How AI can uncover new insights and drive SEO performance

In 2015, Google announced that it had added RankBrain to its algorithm, cementing the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the search. Fast-forward to 2018, and search marketers are starting to use AI, machine learning, and deep learning systems to uncover new insights, automate labor-intensive tasks and provide a whole new level of personalization to guide website visitors through their purchase funnel. We have now fully entered the AI revolution.

For clarity and for the context of this article, I find the following definitions helpful:

• Artificial intelligence is a broad field, covering a range of machine applications to carry out tasks that typically require human intelligence. Human intelligence encompasses a broad range of behaviors, so it should be no surprise that the umbrella term “artificial intelligence” can be used to categorize natural language processing, chess playing, driverless cars and millions of examples in between.
• Machine learning is often conflated with AI, but it is actually an application (and therefore a subfield) of artificial intelligence. In Stanford University’s definition, “Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.” We can consider algorithms to be the building blocks of any machine learning system.
• Deep learning is a machine learning method, loosely based on how the human brain works, that uses neural networks to solve complex problems. It has been behind a host of breakthroughs in the fields of speech recognition and image processing, for example.

Today’s technology giants are all heavily invested in the potential of these AI methods to deliver better products and services, as they provide scale and computational power that humans alone could never offer.

Of course, this technology has risen to prominence in the age of big data. To make the “big data” concept a bit more tangible, in 2017, people took 46,000 Uber trips, made 4 million Google searches and shared 456,000 Tweets — according to an aggregation of data performed by Domo.

Behind every one of these interactions lies a person, an intention, and a context. Moreover, every one of these interactions produces the data points necessary to understand consumers at a deeper level than ever before. That sort of knowledge is invaluable to marketers, with many now viewing data as the most important currency we have.

However, if data is indeed the new oil, we are still in the process of inventing the combustion engine. Without the right tools at our disposal, all of the insights our customers are revealing will simply go unnoticed.

AI makes search marketers more productive

In such a data-rich, time-poor environment, modern-day SEOs have an unenviable task. Some of the most common challenges faced on a daily basis include:

1. Monitoring website performance in analytics platforms to discover insights.
2. Understanding audience behaviors to help deliver personalized experiences.
3. Generating content ideas that will deliver traffic and revenue
4. Managing budget to stay within target margins.
5. Multitasking across the many aspects of an organic search campaign

Too often, these restricting factors can lead SEOs to make sacrifices in order to hit their targets. The resources just aren’t available to tap into the power of our consumer data, manage our budgets and delegate tasks all at the same time.

However, all of these objectives can be managed much more effectively and profitably with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

If we refer back to each of those challenges, AI can provide a fast, effective solution for each:

• Monitoring performance: AI can process data, alert the user to any anomalies and highlight quick wins to action immediately.
• Delivering personalized experiences: Machine learning can automatically tailor messaging based on a user’s historical and predicted behavior.
• Generating content ideas: Deep learning can identify trending topics and spot gaps in the market, then suggest new content titles.
• Budget management: Artificial intelligence automatically recommends the areas where we can spend our time and money most profitably.
• Multitasking: One of AI’s great selling points is its ability to juggle millions of balls at once. We can delegate multitasking to an AI-driven technology so we can get on with the more creative and strategic work.

The power of AI to deliver insights

The unifying thread through all of this is the fact that AI can deliver highly relevant insights automatically, at huge scale, and in a manner, we can easily share with other departments in our organization. Without the right technology, we could only achieve this with the support of hundreds of analysts and an infinite budget.

It is worth noting that the difference between a valuable insight and a simple observation is incredibly significant for any business. A true insight illuminates something new and guides future action based on the moments and metrics that matter. For example, the knowledge that consumers are struggling to access our content could lead us to make technical changes to the URLs in question. The impact of this can be monitored very clearly, and we can attribute a dollar value to the original insight.

Conversely, much of what arises from manual research falls into the category of observation. The knowledge that mobile traffic from users in California has increased since last week may be interesting, but without context or clarity, it does not produce any guidance.

Search marketers should seek out a platform that employs deep learning technology to sift through search, social and content marketing data from a range of analytics platforms to produce these insights. This should be achieved across all territories, devices, and demographics, allowing new information to surface that would typically slip through the cracks.

When evaluating technology for these purposes, marketers should ask these questions:

• What is the benefit? How does it save time and build efficiency?
• What data sources and data sets are involved in all calculations, including search, social and local?
• How does it index URLs? Is data fresh, accurate and collected frequently to keep track of the SEO landscape?
• How sophisticated is the AI? What are the machine learning and deep learning applications used to identify patterns in consumer data?
• How does it change our business operation capabilities?
• What clear business problems does it solve?
• Does it contain intuitive dashboards that display all findings in a digestible manner that can be shared with non-technical audiences and across the digital organization?

