Category

Google

Pushkarraj Mehta
In Google, SEO

Google & Google Products are Down today

Google and Google Products are Down (December 14, 2020)

Work is at a standstill again as Google servers are shut down. This includes all of Google Apps and Product including Gmail, Drive, Google Meet, Google Analytics,  including Google.com.

Yes, is true. SKYNET has been hacked that’s our theory anyway.

The Twitter universe joins in

Pushkarraj Mehta
In Google

How Google creates human-first mobile experiences

Human first mobile expereinces

How Google creates Human first mobile experiences

Google has started this really cool series called The Update.
In this episode, Natalie Zmuda, global executive editor of Think with Google, talks to Marvin Chow, VP of consumer apps marketing at Google, about how brands can put their customers first and deliver great mobile experiences. They talk about how Google balances data with empathy to deliver relevant, helpful experiences across channels.

A really interesting video for Brand marketing, product marketing, design thinkers and web development and design agencies.

The 3 main pillars according to Google for human first mobile experiences are:

  1. Be human
  2. Be resourceful
  3. Be in it for the long run

We’ve embedded the video as well. Enjoy!

How Google creates human-first mobile experiences
Pushkarraj Mehta
In algorithms, CoronaVirus, Google, News

Google any 3 random numbers + ‘new cases’

What happens when you type any 3 numbers + ‘new cases’ on google

As a Search Engine Optimization consultant and someone that’s obsessed with Data and the workings of google algorithm, I was testing the knowledge graph for the total number of new cases when the recommended searches pointed me to a random number. I decided to explore this and started adding random numbers to the search query with new cases. Each SERP had a Covid-19/ Corona Virus result with that many cases.

Q: What happens when you Type any 3 numbers + ‘new cases’ in google search?
A: You’ll see only articles that are Coronavirus-related articles. Really, we manually tested this with one hundred searches. 

Type three numbers into Google and 'new cases'
Google any three numbers and add 'new cases'
What happens when Google any three numbers and add 'new cases'
Google any three numbers and add 'new cases'

Q: What happens when you Type any 4 numbers + ‘new cases’ in google search?
A: You’ll again, only see articles that are Coronavirus-related articles. We manually tested this with a hundred searches. 

Google any 4 numbers and add 'new cases'

The accuracy for results is way higher for 3 digit numbers as compared to 4 digit numbers + new cases. Almost every 3 digital number + new cases search holds true to this result page. For 4 digit numbers, its at 80%. Whatever the variance, its really interesting that Google’s knowledge graph is doing this and there are news articles to support it – globally.

 

Conspiracy theory, Statistical accuracy, or detailed news reporting – we’ll leave up to you. Tell us what you think in the comments. 🙂

Pushkarraj Mehta
In Google, youtube

Decoding 75,000 Youtube Campaigns

Youtube ads 2020 >> Look beyond Demographics

This is more decoding what google wants as compared to what is working. 

Google recently published an article asking marketers to look beyond the demographic factors to target and segment your audience where they analysed 75,000 campaigns to check if this worked.

The thought:
The better you understand your audience — knowing that someone is planning a family vacation, in-market for a new mobile phone, developing a passion for extreme sports, looking to eat more plant-based food — the better you can establish whether they might be interested in your product or brand. And if you’re speaking to the right customers, you’d expect your marketing to be more effective.

Here’ s what they found.

Analyzing two years of campaign marketing data

To find out if our instincts were correct, we looked at two years of aggregated and anonymized performance data for 75,000 global YouTube campaigns using Google Brand Lift, which measures how much a video ad affected metrics like brand awareness, ad recall, and consideration. We did this for campaigns across 10 industry verticals — including automotive, retail, and travel.1

Some of those YouTube campaigns used only basic demographics to reach potential customers. For example, perhaps a campaign was aimed at reaching women between ages 25 and 34. Others used a feature available on YouTube called Advanced Audiences.

