Today Google announced an update to their webmaster tools guidelines. It’s been a while since they last updated their guidelines, which had become a little dated after a turbulent year with so many significant algorithm updates.

One important addition has been rich snippets.

What are rich snippets?

Rich snippets are designed to provide searchers with additional information on a site’s content prior to clicking through to it. An example that people will be familiar with is the star review snippet.

This allows searchers to form an opinion on the quality of a site before they even click through to the site.

Other rich snippets include

• music (listing songs, track durations),
• people (name, job titles, photo, Steve Jobs),
• products (pricing, ratings, availability),
• business organisations (name, telephone, website),
• recipes (name, reviews, photos)
• events (date, type, location, tickets, photos, Foo Fighters)
• consumer software such as mobile phone apps.

What are the benefits of rich snippets?

From the examples above, it’s pretty clear what the benefits are of well implemented rich snippets. If you can stand out from your competitors when that set of search results pops up, then you’re likely to experience increased click through rates.

Rich snippets are also a great way to position your brand by creating a sense of authority in the search results. When Google puts so much more emphasis on your listing over and above the competition searchers are more comfortable in clicking through to your site. The additional exposure and space that your listing takes up is also a great platform for getting your message across to prospective customers.

Rich snippets and social media

Rich snippets can also be used to distribute your social media content. Video mark up and Facebook share are recognised by Google and can be attached to your videos to encourage interaction. Marking up your video can also help Google show videos uploaded to YouTube in the search results.

As traditional link building moves more to a content centred approach there has been considerable interest in the author tag, an element of the people rich snippet. When interconnected with a blog and Google+ profile, Google can show details of an author alongside the content they have published in the search results. This can have a profound effect on personal brands as well as increase click through rates and social following.

For more information about the new Google rich snippet guidelines visit the Webmaster Central Blog.

It might sound a bit medieval but, as official Google Local Champions, Liberty Marketing will be riding in on their noble white steed to get small-to-medium Welsh businesses online, in touch and up to date with the internet! There won’t be any swords, shields or damsels in distress, instead we’ll be offering workshops and one-to-one support as part as the Google Juice Bar and GWBO (Getting Welsh Business Online) initiatives.

These programmes were masterminded by Google after a study found that Wales is lagging far behind its British neighbours when it comes to online business. Whilst the UK as a whole has the biggest online economy in the world, Wales is not receiving a proportional amount of this benefit. Here are a few interesting facts and figures that illustrate the problem:

• The UK online economy makes up at least 7% GDP
• That’s more that the construction, utilities and transport sectors
• The internet economy contributed more than £100bn to the UK market last year
• In Wales 25% of small-to-medium businesses don’t have a website
• Of the 75% that have a website, a mere 58% have a high web presence
• Welsh businesses with successful sites grew 7x to 8x faster than those without a well-performing website.

These statistics are the result of an in-depth, Google-commissioned study which showed a surprising backwardness in the Welsh online industry. With these stats in mind Google and the Welsh Assembly Government decided it was time to act.

Starting in March 2012, a year of online awareness will see the Google Juice Bar travelling across the country. After the launch event in Cardiff on March 6th, the Google Juice Bars and workshops will travel across the country, helping small-to-medium businesses to blossom and reach their full potential on the internet.

These workshops and Juice Bar sessions are free, friendly and don’t come with any added sales pitches! Best of all, they can cover the area of your choice. Whether you’re a total novice looking to set up a free website for your company, or want to learn how to market your existing website online – the Google Juice Bar experts are here to help.

As official Google Local Champions, the Liberty Marketing team are excited to be part of such a fantastic, worthwhile initiative. As the fastest growing online marketing agency in Wales we are passionate about promoting and boosting Welsh business online. If you would like to learn more about how to boost your business online, or would like to know more about the GWBO initiative, take a look at the following link or get in touch with the Liberty team today!

The Advertising Standards Agency’s online remit is due to expand to cover the marketing communications on organisations’ own websites, as well as other non-paid-for-space under their control.

