A new study of search engine activity shows that Google could be facing a dim future. The research showed that even though Google tops the search popularity stakes, well ahead of Yahoo or Microsoft, fewer people actually click on the results.

For Google, less than two thirds of people click on the results for a search term. However, for Yahoo 75% of people click on one or more of the search results provided. What this clearly shows is that the quality of the results provided by Google is less well targeted at people's actual requirements than Yahoo. And that spells potential disaster for Google.

Ten years ago, Yahoo dominated the search sector. However, it was a human edited directory and couldn't keep pace with the rapidly expanding world wide web. A year later, along came Google with its automated system that meant it was able to index everything, providing people with more search options.

Internet users switched to Google because they were more likely to find what they were looking for. This was the motivating reason for people to change their behaviour and move away from Yahoo.

Now though, this new research shows clearly that people are more likely to find what they are looking for at Yahoo, rather than Google. This signals a potential tipping point for Google. Their experts, such as Matt Cutts, argue that it is rather complex and that the descriptions provided by Yahoo are less informative, so people need to click more often to find out if the result is what they want.

This is another signal for the beginning of the end for Google. It reflects the kind of institutional arrogance that accompanies huge success. Google is focusing on the data, not the people. If people needed to click to see if the search results are appropriate they could well discover the pages are not what they wanted. This would lead - as it did in the early days of Google - for people to use Yahoo less.

But, Yahoo is gaining ground. After a period in the doldrums for much of this year, people are switching to Yahoo in much larger numbers; it is gaining market share from Google. Equally, Yahoo is closing the gap on Google in terms of customer service measures.

These are all indications of the fact that the human response to Yahoo is positive. This would not be the case if it were, as Google argues, a statistical quirk. They suggest that more people click through on Yahoo results because of poorer snippet descriptions. If that were the case the human response would be less successful for Yahoo since some of the results would inevitably be wrong.

Google started out in life and achieved huge success because it focused on what people wanted - better search. Now it seems it is focusing less on the human requirements and more on itself. That spells the end for any business. Yahoo appears to be turning itself around and focusing on what we, the human reader, wants from search. As ever, focusing on what people want is the most successful business strategy.

This is not the first article I've written that has said "Bye bye Google"; perhaps our love affair with this company is beginning to fade - we are having our "seven year itch" with it. Besides which, one day search engines won't exist - we will have other more intelligent ways of finding what we want.

Labels: future

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At September 30, 2007 9:57 AM  Mark Lee said…

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Today marks a special date in the calendar - it is the first significant spending day for Christmas. Most people get paid at the end of each month, so the last Saturday of every month is when most retailers can expect their highest footfall - numbers of people entering their shops.

However, since this is now the end of September there are now only two remaining "bumper" Saturdays before Christmas - 27th October and 1st December. Online retailers show a similar pattern in sales. You can expect your highest online sales in an e-commerce shop to be towards the end of each month, shortly after people have been paid.

If you want to cash in on the Christmas spending rush you need to ensure that your site is ready for action for the end of October panic. If your site isn't geared up for Christmas, or you haven't even thought of what you might do - you have some time. But remember you will do best if you time your promotions so they reach people at the end of October and November - that's when people will have most money in their bank account having just been paid.

And just because you are an online retailer doesn't mean you can't have special Christmas presents and promotions. If you sell information products or a membership site, why not package things up and offer them as "gift certificates". Every year people buy hot air balloon rides as a Christmas present; all the recipient gets is a voucher for spending with a hot air balloon company. If you have a membership site, package up an annual membership as a voucher people can wrap up, or if you sell ebooks create a collection of them as a gift package. People are often looking for something unusual at Christmas, so if you are creative you will do well - but remember you only have a few weeks "window" in which to get this all done. Your deadline is the third week of October to be sure of hitting the first wave of Christmas spending.

Labels: shopping

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Joining in social networks, such as Facebook, are all the rage at the moment. If you're not in a social network, you're no-one. However, when people join, say Facebook and then Ecademy, they tend to mix with the same people. Your collection of "friends" on Facebook is likely to be remarkably similar to your "contacts" on Ecademy or your connections on LinkedIn.

At first sight, the fact that you are widely connected in this way may seem a good thing. But research from the University of California hints that this might not be such a good idea after all. It seems that when we are in a group to help us achieve things, by creative thought for instance, we think we are doing well if we are familiar with the group members. If, however, we enter into new, unfamiliar groups, it actually increases our creative behaviours.

