Fawthrop McLanders Design and Marketing: Full service marketing agency from website design and development, to PR , events management and online consultancy

Hi, welcome to my first post on digital stuff for the new Fawthrop McLanders blogsite and Happy New Year!

I’m a bit of a digital geek so I’ll be writing about stuff happening in the online marketing world. And, like a true geek, I like to ponder the consequences changes to the online world have and what better platform to share my thoughts than this blog! Rather excited am I. Apologies in advance if my posts are a bit ranty, or a bit opinionated, but hey, that’s the glory of the blog isn’t it? The sorts of things I’ll be chatting about are: search engine optimisation, social media technologies, mobile marketing, banner advertising and paid search. In between my heavily opinionated tirades (sounds fun doesn’t it) I’ll even be throwing in a few of my very own tips and tricks. So if you’re a geek too, please enjoy, please join in the conversation and subscribe to our RSS feed to receive new posts.

So, to the first of my musings. Recently I’ve been reading up on Google’s latest plans to expand personalised search to all users and I’ve got to say, I’m torn. Previously you would have to sign in to your Google account for search results to be personalised, but not anymore. All Google users will soon have their search behaviour monitored and their favourite sites will filter into the highest ranking positions. Great! Or is it?

Professionally, my initial reaction to the news wasn’t great. It’s tricky enough making sure a website is optimised for the personalised search tactics Google currently has in place, but trying to optimise for each individual’s search habits to an even greater extent will undoubtedly cause a headache or two amongst professional SEO marketeers.

As search results will differ from user to user, it will become increasingly difficult for SEO professionals to influence Google’s ranking decisions. A website’s position in Google results pages will also be harder to analyse. It may be number one for one person and number 20 for another.

The consumer side of me thinks that surely more personalised search is better for all – once again the mighty algorithm of Google is attempting to make our daily browsing lives even quicker and more relevant and that has to be a good thing, right? I’m not so sure. I quite like being random, humans are random, and I have multiple tools to bookmark my own favourite websites thank you very much.

But Google claims that it will not only provide better search results, it will also be able to target ads more precisely by building a profile of its users’ web activity. Unfortunately, whilst this seems great on the surface for Adsense and Adwords users, I can’t help but think this is just Google limiting organic search and lining their pockets by pushing people further towards paid search.

One of the wonders of the Internet, in its current state, is its ability to serve up global opportunities to the big boys; like Amazon and ebay, as well as smaller local businesses, something not always achievable in the real world. And it’s not just businesses that benefit, the blogging phenomenon has taught us that the smallest of people can have a voice and create their own opportunities through the world of the Web. Take Tavi Gevinson for example: this amazing youth started up her own blog at 13 years old because she liked to talk about fashion. The teenager has amassed an impressive following of 4 million readers with her blog Style Rookie and has become a part of the fashion elite overnight. My main concern with this latest development is that search through Google will mean less random and therefore less accidental gem discoveries such as many found with young Tavi’s fashion blog. If there is a greater push towards paid search then those like Tavi, without big corporate budgets may disappear, only to be found on the hundredth page.

It does feel a bit like we’re being spoon fed and I find it reminding me of the steps that led to the domination of global brands on our “real life” high streets. What we now lack in cultural definition in the real world, we’re currently able to find, express and share online. I personally don’t want that to change.

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the arguments for this expansion by Google – that it should better search: by making unethical search engine optimisation tactics more difficult and therefore reduce spam. I just hope Google preserves the free flow of culture the internet currently allows and doesn’t force it into becoming a new, virtual battling ground for the big brands, a world where big spenders win keyword bidding wars and independents suddenly drop off the Google map.

Users can turn the personalisation off, but in true big brother style, it remains an opt-out rather than an opt-in service, which has alarmed privacy campaigners. Comforting.

Feel free to let me know what you think about this. I’m going to be monitoring it in the New Year and trying to discover good search engine optimisation techniques to help the little guy, so if you come across any do let me know.

Ruth x