The Social PR Hit: The ins and outs of how to achieve social PR
Social PR hits are sometimes overlooked when Digital PRs report. If you can report on the brand mention, the platforms they have been mentioned on and the size of the social followings: you have a social PR hit on your hands.
Post from Jodie Harris on State of Digital
The Social PR Hit: The ins and outs of how to achieve social PR
Navigating the complex but valuable South Korean search market
This £550m represents approximately 3% of total ecommerce revenue in the country which suggests there is a large opportunity for foreign ecommerce sites.
Overall these revenue numbers place South Korea neatly behind Japan and China in terms of the size of market, and opportunity within the region.
While this may not be a surprise to many considering the populations of the two aforementioned countries, there are additional factors that need to be taken into account when surveying potential market opportunities.
The country boasts an impressive internet penetration rate of 84%, higher than any other APAC country and only just behind the UK and Canada. This is down to South Korea’s highly developed mobile landscape that has a penetration rate of around 70%.
There are a number of reasons for this but it is predominantly driven by an incredibly fast internet infrastructure, advanced mobile technology and a population with a strong understanding of how to navigate the online world, across a wide range of demographics.
A high propensity to purchase
Despite the maturity of this market, when approaching international expansion, South Korea is often overlooked by global brands. This is most likely down to the focus on other APAC nations such as China and Japan.
However, despite only having the 8th largest population in the region, South Korea has the third largest ecommerce market and as a result, ecommerce traffic has a high propensity to purchase. We can measure this by calculating the ecommerce revenue driven per person using the size of the ecommerce market and population.
For China, this figure comes in at $217, while South Korea has a substantially larger figure of $386. This suggests visits driven to your ecommerce site from South Korea are more likely to convert and spend more money, than other APAC countries, providing a really efficient foundation to develop a business.
What does this all mean? Well fundamentally if you’re a business looking to grow a brand in Asia, South Korea is a low risk territory to develop and achieve a foothold in.
Utilising search is vital in this endeavour this due to the levels of intent consumers show through their search queries. The challenge is that South Korea and Asia in general have a much more complex search engine landscape than in the Google-dominated west.
Loyalty to domestic platforms
Much like in Russia and China, the South Korean population consistently favours domestic online platforms compared to Western services.
Search engines are no exception with Naver and Daum the major players at 80% and 15% market share respectively. Google takes just 3.5% of the share and Nate, another domestic web portal, claims 1.1%.
Despite the low market share, Google is still a fairly strong player due to the search engine recently enjoying an increase in mobile usage thanks to the popularity of Android based mobile devices.
Ensuring that Naver’s 80% share is well catered for is obviously the priority but ignoring Google’s growing market share on mobile would be missing an opportunity to drive high quality traffic and cover any searches driven by international visitors within the country.
A wide range of SERPs and ad formats to consider
The range of local platforms is not the only thing that affects the search landscape. Each of the search engine’s SERPs look very different from what we’re accustomed to in North America and Europe, making it difficult for conventional international advertisers to succeed.
In Naver’s case, PPC is called ‘Powerlink’ and shows at the top of pages, but often rotating to the middle or bottom of the page, even for brand keyword variations. Therefore, other Naver formats such as BrandSearch are the key to securing premium positioning.
From the work I’ve overseen for brands in this region, paid ads on South Korean search engines can experience conversion rates up to 166% higher than in the Chinese market, with half the cost-per-clicks. This reinforces the potential efficiency on offer for international brands in South Korea.
With regards to the rest of Naver’s SERPs, it’s important to stress that traditional organic search engine strategies and tactics will not necessarily bear fruit in South Korea. The majority of non-PPC content spots on the search engine, such as Blog, Site and Cafe, are not populated naturally though the engine’s crawlers system, but submitted by brands and advertisers themselves.
Cafe, Blog and Site content areas on Naver
A mobile led market
Mobile commerce is dominating the South Korean landscape. KakaoTalk is available in a number of countries, yet it remains by far the most popular format in South Korea, utilised by over 93% of smartphone users.
The platform offers a plain messaging function similar to WhatsApp, yet also offers the option of creating a profile through ‘KakaoStory’, allowing businesses to engage in advertising and promotional activities.
This has made this application the channel of choice for advertisers and domestic brands in particular. Naver has also strived to develop a mobile social platform called Line. Whilst hugely popular in Japan, as well as Taiwan, Thailand, Spain and Indonesia, it has not yet managed to conquer KakaoTalk in its native market.
Developing a healthy return on investment from mobile is tough enough in Europe and North America let alone in a region like APAC. The mature and experienced consumers in South Korea expect your presence on all these platforms and formats.
