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Google Plus Update is the Marriage of Search with Social

On 11 January 2012, Google Announced Search, plus Your World, its new, transformational search update that will integrate Google+ content and social graph information into personalized search results. Google Search users will have to have Google+ profile and be signed into their Google+ account to experience the new search results.

Official Google Search, plus Your World Video

Google Search results will now include personal results and profiles of people who are in your Google+ social graph. Not completely unsurprising, the new Google Search, plus Your World will not currently use social graphs from information Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn for this latest Google Search update as Google is not granted unfettered access to this data like it is in Google+.

Google Search users will be able to locate and connect with other Google+ users related to a search they perform, right from the search box and corresponding search results. Note that this update is still being rolled out and will not be available to all Google Search users day 1, with no word as of yet from Goolge regarding implementation roll out schedule, at least that I have seen.

As you can see from Google Search, plus Your World Video, the Search, Plus Your World integrated search results will now include:

Google+ users who don’t want the personalization in their Google Search results have the option to disable Google+ content from showing up in their integrated search results.

What Others in the Industry are Saying about this Development

CNN referred to the latest Google Search update as most radical transformation ever. Though this is a bold statement, it is clearly not far off the mark in a move that is intended to position Google+ as a more prominent player in the social networking market whlie gaining  user base and mind share.

This latest Google Search Plus Your World update is a development that Twitter spoke out against the same day its releease was announced. Here what Chris Crum of WebPro News had to say in Google Search, Plus Your World: Twitter Not Happy.  The Google public response to Twitter’s comments was makde via their most radical change ever.

While there are wide spectrum of opinions from current Google and Facebook users (see Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut) where Pete Cashmore, CEO and Founder of Mashable, refers to this update as “a HUGE move” in the article comments. While many of the other 104 (at the time of this writing) comments are dissenting, methinks that Pete is right!

Regardless of your predications of Google success with this new update and how it will further deepen their play into the Social Networking marketing and whether or not you think it will impact Facebook use and market share, given Google dominance in search and share of voice for Internet usage, Internet marketers will be well-served to pay attention.

Look for more on the Search, plus Your World coming to one of the hundreds of millions of Google searches per day near you!

VIDEO Update from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, on does “Google Plus Your World” favor Google+ too much?

What do you think? We would love to hear your perspective in the comments section. All comments that add to the conversion will be published, roughly translated as no spam please

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Seven SEO Tips for Anchor Text

The following Whiteboard Friday video from Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-founder of SEOMoz, highlights the subtle nuances of anchor text (clickable part of a text link on a webpage), its position within a web page and the efficacy of different strategies to maximize a websites sites ranking in the search results, which can have a profound impact on the amount of visitors originating from search engine users. The great thing about Rand and SEOMoz is that they are SEO industry through leaders who take a data driven approach to their tool development and training videos.

All About Anchor Text Whiteboard Friday Video

 (running time: (9 minutes, 35 seconds)

1. Multiple anchors from the same page do NOT provide additional value
2. Diversity of the anchor text link provides the strongest value
3. Fluctuating the anchor text itself is debatable, though many will use this tactic to mask search engine spam and search results manipulation
4. The first anchor text in the HTML of a page is what Google counts
5. Internal anchor text helps a tiny bit (funny presentation of definition of tiny, both in the video and comments following it)
6. If a link uses an image, then the alt attribute of the image tag usually, but not always, becomes the anchor text.
7. Surrounding text is likely used as a signal, especially when the anchor text itself does not have much content or value (e.g. click here)

Understanding these seven anchor text tips and how to apply them to your SEO campaigns, both on-page and off-page, can help the optimized site achieve a high ROI (Return On Investment) for search engine optimization initiatives while helping to drive targeted, sustained, qualified traffic.

If you found value in this video, I strongly suggest that you check out the actual All About Anchor Text Whiteboard Friday as there were 103 comments from the video from a highly experienced, engaged, SEO community, many of which ask insightful questions or add experience that in some cases supports Rand’s points, while others offer a competing perspective and food for thought. The video, which was release last Fri, 6 Jan, and today, 10 Jan, has 4,737 views with 76% watched on average (how far into the video on average viewers watched). For online video, these stats are impressive and indicative of the value of these Whiteboard Friday videos. You can always get up to date stats by clicking the video stats button just below the video player. If you are an SEO, do yourself a favor and add these to your Friday agenda. Remember, free to watch + no registration required = no brainner!

