Claire Stokoe shares the stage with Rand Fishkin and Will Critchlow

Speaking at Linklove 2013, Ms Stokoe can be seen sharing the stage with ‘he of Whiteboard Friday fame’.  The Linklove event concentrates on what’s now and next in the world of linkbuilding and Claire was speaking as an authority about the creation of successful infographics and relationship building for SEO benefit  - sharing a little Mediaworks magic with the wider online marketing community.

Since her Linklove debut, Claire and her advice have been popping up in lots of places, including her All About Infographics article published on the online marketing industry news site, State of Search. Claire was also kind enough to give us her personal lowdown for her ‘Linklove speaker in free infographic sex scandal’ presentation too as well as sharing the slides here.

During his own speech at the event, Rand Fishkin stressed the importance of being a proactive industry contributor when seeking SEO success and we’re exceptionally proud that Claire has and continues to be very active, both on behalf of our clients and as a Mediaworks representative at events such as this.

One of the key messages Claire shared during her talk was the need for data to create a narrative that is naturally engaging and sharable and this is something that is at the very core of the content marketing strategies we use to help us linkbuild creatively. Want to know more about creative linkbuilding and how it can help your brand online? Get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

It seems that the BBC weather’s twitter account has been hacked, some very funny Tweets coming through like those posted below.  The group behind it are called the  Syrian Electronic Army. Business insider have said that Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a cyber clan that spreads propaganda in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

http://leaks.syrian-es.org/

http://syrian-es.org/index.php?lang=en

Tweets -

Saudi weather station down due to head on-collision with camel

— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) March 21, 2013

Scandal: Edinburgh storm warning station decommissioned after maintenance fund diverted to arming Syrian opposition

— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) March 21, 2013

Looks like Syrian Electronic Army is behind it…

“well at least it’s not a disgruntled employee LOL

Thank for hanging out with us! To know the truth about the global terrorist war on #Syria, follow @official_sea #SEA

— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) March 21, 2013

Syrian Electronic Army Was Here via @official_sea #SEA #Syria

— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) March 21, 2013

It was reported earlier that Digg.com has been de-indexed in Google search results and sure enough, this is the case.

As you can see, Digg.com is nowhere to be found for a search for its own domain name.

A tweet by Matt Sawyer of Datadial.net tweeted earlier:

Does anyone know the story behind Digg being deindexed by Google? ow.ly/jfpra

— Matt Sawyer (@mattuk) March 20, 2013

Whether this is a causative de-indexation for Digg confirming they were to build a Google Reader replacement following the announcement by Google that they were to shutting down the Google Reader service on July 1^st 2013 is something of mass-speculation amongst the digital community at the moment.

At one point in time, Digg.com was one of the most popular social sites on the web, thanks to its innovative take on social news. Nowadays, Digg doesn’t have quite the same pull that it once did, but it still is a force to be reckoned with.

As recently as last year, Quantcast estimated around 3.8 million monthly unique visits in the U.S – a lot of which came through Google.

As of now, everything that is being circulated is pure hearsay, but there are a number of reasons that this may have happened.

1. One possible explanation is that it is an SEO penalty for links, which appears to be the main reason that brands are getting de-indexed by Google – evidenced by penalties by Google to Interflora, and even warnings given to the Beeb (BBC) itself, suggesting that the same may also be true of Digg.
2. Google appears to be continuously increasing their grip on SEO, low quality links in particular. The fact that big sites are getting penalised may suggest that Google are aiming to set an example, and sending out a warning signal that they are getting better and better at finding bad links.

As of now, all we have is rumours and speculation, but we will bring you the latest information as and when we get it.

Twitter Updates

16mins

linklove 2013

OK.. so I have put a few of the sources I have used in the past below and shuffled them into categories.. feel free to add you own to make this a nice little resource for peeps… and I shall give you a sneaky twitter bum squeeze as a thank you.

Infographic Data Links

Cars & autos

This goes without saying… data on cars, motorbikes and so on. You can of course mix this with environmental stuff, celebrity and tech.

http://www.imcdb.org/

http://oica.net/category/production-statistics/

http://www.reportlinker.com/ci02294/Automotive.html

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2013/02/2013-car-brand-perception-survey/index.htm

Movies

Remember who your target audience is and stick with it, also don’t just target film buffs… mix in others like -  car fans – horror fans – pet lovers etc. Just because it is about a celebrity or a new movie does not mean 1) that is has not been done before and 2) that you will not have to promote it.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/

http://www.imdb.com/stats

http://www.the-numbers.com/

http://www.uis.unesco.org/FactSheets/Documents/FS16-2011-Literacy-EN.pdf

http://www.celeb-height-weight.psyphil.com/celebrities-height-and-weight-chart-%E2%80%93-celebrity-stats/

Education

These are long lasting if you do it well. Make sure your data is correct and that if you are doing something that has been done before that you are adding to it. Do not rehash the same old stuff just because it did well once, unless of course you have been promised that you can get it on a top site like huffington post or a few edu sites.

http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics

http://collegestats.org/colleges/new-york

Money & Jobs

This can be as controversial or just plain helpful as you want it to be. But make sure you know which you are going for, if it is controversial then some blogs will not touch it, unless they have a back bone.

