SEO News

LMAO, these stats are useful

Social media continues to change the way we communicate. New research from We Are Social, studying global English language use on Twitter over a three month period, identified 50 of the most common abbreviations. 

• LOL topped the list with 263m mentions in the time period.
• LMAO came in second with 68m mentions and OMG followed with 67m mentions.
• IDK picked up fourth place with 29m and lastly, the notorious WTF took fifth position with 28m.
• The top 50 abbreviations amounted to 609m mentions on Twitter in total in the three month period.  

The full table, which is a little fruity, is available at the end of this post.

WordPress and business

1,000 small business owners were surveyed by 34SP.com. The survey revealed that WordPress is now a trusted business content management system.

More than half of the respondents surveyed in the research (52%) stated that they use WordPress for their business website.

Small businesses in particular were using WordPress for their website software. 94% of those who said they use WordPress for business have between 1–50 employees and span a range of industries including web design, marketing, advertising, technology, IT and healthcare industries.

China ahead on mobile

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has surveyed 21 key Chinese advertisers spending $5.7bn annually on communication. 

• 20% claimed that mobile has been a key priority for some time and is well integrated.
• 35% claimed to have a strategic vision for mobile.
• 11% of interactive budgets in China are spent on mobile, with some respondents spending up to 40%. 

These results contrast with a global WFA survey involving 23 companies spending an estimated $39bn annually. 

• Here just 4% of respondents had successfully integrated mobile into their marketing.
• 57% said a strategic vision for the channel had been developed.
• Global advertisers spent 6% of digital budgets on mobile.
• No global advertiser was spending more than 20% of digital spend on mobile. 

This gap might widen, with all respondents in China reporting that they planned to increase their mobile spend in the next 12 months.

• 72% said they planned to make a large increase.
• 54% of global advertisers who had similar plans.

Banners account for just 4% of entertainment mobile ads

Banner ads now account for just 4% of mobile ads run by entertainment brands as they turn to video and rich media according to a new report from Vdopia.

Over a year, mobile ad campaigns viewed by 23m people in the UK were analysed.

• The share of banner ads dropped from 14% to 4% in just six months.
• Video and rich media formats now account for 96%.
• The report also reveals that 10 second ads are the strongest performing formats, despite only accounting for 3% of advertiser spend. 

The Video Performance Index (VPI) – a measure of the effectiveness of video ads by completion and clickthrough rates – shows that 10 second ads are 65% more effective than the average video ad. 

Between them, 20 second and 30 second versions account for nearly three-quarters of entertainment brands’ mobile video ad spend but they’re 27% and 13% less effective, respectively, than the average.

(Click to enlarge)

10m Brits shopping on company time

Businesses lose around 96 hours per employee per year to online shopping at work according to Give as you Live.

• A third of employees have admitted to shopping online when they should be working.
• Of those that shop, an average of 24 minutes is lost every working day to browsing online shopping sites.
• 11am on a Monday morning is the most popular period for a work time purchase.

Tesco was the most popular retailer to shop through at work, with M&S and thetrainline.com coming second and third.

There has been a 14% increase in the number of transactions between 9am and 5pm, from January to July 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.

UK retail sales

The BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor for July 2014 showed the following: 

• UK retail sales were down 0.3% on a like-for-like basis from July 2013, when they had increased 2.2% on the preceding year.
• On a total basis, sales were up 1.3%, against a 3.9% rise in July 2013.
• Furniture was the best performing category, reporting its highest growth since January.
• Food was the worst performing category and experienced its deepest three-month average decline since records began in December 2008.
• Over the last three months, food showed a decline of 1.4%, in contrast with the growth of 0.4% experienced over the last twelve months.
• Non-food reported growth of 3.4% over the three months to July 2014, in line with its twelve-month average of 3.8%.
• Online sales of non-food products in the UK grew 14.9% in July versus a year earlier. The non-food online penetration rate was 16.7% in July, 1.4% higher than in July 2013. 

David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, said:

The tale of two sectors continues with polarisation between food and non-food. While non-food retailers had a stellar month, surpassing even last year’s record sales performance, the grocers saw sales tumble in value as their competitive pricing continued.

CRM satisfaction

Softwareadvice.com surveyed 300 CRM software users to understand their challenges and benefits, and found that: 

• 42% of respondents plan to increase investment in marketing technology.
• 37% of respondents plan to invest more in social media monitoring technology.
• System customization (80%) and integration (75%) were the most commonly cited challenges. 

State of SEO

OneHydra surveyed a total of 200 senior ecommerce and marketing directors and senior managers in June and July 2014.

Results found:  

• Despite 82% admitting search marketing is an integral part of their business model, less than 20% of SEO requirements were met in the last 12 months.
• A quarter of retailers are wasting more than £100,000 a year on SEO.
• 67% noted that it can take over three months for SEO changes to be implemented.
• 70% stated that they don’t have technical resources in which to implement the required SEO changes.
• A third find it challenging to align SEO processes with their business goals.
• 36% cant keep up with the keyword content creation necessary. 

Customer satisfaction by country

Zendesk annual study of customer satisfaction by country showed New Zealand still has the most satisfied customers. 

• For the first time, Italy and Columbia made the list, coming in at no. 4 and no. 30, respectively.
• New Zealand is steady in the no. 1 spot for the third consecutive quarter, with 93% customer satisfaction.
• Canada and Norway are tied at no. 2 for the second quarter in a row with 92% satisfaction.
• The UK is no. 16, with an increase of 2% to 85%. 

The Zendesk Benchmark is based on actual customer service and support interactions between 25,000 participating organizations and their customers across 140 countries. 

For a country to be included in the quarterly report, it must have a minimum of 10,000 responses during the quarter.

And here are those acronym Twitter mentions in full:

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