Conclusion

In all walks of life, including search marketing, machine learning can lead to better results — if we know how to use it to our advantage. That starts with understanding where our data comes from and what it could be used for, then deciding which business problems we want to use these assets to solve.

The proliferation of data should open up a new era of opportunity for all marketers, but only those who understand the potential of artificial intelligence will tap into these resources fully. By incorporating the power of AI and deep learning, search marketers can move beyond simple observations and find new patterns in user behavior. The result is faster, more accurate and actionable insights to deliver on the metrics that matter.

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How to use brand mentions for SEO, or the linkless future of link building

Links have long been the major ranking factor to optimize, but search engines may have just found a more accurate signal to rely on.

Google has used links to determine the authority of websites since its early days: the idea of web pages casting “votes” for other pages by linking to them is at the core of the PageRank algorithm. This led to the rise of numerous manipulative link tactics. Google reacted with the Penguin update and manual penalties; link schemes evolved to outsmart the algorithm. New Penguin updates followed. The story went on for years until it no longer made sense.

First, publishers started to associate links with a risk of getting penalized. Today, many of them (think Wikipedia, The Next Web, Entrepreneur, Forbes and numerous others) simply nofollow outgoing links: They don’t want to be seen as “endorsing” every site they link to or even contemplate what the algorithm might make of it. They’re playing it safe, and you can’t blame them. But what good is the system if the biggest players stop casting their votes?

Second, the internet is changing. PageRank’s idea of the web being a graph of pages connected by hyperlinks, which represent relationships between these pages in a very limited, binary way (link = trust; lack of link = lack of trust), is somewhat outdated. The web today is so much more than links and pages — it’s a full-blown ecosystem where relationships can be expressed in a million ways. Unlinked brand mentions and the sentiment behind them may be the timely replacement for a site authority signal the internet needs.

The evidence

So what makes us think search engines use linkless mentions for ranking?

1. Google and Bing have said it

Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes mentioned in his keynote at Brighton SEO in September 2017:

“If you publish high-quality content that is highly cited on the internet — and I’m not talking about just links, but also mentions on social networks and people talking about your branding, crap like that. Then you are doing great.”

Duane Forrester, formerly senior product manager at Bing, pointed out at SMX West 2016 that unlinked mentions can be as strong a signal as backlinks, confirming that search engines can easily identify mentions and use them to determine site authority:

“Years ago, Bing figured out context and sentiment of tone, and how to associate mentions without a link. As the volume grows and trustworthiness of this mention is known, you’ll get a bump in rankings as a trial.”

2. Google’s patents have said it

Google’s Panda patent (covered extensively by Bill Slawski here) also refers to mentions, aka “implied links,” as a signal that could be equal in weight to the good old backlinks:

“The system determines a count of independent links for the group (step 302). […] Links for the group can include express links, implied links, or both. […] An implied link is a reference to a target resource, e.g., a citation to the target resource, which is included in a source resource but is not an express link to the target resource. Thus, a resource in the group can be the target of an implied link without a user being able to navigate to the resource by following the implied link.”

3. Google’s Search Quality Guidelines have said it

Search Quality Guidelines is a document used by Google’s quality evaluators who rate web pages in SERPs; based on the ratings, Google develops changes to their ranking algorithm. From these guidelines, we know that reputation (aka the public opinion about a brand) matters for rankings.

“For Page Quality rating, you must also look for outside, independent reputation information about the website. When the website says one thing about itself, but reputable external sources disagree with what the website says, trust the external sources.”

4. It helps Google tell the good from the bad

A few years ago, negative reputation could actually help some not-so-conscientious online merchants rank in Google, as bad reviews generated links and buzz around the brand. In response, Google incorporated an algorithmic solution to down-rank merchants that provide a poor user experience. Not surprisingly, Google won’t say exactly how the solution works. One thing they did mention is their “world-class sentiment analysis system,” though it’s not completely clear whether it’s being used in the algorithm.

What does this mean for your SEO strategy?

The bad news is, you’ve got one more thing to track and optimize. The good news is that mentions are much easier to get than dofollow links and will likely pay off equally well. The even better news? If you already have a link-building strategy that’s working for you, you can continue using it to win mentions and stop stressing about publishers nofollowing your links (or not linking to you at all).

