For decades it was the media companies that largely controlled the tools through which consumers were told what to buy and where. With the mass popularity of the Internet consumers now have the ability to generate, curate and distribute content [...]]]> For decades it was the media companies that largely controlled the tools through which consumers were told what to buy and where. With the mass popularity of the Internet consumers now have the ability to generate, curate and distribute content to their peers in real time. As a result they can also effectively co-author the stories that brands tell and do seek active engagement from the brands that they use.

While associating themselves with their favorite brands on social media platforms, and even while checking information online, consumers may have totally different expectations than what the brands owners perceive. A recent study by Yahoo! and BBDO involves the information collected from more than 1000 consumers and brand marketing professionals.

The study divulges that 96 percent of the consumers want to know the exact product price, product features and proof points from a brand. In comparison only 86 percent of marketers feel that this information matters to consumers. Similarly, while 58 percent of the consumers actually want to know about the history and the eccentric or quirky details of the brand, only 41 percent perceive that consumers look for such details.

As per the study, 45 percent of the consumers look for interesting online stories about the brand but only 41 percent of the marketers believe that they do so.

The biggest discrepancy lies in the concept of sharing – the one quite directly related to social networking sites and other review sharing platforms. 91 percent of the consumers admit that they like to put their views about brands online and share it with consumers but only 56 percent of the marketers feel that this matters to consumers!

Apparently, it is time for brands that want to enjoy a good presence in the market to have a better understanding of the consumer psyche. They need to know how important the concepts of sharing and social media are for the Internet savvy customer.

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As a board member of SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Association and a multilingual internet marketer, I need to weigh in on many things when I consult my clients and one of them is what search engine to choose [...]]]> As a board member of SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Association and a multilingual internet marketer, I need to weigh in on many things when I consult my clients and one of them is what search engine to choose to market through.

As a SEMPO board member, I also need to be aware of things such as the FTC’s investigation into Google and this prompted me to think “how can an organization like Google be reviewed, how can a company that relies only on its IP (intellectual property) be examined without having to yield and explain their algorithm and what is then left when the chef has given the secret spice in the award winning recipe?” Not much.

There are so many search engines out there including Yahoo!, Bing (now powering Yahoo! in many locations around the world), Ask and some regional ones such as Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia. You are actually likely to find literally hundreds of them.

Why then do most of the internet users around the globe start their online searches with Google? What makes Google better (or worse) than its competitors?  What is it that makes Google so special that even in languages that are considered hard to crack, such as my native language Icelandic, is Google superior to home-made engines that should at least give Google some contest and a run for their money?

In simple terms, Google gives the people the answers they’re looking for – it may be the latest news, information on a product or process, or the sellers of merchandise or services – but Google has everything in its massive database, everything needed to fulfill the needs of the user and they return, in most cases, the most relevant results based on my experience and tests conducted regularly at my company.

Google algorithms actually seem to understand what the users have in mind and do return relevant and excellent search results. But how does one define excellent search results? Perhaps, you can wind back to 1996 when search on AltaVista and Ask Jeeves comprised short tailed queries. You had to search manually through pages and pages of results before finding anything that made sense for you. It was Google that changed all that. Thanks to its superior search algorithms, you rarely need to go beyond the results of first page for any search.

Companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo have been gunning for Google’s level of search relevance for years. Certainly they do have access to talent for developing great algorithms but still Google continues to rule and is the favourite search engine for all.

There is a lot of hard work that goes behind Google results you are so accustomed to. The search engine makes up to 500 changes to search algorithms every year where each change aims to give better and more relevant results to users. It knows that users come to search engines to help them sift through all the information on the web and not every site can appear at the top of the results.

Certain websites complain that frequent changes in Google algorithms cause them to lose their ranking and traffic. But Google does provide huge information to websites on the techniques to improve their own performance through tools like the Google Webmaster Tools.

Google has also impacted technological innovation in positive ways. Its well-known Android mobile platform has sparked new improvements in mobile devices. Also its web browser Chrome helped to initiate innovation in the otherwise inactive browser domain.

Google’s search quality team has worked hard to develop algorithms that give better visibility to small and local business home pages. It was observed that web pages of small and medium business enterprises got buried or lost amidst big brand names on the web. But with Google publishing results based on local searches, they have better chances of reaching the top of search results. The search engine leader keeps small businesses in mind while improving and testing its new algorithms.