About SEOMoz Whiteboard Fridays

SEOMoz Whiteboard Fridays is a learning series developed by SEOMoz available to those interested in learning SEO. No registration or membership is required to view, and for other content curators to embed these videos free of charge. This is not only good for SEOMoz exposure and brand distribution, but if done effectively by adding your own value to the content by commentary or analysis, it can be an effective tool to enhance search engine marketing. With 103 comments at the time of this publishing, that’s great crowdsourcing highly relevant, targeted content which is what Google rewards these days.

About SEOMoz

SEOMoz.org develops SEO software, conducts extensive studies using a mix of data from actual search results and sites, then combines that data with expert opinions from the worlds top SEOs. SEOMoz and hosts the web’s most vibrant SEO community of which, eBiz ROI is a member.

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facebook addiction or merely an obsession?

Are you addicted to facebook? Have you shared and liked yourself into obsession? A recent study by comScore, shows that social networking is one of the top online activities worldwide, with facebook dominating minutes of use.

The recent comScore report finds social networking accounts for 1 in 5 minutes spent online. Facebook dominates consuming 3 out of 4 social networking minutes. A complimentary copy of the report, is available from comScore at: http://www.comscore.com/it_is_a_social_world

According to the comScore study:

• One in every five minutes online minutes is spent on the social web
• Three out of every four minutes on the social web is spent on facebook
• Twitter grew by 59% over the past year in terms of number of users
• Twitter usage trends along with events of national significance or of pop culture interest
• People spent 35% more time on social networking sites this year (2011) than last year

“The emergence and widespread global adoption of social networks has vastly influenced human interaction on an individual, community and larger societal level, and underscores the convergence of the online and offline worlds,” said Linda Boland Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of global development.”

“Regardless of geography, social networks are weaving themselves ever more intricately into the fabric of the digital experience, opening a world of new opportunity for business and technology.”

The most popular social networking site by a good margin was facebook, which was incredibly visited by over 50% of all web users in the world based on analysis of October data. Twitter now reaches about 10% of off web users worldwide.

Broad smartphone adoption is driving social activity online with the study citing nearly 40% of users access the social web via smartphone.

See video featuring Adam Faulk of Mashable reviewing some of the comScore study highlights:

UPDATE: 2 Jan 2012 – Relavent YouTube Video from 2009 with interviews from facebook addicts

Are you Addicted to Facebook?

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The building of Rohini Courts Complex

An Indian court in Delhi summoned 21 websites, including Facebook, Orkut, Google, YouTube and others this past Fri, 23 Dec, 2011, to answer to charges of criminal conspiracy. Other charges filed include “selling, publicly exhibiting and (circulating) obscene, lascivious content.”

See NewsX video below NewsX from India with news coverage on the 21 websites being summoned in Delhi:

Summary of NewsX Broadcast on Social Network Sites being charged in Delhi, India

The Delhi court order for the 21 named websites, including many popular social networks, came three days after a civil court ordered these same websites to remove content that " might offend religious sentiments." Only a subset the companies summons appear in the Rohini Court on Friday. Those present claimed they had not yet received a copy of the summons. According to the broadcast report, all 21 defendants have to submit a compliance report by Feb 6 in addition to being compelled to remove content deemed objectionable by the courts else face legal action.

The report includes a phone interview the Muslim Cleric Maulana Rashid who frames the issue in terms of "Freedom Vs. Responsibility" criticizing the named companies for using their resources to distribute offensive content. Websites in India are already restrained from webcasting "anti-religious" or "antisocial’ content".

The video also includes an interview with the Indian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Kapil Sibal, who has warned Social Networking sites in the past that they are responsible for screening their content and maintaining compliance with current regulations on what is defined as allowable content. Kapil Sibal’s position is that defamatory content on social networking sites hurts public sentiment. In addition, obscene pictures and posts on politicians violates Indian law.

He states that the images and statements on the platforms naming "Google, Facebook and the like." the subject matter of which was so offensive.

