The Future of SEO Has Arrived

Google has finally made a massive shift in the way they operate, and we’re talking more than just updates and over optimization penalties.
We’ve been covering in great detail the latest search updates in Google, and I’ve shared some powerful tricks to take advantage of all the recent changes.
Today we’re going to look into the future of search and SEO and come out the other side with a clear picture of what’s next.
I’ll share with you new strategies I’ve already begun to put into place, and ones that you need to employ to stay relevant in this new world of search.
What happened?
Yesterday Google just announced that they are starting to roll out something they call “The Knowledge Graph”
Essentially, this is a fundamental shift in the nature of search and the results presented.
They refer to this update as “Things not strings.”  In other words, they are more interested in understanding the relationship of searches and terms instead of simply matching listings to series of phrases.
I previously conjectured that related keywords had changed and was a large part in recent listing getting jumbled around.
This latest news seems to support that idea, as now more than ever relationships will make a big difference in the results displayed.  It would seem that they had to focus extensively on decoding these relationships to develop such an update.
To illustrate this new approach, the example given was a search for “Taj Mahal.”  You might be searching for the building or maybe something entirely different like the musician.

In Google’s latest revision you will have the option to choose.  It will already know there are more varieties.
In addition, they are looking to include more facts and information related to the topic according to these related searches.
But How Do They Do That?
In short, I predict that the future of search will be built around a new markup language.  It’s complicated and barely adopted right now.  Which means huge opportunity.
WordPress will change, plugins and themes will be developed and a whole new segment of search marketing will grow from this change.

code level approach will only continue to grow as these markups will allow Google to better understand the content and relationships inside each page of your site.
In other words, the standard listing will become one of the least common ways to get search visibility.
What I have been doing, and how you can capitalize on the changes.
I’ve already been moving AWAY from focusing on rankings only, and it’s time that you join the big picture as well.
For years we’ve heard that content is king.
Unfortunately that statement is misleading.  People focused almost exclusively on written content, and so the era of article blasting, spinning, and mass publication was born.
It grew until finally, something had to be done.  Links were devalued, over-optimization penalties were developed, and the rankings shuffled like never before.
Today I’m telling you that it’s time to employ a multi format content strategy if you want to stay relevant.
Search is too unstable and it’s time to get a backup plan.

It’s time to start making better videos and images, and packaging them with your content.

It’s time to start sharing through social media, and joining the conversations in your market.

It’s time to develop that email list, and take control of your traffic.

It’s time to focus on connecting with your audience instead of watching visitors fly in and back out from  a handful of good search listings.

If you take my advice and start now, then when the time comes it will be easier to adopt these markup changes.
Your content will be ready and waiting.  Your audience will be established.  Your videos and images will be created.
And as a result you’ll be the one to appear in all areas of your market, across all the new areas of visibility.
Laddies and gentleman, get ready because we are moving into an entirely new generation of search engine visibility where connections are critical.
The focus on top ranking and most searched keywords will become more and more irrelevant.  Your traffic will come from relationships, and entirely new types of listings.
So get out there and get connected before it’s too late.

Don't Let The Wrong Landing Pages Destroy Your PPC Campaign

You can generate as many clicks as possible but unless a good proportion of these convert to sales then much of the benefit of the clicks has been wasted. You maximise the conversion of a click to a sale by the correct use of landing pages.
Many of the landing pages for PPC (eg for Google Adwords) that I have seen send the person who clicked on the ad to the home page of the website. Often and especially in the case of a product being offered for sale the home page is just not targeted enough to meet the needs of the searcher and this inevitably results in poor conversion of clicks to sales and thus on the ROI of the campaign.
When a searcher enters a search term into the search box the actual term is a very good indication of what the searcher wants (referred to as MOTIVATION). A very good example would be a searcher entering "Canon Camera ABC234" . If the advertiser sold a range of Canon Cameras it would be quite wrong to send the searcher to a general page about Canon Cameras. It would be important to send the searcher to a page that is undoubtedly about the model "Canon Camera ABC234". In essence the searcher has told you EXACTLY what is wanted. It is then incumbent upon the provider to satisfy this MOTIVATION. A failure to do so will more often than not lead to abandonment of the site clicked through to.
Of course the implication of this approach is that for a successful PPC campaign  more than a single landing page is required.

How to Construct a Landing Page

There are 5 very important considerations to take into account when designing and constructing a good landing page. The probability of making a conversion is directly proportional to how the following 5 factors are managed.
1. The most important of these is to address directly and unambiguously the MOTIVATION of the searcher as described above.
2. The second most important landing page success factor is to display exactly what the VALUE of your selling proposition is (ie what makes you and your product different from competing products and why your company is the best one to buy from). Use text, images, headlines, colours, etc to highlight this. Be consistent throughout the site.
3. You need to remove any annoyances or difficulties to get to the desired action on the landing page. This is referred to as FRICTION. For example making people log in to make a purchase is FRICTION, longer than necessary forms to complete is FRICTION.
4. Fourth on the list is the need to provide an INCENTIVE to the landing page visitor and this is all the more important if there is FRICTION on the landing page. As a general rule the lower the FRICTION the less is the need for an INCENTIVE.
5. The fifth consideration is ANXIETY and we've all experienced this. It certainly raises its ugly head at the time of adding credit card details into a shopping cart. It's important to remove as much ANXIETY as possible by offering plain to see guarantees, an easy to understand return policy, testimonials, 3rd party endorsements and the like. The higher the value of a product being sold the greater is the level of ANXIETY.