The Future of Search & The Knowledge Graph

The Knowledge Graph

The knowledge graph is what G is calling the future of search. It's a fundamental shift in the thinking of what people are looking for. Search engines have for some time focused on delivering one unique result for every single person. To do that requires knowledge of the person searching and this is part of what we at Axses called the Social Index, and what Google is now calling the Knowledge Graph.This could perhaps best be described as a Knowledge Network, because knowledge is derived from several categories of information that are interrelated.

It ,however, far more complex that that. G has figured out that one answer is actually not enough.  In their example they show a search for Leonardo da Vinci. Now instead of a long list of sites you get a row of images across the top depicting an understanding of this subject. His paintings are, for example, displayed across the top of the page in a single row left to right. 

Beneath  that you will find another row showing what other questions people ask, like who are the Renaissance painters.

This changes the way we must market.  We now have to influence this knowledge graph, or database of understanding, by providing not just a keyword or a name but a set of knowledge in a format, and with enough authority that it will get indexed. 

That knowledge must be available in the right places. Not 5,000 backlinks in some unheard of websites. In social indexing we aim to create deep knowledge and get it into authoritative sources in quality formats like video, magazines, represented by trusted sites, and known and respected media - authors, bloggers and information resources. Marketing is going to be conducted more by knowledge engineering. People will be able to access what they want in a very tailored and easily accessible way, at their finger tips. Traditional marketing is being superseded by the presence of knowledge networks. Some of the traditional methods will be embedded in the delivery of information along with the opportunity to buy.

knowledge graph. 

U-Drive Marketing for Car Rental Holidays

Marketing Car Rentals with U-Drive Adventure Travel Tours

In a recent campaign launched for Courtesy Rent A Car, we coined a new travel category called U-Drive Adventure Travel.

It's a bit of a novel twist on car rentals and we expect it will track well on the internet. The project is being launched as we write and we will give you an update on its success in the next month or so. 

It is using our tried and tested Social Index Engine which creates a sphere of influence that contributes to what Google is calling The Knowledge Graph.



Click Here to view video

Campaign highlights
1. Promotion on Adventure-Travel-Destinations.com with a separate landing  page, blogs, featured in the "Caribbean Pages". Video used in all.

2. Barbados.org Blog featuring U-Drive Adventures and the video. This site is a known authority information resource and highly respected by the search community. It is the Barbados Tourism encyclopedia with over 15,000 pages of information, all of it unique and original.

3. Separate Video for company website. Videos are a vital part of the marketing mix. They add to the sites reputation, and typically increase engagement which is a key factor in the knowledge graph

4. Press Release with Video. We use PRweb, the world’s #1 news release service. PRweb releases go out to all media. We can choose selected journalists, publications and newspapers etc. Our typical release on PRweb is coupled with a separate SIE marketing of the PRweb Page giving us a higher than average readership. our last release was displayed on over 70,000 pages directly. As it was also picked up by several thousand media sites and also distributed by them, the reach was far greater than what is reported. It has a massive impact on what we do because we integrate it into campaigns where all parts reinforce each other.

5. Social Network - created niche market profiles for social networking sites and posted relevant information and items of interest concerning the campaign with blogs, videos and discussions.

6. Bookmarking- we bookmarked the blogs etc. to Bookmark sites like Delicious and Reddit. For example, we made one post regarding a carnival video to StumbleUpon that resulted in around 250 direct responses within 24 hours.

7. Video published to major video sites. While YouTube is our number one site, their are other top rated sites like Dailymotion, that have a large following. We put the video on these site and have often seen them raise to the top of search results.  

8. Video Promotions - we choose video sites to highlight. Highlighting is where we build links to the site from the right sources, maybe even do a press release related to our use of that site etc. This then reinforces the authority of the site and adds credibility to the knowledge graph.

9. Backlinks, comments and ongoing analysis and adjustments as required. We don't focus on quantity but on quality. Article marketing is still a powerful force in marketing so long as the content is valuable and engages people. 

10. Adventure-Travel-Destinations has a very high retention rate. People using the site visit several pages. The bounce rate is very low compared to other similar sites. This is an authority site and a good place to get linked from.

RESULTS OF PAST CAMPAIGNS

Direct Car Rentals

Our last car rental campaign for Direct-Car-Rentals.com promoted on Party-Destinations has resulted in higher ranking on search engines, extensive viability across the internet and with off line media. Just under 500 video views and climbing. ranking on top of YouTube for the niche market of Holiday Car Rental Tips.

The video is on top of YouTube results for Holiday Car Rental Tips and related niche terms.
One of the objectives of the campaign is to build name recognition and authority for the site. 

The video on YouTube has just under 500 views. Party Destinations continues to be in top position on Google search results and has 50 to 100 daily visitors.

Part of our research indicated that their URL was not optimal for their target market. It did not have any key word resonance, and it didn't reflect the brand. We registered a new URL - direct-car-rentals.com and linked it to their existing URL. This was a simple, but important step because the URL is one the most strategic SEO options you have. As a result of this simple move and with the links and collateral created for the promo: Direct Car Rentals is now seen on the first page of many relative search results.

In addition we have created new visibility and attracted new potential clients reaching out to a new niche market through Party-Destinations.com marketing.


Tiami

We did a similar campaign for Tiami and had similar results. Our Tiami Campaign has 1000 YouTube views and climbing!



Summary

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just give us a call at 246 429 2653 
Ask about SocialIndex marketing.

