The proof of Google is in the Traffic!

Well isn't it?

I've had a couple of emails from some online forums giving me stick about referring to the web / search and SEO as Google. In other words, do you want your website optimized for Google? Is what I asked a client...I was referring to South Africa in general BUT I was slammed and quickly...

WAS I THAT WRONG?

I'll give you some interesting facts about GOOGLE and website traffic in South Africa.

• 90% of the traffic coming to localised South African websites (GOOGLE)
• Bing was starting to generate some traffic, but they removed the localised search portion of their search, so South African sites are now mixed up with GLOBAL sites (ALTERNATIVE, GOOGLE)
• If we combine ALL of South Africa's search engines, directories and social media sites the combined traffic coming into your site is possibly 4%, if that... Meaning (THERE'S ONLY GOOGLE)
• 95% of the analytics software used in South Africa is Google Analytics
• I'd say and this is a guess, 60 - 70% of all online spend on PAID ADS is with (GOOGLE)

Which leads me back to my original saying: The proof of GOOGLE is in the TRAFFIC.
So if you're wanting your website optimized for GOOGLE - YOU know who to call!

Permission Marketing

A couple of years back when I started BLOGGING and working on small sites doing SEO for R300 / month :) I read a book called  "Permission Marketing" by Seth Godin. Firstly, for those of you that don't know who Seth Godin is, have a quick read through his BLOG ( http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ ) and through his Website ( http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/ ).

I have to be honest, when I first read this book I never really understood half of what he was talking about. Billboards and banners and website marketing but he kept referring to Permission Marketing...

What Seth Godin was talking about

Well, when the business grew and Trafficfundi starting taking on bigger clients, the pitches and sales started becoming a little more intense. Our strategies had to change and soon I started realising without even trying how the effectiveness of online marketing was taking the world (South Africa especially) by storm. Then, I clicked!!!!!!

The world is so full of clutter, and SPAM that we no longer want out lives to be filled with ADS and advertising. When was the last time you drove on the highway and actually remembered the billboard that you saw or the 1500 posters hanging on Corelett drive advertising over 300 companies?
When was the last time that actually made you stop and think!!!!!

What is permission marketing

Permission marketing is what the WWW (Internet, Web) is all about. It's about "I give you permission to marketing to me". Think about it, when you logon to your pc, and you go to Google.com and type in something you're expecting to find the results that you've searched for i.e. you're giving Google permission to give you the results you want!

If I type in "Search engine marketing company in Pretoria". I'm expecting to find a "search engine marketing company in Pretoria". I asked for it, I expect to find it & I will most likely contact that company!! There are obviously other factors at play here such as: Is the AD effective enough on Google to catch my attention, does the website capture my attention etc etc...

BUT this is the essence of Permission based marketing. It's you giving me permission to marketing my business to you because you're actively looking for it, HENCE my conversions will be higher. Of course the other massive advantage online marketing has is that if setup correctly EVERY last link, every last ad you place online is track able right down to a SALE. Show me any other form of marketing that allows you to do this?

For those of you interested in buying Seth Godin's book on permission marketing check out the Wantitall.co.za site.

Google - Directory or Search Engine?

After reading an article on Converseon.com http://blog.converseon.com/2010/08/13/google-removes-organic-results-in-local-tests/ I found myself deep in thought and quite frankly unable to do more work... "not always a bad thing".

According to latest reports Google have been doing some testing on displaying local search results. This left me with some questions that maybe you our readers can help me answer...

1. A bold move?
2. Do people want to use Google as a directory?
3. Are people already using people as a directory?
4. Does this mean the end of SEO?
5. Are Google possibly looking to incorporate a directory type listing into their NEW Google Caffeine look and feel?

We'd really love to hear your thoughts on this and whether you think this is the way forward for Google?

Google Mayday, Caffeine Boost or Total FLOP!

It's been a little over a month now that Google released it's Caffeine update otherwise known as Google "Mayday". Having been a little surprised by some of the search results and updates that were done with this major update to Google's look and feel and it's algorithms, I decided to give it a while before commenting.
Now that the algorithms have settled according to Matt Cutts, I can start telling you why I think this Google update is a total FLOP!

Being an SEO company whose clientel base are mostly South African companies, we've seen a massive drop in search volume across board. The reason being, well Google has decided to take away the "pages from south africa" search option from the Google.co.za home page. WHY??????

Problems with this:
1. Online users in South Africa, still don't follow global search trends. Generic search terms are more widely used, long tail is not wide spread hence this becomes a problem. Why?

a. People when shopping search for "batman dvd box set".
b. People when looking for a service search for "insurance brokers".

DO YOU SEE THE TREND?

This means, without a local search option from the home page, the first search results you will get from Google is a mixture of LOCAL and GLOBALLY (well seo'd) sites.

This is poor show for Google, people will start getting irritated, those that don't mind will either see the "pages from south africa" search on the left side, or advanced users will try something along the lines of a localised search query i.e. "batman dvd box set shopping site south africa".

This once again poses a problem for South African companies and majority of SEO companies in South Africa, actually haven't a clue as to how to SEO, which means corporate companies are going to be paying through their ASSES for SEO and not be found...

And this means South Africans are goign to get CRAP results.
See
2. People in South Africa when searching for products, services, shopping etc don't want pages that are out of South Africa, why would they?

My first example "batman dvd box set" gives 10 sites - NOT ONE OF WHICH is a South African shopping site?????? This means, that majority of South Africans will follow the process of buying the DVD boxset from an overseas site, wasting their time when they find out they have to pay more for shipping from Amazon than the actual product price itself. (BING, here's your chance to takeover localised search)

So, If you ask me!!! For localised search (which was meant to be the way forward) Google's taken a step backwards. REMEMBER, the rest of the world has not had the search volume or the infrastructure in place to become advanced internet users. I hope Google reads this!!!!!