1. It gives searchers the ability to get personal search results – pulling posts & photos from your Google+ circles.

2. Google+ profiles are made more prominent in search. When selecting a Google+ profile in the autocomplete, you will be returned results about THAT Ben Smith that you already know instead of those you don’t:

3. Searching for a topic will also return results of people who frequently discuss the topic on Google+.

Thinking about these developments for a moment (and using your imagination of what else there is to come), if appearing in search results is important for you, you would want to get a Google+ page and invest in it as best you can as you would your Facebook page.

Google is recognising the people behind the content and the influence of those using it. It has taken steps recently towards this integration such as utilising authorship tags and pulling +1 button recommendations into search results and ads. It is taking search to the point where, in this latest move, the influence and network of the people that follow your Google+ page could be more important than all the pagerank & SEO you have achieved to-date.

Last year you didn’t need a Google+ page. The network’s market share plateaued, its usage slowed after its loud launch and we were all doubtful it would actually fly given Google’s track record in venturing to the social space in the past. However, the introduction of heavily personalised search results based on Google+ data outweighs any resistance to be involved.

Your standing on Google+ will soon determine how you perform on search. This is why it is important to have a Google+ page. Because search is becoming social. And by social, Google is only really interested in Google+.

Videos & screenshots of the new features are on Google’s blog.

This video is overflowing with practical tips on how businesses can properly take advantage of mobile. It is 1 hr 16 mins simply because of all the information he needs to get across including:

• AdWords for mobile
• Using QR codes
• Mobile optimised sites
• Optimising experiences for mobile & tablets
• Measuring the performance of it all

Mobile marketing success relies on relevance and understanding the needs and behaviours of your markets that are using mobile.

Take the lead in bleeding-edge marketing. If you are looking for mobile strategy & ideas and reporting techniques you must see this.

Initially it looks like we will get Visitors Flow and Goal Flow reports, but they plan to roll out additional reports later. Segmentation is supported so you can view reports by the standard or your custom segments (e.g. show me how mobile visitors flow through the site).

This is an exciting new feature which you can expect to be rolled out in the next couple of months.

This is a key metric and only makes it more pertinent for brands, particularly those operating in the markets listed above to understand and implement social networking in their digital strategy. Social networks provide the captive audience for advertisers to promote to and brands to engage with. It is also a goal for networks such as Facebook to keep members using the site for as long as possible in each session. And because your country, your market, is using it so much, your brand really needs to take advantage of this.

View the Experian article.

A very common question we get asked all the time is how many fields should I have in my enquiry/competition entry/registration form. The short answer is that if you have less fields, the number of conversions will be higher. However, this needs to be balanced against getting the right information.

Eloqua analysed 1,500 forms over 3 months and came to this conclusion:

"…most of the forms seem to settle between 5 and 10 questions in exchange for an average 40% conversion rate…"

Think carefully though about the need for the field. Will you ever actually use that data, if it means that more users would submit the form if it wasn’t there? Too often we have seen examples of fields being required on a form with little or no plan of how to use that data later.

(via thedailylark.com)

Some revealing stats of what is happening in the Australian & NZ mobile market were presented (unfortunately most of their stats are for AU). But, if anything, it is an indication of what is around the corner for us:

• There are 1 million mobile queries per day in NZ.
• 1 in 5 mobile devices are smartphones in NZ.
• 1 in 2 mobile sales are now a smartphone in NZ.
• 30% of NZ mobile searches have local intent – people want to know what is available nearby.

Of the 30,000 surveyed in Australia:

• The average user has downloaded 25 apps (8 were purchased).
• 36% of restaurant queries during the weekends are from mobile devices – Is your restaurant site optimised for mobile?
• 12% of finance queries are coming from mobile devices.
• 72% have used a smartphone for in-store comparison.

The point to take away from these trends is that mobile is where you need to turn for your digital strategy if you have not already. This is not simply having an app & m.website.com and checking those boxes. It is the whole strategy around mobile users.

Predictions of uptake have been made – often proved under estimated, the data is there and the trends have been realised.

Now, here is what you need to do:

• Create and optimise your mobile presence.
• Make it easy for mobile visitors to get the key info and convert.

People searching on mobile are qualified and ready. Make it easy for them to be your customer.

And still: “It is not too late to be early in mobile.” – Google

Organizations must have a dedicated social media evangelist.

Social media is just about talking to your customers. If you don’t have someone in your organisation with some authority and access to decision makers to fulfil this role, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. You can’t get your intern to do it, and you definitely can’t outsource it to your agency.

It allows searchers to recommend search results to others by clicking a button alongside the search result.

This is important for webmasters and site optimisers to be aware of for 2 key reasons:

1. Having your page +1′d is a visual indicator searchers will use to evaluate the relevance of the page. Apart from being at the top of SERPs, +1′s will be an important factor for searchers as your pages become approved by actual people and not just the Google algorithm.

2. +1′s “will be one of many signals [Google] use to calculate organic search ranking”.

Get the full story from the AdWords blog and Google Webmasters.

An upcoming extension of this feature is the ability to add the +1 button to your web pages. Its function is very much like the Facebook “Like” buttons that you can add to your pages already but +1 would carry the weight of the significant benefits above.