The opportunity is there for new entrants
South Korea is a truly unique market, as consumers visibly prefer local brands to popular international companies. Samsung and LG in the electronics field, Hyundai in the automotive industry, Naver, Daum and Nate in search and KakaoTalk in mobile are all proof of a tendency towards favouring domestic brands and products.
A strong understanding of local platforms is essential for success in South Korea. So too is developing specifically tailored strategies for the market instead of simply adopting a global approach.
When testing the South Korean market for your brand, PPC alone won’t provide the necessary results to judge the potential of the market; a combination of PPC, blog and social is required to give a business a fighting chance entering a valuable but complex market like South Korea.
IPv6, C-Blocks, and How They Affect SEO
Posted by Tom-Anthony
You have probably heard about IPv6, but you might remain a bit confused about the details of what it is, how it works, and what it means for the future of the Internet. This post gives a quick introduction to IPv6, and discusses the SEO implications that could follow from the IPv6 roll-out (touching specifically on the concept of C-Blocks). A quick caveat: This stuff is hard, so let me know if you spot any missteps!
A very brief intro to IP addresses (v4) & c-blocks
You’re likely familiar with IP addresses; they are usually written in the following format:
Example IP address (IPv4).
This format of an IP address is the common format in use everywhere, and is called IPv4. There are four bytes in an IP address like this, with each byte separated by a period (meaning 32 bits in total, for the geeks). Every (sub)-domain resolves to at least one such IP address (it might be several, but lets ignore that for now). Nice and simple.
Now a main SEO concept that comes out of that is the idea of C-Blocks (this shouldn’t be confused with Class C IPs; a different thing people often confuse for C-Blocks), which is a concept that has been around in the SEO space for a decade or more. Very simply, the idea is that if the first 3 bytes of the IP address are identical, then we consider the two IP address to be in the same C-Block:
Two example IP addresses in the same C-Block (blue).
So why is this interesting to us? Why is this important to SEO? The old-school logic is that if you have two IPs that are in the same C-Block, then the sites are quite likely related and thus the links between these sites (on average) should not count as strongly in terms of PageRank. My personal opinion is that nowadays there are many many other signals available to Google to make these same sorts of connections and so the C-Block issue is far less important than it once was.
So, as it turns out (surprise!) the two IP addresses above are indeed related:
Disney and ABC have a near identical IP address, both in the same C-Block.
Sure enough they are both companies in the Disney family. It makes some sense that links between these two domains probably shouldn’t indicate as much trust as links from similarly large, but unrelated, sites.
Introducing IPv6
So, there is a problem with IP addresses in the format above (IPv4); there are “only” 4 billion of them, and we have essentially exhausted the supply. We have so many connected devices nowadays, and the creators for IPv4 never envisioned the vastness of the Internet 30 years from when it was released. Luckily enough, they saw the problem early on andstarted working on a successor, IPv6 (IPv5 was used for another unreleased protocol).
IPv6 address format:
IPv6 addresses are much longer than IPv4 addresses, the format looks thus:
An example IPv6 address.
Things just got serious! There are now 8 blocks rather than 4, and rather than each block being 1 byte (which were represented as a number from 0-255), each block is instead 2 bytes represented by 4 hexadecimal characters. There are 128 bits in an IPv6 address, meaning instead of a measly 4,000,000,000 like IPv4, IPv6 has around 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 addresses.
In the next few years we’ll be entering a world where hundreds of devices in homes will all be capable of networking and needing an IP address and IPv6 will help make that a reality. However, we are also going to see websites starting to use IPv6 addresses more and more commonly, and a few years from now we’ll start to see website that only have an IPv6 address.
CIDR Notation
Before we go any further, it is important to introduce an important concept for understanding IP addresses, which is called CIDR notation.
IPv6 exclusively uses CIDR notation (e.g. /24), so the SEO community will need to understand this concept. It is really simple, but normally really badly explained.
As we mentioned, IPv4 IP addresses are 32 bits long, so if we were sick and twisted we could look at the IP address as binary:
Example IPv4 IP address shown in dot decimal format and as binary.
Colloquially, CIDR notation could be described as a format to describe a group of closely related IP addresses, in a similar fashion to how a C-Block works. It is represented by a number after a slash appended to a partial IP address (e.g. 199.181.132/24) which states how many of the initial bits (binary digits) are the identical. CIDR is flexible and we could use it to describe a C-Block would be /24 because the first 24 bits (3 groups of 8 bits) of the address are the same:
Two IP addresses in the same C-Block. The first 24 bits (3 blocks of 8 bits) are identical.
