While blockchain is most notably used in the financial sector,

I have been studying the application of blockchain technology in various industries.   According to an article on the Oracle website titled The Benefits of Blockchain Across Industries. (n.d.). there are benefits to be derived in the public sector by the use of this technology.

The blockchain is an encrypted, distributed database shared across multiple computers or nodes that are part of a community or system. Transactions and data that use blockchain technology do not allow changes to data once it is written unless all or a majority of participating computers agree to the change. Blockchain has the ability to make the secure transfer of data simpler and easier between entities. This article notes the potential uses of blockchain technology in the defense, legal and energy industries.

It also discusses that the ability of blockchain to link data between government departments that typically work is silos. This can benefit citizens because the exchange of information between departments is in real time, after the agency and the citizen agree to share data. Information would no longer be delayed, resulting in greater efficiency and better service to citizens. It could also increase transparency and reduce fraud and abuse.  It is clear that blockchain holds much promise in the ability to provide secure and transparent transactions. We will continue to study the evolution of this technology.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – TCC-Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

The World’s Top Energy Companies Look to Blockchain to
‘Fuse the Physical With the Virtual’

  

A new coalition links up energy companies with leading blockchain experts.

Earlier this month Shell, Statoil, Tepco, Centrica and a half-dozen other energy companies the Energy Web Foundation, an alliance devoted to bringing blockchain to the grid. The companies donated $2.5 million to the organization. The foundation was set up in February this year as a collaboration between Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Austrian blockchain developer Grid Singularity to “accelerate the commercial deployment of blockchain technology in the energy sector.”

The companies and organizations involved think blockchain will be a game-changer for energy, and e working together to provide the frameworks and standards to help ensure that outcome. Jesse Morris, principal for electricity and transportation practices at RMI and co-founder of the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), said the foundation's immediate aim is to garner more affiliates and funding, while developing an open-source blockchain application for use in the energy sector. Initially, partner organizations will evaluate the software, and potentially release it to the public in 2019 or 2020, if all goes well. Blockchain is best known as the platform for Bitcoin. It is an encrypted, distributed database that allows all users to track every transaction — thus eliminating the need for an intermediary.

Blockchain enthusiasts believe the technology can also be used to seamlessly transact electrons between consumers on the grid, while keeping an accurate, incorruptible tally of where they came from and where they went. It could encourage greater peer-to-peer sales on the grid and lay the foundation for microgrids and distributed renewables. “We have a strong hypothesis that blockchain will solve a lot of long-running problems in the energy sector,” said Morris. “Overcoming these challenges could make small, incremental changes to energy infrastructure and markets in the ar term, while others would be more far-reaching and disruptive."

Certificates (also known as guarantees) of origin would assure the user that a particular megawatt-hour of electricity was produced from renewables. According to Morris, the U.S. alone has 10 different tracking systems, Asia-Pacific has several more, and each European country has its own system of certification. Blockchain could be used to transparently guarantee the origin of the electrons. Longer-term, and more radically, RMI sees the future of electricity networks being driven by the billions of energy storage and HVAC units, EVs, solar roof panels and other devices and appliances at the grid edge.

Blockchains can allow any of them to set their own level of participation on the grid, without the need for an intermediary. And crucially, they can be configured so that if a grid operator needs guaranteeing capacity, the grid-edge unit can communicate back to the grid whether or not it’s up to the task. This is an example of what Morris described as blockchain’s ability to “fuse the physical with the virtual” via machine-to-machine communication. However, these are still early days. Foundation members have a lot of work to do in order to ensure its credibility, prove the technology works for energy applications and lay down the foundation for widespread adoption.

“Think of it like the App Store,” remarked David Peters, director of strategy and innovation at grid owner-operator Stedin B.V. “We at the EWF are building a shared infrastructure where we can build on top the developed code.” Stedin joined EWF because it believes in blockchain’s potential. “It gives us access to the best blockchain people in the world,” Peters said.   He hopes the widespread adoption of the technology will “lower the barriers of participation” for the grid. Engie, the French multinational electric utility, had already conducted its own blockchain research projects before joining EWF. Among them was a program to track smart meters in Burgundy, keeping detailed tabs on solar panel electricity production, and facilitating transactions of a small peer-to-peer community energy trading project in Belgium.

Engie's Director of Research and Technologies Raphael Schoentgen explained that blockchain is a promising technology to track smart meter data. “It contributes to better management of electrons over the grid,” he remarked. The technology’s ability to automate transactions for peer-to-peer trading is of key interest to Dr. Hans-Heinrich Kleuker, the CEO of Technische Werke Ludwigshafen, whose company is now also part of EWF. “We’ll see many more consumers with either an energy deficit or a surplus in the near future, and the desire to trade that energy,” he said. “Machine-to-machine communication, such as that offered via blockchain, will be essential to manage the vast number of transactions needed.”

Such trades would certainly be beyond the capabilities of a small, local utility such as TWL, said Kleuker.  “We are looking at the convergence of different electricity markets, which are very different right now, but longer-term will be facing similar challenges,” Kleuker concluded, convinced that the application of blockchain can meet those challenges. EWF will meet at the end of May to decide which use-case scenarios from around the world it will employ to take the project forward. In the coming years, the foundation will decide on norms and standards that may allow blockchain to be used in a truly universal way and “move beyond the hype.”

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – TCC-Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Blockchain and the airline industry:
ready for take-off?

