Monday, February 8, 2016

SearchCap: Google Super Bowl Searches, Yahoo BOSS & SEO Agencies

searchcap-header-v2-scap

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

Link Building

Searching

SEO

SEM / Paid Search

Search Marketing

The post SearchCap: Google Super Bowl Searches, Yahoo BOSS & SEO Agencies appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Google: 82% Of Super Bowl Ad Searches Happened On Mobile, Up From 70%

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Pity the Super Bowl advertisers that didn’t take full advantage of mobile search this year. According to Google, 82 percent of TV ad-driven searches during the Super Bowl happened on smartphones. That’s a 12-point jump from last year, when 70 percent of Super Bowl ad-related searches across Google and YouTube derived from phones.

During this year’s game, just 11 percent of searches related to ads aired during the big game happened on desktop/laptop, and seven percent occurred on tablets.

Overall, the ads drove more than 7.5 million incremental searches during the Broncos-Panthers game, according to Google. That’s 40 percent higher than the lift last year’s Super Bowl advertisers saw in search.

Searches driven by Super Bowl TV ads were at their highest levels during the first two quarters of this year’s match-up. Ads-related searches fell in the second half of the game, in which the score remained relatively tight. Google says this trend reflects what happened during last year’s close game.

google-super-bowl-ad-searches-by-quarter

That contrasts with 2014, when audiences seemingly grew bored when the Seahawks dominated the Broncos, winning 43–8, and searches for ad content rose in the second half of the game.

Looking at the incremental lift Super Bowl advertisers received in brand-related searches on across Google and YouTube, Audi came out on top with its “Commander” ad. In fact, automotive brands dominated the chart. Four of the top five ads driving lift in brand search were from automotive manufacturers: Audi, Acura, Honda and Kia. Universal Studios’ ad for the new Jason Bourne movie rounded out the top five.

most-searched-brands-google-super-bowl

Google also released a set of Google Trends data related to the Super Bowl. While the Broncos dominated the Panthers in search most days leading up to the big game, Carolina actually held sway throughout most of the actual game — that is, until the Broncos walked away with the win.

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Yahoo To Close BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) Next Month

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Yahoo is set to close Yahoo BOSS, the build-your-own-search service they launched back on July 10, 2008. The service will close officially on March 31, 2016.

BOSS allowed both non-developers and developers to build a simple search service through their search tools. There were APIs and developer tools, as well as simple-to-use web interfaces to construct your own search service.

Initially, it was powered off Yahoo’s search technology, and then when Microsoft took over their search, they migrated some of the features to Microsoft’s index. They also added a fee structure based on query volume.

All of that is going away next month.

If you visit boss.yahoo.com or the BOSS API page, they read:

At Yahoo, we’re always looking for ways to streamline and simplify products for our customers. With this focus in mind, we will discontinue the BOSS JSON Search API on March 31, 2016.

Access to the BOSS APIs will continue until March 31, 2016. Moving forward, customers leveraging the BOSS JSON Search API can instead use YPA, a Javascript Solution that provides algorithmic web results with search ads for publishers who manage their own search engine results pages (SERPs). Click here to apply or learn more about YPA, or if you are working with a Yahoo Partner Manager, they can help you explore your options.

If you have any questions regarding BOSS please visit our FAQs page here or you may click here to get in touch.

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Do SEOs At Larger Agencies Earn More Than Those At Smaller Agencies?

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In December, my company (BrightLocal) published the results of our fourth annual Local SEO Industry Survey. The results gave us the very latest insights into local search, from the perspective of those who work in the industry.

From the 1,972 respondents, there was a largely positive outlook, with 78 percent of SEOs believing that 2016 was going to be a great year for business. However, with respondents coming from many different types & sizes of business & agency it’s difficult for SEOs to get a clear benchmark vs similar businesses.

To make this benchmarking easier, we’ve taken a deeper dive into the data and analysed the responses for different company types & sizes.

In the survey respondents identified themselves as working for the following company types/sizes:

  • Local or Regional Agencies (aka “Smaller Agencies”) – 34%
  • National or International Agencies (aka “Larger Agencies”) – 21%
  • Web Designers & Agencies – 16%
  • Freelance SEOs – 16%
  • In-House SEOs – 13%

We’ve picked out four data points that highlight some significant differences between larger and smaller agencies, web designers, in-house SEOs and freelancers (who provide local search services). To download the full survey breakdown for your business type please head over to BrightLocal.com (registration required for full report download).

What Was Your Company Revenue In The Last 12 Months?

company revenue breakdown

Key Findings:

  • Local/Regional Agencies report average revenues of $324,871.
  • National/International agencies report 80% higher revenues than smaller agencies – $584,788

*NB – In-House SEOs report the highest company revenue, but as the main business practice of these agencies is not to provide SEO services a direct comparison vs SEO agencies/freelancers is not entirely relevant.

