You can see the brochure here.

A smart set of tools to make optimising adword campaigns easier.

It works by instantly (hence the name) updating the results it shows as you type, whilst also suggesting some options for the keywords you are using as you type.

The new Google Chrome browser includes this functionality within the search bar. We’re seeing Chrome usage growing to around 6% of our client’s site traffic so this is not inconsequential.

We believe that this technology will change search behaviour by:

1. Keywords diversity will reduce as searchers choose from those keyword combinations that are prompted. We are particularly expecting it to reduce the number of searches finding our client’s sites that contain spelling mistakes.

2. Keyword length will reduce as results are automatically pre-filled as you type

3. The order of keywords in search phrases will change as searchers start to use words at the start of their search that qualify what they are looking for earlier. For example, those looking for a book with a specific title, will use “Book Jamie Oliver” and not “Jamie Oliver Book”

We’ve been monitoring our UK based client’s sites to test whether the above theories run true particularly as it is over 6 months since launch, and with the rapid growth of the Chrome browser. Naturally, our analysis has been affected by the Google Farmer/Panda update and the social search update, but we have been able to make some conclusions:

1. Keyword diversity

There has been quite a considerable change in the keywords delivering traffic to the sites. Looking at the top 1,000 keywords, we would expect them to be delivering more of the overall traffic if keywords were becoming less diverse. The opposite has actually appeared to happen with the diversity of keywords increasing. One publishing site shows this best. 8.9% more of their site traffic is now driven from outside their top 1,000 keywords.

2. Keyword length

This has shortened in every test. However, it is a very small drop in the number of characters, typically only 2% less. As such, it is a very minor impact

3. Keyword order

As of now, we can ascertain no definitive difference in the order of keywords being used. By the very nature of the site’s receiving most of their traffic from long tail keywords, we plan to review this conclusion in a few months when more data is collected.

Google Instant is without doubt having an impact on search behaviour. Anecdotal stories are already emerging where users learn how to use this new technology. As of now, the green shoots of some impact are beginning to be seen. These green shoots will no doubt blossom as more and more users learn how to take advantage of the functionality.

This portal contains interviews with the UK’s major entrenpreneurs. From Sir Alan Sugar to Anita Roddick, aspiring, budding and practicing entrepreneurs visit the site to learn how to make their business grow. One of the largest challenges, is that the audience is continuously changing and needs to be constantly refreshed. As those who start up begin to be successful, they migrate away from the site to be replaced by a new generation of business executives looking to make their ideas a reality.

This makes the digital marketing a challenge – we need to seek out, engage with and retain those looking to start up whilst they are in start up phase. Working with our team, Crimson Business use our expertise to interpret their web site analytics and to devise effective search engine marketing, email and social media campaigns to find fresh audiences and engage with them to that they begin to rely on the site.

At present, the update is mainly impacting search results over the water in the US. However, it is having quite a large impact on the keywords that sites rank for. In many cases dropping the traffic they receive from long tail keywords dramatically.

Many sites have been caught in the cross fire being wrongly identified as a content farm, and have seen their traffic fall dramatically over night. For price comparison sites, this is a real threat as the majority of their content is duplicated elsewhere. This will give Google’s own shopping services even more prominence.

The largest implication is for marketers who use content on their site to attract traffic. Quite simply, if your content is original and respected online (with high page ranks) this update will not affect you heavily. If you take articles from others, now is the time to reconsider your strategy.

This month, Google updated its search results again to pay much more attention to your social footprint. Following the caffeine update, Google has been wrestling with how to include, present and lever the increasing amount of content being created on social media platforms. Their latest update is their answer.

The new promotional video explains the changes but in short, your search results will include references to relevant content from your social networks. So if someone you follow on twitter has liked a product on Facebook, this will be given more prominence.

In this way, Google is personalising your experience and using the people’s opinions that you trust (real authority) to prioritise content.

It all relies on you linking together your social media accounts, and letting Google overlay your network on search results. This throws up all sorts of privacy considerations especially as you need to be extra vigilant about what/who you allow to see your updates on multiple social media platforms.

We’re think that this is an obvious step for Google as it tries to personalise and localise search.

Our excitement is tainted with a slight not of apprehension though – we’ve realised that Google knows more about what we’re doing and with who than our own mothers. And we all remember some pretty ferocious “telling off” when we were younger for things our parents found out we were doing.

Google is monitoring your web site (analytics), your spending (Google checkout), your search history (Google), your documentation (docs), your email (Gmail and Google apps). Google knows more about what we’re doing than our own parents. When will they start “telling us off” too?

The airport transfers site was designed and developed by our team. Working with EasyJet’s tight brand guidelines, our content management system managed site allows the in-house marketing team to add, amend or remove content. Offers can be added, new transfer options can be added whenever required giving the team the opportunity to keep the content as fresh, up to date and as effective as possible.

We’re particularly proud of our creative team’s flash banners, but not quite as proud as the EasyJet team who’ve made it pride of place on the home page!

The team at Wiley wanted to optimise their site content for the highest search engine positioning possible. With Google particularly delivering millions of visitors every month, this book and journal publisher knew that small improvements in their content and site structure would reap significant dividends.

And this is where we came in. Working with publishing training company, Marketability, we developed and delivered an in house training course.

Perfectly tailored to the Wiley portfolio of over 300 web sites, each course for each team levers the present site analytics from Google Analytics to develop a bespoke road maps of improvements for that team.

“I have heard very positive feedback already so I think you really hit the nail on the head with this group”

Over 70 marketers across 4 international locations are involved in the training, with the resulting enthusiasm and content updates already lifting traffic.

AOL has long been left behind by GMail and Hotmail in the battle to be the webmail system of choice in the UK. With Facebook making a play to be the inbox of choice which pulls content from other messaging providers, it will be interesting to see if AOL’s latest innovation takes off. Code named Project Phoenix, the new inbox includes a number of tools to make sending messages simpler and quicker. The quick bar acts like a short cut menu and the smart view functionality allows more advanced previewing of messaged before you open them.

Perhaps more interestingly, the new inbox can aggregate email from “almost any provider, including GMail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail, right inside your AOL inbox”. Combine this with a premium service designed more for heavy email users (and for this, we conclude businesses presently using Google apps), and this is a serious play in re-establishing AOL as a major email player.

For email marketers, it is time to watch the number of people using AOL on your lists. Rather than hunting for those email addresses using “@aol.com” domains, users will be able to use new domains including “love.com, wow.com and games.com” so it may not be as simple to plot as before. Good practice would be to check your templates to see how they appear in AOL.

Likewise, the new update includes a review of spam filtering technology in line with other systems and uses recipient feedback loops and algorithms that consider other engagement metrics.

For more information about Project Phoenix watch the below video:

It has been a hard few years for schools. Funding cuts, the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future initiative and many restructures of local authorities. Combined, they have made the day-to-day management of schools more challenging than ever before. And this is before the challenges of the classroom such as boosting attainment and making sure every child receives the very best teaching possible.

For those companies who supply schools, it has been an even more uncertain time. Babcock 4S is one of the leading schools improvement service providers in the UK, and in response to market changes decided to promote their offering of over 300 training courses with a brand new Learning and Development catalogue.

From this point, we took the lead project managing the launch of the catalogue and associated launch marketing working within the client’s offices to co-ordinate the internal teams. Our hard working studio was responsible for all creative, design, copy and print management and together we launched Babcock 4S’s first ever catalogue.