http://www.payscale.com/

http://www.indeed.com/salary/Data-Analyst.html

http://www.salary.com/

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9224243/IT_Salary_Survey_2012

http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2011/women/

http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2013/productivity/

Fashion

Every blog and his dog will post on fashion from films and celebrities so speak to the likes of Vogue, Chicago Tribune,  Esquire, Washingtonpost and Daily Mail etc.

http://thesuitsofjamesbond.com/

http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com/news_list.aspx?RegionID=&q=figures

http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2012/fashion/

World data

This is more like a general graphic and could work for employment, travel and law clients. Loads of global data here and can work for disaster reporting also.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/41000.html

http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/snapshot-of-global-youth-challenges.html

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/United-Kingdom/United-States/Crime

http://esa.un.org/wpp/unpp/panel_population.htm

http://www.geohive.com/earth/world.aspx

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/contnent.htm

http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/human-conditions.php#2

http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2012/sandy/

http://www.popes-and-papacy.com/statsarchive.htm

Sex

Because lets face it, people like to read about it.

http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/FAQ.html

http://marriage.about.com/cs/sexualstatistics/a/sexstatistics.htm

http://www.guttmacher.org/index.html

Health

This can be approached in much the same way as education and money, good data that will be used as a resource.

http://www.who.int/gho/tb/epidemic/cases_deaths/en/index.html

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

http://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/en/index.html

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Statistics/StatisticalWorkAreas/Statisticalpublichealth/index.htm

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/hnp/

Geographical / Travel

This can be both accurate and silly as far as data is concerned. So top 50 places where you are likely to get eaten by small animals… for example.

http://www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics/

http://www.nycgo.com/articles/nyc-statistics-page

http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/stats-and-the-city/tourism

Sport

I am useless at sport and TBH put these in as i know guys like sport and well.. guys like sport.

http://www.nfl.com/stats/statslab

http://www.sportstats.com/

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/clubs/profile.statistics.html/man-utd

http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html

http://www.stats.com/pdfs/NFL_ITN_QB_Rating.pdf

Food

OK everyone love food, tell them whats good, whats bad.. what they should eat and what they should limit. The weirdest foods on the planet and the most popular this has so much scope.

http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/

http://www.defra.gov.uk/statistics/foodfarm/food/pocketstats/

http://kids.fao.org/glipha/

http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/74192/icode/

http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/content/naked-truth-about-how-packaging-can-help-you-waste-less-food

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/annual-report-of-incidents.pdf

Products & Retail

This is the one to look to when you are looking to WIN XMAS and other celebrations / holidays etc. BUT do not just use data that everyone else has done (i am guilty of it also) and make it extra hard for your to stand out from the crowd.

http://www.statista.com/

https://signin.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn&runame=terapeak-ebay-marketplace-research

http://www.census.gov/retail/

Brand stats (clients)

Talk to your clients, ask them to give you their data. Sales data, who buys what and when… where they live and what age they are etc etc. Its unique data, no one else has it and if you leave it too long the PR dept will get it and turn it into some crap chuff.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/aboutebay/thecompany/companyoverview.html

facebook brands – http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-pages/brands/

Tech

This should be easy as we all work in it, do not however aim your audience specifically just at tech… other areas are out there – education/tech, travel/tech and family/tech.

http://gs.statcounter.com/

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

http://www.statisticbrain.com/computer-sales-statistics/

All data

And here is more that I will be adding too over the coming months, this is a bit of a free for all but they are work checking out. DO NOT FORGET that you can run your own polls, run one on Facebook, use http://twtpoll.com/ and my favorite Money Saving Expert polls. Get your clients to run a poll via their emailers, make sure that you are trying to get the data that NO ONE ELSE HAS. Be the change you want NOW!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.grabstats.com/

http://www.factbrowser.com/

http://www.shmoop.com/american-revolution/statistics.html

http://www.reportlinker.com/ PAID

http://www.ranker.com/

http://www.worldometers.info/

http://www.thedataoctopus.co.uk

This is an ongoing list as these will change, some will shut down and I would love for you guys to add your own links to sources in comments (NOT SPAM PLEASE)

Cheers folks

Claire

Google Shopping result for Armani Jeans Brown Purse

We don’t need to be mind-readers to know that whenever you are looking for a particular product, one of the first things you will do is search for it on Google; when you do, you are more than likely to see shopping listings on the SERP relating to your keyword phrase.

At the moment, Google doesn’t charge a fee for online merchants in the UK to appear in this space; instead, they must submit products (via an XML feed) to Google Merchant Center, which automatically appear within Google Shopping and Search results.

Using this model, Google Shopping helped to create a level playing field for small independent retailers and big brands alike. However, in what could be a significant change to search marketing, Google will only include paying merchants in their search results (Paid Listing Ads)

What Are The Google Shopping Listings Changes?

As of February 2013, merchants will have to link their Merchant Center account with an active Google AdWords account, and submit their product feeds via this route in order to gain visibility on Google Shopping. Merchants will also need to create a specific product advertisement for each product that they wish to sell on Google Shopping.

