APAC

Seven on-page SEO tips for Baidu

Baidu is often referred to as the Chinese Google, and while its respective dominance in its market is similar to Google’s, this can lead to the misconception that the two search engines differ only in name and region.

This is of course not the case. Baidu is a completely different search engine to Google, with different values and ranking factors.

Read on to find out my seven on-page tips for Baidu SEO, or for more information on this topic download Econsultancy’s Baidu Search Best Practice Guide.

The 10 coolest Google Business Views

Earlier this year, I was surprised to find this post on Indoor Google Maps was quite popular.

Maybe it was because lots of people weren’t aware of Indoor Google Maps. Maybe it was because we’re all quite nosy, fans of MTV Cribs and the old British favourite, Changing Rooms.

Well, I thought I’d collect some of the coolest examples of Google Business Photos, the indoor equivalent of Google Street View.

These are the weirdest, most wonderful and beautiful 360 degree interactive tours. They appear in Google searches, Google Maps, and Google+ Local.

Anyone can use Google Business Photos (and be successful with them) apart from legal establishments and museums (this imagery is supported through Google Art Project). Admittedly a few of my examples aren’t businesses.

Econsultancy London even got involved (though we’ve recently upped sticks).

So heck, why travel, why leave the house when you can experience all this from your desktop? Enjoy!

Email, social and SEO are most common channels for APAC marketers

In the West we often assume that cultural differences in APAC nations mean that marketers in the region are required to adopt a very different tactics to European or US marketers.

However data taken from Econsultancy’s State of Digital Marketing in Asia Report shows that the toolkit is largely the same.

When asked which of the following digital marketing channels they currently use, email emerged as the most popular answer among APAC businesses (79%).

This was followed by off-site social media (6%) SEO (61%), and content marketing (58%).

The internet of things: five new products changing the market now

I am subtitling this post, ‘products become services, services become transparent’.

Econsultancy researcher Andrew Warren-Payne sent me a list of internet of things developments, products that have emerged over the past year and are now available.

He knows I’m interested in internet enabled things as I’ve written a few posts before about what to expect and about why everyone is so fascinated by the IoT.

I’ve tried to keep the discussion rooted to what marketers need to know about IoT. It’s easy to get carried away talking about fridges that know when you’ve run out of milk but realistically there’s no demand for that. It won’t be happening any time soon.

But what will be happening is the gradual transition from one-off purchases where the customer is never to be seen again. This will transition to services, where a customer’s purchase ‘talks’ to the store or manufacturer and a relationship is established throughout the product lifecycle.

Whether it be refills, repairs or upgrades, the seller can keep in touch to potentially make you a more loyal and valuable customer.

Additionally, customers will be able to demand accuracy and transparency from many service providers, as internet enabled devices afford greater data analysis, or life-logging. Cost-saving could be a major benefit, for consumers and suppliers.

So what are these emerging products Andrew has spotted?

Google

12 inspiring marketing campaigns from Google

Google helps us all market our services. That statement can start a healthy debate amongst many in the media, but I think I’ll stick with it.

Of course, Google has to market itself, too.

Even the biggest and most successful companies must market themselves in some channels. Apple, for example, may shun social media, but it’s all over the television and out-of-home and has a distinctive presence on many high streets.

So, I thought I’d round up some examples of Google’s marketing that have stuck in my mind and continue to leave me mindful of Google’s all-conquering innovation.

Hope you enjoy!

Social media monetisation is a major concern among Asian marketers: new report

For the second year running, Econsultancy has published a freely available trends briefing about digital trends in South-East Asia, based on the Digital Cream Singapore event for senior client-side digital marketers held in November last year.

Digital Cream Singapore 2013 brought together more than 120 B2B and B2C in-house marketers from around the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region and beyond to discuss best practice and common challenges in digital marketing, and learn from each other.

Delegates discussed a wide range of topics, ranging from managing and making sense of audience and customer data, increasing personalisation and loyalty, to using video marketing and cross-channel marketing.

Do big retailers need to create social value to succeed?

The high street debate is one that attracts much comment on the Econsultancy blog.

Feelings run high when it comes to ensuring the survival of stores in our towns. The situation has yet to crystallise, though it’s clear there are business models that aren’t best suited to bricks and mortar any more. 

Alongside the trend towards experiential retail (shops doing more than simply selling stuff that consumers can buy cheaper online), a trend towards creating social value in the community may be emerging. 

High street vacancy rates are steady in the UK at 14% in 2013 and independent stores such as cafes are on the increase. Part of the reason for this is social and local. 

Most of us still value our retail centres as places to take a ‘humanity bath’, meeting people outside of the office, the church/mosque/synagogue and your neighbourhood. 

But what else can big retailers do to engender a closer community? Does every store have to get involved? What about digital technology, can it play a part at a community level?

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) has released a report detailing the business case for socially aware retail. The report includes the results of six months of research with three ASDA stores. 

Whilst most of the findings are relevant mainly for larger focal points, chiefly supermarkets, here’s what I gleaned…

20 stunning examples of minimal mobile UI design

Some of the best web and mobile app designs have a very limited colour range. Two or three colours can be more than enough, and I find that a restrained approach to colour works especially well on de-cluttered interfaces. 

The use of colour in design is a bit like great music, where balance, contrast, restraint and dissonance all come into play. I picked out monochrome and hypercolour as two of my 18 web design trends for 2014, but perhaps trichromatic design is where it’s really at?  

Baidu’s Zeitgeist 2013: stats and trends

Last month we looked at 2013’s UK edition of Google’s Zeitgeist which always proves an interesting overview of the most popular trends in our search behaviour over the year.

But as China gears up to celebrate the start of its new year, let’s turn to Baidu to see how search habits in the east might compare.

These stats and trends, as well as a wealth of Christmas ecommerce data can be found in the latest edition of our Internet Statistics Compendium.

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