Let’s first look at where the airline industry is now

For every traveller’s ticket, airlines conduct various business-to-business (B2B) transactions that touch other business and government entities. From booking to arrival, players include online travel platforms, government agencies, airlines, card providers, airports, car rental agencies, immigration hotels and more.

The industry is powered by data sharing among multiple actors and touchpoints. Information both on the traveller and overall operations is continually collected, stored and “disseminated” by each of the actors involved at some point. They will need to go through complex data reconciliation processes between a multitude of systems to ensure operations and security and facilitate the successful departure of the traveller.

Airlines alone house data in numerous siloed systems from passenger service to crew management Each airline system is characterized by a mix of data that it stores to facilitate a travel. It may vary from crew departments to passenger services. With multiple systems in play and massive data stored in multiple single systems makes the exchange at times difficult. For airlines, not only operational integrity and revenue generation may be endangered when something goes wrong, but also safety and security.

Accenture: Why blockchain for the airline industry

According to Accenture in its report “Beyond the Buzz: The potential of Blockchain Technology for Airlines”, there is a very strong similarity between the airline industry operations and what blockchain technology has to offer. Therefore “it is fair to say that blockchain and other distributed ledger technology has the ability to improve transactional flows, improve trust and provide immutable record retention”.

With the complexity of information and the delicate state of affairs in the airline Industry, blockchain technology incorporation for comprehensive data sharing and reconciliation may prove to be very beneficial. One of the advantages is cutting down complexities associated with cross-enterprise business processes. Use of blockchain techniques can help enhance reconciliation and data sharing.  “Using blockchain technology for enhanced reconciliation and data sharing is a compelling value proposition for this industry. The most creative and disruptive possibilities go beyond pure financial transactions,” Accenture 

Blockchain technology can also create new efficiencies and services models for airlines.

 “On a basic level, interoperability between programs and partners that use the same dataset to record and transfer value will result in enhanced efficiencies in transaction processing and invoice reconciliation” “For travellers, this will result in quicker availability and better usability of their points and miles”, Robert Moerland, EVP — Global Business Development, Loyyal Another attraction of blockchain technology for the airline industry is that it allows “privacy by design” so that passenger data can be secure, encrypted, tamper-proof and unusable for any other purpose. Once information has been entered, it cannot be changed. At the same time, it eliminates the need for a single authority to own, process or to store the data.

Capco –IATA Research

Capco, the global business and technology consultancy for the financial services industry, has conducted a report on behalf of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), to determine how blockchain will impact the airline industry and how this technology can be used to benefit them. Key findings include blockchain’s potential to make the industry faster and more cost efficient and enhance customer experience, as well as a number of uses of blockchain and its value. One area IATA is currently exploring refers to how this technology can help optimize the money flows between partners in the travel industry value chain. 

“Blockchain is a disruptive technology and represents a great opportunity for digital innovation. Every single industry, from the financial sector to aviation, is trying to understand where this technology will best fit and where to start the innovation journey. Distributed ledger technology — including blockchain — is already proven to reduce transaction fees when transferring money across borders and currencies,” “That represents a great promise, particularly for global businesses and industries.” Assad Mahmood, senior consultant, Capco. “The value of having a single ’source of truth’ that all business partners trust can dramatically simplify reconciliation, invoicing and settlement in our industry,” Juan Iván Martín, IATA head of Innovation, Financial and Distribution Services. 

Lufthansa introduces Blockchain for Airlines Initiative (BC4A)

German airline company Lufthansa has introduced the BC4A or Blockchain for Airlines initiative. The Main goal is to bring together all areas in the industry and collectively investigate the potential of the blockchain. Potential participants are software developers, aircraft builders, MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) service providers, logistics, leasing companies or regulators. Our Aim is to collect use cases of blockchain in the airline industry and come to common standards for its use.

Where can blockchain be used in the airline industry?
There are a  large number of promising cases where blockchain technology could be used in the airline industry. “The most creative and disruptive possibilities go beyond pure financial transactions.” “They may include use cases in ticketing, loyalty schemes, security, and identity, as well as maintenance”, Accenture

Identity Management

Blockchain technology could solve the problems related to identity management. It could even revolutionize identity management in combination with biometrics technology. Once validated on the blockchain, it would make it harder to “impersonate” or commit fraud. Companies such as uPort4 are designing systems to allow users to create digital verification of individuals on the blockchain. This would drastically reduce the current friction and burden of processing paper passports and relying on human checks to validate passenger identification.

Security

The security and privacy of information in all Industries are vital, in particular for the airline industry. Data privacy is a critical issue for passenger records, flight manifests, and crew information. There are also security implications if this data is not properly protected. Security and privacy can be significantly enhanced by using blockchain technology. Blockchain technology with a security wrapper (that requires security authorization to access and even disseminate information) creates a very different and safer way to manage and share this information through authorized access requirements.

Ticketing.

The blockchain can tokenize the present e-ticket and further dematerializing these tickets. Through the use of smart contracts associated with the tokenized tickets, airlines can add business logic and their terms and conditions for how the ticket will be sold and used by different partners across the value chain, and in real time, from any location in the world in a secure and efficient manner. This opens the possibility of one purchasing airline tickets from a host of partners from any part of the world.

Loyalty

By tokenizing loyalty points on a blockchain, travellers get immediate value as they can redeem and use the points instantly on the spot. They can also use them more broadly through a user community of partners (marketplace or exchange model). With points accepted as sort of “currency” among more providers, travellers have a faster-to-use, easier and more extended spending program that is better suited to their personal preferences.

