Search Engine Optimisation

Digg is essentially a user-driven news website resource. The users of the site can be thought of as researchers, who find useful articles and news stories from all over the web and then submit them to Digg. These news articles can then be read by other users who in turn submit new stories that they have discovered and deemed useful.

At its heart Digg is a democratic approach to a news website where all the users are editors. Once an article or post from a site has been submitted to Digg, it waits in a queue where review users can view it and decide whether they like the submission or not. If they like it then they select the ‘Digg it’ button. If it is liked by enough reviewers it makes its way to the Digg home page.

Digg was originally founded in 2004, and has become popular over the years. The new version of Digg, released this week, provides us with new facilities in keeping up to date with the latest technologies, by entering into social media and attempting to take advantage of all that this market has to offer.

What are the new changes that it has made?

The new Digg has seen the largest update by the site since its launch and is now up to Version 4. So, what are the new updates?

• Allows users to submit articles, Digg content and load pages at a much faster rate.
• Users can now create new custom pages called ‘My News’ which allows users to view and access content from their friends and those they follow.
• Did I just say follow? Yes, I did. The new Digg takes this element from Twitter and allows users to follow others and view what they have Dugg (Like twitter updates) on their ‘My News’ page.
• Of course there is a new slick design to go with the above!

According to Digg’s founder, Kevin Rose, this is just the beginning of a multitude of changes to come.

Why do we think Digg has made these changes?

The web is moving fast and has evolved considerably within the last year. To keep up with this, Digg saw the need to change their vision and direction to keep up with the needs of its users.

Rose mentioned in an interview:

“We’re making some drastic changes, but they’re much-needed drastic changes,” he told The Telegraph. “People are going to be shocked at some of the directions we’re taking.”

Ultimately this was to embrace real-time web, as most Digg users will be familiar with the style of Twitter and Facebook (already well received).

Conclusion

With this new look and the move towards a more social feel, similar to Twitter, it seems that Digg is doing what a lot of other sites are doing and trying to get a piece of the social media market. Many sites seem to be copying the facilities of other already successful sites in the social media arena. This is not a new philosophy in the world of the Internet. There are other examples that I will delve into below:

Google

Google has, over the last month, spent something in the region of $200 million on companies that have brought us the best social network games out there. These purchases however are not in a bid to bring you something that is new-fangled, but instead to provide something that brings friends and social networks together. For me this is exactly what Facebook do now, but Google are keeping their cards very close to their chest about the new Google ME Social network.

Facebook

Facebook has only recently released a new feature for its already vast empire. This feature lets you tell friends where you are by signing in to a location on your phone. Basically, if you went to say Starbucks in Manchester then you can use your phone to announce that you are there and then all your friends will know where you are and they can meet you if they are nearby. This new feature is going to be called ‘Places’.

Funny thing is that this has already been done before and if I am not mistaken is very successful. The company who already do this is called FourSquare. They already perform this social media feature very well and over 4 million people use FourSquare worldwide.

Overall

Using social tools like this can be a brilliant way to enhance and promote your website to others. If you look at all the big brands, they will always have a social media aspect to their internet marketing, as it helps to generate more traffic to a site.

Authors: Gemma Neesham, Ahmed Bhula and David Stopher.

It’s my first day back at Just Search since my return from San Francisco and so I thought I’d briefly summarise my time at the SES conference.

Now into its twelfth year, the event attracts thousands of search marketers and professionals alike, with a great selection of daily keynotes, training, labs and sessions to attend. In total, there were over 200 sessions over five days, given by over 80 speakers, so it really was a packed event. The sessions covered a variety of the sessions covered a variety of internet marketing service topics including SEO, PPC, social media, link building, mobile engagement, usability and multiple site issues to name just a few. As well as the above, there were over 100 companies in the expo hall, with a variety of networking events and parties to attend.

SES is an event for anyone who is interested in search marketing, at any level of ability; there are basic or primer sessions for the absolute beginners and advanced sessions for seasoned veterans of search.

Moscone Centre

This is the first time the SES event has been staged at the Moscone Centre and I have to say they did a brilliant job. Registration on the first day took less than five minutes and all the staff were very helpful and welcoming. There were a number of friendly staff stood around on each floor ready to help out and advise. I found the charging station to be a life saver, as many others would agree when their laptops and mobile phones were running flat!

Several Starbucks coffee stations were placed conveniently outside the main halls, which they call ‘tracks’. Lunch was a selection of salads, sandwiches and cakes, all different every day. The expo hall was split in half; one half contained the expo stands and the other half contained tables where our lunch was eaten.

The Sessions

Monday and Friday were full day training workshops, while the conference itself was held for three days between Tuesday and Thursday, from 9.30am until around 6pm. Each morning kicked off with a guest keynote speaker, each a prominent figure in online marketing, who would speak for about an hour. Following that were the actual sessions, with five sessions running concurrently. There were so many topics to choose from, we were really spoilt for choice. Between the sessions were 15 minute breaks with a one hour lunch each day.

SEW Labs

The SEW Labs is a new addition and format for SES. As their site clinic approach, featuring live site audits were so popular they had decided to expand on the format and make it a mainstay. Attendees who wish to have their site audited by leading industry experts join the session in a peer-group learning experience. This particular SES even featured some of SEO’s best, including Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOMoz and Maile Ohye, Senior Developer at Google.

Final Thoughts

This was my first experience attending an SEO conference, and I can say that it was definitely worth it, even if I had to travel almost 10,000 kilometres to get there! To top it all off, I managed to win a signed copy of keynote speaker Tim Ash’s book ‘Landing Page Optimisation’. I think anyone interested in SEO or online marketing would definitely benefit from going to SES as you’ll leave with a wealth of knowledge and ideas.

Julie Cheung
Natural SEO Programmer