Here are two things to include in your SEO strategy in 2018.

1. Track brand mentions

In addition to a backlink checker, you’ll need a monitoring tool to find mentions of your brand and product across the web. Mind that a lot of apps only look for mentions on social media, so make sure the one you choose is good at digging up mentions that come from around the web (think review platforms, forums, blogs and news sites).

2. Keep growing your mentions

Link building isn’t just about links anymore. A lot of the same principles apply to building unlinked brand mentions, and there are also new, exciting tactics to try. Here are a few to get you started.

• Reviews: Encourage and track customer reviews for your brand, and make sure to respond to the negative ones. Depending on the type of your business, platforms to track for reviews will vary. TripAdvisor and Yelp for restaurants, G2 Crowd for SaaS apps and so on.
• Social selling: Social media is the place to go if you want to build brand awareness, get the conversation going about your business, and even do sales.
• Social customer care: Customers turn to social media to complain and ask questions about brands, and you want to be there to grow their trust and loyalty. Not only is this good for business, but the happy customers are likely to keep spreading the word about your brand, which can help SEO.
• Competitor monitoring: Just as with backlinks, it’s important to track mentions of your competitors to see what they’re doing to grow awareness and learn from their tactics and mistakes.
• Influencer marketing: In addition to your brand monitoring alerts, use Awario to track mentions of industry keywords. This will not only help you understand your audience better, but it will also find influencers to market your products through (use the Influencers report for that). Remember, as with backlinks, it’s not just quantity that matters — the more authoritative the person mentioning you, the more weight the endorsement has.

One last thing

Links aren’t obsolete yet. They still matter, but the amount of buzz around your brand and its sentiment is no less important. And if you think about it, it makes sense. You want people to be talking about your business and saying good things about it. Is it any wonder search engines are putting this “buzz” into a quantitative metric so they can give searchers the results other people trust and love?

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All iPhones, iPads and Mac computers are affected by microchip flaw that leaves devices vulnerable to hackers, Apple says

Apple has said that all iPhones, iPads and Mac computers are vulnerable to a major security flaw that leaves the devices open to hacking.

The “Meltdown” and “Spectre” bugs, impact every device running the company’s iOS and macOS operating systems, as well as the Apple TV, the tech giant revealed overnight.

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It means Apple devices are potentially vulnerable to hackers using malicious software to steal sensitive data such as passwords or private photos.

It said the first of the two bugs, Meltdown, had been partially solved by software updates released in December and that it had seen no evidence of cybercriminals exploiting the flaw. Spectre, which affects the Arm microchips that the iPhone and iPad use, is more difficult to guard against.

“Security researchers have recently uncovered security issues known by two names, Meltdown and Spectre,” Apple said. “These issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all computing devices and operating systems. All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time.”

Apple sees the security of its computers and phones as a major advantage. Software updates tend to be issued promptly and its gadgets tend to come with greater restrictions than Android or Windows devices, which guards against hackers. Programs can only be downloaded from the App Store and must be approved by the company, for example.

Lukasz Olejnik, an independent security privacy consultant/researcher, said the biggest risk to Apple users may come through malicious websites using JavaScript, a programming language used to run online adverts and other applications.

“One of the most serious threats to ordinary users could be exploitation via JavaScript code on websites. Exploiting the vulnerability on websites seems to be the most realistic attack scenario especially for tightly-controlled ecosystems where normally apps are rarely installed and are installed only from approved sources.”

Apple said it would introduce a software update to its web browser, Safari, to guard against Spectre. “In the coming days, we plan to release mitigations in Safari to help defend against Spectre. We continue to develop and test further mitigations for these issues and will release them in upcoming updates of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS,” it said.

Apple’s Mac computers run on Intel chips, which are affected by the Meltdown and Spectre flaws, while the iPhone and iPad run on chips designed by British company Arm Holdings, which are more vulnerable to the Spectre bug.

The software updates that help fix the bugs, iOS 11.2, MacOS 10.13.2 and tvOS 11.2, were released in December. Devices running older versions of iOS which no longer receive the upgrades, such as the iPhone 5 and 5c, and fourth-generation iPad, are more vulnerable.

Meltdown and Spectre are one of the biggest computer security vulnerabilities ever. Initially thought to merely affect PCs running Intel chips, it has since emerged that they affect mobile phones and other devices too.

They exploit a feature designed to speed up computer processors, and it is feared the fix can slow down computers, but the Apple software updates do not appear to have significantly slowed down the devices.

Security researchers first discovered the bugs last year but they have only just emerged since technology companies were given time to patch the problem.

