It’s been a few months since we updated this blog but hopefully we have been communicating enough on the topic directly to both Publishers and Merchants.  Our account teams have been in regular contact with clients on the subject and clearly it’s been a hot topic for many. The smoke is starting to clear and it seems that most are being proportionate when taking on board the guidance from the Regulator. We are optimistic that much can be done to improve transparency online in a way that does not needlessly damage business. It’s hard to imagine an internet where spend cannot be monitored due to disruptive opt in implementations and we take confidence from what the Regulator and the Government has said about not intending to damage business.

I think it is fair to say that things could be clearer and that businesses have been left with difficult decisions to make. Often there have been conflicting messages coming out from the authorities but given that we are less than 3 months away from the deadline people have now weighed everything up and made their decisions or are on the cusp of doing so.

Two months ago I took on the Chair position for the IAB AMC Legislation Committee and working with industry colleagues we have recently published a Consumer Transparency Framework. Mostly it is aimed at publishers and intends to give straightforward practical guidance on how transparency can be addressed and improved, hopefully in a way that is broadly consistent across the sector. The Framework can be found here.

We maintain our advice that publishers should not simply ignore the requirements and guidance – given how publishers interact with consumers online and how they earn their money we think doing nothing would be a difficult position to defend. True, many of the cookies used are not your own (they are dropped by third parties). But this has been covered in what the Regulator has said about who is best placed to provide transparency to consumers. Third parties often have no interface with consumers and so consumer logic will be to expect the website they are visiting to provide the necessary transparency.

OMG have provided details of the cookies we use within our own advertising privacy policy for you to use when devising your own solutions/ copy. We also provide information and signposting to other tracking providers that we use for our advertising campaigns. For completeness we will also provide publishers with an OMG cookie opt out/in link (meanings campaigns will not track for the affiliate displaying the link should a user clicks on it) that anyone will be free to display to consumers if they decide that this is necessary.
We will email directly with any further updates.

Nathan Salter

COO, OMG Services

At the same time as announcing 40 search updates that happened in February, Google has also confirmed that the latest Panda 3.3 update has hit the web. 

Google says “This launch refreshes data in the Panda system, making it more accurate and more sensitive to recent changes on the web.” 

Following on from Panda 3.2 in January, the 3.3 update includes getting rid of a link evaluation tool that Google has been using for years.  Google said “We often use characteristics of links to help us figure out the topic of a linked page. We have changed the way in which we evaluate links; in particular, we are turning off a method of link analysis that we used for several years. We often re-architect or turn off parts of our scoring in order to keep our system maintainable, clean and understandable.”

Trying to work out what exactly this means and how it may affect SEO and websites is anyone’s guess, Google drops these gems but are obviously reluctant to give away too much detail about how they actually rank search results.  Another giveaway from Google was concerning local search rankings where they stated that traditional algorithm ranking factors are now playing a bigger part in triggering local search results.

Among the many other updates some of interest includes more accurate detection of official pages, expanding the size of their images index in Universal Search, a “Site:” query update and international launch of shopping rich snippets.

On the 1st anniversary of Panda, Google shows no signs of resting on their laurels which means that search engine optimisation continues to be as important as ever to ensure we keep up with the changes.

In the fast moving world of social media, nothing remains the same for long and the next big thing looks like Pinterest.  Following in the mighty footsteps of Facebook, Twitter and Google+, this new social media site was launched in 2010 but seems to be experiencing fast growth and therefore a possible valuable marketing vehicle for business.

Pinterest is an online virtual pinboard or bulletin board to add all your favorite images on. People are using these to plan weddings, decorate their homes and to share new ideas, the options are absolutely limitless, it’s really whatever tickles your fancy.  Other Pinterest users can then request an invite and browse the pinboards to get inspiration for their own projects or ideas.  Then when a user ‘pins’ something new to their board anyone who is following can see this, like it, comment or re-pin it – terms that may sound familiar!

The site had more than 7 million unique visitors in December and it is already driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined, according to a recent report. 

Pinterest say ‘Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.’

