Getting Trendy with Google

When it comes to checking out the best keyphrases for your website, there are a few effective ways to research which ones would be best for your website.  Having a good idea on what your website is a good start!  Another good tip is looking on your competitor’s websites and seeing what keyphrases they use. This is clear by looking at the page title (1), heading (2) and general text content (3).

Now you’re armed with a list of keyphrases, how can you now check what will be the most effective keyphrases to use for your website, or get better suggestions?

Enter Google Trends.  Launched in 2008, under the name Google Insight for Search, this was renamed Google Trends in September 2012.  Its a powerful and useful tool to research and compare keyphrases, but there is much more to it than that, as I will now demonstrate.

Trends depending on Countries

First of all, I’ll give a very contrasting example:  Searching for Paracetamol, Google Trends show the name is popular across Europe, Central America, South America and Asia.

But if I compare it to Acetaminophen, its American name you can see that although the name isn’t as popular, if you were marketing your website to Americans, this well known painkiller would have to be referred to as Acetaminophen.

How can this be used for effective marketing?

Ok we’re not all drug stores, so let’s use an example that from one of my recent clients: a worldwide resource marketing horse saddles.  Not everyone is into horses but for the minority that keep and  ride horses, a saddle is a necessity.

A search on Dressage saddles show that Australia use this search term the most. Followed by the UK.  From researching economic climates, Australia has a strong economy at present and the UK is going through a slow recovery, however Canada and the USA are not.

Before we proceed, I will emphasise a point made in Google’s support page:

“Google Trends are normalized. So just because a particular region doesn’t appear on the top Regional interest list or isn’t highlighted on the geographic heat map, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the search term isn’t popular at all – it just means that the term is more popular in other regions.”

In comparison to used Dressage saddles, a majority of the USA is using this search to keep costs down.  So at this current moment, this website would be better off promoting their used saddle pages for the American audience and their new saddle pages to Australia.

There is a natty widget at the bottom of the map highlighting the country most using the search term over the selected period of time.

Other Suggested keyphrases

Google Trends also list the top searches that for a specific keyphrase. Going back to the dressage saddle example, we can see that top searches list a few more niche keyphrases (saddles for sale), branded saddles and 4 out of the 10 refer to used saddles.

Getting more Specific with Filters

To get a clearer picture, several filters can be used either by themselves or simultaneously:

• Search performed (Web, Images, News, etc)
• Country
• Time Scale
• Category

Using category as an example. by selecting animal products and services, give you the top searches for saddles in that specific category. But it can also show you the search terms that have shown an increase in popularity in your given timescale. NB: The term breakout indicates that this particular term has seen growth greater than 5000%.

With these filters you can get a pretty clear idea of when to market your website as well.  This time I shall use a seasonal example:  Lets say I was researching fireworks.

A starting point would be a web search for fireworks.  I shall stick to Worldwide for the time being.  At the time of writing this, its March and there’s snow on the ground so chances are no one’s really put the effort into having a fire display just recently so let’s select the last full year.  I shall leave categories to all as there’s about 3 recommended categories.

Now the statistics ebb off after the new year period and then keep consistently low until that very large spike in July.

Using the filter to include only USA results, proves that if you are a firework supplier operating in North America, your site would need to include keyphrases focused around Independence Day and your marketing/advertising need to be begging in the 1st week of May rather than the 3 July!  Also the closer you are to Maine the better.

Compare this to the UK filter and the sharp spike changes to the beginning of November.  This is down to Fireworks Night on 5 November (more traditionally known as Guy Fawkes night).  The rise for this begins about mid-September in this case and may slow down for the rest of November but increases again in the week before Christmas in preparation for the New Year.

I could show you search terms all day, but hopefully I have at least given you some insight on the capabilities of this tool.  So what are you waiting for?

The UK Cookie Law is Definitely not Dead

Last May, EU legislation came into place meaning that any website using cookies to store information about its visitors, had to both make it clear on their website’s privacy statement and ask for the user’s consent before they were allowed to use the website. If they didn’t, further action would be taken, and legal proceedings and monetary fines were mentioned.

This news was major enough to be covered by TV and the papers, and a lot of us remember the panic followed into what exactly cookies are used for on websites (a lot) and the excessive work that followed websites basically covering their hides so no one got sued.

Luckily just before this legislation came into force, a small change was made by the UK Information Commissioner. Indicating that websites can assume that the user has given “implied consent”. As quoted in the Guardian’s article:

“In an updated version of its advice for websites on how to use cookies – small text files that are stored on the user’s computer and can identify them – the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said that websites can assume that users have consented to their use of them.”