Sibal’s four part justification for censorship of Social Networks in India:

1. May hurt religious sentiment
2. May Social Tension
3. Violent content on social media
4. Danger to National Security

Sibal goes on to say that he is concerned about peace and harmony in India.

Depending on the legal outcome of these actions, Social Networks operating in India and other countries outside of their homeland, these large companies will no doubt be required invest in further operational zing enforcement of country-specific content regulations and censorship on a global basis will be challenging. For India and China, given the large populations and market size, the stakes are huge!

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Landing Page Optimization is a Huge Marketing ROI Lever

The webinar, recording runs just over 53 minutes and is well worth the investment to view in its entirety. Lunch and learn maybe?

The webinar sponsor, ion interactive, offers LiveBall, a landing page optimization and management platform along with landing page optimization services, enabling marketing organizations to design, implement, test and optimize landing pages without the need for direct IT support.

The concepts presented by Anna are broadly applicable and go beyond the ion interactive LiveBall platform. Based on the brands represented in the ion interactive Portfolio, clearly the company and presenter have credibility. eBiz ROI currently has no affiliation with ion interactive or their LiveBall platform, but wanted to share this video to introduce Internet marketers to a view of what is possible in scalable, agile landing page technology, especially as it relates to mobile, which continues to experience explosive growth.

Webinar twitter hash tag:#ion2012 by @ioninteractive

The 12 Tips presented during this Landing Page Optimization webinar include:

1. User Interactivity – including user interactivity on a landing page such as sliders, dynamic images and user controls can users provide access to lots of content on a single page and have been shown to enhance landing page conversion rates.
2. Mobile Ready - providing landing pages that are specifically targeted and ready for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets which are becoming increasingly popular for users on the go. This will become even more important as smart phone adoption accelerates in global markets.
3. Social – integrating social media into landing pages in a way that does not distract from or negatively impact conversion rates, for example allowing a post-conversion tweet initiated by a user who just converted.
4. Progressive – meaning progressive multistep conversions that can lower the perceived barrier of a conversion to an end-user. Progressive conversion techniques can be particularly effective for complex conversions that may require the user to fill out multiple form fields.
5. Local – providing localize versions of landing pages that can be triggered by factors such as the users browser language preferences, Geo targeting based on user IP address, and asking the user for the information to customize and localize content based on user input.
6. Dynamic – providing dynamic content on landing pages such as rotating images and other dynamic design elements can help increase conversion rates. Dynamic landing pages can often be driven by using some of the progressive techniques and having data entered by the user in a multistep conversion be propagated to subsequent steps in the conversion process (i.e. number of employees in a payroll lead form entered in the first step driving content in the second step).
7. Relevant – the relevancy of landing page content relative to source of visit (e.g. display, PPC, social, print, other) can have dramatic impacts on conversion rates. This is especially true in pay per click advertising where the ad copy and its relevancy to the landing page are very important.
8. Disposable – the concept of disposable landing pages is presented in the context of not over investing in building landing pages that may or may not test positively and therefore may be discarded in place of landing pages up performed better during testing. This is where a landing page optimization and management platform can pay large dividends.
9. Integrated – the concept of integrated means taking advantage of multiple platforms used by sales and marketing such as CRM (customer relationship management) systems, marketing automation, lead scoring, demand generation systems and website analytics to name just a few. Using the data produced and consumed by these various systems to optimize your landing pages is a great technique.
10. Optimized – continually testing new creative and copy then optimizing landing pages based on test results to ensure landing page updates are best positioned to drive higher conversion rates.
11. Data mining – includes mining for actionable data based on historical information measured and tracked by a variety of systems including CRM, website analytics, social metrics, marketing automation, lead scoring and more to find opportunities to increase landing page conversion rates
12. QR pages – using QR codes in a very designed and deliberate manner making sure to drive targeted traffic from media to landing pages that share the same context as the media with the QR code is placed. The QR code placement context relevancy to the landing page will have a dramatic impact on conversion rates. Common mistakes include linking QR codes to landing pages that irrelevant to the source from which the QR code was scanned or linking to non-existent pages.