Why Are The Google Shopping Listings Changing?

Google believes that the change to a paid model ‘will lead to better, more up to date product data — which will mean better shopping results for users and in turn, higher quality traffic for merchants.’

Google hopes that moving to a paid model will result in better quality and more trustworthy data, which will improve the shopping search experience for its users. This is akin to the way that the Google Panda algorithm monitored on-page content for ‘relevancy’, and subsequently lowered the rank of ‘low quality’ sites.

The Google Shopping listing changes have already been launched in the US, which is reported to have been “a great success”.

When Will The Google Shopping Listing Changes Happen?

As previously stated, from February 2013, bid price will be one factor that will affect how products will be ranked on Google Shopping, with a mixture of paid and organic listings appearing on Google Shopping over the coming months.

However, organic results will gradually be phased out by the end of June 2013, which means that your site could see a drop in the levels of organic traffic driven via Google Shopping.

Who Will The Google Shopping Changes Affect?

All merchants will be affected by the changes; the key concern however, is for any businesses that fail to prepare; in this instance, the old adage of ‘fail to prepare; prepare to fail’ reins true.

Firms that fail to prepare for this change could potentially lose significant amounts of traffic and revenue overnight. Comparisons can also be drawn between these changes and the number of high street retailers that have gone in to administration in recent months; anyone that fails to adapt to a dynamic business environment is bound to be at a distinct disadvantage to firms that are adequately prepared to adapt to change.

Moreover, any retailers that haven’t used Google AdWords before may also be at a distinct disadvantage. Thankfully, there is still time to sign up and familiarise yourself with the system.

How Can Merchants Prepare For The Google Shopping Changes?

In order to prevent your business from losing sales as a result of the Google Shopping Changes, the key is to be proactive as opposed to reactive. Make sure you act now in order to gain a competitive advantage, which will ensure that this revenue stream remains profitable for your business in the future.

• Make sure you fully understand the current traffic and revenue generated via the existing Google Shopping channel.
• Utilise effective market segmentation in order to identify the products/areas that will be most profitable or will drive the biggest margin.
• Establish the tangible and intangible costs associated with utilising the new paid model for the previously determined key areas, including Cost per Click, Potential Return etc.
• Aim to trial your new system in order to ensure that it is generating the desired revenue and traffic; subsequent feedback and reports will allow you to make any incremental changes.
• Make use of Google’s free promotional credit incentives, which range from 10% of your ad spend back, to £75 credit, and are available at:https://services.google.com/fb/forms/shoppingcouponuk/

Love search? Like discounts? Check out our exclusive SMX discount

There are few things we love more than getting our geek on with fellow search enthusiasts. Mediaworks search experts attend a number of key conferences throughout the year in order to do just that and we’d like to invite a few of you along to join us.

One of the first gatherings on the 2013 search circuit is Search Marketing Expo London (SMX), which takes place at Chelsea Football Club on May 15^th and 16^th. Top of the agenda is a talk telling us why ‘content remains King, Queen and Ace’ – a topic very close to our content-loving hearts.

As official blog partners of SMX we are able to share with you our exclusive discount code for the event, which nets you a fantastic 15% off the cost of a ticket. You can order yours and check out the agenda here.  To receive your discount simply enter the code MEDIAWORKS13 when you place your order.

We look forward to seeing you there and debating topics such as the finer points of Facebook’s new graph search with you.

Can’t make the show? Don’t forget to check back here on the Mediaworks blog for our own roundup of what was hot and happening at the SMX conference and remember our very own Claire Stokoe is speaking at another big search event – Linklove – next month. Read more about her forthcoming appearance here.

Using online professional networking directory, LinkedIn, Mediaworks posed the following question to various industry experts:

“Do you think infographics are a fad, OR do you think that they are important to link building and brand promotion?”

The results indicated that the majority of business practitioners thought that infographics were a powerful online marketing tool, which can help to effectively develop a brand, providing they are done properly.

Steve Jobs, late visionary Apple CEO, once said that time is the most precious resource that we have; in todays ‘always-on’ culture, a well-constructed infographic has the power to ‘get the point across quickly’ (Yuricon); ‘make complex lists of information understandable’ (Zennie62.com); ‘effectively communicate with a population that is becoming increasingly visual’; and ‘convey information in a memorable format’ (Prosper by Design).
However, it was also readily apparent that certain businesses were unsure of how to harness the true marketing potential of the infographic.

Some business practitioners believed that infographics run the risk of becoming ‘another quick and dirty way to promote a product’ (THINK DIFFERENT[LY]), which suggests that some firms are devaluing infographics in pursuit of meaningless ‘likes’ and ‘fans’ (Communications Plus).

The majority of industry experts believed that the secret to developing and promoting your brand lies in the quality, rather than quantity of your infographic. It is all too easy for an infographic to ‘become bogged down and hard to read’, ‘appear too messy’ and ‘hide the information rather than illustrate it’.

However, if you focus on keeping your infographic ‘small, clean and punchy’, ‘humorous’, ‘well laid out’ and ‘well executed’, you are likely to create an infographic with instant viral appeal, which will ultimately help your business to gain numerous good-quality links to your site.
Links are an inevitable by-product of creating powerful infographics, as many people are happier to share visual content as opposed to written content; this can be seen in the meteoric rise of social media sites such as Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr.

