and analyses their online behaviour. These negative views toward personalised results have led many SEO experts to wonder, why is Google still doing so well? Since there is relatively little impact the majority of search engine optimisation companies thus continue to focus on Google's search rankings.

Not All Search Engine Optimisation Experts Agree

TechCrunch concludes that though personalisation has garnered various complaints and criticism from the media and now these staggering statistics, users are not really turned-off by the personalisation of Google Search in the form of Search Plus Your World-- at least not enough to make them switch to another search engine. But according to Search Engine Land Contributing Editor Greg Sterling the reason could lie more on the odd phenomenon that the users - at least those who participated in the Pew survey - did not immediately associate their negative views toward personalisation with Google Search. “In fact,” Sterling notes, “there seems to be a complete disconnect between survey respondents’ positive views of search, and by extension Google, and disapproval of personalization and data mining.” Sterling points out that Pew did not mention Google or Bing in any of the questions regarding personalisation or data mining, which may have been the reason why the respondents did not associate these particular search engines with their responses to personalisation. “However,” Sterling adds, “it would have been very interesting to see the answers to those more specific questions.” The above should make it increasingly clear that not all experts of search engine optimisation agree about Search Plus Your World.

Search Engine Land Editor-In-Chief Danny Sullivan points out that the responses on the survey were specific, but not in giving out names of actual search engines. The responses instead provided some context. Rather than a simple yes or no response, respondents had to choose from answers which identified specific reasons. For example, if one disliked targeted advertising, the response closest to this dislike would be “I’m not okay with it because I don’t like having my online behaviour tracked and analysed,” even if one would have different reasons for disliking it, or not really dislike it that much. Not all respondents may have answered all the questions as well due to the specific nature of the responses available. This may cause some minor disparity in the results, and might also explain why despite seemingly heavily negative views toward personalisation based on the survey, users still continue to use Google Search frequently.

False Sense of Security

Sullivan notes that another possible reason for the apparent contradiction of users disliking personalisation but still using Google Search is the users’ belief that they currently have some control over the personalisation of their search results. Based on the survey 38% felt they were “generally aware of themselves” and could control what information about them could be gathered by a website. When asked about the means by which they thought they could do this, 81% said they did it by deleting their web history, 75% used privacy settings of websites and 65% changed their browser settings. According to Sullivan, these methods may not always be effective and could just be giving the respondents a false sense of control which is why, though they dislike personalisation, they aren’t really vehemently fighting it or discontinuing the use of search engines like Google. This is point worthy of noting for all those in the search engine optimisation industry.

Personalisation: Simply Misunderstood by SEO Experts?

The contradiction may be caused by any number of reasons, but it could also be very simple- perhaps people are not really against personalisation, but are just wary of the possible negative effects it could have, and unaware of its benefits. Sullivan delivers a very good point to this end -“The fact that most people haven’t objected, or gone out of their way to prevent even logged-out personalization from happening, probably means that they really don’t understand the ways that personalization can be helpful.”

“I think when you ask anyone about personalization, the reaction they have will be far more negative than in their actual routine,” Sullivan a leading SEO expert states. “If they’re educated more about it, if you give them more context, a knee-jerk ‘it’s bad’ response can often turn into a ‘maybe.’ I’ve seen this happen when I’ve spoken with people on the topic.” Sullivan still warns that there are privacy issues to be resolved here, but with proper education and with Google recognising these concerns and statistics instead of ignoring them, people’s perception about personalisation could take a turn for the better and finally coincide with Google’s position as the most preferred search engine.

Revised Slightly: 19/06/2012

Web Users Worldwide Celebrate World Day Against Cyber-Censorship

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -1000

March 12, 2012 –World Day Against Cyber-Censorship was held and participated in by various groups and individuals online around the world, thanks to prime mover Reporters Without Borders, an organisation against media censorship based primarily throughout Europe and Asia. The event was also supported by the company with one of the biggest stores of user-produced content and influence to web design, Google. According to the official website of World Day Against Cyber-Censorship the event is “intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet without restrictions and accessible to all”. The site goes on to state, “Never have so many countries been affected by some form of online censorship, whether arrests or harassment of netizens, online surveillance, website blocking or the adoption of repressive Internet laws.” The event then is not only a movement to support freedom of speech within the web, but is also a tribute to those who have been imprisoned for exercising this freedom for the greater good.