 “One example is the possibility of multi-branded points that have a special value or benefit associated with them, potentially for a limited period of time. This means for travellers that more relevant targeted offers with an increased value will become available in a higher frequency,” Robert Moerland.

Luggage custody-change tracking

Luggage change custody through their journey between airlines, airport, and ground handlers. When something goes wrong with a passenger’s luggage it is important to have a log of custody changes to be able to determine who is responsible. A (semi-private) blockchain can cater for this as a neutral ground for reporting custody changes throughout the value chain. A blockchain-based solution for tracking luggage would smooth the hand-off points where different teams take over responsibility for passenger items. All airlines could track luggage handling on a single blockchain which is readable by the passenger. The traveller could even be able to see if their luggage is on the plane.

Maintenance

Another case study would be aircraft parts as they change custody between manufactures, traders, maintenance service providers, and airlines. Blockchain technology can move maintenance logs out of existing “bulky” cumbersome databases and paper binders. This may enable airlines to safeguard the validity of procured parts. It can ensure that parts procured are legitimate and can provide a “virtual copy” immutable record of the provenance of each part on the plane, every time it has been handled and by whom, from the beginning of the aircraft existence. This would mean that the provenance of every part of the aircraft is instantly available and would speed up due diligence around future lifecycle events. Maintenance events could be set in advance and non-conformity would appear within the aircraft maintenance record. This visibility can firmly improve maintenance, safety, and security.

Air cargo

The air cargo industry could benefit from Blockchain both as a tool for saving money and offering monetary protection and could transform, how cargo is nowadays managed. Blockchain technology could increase efficiency, cut down on costs, and reduce fraud.

In addition to reducing costs and time, blockchain would allow for complete consolidation of air cargo records, with verification. Blockchain would remove the need for costly and inefficient paper work and for the various and multitude time-consuming verification steps. In order to verify the origins and legitimacy of the products taking on board, blockchain could be used to track every step of the process: from origin through shipping, all the way to the arrival at the airport. Blockchain also could protect against any alterations, additions, or subtractions to the products in the meantime, cutting down on smuggling and theft. This transparency and validation will allow for faster processing and a reduction in paperwork. It might be possible to speed customs clearing with any import duty paid via the blockchain.

Other use cases

Apart from these applications blockchain technology can also be used for other cases. These may include Airport Collaborative Decision Making (ACDM),  In-flight entertainment, traveler compensation, flight planning etc.

SITA Project

Travel technology provider SITA is exploring the potential of blockchain technology as part of its single token efforts. This technology provides the opportunity to allow secure biometric authentication of passengers throughout the journey across borders, which could help eliminate the need for multiple travel documents without passengers having to share their personal data. “Now blockchain technology offers us the potential to provide a new way of using biometrics. It could enable biometrics to be used across borders, and at all airports, without the passenger’s details being stored by the various authorities.” Jim Peters, SITA’s Chief Technology Officer

SITA Lab, along with blockchain start-up ShoCard, is now researching how using virtual or digital passports in the form of a single secure token on mobile and wearable devices could reduce complexity, cost, and liability around document checks during the passenger journey. What the SITA Lab team is looking at is how the air travel industry — airlines, airports and government agencies — can take advantage of blockchain technology where the underlying blockchain provide trust so that individuals or authorities don’t have to. “If this new approach to identity management and passenger processing gains the support of the wider air transport industry and government agencies, it would make sense for the technology to be trialed as a next step” SITA

 Blockchain may revolutionize airline industry

Blockchain technology may become a disruptive force that may revolutionize the airline industry. Blockchain has the potential to play a leading role in disrupting many facets of the way they nowadays do business. Airlines — a data intensive industry with complex procedures and requirements — will certainly benefit from paying attention to the new potentials available and therefore have to reckon with this new technology. “Blockchain technology will continue to take flight in airlines over the next decade. Use cases not even conceived of today will become every day, reducing complexity and costs while improving the travel journey with real-time travel experiences,” Accenture Accenture sees an opportunity for major expansion. But it will still take a number of years before a real take off will be seen in the airline industry!

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – TCC-Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Why Investing in SEO Makes Good Business Sense

As Google continues to unhinge marketing models everywhere, companies are increasing spending on digital marketing services. If you are considering investing in search engine optimization (SEO), it may be hard to decide where to spend money, especially when marketing budgets are always tight. Still, SEO firms can potentially bring a lot of value to your business, and many marketers are taking the plunge. According to media analysts at Borrell, SEO spending will reach $80 billion annually by 2020.

Why Investing in SEO Makes Good Business Sense

If you are considering hiring an SEO agency for your company, it’s important to understand what you’re buying. In general, SEO work falls into three main buckets:

Keyword research and optimization

This is what most people think of when they think of SEO. “Keyword research and optimization is about defining the audiences you want to reach online, then communicating to Google where you want to meet those people,” explains Andy Kerns, Content Strategist with Digital Third Coast, a Chicago-based digital marketing agency. Kerns continues, “The where in this equation is represented by specific keyword phrases, like “’running shoes’ or ‘payroll software. People search a specific term, and your company shows up in the search results. Then the searchers click on your link — and you meet a new prospect!”

Technical work on websites

This is work you might not associate with SEO, but it is often essential. “The algorithm Google uses to assess and rate all websites is very sophisticated and very picky,” Kerns says. “It has to work extremely fast, in nanoseconds. If you want to meet folks searching for keywords relevant to your offerings, your website needs to be a well-oiled machine that communicates quickly and clearly with Google, at all times. This is not as simple as it sounds. There are literally hundreds of technical considerations when optimizing a website for SEO purposes.”

