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Pale Purple is the New Yellow Say Google

At one time the background of Google Adwords listings was a pale blue, then it was changed to yellow and now Google are switching again but this time to purple. It was about three years ago when Google switched from blue to yellow, and quite why Adword listings have to be highlighted I don’t know. Doesn’t the mere fact that they are top of the pile serve as enough of a click incentive? Many people have mentioned to me in the past that the fact that they are singled out by colour actually makes them avoid clicking on paid listings.

This change will affect searchengine marketing in that people respond differently to different colours. perhaps Google has been advised that purple is more effective.

The colour upgrade, so to speak, is apparently nothing to do with searchengine marketing psycology and is merely part of a general results page revamp and modernisation effort. So its good news for those who prefer purple to yellow. Here is Google’s official statement regarding this matter:

“Starting today and ramping up to 100% globally by the end of this week, we’ll be changing the background color for ads that appear above the search results on Google.com as well as our local domains. The ads, which currently have a pale yellow background, will change to have a pale purple background. This change is part of the ‘look and feel’ update to our color palette and logo that we made back in May of this year to keep the Google results page looking fresh and modern. This is purely an aesthetic change to our ads and won’t have any impact on the way we target or serve advertisements on Google.com”.

And here is how your new Google page will look with the purple ads:

Personally I prefer the old blue style below:

14/04/2011/by Ash Mehta

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Subtle Dictionary Search Change Makes Google Even More Efficient

The internet has pretty much made the paperback dictionary redundant, I mean who has the time to get up from their computer, grab a dictionary and flick through those annoyingly thin pages and small print to find a definition, certainly not me!

Which is why using search engine services for word definitions is so much more efficient. At one time I used dictionary.com, but then even that became long winded and I switched to simply typing my query into Google. Not one to complain (er-hem), I found having to type “define: word” or “word definition” long winded, I longed to just switch tabs, type in my word and hocus pocus my definition would appear.

Well my prayers have been answered. Google have recently added “implicit triggering” of the dictionary result, so for example, a search on the word “annoying” shows a dictionary result at the top of the page as follows:

In my opinion this is a marvellous little adjustment, and out of all the search engine services Google always seems to be striving hardest to respond to consumer needs. It won’t improve my search engine optimization, but, not only does it mean less typing, it means less arthritic pain in my fingers as I grow old. For those of you who weren’t aware of the Google dictionary in the first place this is what one would have previously had to type in for an instant word definition:

It is indeed the small pleasures in life that bring us the most joy, and even though it won’t help your search engine optimization in any way I hope you find this little innovation as rewarding as I did. Just think, if I hadn’t of blogged this you may still have been typing in two words instead of the required one for a long time to come.

14/04/2011/by Ash Mehta

News & Updates, Social Media Optimisation (SMO)

Google +1 (Plus 1)

Finally, as threatened many times, Google have come up with a social aspect to search, albeit a rip-off of the Facebook “Like” button. +1, pronounced plus one, will allow you to effectively “like” search results and adverts by activating the +1 feature and clicking on it each time you feel the urge.

10/04/2011/by Ash Mehta

Internet/Online Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC) Management, Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Google Ad Remarketing – Stalking Your Customers Around The Web

Have you ever wondered why, sometimes when you browse a product on a website, the very site you abandoned suddenly starts targeting you with adverts via YouTube, Facebook and other platforms you visit?

This is called “remarketing” and, if you own an online business, could be the answer to reducing cart abandonment and infiltrating the minds of potential customers.

How Does Google Remarketing Work?

Google Display Network’s “remarketing” program lets you create ad campaigns based on Read more

30/03/2011/by Ash Mehta

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Ranking Highly But No Traffic – 6 Reasons SEO Hasn’t Worked For You

Imagine that, seeing your pages listed highly in Google, but receiving precious little traffic. You might as well give up hope, surely? Wait! Before you get too demoralised, there are a number of reasons why this horrid situation can occur.

1. You Don’t Rank Highly At All

You might not actually be ranking highly at all. You might just be seeing an illusion based on your personal search history. Do the following and then re-search:

Make sure you are logged out of your Google account
Use the “&pws=0” parameter to limit personalization
Try a different browser: Firefox/Safari/Google Chrome, etc Read more

21/03/2011/by Ash Mehta

Blogging, Copywriting, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

4 Ways To Avoid Being Labeled A “Content Farm” By Google

Google Farmer Algorithm Guide

Late last week I sent out an update on Google’s Farmer algorithm change, and while the change comes as a pleasant change for websites being plagiarized by content farms, there is some concern by websites that churn out daily content. Web owners are concerned they might be labeled “the farmer” should another site copy their work or house similar content. So how does one avoid being considered a low-quality publisher in the eyes of the search giant?

Don’t Stress Over every Single Piece of Content
Google wont just label you a farm based on one piece of content, so if you have one article extremely similar to twenty other sites in a particular week I wouldn’t worry too much. If this is happening on a daily basis, however, then you might want to have a word with your editorial team and consider some drastic Read more

17/03/2011/by Ash Mehta

e-Commerce & Shopping Carts, Internet/Online Marketing, News & Updates, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Google’s Farmer Algorithm – What It Means For SEO and Ecommerce

A while ago I told you the Google Farmer change was coming, but just how big an impact it was going to have I couldn’t have told you back then. Well, since this baby has been in operation for a good couple of weeks now, I can tell you a lot more about how it is affecting search and ecommerce in general.

Massive Changes In Search Results

We knew this massive change to Google’s ranking algorithm would improve query results and wean out websites who reuse content and try to beat the system, what we couldn’t of known is that this change would affect 11.8% of Google queries in the United States.

Google makes about 500 changes to its algorithm per year, some miniscule and others with greater importance, but most with the aim of Read more

16/03/2011/by Ash Mehta

Internet/Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

11 Online Tools To Help Optimise Your Website

For all you DIY SEO’s out there, I have put together a list of 11 useful online tools to help analyse, optimise and compare your website. Why 11 and not 10? Well it was 10 but then I wanted to throw in another. I make no promises, you might not get top ten rankings using only these bits and bobs alone, but used properly, these are some awesome weapons for your SEO armoury. Have fun!

1. LinkExaminer

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/Network/lnkexam/Freeware.htm

Emulates indexing by the search engines.
Identifies broken links and redirects

2. Yahoo Site Explorer

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

Analyses inbound links and reviews cached pages Read more

07/03/2011/by Ash Mehta

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is Nothing Without A Solid ‘Core Story’

Popular websites are not always the ones optimised at all costs for search engine spiders, but instead those that comprise all the elements required for a successful core story. Take a large percentage of the forums, blogs and business websites that rise in fame, and you will see they all have one thing in common – a compelling ‘core story’. For example, at Mitash, we aren’t just an SEO company; we operate as a digital marketing agency. Because we understand that page features, content, widget placement, tone, branding and design play a massive role in the overall SEO strategy. It isn’t just about backlinks and keywords for us. SEO is so much more than that, and this forms the basis for our core story. Without this understanding and this vision, we might just of ended up another Read more

25/02/2011/by Ash Mehta

Blogging, Internet/Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Social Media Optimisation (SMO), Uncategorized

SEO Your Personal Profile – 5 Tips For Optimisation

Your personal profile may end up appearing in a number of places, such as your personal website, trade show/conference info sites, sites where you contribute articles and social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Quite often people miss a great opportunity to optimise their profile and achieve some extra curricular SEO. Most see the personal profile as a mere source of information rather than Read more

24/02/2011/by Ash Mehta