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Spectre and Meltdown security flaws explained: What they are, how they work

Spectre and Meltdown are the names given to a trio of variations on a vulnerability that affects nearly every computer chip manufactured in the last 20 years. The flaws are so fundamental and widespread that security researchers are calling them catastrophic.

In the first days of 2018, published research revealed that nearly every computer chip manufactured in the last 20 years contains fundamental security flaws, with specific variations on those flaws being dubbed Spectre and Meltdown. The flaws arise from features built into chips that help them run faster, and while software patches are available, they may have impacts on system performance. There is as of yet no evidence that these flaws have been exploited in the wild, but such exploits would be difficult to detect, and the flaws are so fundamental and widespread that security researchers are calling them catastrophic.

What are Spectre and Meltdown?

Spectre and Meltdown are the names given to different variants of the same fundamental underlying vulnerability that affects nearly every computer chip manufactured in the last 20 years and could if exploited, allow attackers to get access to data previously considered completely protected. Security researchers discovered the flaws late in 2017 and publicized them in early 2018. Technically, there are three variations on the vulnerability, each given its own CVE number; two of those variants are grouped together as Spectre and the third is dubbed Meltdown.

All of the variants of this underlying vulnerability involve a malicious program gaining access to data that it shouldn’t have the right to see, and do so by exploiting two important techniques used to speed up computer chips, called speculative execution and caching.

What is speculative execution?

Speculative execution essentially involves a chip attempting to predict the future in order to work faster. If the chip knows that a program involves multiple logical branches, it will start working out the math for all of those branches before the program even has to decide between them. For instance, if the program says, “If A is true, compute function X; if A is false, compute function Y”, the chip can start computing both functions X and Y in parallel, before it even knows whether A is true or false. Once it knows whether A is true or false, it already has a head start on what comes after, which speeds up processing overall. Or, in another variation, if a chip learns that a program makes use of the same function frequently, it might use idle time to compute that function even when it hasn’t been asked to, just so it has what it thinks the answer will be on hand.

What is caching?

Caching is a technique used to speed up memory access. It takes a relatively long time for the CPU to fetch data from RAM, which lives on a separate chip, so there’s a special small amount of memory storage called CPU cache on that lives on the CPU chip itself and that can be accessed very quickly. This memory gets filled with data that the chip will need soon, or often. What’s relevant for our situation is that data that’s output by speculative execution is often stored in cache, which is part of what makes speculative execution a speed booster.

The problem arises when caching and speculative execution start grappling with protected memory.

What is protected memory?

Protected memory is one of the foundational concepts underlying computer security. In essence, no process on a computer should be able to access data unless it has permission to do so. This allows a program to keep some of its data private from some of its users, and allows the operating system to prevent one program from seeing data belonging to another. In order to access data, a process needs to undergo a privilege check, which determines whether or not it’s allowed to see that data.

But a privilege check can take a (relatively) long time. So — and this is the key to the vulnerability we’re discussing — while the CPU is waiting to find out if the process is allowed to access that data, thanks to speculative execution, it starts working with that data even before it receives permission to do so. In theory this is still secure, because the results of that speculative execution are also protected at the hardware level. The process isn’t allowed to see them until it passes the privilege check, and if it doesn’t pass the check, the data is discarded.

The problem arises because the protected data is stored in CPU cache even if the process never receives permission to access it. And because CPU cache memory can be accessed more quickly than regular memory, the process can attempt to access certain memory locations to find out if the data there has been cached — it still won’t be able to access the data, but if the data has been cached, its attempt to read it will be rejected much more quickly than it otherwise would. Think of it as knocking on a box to see if it’s hollow. Because of the way computer memory works, just knowing the addresses where data is stored can help you deduce what the data is. This is what’s known as a side-channel attack.

What’s the difference between Spectre and Meltdown?

Both Spectre and Meltdown could allow potential attackers to get access to data they shouldn’t have access to using the techniques outlined above, but their effects are somewhat different:

Meltdown got its name because it “melts” security boundaries normally enforced by hardware. By exploiting Meltdown, an attacker can use a program running on a machine to gain access to data from all over that machine that the program shouldn’t normally be able to see, including data belonging to other programs and data that only administrators should have access to. Meltdown doesn’t require too much knowledge of how the program the attacker hijacks works, but it only works with specific kinds of Intel chips. This is a pretty severe problem but fixes are being rolled out.
By exploiting the Spectre variants, an attacker can make a program reveal some of its own data that should have been kept secret. It requires more intimate knowledge of the victim program’s inner workings, and doesn’t allow access to other programs’ data, but will also work on just about any computer chip out there. Spectre’s name comes from speculative execution but also derives from the fact that it will be much trickier to stop — while patches are starting to become available, other attacks in the same family will no doubt be discovered. That’s the other reason for the name: Spectre will be haunting us for some time.

