Does Google look at anchor text in internal links?

Internal linking is a key SEO tactic, one which allows websites to send clear signals to Google on the relative importance of various pages.

It also works from a user experience perspective, helping visitors find pages that are relevant or potentially useful to them.

It's something I place great importance on as an editor, as it's one part of SEO that I can control, and I've seen the benefits for sites I've worked on.

Internal linking: examples

Let's take an example from Search Engine Watch. I wrote this article on internal linking, with examples and tips, back in September 2015.

I've since linked to it using that exact anchor text (and variations on it) on at least 10 occasions. Essentially, I'm telling Google that this is the page I want Search Engine Watch to rank for that term.

As we can see, it's worked well. Third on Google, and first for related terms (internal linking best practice for example).

Then there's Mail Online. The most visited English language newspaper on the web had a relatively haphazard approach to internal linking until recently.

For common, high traffic terms (world leader's names, celebrities etc) would be used regularly in articles.

The result was that each article would end up competing against previous articles for the same keyword or phrase.

The chart below shows its rankings for 'David Cameron' over a six month period. 80 different URLs were returned from the Mail for that search, but it didn't rank consisitently for the term.

The answer was a consistent internal linking and hub page strategy. Mail Online created hub pages for common terms and consistently linked to them.

The result is a more consistent ranking from November 2015 onwards, when the changes were implemented.

There have been some fluctuations, perhaps due to inconsistent implementation of the linking strategy, but the page is performing much more effectively. As a result, the site will pick up more traffic for that term. Applied across the whole site, this can make a big difference.

Does Google count anchor text in internal links?

This is the question Shaun Anderson from Hobo Web sought to answer recently.

In the examples above, the pages targeted with internal links all contain the keywords used in the anchor text. So, Google could be using the content of the page, and the fact that several pages link to it to decide on the ranking.

In other words, this doesn't prove that Google is taking note of the anchor text when choosing to rank a particular page.

So, Shaun set up a test. He added an internal link to one page on his site using the target keyword as anchor text.

It's important to note that the target page did not contain the keyword used, so the only signal that it was relevant to said keyword was the anchor text on the link.

As we can see from the chart, a number of days after the test was implemented, the page ranked for the target term. When it was removed, the page dropped again.

As that page had no other relevance to the term other than the link, the anchor text appears to be the only reason for the page's ranking.

It's worth reading Shaun's blog post for more detail, and for further variations on the test, but the indications are that the answer to the question in the headline here is yes.

It would be good to see other tests to back up this with more evidence. In fact, I'll see if I can devise one on this site along similar lines.

Five most interesting search marketing news stories of the week

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond.

This week we have a round of very exciting changes to AdWords and some stats about the intolerability of video ad formats.

Google AdWords launches new features for mobile ads and maps

As Sophie Loras reported last week, Google has “introduced new tools and features to AdWords to specifically address the consumer shift towards mobile.”

These include:

Expanded text ads for a mobile

Headlines in AdWords will increase from one 25-character header, to two 30-character headers, giving advertisers more room to explain their products and services.

The description line will also increase from two 35-character description lines to one 80-character description line.

Responsive display ads

These are designed to help advertisers with the many different content shapes and sizes across the more than two million publisher sites and apps on the Google Display Network (GDN).

Bid adjustments for device types

AdWords will soon allow advertisers to set individual bid adjustments for each device type (mobile, desktop and tablet).

Connect online and offline with mobile

Google is introducing new local search ads across Google.com and Google Maps to reach consumers as they search for physical business locations.

New ad formats on Google Maps

To make it easier for users to find businesses around them Google Maps will offer promoted pins as well the ability to include details for one off special offers or sales.

You can now tie-up all your web properties together in Search Console

As I reported a few days ago, you can now track the combined search visibility of all your managed web properties.

So all the separate platforms you operate for one single brand – websites, mobile sites, apps – you'll be able to treat as a single entity. You can even add HTTP or HTTPS versions of the same site and combine multiple apps.

The aggregated data from your properties will be found in the Search Analytics of Search Console and you'll be able to check everything from clicks, to impressions to CTR, as you would normally with single properties.

Silent ads for the win

Latest research from Wibbitz on the state of video advertising reveal some fascinating – if not obvious – home truths on our tolerance for video ad formats.

45% of people said that muted ads are more tolerable than targeted, autoplay or interactive ad formats.

Also, the survey found that 70% of people won't watch an ad longer than 10 seconds, 61% admit they always skip video ads and 42% disapprove of autoplay ads.

Bing's share of the search market is growing faster than Google's

According to comScore, in April 2016, Bing's share of the search market rose by 0.2% while Google's dropped by 0.2%.

Also according to SEJ, “Google's total share of the US desktop search market has dipped below its previous 64% to 63.8%. Microsoft's share of desktop search is now sitting at 21.6%.”

Google's new title and description lengths: 'it's just a test'

Google has been experimenting with a variety of expanded title tag and meta description lengths in its SERPs over the last few weeks.

However, as we all expected, Google's John Muller has this to say about Google's constant honing of the look of its search results…

@JulianMHoffmann@methode We're always experimenting, so I'd have a tough time saying “new” to any particular change.

- John Mueller (@JohnMu) May 24, 2016

So yeah, don't get too excited.

Five competitive advertising strategies to outsmart your competition

It's often said that competition is good for your business. It pushes you to be your best. Think Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, Visa vs. MasterCard, Xbox vs. PlayStation, or Apple vs. Microsoft.

Of course, part of the fun of rivalry is stealing customers from your rivals. You can do that with the help of advertising!

Today you'll learn five brilliant competitive advertising strategies you can use to get in front of your competitors' customers and (with a little work) turn them into YOUR customers instead. *Evil laughter*

1. Target Facebook users whose interests include your competitors

Facebook Ads doesn't offer keyword targeting for your ads and you can't specifically target people who have liked your competitors' pages. However, Facebook offers something called interest-based targeting.

On Facebook, interests range from extremely broad (e.g., business or entrepreneurship) to very specific. In this case, your competitor's name is the specific interest you want to target, because Facebook allows you to choose to target people based on, among other things, brands and products they like.

Type in your competitor's website URL. Or, if that doesn't work, you can type in your competitor's brand name or try a few keyword combinations to figure out best option for reaching their target audience – which is now your target audience!

2. Disrupt your competitors' videos with YouTube ads

Recently I was on YouTube searching for an AT&T ad. Before I could watch the ad I was looking for, I had to sit through another ad – I know, that's modern life. But the genius part was that this ad wasn't for AT&T, but for its competitor, Sprint.