Link building campaigns

This is an aspect of SEO that might surprise you if you are new to the game — and it’s a game changer. “Consider the hundreds of technical tweaks that need to be made when optimizing a website.There’s a single consideration for Google’s algorithm that rises above all others — we call it links.” Kerns says. “Links from other websites to your website, are what Google counts, and cares about more than anything else. If your website is associated with other important and popular websites, Google will automatically like you more — and display your company much higher (closer to the top of Page 1) in search results.”

The hard part is getting those links in a legitimate way using keywords you care about — and that is where an SEO firm can be invaluable. “If you develop first-class content that is educational, entertaining or both, and you make a concerted effort to share that content with the world, the world will link back to you. We promise. We do this every single day for our clients.,” Kerns notes. While often at least some of the work can be done yourself or with in-house staff, the truth is that letting experts do it for you more than pays for itself, and here are several reasons why: 

True SEO work is systemic.
“If you don’t address everything—technical issues, keyword optimization, link building—it’s highly unlikely you’ll get the results you want,” Kerns warns. “This work is systemic, it’s on-going, and it requires a broad range of skills that would be very tough and costly to add to your existing team.” Hiring an expert or, better yet, a firm of experts, can streamline the process and maximize the ROI —Return on Investment. 

• Fresh perspective is your friend.
  “A common challenge we have is helping clients understand when their keyword strategy needs to shift to meet prospects where they are. We also need to clarify the kinds of link building content that will attract attention from journalists without seeming promotional.” Kerns says. “It’s extremely difficult for most people to see beyond the boundaries of their business, to understand where they need to fit in to the larger picture, We can do that for them.”

• There are no guarantees.
  You can spend a great deal of time getting educated about SEO and setting yourself up to give it a go on your own, using internal resources. And you may well be successful. But it’s a long shot. SEO is relatively new and it’s a delicate, esoteric trade. Finding a dedicated team with a proven track record and good recommendations is the smarter play here.

• Get access to the coolest toolbox.
  “Think of someone trying to build a house with an old school toolbox versus the tools professional contractors bring to the job. A great SEO team comes with a remarkable array of software tools,” Kerns notes. “These are the essential tools of the SEO trade. Even if you knew just what to source, they’d cost you tens of thousands of dollars to purchase, much less use.”

So, if you have a product or service that’s ready to go to the next level — especially one that has national appeal — strongly consider hiring an SEO firm as part of your growth plan. It’s a smart move for those who are ready for the big leap!

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about — Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Stop overloading your Local SEO content!

Developing content for your local business website is clearly important for search engine optimization, but that doesn't mean that more content is always better. Columnist Greg Gifford explains and suggests an alternative strategy.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road,

speaking at conferences and talking to marketers and business owners, and I’ve been having the “content” talk far too often lately. You know, the one that’s almost as awkward as sitting down with your kids to talk about the birds and the bees, but where you’re talking to a business owner and telling them that their last SEO agency duped them. For some reason, more than ever before, it seems like most business owners (and many marketers) are equating content with SEO. It’s like suddenly, the only thing that matters is content, content, CONTENT. If multiple pages aren’t added to the site every month, then obviously, no SEO has been performed.

Hopefully, everyone reading this knows that the “content, content, CONTENT” play is way off-base. The problem is that most business owners don’t know, and many of us aren’t doing a sufficient job of educating business owners to show them why. If there’s a huge disconnect between what marketers know and business owners believe, we’re all going to have problems keeping clients. So this month’s edition of Greg’s Soapbox is calling out the “content, content, CONTENT” play and showing why overloading on content is a bad strategy.

Lazy local content pages are usually doorway pages

In most cases, the local content play involves the monthly addition of “location” targeted pages to a website. Yes, this is a legitimate strategy when done correctly, but, in practice, most of the time the pages created are simply doorway pages. They’re thin pages without any useful content with the sole purpose of ranking in local searches. Google calls those doorway pages and actually penalizes sites for using them. Yep, this is old news — the penalty rolled out in 2015 — but I’m seeing a resurgence of doorway pages in local SEO over the past few months. If your site or your potential client’s site has a ton of pages that aren’t included in any menu, and they’re all basically the same page with different cities listed on each iteration, you’ve got doorway pages.

Let’s look at the official Google support docs that talk about doorway pages:

Doorways are sites or pages created to rank highly for specific search queries. They are bad for users because they can lead to multiple similar pages in user search results, where each result ends up taking the user to essentially the same destination. They can also lead users to intermediate pages that are not as useful as the final destination.

Here are some examples of doorways:

• Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page
• Pages generated to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site(s)
• Substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browsable hierarchy

Google’s early 2015 announcement about the Doorway Page Penalty is even more specific:

• Is the purpose to optimize for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site’s user experience?
• Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic?
• Do these pages exist as an “island?” Are they difficult or impossible to navigate to from other parts of your site? Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or network of sites created just for search engines?

Since most of the low-quality local content pages clearly fail these questions, alerting business owners to these pages — and the possible penalty for having them — can go a long way toward helping them understand why continuing to push content pages out every month can be harmful.

It’s simple: are the pages there for humans?