So, take advantage of online social networks, but stop mixing with your friends; going out to join in unfamiliar groups and clubs online is more likely to boost your creative processes and so help your business.

Labels: social networking

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At September 29, 2007 11:47 AM  Jeremy Jacobs said…

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New research at Stanford University suggests that a decision to buy something from your web site is based on two competing brain activities. The study tested the brain activity in people making decisions to buy things like a DVD, chocolates or a book. At several points their brains were scanned to see which parts of the brain were involved in the decision to buy or not to buy.

When looking at the products (without any pricing information) the participants in the study were clearly focusing on "reward". Their brains were actively involved in seeking out the personal benefits to them for buying the product. However, when the price was revealed, their brains switched focus and was concentrating in "pain".

This implies that our brains are trying to balance the pleasure we get from buying something we want with the pain of having to part with our money. If the pain outweighs the pleasure we are unlikely to buy.

However, the study authors suggested that their research shows why people overspend on credit cards. The fact that the pain of paying is delayed means that the pleasure of buying outweighs the negative potential of the purchase.

For Internet retailers this is an important finding. It means that you need to find several ways of delaying payment in order to make purchasing decisions more likely. Accepting credit cards will obviously help, but so will "buy now, pay later" schemes, or "pay in instalment" systems.

The more your sales material emphasises the pleasure people get from what you are selling and the less it deals with the pain of buying, the better. This research goes against traditional advice from marketers who suggest that people buy because they wish to reduce pain in their life - for instance the "pain" of not having enough customers means they'll be more likely to buy your book on getting new clients to reduce that pain. However, this research shows that this is less likely to work than concentrating on the pleasure the potential purchaser will gain from meeting new customers. The more you can trigger the pleasure areas of the brain, the more likely it is that people will buy from you, especially if you can reduce the painful impact of paying.

Labels: internet psychology

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Paul and Barry Chuckle have been keeping the UK's children (and many of their parents) entertained for exactly 20 years on British TV. Today is The Chuckle Brothers anniversary. They are a phenomenon in children's entertainment in Britain. Not only have they celebrated 20 years, but their TV show "Chucklevision" is the longest running children's TV series. Anyone who is aged under 30 or who has children under that age will have seen the Chuckle Brothers at some stage.

Their popularity provides some clear lessons for anyone in business, especially Internet marketers. Paul and Barry Chuckle are from a showbiz family and have the entertainment ethos of "the show must go on". In other words, they will do everything possible for their audience. Earlier this year, for instance, Paul was injured in a motorbike accident. However, in spite of some nasty facial injuries, the live tour they were in the middle of, went ahead unaltered. Paul was committed to his audience.

Similarly, one look at their schedule and you'll see that they are either appearing in some theatre or busy filming. Much of the year you'll be able to catch a live performance of the Chuckle Brothers somewhere in Britain. Other children's entertainers do their TV shows and then seem to become almost reclusive - perhaps busy at home counting their earnings, who knows. But few children's entertainers are out there amongst their audience for the bulk of the year. The Chuckle Brothers are - and they are highly successful. A link perhaps? Keep in constant contact with your audience and they will stick with you too.

So what does the unprecedented success of the Chuckle Brothers tell us about Internet marketing? It shows us that if you find every opportunity to connect with your audience, no matter what, you will gain their attention and their interest. Also, if you focus relentlessly on your audience, you will succeed. And one other thing - the Chuckle Brothers attitude of "the show must go on" is worth repeating online. How many online businesses write their blogs every day - because their audience expects it? Almost none. If a business owner gets a bad day, is busy or otherwise can't be motivated to write, they leave it for a while. Their online audience is not committed to that blog or web site, because without a "show must go on attitude" that web site owner has shown clearly they are not committed to their audience. Show commitment to your online audience and they will reward you with sticking to you.

Happy anniversary Paul and Barry - thanks for teaching business some important lessons.

Labels: internet marketing

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At September 27, 2007 2:49 PM  Chantal said…

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Marketing people in businesses still don't understand blogging, it seems. And if these people don't understand it, what hope is there for the rest of a company which is not so marketing oriented.

New data suggests that while 85% of marketing staff agree that the web helps a company hit sales targets, only 5% of these people are actually blogging. In other words marketing people agree with the theory that the Internet is valuable to their business, but appear to be doing little practical to back up their theoretical view.

A while ago I was speaking at a business meeting and I asked the audience if they had done any blogging. Only one person in the audience admitted they had been blogging. However, the hapless businessman said, "I tried blogging once but it didn't work". That's a bit like moving into a new town, taking a small classified advert out in the local newspaper and expecting hordes of people to come rushing to your door.