In this ad Sprint explained why it is a better provider than AT&T and highlighted an offer to switch carriers, before I could even see the ad for the brand I had searched for.

To execute this competitive advertising strategy for your own campaigns, create the most watchable TrueView ad you can, adding in how much you're willing to spend.

There are many targeting options to choose from (e.g., demographics, interests, keywords, remarketing). But today we're feeling competitive!

You want to target your video ads so that whenever someone searches for the YouTube videos of your competitor that they'll see your ad first. If you play it right, they might not even watch your competitor's video!

3. Use your competitors' emails against them with Gmail Ads

Another brilliantly sneaky competitive advertising tactic you should start using now is targeting people who have recently shown interest in the things your competition sells.

With Gmail Ads (those ads that appear at the top of the Promotions tab of users' personal email accounts), you can do keyword targeting on your competitors' brand terms.

As you read this, people who are in the market for your competitor's products are getting emails from your competitors – and those emails mention your competitors' brand terms.

For example, if you were competing with Sephora, you could target its brand name as part of a Gmail ad campaign so that every time a Sephora newsletter arrives in someone's Gmail inbox, your brand ends up in its inbox as well. Obviously, your email should tell Sephora subscribers all about your great competing site and product and why they should check your out.

So if you want to try to steal some sales, target the trademarks of your competitors. Make sure you use an email subject line that will have users clicking your Gmail Ads in droves.

Use only the best-performing subject lines, the ones with the highest open rates – your unicorns. As an added bonus, because these people are already in the market for a competing solution, it's likely that more people will click on your ads, which reduces your costs.

4. Reach your competitors' audiences through the Google Display Network

Google has some great display ad technology. But if you want to beat up on your competition, you need to use Google's custom affinity audience feature.

Affinity audiences let you target a predefined audience, one that should be more receptive to seeing your ads.

To make this work brilliantly, and avoid wasting your ad budget, you'll want to target the home page of your competitor. AdWords will then figure out the brand trademarks and the behavior of the people who visit and are interested in that domain name (or search for content on related topics).

Let's use MailChimp as an example: MailChimp is a publication that's geared toward businesses doing email marketing. So if I'm running a similar business geared toward email marketers,MailChimp visitors would form the basis of our “ideal customer” we want to reach with our own display ads.

This will start the process of getting the right people familiar with your brand and the products or service you provide. And hopefully, with the right message, you'll start stealing business away from your competitors and experiencing breakout growth.

5. Download & target your competitors' Twitter followers

There are tools that allow you to download a list of every Twitter follower for any account, such as BirdSong Analytics. You can use these to download a list of all your competitor's Twitter followers. Costs generally start around $35 and go up the more followers the account has.

Once you have your report, you can use those Twitter handles to create a list that you'll then upload to Twitter Ads. Make sure to select the option to “add tailored audiences.” Uploading the list will take about 3 hours to process.

You can then create ads to get your business in front of the Twitter users who are already following your competitors and are likely in the market to buy or switch to a similar product or service. Genius, right?

After setting your budget comes the real fun. It's time to get creative and compose your tweet copy. Important note: Twitter's “advice” for ad success is kind of a disgrace, so please read my article on How to run a successful Twitter Lead generation campaign.

Don't let your competitors have all the fun!

Remember, all these competitive ad strategies are putting your business in front of users who are interested in your competitors, which means they're much more likely to be in the market for your product/service. You just have to show them that what you offer is better than what your competitors do!

Why ecommerce sites should use both SEM and SEO for acquisition

It is well-known that in order to get a good return on investment in terms of marketing, online retailers need to be constantly in front of their customers. However, with the rise of online users, it is important these retailers adopt a multichannel approach.

Despite being similar in that SEM and SEO both aim to improve visibility through rankings on search engines, they do have significant differences.

SEM is a pay-per-click (PPC) service, while SEO improves ranking organically and does not involve paying for search results.

However, with Adobe's recent Q4 Digital Advertising Report explaining that not only are CPCs in decline in Europe, but click-through rates are on the rise, all signs are pointing to a Paid Search orientated strategy.

Are retailers better off investing their money in SEM or their time in SEO? Let's explore the arguments for each technique.

Why should ecommerce retailers use SEM?

Quick results

With SEM, results can be achieved relatively quickly. Of course, you will be required to make changes in the AdWords interface, however once this has been done, you can see results almost instantly.

With SEO on the other hand, you will need to implement a longer-term strategy and it can take time to reap the rewards of your efforts.

Better conversion rates

According to New Media Campaigns, PPC holds a slight edge in conversion rates as paid search results are 1.5 times more likely to convert click-throughs from the search engine.

Direct control over your visibility

Even with a significant amount of time invested into SEO, there is no guarantee that you will ever appear in the top spots on search results pages. While the same can almost be said for PPC, bidding plays a huge role in paid search campaigns and increasing your budget can take you so far in improving your visibility on search engines.

Few website optimisations

Although good website structure helps to improve your PPC ranking, it is not incremental to do so to achieve good paid search results. SEO on the other hand, requires that your website's structure and content are optimised to achieve good results

Why use SEO as well as SEM?

While there are many arguments that may convince online retailers to rely on Paid Search, there are also many benefits to using SEO as well as SEM in their multi-channel strategies.

No direct additional costs

Besides your time and effort, SEO allows you to achieve results without any direct additional costs. SEM on the other hand, can obviously require a significant amount of investment, particularly for competitive keywords.

Organic results more likely to be clicked on

According to the same study by New Media Campaigns, organic results are 8.5 times more likely to be clicked on than paid search results!

Improve brand awareness

With organic results more likely to be clicked on, it is a no-brainer to invest in an SEO strategy. However, another added benefit is the possibility to improve brand awareness.

Presuming that you are able to successfully place your ads in paid search results, also appearing in organic results will help to reinforce your message and improve the visibility of your brand. Over time, the more your brand awareness increases, the more likely consumers are to trust your brand name.

A long-term strategy

It will take time and effort to properly optimise your website for search engines, but in the long term it will help bring you continuous website traffic for free.

Of course, you will need to be sure to keep up-to-date with the latest guidelines to ensure that you are not penalised and your efforts don't end up going down the drain.

As you can see, there are many advantages to both SEO and SEM, however what is important to take away is that they are complementary techniques. Online retailers are generally encouraged to start by adopting both strategies.