Why are Spectre and Meltdown dangerous?

Spectre and Meltdown both open up possibilities for dangerous attacks. For instance, JavaScript code on a website could use Spectre to trick a web browser into revealing user and password information. Attackers could exploit Meltdown to view data owned by other users and even other virtual servers hosted on the same hardware, which is potentially disastrous for cloud computing hosts.

But beyond the potential specific attacks themselves lies the fact that the flaws are fundamental to the hardware platforms running beneath the software we use every day. Even code that is formally secure as written turns out to be vulnerable, because the assumptions underlying the security processes built into the code — indeed, built into all of computer programming — have turned out to be false.

Spectre and Meltdown patches

The fundamental vulnerability exists at the hardware level and cannot be patched. However, most vendors are releasing software patches that work around the problems. The KAISER patch, developed coincidentally in 2017 to improve Linux security, actually has the side effect of preventing Meltdown attacks. Major cloud vendors have by and large patched their servers. Patches have already been rolled out by Intel, Microsoft, Apple, and Google and more are on the way. Rendition Infosec also has a great resource on establishing a strategy for your organization that will, among other things, harden your systems and practices to prevent further damage if you do fall victim to an attack exploiting Spectre or Meltdown.

Since JavaScript in the browser is one particularly dangerous vector for Spectre attacks, it’s also important keep your browsers up to date.

Notably, older systems, particularly Windows XP, will almost certainly never be patched. Also left in the lurch are the millions of third-party, low-cost Android phones that don’t get security updates from Google, many of which are not particularly old.

When will my PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, or browser get a patch for Meltdown and Spectre?

As of January 11th, Microsoft has released operating system patches for most versions of Windows from Windows 7 on, which also patch the company’s Internet Explorer and Edge browsers. The previous link also includes a roundup of links to firmware updates from hardware manufacturers, which cover all the major players. However, some AMD systems after downloading the patches did not restart, so those patches have been pulled for the moment.
Apple released patched versions of its macOS, iOS, and tvOS operating systems, as well as its Safari browser, on January 3rd.
Google released a list of which Chromebook models have been patched or won’t need a patch (most of them), which will be patched soon, and which are end-of-lifed and won’t see a patch.
Firefox has a patch that will be released on January 23rd, but is now available in beta.
Google’s Chrome browser has a patch that will be released on January 23rd. You can turn on the experimental Site Isolation feature in the meantime to protect yourself.
The multiplicity of Android handsets makes the question of whether your Android phone is or will be patched difficult to answer. Most phones sold directly from Google or giants like Samsung are patched or will be, but many will not. The Italian trade-in company RiCompo has a site that keeps you up to date on many different brands and models.

Do Spectre and Meltdown patches hurt performance?

These patches generally mitigate the vulnerabilities by altering or disabling how software code makes use of the speculative execution and caching features built into the underlying hardware. The downside of this, of course, is that these features were designed to improve system performance, and so working around them can slow your systems down. While there were initial reports of performance hits up to 30 percent, benchmarks from Phoronix indicate that 5 to 10 percent seems more typical.

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Expert warns new versions of ransomware software that crippled UK hospitals are already being written without a kill switch

• Hospitals braced for mayhem following the crippling WannaCry Ransomware cyber attack.
• Fears cars, energy networks and medical devices like heart monitors could be hit.
• NHS staff in some parts of the UK have even been told not to switch on their PCs.
• Patients warned not to go to their GP surgery unless it is absolutely necessary.
• 22-year-old Briton prevented more than 100,000 PCs being infected.
• NHS sent a ‘patch’ which could have protected them from hack two weeks ago.
• 225,000 victims in 150 countries have been in the biggest hack ever launched.
• Hackers paid around $54,000 (£41,795) in ransom money since launch day of the attack.

 

A second version of the devastating WannaCry ransomware – that does not contain the “kill switch” used by a 22-year-old security analyst to shut down many attacks – is set to be released by the hackers, putting more computers at risk.

Costin Raiu, of web security firm Kaspersky Lab, told Hacker News that they had already seen versions of the malware that did not contain the website domain name used to shut down the program, but he later backtracked saying “my bad” and this was not actually the case.

However, experts warned it was likely only a matter of time before this did happen and urged people to install a security patch released especially by Microsoft.

