I’m sure by now you have heard about Google+ and you may well have signed up to it. But it is hard enough trying to keep up with your ever increasing Social Media workload without adding another network into the mix.

Whether or not you should jump in and embrace it is a matter of some debate. Although I have a google plus account I am not investing much time into it at this stage but am trying to keep abreast of the latest developments so that I am well enough informed to make a decision to invest more time in it when I feel the time is right. Let’s face it Google have had their fair share of failures and have touted a whole manner of services as being ‘the next great thing’ – Google Buzz or Google Wave anyone?

Google makes a living out of data but they must have looked at Facebook and been a little bit irritated that the likes of facebook gather a massive amount of marketable data without even trying. People volunteer information about their likes and dislikes, music, films, holidays etc without even being prompted so it is understandable that Google wanted ‘in on the act’.

But Facebook are in an incredibly strong position with 30 million users in the uk alone. One social network is more than enough and most of you reading this are probably using two already, Linkedin and Facebook. There is no way I have the time or the inclination to become embroiled in another so the only way I can envisage moving allegiance to Google is if my current network of friends move with me. I like to keep friends and business acquaintances fairly separate as the tone of my communication with both groups is different. But of course nothing is that cut and dried and there is a definite overlap with some friends being business associates and many business associates becoming friends over time. The way we could look at this is like a venn diagram. Now if only Linkedin and Facebook could be merged together – cue Google+ circles!

Of course you can arrange your friends into groups on Facebook although in my opinion the way that operates is a damn site more clunky than Facebook. Google are trying to combine the best elements of Facebook with the best elements of Twitter to expand your network beyond people people that you physically know as you can on Twitter so you can follow the status updates of people in your industry for instance – cue Facebook subscriptions!

Google have got it all to do and Facebook can ride on the back of their work. When Microsoft rolled out Microsoft Bing, Google were just rubbing their hands. Bing knew they couldn’t compete in the short term on the quality of their search so what they concentrated on were all ‘the bells and whistles’ that would give their customers a better experience. So Google just sat back and integrated any of the nice knew bits from bing that they felt appropriate into their own product.

Facebook are now able to do the same. Their customer base is fairly safe as long as they keep moving so they can now just sit back and cherry pick the Google innovations that they like and integrate them into their own platform.

But you can rest assured that Google will be making Google+ a priority so it isn’t going to fall by the wayside in the near future. They have to make it a priority, with Facebook search being powered by Bing and Facebook being the starter page for so many online sessions (48% of 18 – 34 year olds check facebook as soon as they wake up) Google stand to lose a substantial market share despite the low quality of Bing search results – convenience is everything!

The final problem that Google face in this battle is the fact that Google plus already has and will continue to have SEO benefits. Well surely that is a reason to sign up to Google+ I hear you say. Well on the one hand it is but the biggest problem they face is that it is open to abuse. Within the first few weeks millions of false profiles were set up. They are trying to address this but ultimately a Social Network has to be about real people!

One thing is for sure though. These battles can only be good for us. Facebook can no longer be complacent, they need to listen to what people want and keep innovating. I don’t keep the comments open on this blog at the moment but why not join the conversation on our on our facebook page.

An Overview of our Pay Per Click Management Process

Quick 5-Step Guide

• Discuss your goals and objectives with us
• We research potential search terms and analyse the most suitable search engines
• You provide us with feedback on the suitability of these search terms
• We create the campaigns and produce the ad copy
• Constant monitoring, adjustments and reporting

Preparation

Initial Meeting: We will arrange a meeting with you to discuss your goals and objectives. We will also discuss the target search terms that you would like to appear for.

Keyword Research: LandingNet will do extensive research into the search terms discussed in the initial meeting, then expand them using bespoke in-house technology, and send this list to you for approval.

Opening and Linking Accounts

All New Accounts: We can assist you, or open accounts on your behalf with the major search engine platforms, Google, Yahoo and MSN. We may need some details from you to do this, which can be discussed at any point.

Existing AdWords Account: If you have an existing Google AdWords account we can link your account to our Client Centre. We will ask you to provide us with your customer ID, which is located in the top right corner of the page once you have logged in. We will then send you a request through the AdWords system so the next time you log in it will ask you if you would like LandingNet Ltd to manage your accounts. At this point you select “Yes” and we have access to your account and can continue with our progress.

Existing MSN and Yahoo Accounts: These search platforms do not support agency management at present, so if you already have a campaign with either of these, you will need to provide us with your existing login details.

Implementation

Create Campaigns: We split the search terms into related ad groups so we can write the ad copy specifically for these terms. Once these have been set up we set the bids for each term accordingly.

Monitor and Adjust: We continually monitor and make adjustments to your campaign to maximise the return on investment. This includes re-writing ad copy, adjusting bids; day parting, geo-targeting and making suggested landing page changes.

Reports

Reporting: Every month we will send you a detailed report on how well your campaigns are performing, how we plan to improve it and make other suggestions based on your campaign history.

If You Already Have An Existing AdWords Account

Once we swap over to the LandingNet campaign you may see some changes with your traffic and enquiries. Initially Google will see our campaign as a new campaign and it takes a few days to build up some historical data with them. We may see ads showing periodically, in slightly lower positions for a short period of time, but this will change once the data has been built up over a few days.

Jargon Buster

Targeted Search Terms – These are the words people type into the search engine to try and find what they are looking for.

Impressions – Each impression represents a single showing of one of your ads.

Day-Parting – This is when we are able to select certain times of the day to display your ads. If you only want them displayed 9am-5pm, no problem, just let us know.

Geo-Targeting – We are able to target specific countries and make sure your ad is not displayed in the wrong country for your service.

Landing Page – This is the page where we send the visitor after they click on your ad.

Google are constantly changing their search algorithm ensuring that sites providing the best user experience appear at the top of the organic listings. Good content is key, backed up by relevant and authoritative inbound links. Obviously this is an over simplification and in fact there are at least two hundred boxes that need ticking to give your site every chance of appearing at the top of Google, but up until now site speed has not been one of them.

Google made us aware about a year ago that this metric would be added into their algorithm which was further backed up by them adding site performance into webmaster tools which shows how fast your site is compared to other sites. But they have recently made an official announcement on the Google Webmaster Central Blog that they are now including it in their search ranking algorithm.

There is a link within the site performance section of the webmaster tools to a Mozilla Firefox Plugin called Page Speed. Of course this isn’t the only tool available to measure site speed but it is the one that google are recommending and if you click on the help button it takes you to Googles help page so it would be fair to assume that this has been developed by them and as they are the ones that control the algorithm that this is a good tool for the job.

The loading speed of a site has always been important. In the days of dial up connections it was particularly relevant but with the advent of broadband it has been overlooked to a certain extent. But it should be remembered the speed of connections vary enormously especially between cities and the countryside and as more people are using mobile devices to access the web it is once again of the utmost relevance as anyone will know who has tried to access a slow site in an area without a 3G connection. If you combine this with the fact that the speed of your site may well cause you to drop down the search engine rankings then now is the time to optimise the speed of your website.

So don’t wait until your rankings drop because it will take you months to regain them if at all! If you would like any help with increasing the speed of your site then just contact us and we will be happy to help.