For newly-launched businesses, SEM will accelerate brand awareness, as users start to recognise and trust your brand name. As a first step, it is wise to invest more into SEM while your SEO efforts get off the ground. You can then balance your investments once your organic visibility increases.

Mark Haupt is UK Sales Director at Twenga Solutions and a contributor to Search Engine Watch.

State of video advertising report: what are the most tolerable ad formats?

As video content increases, it's time for brands to understand their consumers, in order to deliver the most relevant ads to them.

Wibbitz conducted a survey in March about video consumption and consumer sentiments regarding video advertising, hoping to help publishers and consumers reach a middle ground.

Every publisher looking to expand its services to video content needs to understand its audience first, hearing their needs, in order to deliver the best video experience to them.

Here are the most interesting findings from Wibbitz's report and what we can learn from them:

The changing state of video consumption

Video consumption has been increased during the past years and 26% of people who participated in Wibbitz's survey responded that they are watching at least one video per day.

Mobile devices have significantly contributed to the increased video consumption, as they make videos more accessible and this can be confirmed by the fact that 55% of the frequent video viewers prefer watching them on their smartphone.

As for the most popular social platform to watch videos, Facebook is a clear winner, as 54% of them picked it as their first social destination for video consumption, and this can also be justified by Facebook's decision to highlight video content on the users' news feed, while the launch of Canvas made video advertising even more appealing.

However, these stats may change during the next year, as I personally predict a rise of video consumption on Snapchat.

Strong preference on silent ads

No matter how often people are watching online videos, they still don't like ads with sound, or irrelevant messages.

45% of people answered that muted ads are more tolerable, while 39% of them considered targeted ads a crucial factor for tolerable ads.

Brands start understanding how annoying the sound in advertising may be and that's why they are trying to send their message through the video, even with the addition of captions, to make sure they don't lose the viewers out of annoyance.

The power of targeted ads

It is very important nowadays for brands to focus on targeted video ads, as users grow more impatient and less receptive to irrelevant advertising.

In fact, frequent video viewers care even more about the relevance of the ads, which means that it's important for brands to keep them happy.

Facebook and LinkedIn video viewers seem to be more demanding, with 41% and 47% of them respectively preferring targeted ads from any other ad type.

Short ads

The rise of the demanding video viewers, who also tend to have a short attention span, creates the need for shorter video ads to keep them engaged, as 70% of people won't watch an ad longer than 10 seconds.

As the length of the video increases, only 51% of people will watch up to 10 seconds, but there is an increased chance they'll watch up to 30 seconds in such cases.

Thus, the duration of the video along with its relevance, affect users' watch time and the engagement can only be achieved with great content that will convince viewers to keep watching for more than 30 seconds.

Skipping ads

It is becoming common for consumers to seek for ways to skip an ad, especially if it's annoying or irrelevant, with 61% of them admitting that they always skip video ads, if possible.

However, it has also been observed that not everyone takes a real action regarding ad skipping, while half of the respondents are more likely to appreciate a mute ad.

This is another reminder for brands to use the sound in advertising appropriately, only to enhance the viewing experience and not to make users skip the video faster.

Autoplay

Autoplay in video advertising can be annoying and 42% of the respondents share the same opinion, but mobile video consumption may change this soon.

It seems that mobile users are more receptive to autoplay ads and this could be related to the highly targeted content they're exposed to. However, Snapchat users don't seem to agree, as 55% of them find autoplay ads intrusive.

Apparently the opinions are still divided about autoplay in video advertising, which brings a great opportunity for brands to turn around the unhappy users with non-intrusive content that is highly relevant to their audience.

What brands can learn

All the above observations can help a brand understand what video consumers want,  in order to produce the right content for them.

Here are the key points to remember:

• Relevance is key. Video consumers expect highly targeted advertising that fits their interests and their browsing habits. This increases the chances for them to keep watching a video. A personalised experience is always appreciated, so there's no need to create video ads without knowing your audience first.


• Silent ads can increase the engagement, as you can still send your message effectively without any disruptive sound. If there's an indication that your audience hates the sound in your video ads, then it's time to focus on the visual side of advertising.


• Focus on mobile. Video consumers on mobile devices have been increased, which means that you should make sure that your content is optimised for mobile, making the viewing experience pleasant.


• Keep it short. Even if you create a longer video, make sure that the first seconds are appealing to help users stay engaged.

Searching for Video, Images, Audio, Gifs, Podcasts, Memes & Radio: a directory of search engines, finders & generators

Here's an up-to-date list of all the available video or video file search engines, audio and sound search engines, podcast directories, meme generators & Gif finders at your disposal.

Jump to a section:

Images – Gifs – Memes – Video – Radio Stations – Sounds – Podcasts

Images

Bing

http://www.bing.com/images?FORM=Z9LH1

Bing offers an image search engine that uses trending searches from across the web to create this stream of image results. It even allows you to personalise your stream when signing in.

Everystockphoto

http://www.everystockphoto.com/

This is a search engine for free photos, indicating the license for each one, helping users find the exact image they're looking for and the license it's associated with.

Flickr Creative Commons

https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Flickr is an awesome resource for photos, and you can use any that are labelled with a Creative Commons licence.

Freeimages

http://www.freeimages.com/

Browse 388,444 photos and illustrations and find the one you're looking for.

Getty Images

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/  

If you're looking for creative and editorial photography of high quality, then Getty Images is the right resource for you. You can buy any image either with credits, or a subscription plan.

Google Images

http://images.google.com

Find images from across the web, as discovered by Google's crawler-technology.

Imgur

http://imgur.com/

The most popular images on the web, ranked by popularity.

Ixquick

https://eu.ixquick.com/

Startpage by Ixquick blends Google search results with privacy, promising more convenience and maximum privacy protection.

Pexels

https://www.pexels.com

Large database of free photos for personal and commercial use.

Picsearch

http://www.picsearch.com/

An image search service with more than 3,000,000,000 pictures.

Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com/

Pinterest may not be your first choice when looking for an image, but it turned out into a powerful search engine for images.

Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/

Over 640,000 free stock photos, vectors and art illustrations.

Unsplash

https://unsplash.com/

Free high-resolution photos focusing mostly on nature and lifestyle photography, only requiring a credit and link to the photographer.

Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

An database of 31,590,351 freely usable media files.

Yahoo Image Search

https://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/

Search or browse to find pictures on the web. Flickr users can now find their own images through Yahoo's image search.