As one of the UK’s leading online marketing companies, Mediaworks are able to harness the power of link building & infographics to increase online visibility for our clients. If you would like to discuss your aims for the online presence of your business, feel free to contact one of our digital marketing specialists.

Written by Craig Bradshaw – mediaworks

Thank you to all of those who took part:

Here are all the quotes:

‘Melissa Galt – Keynote Speaker ~ Success Coach ~ Relationship Marketing Specialist, Lead Generation, Customer Service, Touch Campaigns

They are a brilliant visual tool to convey information in a format that is memorable. They are likely the first step in up and coming formats, definitely brand builders. www.todaybydesign.com’

‘Cody Sharp – Inbound Marketing Manager at Delivra. Delivra = Email Marketing Software

I think infographics are typically misused. In the beginning, it was a quick way to convey statistics but now they are being used for things that would be better served by whitepapers. IMHO, few are done well.

I do think their usage will decrease over the coming year/s as the benefit of doing one will decrease. There are so many of them at this point and so few that are done really well, it can be a challenge to find ones that really bring in traffic and convert visitors to leads or sales and yet, good ones are time consuming and expensive to create.’

‘Brad Hauck – President – National Speakers Association of Australia Qld Chapter

I’m sure their like any new tool, they’ll be popular for a while then people will stop reading them and they’ll be replaced by something new. http://www.aiimtraining.com.au/’

‘Kyle Clouthier – CEO/Founder of Boostsocialmedia.net (Established Supplier for Real Targeted Social Media Fans)

Infographics is a way to catch people’s attention, at a glance. It is fast becoming a staple medium in most Social Media such as facebook and moreover, in Pinterest where it is a Photo driven social site. it is very attractive and can be a very effective tool if it’s laid out and executed well, like embedding a link to a website, so it would be easier for guests to Digest the information it portrays. Yes, it is important promotions and marketing.  http://www.infographicboard.com’

‘Tim Dickinson -Principal Customer Success Executive at CA Technologies

Infographics are both a fad AND can be important for link building and brand promotion.

Infographics are in many ways an extension of graphs and charts. Humans have long found it useful to capture numerical information in visual form. It can help us perceive trends and relative differences. You’ve undoubtedly heard before that humans are very visual creatures.

Infographics are an evolution of this. And while their novelty is past, and some people are already over them, I think they’re here to stay. Just like a chart they can be done poorly or they can be done well.

I’ve provided three links below. None are brand new. The first describes how infographics might already be overdone (i.e., they’ve “jumped the shark”). The second is how they might be evolving. The third shows people who’ve used infographics as their resume. https://www.linkedin.com/in/timinator

Links:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/01/how-infographics-jumped-the-shark/
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665029/3-trends-that-will-define-the-future-of-infographics
http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2012/6/15/200-infographic-resumes-an-escalating-trend.html‘

‘Karen Maskall Founder Pledging for Change Premium Member Site and Ethical Business Directory. Giving Back

I love some of the infographics that out there and I know many have been added onto multiple sites , which is a bit like using duplicate articles in some ways unless there is a unique description included in the post before the infographic itself.

But some infographics are too messy, and often have text that is so small it cannot be read.
Conveying information with charts and graphs on an infographic is sometimes a good idea but at the end of the day unless this is really clear then I’ve seen many that are essentially quite useless.

Presentation of factual infographics can be quite boring unless they are eye catching, unique and can capture my attention with perhaps a bit of humour included too.

I was invited to host an infographic on creating a vertical garden ( in my sites niche) and at same time was offered the unique introduction to it also. I know this Infographic is now on many sites but all of them have unique intro text accompanying them. (see link below)

So if you are going to ask a site to host your infographic makes sure you give them some unique text too.

http://pledgingforchange.com/blogs/green/how-to-design-your-own-vertical-garden.php‘

‘Hanna Takala takes organizations and experts into social media, clients e.g. Raisio, Helsingin energia, City of Salo

I think infographics are definitely both fad and important branding tools. Especially if these graphics evolve into something rich, more interactive they go beyond fad.

I could imagine, that in future serivices like Thing Link could improve infographics and their SEO.

Links:
https://www.thinglink.com/
http://support.thinglink.com/thinglink/topics/is_a_thinglink_image_search_engine_readable’

‘Susan VonAchen Social Media Strategist

I’d love to see some of your infographics! I love them as well and agree they are especially helpful in demonstrating an idea. People are getting more and more visual as photo sharing is on the rise and want a picture to tell the story. I did hear infographics would be fading away this year, but that may have been from someone very techy, who knows.

Links:
http://www.enduracom.com
http://www.facebook.com/enduracom‘

‘Lucas Walker Creativity meets hustle
1) Infographcis as a marketing tool from a branding point of view are very faddy. As more and more people use them they level of design needs to increase to stand out from the crowd.

2) The principles behind them are here to stay. Infographics are a great way to communicate a lot of complicated data in a clean and beautiful way.

