After teasing us for many months, Google has finally confirmed Penguin is running again. But this time, as part of the core algorithm.

Importance: [rating=5] For all webmaster and SEO's. Recommended Link: Google Webmaster Central Blog || SEO Guide

What is Penguin?

First announced way back in April 2012, the update was introduced as a way of tackling black-hat SEO techniques that were being used to artificially boost the rankings of a page. It particularly looked to target companies and agencies who were buying and obtaining links through link networks. It impacted approximately 3.1% of search queries in English, and resulted in some high profile sites falling down the search engine results page (SERPs), some even dropping off completely.

What's the difference this time around?

This is the seventh incarnation of Penguin and the first in 2 years and it's quite a big one. Whereas…

As an industry, how are we finding the process of recruiting new talent?

We recently conducted some research where we asked over 700 professional marketers about their current digital skills, how they wanted to develop and what trends they saw in the industry. That research resulted in our Digital Skills report 2016 which you can find here. When we asked "How easy is it to recruit people with the right amount of digital skills based on the experience of your organisation?" we got quite an array of answers. On initial inspection, it clear to see that, the digital marketing industry finds recruitment more troubling than easy. Whether this is as a result of unreasonable expectations, or a flaw in the system we are using, it's something to be conscious of when looking for your next hire. Looking at the…

Marketers know the strategies that are most effective but have trouble implementing them.

For me the most interesting finding from our recent research into digital skills wasn't that only 14% of marketers think their any good at mobile marketing, or that there is evidence of a major skills gap with employers reporting difficulties hiring for a number of digital marketing roles. From my perspective the single most interesting finding was the huge disconnect between what marketers think are the most effective strategies for improving digital marketing effectiveness across their organisation, and what the organisations are actually doing. The chart below shows what over 700 marketing professionals think are the most effective methods for improving digital marketing effectiveness across their company. We see that top is a planned approach which uses analytics and continuous optimisation, and bottom reactive unplanned approach. Only 14% thought the unplanned approach was effective. …

Top digital marketing talent will be even more highly sought after in 2020

The World Economic forum has just published a new report into the future of jobs, looking at what the job market will be like in 2025. Spoiler alert: It's going to change massively. So, do you want the good news, or the bad news? Bad news- over the next few years 5 million jobs will be lost to automation. But the good news is pretty exciting for marketing professionals. The skills for which demand will most increase are skills which digital marketers have been working on for years, and marketing jobs are set to increase considerably. Marketing specialist jobs are set to grow by around a fifth between now and 2024, as is demand for software developers, market researchers and computer systems analysts. Sales related jobs are also in the top 5 most rapidly growing areas of employment. The report specifically mentions…

Over 40% of all ecommerce orders are driven via search (Organic+Paid)

While the US economy continued to grow at a snail pace of 1% in Q2 of 2016, one sector that is bucking the trend is ecommerce. Research from Custora shows us that online revenue from the ecommerce industry was up 8.9% compared to the previous year. Breaking this growth down by marketing channel is where things get interesting. It should come as no great surprise that search dominates the marketing mix. But what is surprising is the decline in revenue driven by Organic Search coupled with the 2.3% increased share for Paid Search. Why could this be? Are ecommerce brands experiencing a negative effect from any recent Google algorithm changes or just combining their search strategy by using SEO for reach and PPC to drive the conversion? I'd love to hear your theories in the comments below. …

Almost half worry about ad blockers, but even more find multidevice measurement an issue

Programmatic advertising is growing fast, but it still has major faults. It now accounts for over 2/3rds of US digital media buys, but the reality is bots are racking up fraudulent ad views. They account for between 3 and 37% of all fraudulent ad views (the stats in this area are so murky it's impossible to know where between those two extremes the true figure lies), and reportedly are costing marketing over seven billion dollars this year. Fraud is thus a big concern for those buying programmatic slots, as is ad blocking, which has increased markedly now that mobile ad blockers are becoming more prevalent. Interestingly though, they are not the problem which most concerns senior ad buyers. Multidevice measurement apparently presents the biggest challenge, which makes sense given the impossible task of accurately measuring ROI without being able…

2016 has been an exciting year in the world of search engine optimization and social media marketing - what are the main developments to inform your marketing?

The two fields of social media and search are constantly evolving, with plenty of changes that prompt shifts in consumer and marketer behavior. In order to succeed, you should adapt to these changes and employ the latest and most effective strategies. The following are 15 social media and search engine marketing trends in 2016 and what you should do to stay ahead of the curve:

1. Mobile optimization is a must.

Last year, mobile generated more traffic than desktop and laptop search. With virtually everyone using their smartphone or tablet to find information online, it goes without saying that business owners must cater to the needs of their mobile audience to generate leads and increase conversions. If your website still isn’t optimized for mobile, then you risk losing out…

Retention strategy often takes a backseat in marketing efforts, find out what leading global travel brands are doing to combat this.

Performance Horizon and WBR Digital have recently joined forces to publish the Benchmarking Performance Marketing and Digital Strategy in the Travel Industry Report, which we got a sneak preview at. They surveyed a large range of executives representing leading global travel brands back in may to unearth their findings. The report brought up some interesting results. Email marketing is by far and away the most favoured channel when it comes to customer retention, followed by Social Media, which is used by 63% as their primary driver of customer retention. Bringing up the rear was Marketplaces and Comparison Shopping Engines with 8% and 11% respectively. This was of interest to me, particularly the lack of…

How to target your customers at the very moment they want your products

Does your data tell you when and why your customers are most in need of your products and services? Can it deliver that insight right at the time the need arises? We explain how marketers can use data and insight to target home movers, ensuring they reach them at the time they’re most likely to engage. Marketers are always looking for better ways to acquire prospects, retain and engage their existing customers. Each year, UK companies lose over 20 per cent of their customers, according to our research with nearly 200 of the UK’s leading marketers. The research also highlights the fact that 45 per cent of UK marketers say replacing these losses with new customers is their biggest challenge. For the remaining 55 per…

A study by YouGov in association with Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has found that ad blocking use has declined between February and July, previous to that ad blocking software use was increasing. The fall of 0.5% between February and July, which is from 21.7% to 21.2% came from a representative sample of 2011 adults aged 18+ in the UK. The findings are announced as Facebook are taking action to stop ad blockers from working on the social network, which works by making the ad blocker unable to tell which is advertising content or isn't. Facebook also isn't the first website to trial anti-ad blocking software and it probably won't be the last. Another study found that ad blockers are actually breaking the internet, for example the research by Oriel (a technology company) reported problems with the British Airways website and with Vodafone's site too.…