Yippy

http://new.yippy.com/about-yippy-search

Yippy, previously known as Clusty, queries several top search engines to  combine the results  and generates them in an ordered list based on comparative ranking.

Gifs

GifMe

https://gifme.io/search

GifMe search is powered by users collecting and tagging over 804,886 Gifs.

Giphy

Giphy is the largest online database and search engine for Gifs and it's the most popular choice for many users when looking for a Gif to support their content.

Imgur

http://imgur.com/r/gifs

Find the best Gifs ranked by popularity.

Memebase – Cheeseburger

http://memebase.cheezburger.com/senorgif?ref=subnav

Find the Gif you're looking for or browse the feed to discover new ones.

Twitter

https://twitter.com

Twitter collaborated with Giphy to embed its search engine when creating new tweets and this helped users have access to a huge Gif library with just one click.

Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com

Tumblr allows its users to search for all the available Gifs when creating a post, making their use even more convenient.

Memes

Animal Advisor

http://animaladvisor.net/

A meme search engine containing “947,359 dank memes.”

Frinkiac

https://frinkiac.com/

3 million screencaps taken from The Simpsons to help you find the right meme for every occasion.

Imgur

http://imgur.com/memegen

Find the most popular memes of the web and customise them accordingly by changing the text.

MemeCenter

http://www.memecenter.com/

Find every meme you've ever wanted.

Video

AOL On

http://on.aol.com/

AOL On is a video search platform that provides reports of all the latest news in the form of short videos, helping you to catch up with the trending topics.

Bing

http://www.bing.com/?scope=video&nr=1&FORM=NOFORM

Bing allows you to find the videos you're looking for across the web and it displays the results in thumbnails. What's more, it also offers search suggestions and relative results to help your searching.

Blinkx

http://www.blinkx.com/

Blinkx is offering high-quality, personalised, curated video content and it numbers more than 35 million hours of online video.

Clipblast

http://www.clipblast.com/

Find trending videos in a large video search engine index with an easy interface.

Dailymotion

http://www.dailymotion.com/gb

A popular choice for video searching, attracting 300 million users from around the world who watch 3.5 billion videos monthly.

Google videos

https://www.google.com/videohp?hl=en

Google's video search may be an alternative to Youtube, as they don't seem to provide the same results for each query, helping users find what they're looking for without leaving the search platform.

Metacafe

http://www.metacafe.com/

A large video database that specialises in short-form video entertainment.

Moving Image Archive

https://archive.org/details/movies

A large collection of free movies, films and videos.

Vevo

http://www.vevo.com/

Vevo is a music video search engine that hopes to help you find exactly what you're looking for and it numbers more than 12 billion monthly views. http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/vevo-acquires-showyou-subscriptions/

Yahoo

https://video.search.yahoo.com/

Yahoo's video search allows you to search for videos across the web, with its interface being familiar and functional.

Yandex

https://www.yandex.com/video/

Yandex is another video search engine that helps you find the video you're looking for by organising the most popular videos depending on their category.

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com

The most popular video search engine is probably your first choice when looking for any kind of video, and that's why it ranks as the second most visited site on the web. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/youtube.com

Radio Stations

Internet-Radio

https://www.internet-radio.com/

Internet-Radio offers more than 46,462 radio stations to discover the one that suits your music tastes.

PublicRadioFan.Com

http://www.publicradiofan.com/

A customizable web site that provides one-click access to public radio programming from around the world.

Radio-Locator

http://www.radio-locator.com/

A searchable database of over 15,000 radio station web pages and 10,000 audio streams.

Radio Tuna

http://radiotuna.com

Radio Tuna is considered the first real-time search engine for online radio and it profiles radio stations by the actual music they're playing, organising the best music from every genre.

Shoutcast

https://www.shoutcast.com/Search

Shoutcast is an online directory of radio stations with over 50,000 music, talk, sports and community radio stations from all over the world.

TuneIn

http://tunein.com/

Discover new radio stations in a database of more than 100,000 stations all over the world.

Sounds

http://www.findsounds.com/

Search for sound effects in a database that processes more than 2,000,000 sound searches for more than 300,000 users monthly.

Soundhound

http://www.soundhound.com/

Search, discover and play music directly through your phone.

Internet Archive

https://archive.org/details/audio

A large audio archive with almost 3 million results of sounds and audio to choose from.

Freesound Project

http://www.freesound.org/

A collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds.

Soungle

http://www.soungle.com/

Find any sound effect and use the filters to narrow down your results.

Free-Loops.com

http://free-loops.com/

Find all kinds of free loops and audio clips.

Podcasts

Marketing Podcasts

https://marketingpodcasts.com/

Discover podcasts that can help you become a better marketer.

Miro Guide

http://www.miroguide.com/audio/

Search for your favourite podcast in a functional search engine that also features many useful categories for further browsing.

Podcast Directory

http://www.podcastdirectory.com/

Search and download from more than 10 million podcast episodes.

PodBean.com

http://www.podbean.com/all

Find the podcast you're looking for, or browse the categories to discover new ones.

Podbay.fm

http://podbay.fm/

Search and browse from a large collection of podcasts, and find what you're looking for with quick results as you're typing.

And finally, check out our post: 14 search engine alternatives to Google.

Beginner's guide to server response codes

Each time you visit a web page, a bureaucratic exchange takes place between your computer's web browser and a distant web server.

Your web browser (called the “client”) begins the exchange by submitting a request to the web server for code, images, and other information.

The web server, always on the alert, returns a tiny message that says, “I received your request and here is what you can expect in the next few moments.”

This tiny message, including a server response code, is helpful to both the waiting client and human beings optimizing the experience.

Server response codes may appear to be errors at first glance; they're most obvious when what the user wants to happen, doesn't. On deeper inspection, these informational codes exist for every properly functioning online interaction. Server response codes, also called status codes, are feedback that your website is built correctly and web server functioning as intended.

Status Code Ranges

A status code's leading number indicates its general meaning, making the codes predictable even if you don't know the details. Every career SEO ought to know these by heart.

2xx – Successful

The general goal is to send the client to a web page with this response code range.

3xx – Redirection

These frequently misunderstood response codes help update the client's outdated request.

4xx – Client Error

The request went wrong and the error is by the client. The most frequent response in this range is a broken link-the client requests information not existing on the server.

5xx – Server Error

The request went wrong and the error is by the server. Fixing this generally requires developer intervention.

