Increase your Google clickthrough rates.

Lately many site owners have been asking me what clickthrough rate they should be getting from listings in various page positions on Google. This is because they have not been getting the amount of clicks they would have expected.

A study by AOL in 2006 showed that on average each listing should get a predictable clickthrough rate. The number one spot should expect to receive a clickthrough rate of 42.3%, number 2 was 92%, number 3 8.44%, number 4 6.03%, number 5 4.86%, number 6 3.99%, number 7 3.37, number 8 2.98%, number 9 2.83%, and number 10 2.79%.

However recently these figures don’t match up with reality. Why not well mainly its due to the new types of listings that are being included in the SERPs of Google which are pushing down and drowning out the more traditional natural search engine listings.

 

Depending on the search term Google places alone can push down 70% of normal SEO listings completely off the front page. That makes the fourth natural search listing the 10^th actual listing on the page. Google news, shopping, paid search, you tube results etc also force down the natural search listings making them near obsolete.

As if this weren’t bad enough the natural listings are also becoming far less interesting than the other types of listings. So potential shoppers may see a natural search listing in position one but would rather click on the Google shopping result or one of the more exciting listings surrounding it.

The end result is that ‘simple’ natural listings are receiving far fewer clicks than they should for keywords that trigger universal search.

So what should you do? Well as the old saying goes if you can’t beat them, join them!! For every natural search listing you have for your targeted keywords, you should also have a least one more advanced Google listing such as, video, news, shopping, Google places, Google map, blog, sponsored ads (Adwords, PPC) or any others that apply to your website.

To get in touch with us please visit our website Flarecom

Google flipping out over Flipboard…

Flipboard is a social media ipad app has been downloaded 3.5 million times and has received more than $60 million in venture capital from some of the top players in the industry.

The app taps into feeds from social networks in order to create a digital magazine of tweets, status updates, news and more.

It allows users to tailor the kind of content they want to see, making it more interesting to each individual person that a standard newspaper or even news website.

Flipboard was named Apple Ipad app of the year. In fact the app has become so popular it has been blocked in China!!

So why are Google flipping out over Flipboard??

Well basically Google has been trying to buy the miracle app for quite a while now.

According to All Things Digital, “Google told Flipboard execs that if it did not buy the start-up, it planned to do a version of its own.”

So Google have now come up with its “Flipboard killer” - Google Propeller which will be like Google news on steroids!! It will revolutionize the way users interact with the daily news.

So get ready for to say goodbye to the newspaper and hello to Google and get ready for the sensational touch-screen social news experience.

 

Why not get in touch with Flarecom or Speedy Social Media to answer your questions or tweet us.

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Are we putting too much trust in Google?

Should Google get a plus?

  

When I read my emails in gmail it pretty obivious that the ads displayed in the right column are related to the content in my emails. We already know that Google, as a search engine, uses our search behavior for targeted advertising. This is nothing new, however what about G+?

Is G+, a platform where we share potentially private information, are we putting too much trust in Google?

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                                         = ???

Everything we now know about Facebook is that it was designed as a place for people to “connect.” We share tons of private information on Facebook and that information is now used for advertisers that generates BILLIONS of revenue for the Social Media giant.

Now along comes G+. This is a new social media platform where millions of people are sharing similarly personal information. That we are used to, but what makes G+ different? Well maybe it is the main intention of the service from the beginning.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt did an interview with NPR’s Andy Carvin discussing the real names policy on G+. Carvin told Bloomberg Businessweek the following;

 

"Eric replied by saying G+ was built primarily as an identity service, so fundamentally it depends on people using their real names f they are going to build future products to leverage that information."

 

So the real question that is on everyone’s mind is what then really is the difference between Facebook and G+. It’s simple. Facebook was not designed with any of this in mind. It was, from the beginning, a place to connect with friends and share the “college” experience, but ended up more about sharing your life experiences.

G+ from the beginning was designed to gather your information as an “Identity Service” to pass your information on to large corporate advertisers. For this reason ONLY do they care to provide you with this so called social experience.

So to me it is a question of integrity and trust. Should we be as open to share this information with Google knowing their true intentions? Or should we be more cautious? How much info will they share? Can we opt out? Maybe some questions we need to be asking before we give them too much.

 

Do you have a question about G+? Why not get in touch with Flarecom or Speedy Social Media to answer your questions or tweet us.

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  Flarecom

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