This significant development which will undoubtedly affect the operations of in-house online marketing teams as well as marketing agencies across the UK is to be brought in on March 1 of this year.

This progression in the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing will regulate all of an organisation’s messages which appear online. The new rules will govern areas including misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children.

Such a development is due to be greeted with open arms by consumers and ethical businesses alike, as it will offer further protection to both, ensuring the same high standards are applied online as are enforced in other media.

The new regulation is set to cover:

• Marketing messages displayed by businesses on their own websites, ensuring their integrity regardless of the sector or industry in which they operates. The rules will apply to all organisations, completely irrespective of size.
• Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Following the principles of the ASA’s new remit will ensure that you can continue to run your business with complete peace of mind, safe in the knowledge that your obligations have been met. You can find more information on the Committee of Advertising Practice website: http://www.cap.org.uk/CAPServices/Digital-remit-advice.aspx

If you have any confusion regarding the regulations, contact the team here at Liberty Marketing, and we will be happy to ensure the marketing messages on your website are fully compliant.

Social network ad spend has been rising steadily over the last few years with marketers extending their online pay per click and banner advertising beyond the seach engines to include the social networks as well. It is estimated that during 2011 marketers in the US alone will spend £3.08 billion on social network advertising. eMarketer predicts that US ad spend will be up 55% on 2010 when marketers spent $1.99 billion, and that worldwide social network spend will be up 71.6% in 2011 to $5.97billion.



Facebook, by far the largest social network, is clearly having the greatest impact on this growth through a year-on-year increase in Facebook advertising. Facebook therefore contributes up to 65% of the 2011 prediciton. eMarketer predicts that advertising spend on facebook will hit $2.19 billion in the US alone in 2011 and over $4 billion worldwide. That's more than double the total spent in 2010!


So as we move further into 2011 social networks are poised to absorb an even greater percentage of all online spending making them difficult to ignore for any business serious about their online marketing. We will be watching eagerly to see what developments Facebook has planned for the forthcoming year.

Currently running in Beta test mode, Google are testing video extensions that will be shown with their Adwords ads.

The plan is to have an "expandable plus-box" directly beneath the normal PPC text ad in which video extensions will play. Users will be able to watch the video before deciding whether or not to click-through. This sounds interesting for users, but the current cost of this service for advertisers is less appealing.

Once viewers reach the 10 second mark the advertiser will be charged the same maximum cost per click as if their ad had been clicked, regardless of whether it is clicked. So will this lead to a flurry of 10 second ads or are the search results becoming more and more cluttered, as with Google Preview?

Google has suggested that video extensions could be of particular use for product demonstrations, previews and trailers.

At present, there are no plans to roll this service out in the UK.

Google has now launched “Instant Previews”, which provides a preview of the organic search results without a searcher having to click through to the site itself. These previews appear on the right hand side of the Google search results screen when you click the little magnifying glass icon next to the search results.

This new addition comes hot on the heels of Google's launch of Google Instant. Unlike Google Instant search, Google Instant Preview is by default turned off, the magnifying glass must be clicked to activate this new feature. The preview istself is a graphic overview of a search result that highlights those sections which are most applicable to the search term used making it easier to see whether a site is worth visiting or not.

Google Preview will start showing up from today, 9th November 2010 and should be available in 40 languages and to all users within a couple of days. Google claims that during the testing of Google Instant Preview, those using Instant Preview stated that they were about 5% more likely to be satisfied with the results they clicked. This new visual comparison seems set to change the way visitors evaluate websites and choose whether or not to visit them.

At this point Google Preview doesn't extend to Google Ads, even though every Google Ad ends up at a web page. Google has thought about the option, but isn’t including it in the initial launch. Although incredibly fast and powerful, Google Preview still finds including sites created in Flash difficult with the majority of flash sites not yet being turned into a preview. Unlike Google Instant, which shuts off when your web connection slows, Google Instant Previews is available even on poor internet connections.

