The last few weeks our blog posts have been focussed around Google so for this week we were adamant that we were going to change that and write about something that didn’t mention the search engine giant. But then they went and released their yearly Google Zeitgeist which details “the most popular and the fastest rising” search terms for the year. The Zeitgeist lists the top ten searches across different categories across different countries and gives an insight into the events, people and products that shaped 2011 so we couldn’t help but let you know about the fastest rising worldwide search terms for 2011.

The top ten features a wide range of people and products, with three searches relating to Apple appearing in the top ten. At number 10 we have the “iPad2” which was released throughout the world during the first half of 2011 and sold 500,000 tablets in the first weekend. The sad death of Apple founder “Steve Jobs” in October made him the first or two deaths that feature in the top ten. Number eight is “東京 電力”, which relates to the Japanese Fukushima Plant nuclear reactors which were damaged during the devastating earthquake. Two days after the earthquake saw a massive rise in searches as support and donations poured in from around the world.

Pop star “Adele” was the seventh fastest rising search of 2011, with a 1,588% increase in searches from 2010. An interesting thing to note about this search is that it maintained constantly high searches throughout the whole year, where as other search terms peaked at a sudden point in the year. Another Apple search was at number six with the “iPhone 5“, even though the product wasn’t actually released. Many people expected Apple to unveil the product this year but they revealed the iPhone 4s instead. Video game fans made “Battlefield 3“ a high search term of 2011 with much anticipation for the first person shooter. The American case of “Casey Anthony“, who was charged with the murder of her 2 year old daughter but then found not guilty in July, was a high search term with people not only interested before and during the case but also in Casey’s life after the trial.

We begin the top three with the sad death of “Ryan Dunn” after the Jackass TV and movie star died in a car accident in June. During the news of his death there were nearly as many searches for his name as there was for the keyword ‘weather’. With speculation about drink driving and an emotional Jackass highlight reel shown at his funeral, fans kept searching for Ryan to make him the third fastest rising search of 2011. At number two we have “Google+“ as Google launched its newest attempt to capture the social networking crowd. Throughout the second half of the year the search term had a constantly high search volume due to the announcement, launch and then open sign-up of the product. Whether Google+ has the momentum to take on the might of Facebook is yet to be decided but as SEO Coventry specialists we will still be searching and following this throughout 2012.

And so we come to the number one fastest rising search term of 2011 and it’s safe to say that it most likely won’t feature again in the Google Zeitgeist in feature years.  A 13 year old American girl called “Rebecca Black” made a splash after releasing her pop song ‘Friday’ onto the unsuspecting public which went viral and resulted in over 167 million views on YouTube. At one point in the year Rebecca Black even beat global superstar Lady Gaga in search terms. If you are unaware to the phenomenon that is ‘Friday’ then have a look on YouTube to hear the song which made Rebecca Black the fastest rising worldwide search term of 2011.

There are many facts, graphs and information about the searches of 2011, so if you have some spare time then we’d highly recommend having a look at the full listings on the Google Zeitgeist with the top ten ‘Fastest Rising in Sports’, ‘What is…?’, and ‘How to’ searches for individual countries.

• Facebook Setting up in Lapland

Facebook is moving to Lapland, but it’s not to assist Father Christmas in the run up to Christmas, they are setting up their first ever data centre that is not based in the US. The temperatures in the city of Lulea mean that the social media giant can use the natural cool air of the country to control the temperatures of its servers for up to 10 months of the year.

Even though Facebook has more than 800 million users, it sill continues to grow and this requires more computing power. The new server centre in Lapland is roughly the size of 11 football pitches so we’re talking about a serious data centre here. Not only will the centre process data from Europe, Africa and the Middle East but it will also help the company use less energy, with the new centre powered mostly by renewable energy and requiring 70% less generator power.

The rate at which social media is continuing to grow means that your business cannot afford to be missing from social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Engaging with your clients and creating an online presence is very important for a business so if you want to discuss how a social media campaign can work for you, get in touch with HeadRed.

• “SEO is not spam.”

A video from the head of Google’s Web spam team, Matt Cutts, was circulating in the SEO world this week, stating that search engine optimisation (SEO) is not spam. Whilst this has been known for a long time, with companies such as ourselves offering search engine optimisation to Coventry businesses for years, it’s nice to hear the biggest search engine company go on record to clarify for anyone that is still unsure. What with Google constantly rolling out updates to its search algorithms, Matt stated the importance of only employing legitimate SEO to improve your search rankings and avoiding any ‘black hat’ tactics. HeadRed’s SEO team constantly keep up to date with what the guys at Google our up to, so with SEO services from us you can be sure that we are only using Google-approved optimisation on your site.