Typical Status Codes

A large number of status codes are reserved by consensus, so web professionals can share an understanding of standard responses. The codes below appear regularly when you're responsible for a website experience.

200 – OK

A 200 response from the server means, “Everything is great, and I'm sending the information you requested.”

This response code is generally ideal. Every first time a web page loads in your browser, this is the code received. To a search engine crawler, a 200 code says “I want you to keep this link as-is in your index.”

How could this response be an error? A few weeks ago I was looking to buy a shirt. A specific brand ranked well in search results and I immediately found pages of product links from their site that fit what I wanted. I clicked on the first product link and landed on the correct page, but there was no way to choose options or buy the shirt.

I went back to the search results and tried every link from that brand on the first page, with the same result.

With some research, I found that their web server showed a 200 response for every page that ever existed on their site. Because of this, old products were not removed from the search index and outranked buyable products in search results.

301 – Redirect Permanently

A permanent redirect acknowledges the client's request and says, “That information now resides somewhere else.”

Instead of loading the old information, the server begins an updated request-a 301 response leads to a 200 response from the new location.

If the client is a search engine, the requested location is replaced by the new location in a search index.

A 301 response is ideal for correcting visitors who come to the wrong version of your domain, like non-www redirecting to www. This code is also great when you update and move content within your site. The idea is to make sure visitors to the old content are redirected to the updated content instead.

This response code is an error when the old location is still relevant, should be indexed, and needs to retain indexing signals. It's also an error when the new location isn't relevant to the old location; misuse of redirects is a common spam indicator.

302 – Found/Temporary Redirect

Temporary redirects acknowledge the client's request and say, “I found the information you want, but it's somewhere different at the moment.”

The server begins a new request, resulting in a 200 response from the new location. If the client is a search engine, the originally requested location is retained in a search index.

Google's John Mueller has pointed out their algorithm does not penalize for 302 redirects, and the index will eventually treat a 302 as a 301 if it remains long enough. Likewise, a 301 response may be treated as a 302 by Google if there are enough signals to them that the old location is preferred.

This response code causes problems when a link should lead to a permanent new location (301) or a not found (404) response instead. Some developers erroneously chain 302 and 301 redirects together, increasing a page's load time with every redirect.

304 – Not Modified

The 304 status code redirects to a file previously cached by the client.

The server says, “I have your request, but the information you want hasn't changed since the last time you asked for it. Let's not waste time; get the file you downloaded last time.”

This response code involves a lot of logic between the client and server in order to communicate how long cached information will be accurate. It can also indicate when cached information should be updated with a fresh download.

This status code doesn't get nearly the attention its 3xx siblings do, but when you hear, “Please clear your cache to see the changes,” or have a talk about cache expiration headings, 304 is your code. Balancing caching with fresh content is an art complicated enough to warrant its own article.

403 – Forbidden

A 403 response is the server saying, “I understand your request but I won't give you the information.”

This response is given when the client doesn't have the access level the server requires. It's a correct response when an unauthorized client is attempting to access sensitive areas of a website. This status is usually sent to search engines who try to crawl administration pages of a website.

This status code is an error when you intend the client to access the information. This happens commonly with over-engineered robots.txt files, but can be the result of a misconfigured web server.

404 – Not Found

The server says, “I can't find that information, and it probably never existed.”

The most widely-recognized status code, a 404 serves the important function of informing the client that what it seeks does not exist.

Some people are so convinced the 404 is a complete error that they'll go to great lengths to prevent a server from using it at all. They may redirect clients instead, leading to loops of links where the searcher never finds what they want as they follow a path that doesn't end.

The 404 tells search engine crawlers that they've found a dead end and should look to another location-important when a crawler has limited resources to spend on a website.

The 404 response is not usually an error with the server, but the result of outdated or mistyped links leading to that location. If you see multiple 404 results from internal site links, fix the offending links immediately. If you see multiple 404 results from external links that can't be updated, consider a 410 response instead.

410 – Gone

This status code is the server's way of saying, “That information used to exist, but doesn't anymore.”

It tells search engine crawlers and other websites that the requested information was available only for a limited time, and they should remove their links to it.

Search engine crawlers will continue to test a 404 page in case it's appearing in error, but a 410 response is regarded as absolute. Because of the 410 status code's specific meaning, developers often choose to prevent mistakes by returning a 404 for all “not found” and “gone” instances.

503 – Service Unavailable

The 5xx range codes take more digging to fix, and function as actual server errors. The 503 status code is more common-used when the server is overloaded and unable to respond to requests. The overload could be the result of misconfiguration, or a sudden and extreme increase in website traffic.

5xx range codes like the 503 are always priority fixes; you can't optimize what clients can't access.

In Summary

Server response codes are an important aspect of understanding the information sharing process. Knowing each code's appropriate use is a necessary skill, even if it's not your role to configure the server itself. The idea is to communicate exactly what you intend, and the correct configuration depends on your goals.

Aimee Jarboe advises mid-market retailers at Virid, an ecommerce platform and services company. You can connect with Aimee on LinkedIn. 

Artificial intelligence the star of Google I/O

Google I/O was full of announcements about upcoming products and enhancements. The most notable, such as Google Assistant and Google Home, revolved around AI.

We're in a seminal moment, said Google chief executive (CEO) Sundar Pichai kicking off the company's annual I/O Conference in San Francisco.

Looking back at the past 17(?!) years, Pichai discussed Google's evolution to the live audience of 7,000. As technology gets more sophisticated, he sees artificial intelligence (AI) playing a huge role in the company's next 17 years.

“Leveraging our state-of-the-art capabilities in machine learning and AI, we truly want to take the next step in being more assistive to our user. Today, we are announcing the Google Assistant,” said Pichai, one of the only people in the world who's allowed to use the “L” word on Search Engine Watch. “We think of it as building each user their own individual Google.”

Right now, 20% of Google searches are queried by voice. Google Assistant is the next step in that, combining voice search with the rest of Google's AI capabilities. For example, if you were standing in front of that giant bean in Chicago, you could ask, “Who designed this?” without any mention of where you are; Google already knows.

What separates Google Assistant from other digital assistants is its various integrations, including Uber, Fandango and OpenTable. While Siri can tell you what time The Jungle Book is playing, you can't actually purchase tickets through her.

Another new product is Google Home, the search giant's answer to the Amazon Echo. Like Alexa, Google Home – which is customizable with different fabrics, materials and colors to match your home aesthetic – can play music and TV shows, and control various aspects of your connected home.