With Microsoft Advertising adCenter now providing all paid search results for Yahoo! Search and Bing in the US, and Bing supplying the organic search results for Yahoo! Search, they have just announced that this will be rolled out in select markets across europe and the UK in early 2011.

The european transition will begin with the UK, France and Ireland with all of europe expected to be completed by early 2012.

Current advice is to continue using adCenter as normal but to expect further information regarding the pending changes approximately 3 months prior to any changes taking place.

In a report published today it was revealed that the internet in the UK alone is worth £100 billion to the economy, representing more than a 7% share of total national income.

The study, carried out by the Boston Consulting Group on behalf of Google, the internet’s most successful company, places a value on the UK internet market for the first time.

If it were an industry in its own right the internet would be more than twice the value of the UK hotel and restaurant market and nearly as big as the financial sector, which accounts for 9% of Gross Domestic Products in 2009.

However, the research did find that there is a digital divide in the UK, with certain parts of the country – namely Scotland and Northern Ireland – lagging far behind London and the south-east.

In an interesting twist in the report, it turns out that British consumers are more willing to spend money online than can be typically seen elsewhere. E-commerce drives a large section of the internet’s expansion; as a proportion of retail sales, online transactions in the UK are high.

To emphasise this point, the UK has the largest e-commerce market in the world when measured by the amount spent per capita. The popularity of buying goods and services has also fueled a boom in the amount companies are prepared to pay for online marketing as heavy spending can help attract users to their sites.

The online advertising market in Britain is worth £3.5 billion and is the biggest anywhere outside the US.

It is forecasted that the internet economy is to continue to boom with 10% year on year growth projected for the next 5 years. If this trend comes to fruition then the internet economy will contribute up to 13% of GDP by the year 2015. For an idea of scale the current internet economy is already larger than the utility and transport industries put together.          

The report also highlights the success of small firms using the internet to increase global sales. The UK now exports goods and services which are worth £2.80 for every £1 it imports. Google’s annual turnover was £23.6bn last year which encompasses very nearly a quarter of the £100 billion contribution the entire internet made to the UK economy in 2009.

Writing AdWords copy has become a modern day art form, one that many SEM’s have refined over years to take advantage of the 4 line structure. I’m sure we have all slaved over that phrase or line which is just 1 character too long! Well, Google have recently made things more challenging – thanks very much - by adding variable line lengths to the equation.

In the past we have written ads which fit within the following structure:

Title: 25 characters max
Line 2: 35 characters max
Line 3: 35 characters max
Display URL: 35 characters max

This strict format has often seen punctuation omitted in favour of that last character and to date we have been able to get away with it because we know exactly how our ad will appear in Google. Variable line lengths change this by expanding or contracting the line length in relation to the size of a user’s browser.

The result is that an ad you may have spent ages over will now appear in a completely different way to different users thereby losing some of its advertising appeal in the process.

So what does this mean for future copy?

Good copywriters won’t be fazed by this change. A good copywriter will create dynamic copy which reads well regardless, but the correct use of punctuation will now become critical to ensure your advertising message gets through the way you intended. Reviewing existing ads and altering them accordingly would also be advisable.

Here are five tricks used by the more unscrupulous internet marketing firms. Swindles such as these have been going on since the dawn of the internet and while some of them are just a cheeky way of getting a few pounds out of your marketing budget, some of them could cost you thousands and potentially cause long-term harm to your website.

Each of these is a scam in use today and is one that businesses we deal with have been caught out on in the past. We are highlighting them here so that you can see the types of tricks that exist and can hopefully spot them before handing over your cash.