The biggest problem that small businesses face is that they do not have a website to reflect in results. But even they get the required support from Google through features like Google Places and Google Maps.  And Google’s new “Getting America’s Business Online” initiative is helping bring even more businesses online. This initiative actually interests me and I hope that they roll it out in more countries.

Based on what I have experienced and seems to be Google’s only consideration is to give the best answers to users’ queries – without any political viewpoints or advertising dollars. Indeed it also claims that free organic listings are clicked more often than PPC ads.

Sometimes the best answer to a query may be among one of the traditional “ten blue links.” But there are instances where it can also be a news article, sports score, stock quote, flight timing, video or a map — and Google can place it above other results if that’s what the user needs!

The bottom line is that no chef will give out their secret ingredient nor should they be forced to. The secret behind Google’s global success is that they serve their users in a simple and straight forward manner the right relevant results and while they do that they have the upper hand.

The user is wise enough to distinguish between relevant and non -relevant results.

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I have written before about how Bryan Eisenberg introduced me to his tools site and how there were several tools that stuck out as “must try now” tools. Among them was a tool based on the data from a Wordpress [...]]]> I have written before about how Bryan Eisenberg introduced me to his tools site and how there were several tools that stuck out as “must try now” tools. Among them was a tool based on the data from a Wordpress plugin called AddThis.

When reviewing the data it got me thinking that there was another dimension to it, especially when we look at how users across various nations and countries share the content they read.

When companies go global, and are targeting various markets, they tend to fall into the trap of generalizing their approach. By that they might be taking something that works in the U.S. or UK and applying it to Germany, Russia and China, to mention a few.

Why is this important? Well let me illustrate: If you are running a content rich site that you want the user to share with others, it is important to understand that not all sharing options are equal in all countries. If you are choosing the four most used in the U.S. you might opt for targeting Facebook, Twitter, Print and Email.

However, despite the fact that the U.S. is one of the leading online nations in the world, the rest of the world use various other channels, as well as the aforementioned.

Here are few random samples:
Russia has Vkontakte, Twitter, Facebook and Mail.ru
Saudi Arabia has Facebook, Facebook Like, Google and Google
The Netherlands has Facebook, Twitter, Print and Hyves
Brazil has Facebook, Facebook Like, Orkut and Twitter
India has Facebook, Email, Twitter and Google
Switzerland has Facebook, Ping.FM, Print and Twitter
China has Twitter, StumbleUpon, Facebook and Favorites

So while you might be safe with Facebook in most countries, it is important to understand that there are other channels unique to each country you are targeting. This is vital in order expand your content’s reach to local users.

Bottom-Line: Don’t generalize, localize!

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Last month at the SEM Conference in Oslo, Bryan Eisenberg and I were talking about the tools of the trade and he mentioned that he had put together a site focusing on collecting internet marketing  tools and it seemed that [...]]]> Last month at the SEM Conference in Oslo, Bryan Eisenberg and I were talking about the tools of the trade and he mentioned that he had put together a site focusing on collecting internet marketing  tools and it seemed that he had been doing this for some time.

The site itself is www.websitetestingtools.com and there are many good tools that you can browse through and something tells me that Bryan’s list is likely to grow fast over the coming months.

To give me head-start Bryan pointed me to several tools and one of them is a tool based on the data collected by a very popular Wordpress plugin called AddThis. The data collected by the AddThis team shows how data socializes, that is how those reading content share it.

Comparing countries like my home country Iceland and one of our closest neighbours Norway it is clear that Facebook is the biggest sharing option when users redistribute content of pages. In Iceland it is Facebook Like with some 47% and then Facebook with 25%. In Norway this flips, that is Facebook has a bigger share of 39% and Facebook Like has just over 18%.

What stands out for me is how often users print out items, Icelandic users seem to be bit “greener” when it comes to sharing content as they only use the print option in 1.88% while the Norwegians do that in close to 15%.

If you want to compare your own country to others you can to that by using the AddThis stats tool.

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As the internet becomes more ‘international’ each day, will the ability to hold onto one’s national language increase or decrease over time? And how would a nation be able to track this?