But the problem with blogging for most people is the name, the very word blogging. It implies you need technical skills, that you ought to understand some aspects of computer programming and that you should be a bit "geeky". I was at a business meeting yesterday where a chap came up to me during the breaks and said he couldn't take up blogging as he wasn't very technically minded. I asked if he could fill in an online form, he said "yes", so I told him if he could do that he could write a blog.

But the word blogging had made him think it was complex. So how can we get business people to benefit from blogging? Call it something else - article writing, content production, whatever. Once business people realise that blogging is simply typing they may find it more attractive. All the time blogging has a sense of technological mystery around it, few companies will actively take it up.

Labels: blogging

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Online business owners are consumed by getting traffic to their web site. The phrase "web site traffic" generates over 1.5m results in Google, for instance. Plus there are endless streams of newsletters and blogs that tell you how to increase your traffic. All fantastic, but all useless.

Web site traffic is not the answer to increasing your online business. Let's imagine you have a High Street store. You get thousands of people passing your store every day and you follow all the advice to get people inside your shop. Retail analysts call this "footfall" - the number of people who walk into your shop. You could get them to walk inside with all sorts of devices - an attractive window display, notices offering a "sale", someone outside handing out discount leaflets and so on.

Online people try similar tricks to generate traffic. They promote their web site like crazy in order to get more people to visit. But many High Street retailers complain that they have increased footfall, but sales hardly rose. Equally, web site owners often report increased traffic, but that there was no impact on their business.

In both cases - concentrating on footfall or traffic - business owners are concentrating on the wrong thing. Getting visitors to your web site is not the problem - getting the "right" visitors to your online business is the problem. After all, if you only had one visitor who came to your web site but spent a million dollars that would be better than a million visitors who spent nothing. In other words, don't focus on getting raw numbers to your web site. Instead concentrate your efforts on getting the right people to visit - those who want to buy what you sell.

Far too many online business owners are impressed by the ego massaging statistics that web site traffic provides. "Wow, ten thousand hits yesterday..whoopee" and so on. What is more impressive is profit, not traffic. Gaining profit means selling the right things to the right people at the right price. In other words your online business success depends upon traditional business values - not web site traffic.

Labels: internet, internet marketing

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Imagine the scene - you are asked to a dinner party by an important client. You want to do well so you and your partner dress to impress. You both arrive at their home to discover your hosts are wearing the same clothes as you. Help!

Consider too the fact that you might visit a client or important contact three or four times over a couple of months. What if you wore the same jacket or shirt each time? Your client might think you only have one set of good clothes.

Luckily researchers in Australia have come up with an electronic wardrobe that will avoid such difficulties. Essentially, the wardrobe will be connected with your diary so that you avoid wearing the same clothes in succession to visit the same people. It could also ensure you don't wear the same clothes as your host by checking online with their wardrobe first to find out what they will be wearing.

It may all sound far fetched but the technology to enable this is already with us. Clothes just need RFID chips in them, your wardrobe then needs a detector to monitor them. Just link that to a PC on yoru wardrobe door, give it an Internet connection and the rest is just down to a couple of bits of software.

What this electronic wardrobe idea tells us is the fact that some seemingly far fetched ideas are feasible now. Who'd have thought that the social problems that may be down to the clothes we wear could be solved by a microchip in your wardrobe? But it will extend beyond that. Imagine you are off to a wedding - it's in your diary but you don't know what to wear. Well your wardrobe can check the colour scheme of the wedding via the bride's planning web site. Then your Internet connected wardrobe will search the online shops and come up with the cheapest items that are in your size and are in stock. It will also mix and match to your existing clothes, ensuring your outfit looks good with the lowest possible expense. This combination of wardrobe and online shopping is perfectly possible right now.

The way we all live is destined for change - and quickly. Don't let your views of the Internet and its capabilities be restricted. If you do and you run an online business you will be left behind. Imagine the fashion stores that don't implement connections with online wardrobes; their sales will plummet. If something happens in your industry that seems rather far fetched, it's actually probably a good idea to start planning how you would use it. After all, new Internet based technologies have always arrived faster than we ever thought possible.

Labels: future

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Sir Richard Branson knows a thing or two about business. Whether you like him or not, you can't deny that overall his business activities have been rather successful. So this week we hear that he has sold his Virgin Megastores chain in a management buyout that involves taking the Virgin brand name off the High Street.

