Google are continually looking to serve more relevant results as quickly as possible. Leveraging information from people you know, to customise and improve your search engine results.

The new talking point from Google is the launch of the +1 button on search pages. Launched in the US yesterday, it’s only a matter of time before we start to see it on search results in Australia. The new feature allows users to click to recommend your ads, search results and webpage’s.

The purpose of the button is for users to recommend websites which their Google account friends and contacts can view, delivering more customised results based on personal and friend preferences. Over the next few weeks, for English searches on Google.com, the +1 button will be rolled out.

To be able to see the new button, you must be logged into a Google account in order for Google to identify you and your likes, as well as taking into consideration the recommendations of your friends with Google accounts. This will become more powerful as more users sign in or register Google accounts and use them regularly.

Eventually you will be able to add the +1 button to your webpages, similar to a Facebook “Like” button to allow your user to recommend content through their Google account. Thus expanding on their profile and helping Google determine in future the best results based on your profile and recommendations.
See Google’s video for more information:

Jumping quickly on this new feature, a new plugin extension that potentially competes with +1 for Firefox, Safari and Chrome called “+Like”. The extension leverages the Facebook “like” functionality in the Google search results. Google +1 however will be available to all who have a Google account. “+Like” requires a plugin that won’t be a default for users and would need to be voluntarily installed, but with the number of people already logged into Facebook, there could potentially be more traction here.

Will this impact on my SEM ads or SEO results?

At this stage it is hard to tell what impact the +1 Button will have on the search results. The idea of impression traffic decreasing if Google deems a site irrelevant to a particular user is unknown. Google are anticipating that +1 will drive more qualified traffic to the site, which is great for site owners and advertisers who should see an improvement on engagement and quality of visitors.

Keep an eye out for when the +1 button hits a search results page near you.

One of the newer innovations from Google is HotPot. Defined as a “location based recommendation engine” for Google Places, HotPot is powered by the user and their friends. HotPot personalises the search results to leverage your reviews of businesses or services and tailor your search results to “match what you like”.

Currently place pages aggregate external review data from sources such as Yelp, Eatability and TrueLocal. HotPot will encourage engagement with rating and reviewing businesses directly from your Google profile with preferences of likes and dislikes being stored and used by the recommendation engine.

HotPot leverages a large database of places. Google’s algorithm takes your ratings and recommends other places similar to the ones you already like. The idea of being able to rate a place on the go has not been neglected.  Integration to rate and review is enabled through Mobile Maps on the Android.

Sharing ratings with your friends personalises the results further displaying to you recommendations of a place or places your friend likes within the search results page.

Has this been done before?

HotPot does not seem to have any check-in functionality which leaves it separate from the likes of Foursquare and Facebook Places. HotPot is focused on the review and ratings side of the coin at this stage, though this is an area they may move into or make partnership with another brand to try and increase participation.

HotPot looks to move along the lines of socialising places like Facebook but with more information which is highly relevant. Interestingly Facebook have been making updates with their Places feature with “Popular Places” linking your friends with places they have visited. So far it is limited to “Likes” with no review or rating functionality.

What should you do?

Similar to Google Places, HotPot uses photo, review and location information from other sites. Businesses will need to look at gaining a strong presence on review sites; business contact details must be prominent on their website.

Ensure your site in particular the infrastructure is optimised, and that your pages are crawlable for Google to include relevant information in their HotPot results.

On Tuesday 14 December 2010, my sister and I were among the 6,000 people who descended upon the Sydney Opera House for the afternoon taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

As we sat upon our blow-up cushions on the Opera House forecourt, Ross Wilson sang “Eagle Rock” before the crowd went wild for Oprah, who appeared brightly in an orange Collette Dinnigan dress.

Oprah’s guests included Bono, Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman and Olivia Newton-John, but the highlight was of course Hugh Jackman on the flying fox. What an epic fail of a dramatic entrance. Good thing they cut filming, because the audience did not know how to react.