One possible solution may be to track [...]]]> As the internet becomes more ‘international’ each day, will the ability to hold onto one’s national language increase or decrease over time? And how would a nation be able to track this?

One possible solution may be to track how internet users link to and comment on major news outlets in the world. Using a tool such as MajesticSEO, who track the backlinks to every website on the planet, we can in fact track that sentiment day by day.

One of the reasons why I like Majestic is that they already have ranked the top million websites based on the number of sites linking to each site. This means that if a particular language begins to loose popularity over time, for instance, if a trend emerges that those who speak both English and Spanish increasingly favour reading and linking to Spanish news, the flagship news portals for those languages should increase in the rankings.

Whilst this could be construed at a rather crude measurement of the popularity of a language globally, the tool is backed up by the world’s largest commercially available Link Intelligence map on the planet.

Here are the relative strengths of some of the most notable news sites in different languages as of today:

With the data being updated several times a day, you can compare the above table to a base line of the 31st August 2011, where the number of referring domains were as follows:

1) NYTimes.com (global rank – 35)
2) CNN.com (global rank – 40)
3) News.BBC.co.uk (global rank – 73)
4) WSJ.com (global rank – 100)
5) AlJazeera.net (global rank – 530)
6) LeMonde.fr (global rank – 759)
7) Welt.de (global rank – 985)
Yomiuri.co.jp (global rank – 1,009)
9) ElMundo.es (global rank – 1,475)
10) CNTV.cn (global rank – 1,476)

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Yandex has translated its Webmaster service into English. The service, originally made for the Russian-speaking website owners, can now be used by anyone who owns a website and speaks English.

Yandex Webmaster tools informs website owners about which of their pages [...]]]> Yandex has translated its Webmaster service into English. The service, originally made for the Russian-speaking website owners, can now be used by anyone who owns a website and speaks English.

Yandex Webmaster tools informs website owners about which of their pages have been indexed by Yandex, what search words were used by their visitors and where the traffic to their websites comes from. The service also alerts the users about Malware detected on any of their web pages.

To have full access to all Yandex.Webmaster’s features, users need to register and confirm their ownership rights. No registration is required for submitting a website to the index.

The URL should be webmaster.yandex.ru (http://webmaster.yandex.com as pointed out below) but when you search Google then you find that Google shows results in English, however when I go in, the page is in Russian but the Cached version on Google shows English – I get in Russian, maybe because I come from Iceland?

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According to a study done by BITKOM on the German online market around 55% of German Internet users don’t think that their data is safe and 16% feel that their data is not safe so do not use the Internet [...]]]> According to a study done by BITKOM on the German online market around 55% of German Internet users don’t think that their data is safe and 16% feel that their data is not safe so do not use the Internet to buy items online and 28% do not practice banking online.

What is surprising is the how this splits between age groups at it seems that older users trust the Internet more than the young. 47% of those that took part in the research said that they were unsure of how they could protect their personal data and 72% want the state to regulate what happens online, specifically privacy.

The biggest surprise is the number of people asked that 39% of those asked said that they would prefer to send sensitive documents through traditional mail instead of communicating online, through email or other channels.

You can read more about this report online

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A short introduction video to the Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference held in Iceland every year. Next conference will be in Iceland on the 11th of March with International speakers from Facebook, Wall Street Journal, AOL, SAP, Yandex, Hotels.com, Icelandair, Boats.com [...]]]> A short introduction video to the Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference held in Iceland every year. Next conference will be in Iceland on the 11th of March with International speakers from Facebook, Wall Street Journal, AOL, SAP, Yandex, Hotels.com, Icelandair, Boats.com and more.

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According to Internet World Stats there are close to 2 billion Internet users worldwide. According to same source there are around 520 million Facebook users or 7.6% of the total Internet population.

Europe has the most Facebook users or just above [...]]]> According to Internet World Stats there are close to 2 billion Internet users worldwide. According to same source there are around 520 million Facebook users or 7.6% of the total Internet population.

Europe has the most Facebook users or just above 162 million, North America comes next with around 150 million. Asia comes number three with some 93 million users, Latin America has 68 million or there about, Africa has 17 million, Oceania/The Caribbean (Australia) has also 15.6 and finally and the Middle-East have close to 11.7 million.