Nothing can provide a larger impact to Internet marketing efforts than landing page optimization. If you found value from this content and other content on this blog valuable, please join eBiz ROI on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our Newsletter to receive more valuable content on various Internet marketing topics. Thanks for visiting our blog and we welcome your comments and feedback.

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Content curation is like sifting through stacks of books to find the valuable information

We all know that content is the key to being able to drive interest and traffic to your website while growing social influence on facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social platforms.

Content is also used to generate demand for products and services that are promoted through online channels. To gain visitors to your website or increase social influence, developing compelling content that solves your customer’s business problems is a great way to position your brand.

However, we all have limited time and budgets to create unique content. In addition to constraints, there is already a wealth of existing content of varying degrees of quality. Much of what exists is of questionable quality. Therefore, the task of sifting through content to find highly relevant information adds value. This, in a nutshell, is content curation. Doing it efficiently and packaging it correctly is the key to successful curation.

Sharing quality content you have curated is a great way to establish your brand and thought leadership in the industry. For instance, the video below, featuring Mari Smith on an episode of Social Media Examiner TV, is a great piece of content that is well organized, quality content, excellent quality video and something that shares a lot of value to its viewers. Hats off to Mari and the Social Media Examiner TV for investing in the development and distribution of this high quality content.

In this case, we can curate this video content, provide some value add in terms of commentary, interpretation or other perspectives that provide additional value to the video, then share it to the benefit of our sphere of social influence and users searching for the content and finding another place to discover it. A crucial aspect of the content curation process is to provide appropriate attribution and never claiming others content as your own. Positive attribution is not only the right thing to do, it has practical benefits in creating social relationships, that can be used in relationship marketing. Curation, if done right, establishes/reinforces your brand and thought leadership and that of the content originator, who reaps the benefits of additional distribution for their content investment.

8 Ways to Find Great Social Media Content

Content Curation Tools, Techniques and Tips Video Summary

In this episode, Mari introduces viewers to the concept of curating content and how it can help your business. In this video which runs just under 11 minutes, Mari reviews 8 content curation tools to help you find the best content to satisfy your content curation needs

1. Google Alerts – To follow industry terms, vanity terms (your brand, your products) and other topics of interest to your readers
2. Google Reader – Subscribe to leading blogs in your Google Reader for better social media management. Mari recommends subscribing to anywhere from 10-50.
3. Facebook Friend Lists for Better Facebook News Feeds
   Mari demonstrates a content curation technique used to focus on topics of interest through building industry focused lists and then monitoring filtered view of your news feed.
4. Twitter Lists – curate information from people who consistently share great content on Twitter. Mari discusses how you can find and use Twitter Lists already in existence that are germane to your interests.
5. HootSuite – Use to manage multiple social media profiles to make it easier to share the valuable content you find online. HootSuite can also be used to schedule posting of curated content to multiple social media profiles.
6. Paper.li – With Paper.li, users can aggregate content from multiple social media platforms to publish a personalized virtual newspaper.
7. Alltop – Alltop, founded by Guy Kawasaki, curates the content for you by allowing you to create a MyAlltop page to subscribe to your favorite blogs. It is good to submit your blog to Alltop to assist in generating online visibility and reach.
8. Mobile – Flipboard and Pulse are two mobile apps Mari mentions in this video, explains why using mobile apps available on multiple mobile devices, simplifies distribution of curated content on social media. I have not used Flipboard or Pulse, but after watching Mari’s content curation video, I am going to give them a test drive.

I have practiced content curation for a while and definitely learned some new tricks from Mari’s video. As an added bonus, at the end, Mari provides some very simple and actionable tips on how to craft a tweet to get more retweets.

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The video contained in this blog post is from a recent whiteboard Friday hosted by Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz.org, a well-respected thought leader in the SEO industry.

In the video, Rand covers five specific tactics that SEO’s can use for optimizing a webpage. An attractive attribute of on page optimization is that it is something that is directly within the control of the webmaster or the person(s) managing the website as opposed off-page optimization, which can be much more outside the control of the webmaster.

In the video,Rand covers each of the five on-page SEO in some detail citing some real world examples. The video length is a total of 12 min. and contains a lot of useful information that can benefit your on page optimization strategy.