Hidden in the code was an unregistered web address, which the virus would always try to contact when first infecting a computer. If it received a reply, it would shut down, but if not it would carry out the attack.

A 22-year-old security analyst known as MalwareTech, who wishes to remain anonymous, registered the website, unknowingly activating the shutdown process.

However, he warned that it would be easy for the hackers to change the coding in a “worm” used to infect computers with WannaCry to remove the domain name.

MalwareTech also told Hacker News that they had only stopped one version of WannaCry, which is known by various versions of the name.

“WannaCry ransomware was spread normally long before this and will be long after, what we stopped was the SMB worm variant,” he said, referring to the program that affected nearly a fifth of NHS Trusts in England and scores of businesses and government departments around the world.

And in a message on Twitter, he wrote: “Version 1 of WannaCry was stoppable but version 2.0 will likely remove the flaw. You’re only safe if you patch ASAP.”

He also retweeted a message saying people who were unable to patch their computer could disable Server Message Block version 1 (SMBv1), linking to Microsoft’s instructions about how to do this.

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What the development of visual search will mean for SEO

The arrival of the Pinterest Lens and Google Lens has ignited a battle for visual search engine supremacy. Beyond opening up a new revenue stream for e-commerce stores, the visual search could completely alter consumer habits and purchasing decisions.

In a world driven by instant gratification, visual search can open the door toward “snap and surf” purchasing, streamlining the search interface. This provides a promising outlook for e-commerce stores that develop their product listing ads (PLAs) and online catalogs for the visual web.

While still in its infancy, optimizing for visual search could greatly improve your website’s user experience, conversion rate, and online traffic. Yet images are often given very little attention by SEO experts, who generally focus more on optimizing for speed than for alternative attributes and appeal.

While visual search won’t displace the use of keywords and the importance of text-based search, it could completely disrupt the SEO and SEM industry. I’d like to discuss some of the fundamentals of visual search and how it will affect our digital marketing strategy moving forward.

What is visual search?

There are currently three different visual search processes being employed by major search companies:

• Traditional image search that relies on textual queries.
• Reverse image search that relies on structured data to determine similar characteristics.
• Pixel-by-pixel image searches that enable “snap and search” by image or by parts of the image.

In this article, I’m focusing mainly on the third type, which allows consumers to discover information or products online by simply uploading or snapping a picture and focusing their query on the part of the image they’d like to research. It’s essentially the same as text search, just with an image representing the query that’s being matched to it.

TinEye provided the first visual search application, which is still in use today. This form of image search matched the image to other images on the web-based on similar characteristics, such as shapes and colors. Unfortunately, TinEye provided a limited range of search applications by failing to map out the outlines of different objects in an image.

Today’s image recognition technology can actually recognize multiple shapes and outlines contained within a single image to allow users to match to different objects. For example, Microsoft’s image search technology allows users to search for specific items pictured within a larger image.

Microsoft is even working on detecting when the selected portion of the image has a shopping intent, showing “related products” in these instances. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s visual search is fairly limited to a few verticals, such as home appliances and travel.

Right now, this technology is limited. What companies like Pinterest, Microsoft, and Google are investing in is a visual search application powered by machine learning technology and deep neural networks.

The idea is to get machines to recognize different shapes, sizes, and colors in images the same way the human brain does. When we look at specific pictures, we do not see a sea of points and dotted lines. We immediately identify patterns and shapes based on past experiences. Unfortunately, we still barely understand how our minds interpret images, so programming this into a machine presents some obvious complications.

Visual search engines have come to rely on neural networks that utilize machine learning technology to improve its process. Companies like Google benefit from their wealth of information that allows its Lens application to constantly improve upon its search functionality. Google Lens is not only able to identify different objects within pictures but is also able to match them to locations near you, provide customer reviews and sort listings by the same principles that govern its own search algorithms.

Implications and future

So, what does this technology entail for users and businesses? Imagine being able to snap a picture of a restaurant and have a search engine tell you the name of the restaurant, the location, peak demand times and menu specials for the night. This technology could feasibly be used to snap a picture of a pair of shoes from a magazine or from a stranger and enable you to order them right there.

For e-commerce stores, visual search puts people very high in the funnel. With some unique images, product reviews and a good product description, you can entice buyers to make a purchasing decision on the spot.

This will also open up the field of competition a little bit. The Pinterest visual search engine is by far one of the most disruptive on the market. However, Pinterest’s search engine only redirects pinners to posts on Pinterest, meaning you’ll need to develop a presence on this platform to reach those audience members.