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In a research done by Nordic eMarketing in cooperation with the eNewsPR network, journalists are found to use less than 2.5 keywords most of the time. In the same research Nordic eMarketing found that French journalists are lazier than the [...]]]> In a research done by Nordic eMarketing in cooperation with the eNewsPR network, journalists are found to use less than 2.5 keywords most of the time. In the same research Nordic eMarketing found that French journalists are lazier than the English when searching for content and Scandinavian journalists are likelier to venture outside of their ccTLD and use .COM or other ccTLD endings when searching for content through their preferred search engine.

After reviewing well over 2 million individual visits and search referrals, filtering out various media from over 40 countries and all continents, Nordic eMarketing found among other that Twitter is a poor organic referrer and Google returns close to 90% of the reporters coming through search.

Stay tuned at Multilingual Search and be among the first to get this report/white paper on the behaviour of journalists and how they search for content.

It is due to be published late October this 2010.

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Six out of thirteen SEMPO board members are now none-US so SEMPO is turning truly International. SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization annouced earlier this month the results of its 2010 Board of Directors election which begin their [...]]]> Six out of thirteen SEMPO board members are now none-US so SEMPO is turning truly International. SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization annouced earlier this month the results of its 2010 Board of Directors election which begin their two-year term on March 18, 2010.

SEMPO’s 2010 Board of Directors is:

• Chris Boggs, Director, Search Engine Optimization, ROSETTA.
• Massimo Burgio, Founder, Chief Strategist, Global Search Interactive.
• Bruce Clay, President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
• Dave Fall, SVP Product and Operations, Clickable, Inc.
• Rob Garner, Strategy Director, iCrossing.
• Mike Grehan, VP and Global Content Director, Incisive Media.
• Motoko Hunt, President, Japanese Search Strategist, AJPR.
• Kevin Lee, CEO, Didit.
• Dmitriy Minenko, Online Specialist, Search Engine Marketing, Tourism British Columbia.
• Jeffrey Pruitt, CEO, Acendant.
• Margaret Willette, Search Marketing Manager, Intuit.
• Kristjan Mar Hauksson, Director Search, Nordic eMarketing.

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A study done by Nordic eMarketing in Iceland last October showed that Google had 79% market share with Leit.is a local player with close to 9%. Another study done this March showed that Google has reached the 80% mark and [...]]]> A study done by Nordic eMarketing in Iceland last October showed that Google had 79% market share with Leit.is a local player with close to 9%. Another study done this March showed that Google has reached the 80% mark and Leit has gone to over 10%. The study was done for the first book in Icelandic on Internet Marketing published in December last year.

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According to research published in new Icelandic book on Internet marketing 80% of the Icelandic nation is using Facebook. Another research done by the international research company Capacent and published in the same book it’s revealed that 72% of Internet [...]]]> According to research published in new Icelandic book on Internet marketing 80% of the Icelandic nation is using Facebook. Another research done by the international research company Capacent and published in the same book it’s revealed that 72% of Internet users, fifty four or younger, in Iceland start their purchase phase by using the search engines when looking for Information on product and services.

For more information about this first book in Icelandic on Internet Marketing click here

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In 2009, according to the eighth survey on the use of Information and Communications technology by Statistics Iceland 92 percent of Icelandic households had a computer with 90 percent of them all having access to the Internet. Nearly all of [...]]]> In 2009, according to the eighth survey on the use of Information and Communications technology by Statistics Iceland 92 percent of Icelandic households had a computer with 90 percent of them all having access to the Internet. Nearly all of the households with Internet access, the equivalent of 97 percent, had a high-speed broadband connection. The annual survey also reported that half of the households had at least two television sets – 48 percent, of which had a flat screen.

Statistics Iceland reported that computer and Internet usage is widespread among individuals, with 93 percent between the age of 16-74 having used a computer and the Internet within the last three months. Nine out of every 10 Internet users send emails, 78 percent read online newspapers or magazines, and 65 percent listen to the radio or watch the television through the Internet. Three quarters of the users also use an online banking service, 29 percent have bought products or used services, but only 14 percent have sold products or services through the Internet.