Perhaps his savvy way of doing business is one step ahead of the game. After all, bricks and mortar record stores are under increasing threat from online stores offering downloads of MP3s. Has Sir Richard got out while the going is good? It is interesting that the Virgin record business started as a mail order operation and now the modern equivalent of mail order - online shopping - is affecting the entire entertainment industry.

Luckily, it seems, for many former High Street retailers, the Internet is coming to the rescue. Indeed, Internet retailers are sure that the coming year will be an even greater success. However, the shop owners are concerned that shoppers are becoming more aware of price comparison sites and social networking sites which help them decide on what to buy. However, look at their response to the situation.

Online retailers are going to focus on - you guessed it - design. Help! A few years ago, Marks & Spencer was in trouble. It's sales were falling, its shares were tumbling and it was threatened by a takeover bid. The response? Redesign of the stores. Millions of pounds were spent and guess what - it had almost no impact. Shoppers were not staying away because they didn't like the store layout or the visual impact of the shops. No, they stayed away because Marks & Spencer wasn't selling what they wanted.

It's the same online. Internet shoppers are only marginally influenced by the design and layout of your online store. Concentrating on design as a response to the "threat" of comparison sites and social networking discussions is the wrong thing to do. Instead, Internet retailers should be focusing on their customers and what they want to buy and why they want to purchase those things.

Happily, if big companies think that online retail will be rescued by redesign, it leaves the door wide open for independent Internet marketers to focus on customers and make money from them.

Labels: shopping

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Accountants, lawyers and bankers often turn up at business networking events, such as those run by a Chamber of Commerce. They grab a drink, pick up a leaflet or two from the exhibition stand and then pretend to read it. Self-consciously they meander around the room until someone more extrovert says "Hello". Within seconds, the hapless professional hands out a business card and launches into a mini speech on their business.

Sure, I'm being unfair to these professional service people, but you get the picture. Far too many people think that business networking is about turning up, handing out your business cards and then going home. It doesn't work; no relationship was ever created by handing out business cards - and most business is built on relationships.

The NRG Business Networks organisation does things differently. It arranges lunches in order to help people develop real relationships with fellow business people. At today's lunch in Reading one of the members was chatting over lunch about a friend of his who had just received significant orders for a new product - billions of pounds worth in fact. But where had those orders come from? From a friend in another business who could sell those products worldwide. It was the relationship that led to the sales, not the product itself.

Few people in business spend enough time developing these relationships. It is even worse online in busy social networking sites. The vast majority of people in social networking sites, like Facebook or Ecademy are "lurkers". They join and do nothing. They are the same as the accountants and lawyers at Chamber of Commerce meetings who hang around, not talking to anyone, hoping that someone will talk to them. That's not a strategy - and neither is lurking on social networking sites.

Instead, to build relationships you need to work at it. That means using social networking sites - not just hanging around in them. It also means being yourself. Interestingly, one in three people on social networking sites are pretending. That's a but like turning up at an NRG Business Networks lunch and handing out false business cards and not really saying anything about yourself at all. It would be unlikely to lead to any business.

So, here's what to do to ensure that social networking sites help your business. Firstly, treat it as a long term investment - don't try for quick results. Secondly, be yourself - don't invent any kind of online persona. Thirdly, take part - just set aside 10 to 30 minutes each day to contribute to the discussions going on in your social networking sites.

In traditional business networking, being yourself and chatting to people are the two single most important things that happen which build relationships. It is no different online. Your business success from social networking sites will not come from any of the gadgets or the advertse. Instead, it will come simply from chatting to people.

Labels: social networking

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The Internet really has got people hooked. According to one report on a survey of Americans, one in five of them is giving up sex in order to spend more time online. Indeed, several people feel that if they can't go online, there is something missing in their life, the study suggested.

However, the research is not necessarily all that it seems. What people say they do and what they actually do are often different things. You will find it hard to find anyone who admits to buying The Sun newspaper - but it sells three million copies a day...! Similarly, ask a group of people what soap operas they watch. Few will admit to watching any, yet the viewing figures tell another story.

So it is with this research. People say they are giving up sex to spend more time online, but it may just feel like that to them, rather than actually being the case. What this tells us as online businesses is not to take surveys and studies like this at face value.

Instead, use data, real numbers that show exactly what people are actually doing. You can do this on your web site easily - and free of charge - using Google Analytics.

Labels: internet psychology

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Internet marketers need to be wordsmiths; yet the vast majority of them appear to be focused on products and sales and technology. However, people engage online with the words they read. Even video content is driven by words in links, the words we use to recommend a video to our friends, or the words we read in a newspaper that points us towards the video. Words are fundamental to our web sites.