With the rise of voice search and natural language processing (NLP) accompanying this trend, this technology could help kick-start the trend of interface-free SEO. (Although I suspect that keywords and a text-based search will still retain its importance, even for shopping and purchase decisions.)

Potential Strategies

In terms of optimizing for visual search, some of the most fundamental SEO practices will still apply. Structured data remains incredibly important, especially for visual search algorithms like Microsoft’s that still rely on it to match characteristics.

It’s important that images are displayed clearly and free of clutter so that visual applications have an easier time processing them. Beyond this, you should stick to the basics of image-based search optimization:

• Add descriptive alt-text to images for indexation.
• Submit images to an image sitemap.
• Optimize image titles and alternative attributes with targeted keywords.
• Set up image badges and run them through a structured data test.
• Optimize for ideal image size and file type.
• Utilize appropriate schema markup for images and content pages.
• Optimize images to render on mobile and desktop displays.

Conclusion

Visual search will provide a new revenue stream for e-commerce stores and vastly improve the user’s shopping experience. This could have a major impact on SEO and paid media, bringing back a renewed focus on image optimization, which has long been ignored by SEO practitioners. This new frontier of search will only reinforce existing strategies for SEO and make the need to optimize for mobile search and your visual web presence more prescient.

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North Korean hackers plot to loot Britain’s finances with cyber attack on the City’s banks

North Korean hackers are trying to loot Britain’s banks as the secretive state turns to cyber-warfare amid financial losses from sanctions that threaten its nuclear capability. “They’re after our money,” warned Robert Hannigan, who ran Britain’s signals intelligence agency for three years until March, the former head of GCHQ says Pyongyang is targeting the British financial sector to fund its nuclear ambitions.

Mr. Hannigan said Pyongyang is set to become a “premier league” players in cyber-warfare as it targets Britain’s financial sector.

He told The Times that while its military weapons did not pose a direct threat to the UK, North Korea’s cyber-capabilities do.

The reclusive regime is improving its hacking through collaboration with Iran and criminal networks operating in southeast Asia and China, the expert said.

He said the cyber attack that crippled computers at NHS hospitals and GP surgeries was an attempt to make money.

“Their missiles are not going to reach the UK but their cyber-attacks did reach the NHS and other parts of Europe,” the 52-year-old said.

“As sanctions bite further and North Korea becomes more desperate for foreign currency, they will get more aggressive and continue to come after the finance sector. They’re after our money.”

Tensions between America and North Korea have been rising over its belligerent nuclear programme.

The hostility led to UN sanctions against the reclusive regime’s shipping and trade networks last month.

“Its attacks can be launched from outside the country by outsourcing to criminal groups,” Hannigan said.

“Their threshold for risk is sky-high and they don’t really care about collateral damage.

“They are not in the premier league yet – not in the top five nations – but they are getting there.”

He warned that collaboration between hostile states and criminal networks had become the “greatest threat” to Britain.

The former GCHQ head also said the West’s ability to deal with North Korea’s cyber-aggression was “limited” because the country was not “networked” so it was less vulnerable to western hacking.

“Cyber is just a new and very productive way of doing it. It’s bound to grow — they have found new tools of doing it through social media, through the tech companies,” Hannigan added.

“We’re going to see more of the same and more sophisticated attacks. More of the disinformation, more stealing of money, more disruption of systems.”

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Google Adds Functionality to their Search Console To Help Producers Increase SEO

Google has recently expanded and updated their Search Console to better inform their users on how to index and create proper SEO.

The problem that I have with this latest rollout is that the beta site does not properly read my verified site.

TechCrunch reported:

‘Google is rolling these updates out slowly, though, so you may not be able to see this new version just yet.’

After I submitted and verified my https site, as well as my regular site, I still experience difficulties when trying to access Google Search Console Beta online.

I sent feedback to Google, and once they respond with an update, I will update this article. It could be that they are working to get all sites ready for this update.

In addition:

To help other Web developers, I wanted to note that when I upgraded to an https site, my index statistics fell off dramatically. This is because I was not aware of getting my https site verified and properly listed with Google Webmaster.

At the beginning of the year, I started to focus on rebuilding traffic that I had obtained in 2017. I noticed that I was writing twice as much content, but not seeing the results in production.

This update to the Search Console helped inform me of the problems that I was facing, and I continue to work on getting these issues fixed as soon as possible.

If you upgrade a site to https, make sure to have it registered, and included to Google Webmaster for the best results.

Watch these YouTube videos to see how to properly get your site indexed, as well as how to improve your SEO.