Advanced Audiences allows marketers to reach people based on things like their interests — whether the videos they watch on YouTube suggest they’re a foodie, a travel buff, or a beauty maven, for example. We call these prebuilt groups affinity audiences. Marketers are also able to create their own groups of audiences based on detailed interests tailored to their brands. Rather than just reaching foodies, a nondairy milk brand might want to reach vegan foodies. We call those custom affinity audiences. With Advanced Audiences, brands can also reach people who are actively researching certain products or services. We call those in-market audiences.

First, we worked out what the benchmark lift was for each metric in each of the industry verticals. For example, on average how much of a lift in brand awareness did the technology campaigns in our sample see?

Then, to understand the effectiveness of using more than just basic marketing demographic data to reach people, we isolated those campaigns that used Advanced Audiences to see what sort of a lift in marketing metrics they had compared to their industry average.

Lessons from 75,000 YouTube campaigns

So what did Google find? The marketing data supported our hypothesis. A richer understanding of the audience you’re trying to reach makes for much more effective marketing campaigns.

Across every industry vertical, campaigns that used Advanced Audiences saw a lift in various marketing objectives. Finance campaigns that used in-market audiences saw a 1.5X lift in consideration, while retail campaigns saw a 1.4X lift in purchase intent. Telecommunications campaigns that used affinity audiences saw a 1.3X lift in ad recall, and food and beverage campaigns that used custom affinity audiences saw a 2X lift in awareness.

Youtube ads Brand lift

Table shows increase in sales lift in 10 marketing industry verticals by marketing objective and audience type. Example: food & beverage custom affinity audiences saw 2X lift in awareness, while telecom affinity audiences saw 1.3X lift in ad recall.

1 Sample of findings from the analysis.
2 Compared to industry average.

Some of the audiences that saw the biggest lift in marketing objectives across industries seemed pretty obvious. For technology campaigns, people who were already in-market for a computer had a high lift in purchase intent. No surprises there.

Others were more unexpected. For telecommunications campaigns, outdoor enthusiasts and fashionistas were among the affinity audiences with the biggest lift in ad recall. A telecommunications marketer wanting to raise awareness for a new mobile plan might not have thought these people would be especially interested in their offering, missing out on a key communication opportunity with potential customers.

Going beyond marketing demographics

It’s important to keep in mind that these findings are not causal and do not guarantee future campaign performance. But they still offer interesting lessons that marketers can act on immediately.

The first is obvious: Stop relying on marketing demographics alone. With the technologies and tools available today, it’s possible to have a much deeper understanding of your customers and to use those insights to make sure you’re reaching the right people. If you’re launching a YouTube campaign to promote a new fashion line, rather than trying to guess who might be interested based on broad categories, like age and gender, use an existing affinity group like fashionistas.

Your customer base is probably a lot more multifaceted than you might have expected.

The second lesson is that your customer base is probably a lot more multifaceted than you might expect. Who would have thought that an outdoor enthusiast would be particularly receptive to a telecommunications ad? So before you launch a new campaign, try pretesting your creative with groups of audiences you might not have otherwise considered.

And finally, once you’ve mastered the first two lessons, consider customizing even further. For example, if you’re launching a new range of low-sugar snacks on YouTube, create a custom affinity group that goes even more granular than the prebuilt ones and personalize the video creative to this audience.

From this analysis, it is clear that people are far more multidimensional than we, as marketers, have historically given them credit for. It’s time that our advertising campaigns caught up.

TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read)

  1. The Youtube algorithm is probably the smartest algorithm out there and if used right, can help you reach the right audience.
  2. AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) need data. The more you test, the better the results.
  3. Start broad to not miss out on a psychographic audience set and narrow the audience down to based on sentiment and engagement metrics.
  4. Account for multi-screens and multiple touchpoints to communicate your brand story.
  5. The online audience is ever-changing and might not might into the traditional way of segmenting based on demographic factors.
  6. Target, test, learn and optimize.

If you need help setting up your next campaign or want to partner with us, drop us an email and we’ll get in touch. 🙂

Pushkarraj Mehta
In Google, Google Core Update, SEO

Google’s May 2020 core update

Google’s May 2020 core update & Impact India on Business.

