When you need to analyse data in Google Analytics , one of the frustrating things is the ability to only export a maxium of 500 rows. If you are like me a need to analyse data ranges larger than 500 rows, then you could be there for an age pulling the data out 500 rows at  a time.

There is actually a fix for this which allows you to export up to 50,000 rows (although you still only see 500 rows in the Google Analytics browser view). Simply paste the following to the end of the url, “&limit=50000”. Now export the results to a .CSV file and see the results.

There has been a lot of talk over the last few days about Google showing full page views in search results and today we are seeing this rolled out officially. As mentioned by Patrick at Blogstorm yesterday, Google announced that they will be rolling out previews over the next few days, and we are already seeing the results:

Its only appearing across a few search queries currently, and actually looks good for sites that have a design that fits with the preview option. Some sites have also gained an advantage with an additional pop-up being captured in the preview, see below for lastminute.com:

Has anyone else seen this appearing today?

Its not my first stop when buying online, but when my wife asked me to check some xmas present ideas on M&S I was surprised with the results in Google.  It’s strange to see that the main Marks and Spencer ecommerce site does not currently rank for any brand terms?

All the other sites such as M&S Money, M&S Corporate etc are returned but no sign of www.marksandspencer.com. Trying brand searches with some generics also returned no organic results, however they do appear on the paid results, and also by chance it includes the new adwords star ratings in the ad:

In the past we have seen major brands suffer penalties and it seems M&S have suffered a similar fate in the organics. Not exactly the perfect time with xmas just over 6 weeks away and also coinciding with the announcement today of pre-tax profits of £348.8m, up from £306.7m last year.

We also have the new M&S christmasTV advert set to hit our screens over the next few weeks and i’m sure that being removed from the organics was not part of their xmas campaign.

With Marc Bolland (new chief exec) outlining new strategies to increase growth, he might want to start taking a look at his SEO strategy.

]]> http://www.charlie-roberts.net/google-penalty-marks-and-spencer/feed/ 0 http://www.charlie-roberts.net/google-penalty-marks-and-spencer/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CharlieRoberts/~3/WIS6gTSTHS0/ http://www.charlie-roberts.net/google-enters-flights-comparison-so-whats-next-in-travel/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:49:04 +0000 Charlie http://www.charlie-roberts.net/?p=153

Last week we had the announcement from Google that they had reached an agreement to acquire ITA, a travel reservations software company based in Boston, for $700 million. At this stage Google are only entering the flights market, with ITA only focusing on airlines, not hotels or car hire. But flights are the perfect stepping stone into the travel market, and Google will already be thinking of the next move.

ITA are behind the reservation systems for many major airlines globally, but what’s interesting, is that Bing Travel also relies on the software, and so Google will now own the booking infrastructure of one of its biggest competitors travel product.

So what does this mean for all the travel destination sites and aggregators? Although flights may only be part of their offering, it will only be a matter of time surely before Google decide to partner with or purchase a Hotel comparison site. However, flights as a product is fairly straight forward, you want to fly from A to B, and have a choice of three classes, so give me a price. Hotels is a very different proposition altogether. Whilst you could argue it still comes down to price, it has many different factors that contribute to the decision making. What type of room? What’s the service like? Is it value for money? What leisure facilities are available?

Hotels reviews are a crucial part of the booking process, and should always be based on the opinions of consumers and experts. Whilst Google may be able to provide a comparison of the best prices, the value add is the review and information about the experience of staying in the hotel that ultimately contributes to the decision to go ahead an book the room.

Google is a search engine, not a comparison engine. They have shown already, they can roll out products in other markets very easily, such as the recent credit cards comparison, but they are not a brand you would associate with finance products. The same goes for travel, they may well be able to compete on flights, as it is a very straight forward offering with little differences in the flight product to choose from apart from price. But again they lack the travel brand behind them, and whilst they may be able to offer the same prices as Expedia or Sky Scanner, they will always struggle to bring with it the confidence and peace of mind that leading travel brands have spent years building.

In their quest to provide the ultimate search experience, Google have added another new feature to the SERPs. Since Google has made the recent changes to its interface, some additional links have appeared just below the map when you perform a local keyword search.

When searching for restaurants for example, you would add a modifier such as “London restaurants”,  but for the larger cities such as London, you still need to get even granular with your search, such as adding cusine type or a region of London. See the example below for “London restaurants”:

In the above example you can see that Google is now providing links to longer tail search results to help the user refine their search with additional modifiers. In the example Google offers cuisine type search, which on click gives the following results for “Italian restaurants”…

Alternatively if you select one of the region links, such as “Mayfair” you are given the following result……

Whilst this is an improvement, an even better search experience would be to give the option of the two modifiers combined, for example “Italian restaurants in Mayfair London”, see below…

Combining the two modifiers “Italian” and “Mayfair” gives a better refined search result for both the user and also the restaurant. Restaurants targeting the longer tail search will see a bigger conversion and also less competition for the terms.

Google doesn’t offer such refined links currently but will only be a matter of time no doubt. What is evident is Googles quest to educate the searcher and  to give them  a better search experience and ultimately the search result they want to find.

The links are only available when searching in larger destinations such as London, New York and Sydney, and not across smaller locations at this stage.

I have  seen the same links appearing for hotel terms as well as restaurants, but not across any other terms so far. Have anyone else seen these used for any keyword types? If so let me know in the comments below…

Did you know that women are using mobile more than men for social networking? Research by Nielson indicates that women were found to use their mobile phones to send tweets and network with friends 10% more than men.

The research also displayed that of all the age groups the 35-54 age group had the most active mobile social networkers.

Social Networking

Smartphones are really starting to have an impact, with the iPhone playing a key part in this. One of the key learnings for sites is to ensure that they are optimising  for mobile and smart phones as usage is only ever going to increase.

Source - Nielson

Recently Hitwise reported that social media was on the rise in Australia, and they were predicting that social media would overtake search engines in visits by Christmas 09.  This did in fact happen, and although this was not sustained as highlighted in the graph below, it certainly highlights the impact social media is having on search.

Source

Facebook and Youtube seem to be providing a large amount of the growth, but sites such as twitter will have a huge impact in 2010. Other markets such as the UK will see big increases themselves this year forcing both SME’s and big brands to gain a greater understanding of social media, and how it impacts their business.

Corporates have been suggesting that social traffic is a cost and does not provide a lasting benefit, but this can depend on what your are measuring. If you are looking for instant returns on a first visit then you will be disappointed. Social traffic generates links into sites which impacts search rankings that then in turn generate visits from search engines. Secondary benefit is creating brand awareness which will increase returning visitors to the site.

A greater understanding of social media and the type of traffic it delivers will only benefit businesses moving forward.