If you want to see what Matt Cutts said for yourself, have a look at the GoogleWebmasterHelp YouTube channel.

• Don’t Forget…

Don’t forget that the clocks go back this Sunday as British Summer Time comes to a close, although some would argue that it never really started. For some of the HeadRed team this will mean driving to work in the dark and heading home in the dark but we’ll take solace in the fact that it’s the run up to Christmas which means the busy period for all our e-commerce clients.

There are many e-commerce sites throughout the Internet selling all kinds of items and sometimes it can be hard to decide which site to purchase from. Do you favour the cheapest price over a trusted site or are you happy to use a new site that you haven’t used before? Google has now announced its own way of giving sites its stamp of approval with ‘Google Trusted Stores‘.

The aim of this new program is to help shoppers in finding online stores that offer a compelling shopping experience by awarding them with a Google Trusted Store Badge. To qualify for the award, sites have to have a proven track record of reliable service, shipping products on-time and excellent customer service. To partake in this program, sites have to apply to become a Google Trusted Store and have to share shipping and customer service data with Google and meet the standards set out by the program.

So what are the benefits for customers? As well as knowing which sites have been given a trusted award from one of the biggest companies on the Internet, the program is there to help shoppers feel confident in their purchases and offers shoppers help if they have any problems with their online order. Purchase protection means that you can get help from Google in the case of any disputes that arise from your order and they will assist you in working with the store to solve the issue. This can only be a benefit to consumers since they have the knowledge that they can get outside assistance in dealing with complaints when dealing with sites they haven’t used before.

There are a number of stores that are testing the program to see whether it has the intended outcome of improving and promoting shopping and Google will be looking to extend the program over the coming months. It will be interesting to see what effect this could have to some online stores and whether customers will only shop on sites that feature the Google Trusted Store Badge when the program is fully launched. Could it also have any effect on SEO for online shops?

We will be keeping an eye on the Google Trusted Store program over the coming months and monitoring whether it will be beneficial for our clients to apply for the badge and any kind of effect it may have on our Coventry search engine optimisation clients.

Today sees the start of the first ever GAMEFest event at the NEC in Birmingham, with the three-day event running from Friday 16^th - Sunday 18^th September 2011. Hosted by GAME, it is a showcase of the latest video games from the biggest companies and publishers in the industry.

With the likes of Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Activision on hand to show off a range of games including Modern Warfare 3, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Batman: Arkham City and more, there are some great games to get your hands on. With it being the first time these games have been available for the public to play, presentations from the developers of the biggest games this year and lots of freebies, GAMEFest promises to be a great event for video game fans.

Since GAME is Europe’s biggest specialist videogame retailer, we have been looking at how they have been using social media to help promote and gather interest in the event and interact with the people that are attending.

The GameDigital Twitter account has been discussing GAMEFest all week, with the hashtag #GAMEFest being used to categorise all Tweets discussing the event. They have been teasing followers with snippets of information and behind the scenes photos of the event being set up, as well as answering any questions people have had. Using social media is a great way to build up an online interest in a product or event before it is released or happens and getting people talking about your company is a great way to increase visitors to your site. It’s also important to make sure your account isn’t just one way though because, after all, the purpose of social sites is interaction, so it’s great to see the company responding to its customers and engaging them in the build up to the event.

If you have a Twitter account for your business then you should try and be active in responding to people and being involved with your followers. You don’t have to be constantly tweeting away but spending a little time each day will help you build up an online profile and having people talking online about you should increase links to your site, which should in turn have a positive effect on improving search rankings.

Now that GAMEFest has begun, GAME are also getting people to engage in the company brand by running a competition on Facebook during the course of the event itself. Asking people to take the most interesting photo they can at the event and then submitting it to them on Facebook (or Twitter) will result in someone winning a new Nintendo 3DS and copy of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. With all the photos that will be submitted, GAME are getting free advertising across Facebook not only for themselves, but possibly also for other companies if their stands feature in the photos. This kind of activity across the social Internet is an easy method to build brand loyalty and keep GAME in the front of people’s minds for their video game needs.