If you’re a car dealer, and you’ve got 25 pages on your site about the 2017 Ford F-150, with each one targeting a different city, then you’re probably in bad shape. It’s likely that none of the pages are on your main menu, or even within one click of the main menu page. The pages probably all have the same photo of a truck and only a few sentences about how you sell that truck in that particular city. Do these pages provide any value at all for an actual human? Absolutely not.

Even if you rewrite the content 25 times, they’re still useless. Sure, they’re not “duplicate” pages, but they’re repetitive pages. They all say exactly the same thing, only with a different city mentioned. There’s zero value there. When you’re writing content for your site, or when your SEO agency is writing the content, you have to ask yourself if the content is being added to make your site better for users — or just to show up in search engines. If the thought process is “This will help me show up in searches in that city,” then your thought process is wrong. You’re not going to gain more visibility in searches in other cities simply by adding a few lazy pages to your site. Period.

How many pages do you really need?

Many business owners I talk to ask the question, “How many pages do I need?” and the answer is simple. You need however many you need to answer your customers’ questions. Simply adding 10 pages (or 15 pages, or 20 pages) of content a month won’t make your site any better than adding only a few poorly designed location or product pages.

In fact, your site will be infinitely better if you only add one or two quality pages every month. Once you’ve got your site where you need it, you don’t even need to keep adding pages! If you’ve decided to add 15 pages a month to your site, ask yourself where that number came from. Why 15? Why 20? What’s the strategy there, and what questions will you be answering? Local SEO is not only content. Many of the factors that affect your local SEO success don’t even live on your website. If you want to target other cities, it takes much more than creating a few repetitive location pages. For a detailed plan of a better way (involving content pages, blog posts, social media, and link building), check out my post from the summer of 2015 about Local Content Silos. Let’s all work together to educate business owners (and wayward agencies) and stop the local content vomiting once and for all!

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about — Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Stop oversimplifying everything!

The old days of gaming Google's ranking algorithm are over, but columnist Eric Enge notes that many SEO professionals haven't moved on yet.

Once upon a time, our world was simple.

There was a thesis — “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine” by Sergey Brin and Larry Page — that told us how Google worked. And while Google evolved rapidly from the concepts in that document, it still told us what we needed to know to rank highly in search. As a community, we abused it — and many made large sums of money simply by buying links to their site. How could you expect any other result? Offer people a way to spend $2 and make $10, and guess what? Lots of people are going to sign up for that program.

But our friends at Google knew that providing the best search results would increase their market share and revenue, so they made changes continually to improve search quality and protect against attacks by spammers. A big part of what made this effort successful was obscuring the details of their ranking algorithm. When reading the PageRank thesis was all you needed to do to learn how to formulate your SEO strategy, the world was simple. But Google has since been issued hundreds of patents, most of which have probably not been implemented and never will be. There may even be trade secret concepts for ranking factors for which patent applications have never been filed.

Yet, as search marketers, we still want to make things very simple. Let’s optimize our site for this one characteristic and we’ll get rich! In today’s world, this is no longer realistic. There is so much money to be had in a search that any single factor has been thoroughly tested by many people. If there were one single factor that could be exploited for guaranteed SEO success, you would already have seen someone go public with it.

‘Lots of different signals’ contribute to rankings

Despite the fact that there is no silver bullet for obtaining high rankings, SEO professionals often look for quick fixes and easy solutions when a site’s rankings take a hit. In a recent Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout, a participant asked Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller about improving his site content to reverse a drop in traffic that he believed to be the results of the Panda update from May of 2014. The webmaster told Mueller that he and his team are going through the site category by category to improve the content; he wanted to know if rankings will improve category by category as well, or if there is a blanket score applied to the whole site.

Here is what Mueller said in response (emphases mine):

“For the most part, we’ve moved more and more towards understanding sections of the site better and understanding what the quality of those sections is. So if you’re … going through your site step by step, then I would expect to see … a gradual change in the way that we view your site. But, I also assume that if … you’ve had a low quality site since 2014, that’s a long time to … maintain a low quality site, and that’s something where I suspect there are lots of different signals that are … telling us that this is probably not such a great site.

(Hat tip to Glenn Gabe for surfacing this.)

I want to draw your attention to the bolded part of the above comment. Doesn’t it make you wonder, what are the “lots of different signals?” While it’s important not to over-analyze every statement by Googlers, this certainly does sound like the related signals would involve some form of cumulative user engagement metrics. However, if it were as simple as improving user engagement, it likely would not take a long time for someone impacted by a Panda penalty to recover — as soon as users started reacting to the site better, the issue would presumably fix itself quickly.

What about CTR?

Larry Kim is passionate about the possibility that Google directly uses CTR as an SEO ranking factor. By the way, do read that article. It’s a great read, as it gives you tons of tips on how to improve your CTR — which is very clearly a good thing regardless of SEO ranking impact. That said, I don’t think Google’s algorithm is as simple as measuring CTR on a search result and moving higher CTR items higher in the SERPs. For one thing, it would be far too easy a signal to the game, and many industries that are well-known for aggressive SEO testing would have pegged this as a ranking factor and already made millions of dollars on this by now. Second, of all, high CTR does not speak to the quality of the page that you’ll land on. It speaks to your approach to title and meta description writing and branding.

We also have the statements by Paul Haahr, a ranking engineer at Google, on how Google works. He gave the linked presentation at SMX West in March 2015. In it, he discusses how Google does use a variety of user engagement metrics in ranking. The upshot of it is that he said they are NOT used as a direct ranking factor, but instead, they are used in periodic quality control checks of other ranking factors that they use.