Case Study: Hotel Social Marketing that Boosts Bookings

SocialIndexEngine Hotel Marketing Campaign Case Study

The Social Index Marketing campaign to promote St. Lucia’s Marigot Beach Hotel is less than 6 months old, but the results have been very encouraging. 

With our new SocialIndexEngine Travel Strategy, special offers and promotions were loaded into our travel publishing systems and blasted out to a vast network of travel sites. Content from the same systems are published to Facebook and to our own network.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p17knXD0o70

The Social Marketing is combined with the blogging, article marketing, SEO Mobile Marketing, Travel Blast and Videos. 

It is a complete, done-for-you social media management and brand marketing  that drives bookings directly to your website and builds sustainable brands.

Compared to the same time last year, the hotel has had a 200% increase in bookings. The page rank for their website, MarigotBeachClub.com, has increased from PR3 to PR4.

The campaign is a kick-start package. Following a successful kick-start, we will re-evaluate the position of the Brand and devise a strategy to build on new niches with consistent blogging, video distribution, mobile and social media management services providing information to build authority and give answers to travellers.

This success was a result of the new strategies and technology built by AXSES. About a year ago, we noted that traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) was not working. Getting links from other sites used to help us get top position in Google and other search results. Then the Engines like Google saw that a lot of this was paid-for links or reciprocal links (I link to you if you link to me). The result is that reciprocal links now don’t count and general links from directories etc have little or no SEO value.

>>>> More to get the full tutorial and whitepaper on the new SEO and Relationship Marketing sign up at http://SocialIndexEngine.com 

We used to comment on blogs; now Google looks to see who is commenting, what their history is and what their score is. Yes, SCORE! – Google actually rates advertisers and applies a Quality Score based on the merit of the work. This Quality Score was first used to weed out advertisers who were not contributing ads of good value; now it is one of the components of the social index that determines who you are, your authority, your influence and your value. Today it is used everywhere – But beware! Putting up a Squeeze page (a page that tries to grab an email and provides only promo material) will decrease your Quality Score. Have a slow-loading site and down goes the Quality Score.

Then there are articles. Article marketing was hot in 2010, but in 2011 a whole bunch of article sites got slapped by Google for populating duplicate content. This was Panda; many site just disappeared over night and articles with duplicates were ignored. Later in 2011, Google started assigning a negative score to website with non-original material. This hurt the e-commerce sites and particularly the affiliates who resold the product and copied the content of- like hotel room description, rates, etc. - from an OTA like Expedia.

All of this was unfortunate for bona fide distributors and travel marketers. The fact is that Google was not after the reputable marketers; it was clamping down on the absolute nonsense that affiliate marketers where putting on the net to game the system and sell their affiliate offers, like Teeth whiteners. The net had become proliferated with poorly written, low-value articles and a lot of trash. They had to do something, as search results were becoming irrelevant.

In marketing today, you cannot ignore Google. It is massive. ComScore reported in September 2011 that Google had almost 66% of all search traffic. So you absolutely must know what it is doing.

To be successful in today’s media, one has to know what Google is looking at, where it is looking, what it is looking for and what it does not want. Make a mistake and Google will slap you right out of the ring.  

To be successful in internet marketing today, you need to be where Goggle is looking

What I can tell you is that Google is looking at Social Media. It is looking at what you are doing on social media, social networking sites like Facebook, sharing sites like YouTube, bookmarking sites like Delicious, Wikipedia-type sites, and news sites like Twitter. It is very interested in mobile sites which are, in fact, the most social of all, and mobile is soon going to overtake OC as the main method of Search and Internet access!

We have noted that Google likes video and that consumers are searching for videos to evaluate a product or service and get answers to questions. Hence, we use a lot of video. They are informative videos; not too sales-oriented and definitely not glitzy. Videos that work in Social Media are local, personal stories and honest accounts, if they get too polished and too glib they loose appeal. Never put fancy effects and glitz into your videos.

Knowing all of this, our SocialIndexEngine is about building your social presence and making it work. It is not restricted to Social, but pretty soon there will be little else but Social. It really is the new way of marketing, permission-based, non-invasive and informative, supportive and engaging communications. 

Gone are the days of hype and spin. Mostly all of that has been the result of too many products in the market. It was not always like this, the cave man did not wonder around with a placard marketing his wares. In fact before commerce, man existed in agregrian communities bartering with neighbors. 

Now we have Pepsi reusing the word "Refresh" for its emotional appeal and Coke competing for emotional space with "Open Happiness". I think it is all rather ridiculous.  

The new marketing is going back to its roots in many respects. Friends, acquaintances, business partner and one's own circle or community are a growing factor in influencing what you people buy and where. The new technology is drastically changing the way we market. With so many consumers becoming vocal, publishing options, sharing views and insights: the traditional media of newspapers, radio and the broadcasters and finding themselves lost in a sea of voices and the new paradigm of participation. I talk about this in the preface to my book "How to Build your Business online by Ian R. Clayton"

>>> http://buildyourbusinessonlinebook.com

It's available in paperback on Amazon and Kindle, as easy read and full of helpful insights and how to's. Will share with you the process of publishing it in an upcoming blog - Keep Watching!

This new marketing is at the core of our approach to SEO. We have built an overall strategy that includes our e-commerce engine and our publishing machine. We even do magazines and all the usual brochures, but now always published on on-demand, available instantly, online with digital format for download to mobile devices and by regular mail. 

Everything is going online and you need to be there with the best you have in a format, message and engagement appropriate to your niche.

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