Yet, it's the one area that gets little attention from online marketers. I was struck by the importance of words in an advertising campaign by Vibrant Media. Their own adverts read "every word across the Internet is an opportunity to engage". And so it is.

Indeed, an article on the Duct Tape Marketing blog made the very point that focusing on the words your readers and customers use is very important. However, ask businesses what they focus on in terms of web site building....it's the design.

Web site design is not the "be all and end all" of Internet marketing - in fact it is not that important at all. Take a look at this site for The Super Affiliate Handbook. It's not going to win design awards, is it? OK, it's neat and tidy, but a designer might go "urrghhh" or some such noise. Now have a look at this site, Autoincome Secrets. Again, design is not its strong point.

However, both of these sites are bringing in significant sums of money for their owners. There are, however, some brilliantly designed web sites that don't bring in any cash at all. What's the difference? These two sites focus on the words - and it is the words that are more important to the readers. Remember that word too - your web site is for people who "read" not people who "look".

Focusing on design is looking in the wrong direction. It is the words on your web site that count the most. That means your investment in your online business needs mostly to be spent on the words, not the design.

Labels: internet marketing

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At September 29, 2007 7:41 AM  Prince said…

At October 31, 2007 10:32 AM  GoldSmith said…

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Customers at the Northern Rock bank are in a state of panic, that's clear. So much so that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alastair Darling, has guaranteed the money for all customers of the troubled bank. However, what's interesting is what has been happening online.

In the past 24 hours, according to Google's Blog Search, there have been 507 blog posts about Northern Rock. Not one of them, it appears, by Northern Rock itself. What this means is that all the "noise" online is being created by people outside the bank. All the information about Northern Rock and all the publicity is being generated by customers and other interested parties. Yet the bank's blogging response has been zilch.

Even the Wikpedia article on Northern Rock is up to date with information on the current crisis. But what has Northern Rock's online response been? A message from the Chief Executive on the front page of the web site and a PDF you can download with more information. This is nowhere near enough.

Part of the panic in the High Street will be due to the fact that people are reading blogs online suggesting they should take their money out. Yet what is Northern Rock's response - almost online silence. And then they wonder why there are so many negative responses to their situation.

If your company or business wants to ensure the balance of information carried about it online is in your favour then the only way is to out-number the blogs. So, there are 507 blogs about Northern Rock in the past 24 hours, that means they needed to write 508. Sounds difficult? Not really.

This is only a blogging rate of 21 per hour. With existing PR staff and freelance support that would be easy to organise. In most situations, though, businesses won't have to face such large blogging demands. There may be a handful of blogs criticising your products and services. All you have to do is ensure your business contributes more blog posts.

The result of doing this is the fact that when people search for blogs on your company they will find the balance is in your favour, thus affecting their opinions and views. Looking at blogs on Northern Rock, you can only think one thing - they are in deep doo-doo and they got it wrong. It could have been all so different if they had been blogging like crazy.

Labels: blogging

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Criminals are gaining big bucks online, according to a new report from Symantec, the computer security firm. However, the publication of this study is an interesting look at how a big business uses the Internet - and clearly fails to understand how people behave online.

The report is to be published "on Monday" according to various news stories. The first of those stories appears to have been released by the Associated Press at just after Midnight US Eastern Time and started appearing in various news and magazine web sites shortly afterwards, such as Forbes Magazine. The story appeared quickly afterwards in the Brisbane Times, across the other side of the planet and well into Monday afternoon.

Yet, go across to the news and media section of Symantec's own web site and you won't find a mention. Notice that the most recent news release, from September 13th, is not about this crime survey. Equally, their "in the news" sections shows that the most recent news item about Symantec was published on 1st September. Yet looking at Google News you can see that there have been 306 stories on the company in worldwide news media since that date.

What this suggests is that Symantec doesn't seem to understand how people use the Internet. People reading the news stories on this new crime report will go to Symantec's web site to find out more. Yet they won't be able to. Equally, the fact that within seconds you could add a news feed to your web site showing the most recent news coverage of Symantec, yet they appear unable or unwilling to do this themselves, suggests they don't understand their web site readers well enough.

Symantec is based in California, so to them it was not Monday when the bulk of the news stories were published. But the fact is, by the time the people of Symantec get into their office and "publish" their report, the readers of the Brisbane Times will be going to bed ready for Tuesday.

Symantec, on this evidence, doesn't seem to have realised it lives in a 24 hour world, or a global one. The people of