Here is a summary of what his statements imply:

1. CTR, and signals like it, are NOT a direct ranking factor.
2. Signals like content quality and links, and algorithms like Panda, Penguin, and probably hundreds of others are what they use instead (the “Core Signal Set”).
3. Google runs a number of quality control tests on search quality. These include CTR and other direct measurements of user engagement.
4. Based on the results of these tests, Google will adjust the Core Signal Set to improve test results.

The reason for this process is that it allows Google to run their quality control tests in a controlled environment where they are not easily subject to gaming of the algorithm, and it makes it far harder for black-hat SEOs to manipulate. So is Larry Kim right? Or Paul Haahr? I don’t know.

Back to John Mueller’s comments for a moment

Looking back on the John Mueller statement I shared above, it strongly implies that there is some cumulative impact over time of generating “lots of different signals that are telling us that this is probably not such a great site.” In other words, I’m guessing that if your site generates a lot of negative signals for a long time, it’s harder to recover, as you need to generate new positive signals for a sustained period of time to make up for the history that you’ve accumulated. Mueller also makes it seem like a graduated scale of some sort, where turning a site around will be “a long-term project where you’ll probably see gradual changes over time.” However, let’s consider for a moment that the signal we are talking about might be linked. Shortly after the aforementioned Office Hours Hangout, on May 11, John Mueller also tweeted out that you can get an unnatural link from a good site and a natural link from a spammy site. Of course, when you think about it, this makes complete sense.

How does this relate to the Office Hours Hangout discussion? I don’t know that it does (well, directly, that is). However, it’s entirely possible that the signals John Mueller speaks about in Office Hours are links on the web. In which case, going through and disavowing your unnatural links would likely dramatically speed up the process of recovery. But is that the case? Then why wouldn’t he have just said that? I don’t know. But we have this seeming genuine comment from Mueller on what to expect in terms of recovery with no easily determined explanation of what signals could be driving it.

We all try to oversimplify how the Google algorithm works

As an industry, we grew up in a world where we could go read one paper, the original PageRank thesis by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and kind of get the Google algorithm. While the initial launch of Google had already deviated significantly from this paper, we knew that links were a big thing. This made it easy for us to be successful ionGoogle, so much so that you could take a really crappy site and get it to rank high with little effort. Just get tons of links (in the early days, you could simply buy them), and you were all set. But in today’s world, while links still matter a great deal, there are many other factors in play. Google has a vested interest in keeping the algorithms they use vague and unclear, as this is a primary way to fight against spam.

As an industry, we need to change how we think about Google. Yet we seem to remain desperate to make the algorithms simple. “Oh, it’s this one factor that really drives things,” we want to say, but that world is gone forever. This is not a PageRank situation, where we’ll be given a single patent or paper that lays it all out, know that it’s the fundamental basis of Google’s algorithm, and then know quite simply what to do.

The second-largest market cap company on planet Earth has spent nearly two decades improving its ranking algorithm to ensure high-quality search results — and maintaining the algorithm’s integrity requires, in part, that it be too complex for spammers to easily game. That means that there aren’t going to be one or two dominating ranking factors anymore. This is why I keep encouraging marketers to understand Google’s objectives — and to learn to thrive in an environment where the search giant keeps getting closer and closer to meeting those objectives.

We’re also approaching a highly volatile market situation, with the rise of voice search, new devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Homecoming to market, and the impending rise of the personal assistants. This is a disruptive market event, and Google’s position as the number one player in search as we know it may be secure, but search as we know it may no longer be that important an activity. People are going to shift to using voice commands and a centralized personal assistant, and a traditional search will be a minor feature in that world.

What this means is that Google needs its results to be as high-quality as they possibly can make them. Yet they need to keep fighting off spammers at the same time. The result? A dynamic and changing algorithm that continues to improve overall search quality as much as they can. To maintain a stranglehold on that market share, and establish a lead, if at all possible, in the world of voice search and personal assistants.

What does it mean for us?

The simple days of gaming the algorithm are gone. Instead, we have to work on a few core agenda items:

1. Make our content and site experience as outstanding as we possibly can.
2. Get ready for the world of voice search and personal assistants.
3. Plug into new technologies and channel opportunities as they become available.
4. Promote our products and services in a highly effective manner.

In short, make sure that your products and services are in high demand. The best defense in a rapidly changing marketplace is to make sure that consumers want to buy from you. That way, if some future platform does not provide access to you, your prospective customers will let them know. Notice, though, how this recipe has nothing to do with the algorithms of Google (or any other platform provider). Our world is just no longer that simple anymore.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about — Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Artificial Intelligence Is Changing SEO: Get Ahead Or Fall Behind

    

The AI revolution is upon us, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

It seemed like yesterday when things like automated social media posts, blog content, and chatbots were something laughable, not fully able to compete with human intelligence. However, these algorithms have accelerated almost to the point of reaching human logic, making marketers both excited and scared.

On one end, the idea of having our content and customer data be delivered to us in a way that’s way more efficient than ever before is incredibly enticing to content distributors. On the flip side, this is making content providers/writers nervous about whether their jobs are going to become obsolete. In spite of the ongoing debate, certain innovations are going to be here to stay, with SEO being one of the focus on the forefront. As quick as AI has been shifting the world of marketing in general, SEO has been following suit in a big way. Not only are things like keywords, metrics, and targeted ads going to become increasingly automated, but the possibilities of real-time data aggregation solutions are going to change the game for good. And luckily for you, below we’ve listed a few key points on how this will happen.