Power of Information on The Web

The official site of World Day Against Cyber-Censorship features many useful pieces of information, including their list of countries that have put the heaviest restrictions to freedom of speech and expression on the internet, as well as a map of Cyber-Censorship that reveals which areas are suffering the most online repression. A look into the website of Reporters Without Borders reveals even more information and stories from all around the world, bringing to light the plight of many journalists and free-thinkers of various nations and how uncensored online information has helped countless of suffering citizens across Asia and the Middle East.

Spreading positivism amidst this negative issue, Reporters Without Borders in partnership with Google also gave out the Netizen Prize as one of the event’s main activities. The Prize is awarded to a blogger, online journalist or cyber-dissident who has helped promote freedom of expression on the internet.

For those who wanted or would like to participate in some small way to the cause, the event’s website provides colourful logos for anyone to download and post to show their support for an Internet without restrictions. A link is also provided which leads visitors to a temporary website dedicated to combating cyber-censorship, called Cyber Tag. According to the site, Cyber Tag allows “Internet users to pin messages on virtual versions of the embassies of the 10 countries that Reporters Without Borders has identified as ‘Enemies of the Internet’... [it] invites Internet users to stage virtual demos outside the embassies of their choice and to leave messages on their facades”. In this way, a clear message is given to these institutions with no unnecessary and unfortunate bloodshed often resulting from live protests.

Google’s Approach to Free Expression

In anticipation of this year’s World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, an entry written by Google’s Senior Vice President for Global Communications and Public Policy Rachel Whetstone was posted on Google’s official blog last Friday. The post basically gave a review and outline of the company’s stand regarding free expression and controversial content which was first released four years ago. Though the company has expressed support for the event, their post expressed a less aggressive stance to free expression on the Internet, stating that there are certain limits to what content they allow particularly when it comes to sensitive subjects. “We recognize that there are limits,” writes Whetstone, “In some areas it’s obvious where to draw the line... But in other areas, like extremism, it gets complicated because our products are available in numerous countries with widely varying laws and cultures.” Whetstone goes on to say that while they encourage web users to express themselves freely, they still want to ensure that people do so responsibly, thus the setting up of guidelines. With Google having such a huge influence on website development as well as the responsible use and distribution of information on the Internet, it sounds just about right that the company would express a more balanced stance regarding free expression online.

Web Users Worldwide Celebrate World Day Against Cyber-Censorship

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -1000

March 12, 2012 –World Day Against Cyber-Censorship was held and participated in by various groups and individuals online around the world, thanks to prime mover Reporters Without Borders, an organisation against media censorship based primarily throughout Europe and Asia. The event was also supported by the company with one of the biggest stores of user-produced content and influence to web development, Google. According to the official website of World Day Against Cyber-Censorship the event is “intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet without restrictions and accessible to all”. The site goes on to state, “Never have so many countries been affected by some form of online censorship, whether arrests or harassment of netizens, online surveillance, website blocking or the adoption of repressive Internet laws.” The event then is not only a movement to support freedom of speech within the web, but is also a tribute to those who have been imprisoned for exercising this freedom for the greater good.

Power of Information - Web Design Communities Unite

The official site of World Day Against Cyber-Censorship features many useful pieces of information for the web design communities across the world (that united for this particular day), including their list of countries that have put the heaviest restrictions to freedom of speech and expression on the internet, as well as a map of Cyber-Censorship that reveals which areas are suffering the most online repression. A look into the website of Reporters Without Borders reveals even more information and stories from all around the world, bringing to light the plight of many journalists and free-thinkers of various nations and how uncensored online information has helped countless of suffering citizens across Asia and the Middle East.

Google’s Approach to Free Expression on The Web

In anticipation of this year’s World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, an entry written by Google’s Senior Vice President for Global Communications and Public Policy Rachel Whetstone was posted on Google’s official blog last Friday. The post basically gave a review and outline of the company’s stand regarding free expression and controversial content which was first released four years ago. Though the company has expressed support for the event, their post expressed a less aggressive stance to free expression on the Internet, stating that there are certain limits to what content they allow particularly when it comes to sensitive subjects. “We recognize that there are limits,” writes Whetstone, “In some areas it’s obvious where to draw the line... But in other areas, like extremism, it gets complicated because our products are available in numerous countries with widely varying laws and cultures.” Whetstone goes on to say that while they encourage web users to express themselves freely, they still want to ensure that people do so responsibly, thus the setting up of guidelines. With Google having such a huge influence on website design, website development as well as the responsible use and distribution of information on the Internet, it sounds just about right that the company would express a more balanced stance regarding free expression online.

Revised: 15/06/2012