This can be represented in this case as 199.181.132/24.
Now CIDR notation is more refined and more accurate than the concept of C-Block; in the example above the two IP addresses are not just in the same C-Block they are even more closely related as 6 bits in the last block are also identical. In CIDR notation we could say both these IP addresses are in the 199.181.132/30 block to indicate that the 30 leading bits are identical.
Notice that with CIDR the smaller the number after the slash, the more IP addresses in that block (because we’re saying fewer leading bits must be identical).
IPv6 & C-Blocks?
Now CIDR /24 is not exactly catchy and so someone made up the name “C-Block” to make this easier to talk about, but it doesn’t extend so easily to IPv6. So, the question is, can we generalise something similar?
The point of a C-Block from Google’s perspective and the perspective of our SEO is solely to identify whether links are originating on the same ISP network. So that should obviously remain the focus. So my best guess would be to focus on how these IPs are allocated to ISPs (ISPs normally get large continuous blocks of IP addresses they can then use for their customers’ websites).
In IPv4 ISPs would own bunches of C-Blocks, and so if you could see multiple links originating from the same C-Block it implied the sites were hosted together, and there was a far greater chance they were somehow related.
Illustration of an “ISP Block” (/32); the blue part of the address is stable and
indicates the ISP. The red part can change and represents addresses at that ISP.
With IPv6, I believe that ISPs will be given /32 blocks (the leading 32 bits will be the same, leaving 96 bits to create addresses for their customers), which they will then assign to their users in /64 blocks (I asked a few people, this tends to be what is happening, but I have read that this might sometimes be /48 blocks instead). Notice that ISPs now have an order of magnitude more IP addresses (each) than the whole internet had before!
This also means each end user will get more IP addresses for their own network than there are in total IPv4 IP addresses. Welcome to the Internet of things!
These ISPs may be serving home users so each house gets a block of IPv6 addresses (for the techies: IPv6 does away with NAT for the most part, I believe – all the devices in your house will get a ‘real’ IP) for their devices. In the other scenario the ISP is for servers, and here the servers get assigned a /64 block; this is the case we are interested in.
Illustration of a “Customer Block” (/64); the blue part indicates a particular customer.
The red part can change and represents addresses belonging to that customer.
So, I think the equivalent of a C-Block in IPv6 land would be a /32 block because that is what an ISP will usually be assigned (and allows them to then carve that up into 4 billion /64 blocks for their users!).
Furthermore, in IPv6 the minimum allocation is /32 so a single /32 block cannot run across multiple ISPs as I understand it, so there is no way two IPs in the same /32 could belong to two different ISPs. If our goal is to continue to examine whether sites are more likely related than two random sites, then knowing they are on the same ISP (which is what C-Blocks do) is our goal.
Also, if you chose /64 then each ISP has 4 billion of these blocks to give away, and that is way too sparse to identify associations between sites in different blocks.
However, there is a counter argument here. Note that a single server having a /64 block of IPs means that every website should have a different IPv6 address (even if it shares an IPv4 address).
Geek side note: indeed, the “host” http header accepts an IPv6 address to distinguish which site on the server you want.
So now a single server with multiple sites will have a separate IP for each of those sites (it is also possible that the server has multiple IPv6 blocks assigned, one for each different customer – I think this is actually the intention and hopefully becomes the reality).
So, if I am running a network of websites I’m interlinking with one another then it is quite likely that if I just have a single hosting account that all these are in the same /64 block of IPv6 addresses. That should be a very strong signal that that sites are linked closely. However, I’m fairly sure that those trying to be manipulative will try to avoid this scenario and end up trying to get in another block of addresses for each site. But if they are with the same ISP then they’ll still be in the same /32 block.
My recommendation on an IPv6 C-Block
So, if you followed all that then I’d suggest:
- Sites in the same /32 block as before would be equivalent to the same C-Block as previously.
- Sites in the same /64 block either are on the exact same server, or belong to the same customer, so are even closer related than C-Block level.
These need easier more accessible names, how about:
- “ISP Block” for /32 blocks.
- “Customer Block” for /64 blocks.
Then we would be able to say things like:
- In IPv6 IP addresses in the same ISP Blocks most closely resemble the relationship of IPs in the same C-Block in IPv4.
- In IPv6 IP addresses in the same User Block are likely very closely related, and probably belong to the same person/organisation.
What should I take away from all this?