We pivoted from the traditional infographics space to the reporting and analytics space. Now we are focused on helping communicate lots of intricate data to an internal audience.

http://www.venngage.com‘

‘Erica Friedman Social Media Optimizer, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of Yuricon

Infographics fail to capture *me*, but I am not everyone, by which I mean, some people find the graphic part more eye-catching and comprehensible and others look for the text first.

The power of infographics *should* be that they get the point across in multiple ways, quickly. The reality is that they are often clogged, hard to read, full of erroneous editorializing and unrelated “facts.”

Keep ‘em small, clean and punchy and they can be powerful. http://socialoptimized.blogspot.com‘

‘Lyndon Johnson Disrupting the PR industry. Helping entrepreneurs to tell their story.

They’re not a fad and can be great for brand building. The caveat on both these opinions is that they are done properly.

The world is becoming more graphical and a well conceived, well designed infographic with credible, supportable data that illustrates a market trend or answers an important question they will always be in demand. If, however, they’re seen as another quick and dirty way to promote a product then they’ll lose their value and become a commodity [much like the majority of press releases].

lyndon@thinkdifferently.ca
@THINK_Lyndon’

‘Tabitha Jean Naylor Results Oriented Marketing Extraordinaire; Sales Guru; Certified Inbound Marketer

I don’t think that the use of infographics is a fad. It has been around for a long time; it’s just now that it is being used a lot. Infographics allows you to share a ton of information in a more fun and easy to digest way – unlike your traditional graphs or whatnot. You can adjust your infographics layout and icons based on the brand image that you want to exude. Do you want your brand to be perceived as serious, fun, or creative? You can support your brand image with all your marketing efforts, even with a simple infographic.

http://www.TabithaNaylor.com’

‘Zennie Abraham [LION] – toplinked.com – Zennie62.com

An infographic is a story-telling tool that is used to make complex lists of information understandable. We have so much data thrown at us every day that a cartoon-like presentation is more memorable and fun than the norm. I don’t think infographs are a fad; my interest is in what they may morph into given tech improvements. Try making one yourself to see its advantages.’

‘Kay Paumier Marketing communications consultant, public relations (PR) consultant and writer

I think the answer comes down to the quality of the infographic.

I think some are fads–the kind that try to cram in every bit of information, as if bigger is better. Too many images. Too many different fonts. Every color in the rainbow and then some. Such infographics hide the information; they don’t illustrate it.

On the other hand, clear infographics can be a way of communicating with a population that is becoming increasingly visual. Probably the classic example of such an infographic is one of the oldest: Minard’s space-and-time illustration of Napoleon’s ill-fated march on Russia. Edward Tufte’s classic work, “The Visual Display of Quantifiable Information,” gives a solid explanation of the importance of illustration rather than simple text.

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard

www.CommunicationsPlus.net’

‘Tina Brinkley Potts Keynote Speaker | Social Media | Online Marketing Trainer | Business Consultant | Business Development | Local SEO |

Remember the old saying, “A picture speaks 1000 words”. Just look at the rise of social sites like Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram.

Infographics will be around for a while.

http://tinabrinkleypotts.com‘

2012 saw a whole series of algorithm updates, refreshes, changes to the search engine indexes, and new ways of optimising websites; in fact, over the last 12 months we have seen more documented shifts in the SEO Landscape than we had in the previous 5 years or so. With this in mind it is becoming increasingly difficult to clearly determine all of the individual factors that add up to a well-optimised site, and perhaps more difficult to predict the future of the SEO Landscape.

However, recent updates have shown a clear intention from search engines; to enable users to find the most accurate and quality results in an efficient manner. Over the past 12 months we have encountered a series of factors and issues with our clients sites that we have adapted to and had to formulate strategies to counter-act previously undertaken SEO work, or to improve campaign performance based on new indicators.

This article aims to highlight what we have seen over the past 12 months in terms of the shift in the SEO Landscape, and how we believe these will impact on search marketing into 2013 and beyond.

Back in early 2011, Google rolled out, “an algorithmic improvement designed to help people find more high-quality sites in search”. This update was to be known as the Panda update, and has since had approximately 23 iterations, updates and refreshes.

Panda was designed to reward what Google deemed to be ‘high-quality’ sites, and reduce the rankings for those sites that were considered low-value add for users in terms of the on-page content. We have seen this impact many sites when it comes to duplicate content (duplicated across own site, and duplicated across multiple sites), thin content, low quality content and more.

In our experience it has had a negative impact particularly on e-commerce sites with duplicated content across category pages, sub-category pages and product pages.

Other sites primarily targeted by the Panda update have included scraped websites (content automatically copied and re-published by a website) as well as low-quality affiliate websites.

We envisage further iterations of Panda throughout 2013 as Google continue to improve their algorithm’s to detect deeper levels of unintentional duplicate content

On-page, or on-site, optimisation is still an integral part of the changing SEO Landscape. In light of the Panda update, Google values high quality, unique content now more than ever, and that includes the on-page information that has been the cornerstone of SEO over the years.

