Posts by Bas van den Beld

Bas van den Beld is a speaker, trainer and online marketing strategist. Bas is the owner of Stateofsearch.com. -- You can hire Bas to speak, train or consult. -- More articles and bio from Bas van den Beld
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Google Keeps Testing New SERP Changes

quite-testing

Two more new design tests by Google have been ‘spotted’ in the wild. The first one is a follow up to the one we saw last week. The second one show more mixture in the local results but also might just be a bug.

As you know Google tests out a lot. Many of these tests just ‘disappear’ into nothing. A few people see the tests, they didn’t work, and then Google pulls them. When tests start returning, sometimes in a little bit different format, it’s an indication that something is up. Google now seems serious about the tests on their new design without the left sidebar and is changing their local results. (more…)

Travel Sites Missing Opportunities With Images and Video

travel-video

I travel a lot. And to be honest: it usually is horrific to find what I am looking for. No matter if I use Google or go directly to a travel site, it always takes me way too long to find the hotel or flight which fits me best. Both travel sites and Google I think could do a much better job for those seeking travel information.

In the past few years travelsites and Google have developed a love – hate relationship. Travel sites depended on Google for much of their traffic, but at the same time saw Google take away that traffic when Google decided to launch some features which would bypass the travel sites. On the other side Google is very much interested in the reviews which appear wealthily on travel sites.

One thing I’m personally always missing on travel sites is the right imagery and the right videos. And with that I don’t mean the standard images of an hotel room or holiday house which never actually show what a place really look like. I always wanted to see imagery from people who were actually there. Now research from search marketing agency, Epiphany with use of Searchmetrics also shows that the imagery which is being used could be used a lot better for findability in Google. (more…)

How Big is the SEO Industry?

The SEO Industry. Some believe its the best industry in the world, others believe it’s all spammers. But all will agree the SEO industry plays a big role in the online world. But how big is SEO online? Bluecaribu takes a look.

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Google Removes Social Circle Data

Google-Social-404

Google Search Plus Your World is all about social data. Many things Google does in social is aimed at getting information from you so they can build up your profile and return you search results and other related information which is personalised for you, based on your social graph.

To do that Google needs to know your social graph. It needs to know how you connect to entities and to other people. In some of my presentations I showed some of what Google knew of you because Google gave that information away, for free. Now it seems to have pulled the social circle data. There is no announcement and you can still find the search result, but the page itself gives a 404. (more…)

A Look At The Google Penguin

The Google Penguin Update. As you know Penguins live in the cold and that is exactly what happened to those who got hit by the update. But what is the update about, who was it aimed for and how should we react? Maybe this infographic will help shed some light on things.

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New Google Interface Tests Show Up

Google-Interface-Test

We know that Google is constantly testing new stuff. Whether it is a new feature or a new design, they always test ‘in the wild’, meaning that actual users get the new features or design to see how they respond.

Now a new test has shown up, one which is mainly about the User Interface, the design of the search result page. In particular the navigational part. In this design the sidebar is completely gone and we see a new type of top navigation. (more…)

Marketers: Stop Whining about Google+, Start Using It

whining

So this is a post written on the plane so bare with me for a little. It’s thoughts put on paper, but I think it’s important. For the past year and a half I have been talking all over the world about Google’s Social Search efforts. How the search giant was, and still is, trying to embed social into search. At first my talks were about the social signals we were seeing, how Google was for example integrating Twitter results or how it was showing when and where someone was sharing a specific piece of content. That was even before Google launched Google+. And even then I was saying: Google is up to something more than just a Facebook clone.

I showed some of my findings and conclusions at SMX 2011. Soon after that Google+ launched. It sure as hell looked like a Facebook clone, and don’t get me wrong, if Google would be able to push out Facebook, they sure would, but still Google+ is much bigger than a social network. It is much bigger than a Facebook competitor. I actually wrote about that back then as well, explaining what Google+ was really all about.

In the past few months, well, to be honest ever since Google+ launched, I have heard a lot of complaints from marketers about Google+. These complaints are mostly about the social network part of Google+: too little numbers, not enough functionalities, not enough engagement, you name it, all the complaints were there. And the funny thing is: they were all true. But now I believe it is time to stop complaining and get to work, you might be too late already. (more…)

New Rules of (Affiliate) site architecture – Martin McDonald at A4U

MartinMcDonald-A4u-Barcelona-2012

At A4U Expo Martin Mc Donald talked about site architecture for Affiliates. The title might suggest it would be a very technical presentation, but in fact it was much more about getting affiliates to change their attitude.

There have been many Google Updates over the past few years, with Panda and Penguin of course sticking out. According to Martin McDonald, the way we are looking at the Google Updates is wrong. SEO’s act reactively to Google Updates like Panda. That is the wrong way around.

The first reaction to an update is panic. Affiliates say “Why have I lost all my traffic?”. When then asked what they have done it becomes clear that before they copied the hotel descriptions and ranked. This doesn’t work anymore. (more…)

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