Google’s May 2020 core update

May the 4th be with you – was what was playing on every Search engine marketeers brian, on LOOP.  When google generally announces an algorithm update, it usually has all the SEO gurus, SEO Ninjas, SEO masters glued in to their search console and analytics data to avoid a trip to the cardiac unit.

Search Engine Land, compiled a report of several data companies that track Google’s search results to send us impressions of this update and they all agree, this is one of the largest Google core updates in a long time.

At TTB, we verified the data for the Indian the market, and India shows the same results – we’re a week or 2 late but wanted to ensure our research for India centric. The only reason for doing this is most reports that arise from Search Engine Land and Moz are more US, UK centric. In the truest sense, going #VocalforLocal for the Google’s May 2020 core update.

Initial Thoughts on the Google May 2020 core update

The Google May 2020 core update/ Google algorithm update started to roll out on Monday, May 4th. Like all core updates, this was a global update and was not specific to any region, language or category of web sites. It is a classic “broad core update” that Google releases every few months or so. While we had BERT come in a change things up for a bit, the May 2020 update was triggered by
1. Change in search patterns due to Corona Virus
2. The change in searches from mobile back to desktop because of the Work from home situation
3. To battle amazon and instagram shopping experience.
4. Australia’s and France’s stand on news publications.

That my take on this anyway:)

Here’s what thought leaders had to say:

1. Rank Ranger:

Mordy Oberstein from RankRanger called the May update “an absolute monster.” “The January update was a very big update yet this one slightly edges it out,” he added. The company shared this chart comparing the May to January 2020 core updates in terms of rankings volatility for the terms it monitors.

 

Google’s May 2020 core update_ Top 3 results, Top 5, Top 10 results on Google

What the graph means: In all cases, the May update shuffled the Google results more than the January update.

January 2020 Update for Top 3 searches: Rank Volatility: 35%
May 2020 Update for Top 3 searches: Rank Volatility: 38%

January 2020 Update for Top 5 searches: Rank Volatility: 55%
May 2020 Update for Top 5 searches: Rank Volatility: 63%

January 2020 Update for Top 10 searches: Rank Volatility: 84%
May 2020 Update for Top 10 searches: Rank Volatility: 93%

Oberstein added that the Google May 2020 core update is different than previous core updates because “this update appears to be far more uniform across the niches I looked at than your typical core update.” Here are two charts he shared illustrating the May core update’s impact on page one results across a number of industry verticals in RankRanger’s data set.

Google’s May 2020 core update_ Travel, Retail, Finance - Top 3 results, Top 5, Top 10 results on Google

Travel:
May 2020 Update for Top 3 searches: Rank Volatility: 31%
May 2020 Update for Top 5 searches: Rank Volatility: 56%
May 2020 Update for Top 10 searches: Rank Volatility: 91%

Retail:
May 2020 Update for Top 3 searches: Rank Volatility: 37%
May 2020 Update for Top 5 searches: Rank Volatility: 61%
May 2020 Update for Top 10 searches: Rank Volatility: 83%

Finance:
May 2020 Update for Top 3 searches: Rank Volatility: 47%
May 2020 Update for Top 5 searches: Rank Volatility: 72%
May 2020 Update for Top 10 searches: Rank Volatility: 97%

Health:
May 2020 Update for Top 3 searches: Rank Volatility: 38%
May 2020 Update for Top 5 searches: Rank Volatility: 63%
May 2020 Update for Top 10 searches: Rank Volatility: 94%

Google’s May 2020 core update_ Top 3 results on google

Travel:
May 2020 Update for Rank 1/ Position 1 on Google: Rank Volitility: 7%
May 2020 Update for Rank 2/ Position 2 on Google: Rank Volitility: 17%
May 2020 Update for Rank 3/ Position 3 on Google: Rank Volitility: 25%

Retail:
May 2020 Update for Rank 1/ Position 1 on Google: Rank Volitility: 10%
May 2020 Update for Rank 2/ Position 2 on Google: Rank Volitility: 20%
May 2020 Update for Rank 3/ Position 3 on Google: Rank Volitality: 29%