Scam #1 - “We’ll put you top of Google for 10 of your keywords for only £200 a month”

This is a pay per click scam that has become pretty popular over the past couple of years, with a number of businesses we know falling for it, to their later regret. On the face of it, the offer seems like a good one: A company calls you saying they will put your website in the sponsored listings on Google and guarantees that your site will appear on the first page for only £200 a month. What they don’t tell you is that the search terms are ones that are rarely used so are cheap to bid on. For example, if you were an IFA that works nationally then bidding on the keyword “pension advice” would be expensive, but bidding on “independent pension advice in South Wales” wouldn’t be. These pay per click companies will bid on keywords like the latter so that not that many clicks happen, and when they do, the cost is minimal. Out of the £200, you may only receive a few pounds worth of clicks, with the company pocketing the other £190 or so as a monthly management fee.

We have also seen one company that doesn’t stop there. They will charge you an additional £50 set-up fee which they say is mandatory as it’s charged by Google. Whilst it is true that Google does charge an Adwords set-up fee, it is actually only £5, and it gets refunded out of your first few clicks anyway.

How can you avoid this scam? If anyone cold calls you offering pay per click advertising then perhaps it’s better not to sign up over the phone. Instead, take their details, stick them into a search engine, and have a look to see if they are associated with this type of con. If it looks genuine then find out whether they let you bid on the more competitive keywords or whether they just let you choose from low level ones.

Scam #2 - “We’ll submit your site to hundreds of search engines for only £10”

One of the oldest online marketing scams and one of the most pointless. The first thing you should be aware of is that there are only three main search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) and they take up over 95% of all search queries made in the UK. Submitting a website to any others is a worthless exercise.

The next thing you need to know is that submitting a site to a search engine can potentially do more harm than good. For a long time it has been widely accepted within the online marketing world that search engines prefer to find websites via inbound links. It is believed that search engines will sooner show a website they find on their own, via another website, than one they are force fed through a submission.

If you have a new site then to get indexed, all you need is one link from a website that is popular with the search engines and your site will start showing in results pages within a matter of days or weeks.

There is a variation on this scam where companies try to get on-going money out of you by offering to re-submit your site regularly. Even if the above wasn’t true then this additional service is a complete waste of time as once the search engines know your site exists and have crawled it, they place you within their database, something they don’t need to be asked to do over and over again.

Scam #3 - “We guarantee to get you #1 on Google”

No-one can promise you the first position on Google. There are hundreds of factors that search engines use to determine the search results, many of which aren’t known to people outside of Google. If someone is making guarantees then it is highly likely that one of two things are happening. They may be offering to optimise your site for keywords that are of a very low competition level (much as the pay per click scam, above), or, more worryingly, there may be something dodgy going on.

Black hat techniques, such as cloaking and keyword stuffing, are used by some SEO companies to trick search engines into ranking a website. Whilst these often work in the short term, they can actually damage your website in the long-term. When the search engines discover that these techniques have been used they can penalise, and even ban your website from the search results. Don’t think it can’t happen to you either, as BMW once had their website disappear from Google thanks to some black hat work, and if it can happen to a company of that size, then it can happen to anyone.

Scam #4 - “We will give you 1000 links for only £9.99”

Whilst inbound link building is an important part of search engine optimisation, the links do need to come from quality, relevant websites. Buying links in bulk, through companies that have automated link submission systems will never bring in links from good websites in relevant fields.

The links will most likely come from spammy directories that no person and no search engine is ever going to bother with. Not only will the links be completely worthless but they could highlight to the search engines that something dodgy is going on and pose harm to your existing rankings.

Scam #5 - “We will build you a high ranking sales page on our site”

Whilst micro sites and separate sales pages can work for businesses there is one fairly common trick that should be avoided. The company offers to build a one-off page, branded with your logo, optimised for your keywords, and hosted on their business directory site. This sounds good as there are no hosting or web development fees for you, but what it lacks is control. The page is a part of their site, not yours, so your monthly fee is paying them to work on improving the ranking of a website that doesn’t belong to you.

If you ever decide that you no longer want the page then you are left with nothing, and they are left with a valuable asset that they can easily sell to one of your competitors. If you decide that coming up high on the search engines is a goal for your business then it is probably wiser to work on improving your site rather than someone else’s.