With AI, Marketing is Already Shifting Directions

Marketers have been salivating over the potential AI could have for years. As we’ve noted before, the opportunities are endless, ranging from programmatic systems for PPC and SEO to streamlining our sales pipeline more efficiently. Yes, AI and marketing are going to be inseparable in the near future, with many CMOs already taking notice. However, even with all these innovations, there’s plenty more on the way regarding how AI will impact SEO.

Automated Content Means Improved Keywords

It’s been predicted that AI will one day take over the content industry. In fact, a lot of this development is already underway, with the Associated Press reportedly deploying algorithms to write over 3,000 articles every quarter. These algorithms have now expanded into the realms of social media as well, with content marketing heavily in the targets.To some businesses, this is a pipedream, as suddenly they’re going to be able to hire a content generator that can spit out articles and posts much quicker than human capabilities. Moreover, algorithmic developments will be able to handle numerous types of articles spanning a variety of industries. When you factor in the potential breadth of these systems, including the obsolete cost of hiring actual writers, and the increased accuracy of keyword inclusion and optimization, the new industry of SEO and AI will be immensely powerful.

While some folks are still going to want a human voice powering or refining their content, these algorithms are going to be able to point out the best keywords to use in real time. Even though this technological development sacrifices human perspective and insight, the return is going to provide content providers with articles that could potentially lead to the top of search results almost every time. The jury is still out on the actual details as to how this type of content will be handled from the first draft all the way through publication, but it is expected that the impact of improved keyword strategy will make a significant difference.

Real Time Data is Going to Be Huge

One of the biggest impacts that AI will have on SEO is the speed that it offers to universal marketing efforts. As we mentioned above, not only will AI be able to aggregate and organize keywords and search terms, but it will additionally be able to pinpoint how to use these terms as well. Imagine being able to run tests on what terms will work best based on location, service, or even timing. Additionally, marketers will also be able to use these algorithms to use predictive models on how the response will turn out. This means that updating automated responses and search terms will occur instantaneously — cycling through which ones will achieve the highest ROI in a matter of seconds. The results of this fast-paced development will likely alter search term strategy and analysis for years to come.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about — Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Effective Business Development Strategies (Plan)

Business Development Strategies…. Errr… What is that? Is it related to sales? Is it related to partnerships? Is it a tiring job? Can I do it? Is it related to target achievement? Lots of unanswered questions…..

Let’s try to find an answer to these queries.

Business Development Strategies

 is a combination of numerous individual tasks which has a goal of implementing and developing growth opportunities either within the organization or between two or more organizations. It is related to all round development of a particular business which makes it enriching and fruitful. It is a mixture of commerce, business, and organizational behavioral theories. Business development deals with the establishment of long-term value factor for an organization from the point of view of markets, customers and their interrelationships. In recent times, there is a new job profile of Business Development Executive whose function has evolved as the business world has transformed into the global economy. This job profile represents a pivotal role in increasing the amount of business for a particular company.

What is Business Development?

It is defined as “processes and activities

which are concerned with analytical preparation for probable growth opportunities, which does not entitle decisions regarding strategy for implementation of growth opportunities but supports the strategy for implementation of growth opportunities. ” The basis of Business Development is about creating long-term value or long term positive image of an organization in the minds of customers, stakeholders, markets and so on. The process of business development is all about identifying these interconnected networks, which will create new opportunities for growth. Become an e-Learning Developer and Authoring Tools Expert.Learn to design the high quality, valuable content. Be well versed in web/eLearning standards such as HTML5, CSS, SASS, web accessibility.

Long term value

Business development Strategies

is about any get-rich-quick formula or I-win-You-lose guidebook. It is not about creating values which will vanish in a matter of seconds. It is all about creating suitable opportunities for that specific goodwill to retain for a long period of time. The concept is that the gates should be open so that there is a free flow of values. Stabilizing the business development platform by strengthening the long-term value is the only way for organizational growth

History of Business Development Strategies

In practical life, the term Business Development Strategies has evolved into several applications and usage. In this age, the tasks of business developer are very varied and interesting. It has a wide application group starting from IT professionals to engineers, from marketing management to prospective clients. Recent research has pointed out the co-relation between emerging business development solutions to an innovation management process. The business development function has evolved into a more matured, highly technical function which is especially true in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industries. History specifies that business development can be traced back to Industrial Revolution period.

Sales vs Business Development Strategies

Business Development Strategies should not be confused with sales. The process of sales is based on driving revenue or the generation of profits. The sole intention of sales is the handover of items, thereby maintaining a profit margin. In the other hand, business development identifies and creates new partnership avenues that help indirectly to drive revenue. The sales function deals only with the output, whereas the business development process deals with the entire journey.

Business Development Strategies is essentially a marketing function, though it involves some minor sales skills like negotiations. Typical goals of business development strategies include market expansion, brand projection, new client acquisition, general awareness about brands, etc. The function of sales is to sell products or services directly to the end user or client. Whereas the function of business development strategies is working through the channels or partners to

Make sales happen to Clients.

Awesome Business Development Strategies

The business development strategies are everywhere and lots and lots of ideas are there which can be exploited on a commercial basis. These fresh ideas can be harvested, launched and thereby marketed properly. Anyone can get awesome ideas at any point of time. Ideas can be large, small, big. Ideas are usually driven by a passion for one’s area of interest. A new idea may be borne from an existing situation or from the innovative mind of a thinker. The business owner can also observe two different disciplines and blend them smoothly, which gives birth to a new field of business innovation.