It currently seems to be attracting more women, but there is no reason why men can’t join and get onboard with topics that would be of interest to them.  They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words so maybe Pinterest are on the right lines here for the next big social media explosion.

So, is it time to add Pinterest to your social media campaign list? Well like other social media platforms time will tell whether Pinterest grabs the full attention of the world and proves to be an asset to businesses, but definitely watch this space!

There are many reasons why businesses want to implement a social media campaign, so if you need any assistance with social media for your business contact OMG Search today, the social media experts.

New Google employer Jonathan Rockway recent comments have shocked the search engine community declaring that ‘SEO isn’t good for users or the internet at large’ and Google ranks those who buy PPC ads higher in the organic listings.

Google Says; SEO isn’t Spam

The statements go against the official Google stance that SEO isn’t bad. The company has repeated these sentiments again and again throughout its legacy. Even Head of Web Spam Matt Cutts did an entire video on how SEO isn’t seen as spam. Matt said outright, “We don’t consider SEO to be spam,” and added that SEO is “a valid way to help people find what they’re looking for via search engines.”
He did add that there are bad SEOs out there typically known as black hat SEOs that can produce web spam. But in general, SEO is not spam and there are plenty of good SEOs out there.

Google confirmed this week that Matt Cutts accurately portrays Google’s position on SEO rather than Rockaway’s comments.

Ads for Ranking Well?

Rockway comments on PPC ads were as follows; ‘It’s a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads, and Google is trying to fix the bug’. What shocked many with this is that it implies Google is changing things so that to rank well you must have PPC advertising.

Google officially responded to this with the following;

‘As always, Google search rankings are completely unrelated to Google’s paid advertising services and other partnerships, and there is absolutely no way for a webmaster to pay money to increase search rankings.
When it comes to SEO, many owners of high-quality sites can and do get their site listed well in Google’s search results and prefer to have someone else check and optimize their sites’

It’s great to see other Googlers coming out with comments about the entity that is Google however it shows how one employer’s comments can rock the boat by not knowing what they are talking about.

If you need any SEO advice or help with your online reputation management contact OMG Search today.

We’re delighted (and extremely proud) to announce that Carla Arrindell has been promoted to Client Services Director.

Carla will take the reins from Helen Littlewood from 1st August. Helen joined the network in 2008 and alongside restructuring the department she has supported the teams to deliver robust client strategies and focus across our portfolio of clients. Helen has decided to step down from the role of Client Services Director so she can devote more time to her two young daughters. Helen will be supporting Carla in her new role, as well as developing our marketing and communications strategy.

For those of you that do not know Carla here is a summary of her achievements...

Since joining OMG in the publisher team way back in 2004, Carla’s enthusiasm and aptitude led her to rise quickly through the ranks and by 2007 she was heading up the publisher department.  Delivering unrivalled knowledge of the financial industry Carla has continued to progress, her most recent role being Group Account Director, heading up some of our largest corporate accounts such as Lloyds Banking Group, GoCompare and HSBC. Carla has been instrumental in pitching and winning some of our largest accounts by providing an intimate knowledge of the finance sector. Her industry expertise and experience provides clients with an instant and detailed view of the competitive landscape and best practise techniques to deliver incremental value for each affiliate segment. Carla will be focussing on identifying and delivering growth opportunities for OMG’s clients and delivering strategies to develop existing programmes.

Supporting Carla in her new role will be another familiar face from the network. Vicky Griffin has been promoted to Head of Affiliates. Vicky is a veteran of affiliate marketing, having established some of the strongest relationships with key partners in the industry since joining OMG in 2006, Vicky lives and breathes for the best interests of affiliates and has always exceeded expectations. Her promotion to the new role will allow Vicky to devote more time to nurturing these relationships further as well as manage the business development team that will be supporting her.

It is an exciting period at OMG, with more clients running successful customer reward programmes, such as Santander, Top10, Aviva, Vodafone, Otto and Dell.
 
We have also recently launched a credit card and pre paid card comparison tool to affiliates, and will continue to expand the range to include current accounts, savings, mortgages, loans and investments this year.  

I hope you are as excited as we are about these changes and share our passion for continuing to excel in performance marketing!