The second video by Brian Dean is extremely informative and useful for Web producers looking to obtain a higher page ranking for their content.

One of the key lessons I learned from Brian Dean’s video was to find ways to improve my user experience, by providing quality content.

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source https://www.mojomedia.pro/google-adds-functionality-search-console-help-producers-increase-seo/

7 SEO Trends That Will Dominate 2018

In online marketing, few strategies are as competitive or as quickly evolving as search engine optimization (SEO). Marked by a history of algorithm updates, new technologies, and new techniques to win real estate at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), most SEO experts (like me) chomp at the bit to predict or learn the latest trends that will shape our businesses’ digital futures.

Though algorithm updates were few and far between, 2017 was still an exciting year for SEO, and I’m anticipating even bigger changes on the horizon for 2018. Based on my observations, some trends that unfolded through the end of 2017, and some speculation on some newly unfolding technologies, I’ve come up with a list of predictions for the trends I think will dominate the SEO field in 2018:

1. Video and image search will vastly improve. Gradually, our online interactions have evolved to become more visual. Over the past few years, faster internet speeds, more visual-friendly social media platforms, and a general public desire to engage with more images and videos has led to a surge in visual online interactions. Accordingly, I think we’ll see some changes to how Google and other search engines treat images and videos in an online environment. New startups like Moodstocks and Eyefluence (both of which were acquired by Google) have sought to recognize visual elements within images and videos more accurately, or have sought to improve user interactions with them. I’m not sure what changes these startups foretell, exactly, but I bet we’ll see a vast improvement in search sophistication for visual assets.

2. The Knowledge Graph will dominate. For a few years now, Google has been steadily increasing the frequency and specificity of featured snippets—the concise answers to questions users pose in their search queries. Yet, just last month, the frequency of featured snippets declined significantly, apparently replaced by equivalent answers found in Knowledge Graph boxes. I think this event could portend the rise and eventual dominance of Google’s Knowledge Graph, replacing a good chunk of the space currently occupied by featured snippets in an effort to provide users with even better, more consistent answers.

3. Voice search will sharply increase with the rise of smart speaker sales. Do you have a smart speaker? If you don’t, I bet you know at least a few people who do. Smart speaker sales, like those for Amazon Echo and Google Home, surged in 2017, and sales will probably grow further in 2018 as newer models start to roll out. Because these speakers are activated by voice and provide spoken search results, users are getting even more used to interacting with search engine results with only their voices and their ears. This could drastically change the types of queries we see and reshape the way businesses think about SERPs (since they may no longer be as visual).

4. Individual customization will change the way many rankings are calculated. Google has been pushing the development of more personalized search results for the better part of a decade, relying on individual search histories, browser cookies, and other information to give better, more customized SERPs for individuals. With the advent of smart speakers, the increased convenience of search, and greater technological sophistication, the personalization factor will likely increase even further in 2018, making it more difficult to predict how your company will rank—or what you’ll rank for.

5. Machine learning will spell the end of traditional search algorithm updates. RankBrain remains Google’s deepest dive into machine learning—at least in how it pertains to its search algorithm. But Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has invested heavily in machine learning and AI over the past several years. Though Google hasn’t released any official news about when or if it plans to roll out more machine learning updates to its core algorithm, my guess is by the end of 2018, we’ll see a greater influence of machine learning over typical search results. Eventually, though it will probably be years from now, we may see algorithm updates fade away entirely, in favor of an automated, continuous and iterative algorithm updating process carried out by machine learning.

6. SEO will expand beyond Google and Bing. Over the past few years, I’ve seen an increased trend of companies competing for ranking space outside Google. Google still dominates the search engine sphere, remaining the most popular search platform by far, but third-parties like Yelp and Amazon, as well as digital assistants like Siri have stepped in to become relevant search engines in their own right. If you want to be found by a greater percentage of user searches, and introduce yourself to the widest audience possible, in 2018, you’ll need to begin to think beyond Google’s range of influence.

7. Hyperlocal results will finally take off. I anticipated 2017 to be the first major year for hyperlocal marketing (as did several other experts); I wasn’t wrong about the increased influence of local search and local SEO, but the world wasn’t ready for hyperlocal intent to become the new normal. By “hyperlocal,” I’m referring to the process of targeting customers (or presenting search results) based on physical proximity, down to less than a block radius. I imagine by the end of 2018, with more mobile use than ever before and the rising relevance of VR and AR, companies currently involved in local SEO will need to do more to target hyperlocal keywords and optimize for even more locally relevant appearances.

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