Here are the top most awesome business ideas-

Recruit right personnel at the right time

A person can be having a great degree of knowledge as well as strong network who is eager to close deals with clients. But it can be very harmful to a company’s well-being. Sometimes marketing team emphasizes only on lowest prices. They forget to pay attention to engineering and quality aspects. This casts an ill effect on the company’s reputation. The effect will depend on the company’s life cycle. There are three life stages in a company’s life and not every employee is suited for every stage.

The three life stages are-

• Scouting–
  This is the preliminary stage of a company. At this stage, business development deals with the identification of various entry points for marketing. Various leverage points are identified and the concerned internal team is provided with feedback for market analysis. The key skills involved here is collaborative work with the product and engineering teams.
• Testing–
  At this stage, the business developer will close a few open deals in order to test the assumptions made from the market and input various findings. Analytical skill sets for setting up a measurement framework is required. The framework will depend on the company’s mission, strengths, and vision.
• Scaling–
  After the data is gathered from each and every deal, a path is laid down for goal fulfillment. After this, business development is all set to start closing for deals. An entire support system for future activities is created.

Look for the right opportunity-

The contacts with whom you are dealing must be cross checked as well. Dealing with the right person is very important. This practice leads to unwanted wastage of time. It is very important to identify the potential clients with whom you can do business. Scanning of the market for fruitful associations is vital before starting dealing with prospects. If this step is omitted, you will find that you are already drained out, yet no positive associations have been made. Focus on those clients who actually matters to your business rather than digging your head in unwanted ones.

Stop talking too much

When you are speaking for more than 50 percent of the time, you are actually talking 10 times excess. Your job is not to blurt out everything, but understand and probe the client’s perspective, his problems, issues, type of work done, time taken etc. Be an active listener if you really want to develop your business. You will always be a favorite vendor in a competitive economy if you hone your listening skills.

Focus on your client’s requirement

Don’t present what you are offering. Present what the client needs. Do not talk about your offerings instead listen carefully the client’s requirements, preferences. If you listen carefully to your clients, you can modify your own pitch to match the client requirements which in turn increase client satisfaction rates. Always pay a keen attention to the clients’ issues so that you customize your offerings as per his needs. If a client fails to get what he desires, then the chances of doing business with him is minimized. He will not select you as his business partner and instead look for other prospective partners.

Be Important

It is a well-known idea that important people love to deal with other important people. Be active within your business associations. To be part of those organizations that fulfill your business needs and where you can interact with prospective clients. You can offer volunteer services to industry experts to gain visibility as well as to capture high-value targets. You can climb the corporate ladder to gather the desired prestige in your concerned industry. If you succeed in doing so, the successive orders are bound to flow in your company. Remember, people like to deal with the creamy layer or the winners in their respective areas of expertise.

Main motto: Client Satisfaction

There is nothing in the world which is worse than a furious client. Not only it spoils the relationship of yours with the client, but it is also harmful to your company’s reputation. Forget about everything else and fix your client’s problems first. If you take a quick action once your client's complaints about an issue, you will make an enthralling impression on your client. You will get applause from your client and your name will be circulated on your industry members. Remember to practice empathy when dealing with clients. Place yourself in your client’s position and feel his problem. By doing so, you will be effectively nurtured your business.

Provide excellent service

After you successfully influenced your clients and got business from them, it is time to make them happy with your amazing services. Stick to the deadlines fixed with your clients. Be a perfect guide throughout the whole process. If you succeed in making your clients satisfied, they will be offering you repeat business as well as new business opportunities. Who knows, you may be rewarded with something exceptionally good.

Qualitative vs Quantitative approach

Many businesses focus purely on qualitive business value proposition and give less importance to the other factors. But this is not a wise idea. This plan has a high probability of failure and is quite difficult to achieve. There is also a minimal probability of the market to pay higher for a premium service. The market is not ready to spend extra bucks even if they get improved user experiences and better services. As a result, the quantitative aspect of the business increases the chances of success. Creating competitive lowest prices will surely attract more clients. This, in turn, will maximize your revenue generation.

Stop saying: I don’t have any time

Time management is a crucial skill which every business owner needs to know. It is all about prioritizing work. Important work needs to be done first and less important jobs can be done later. You can also have a great business idea in the silliest of time. Managing your time wisely is one of the most crucial tasks, especially when you are a business start-up. Balancing time between operational activities and business development activities is an art which you need to master. This can be done only when you spent less time on useless stuff and allocate more time to vital tasks.

Innovation at its best

Innovation is the best way to be at the top of the competition. When you offer your clients something unique then there is a high probability that your client will do business with you. Everyone prefers products or service that are new to the market. So why don’t you go out of the box and have some awesome ideas? Offer your clients something which no one is offering. Innovation may involve new methods, ideas, workflows, process flows which will be beneficial for companies.

The role of business development Strategies is extremely crucial in the first stages of a new business. This phase decides the fate of your business. If you do it well, you will taste success soon or else it will take your business to a downward direction. You need to identify the winning concepts for your business. You have to brainstorm ideas in order to be successful in developing your business. Start looking for new niches for promoting your products or services. You can also apply your skills to a new field which can be beneficial. You can also search for existing product lines and offer a cheaper version of the same product. When you are doing a mix and match of ideas, it won’t disappoint you in achieving your goals. Just be confident and be ready to RULE the world!

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about — Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member