However, there is also a shift towards improvement in duplication and unnecessary pages within websites; With this in mind, it is imperative to fully evaluate your on-site optimisation strategy with regards to each page’s URL, Page Title, H1 Heading, Meta Keywords, Meta Description and Content, as well as the website structure, information architecture and more to help remove duplicate content throughout a website.

This process has become ever-more technical in its requirements to ensure that a website meets a clean, optimised set of requirements and has seen the introduction of methods to help improve canonicalization, parameter handling and other technical requirements which can hinder a website.

Comprehensive keyword research around the theme and content of your site should be undertaken regularly in order to stay ahead of shifting trends and the competitive landscape of your field or sector and in order to refresh and update the on-page optimisation in line with this.

Despite various algorithmic updates to do with content, links and more, the value of on-site optimisation cannot be underestimated in 2013.

Linked to Google’s Panda algorithm is the notion of producing quality content and devising an effective content marketing strategy for your site. The content of your website should not only be relevant, thematic and unique, but should be outstanding, share-worthy and above-all add value to users.

The mantra of ‘content is king’ has been heard for years now, and it is perhaps now more accurate a statement than ever. Whilst the value of a natural, bespoke and effective link-building campaign cannot and should not be underestimated, Google has placed far more weight on quality content when it comes to ranking sites recently than it ever has done before.

Not only does this refer to the ‘words on a page’ of a website, but to the overarching content strategy and similarly, content marketing strategy.

Each page of a website should serve a purpose, not to a search engine, but to a user. Each page should be well considered and thought-out, and add value to the site as a whole as well as the user, making it a reliable source of authority and credence within its sector or market.

A content marketing strategy refers to the ability to not only create outstanding content for one’s own site, but to create content that others will want to read, share, write about and link to. Content Marketing falls somewhere between the traditional pillars of SEO of Content and Linkbuilding; it is the process of creating high quality content for your site that will naturally acquire links via its very nature of being outstanding, thematic and relevant.

In April 2012, and after weeks of speculation, Google finally confirmed they were rolling out a ‘webspam update’ that many SEOs had referred to as an ‘over-optimisation penalty’; this algorithm update was soon given the Penguin moniker.

Penguin looked to address various ‘spam’ factors, including the act of keyword stuffing, the utilisation of link schemes and other ‘black-hat’ practices, in order to artificially manipulate the search engines in the pursuit of higher rankings. This strategy looked to exploit loop-holes and find shortcuts in terms of ranking naturally via quality content and quality links. The Penguin update clamped down on these practices and aimed to reward those sites that are valuable and ‘good’ in the eyes of users, not just algorithms.

There has been approximately 3 updates to the Penguin algorithm as Google looks to “decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating our quality guidelines”.

We have seen new clients come to us having been adversely impacted by Penguin having previously undertaken black-hat practices when it comes to link-building, including the use of link networks, low quality links and other examples of webspam such as link-wheels, link packages (e.g. 1,000 links for $5) and directory packages (1,000 directories for $5).

In light of the Penguin algorithm update, the process and strategy of backlink analysis with the intention of pursuing backlink removal has come to the fore as something that each website owner should be au-fait with. Due to poor and low quality link-building practices, many link profiles now appear unnatural in the eyes of major search engines, resulting in penalties and a decrease in rankings, ultimately adversely impacting on traffic and revenue.

With the help of an experienced online marketing agency, website owners can undertake backlink analysis and removal in order to highlight those links contravening Google’s quality guidelines and pursue their removal via contacting site owners. In some cases, site owners are not contactable, are impossible to trace, or request a fee to remove the offending links, which is where Google’s relatively new Disavow tool comes in to its own.

When a harmful link cannot be removed via the normal channels, you can use the Disavow tool to request that Google discounts any effect that the said link/domain has on your site, thus negating any possible penalty attached to the link/domain.

We have seen many new clients come to us having been affected by Penguin, seeking backlink analysis and backlink removal ahead of a Reconsideration Request, or in order to prevent such measures from Google. We predict that 2013 will see more site owners appreciate the impact of Penguin and seek this such service.

Google first confirmed that they were using social signals in determining ranking in late 2010, by including data from Twitter and Facebook to help shape the SERPs (search engine results pages).

With the proliferation in popularity of social networks over recent years, major search engines have been prudent in adapting their algorithms in attempt at reflecting the popularity of websites, content, products, sentiment etc. in the SERPs; thus rewarding sociable, ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ content with higher rankings as these are a signal of quality, trust and popularity – two key factors of a search engines algorithmic reward-scheme.

Social signals ties together social media marketing and search engine optimisation, and its importance will continue to grow over the coming 12 months and beyond as Google herald in a new era of social search.

Through the use of structured data and schema mark-up, Google currently supports rich snippets for a variety of elements, including people, reviews, products, recipes and more. Essentially, what this means is that if your data is marked up effectively, you can alter the appearance of your listing on the SERPs in order to help improve click through rates, prominence, and perhaps even ranking.

Currently seen as more of a user experience benefit, it is possible that the use of scheme mark-up could be used as a ranking factor in the near future, particularly the use of Author Rank, whereby the author of a piece of content is shown on the SERPs.