Finance:
May 2020 Update for Rank 1/ Position 1 on Google: Rank Volitility: 11%
May 2020 Update for Rank 2/ Position 2 on Google: Rank Volitility: 24%
May 2020 Update for Rank 3/ Position 3 on Google: Rank Volitility: 36%

Health:
May 2020 Update for Rank 1/ Position 1 on Google: Rank Volitility: 11%
May 2020 Update for Rank 2/ Position 2 on Google: Rank Volitility: 18%
May 2020 Update for Rank 3/ Position 3 on Google: Rank Volitility: 31%

2. SEMRush

Yulia Ibragimova, Olga Andrienko and the SEMRush team prepared a lot of data on this update. SEMRush said that this update was bigger than the January core update as well. They said, “the May update is stronger and influencers more SERPs and positions.” The SEMRush sensor tracking tool is showing a score of 9.4, whereas the January update was closer to 8. So this was a big update relative to other core updates.

Google’s May 2020 core update_ SEM Rush industries impacted

SEMRush data showed the industries most impacted were travel, real estate, health, pets & animals, and people & society. Here is the chart of breakdown volatility by industry from SEMRush:

Google’s May 2020 core update_ SEM Rush industries impacted List

SEMRush also shared the winners and losers of this update. The winners were local.com, yellowpages.com, superpages.com, businesswire.com, prnewswire.com, globenewswire.com, xe.com, mapquest.com, and gamekidgame.com. The losers were linkedin.com, manta.com, allmusic.com, idaily.com, nypost.com, discogs.com, afiavillage.com, eventbrite.com, peoplepill.com and owler.com.

3. The SEO community:

The SEO community in both the online discussion forums and on social media around the Google May 2020 core update have been extremely vocal about this and some people claimed to have lost over 90% of their Google organic traffic, while others did well from this update.

The community is split into two:

  1. SEO’s that are frustrated with Google and the constant effort of the search engine to keep users on Google and not take them to the website with PAA/ Knowledge graphs and
  2. 2. SEO’s that want to take over the PAA listings and use is as a tool for branding/ building credibility.Which side are you on?

What to do if your website is hit by the Google May 2020 Update:

Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. There aren’t specific actions to take to recover, and in fact, a negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages. However, Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.

Why we care:

It is often hard to isolate what you need to do to reverse any algorithmic hit your site may have seen. When it comes to Google core updates, it is even harder to do so. If this data and previous experience and advice has shown us is that these core updates are broad, wide and cover a lot of overall quality issues. The data above has reinforced this to be true. So if your site was hit by a core update, it is often recommended to step back from it all, take a wider view of your overall web site and see what you can do to improve the site overall.

Here’s the summary of the Google MAY 2020 core update: The TLDR (Too long didn’t read) version

  1. Perhaps the biggest and most volatile Google update yet.
  2. Industries most impacted were travel, health care, real estate, pets and people and society.
  3. PAA and knowledge graph continue to keep users for more clicks on google resulting in a lower CTR to site
  4. Voice search will get more efficient as Google rewrites Meta descriptions with AI ML and BERT logic
  5. Overall CTRs will drop as google is scraping website content and keeping users on google.com – Youtube plays as a light-box and PAA dominate SERP’s – you click on one and it opens related PAA’s
Pushkarraj Mehta
In CoronaVirus, Google, Google Trends

What Indians Googled During Coronavirus

What Indians Googled During Corona Virus

The Corona Virus/ Co-vid19 Virus has literally changed our lives. While we are all still learning to adjust to this new way of living, we’ve changed our lifestyle, preferences, lifestyles, and even eating habits. The lockdown meant not only spending more time with family but also a change in what we think are essentials.
As a nation, we turned to the internet, asking google all kinds of questions to survive this pandemic. Week 4 of March (March 22 onwards) saw a spike in the following searches which were triggered with the Janta Curfew announcement. From DIY searches to wine shops near me, here are the top most searched keywords by Indians and their interest during this time.
Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends in India: 2020 Post Covid – 19/ Corona Virus