“What makes Google Home really shine is that it has search built in,” added Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management at Google. “It draws on 17 years of innovation to answer questions, which are difficult for other assistants to handle.”

Google Home is meant to be a more intelligent version of AI, able to answer both your generic (“How much fat is an avocado?”) and personal (“What time is my flight on Sunday?”) questions. That same level of personalization will be applied to Allo, a messaging app that will be available this summer.

Allo is a bit like the GIF-heavy Peach app (R.I.P.) with Google's AI built in. The suggested responses will be, rather than canned replies, based on what your past responses have been, to both text and images.

“The more you use Allo, the better the suggestions become. The suggestions will be unique to you,” said Erik Kay, Google's engineering director.

Other features include a built-in Google Assistant – which allows you to book a restaurant on OpenTable directly in the app while messaging, for instance – and Whisper and Shout, complementary features that amplify your reaction, making it larger or smaller.

Other highlights from the Google I/O keynote include:

• An upcoming video calling app, Duo, will includes a live stream of the person calling, allowing you to potentially gauge their mood. For instance, if my boss Graham was calling me with Duo, I'd be able to see if he looked really angry and ready to yell at me for using the word “leverage” earlier.


• More details of Android N were revealed. Among them are the introduction of the Vulkan graphics API to Google's mobile platform; a “Clear All” button to simultaneously dismiss all active apps; and split-screen and picture-in-picture modes for multitasking.


• Google is building a virtual reality (VR) platform, Daydream, on top of Android N. Unlike Cardboard, which works with any smartphone, Daydream will only work on new phones with specially-built sensors and screens. The platform will include VR versions of Google properties such as YouTube, StreetView, and Play Movies, in addition to Netflix and Electronic Arts.


• Android Wear, Google's smart watch, will be updated to include a tiny keyboard, the ability to show data from any application, and automatic activity activation. For example, if you start running, an icon will pop up asking if you want to play your workout playlist on Spotify.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How one small word makes a huge difference on Google SERPs

Recently we've had a lot of internal discussions about the importance of keywords and the various combinations, including match type.

This discussion revealed a few interesting nuances that I thought were worth sharing.

The focus will be how the search results page changes with just one additional change to the search query and what the implications of that word mean.

For this article I picked the keyword “best.” This is certainly worth looking into as much as a number of other terms like “near me,” “cheap,” or “men/women/kids,” however “best” also makes all the points I'd like to share.

How does the search results page change?

Let's start by searching for “HD TVs” and then adding the word “best.”

From a user intent perspective you would assume that this is still pretty high in the funnel. The customer isn't sure which TV or brand they are looking for. But by adding the word “best” to the query Google makes a few key changes to the search results;

• In-store only appears on the more generic “HD TV” search. Google makes an assumption that local inventory has a greater level of influence on this type of search.


• Ranking bubbles are included when the term “best” is included. Google is inferring that some type of ranking is desired by the consumer and uses ratings and reviews as the driver behind these rankings.


• Star ratings are included for all ads when “best” is included. Similar to the ranking bubbles Google is assuming that consumer feedback will be the most helpful in this situation.

What does the data say?

I also wanted to take a quick look at the data to see how these keywords performed. I pulled a search term report and filtered for keywords containing “best.”

What I found was pretty interesting. In all the metrics “best” keyword metrics were roughly 2X of the average across all keywords. This indicates two things:

1. Consumers are responding at a very high level to these keywords with high interest.


2. Due to this consumer reaction the cost for these queries is also much higher than the norm. This makes sense and is really the beauty of a free market economy.

What does it mean?

The keys to consider here are less about the inclusion of the keyword and more about how you support a robust search listing and how you use the data:

1) Robust listings

It is important not only that your product listing ads are included, but also that your local inventory and ratings are robust.

You can see that between these two queries not only are those 3 factors different in the results, but there is not a single repeat product shown between the two, although the same brands appear. This means that having multiple options and a deep product set available for Google to rank is key to getting displayed for these impressions.

2) Data use

Just because a keyword has a high CTR or CPC, it doesn't mean that it is valuable or not unless those are your key performance metrics.

Even the lower conversion % for keywords containing best doesn't mean that they are bad. You have to look at attribution, or their additive incremental impact your campaigns. Understand what metrics move your business and look at the problem through multiple lenses.

For example, does this keyword introduce you to new customers and therefore a higher CPC and lower conversion rate is worth the traffic? Only you know that answer for your business, but there is plenty of data to help make that decision.

How to write meta title tags for SEO (with good and bad examples)

What is a title tag? How do you write one? Why are title tags important? Do they actually help with search engine optimisation? Can I see some good and bad examples?

Following on from our blockbusting guide 22 SEO essentials for optimising your site, I thought I'd follow up the advice on title tags and answer all of the above questions.

If you just want a quick guide to optimising title tags, click here to jump to the checklist section.

For the rest of you, first lets talk about meta tags in general:

What are meta tags

As Kristine Schachinger described in our previous guide to tags back in 2012, meta tags are HTML elements that provide information about a web page for search engines and website visitors.

These elements must be placed as tags in the section of a HTML document. These elements are:

• Title tag


• Meta description

We'll discuss meta descriptions in a separate post, but for now let's discuss title tags, the most important meta tags on your site.

What is a title tag?

Title tags are used to tell search engines and visitors what any given page on your site is about in the most concise and accurate way possible.

This title will then appear in various places around the web, including the tab in your web browser:

The title will also likely be pulled in as the anchor text when sharing on other websites and social media channels.

And most importantly of all, your title tag will show up as the big blue link in search engine results:

Where do I add the title tag?

You can add a title tag in the  section in your site's HTML. It should look something like this:

However in most content management systems (CMS), including WordPress, you can either add a title tag in general settings:

Or if you use an SEO plug-in, such as Yoast, you can add a title tag to the 'SEO title' section, and you can preview an example of how it will look in search engine results pages (SERPs):

When writing an article, the section where you write a headline will automatically form the title tag.

If your title tag is automatically generated from the headline, you should try to override this by using either a plug-in (like the one mentioned above) or in the HTML itself. The headline (also known as the

tag) is another opportunity to tell Google about the content of your page using a slightly different keyword string, so you may as well take advantage of this.

Why are title tags important?

The title tag is the boldest, most obvious element in a search result and therefore a major part in the decision making process of whether a searcher will click on your result or not.

Are title tags used as a ranking signal?