The use of structured data and the way in which Google is using this data to alter the SERPs shows how various pieces of information and multiple factors effecting the SEO Landscape have a knock-on effect on each other, and are all inextricably linked in a quest to provide the ultimate in terms of relevant, quality search results.

With the proliferation in the use of mobile devices and tablet computers over recent months and years, the importance of Local search and International search has never been more evident.

With the creation of Google Plus and Google Places for Business Google now allows businesses and site owners to tap into a local market whereby users are searching with geo-location enabled, allowing for location-sensitive results to be displayed.

Similarly, through the effective use of geo-location and geo-targeting, site owners can look to target Global markets with relevant content and/or currency depending on how data is marked up.

As mentioned in the introduction of this document, and alluded to throughout, the SEO Landscape continues to shift, with various factors and signals coming and going each year. With this in mind, it is impossible to predict future algorithm updates with any degree of certainty.

However, as a leading Online Marketing Agency, Mediaworks is on the pulse of the SEO Landscape and so is in a position to predict future trends in terms of online marketing, with a view to future-proofing our clients websites so that the only impact their sites will feel from future updates will be a positive one.

One such potential update revolves around the use of anchor text phrases both internally and externally, with less relevance being put on the anchor text itself, and more relevance being put on the context in which the link appears. Thinking back to the Penguin and Panda updates, it is easy to see the logical step with this potential update – targeting over-optimisation and providing users with quality, thematic and relevant content.

This is just one such example of future algorithm updates that we feel we are in an informed and privileged position to speculate on with some degree of accuracy, and that we use to inform our 2013 search marketing strategy for all of our current clients.

Although not strictly part of the SEO Landscape, we predict a seismic shift in how our clients, and how the online retail market in general, approaches online marketing and online spend in 2013 and beyond.

Conversion Rate Optimisation is set to increase in terms of visibility and importance as brands and retailers come to the realisation that they operate in a saturated marketplace and look to make the most of the traffic that an effective SEO campaign brings them.

By looking at ‘best practice’ in terms of design and structure for brochure and ecommerce sites as well as the usability, user experience and user journey of the site, site owners can seek to reduce exit rates, abandonment rates and bounce rates and increase conversions, whether these are micro conversions or macro conversions.

Mediaworks has worked on successful CRO campaigns for a variety of brands and retailers and has a track record in improving the conversion rates of email sign-ups, contact form submissions, and checkout completions; leading to an increase in leads generated, transactions and revenue.

http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/high-quality-sites-algorithm-goes.html

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2721312&topic=2371375&ctx=topic

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394&topic=2371375&ctx=topic

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66361

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35843

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2648487

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/your-guide-to-social-signals-for-seo

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10937-how-social-signals-influence-seo-five-things-you-need-to-know

http://schema.org/

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1211158

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OolDzztYwtQ

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-in-2013-the-rising-influence-of-authorrank/52346/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-prepare-for-authorrank-and-get-the-jump-on-google

http://www.mediaworks.co.uk/services/cro/

This was the result of a massive 17.8% jump in online non-food sales, without which total sales would have fallen.

This surge in online shopping is thought to be due to a combination of the increased effort of many retailers to make their websites easier to find through competitive search engine optimisation, easier to use across all platforms through conversion rate optimisation and UX optimisation as well as the massive increase in popularity of tablets and smartphones.

It is thought that department stores, such as John Lewis and House of Fraser, have benefited most from the boost in online shopping due to their wide range of products ‘under one roof’, and the advent of click and collect services having further increased the convenience of online shopping for the consumer.

Earlier Christmas Sales

Most online retailers attempted to differentiate themselves from their competitors by bringing the start of their Christmas sales forward, with some starting as early as December 23^rd.  Amazingly, it is estimated that there were around 82 million visits to web stores on Christmas Day this year and around 126 million visits on Boxing Day.

Internet retail behemoth Amazon scheduled their Christmas sale to start on Christmas morning, in the hope that they could capitalise on the fact that millions of tablets and smartphones will have been opened on Christmas Day.

Surprisingly, Amazon now sees Christmas Day as the biggest day of the year for MP3 and Kindle downloads, as millions of people begin buying content for their new devices.  However, it isn’t just the digital devices that benefited on Christmas Day; everything from jewellery to outdoor goods also saw a rapid increase in online sales.

According to a recent study by telecoms and broadband regulator Ofcom, Britain leads the field in online shopping.  Britons are now classed as the most avid internet shoppers in the world, and an average UK resident will spend over £1,000 shopping online every year, which is more than in any other country.

For this reason alone, it is imperative that businesses achieve maximum exposure online as the death of high street businesses such as HMV continue to draw ever closer.

Why Create An Infographic?

If you have been on the internet recently you might have come across either an infographic, most likely about ‘how cool Pinterest is’, or caught people talking about an awesome series on AMC called Breaking Bad. Being a fan of both and slightly bemused by the rash of complicated infographic design tips out there, I thought – using this expression ;/

“Why not mix these two topical things together and have some darn tootin’ fun?”

This is the result and I hope you find it as helpful as it is shareable (hint, hint).

In Breaking Bad - Walt’s reason for getting into meth cooking is due to his cancer diagnosis and his worry for his family’s financial situation after his death.