Icenews reports

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SMX will be held in London for the third time, the conference is lead by Chris Sherman and is a two day event taking place on the 18th and the 19th of May this year. Among speakers are several Multilingual [...]]]> SMX will be held in London for the third time, the conference is lead by Chris Sherman and is a two day event taking place on the 18th and the 19th of May this year. Among speakers are several Multilingual Search Editors and keynote is the Chairman and CEO, OgilvyOne Worldwide, Brian Featherstonhaugh. For me the SMX is a premium event for those seeking to learn the latest techniques in search marketing and hear from the best experts in their field.

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Internet usage in Sweden droped sharply after new file sharing laws. This legislation makes it possible to order any Swedish Internet operator to provide details identifying suspected copyright infringers. The effects of the new laws were almost instant. The day [...]]]> Internet usage in Sweden droped sharply after new file sharing laws. This legislation makes it possible to order any Swedish Internet operator to provide details identifying suspected copyright infringers. The effects of the new laws were almost instant. The day the laws came into effect, local news media Netnod reported that Internet traffic was 30 percent on the day before these .

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According to a survey done by Statistics Iceland for the year 2008, Reykjavik has nearly 100% penetration of fast connection that is (ADSL or other types of xDSL connections), this changes very little when comes to region outside, goes down [...]]]> According to a survey done by Statistics Iceland for the year 2008, Reykjavik has nearly 100% penetration of fast connection that is (ADSL or other types of xDSL connections), this changes very little when comes to region outside, goes down to 90%. So of a population of 319.326 some 305.000 have good access to the internet.

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The annual Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference and Expo (RIMC) will be taking place on Friday 20th March in Reykjavik, Iceland this year. The conference focuses on Online communications and Internet marketing in a International Environment.

Speakers include Sion Portman, European [...]]]> The annual Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference and Expo (RIMC) will be taking place on Friday 20th March in Reykjavik, Iceland this year. The conference focuses on Online communications and Internet marketing in a International Environment.

Speakers include Sion Portman, European Marketing Manager – Nike, Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist – Google, Rand Fiskin, CEO – SEOmoz, Ben Chapman, Marketing/Development – BBC, Mark Killingley, European Marketing Manager – NFL, Eugene Lomize, Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner – Beyond Ink, Head of Advertising Technologies Dep. – Yandex and Shari Thurow – Omni Marketing.

For more info go to www.rimc.is

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According to Elvar Arason researcher and a senior consultat at ABSmedia Iceland nearly all Icelanders aged 20 to 29 are registered on Facebook. This social media website is a huge success in the country to say the least.

Nearly half of [...]]]> According to Elvar Arason researcher and a senior consultat at ABSmedia Iceland nearly all Icelanders aged 20 to 29 are registered on Facebook. This social media website is a huge success in the country to say the least.

Nearly half of the nation is registered or just under 120.000 people and nearly everybody in the age group 20 to 29 has a profile.

Woman are dominant with around 60% of the registrations or just over 69.000.

Age, Icelanders, No on Facebook, % using FB
13-19 32.909 27.500 83,6%
20-29 46.391 44.460 95,8%
30-39 44.204 28.080 63,5%
40-49 45.190 13.820 30,6%
50-59 37.921 5.020 13,2%
60+ 50.278 1.560 3,1%
Total 256.893 120.440 46,9%

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Statistics Iceland has published the results of its seventh survey on the use of ICT and the Internet by Icelandic households and individuals. The survey was conducted earlier this year and shows how the vast majority of Icelandic households have [...]]]> Statistics Iceland has published the results of its seventh survey on the use of ICT and the Internet by Icelandic households and individuals. The survey was conducted earlier this year and shows how the vast majority of Icelandic households have one or more computers and access to the Internet. In 2008, 92% of the households had a computer and 88% of the households had access to the Internet.

xDSL Internet connection are the most common type of Internet connections, whereas 94% of the Internet-connected households used an xDSL connection. That year only 5% of the Internet-connected households used a dial-up telephone connection or an ISDN connection.

According to Statistics Iceland the use of computers and the Internet is very widespread among individuals in Iceland. In 2008, 92% of the population aged 16–74 years used a computer and 91% had used the Internet in a period of three months prior to the survey. As in previous years the Internet is mainly used for information search and communication. In 2008, 36% of internet users aged 16–74 years had ordered goods or services over the Internet during a period of three months prior to the survey. As in previous years, the most popular goods and services purchased over the Internet are related to travel and accommodation.

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