According to Moz, title tags have “long been considered one of the most important on-page SEO elements.” And the closer to the start of the title tag any given keyword is, the more likely it will be to rank for that keyword based query.

How to write a great title tag

From an SEO point of view, the title tag should contain all the keywords you wish to rank for. And as I just stated above, the most important keyword should be at the beginning, followed by second most important, then finally your brand name.

Moz provides this handy reference:

Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

However one thing you must remember: write title tags for humans.

Although they should be formatted to some degree for search engines, it's vital that the tag makes perfect sense to humans and reads like a legible sentence.

Title tag checklist

Kristine Schachinger wrote a perfect checklist on how to write optimised title tags in her original post, so I'm copying it for you here, with a few minor updates:

• Length: Title tags should be 50-60 characters long, including spaces.


• Keyword placement: Your most important keywords need to be first in your title tag, with your least important words coming last.


• Brand name: If your company name is not part of the important keyword phrases, put it at the end of the title tag.


• Do not duplicate title tags: They must be written differently for every page. Don't mass replicate your title tags it will negatively affect your search visibility.


• Make it relevant: Title tags must accurately describe the content on the page.


• Do not 'keyword stuff' title tags: these are badly written title tags that try to rank for everything or repeat a word over and over. Keyword stuffing is the worst offense when it comes to title tags and you will be penalised for it.


• Make your headline (

  tag) different from the title tag: This is another opportunity to vary the keyword phrasing of your page and increase its chances of appearing for different search intent.

Can Google override your title tag?

Occasionally yes. Sometimes if Google doesn't like your title tag it will rewrite it for its search engine results, pulling in information from your meta description and page content. Chances are this won't be as good as the one you've created, so you must ensure that your own title tag is completely relevant, descriptive, keyword rich but readable and the right length.

Good examples of title tags

Here are a few examples that stick to the above rules in our checklist and therefore look more appealing on the SERP.

'best burgers in london'

Esquire has all three keywords right at the beginning of the title tag, then follows this with a seductively appealing headline (everyone loves a list) and cleverly uses 'buns' in order to avoid repetition and keep the character limit to around 60.

'nike trainers'

Keywords are at the front, the brand name is at the end and Schuh has separated its keyword phrases with pipes | These used to be a necessity when writing title tags as the recommendation was to stay away from other punctuation. Although this is no longer true, pipes still look great on the page and are a clear separator.

'radiohead moon shaped pool review'

Pitchfork has stayed away from a mistake that mine and other review websites make in putting 'review' at the start. Searchers do not start their search queries with 'review', they start with the artist.

Bad examples of title tags

And finally, using the same search terms as above, here are some bad examples of title tags:

'best burgers in london'

This is buried far down on page four of the Google SERP. It's easy to see why. The brand name and most important keywords are the opposite of where they should be. The headline itself also lacks any description or anything vaguely persuasive to make me want to click.

'nike trainers'

The keyword is nowhere to be seen. In fact it's probably at the end of the title tag, but because it's so long it has been cut out by Google. Also note the wilfully inconsistent capitalisation, which makes the link look really spammy.

'radiohead moon shaped pool review'

Although Mashable should be applauded for trying a different headline approach, the stop words at the beginning of the title tag push the important keywords into the middle and this result languishes on page 4 of Google. The headline's great, but the title tag is identical, so perhaps all the wording of the title tag needs is a slight reordering.

Network Marketing Scams http://www.getmorepartners.com

Network Marketing Scams http://www.getmorepartners.com

via https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtEc-WTq7uPoVuEFP1FEY-Q

Six most interesting search marketing news stories of the week

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond.

This week we have major updates from Periscope and interesting stats from Bing. Oh yeah and tonnes of new stuff from Google, because you know, it's a weekday ending in 'y'.

A quarter of all searches on Bing are voice searches

As reported by MediaPost, Bing has announced that 25% of searches on the Windows 10 taskbar using Bing are voice queries.

Also according to Rob Wilks, VP North America Search Sales at Microsoft Search Advertising, voice searches have become longer. “Text searches are between one to three words, compared with voice searches that have grown to between six and 10 words”

It won't be long before the tone of your voice will be as important as the keywords you use…

“Search is bigger than keywords… Understanding the keywords is only a stepping stone. It's no longer about the traffic it drives, but how marketers interpret the interaction through data.”

Until all those kids from Southern California confuse the algorithms with their rampant use of upwards inflection.

Periscopes are now permanent and searchable

Periscope was once the perfect allegory of our time on Earth: transient and fleeting. Now with the introduction of a few new features, Periscope is now the perfect allegory for how we want every piece of information in the world accessible immediately and 24 hours a day despite the utter pointlessness of existence. Sorry, I've been listening to the new Radiohead album a lot this week.

You will now be able to search for broadcasts by title or topic, including #Travel, #Music, #Food and you'll also be able to broadcast on these specific topic names too.

Periscope has also launched the ability to keep your broadcasts available beyond 24 hours. This is now the default for all Periscopes, but this can be changed in your settings and you can always delete your broadcasts at any time.

And finally Persicope has also added a new feature giving you the ability to broadcast directly from a drone. A concept as hilarious as it is terrifying.

Google News has launched a 'Local Source' Tag to give local news sources a boost

According to a 2015 Pew Research study, “nearly nine out of 10 residents follow local news closely and about half do so very closely” and with more than 75,000 news sources being local, Google has introduced a Local section in Google News.

According to its blog-post, this new section will “surface content from regional papers to hyper-local blogs that otherwise wouldn't appear in national news.”

And to ensure that local stories remain in the news cycle and are properly credited with their initial 'legwork' once a story has gone national, a new 'Local Source' tag is available across all Google News editions.

Unfortunately these tags can't be manually added, instead they're automatically added by Google. It does this by “looking at where a publisher has written about in the past and comparing that to the story location.”

Google bans pay-day loan companies from AdWords

Google has updated its AdWords policy on lending products and taken an ethical stand against those who offer quick loans with astronomically high APRs, by effectively banning them from paid search.

As of July 13th 2016, Google will no longer run ads for loans where repayment is due within 60 days of the date of issue. In the US Google is also banning ads for loans with an APR of 36% or higher.

According to AdGooroo, this will mean Google forfeiting $34.5 million in advertising revenue as a result of its new ban.

• 4,211 advertisers sponsored 726 payday loan keywords on US Google desktop search last year, at an average cost per click of $5.32.


• As the top advertiser on the 726 payday loan keywords, MoneyMutual spent nearly $2.7 million with Google on that keyword group alone in 2015.