Being a part of the afternoon audience meant that we had the hindsight of knowing that the morning audience all received necklaces. So when Oprah announced that everyone in the audience was receiving a diamond necklace (from Rio Tinto) as a memento of the event, everyone started screaming as if Oprah had let loose a box of bees. A man sitting in front of us even turned around to say, “I know I’m a man, but I’m really excited too!”

In a show dedicated to Australia, it was inevitable that there was going to be some cultural cringe. And the winner of the most cringe-worthy moment had to be when the show ended with the Qantas Choir singing “I Still Call Australia Home” with the help of Hugh Jackman, Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman (remember this?), Olivia Newton-John and even Russell Crowe.

There’s a good chance that the $5 million spent by Tourism Australia on “Oprah’s Ulitmate Australian Adventure”, as well as the extra millions spent on promoting Australian holiday packages in the US, Canada, UK and New Zealand as the Oprah episodes go to air, will translate into greater tourist numbers in Australia. Even before the episodes have even aired, Oprah’s visit has apparently generated $14 million worth of mostly positive exposure in the US. I don’t know how that number was generated but it seems like good news for Tourism Australia. But then again, I only have a communications degree, so what do I know?

Launching a campaign on the Google Content Network gives you opportunity to reach another very targeted audience; often in a very different consideration phase than users on the search network. In competitive verticals like insurance, travel or finance, CPCs on the search network are high and it’s difficult or costly to remain visible.  The Content Network is a great tool to build brand awareness targeting users with both Image and Text ads, extending your business’ message in a manner not possible through the search network. More impressions on the ever expanding content network, means competition and cost are often lower than other online channels. Using the Google Content Network to compliment other online marketing efforts can help lower overall costs and maximise business exposure.

Introducing the Contextual Targeting Tool

The Contextual Targeting Tool, can help build tightly themed keyword lists for campaigns to run on the Google Content Network. When you enter words or phrases in the Contextual Targeting Tool, the tool suggests a set of keywords related to your terms, and groups them into themed ad groups. Currently the tool is only available to a limited number of advertisers and agencies, however, data can be accessed though your Google account manager. Hopefully we will see this available to all in early 2011.

Content Campaign – Planning and Setup

Content Network campaigns should always be kept separate from Search Network campaigns. Here are some things to consider when setting up your new Google Content campaign:

- Set a daily budget. Make sure this is set conservatively in the beginning, then increase over time. There are a huge number of impressions available daily on the content network, so it’s easy to spend a lot in a very short time.

- Try different ad formats to see what works best for your business. Depending on your business’ objectives and available budget, there is a lot of choice. See all ad formats: https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/adwords/select/afc/ads.html

- Make ads catchy and interesting. Remember, users are not searching for your products as with Search. So your ads need to stand out. Compelling, attractive and well-written ads will capture a users interest and provide a valuable experience.

- For local products, offerings or location specific services, consider geo-targeting. It’s applied in the same way as it is on the Google Search Network.

Content Network – Keyword Themes

Start by creating keyword themes.  Identify keyword themes you would like to target; this will be the basis of your content ad group. Here’s an example of how a theme of keywords for a content ad group could be set-up

Content Ad Group Theme: Travel Insurance

Keywords: cheap travel insurance Australia, vacation insurance, compare travel insurance Australia, travel cover, travel insurance, travel insurance Australia, travelinsurance, annual travel insurance, holiday, Australia

Identify keywords that are likely to be mentioned on a website when a user is reading about “Travel Insurance.” Google recommends that each ad group use 10 to 20 keywords in any given Ad Group. Don’t try fit too keywords into each group, just create another ad group, even if it seems too similar. To help discover and build keyword themes, use the contextual targeting tool, if this is not available to you within AdWords, other great resources including: Google’s Wonder Wheel and other search engine that use clustered search results.