This made life a bit easier for the average business website, but there was a new twist in January when the ICO published on their website that they were changing how cookies were run on their own website:

“We’ve made a change to way we use cookies on our website, including setting cookies from the time users arrive. For those who don’t want cookies, we’re providing an easy way to remove them.
The aim is to help us collect reliable information to make our website better, while remaining compliant with the rules on cookies and our own guidance.”

There were a couple of articles that followed this development, both courtesy from Silktide MD, Oliver Emberton. Oliver, known for his Cookie Law Protest Site blogged about his take on the development and went on to talk to .Net magazine that this meant the cookie law is at long last dead.

I feel I must emphasise this here and now: The cookie law is not dead. The cookie law is just not as terrible as it was originally made out to be:  Websites still must outline on their privacy policy what cookies are used for, and it is still good practice to include a clear banner on a prominent area of the website outlining that cookies are used, and giving the user the ability to read more or clear instructions on how to disable these if they choose to.

A banner using implied consent

Cookies banner asking for users permission to proceed

If you haven’t already, it is worth watching the video at ICO or if you have the time and patience, download the 31 page Cookies Guidance PDF (available on the same page as the video). It does contain some interesting points, but can be a bit long-winded.

Another proof that the cookie law is still in force is the quarterly review also on ICO website. This is an ongoing report summarising both reports and concerns over websites failing to comply and what they are doing about it. From this guide it is clear that the ICO is working with the companies that they have concerns over . Their summary quotes:

“We are considering 14 websites for further investigation. In these cases we will contact them to discuss their compliance, and require them to take steps as necessary. We have passed details of five websites to our International team, who have told the relevant European authorities about the concerns we received.

We will continue to contact every site we receive a concern about to ensure they know what steps they need to take.”

So there is no need to panic. If it gets to the stage that further action is taken on a website, it’s because of the failure to comply with the ICO or sheer ignorance on the company’s part.

On a separate note, I did check out two international companies not mentioned in the list on ICO’s quarterly report: One does clearly indicate on the first page what cookies are used for and gives the user the option to opt out and the other does not mention it at all. Will the ICO catch up with them? I will certainly be keeping posted.

The DVH Design Blog – Reloaded

Welcome to the resurrection of the DVH Design blog.  After a 5 year break from blogging, I have finally got my act together and revived my blog to keep abreast of the latest topics affecting online businesses along with how-to’s and tips that might even make your life easier.

Before I proceed, I feel that I have to explain what actually happened 5 years ago when I abandoned blog and ran for the hills:  My main issue was most of my time was spent dealing with projects (which definitely isn’t a bad thing), but with the introduction of all these social networks at the time (I did say this was 5 years ago) my old faithful insurance company had decided that in order to cover all its clients for defamation online, they would bump their prices up by £600.  Now I was, and still am a small business, and £600 can buy a lot of more necessary things.  As a result, I thanked them kindly, took my blog down and spent the first 6 months of social networks treading on virtual eggshells.

Two things have changed since then:  First of all, as far as social media is concerned, the hype has died down and short of wiping the floor with a few trolls on Facebook (The chain letter posts are a particular favourite of mine), I am actually responsible enough to not warrant a lawsuit.  The second issue is that insurance companies have cottoned on that professional indemnity insurance is a nice little earner and so long their guidelines are followed, I’m actually paying less for my insurance than I was 5 years ago.

There was another reason why I have resurrected my blog:  Search Engines love information and resourceful websites as do people.  Who doesn’t search on terms they aren’t sure on?  A good few! I am an expert on web design and search marketing – I have after all lived and breathed it since 2000. But even I am still learning.  I will tackle this further in a future post because by then I should have visual evidence to prove it!

So sit back, grab your coffee and see what I have to say.  Feel free to comment or give me feedback with any of my posts. All I will ask is:

• Don’t spam  the site comments are checked prior to being accepted and junk comments won’t even see the light of day. If you have a link that is relevant to the subject in hand then please do share it.  Just bear in mind that with any blog nowadays, links are automatically set to nofollow so link builders will be wasting their own time.
• Don’t be mean At the end of the day, I am a human, and defamation, character assassinations and generally nasty comments just hurt my feelings for a moment, but still won’t get published.  Particularly nasty comments just get you banned.  If you think what I said was rubbish, why not explain why you think it was rubbish?  I’ll be listening.
• Big me up For the same reason, I am human, a bit of praise is always welcome.  If I am doing a good job or got you thinking or taking action, please tell me.  My head might expand a little, but again that’s only a temporary effect.
• Do ask for help  Shy babies don’t get any sweeties!   So if you would like me to elaborate on something I’ve covered or need a bit of general advice then please do feel free to leave a comment and I will answer it the best I can.