Google has officially strengthened its mobile-friendly ranking signal

According to John Mueller, the mobile ranking signals that Google said it would more strictly enforce, have now officially been rolled out.

FYI The mobile changes mentioned here are now fully rolled out. https://t.co/fTB3ia6LJ2

- John Mueller (@JohnMu) May 12, 2016

This follows criticism that the initial 'mobilegeddon' update was nothing more than a minor blip, but perhaps also revealed a generously patient side of Google, being as it gave webmasters more than a solid couple of years to sort their crappy non-responsive sites out. SHEESH!

Is Google extending titles and descriptions in search results?

As spotted by Ross Hudgens last week, Google has been testing 69-70 character lengths for its titles, as opposed to the standard 50-60.

Long title tags being tested again in the SERPs. Seeing 69 and 70 character results today. pic.twitter.com/esiKTctV96

- Ross Hudgens (@RossHudgens) May 6, 2016

And as SEM Post points out, this is an increase of 10-15 characters and “can go up to at least 71 characters, depending on the letters used, since l and i are small characters.”

SEM Post also reveals that descriptions have also increased by about 16-20 characters per line to 100 characters.

However Google is still truncating the descriptions for many search results: “This means that the overall description is only displaying 150-160 characters total right now, for a usual 2 line snippet.”

Will this be the future of search pages? Who knows. Who cares! I'm still dealing with the fact I flew a drone into my mom's garage and it's gonna take me months working overtime at Jimmy's Pizza to pay for the damage.

Everything you always wanted to know about programmatic but were too afraid to ask

One of the biggest challenges to programmatic adoption is that people are afraid of it.

To counter this, marketers should keep the language and definitions simple. This was a key takeaway from a panel of experts discussing programmatic at a recent ClickZ Live digital marketing conference.

“In programmatic we have a tendency to use a lot of jargon, which creates a lot of fear, even within the industry,” said Aswin Regawa, managing director, platforms, OmnicomMediaGroup.

What is programmatic?

Matt Harty, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, The Trade Desk, kicked off the discussion by asking the panel to put forward their elevator pitch when defining programmatic.

“It's 'programmable advertising'… You want to target a set audience and until that audience is engaged, you don't buy the ad placement,” Harty said.

Melvin Goo, general manager, OMD Indonesia added that the essence of programmatic is in its automated ability to buy not sites, but the audience. “It's about buying the audience when [the ad] is most relevant to them,” Goo said.

The LUMAscape

An important, but complex map of images all marketers should have at their fingertips, is the LUMAscape.

There are different versions of the LUMAscape, here's one for display:

The LUMAscape is a document (of company logos) showing all the different partners that make up the programmatic ad-buying journey. On one side are the advertisers and on the other are the publishers. In between are all the different businesses that support programmatic buying.

These include the agencies; agency holding companies; agency trading desks; demand side platforms (DSPs); and supporting technologies such as brand safety and viewability. On the supply side are the platforms working closely with the publishers.

It raises an important question. How do marketers navigate the crowded adtech landscape?

“How do you turn this crowded page of logos into partners to work with?” asked Harty.

Each logo has to be relevant to the final business objective, said Regawa.

“You have a lot of people who will collaborate with you, but if the essence of it has no meaning to the end goal – which is reaching consumers and delivering on whatever KPIs have been set – what is the relevance?” Regawa added.

What is the agency's role, and can they do a better job?

The perception of programmatic isn't always a positive one. The panel agreed that for marketers, programmatic is a beautiful thing, but for consumers, it can be annoying.

“When I tell people what I do, they say: Oh, you're that guy that follows me around the whole Internet, and if I go to the bathroom, you follow me in there and serve me up a travel ad,” said Harty. This prompted him to ask the panel: “Can we do a better job? Can we be more subtle?”

Goo said programmatic was still in its infancy, as was the digital industry as a whole. Agencies, marketers and partners should manage retargeting with frequency tapping. “As an industry we have to get it right,” said Goo.

The rise in ad blocking means advertisers need to be even smarter about how they serve ads. “It's about ensuring high relevancy for the consumer. I want to see what I want to see, and if you can project that, I will absorb that,” said Regawa.

How to use programmatic to target the user with relevancy

Goo said all parties were guilty of not being up to speed on programmatic. The technology is not only cost effective, but gives marketers enormous amounts of data to learn about their consumers.

“Programmatic is really important for speaking to your audience and to continually learn and retarget a lot of people to get better ROI,” said Goo.

Measurement and ROI

Current limitations to programmatic technology mean measurement is still largely action based around cost per mile (CPM), cost per click (CPC) or cost per impression (CPI) models.

The panel agreed that a fundamental shift needed to take place around media measurement.

“We need to stop worrying about the science and worry more about the real people and the real targets we are going after,” said Harty.

He suggested that might involve dropping click through rates (CTR) as a metric completely.

Goo agreed that CTR was not a good benchmark for measurement, and opened up advertisers to robots and fraud.

“What really matters to businesses is sales and growth. What if we start moving into the metric of 'cost per valuable impression' or 'cost per growth' or 'cost per market share',” asked Goo.

First party data and lookalike modeling

Educating clients on the value of sharing first party data (the information a brand or business has collected about their audience) beyond its use for retargeting, was highlighted as a key objective for marketers. Rather than using first party data to intrude and blast existing customers with more ads, marketers can use it to tighten and reduce the amount of media going out.

It can also be used for lookalike modelling. By profiling existing consumers and then cross-matching with the same, gives advertisers a stronger reach to engage new, potential customers or clients.

“We only want to see your data so we can see who has the highest probability to come and convert and become your next customer,” said Harty.

Conclusion

Awareness is playing an integral role to programmatic adoption.

“The whole point of programmatic is it is action based, or it leads the person to a particular action, and once brands get that initial bit of understanding, then they are more keen, and then the actions speak for themselves,” said Goo.

Harty added that programmatic was new to everyone. “How do we communicate or show them that it is just a change in work flow, it's not a change in anything fundamental. We've just finally got the tools now to advertise properly for the first time ever,” he said.

Programmatic is a great tool but can only grow if everyone is confident enough to actually use it, said Regawa.

He said that while investments in programmatic globally were rising, local [Indonesian] adoption was slow.

“That's because not everyone understands the platform or functionality or what impact it will have on the business. In the ad world, it's cool. But from my side at least, it's a constant education of what the tool can do in a very simple marketing purpose, instead of programmatic jargon.”