Displaying the Right Ads

The quality of advertisers ads is extremely important on the Content Network. The objective when advertising on the content network is to effectively capture and engage users who are not actively searching for your product. Therefore, the message must be clear and should help pre-qualify users. An ambiguous or misleading message will result in a poor brand experience and will waste your money.

Setting Bids

There are a number options when bidding on the Google content network. The two most common are CPC and CPM but CPA bidding is also available. This can be set under campaign settings tab > Bidding & Budget. CPA bidding will only be available once your new campaign has history including a significant number of conversions recorded.

As a general rule, start conservatively with your CPC and CPM bids. You can increase them over time if you are not getting enough clicks / impressions. For CPA bidding, be generous in the beginning. Take the CPA from Search Campaigns and add 25% to it. This will be a good starting point. As the system achieves your goals, you can lower the CPA target to increase profitability

Optimising your Content Campaigns

Excluding / Managing Sites

A Placement Performance Report will give insight into all performance metrics of websites where ads were displayed in a Content Campaign. Usually ads wont appear on a site for long if no clicks are recorded, so the best way to measure the success of a campaign is through conversions. When viewing placements select the sites to manage. Exclude by checking the radio button next to the URL then click “Manage Placement and Bid” or “Exclude Placements”.

Negative Keywords
These work in the same way in a Content Campaign as in a Search Campaign. They help disqualify any sites mentioning those words to make sure your ads are highly relevant to the sites they appear on.

Content Success

In anticipation of Google releasing the The Contextual Targeting Tool, any of these tips can be applied to improve existing campaigns or used as a guide when setting up a new content network campaign.  As with setting up a Search Campaign, the AdWords user interface will guide users through the basic campaign setup process. Google tools mentioned above give more insight and better understanding of the performance of Text and Image based ads across the Google Content Network. AdWords advertisers continue make the mistake of assuming that Google’s Search Network is the same as Google’s content network. Separate content and search campaigns and enjoy the results of a successful content campaign.

Over the last few months we’ve watched Google roll out a host of innovative changes to their organic search results including Google Instant, Places (local results) and Preview.  In their continued effort to enhance the user experience (and we suspect keep visitors at their site longer), they have now started to expand the type of rich information (also referred to as rich snippets) they show visitors in their organic search results.

Live Results

The next time you’re dying to know how your team is doing with the latest scores from an NBA or NHL game, jump onto Google to access this information instantly through the search results page. Google is providing live scores and results streamed from the NBA and NHL official websites.

Doing a search for “NBA” or “NHL” now provides a search result for the official website with rich information snippets of live scores, deep links to highlights, standings, news and even ticket information. The user journey is now made quicker and easier to locate the most relevant webpage in a timely manner.

See below the NBA’s version of rich information snippets in search:

Google’s partnerships with these sports associations change the way we see an organic results for Brand terms. This rich information is too hard to ignore where the first result bears a stronger presence on the page than any other result. What makes this more intriguing is clicking on the “show more” link at the bottom of the organic result. The rich snippet drops down revealing the rest of the results and upcoming fixtures in to near future. See below the “NBA” example where the extended version of the rich information snippet drops the other results below the fold leaving only 2 other organic results to compete.

Keeping in line with Google’s algorithm changes and search enhancements to improve the search experience, Google has placed a strong emphasis and importance on brand searches to deliver relevant results to the user. The search landscape continues to evolve and incorporating rich information in a search result gives brands an opportunity to truly stand alone from its search competition.

What this means for businesses?

The rich snippets would help business to dominate their brand presence within the search results. Businesses should expect to find many new applications for rich snippets within the search engines in the future.

To display Rich Snippets, Google looks for markup format, microformats or RDFa markups by wrapping existing data on your web pages with some additional tags. It is important to ensure your site is tagged to utilise rich information. As Google builds and learns how this new information is helpful to users, they will expand on the application and coverage across more sites.