As I mentioned further up, I’m not convinced that IPv4 C-Blocks are as important from Google’s perspective as they once were, as they can likely access multiple other signals to tie sites together. Whilst still useful as a substitute for those signals for SEOs, who don’t have all Google’s resources, they aren’t something that should guide your decision making. If you are running legitimate sites, you shouldn’t be concerned about hosting them on the same C-Block. In fact, I’d advise against that as it could look manipulative to Google (who will likely work it out anyway).
With IPv6, I think the “Customer Blocks” could be a very important SEO feature, as it is an even closer relationship than C-Blocks were, and this is something that Google will likely make use of. It is still going to take a while until IPv6 becomes prevalent enough that all of this is important, so for the moment this is just something to have on your radar as it will begin to increase in importance over the next couple of years.
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World Cup 2014 Google Logo Gets Father’s Day Treatment On Day #4
Today’s Google logo continues the site’s celebration of the World Cup with a Father’s Day themed animated illustration as the tournament enters day four. The Google Doodle team has turned the two “Os” in Google into a father-son pair, each wearing matching green…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
For Father’s Day 2014, Google Has Father & Son At World Cup
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You&A with Matt Cutts at SMX Advanced 2014 (& Where is the Penguin Update?)
Every year at SMX Advanced Danny does a You&A with Matt Cutts where audience members submit questions, Danny asks them (the ones he feels are the most valid to a large audience anyway) and Matt answers them. I live tweeted this year’s session and this is the roundup of those tweets along with anything I […]
The post You&A with Matt Cutts at SMX Advanced 2014 (& Where is the Penguin Update?) appeared first on Sugarrae.
SearchCap: Google Rolls Out PayDay Loan, World Cup Logos & Pinterest Search
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 Rolling Out Now Google is now rolling out the 3rd version of the PayDay Loan algorithm. Last night we reported that…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Apologizes For World Cup Logo With Wrong Flag, Not “Ghana” Happen Again
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Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
With 1 Billion+ Travel Pins, Pinterest Gives Place Search An Upgrade
Forget the idea that Pinterest is all about fashion photos, cute animals and inspirational messages. The company says it’s now hosting more than a billion Place Pins across four million Place Boards. Together, all this represents more than 300 unique countries and territories. That’s a…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Partners With ESPN To Deliver 2014 World Cup Video Highlights
Recode.com reported today that Google has partnered with ESPN to deliver video highlights for World Cup related searches. According to Recode.com, Google’s “in-line” search results for World Cup queries will include a screen shot of ESPN’s World Cup video footage and link…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
The Ultimate List of IFTTT Recipes for Marketers
Here at SEER, we’re big proponents of scaling and automating as many tasks as possible so that we can spend the bulk of our time strategizing for our clients. So, we’re huge fans of IFTTT. If you’re not familiar with IFTTT, it’s simple. IFTTT is a free tool that you can use to connect different […]
Up Close @SMX Advanced: The Periodic Table Of SEO Elements
This SEO ranking factors session has become a much-anticipated tradition at SMX Advanced, as the substantial early morning crowd in attendance this year testified. Each year, a panel of SEO data experts present their up-to-date findings, test results, …
Once Were Vikings: Search Marketing In The Nordics
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Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 13, 2014
Please excuse the tired video recap but I do cover some important search topics. First, Google released version 3.0 of the Pay Day Loan algorithm…
Panda 4.0: Redefining Site Authority
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Search In Pics: Matt Cutts Throwing Hummingbirds, Google Pride Logos & Android LED Sign
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Gay Pride Added To GooglePlex & Google NYC Building Logos: Source:…
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Quick Internal Linking Insight Using Google Analytics
Linking to URLs with a certain parameter can cause SEO issues such as duplication. Here’s how to quickly and easily use information already available to you in Google Analytics to get a list of and find pages linking to a particular group of URLs.
Google My Business – Let’s Not Stop Here – My Wish List for Upgrades
Google’s recent My Business rollout puts a very strong product in the hands of the SMB – mobile social posting to business pages, additional social analytics, easy to update local information. It finally solves most of the issues that have haunted Local since 2011. If it isn’t obvious I think it is a well done, […]
Up Close @ SMX: Enhancing Results With Structured Data & Markup
When you think about the job the search engines have to do it’s pretty daunting. Given a collection of mostly wildly unstructured data from an endless number of sources, Bing, Google and the others have to somehow make sense of all that information and then give it back to us on demand in a way…
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Up Close @ SMX Advanced: Local Super Therapy Session
Local SEO is a tough beast to tame, so it wasn’t surprising that the room was packed for the Let’s Talk Local Search: Super Therapy Session For Advanced Local Marketers session that kicked off SMX Advanced 2014. Moderator Matt McGee, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, decided to make the…
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