Analysis:

When we focus solely on businesses that provide search marketing services, the average revenues are vastly different, but not unexpected. Agencies that operate on a larger scale clearly make more money than smaller-scale businesses.

Elsewhere in the survey, we saw that large agencies typically employ 7 SEOs (avg.) vs 4 SEOs (avg.) at smaller agencies. This again reflects what we would expect to see given the different size & average revenues from these businesses.

Freelance SEOs reported average “company” revenues of $87,399 (see personal earnings stats in chart 3 below). This is approximately one-quarter of the revenue that small (local/regional) agencies make, so there is a big revenue jump from Freelance to Agency.

So should Freelance SEOs be looking to make that step up and establish an agency? Does the extra revenue translate to greater personal income – see chart 3 below for confirmation!

FYI, in an online poll we ran in October we found that 43% of SEOs planned to start their own agency one day.

How Many Clients Do You Personally Handle?

how many clients

Key Findings:

  • SEOs at larger agencies handle 17 clients, on average (vs 15 in 2014).
  • SEOs at smaller agencies handle 16 clients, on average (vs 12 in 2014).
  • Freelancers handle nine clients, on average (vs 7 in 2014).

Analysis:

Across the board, SEOs at all types of companies are handling more clients year on year. And it is web designers and smaller agencies that have seen the biggest increases year on year — jumping from 10 to 15 clients.

An SEO at a larger agency handles almost double the number of clients as a freelance SEO, which makes you consider what types of tasks are being tackled day to day in both scenarios.

Of course, freelancers have the freedom and satisfaction (hopefully!) of working for themselves, but they are also responsible for their own business growth; this often includes self-marketing, winning new clients, accounting tasks and so on. SEOs at Larger agencies may escape some of these indirect tasks, but they are also under considerable daily pressure to deliver results for larger scale clients.

In that sense, both types of SEOs may look to each other with envious glances from time to time.

What Are Your Pre-Tax Personal Annual Earnings?

pre tax earnings

Key Findings:

  • SEOs at larger agencies have the highest average personal earnings ($83,200 p.a.).
  • Web designers earn the least of all survey participants ($56,600 p.a.)

Analysis:

Earlier, we noted that SEOs at larger agencies personally handle more clients than others, and now we can see that they also earn a considerable amount more. This pre-tax figure includes not just salary but also bonuses, and it’s likely that bonus schemes at larger agencies are either more common & invariably higher*

*NB – If readers are comfortable commenting on this, I’d love to know more about bonus structure & scale where you work, and of course the type of business you’re in. Reach me on Twitter, on Search Engine Land’s Facebook page or in the site’s LinkedIn group.

If we compare Larger Agencies vs Smaller Agencies, SEOs at larger agencies earn an average of $83,200, whilst those at smaller agencies earn $71,400 – a difference of $11,800. That’s pretty significant.

However, despite this difference, larger agency SEOs only handle one extra client; food for thought for any ambitious regional/local SEOs.

Some further clarification, the median pre-tax earnings for local search marketers are listed below:

  • National/International Agency: $60,000–$75,000
  • In-house SEO: $45,000–$60,000
  • Local/Regional Agency: $45,000–$60,000
  • Freelance SEO: $30,000–$45,000
  • Web Designer/Agency: $30,000–$45,000

What Does An Average Customer Pay You Each Month?

average customer pays

Key Findings:

  • Larger agencies command the highest monthly fees from clients (average of $2,244).
  • Freelance SEOs receive the lowest monthly fees ($913, on average).

Analysis:

The reason SEOs at large agencies can personally earn a lot more than other SEOs is that their employers, too can earn a lot more in monthly fees from clients.

Large agencies can charge almost double the amount of their smaller counterparts, but we can expect this to reflect the type and scale of clients being worked with, who will invariably have larger operations, possibly more locations and certainly bigger marketing budgets.

Solid reputation, a proven track record of success (particularly with clients of similar stature) and often industry contacts are key attributes to securing larger business clients, which does give larger agencies an advantage… often making it difficult for smaller agencies to compete.

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The Local Data Ecosystem Just Got A Little More Eco-Friendly

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On December 15, Google launched the Google My Business API, which creates a completely new way for brands and platforms to get information about their locations into Google Search and Google Maps.

The API changes the game by allowing owners of locations more control over how they appear to customers in search, and it improves the consumer experience by delivering more accurate, more comprehensive information.

This investment underscores the central importance of location as a data element in the Google ecosystem across maps, search and ads — something many experts in the industry prognosticated about at the close of last year.

Google My Business

Google My Business (GMB) is the interface through which businesses manage their business listings on Google. Using GMB, businesses can add and claim locations, edit listing information (such as opening hours), clean up closed and duplicate locations and more.