Instead of just setting up a Twitter, Facebook or Youtube account for your company or organisation, think about how you can actually use social media to promote your products or events. Building up hype, offering sneak preview information and running competitions are all great ways to engage your followers and promote your business, so think about what methods would work for you. If you want to discuss the benefits of an online marketing campaign then get in touch with us here at HeadRed.

P.S. If you are going to GAMEFest then make sure you check out one of our clients, BoysStuff.co.uk, who will be there showcasing their range of gaming chairs, some of which they sell exclusively in the UK.

The significance of social media with regards to improved search engine rankings is widely known and with the launch of Google+, having the leading search engine with their own social media platform means that social is even more relevant than ever.

The two current main leaders in the social networking arena are of course Facebook and Twitter, and it’s recently been reported that 57% of adults in Britain are now using social platforms, which is an increase from 43% in 2010. With over half the population using these social sites, they are an easy way to communicate with anyone interested in your product or services. And it’s not just the younger generation that have grown up using the Internet that are fully embraced in the social web. People who grew up using dial up Internet connections and only used the word ‘tweet’ to describe the sound a bird makes are also using these sites on a daily basis and even the over 65’s are learning about the joys of status updates and using the hash tag, with 18% regularly using a social network.

The way people access these sites and the Internet in general has also changed dramatically, with people having constant access to their Facebook page and Twitter feeds throughout the day due to smartphones. With all the apps that are available to keep you constantly updated, people are interacting with these sites constantly, so it makes sense for a company to have their own social sites to engage these constantly-connected people.

So with the increase in users, the ease of access that people have throughout the day to these social sites and how easy it is to set up a Twitter account and Facebook page for your business or organisation, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be engaging in the social world. No matter what product or service you offer, we are sure that there are hundreds if not thousands of other people out there that would like to connect with your company.

The relevance of social networking sites is only going to further increase with the introduction of Google+, as the mighty Google fights to compete with both Facebook and Twitter and become the leading site in the social market. We have already started to see Facebook fight back with some new improvements to combat the new threat of Google+, so it will be interesting to see which site is going to come out on top.

Since it’s important to make sure you are connecting with as much of your audience as possible, we’d suggest having a presence on all of the leading social media sites to get connected with as much of your audience and potential customers as possible.

So get ‘Liking’ on Facebook, ‘tweeting’ on Twitter and ‘circling’ on Google+ because remember; the web is a very social place.

In a previous blog post we looked at the benfits of leaving comments on blogs. Now we’ll look at the benefits to your own blog of receiving comments from your readers.

To make your blog a success, you need to embrace the idea that blogging is all about the conversation. This is what allows you to open a dialogue with your customers, stakeholders, employees and investors. So here are a few guidelines to help you manage comments on your blog:

• Set up your blogging software so that all comments have to be approved before they are published. This prevents comment spam from appearing on your blog, it also helps to protect you from malicious commenters or any nefarious competitors seeking to damage your brand by posting fake negative comments. You’re also legally responsible for anything that appears on your blog, so you should make sure that comments aren’t defamatory, libelous or in breach of copyright before you approve them.
• Don’t automatically delete every negative comment. If they appear to be a genuine grievance from a customer, do your best to fix the problem and then use your response to the comment to apologise and outline the remedial action you have taken. This will give you a positive PR boost and demonstrate your customer service credentials.
• You should try to respond to as many comments as possible. If someone has gone to the trouble of reading your post and contributing their thoughts, the least you can do is respond. One simple reason for responding to all comments is common courtesy, which will reflect well on you and your business. It’s very likely the commenter will come back to see if you’ve responded. Everyone likes to be acknowledged and you may have made yourself a new customer or passionate brand advocate for life.
• Wherever possible, reciprocate by leaving a comment on the commenter’s own blog (if they have one). This is the best way of building worthwhile relationships in the blogosphere. The more bloggers you connect with the more opportunities you have for joint ventures and to spread the word about your own blog.
• Always remain polite and professional, even if you are provoked by crazy comments. The web is full of flamers and trolls who delight in starting arguments and posting offensive comments on blogs, just to provoke some kind of reaction. Don’t rise to the bait. If a troll is lurking in your comment section, just ignore him and he’ll soon move on.

Hopefully you now have a better idea of how you can benefit from being an active commenter and by allowing (and actively managing) comments on your own blog. HeadRed has plenty of experience in running blogs for our clients, so if you’d like a blog set up for your business, give us a call.