For you – In infographic could be just what you need. It’s about what the client wants. What is their Walt? – More traffic, social presence, links and/or brand recognition?

Who Is Your Link Distributor?

In Breaking Bad – Walt fears that he is running out of time to make money when his health rapidly deteriorates, so he pushes his meth partner Jesse into finding a distributor to help them move the meth in bulk. They choose Kingpin Tuco Salamanca based on Jesse’s loose connection with the guy and his sheer dominance in the drug trade.

For you – Like Walt, you need to position your product and work in conjunction with your own Tuco Salamanca – high profile blogs who know what their audience wants. You can even give them exclusivity and add their logo, if needed, to persuade them to host. If you want your infographic to be republished you will need at least one Tuco Salamanca in your promotional belt. If hosted on the Clients site then liaise with client on design and strategy, but always go back to your high profile blog to see that this is in keeping with the tone of their content. If you don’t do this, you will be left with a really expensive product and no way to move it.

Who Are Your Info Addicts?

In Breaking Bad - For Walt and Jesse, the main targets are meth addicts like drug addict girlfriend Jane.

For you – You need to have at least three different audience types for one infographic. For example, if it’s an infographic on James Bond Cars you should instantly be targeting car fanatics, James Bond fanatics and movie lovers. Info porn lovers are not an audience, they come with the territory so don’t include them.

What Is The Infographic Concept?

In Breaking Bad - Walt might have the capability to create top quality meth but he needs someone who knows the product inside and out. He finds out that former student Jesse Pinkman is a meth dealer, then seeks him out and makes him a deal.

For you – What is your Jesse Pinkman? What idea could make this infographic explode into viral status?  Most of the ideas will come out of initial talks with the client, trends on Reddit, Meme blogs, Stumbleupon or Tumblr. Do not forget to go back to your Tuco Salamanca blog for ideas, they will have a lot of experience in this and will want the infographic to do well. You will also need to double check that you have really found your Jessie Pinkman by running searches on the data. It might come up cold and then you need to change to another idea.

Produce Blue Magic Data

In Breaking Bad -  Walt is adamant that his product will be perfect, but when he starts producing more he is restricted to what chemicals he can get his hands on. He opts to change to using various chemicals to produce racemic meth and purify into a brand new blue form that becomes a signature for his product.

For you – Once you have found your Jesse Pinkman idea and you know you have a superb data source, you can begin. Perhaps the data is being supplied by the client, which is easier, but always think outside the box. Could you add more? All data must be checked and rechecked and all supporting URLS retained for the footer of the graphic. But like Walt, make it different by adding your own ‘Blue Magic’ data; by (where possible) run your own data collection via polls or questionnaires.

Mapping Your Product

In Breaking Bad - Walt and Jesse end up working in a lab owned by another Kingpin, Gustavo Fring. It’s a high tech meth lab and has everything set-up that they need to produce the product in bulk.

For you – Be as fastidious as Walt with your data, planning the layout to make sure that the customer gets that first pure hit of what you want to say. Can they absorb the data quickly? Does it flow? When you are done this should be like Walt’s lab, fly-free, spotless and ready to cook.

Cooking Your Infographic Design

In Breaking Bad - Because of Walt’s expertise in chemistry he can produce 99.1% chemically pure crystal meth. But he also uses a blue methylamine in the cooking process that gives the product the nickname of ‘Big Blue’ or ‘Blue Sky’ on the street.

For you - Like Walt, you should make sure that your infographic is as pure as it can be. It will go through a number of stages and also, like Walt’s meth, you will need a beautiful header and hook (like the blue colour) to draw them in and to understand what it is that makes your graphic tick. Then they should get the first hit of information and the graphic should flow and allow the readers to absorb it quickly. Don’t forget that the footer should complete the story and the URL references always need to be added here.

Moving Your Product

In Breaking Bad - Gustavo Fring does keep his end of the bargain and the Blue Sky is sold in bulk on the streets and makes both Jesse and Walt very rich

For you - You need to make sure that everything is perfect at this point, if you miss a keyword or have an issue with the embed code it can tarnish the whole promotion. If you are hosting on a client’s site you might have to anticipate this earlier to make sure they can set-up the embed code. Your Tuco Salamanca site will be used to adding embed codes and links, so you will typically just send over the infographic.

Plan Your Promotion

In Breaking Bad - Jesse uses his crew to sell Blue Sky both before and while working for Fring.

For you - Once your infographic is hosted on the client’s site or on high PR sites you need to look at promotion. Like Jesse, use a few dealers. Post on Reddit as an advert, publish to Twitter, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Ebaums and Facebook, if applicable. Do lots of blogger outreach and make sure that your infographic is selling, and selling like crazy.

Evaluate results

In Breaking Bad - Walt does get the money that he dreamed of, although some of the other events surrounding his change of career impact greatly on his family life.

For you - Like Walt, if you follow all these guidelines you will see a payoff. Unlike Walt, it probably won’t lead to almost getting killed a number of times. Check how well things are doing one week after promotion and results noted, and then one month after this to check links etc. These can then be relayed to client.

Brought to you by Mediaworks.co.uk slightly more risqué department