Prior to the Google My Business API, all businesses made updates manually in the GMB dashboard one location at a time or by bulk uploading information in a spreadsheet. That could take hours every month for a single location.

The process was (perhaps) manageable for an individual, small business, and even some small chains, but for large enterprises or large digital marketing platforms, it was a choke point in the flow of information. Large enterprises and large digital marketing platforms that manage thousands of small and medium-sized business clients were suffering through hundreds of manual updates across thousands of listings each day.

The Google My Business API removes most of the manual work by feeding information directly into Google. But the API isn’t open to just anyone. Google will only accept data from approved, trusted providers that meet strict standards for data quality. Since the information will appear to consumers across the Google ecosystem, it has to be reliable.

The API is designed for use by enterprises and location management platforms that serve as the source of truth for brands’ location data. Small businesses that manage their location information on their own will continue to make updates through the GMB dashboard.

What This Means

By streamlining GMB with the API, Google will receive more frequent content updates — since the extra steps involved with manual entry and bulk uploads mean that updates happen less frequently. With the API, businesses can send a stream of fresh data to Google’s servers. And better data is a win for customers and businesses.

In the launch announcement, Google used the example of setting special hours for the holiday season as an example of the type of updates that a business can make using the API.

Consumers rely on Google to get around, and they expect the information to be current, correct and comprehensive, even in special situations like the holidays. With the API, Google is making it as easy as possible for businesses to meet customers’ very high expectations.

The API also opens new sources of information to Google. Business listing information on Google frequently comes from crawling third-party sites or compiling data from outdated lists instead of from the businesses themselves.

The API is a shift in Google’s approach for who they consider the source of truth for location data — and it definitively states that the best data about a business comes from the business itself.

By enabling brands and digital marketing platforms to pipe data directly into Google, the owners and most responsible parties become the source of truth for information about their own locations — not data aggregators, crawlers or the search and mapping providers themselves.

The Shift To Location Management Platforms

Given the complexity of collecting, storing and managing location information, many enterprises will choose to interface with the API through a Location Management Platform (LMP).

The launch of the Google My Business API represents a turning point for the location management industry by allowing third-party platforms to act as the source of truth for brand location information everywhere.

Google is not the first search and mapping provider to open its data set to an API feed, but this significant investment marks a major shift in how the world’s preeminent search engine approaches local search. Companies like Google that leverage location information recognize the need to integrate with major LMPs to get the best data.

While using APIs is a common practice to input and query large amounts of information, Google will only open the API to approved providers. A substantial amount of pre-processing work and expertise is required to get location data ready to go into Google and the hands of the consumer.

To this point, it is a best practice for a brand or large digital marketing platform to have a source of truth LMP to manage information about their locations internally to connect to Google and other search engines, directories, mobile apps and more.

Moving Forward

Improvement in the accuracy and amount of information that businesses provide to and through Google will improve the consumer’s experience and likely increase their trust and expectations for information.

Businesses will need to keep pace with their competitors — and with consumers’ expectations — or risk falling behind. For example, as accurate hours of operation become an expected norm by consumers, it has become table stakes and can no longer be considered a “nice to have.” We expect that trend will continue for far more data points about every business location.

Currently, the API allows for the input of business information, but it does not provide any outflow of information. Being able to access reporting for how listings are performing or the ability to track and respond to reviews through the API would be a boon for businesses.

In conclusion, Google Search and Google Maps have been, and will continue to be, a dominant driver for all businesses in consumer discovery and location needs.

With the launch of the Google My Business API, Google has finally granted brands and large digital marketing platforms the ability to interact with their location data in an efficient, forward-looking way. The net result is that control over location data can now rest firmly where it belongs — in the hands of businesses themselves.

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Lunar New Year Google Doodle Welcomes In The Year Of The Fire Monkey

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Today’s Google doodle marks the first day of the Lunar New Year and welcomes in the year of the Fire Monkey.

When illustrating the logo, Doodler Alyssa Winans drew the family of monkeys using the same fiery red color of the traditional red envelopes often exchanged on Asian holidays.

As the Lunar New Year is primarily celebrated in China and other Asian countries like Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam, the doodle has a limited reach, only being displayed on a handful of Google’s homepages. (Google’s Vietnam homepage received its own Lunar New Year Doodle.)

Google says that while the U.S. doesn’t use the Lunar calendar, it does play a role in global timekeeping.

Lunar New Year doodle reach

As the year of the Fire Monkey, 2016 represents the ninth year of a 12-year cycle. According to Google, the monkey sign is associated with a quick-wit and smarts.

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Friday, February 5, 2016

SearchCap: Google Japan Penalty, AdWords App Update & Emojis In Google PLAs

searchcap-header-v2-scap

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

Local & Maps

Link Building

Searching

SEO

SEM / Paid Search

Search Marketing

The post SearchCap: Google Japan Penalty, AdWords App Update & Emojis In Google PLAs appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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