Thinking Ahead of the Curve
Among the skills needed by a new media strategist today is behavioural psychology, judging by the wealth of psychological insights that Tony Heywood of digital agency Moore-Wilson delivers as he outlines his approach.
“We’re increasingly concentrating on ‘long-tail’ search terms, using three, four or more words. This is because the more words people use, the closer they are to making a purchasing decision,” says Heywood, who heads the agency’s off-page search optimisation team. His job is to second guess the new algorithms that Google introduces each quarter as it refines its search engine, besides building up the best links network for clients’ sites.
This too involves clever use of psychology. Rather than pay for links or even asking other sites to add links, Moore-Wilson distributes creative content to various sites, allowing them to use it without charge, in the expectation that a link will be published.
“These are credible articles, rather than advertorial,” says Heywood, who is acutely aware of the penalties for irrelevant or misleading content. “You need to match search enquiries with products or services that people actually want. The way to stay ahead of the curve in search engine optimisation is to understand the behaviours of people on the site, not to bring them in under false pretences.”
Heywood notes that the most dangerous search term to use in Google is ‘Brad Pitt’. “Something like 80 per cent of the results you’ll get contain malware,” he says. By contrast, putting attractive and useful content on your site, such as games, calculators and strong editorial material, or playing a role in social media such as Facebook, pays real dividends when done properly.
“Search engine optimisation has grown exponentially in importance over the past three years,” says Heywood. “It’s now a central element of a successful marketing strategy.” And the direction that it is taking continues to shift, so the need for professional experts who can advise you on the most recent developments has grown alongside this.
"Until recently you couldn't bid on trademarked terms in Google such as other companies’ names or strap lines, but Google has recently changed their rules on this so you can now," he reveals. "This means that pay per click is becoming more expensive as you are having to spend to protect your own brand from competitors. The result is a greater motivation to get your website discovered through the natural (unsponsored) listings. In any event people tend to place more trust in the natural rankings than they do in sponsored listings."
Google’s persistent attempts to compete with Microsoft have led most recently to the launch of its ‘Chrome’ web browser, a development that Heywood views with mixed feelings. “The uptake hasn’t been great yet, so there will probably be no short term effects, but in the long term it does have advantages over other browsers such as its ability to execute JavaScript very quickly which will make it attractive for use with the increasing number of web based applications.”
A further innovation which Adobe is working on may allow search engines to rank flash sites (which it struggles to do at the moment). “This could greatly affect page rankings and could impact the way sites are designed,” he says.
Even more topical is the launch of the first mobile phone using Google’s Android operating system, the G1, which made its debut in late September 2008 as a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone. With a QWERTY keyboard in addition to a touch screen, the G1 has been designed to gain market share in the rapidly expanding world of mobile internet use, hoping to overcome the current technological and usability obstacles to efficient access. The phone may be in the UK shops by Christmas 2008, depending on the uptake in the US.
Google has developed and supported the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of mobile phone makers and networks whose aim is to “accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive and better mobile experience.” In contrast to the iPhone model, where Apple controls the operating system and which applications can be downloaded, the G1 allows anybody to add applications.
“Take up of access to the internet from mobile phones has been low but it is now beginning to take off” says Steve Wilson, founder of Moore-Wilson. “It’s often not possible to have a single webpage for both PCs and mobiles; it generally makes more sense to have a distinct mobile version.”
“The plethora of different handsets, with different implementations of standards, adds to the problem”, Wilson argues. “It’s very hard to get something to run robustly on dozens of different handsets.”
The most dramatic rise in mobile phone purchase and use is in developing economies, where PC ownership and penetration is commonly far lower than in western countries. The prospect of widespread internet access via mobile phone could produce a stark example of leapfrog technology, with the benefits of first world access to information and commerce being distributed in hitherto unseen regions.
Already, migrant workers have benefited from Moore-Wilson’s development of a payment system via mobile phone, allowing them to send money to relatives far more cheaply, quickly and conveniently than was previously possible. “We have also been able to add value for migrant workers because international texts can be expensive, whereas using the Java app that we created, there is only a tiny charge, normally much less than 0.5p to access the internet and send a message,” says Wilson.
Often the best way to achieve advanced functionality is through Java, but that isn’t supported by some handsets, most notably the iPhone. So Google’s use of open standards for the Android operating system, use of the widely used Java language and an internet-friendly handset could combine to create a major leap forward, both for ease of access and the complexity of applications that can be viewed and used by mobile phones.
According to Richard Thompson at telecoms technology company Mobile-Tribe, Moore-Wilson’s sister company, the openness of the Android operating system and the ability to access any of the phones features will lead to interesting and innovative applications and will provide a better experience for the user.
Author: David Nicholson