Google Privacy Policy Changes Causes a Stir Google announced last week that, as of 1st of March, there will be one single privacy policy that will apply to all Google products, rather than one for each (currently over 70 different policies). As much as this may make sense to web users, there has been some drama as to the alterations in the policy, which some see as a direct infringement on our general privacy. So what’s new? Google have said that through the new policy, users information will be shared across their different products, combining the likes of Gmail, search and Youtube information so that a user will have one single profile. This way Google can understand users better, by [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

SEO and PR combined together can be very powerful.  PR is a very good way to get legitimate “white hat” links of real authority. Once you have optimized your website and made sure all aspects of your website are SEO friendly, the most important part of optimization happens off the page.  This is where you start link building and get external sites back to yours. That plays a crucial role in telling search engines how important your site really is. Public Relations (as well as other related tactics and effective methods of promoting your business like issuing press release), when used in tandem with your targeted keywords in mind, can produce spectacular results in helping your website achieve its objectives. [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

After a month off at dog training, Minnie has returned having learnt more tricks and ways of convincing the Mediarun staff to share their lunch with her. It has been rather a busy new year, setting the tone for what we all expect to be a land-shifting 2012. Here are the biggest stories of the week, and what you should expect over the next year. Facebook Integrates Apps onto the Timeline Social media giants, Facebook, have announced the integration of apps onto the timeline on Facebook user profiles. This announcement was made at a special press event in San Francisco California. Now, if a user wants to, say search for an item on eBay, instead of leaving Facebook or opening [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

This year we have witnessed some phenomenal changes and advances in our industry. Almost every day, there has been some form of development or story which affects online marketers making it one of the most fast paced and compelling industries in the world. Below is a list of what we think are the most significant stories and changes in search engine marketing, social media and digital marketing as a whole, in 2011. Google The search giants have undoubtedly solidified their dominance out of the search engines. Globally, Google accounts for an astounding 85% of all searches, which has remained relatively unchanged over the year. They have had uncountable updates and changes to their search engine, from the altered SERPs interfaces [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

In the past couple of months Mediarun has been heavily immersed with international digital marketing. After having organised an event in the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and attending various other events organised by the likes of IMRG or Transperfect, I have come across various misconceptions regarding international digital marketing and multilingual SEO that I would like to share my thoughts on. The Traditional Export Misconception: A common misconception for companies is to assume that the markets they have done well exporting to traditionally are good targets for their online marketing strategies. Firstly it is important to understand that the UK is arguably one of the most sophisticated e-retail markets in the world, with highly active online consumers across all age [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who are not familiar with the event, “El Clasico” is the nickname given to one of the biggest football matches in the world: Real Madrid v FC Barcelona. The two will clash Saturday night at Real Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu for their first match of the season. The event sees us football enthusiasts/online marketers hunting for historical stats to back our theories of who will win this year. The reality is that Real Madrid have faced FC Barcelona in 215 official matches. Real Madrid has so far won 86 times, while the Catalan team have emerged victorious on 84 occasions. At home in the Bernabeau, Madrid has faced Barcelona 85 times, with 45 victories, 19 defeats [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

Google Maths This week Google launched new graphing results on their search engine. By simply typing in a mathematic function into search, Google will provide the graph as an image in the first result. Mathematicians are now able to zoom in and out on the image and pan across the plane to explore the detail of the function. The tool allows users to draw multiple functions, which is done by simply separating them with commas. This feature is available globally and in all modern browsers. Minnie’s Verdict Surprised grunt/ puff It is another impressive feature to add to Google’s collection, always looking forward to seeing what they’re going to come up with next. This way they guarantee loyal visits from [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

Advertise on Your Blog! The world’s most wide-spread, open sourced, content management system, WordPress, have announced brand new advertising programme WordAds, as a way for bloggers to monetize their blog. The new programme has been launched as an alternative to Google AdSense, which has long gone out of fashion for bloggers. As a way of ensuring that WordAds remains a viable advertising tool and preventing spam, only quality bloggers will be able to utilise the programme. Bloggers will be vetted based on quality of content, traffic, engagement and the requirement that they have a custom domain. If you have a blog you can now register with WordAds, which is the result of the recently announced partnership between Federated Media and [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

In search, like other marketing channels, we are mostly focussed on our own area of expertise; on what we can personally do to improve traffic, revenue, rankings, ad positions, CPA, CTR etc. We’re paid to do this after all, so this is only natural. Yet we all know that no marketing channel is an island, entire of itself. All marketing combines to create a net effect on an organisation’s success. I think search is an area where it’s all too easy to forget this. Search is a discipline that’s so measurable and data-led that there’s a danger of forgetting there are more reasons behind why someone chooses to click on a search result than just the position on the page [...]  Read the rest of this entry »

RIP Yahoo! Site Explorer As of Monday the 21st November, Yahoo! Site Explorer has been merged into Bing Webmaster Tools. It is an obvious result as Bing has been powering Yahoo! search since July 2009. Many users of the Site Explorer have expressed their disappointment online. The Site Explorer was launched in 2005, and was useful specifically for understanding back-link quality. Minnie’s Verdict Fast asleep… feet twitching… probably dreaming. Tools like SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer have proven to be more useful anyway, and it makes sense that Bing want to bolster the tools they’re providing to Webmasters, to rival Google’s offerings. Google Cleans Up Speaking of retirement, in an effort to build a “more intuitive, truly beautiful Google experience”, Google [...]  Read the rest of this entry »