What Indians Searched for During Corona Virus: #1 The Corona Virus/ Covid-19

From a search engine/ keyword POV, Indians chose to call the Virus, Corona Virus instead of Co-vid 19 or the Wuhan Virus or the Chinese Virus,
PS: While we would like to credit Mr. Atavlae for #GoCoronaCoronaGO, this isn’t the case. Mainstream media and PM Modi have lead the fight against #CoronaVirus

What Indians Searched for During Corona Virus: #2 Lockdown India

The Janta Curfew was followed by Lockdown India which trended as the highest searched terms from the 22nd of March. We all knew it was coming, it was just about when will it be announced and for how long.

What India Searched for During Corona Virus

What Indians Searched for During Corona Virus: #3 DIY

Perhaps the keyword of the decade. DIY is the buzzword, content plan for most influencers to kick start their online presence in the youtube universe.

While Corona, triggered  DIY hand sanitizer searches, and disinfectants to be made in-house, a lot of humans searched for DIY ideas for mothers day which is on the 10th of May, 2020. This makes us happy! Proactive thinking gift ideas for MOM are the kind of people we need in this world. More power to you humans.

*Exception: This video went Viral on whatsapp, humans did not have to google it. Only in India

What India Searched for During Corona Virus: #4 How to Cook

Yes, we’re all master chefs now and are eating twice our body intake before we were stuck in quarantine. What’s interesting is, while social media takes lead on special recipes by famous chefs – Google tells another story altogether.

How to cook Rice, How to cook rice in a cooker and how to cook red rice trended for rice lovers.
How to cook beef also was a trending search (in a country where Beef is banned in most states, go figure)
A handful of our population wanted to learn How to cook oats and Daal. Survival mode: on.

What India Searched for During Corona Virus: #5 Mahabharat

A case-study in content marketing/ reusing popular content and a masterstroke by our beloved Door Darshan (DD) to bring back the Mahabharat series (along with Ramayan and Chanakya). When everyone was quarantined, it was a no brainer for every home to tune into DD over their Smart Tv’s, families in tow for nostalgia and positivity during these troubled times. The surge of humans wanting to find out more and visit the DD website makes us think, their servers surely must have crashed the day they announced it.

TRPs = Check

What India Searched for During Corona Virus: #6 PornHub

“The internet is a reflection on human society” & “Data does not lie.”

The graph says it all. While the government has banned a half dozen porn sites, Pornhub remains the category leader here and a common search term for every house in incognito mode.

So much for being a Sansakri nation.

What India Searched for During Corona Virus: #6 Wine Shops

What really runs a country? Wine shops near me trended the day the lockdown was announced. While there’s always a search for wine shop near me, one has to stock up – god knows how long we’re all going to be quarantined.

Also, businessmen in Rajasthan are ahead of the curve, applying for the lottery to set up shop once this ends – to celebrate or for when we’re all diagnosed with it and need to party the night out and go out in style.

To find out more about what keywords Indians searched for that directly impacted your business or to dive deeper into what the sentiment is and create content for the same, email us.

Pushkarraj Mehta
In Google, SEO, Strategy

Pushkarraj Mehta, Founder TalkingToBots gets featured on Your Story for DIVEIndia

It brings us great joy to let you know our founder, Pushkarraj Mehta – gets featured on yourstory for his work on DIVEIndia.

Highlights from the article:

Based in the Andaman islands, scuba diving centre Dive India is working on its online presence to attract divers from across the world.

“Being a remote location, with most of our audience only finding us through online research – Google and Google products have played a pivotal role to help reach out to our audience. We partnered with Pushkarraj Mehta (Talkingtobots.com), our digital marketing consultant, in November 2015 to lay down a solid foundation for SEO and to drive traffic to the website with Google ads to help achieve our online goals. We turn up in the top three searches for anyone wanting to learn and or scuba dive in the Andamans.”

“We’ve increased our website lead conversions by an average 230 percent year over year and increased our website traffic by 400 percent by reducing advertising spends by 25 percent.”

Click here to read the entire story here.