Make Mine Instant!

So Google announced yesterday the launch of a service they are dubbing “search faster than the speed of type”! Calling itself Google Instant, it has had Twitter and the blogosphere flooded with people from the search industry fretting about how this innovation could affect their campaigns.

If you haven’t tried it yet, Google Instant automatically populates the results page (known in the industry as SERPs) whilst you type. No longer do you have to press the Enter key on your keyboard, or the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button to see the results of what you’re searching for. Google themselves estimate that Instant will save users anything up to 5 seconds per search. This may not sound like a lot, but these seconds all add up when you consider how many searches we conduct through the search engine each day.

But let’s face it; Google has done this for several reasons. Firstly, it’s innovative, and part of Google’s brand is based on their innovative and intuitive products. Automatic search suggestion as you type has long been with the three main search engines, but none of them have hitherto showed a full search result based on the first letter typed into the search box!

Secondly, it’s a time saving tool which will lure users back to the Google home page. Google search has been increasingly appearing on different corners of the web for a while (perhaps more prominently, in the right hand corner of our web browsers), and these handy shortcuts have steered people away from using the Google homepage as their search starting point.

This tool is highly dynamic and potentially game changing for those who work in search or even advertise on Google. It means that some Pay Per Click (PPC) adverts may only appear for a split second on the results page, as Google changes the visible results according to what the user is typing. This could affect PPC and SEO campaigns in three main ways. Firstly, it could mean lower Click Through Rates (CTR) on Google Adwords. For SEO, It could also mean increase the importance to rank high on short tail organic keywords. Finally, it could also further decline the importance of misspellings as Instant automatically corrects

At present, Instant is only available to users logged into a Google Account, who are located in certain countries, and who are searching from the Google home page. And because of its current level of restricted access it is hard to see Instant changing anything from an SEO and PPC perspective in the immediate future. But as with all things that Google does, the proof is in the pudding. Time will tell as to how this ground breaking change to Google’s core product will affect those who advertise with it, and wish to rank high in its search results.

On 21^st-22^nd September at Olympia, the online marketing & advertising community will gather together at ad:tech London to reveal the latest trends and market figures, share best practices and address the challenges the online industry faces.

Gravytrain will be there on stand 146 and we’ll be hosting our own seminar:

‘Kick-ass Google Analytics to drive ROI’

Google Analytics provides marketers with huge volumes of visitor data, but it can be tough to translate that data into insight, let alone actions to improve ROI. Fear the data no longer, in this seminar we will show you how to create your own kick-ass reports to help you improve your the perforamce of your sites. You will learn how to:
- Segment your visitors to gain insight
- Understand why visitors fail to convert
- Uncover lost opportunities to maximise customer revenue

The session will provide actionable takeaways relevant to a wide variety of industry sectors.

Even better? It’s completely free to attend! To visit the ad:tech expo and access a huge range of seminars completely free, click here to register.

We’d love to see you there! If you are coming along do pop over to the stand and say hello.

Plus – we’ll be running a fantastic competition to win a track day worth £1000 on our stand; the lucky winner and 4 friends will experience the thrill of high speed passenger laps around one of Britain’s premier motor racing circuits.

Even if you can’t make it to ad:tech fear not – we’ll be posting our seminar slides on the blog shortly after the event, because we’re nice like that.

We’ve recently won some lovely new SEO & PPC clients – as such we’re recruiting a PPC/SEO Exec (your time will be split roughly 50/50 on PPC and SEO), who’ll be based in our offices in Hampton Hill, TW12 1ND.

A full job spec is detailed below; to apply please email a CV and covering letter to hannah@gravytrain.co.uk or to discuss the opportunity further call 020 8941 2364.

Reporting to:

SEM Team Manager

Duties & Responsibilities

1. Assist in the management of our client’s PPC campaigns.
2. Assist in the planning, development and implementation of strategy to improve ranking, traffic and the conversion rates of our SEO clients
3. Identify and analyse key metrics and assess the performance of campaigns, providing clients with written monthly reports
4. Day to day client liaison via phone / email / face to face
5. Keep up with industry news and developments
6. Represent the company at industry events / conferences
7. Create new business pitch documentation and attend pitches

Person Specification

Personality

A self-starter you will be driven, positive and focused on delivering high quality results for our clients.

Skills / Experience:

Essential:

1. A minimum of one year’s hands on PPC experience gained either client or agency-side
2. Excellent written and verbal communication skills
3. Strong analytical skills
4. A genuine passion for the web, online marketing and social media

Desirable:

1. University graduate
2. Be active within the online marketing community
3. Previous experience of SEO / social media / online reputation management / email marketing

Working Hours

Monday – Friday 9am – 5.30pm.

Salary

Up to  £26k per annum depending on experience

Benefits

Private health care and subsidised gym membership.

This xkcd comic seemed strangely appropriate… enjoy

We’ll be celebrating with Gravytrain employees past and present at what will undoubtedly be a decidedly boozy company barbecue. We’re chuffed to bits to have got here, and of course would like to thank our wonderful clients, friends and families without whom none of this would have been possible.

Cheers!

Image credit Sheriff of Nothing