The five on-page SEO tactics covered in the video include:

1. Semantically connected words and phrases
2. Block level optimization (optimization of certain regions within a webpage)
3. Internal and external linking strategies
4. Happiness of web visitors (in Google’s estimation)
5. Content uniqueness and formatting

Provided is a link to the video transcript for the Advanced On-Page Optimization – Whiteboard Friday. If you follow this link, you’ll also benefit from the dialogue of over 80 comments following the transcript. The one question in the comments that remains unanswered is whether or not outbound links should be no followed (i.e. rel =”nofollow”) or not without negating any positive treatment from the search engines for outbound links.

If you found value in this post, please like eBiz ROI on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ebizroi(or click like button directly below) and Follow eBiz ROI on Twitter @eBizROI (or click the Twitter follow button directly below) to stay connected to the Terrific Time for Traffic series and other quality content for growing your business online while maximizing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

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Today, more than ever, businesses and consumers use the Internet to search before purchasing. There is an abundance of third party data from the analyts to back this up, not to mention your own life’s experience.

The implication to businesses is that investing now in the search channel (paid and organic) to market your products and services on the Internet is critical to your business’ future success. In fact, according to Pew Research, 58% of Americans Have Researched a Product or Service Online, 21% as recent as yesterday.

To emphasize this how important this is, let me cite a quote from Jim Jansen, Senior Fellow, Pew Research Center  “Many Americans begin their purchasing experience by doing online research to compare prices, quality, and the reviews of other shoppers.”

The pew project found that in September of 2010, 21% of study participants said yes to the following statement: “I used a search engine to conduct product or service research yesterday” This was up from 15% in September of 2007, 13% from Feb 2005 and only 9% in February of 2004.

This increase reliance on search engines has likely accelerated this trend in 2011.

Search has become much more deeply integrated into our work and personal lives, especially as it relates to shopping, finding places to eat on the run, scanning bar codes in brick and motar stores and within seconds, finding out if the same product is available at a better price close by. Amazing Amazon Bat Man! As you can imagine, not all businesses are supporters as broad adoption of this kind of capabilities is changing the rules of the game as it relates to pricing and its impacts on margins, but like it or not, that is the world we compete in. 

To make the conversion more personal, think of how you use search engines and mobile applications to make your shopping more efficient and effective. I believe that if asked today to provide a response to the statement: “I used a search engine to conduct product or service research yesterday” that the number of yes response today would be as high as 25% or perhaps even more. Even if searchers ultimately end up making their purchase in a store, many of us start our fact-finding and decision-making on the Internet. Your personal experience will likely corroborate this.

Further evidence of consumer reliance on search engines in making purchase decisions was recently presented at a HubSpot webinar called the Science of SEO, during which Dan Zarrella presented data showing over 50% of survey respondents asked “How often do you make purchase decisions based on information found through web searches?”  Well over half responded once a month which jives with the data from Pew. You get the idea.

The implication to businesses is clear. If your website does not rank on first page in either the natural (organic/non paid) search results, or the pay for placement search results, then it is likely not to be considered. Studies have show that as many as 75% of searchers never navigate beyond the first page of the search results.

With over half of shoppers relying on search engines to inform a purchase decision at least once per month, businesses who want to remain competitive need to factor in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as part of their overall Internet marketing strategy.

If you found value in this post, please like eBiz ROI on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ebizroi(or click like button directly below) and Follow eBiz ROI on Twitter @eBizROI (or click the Twitter follow button directly below) to stay connected to the Terrific Time for Traffic series and other quality content for growing your business online while maximizing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

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Like shopping malls and strip centers, websites rely on traffic to generate sales and leads. It might surprise you to know that more than half of all US residents and more than 75% of all US adults are online today. Source: Us Census Bureau, May 2011.

Business websites need traffic to add value and deliver ROI - Internet advertising can provide targeted traffic

In fact, 35% of US consumers spend more than three hours online every day (Source: The Media Audit, October 2010). I am sure the numbers today skew higher. It’s like the old proverb says, “if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” The analogy here is, if a website exists on the Internet but there are no mechanisms for people to discover the website, does it exist?

This post is part of a series that will discuss strategies to reach targeted markets with laser precision. Included in this series will be recommended Internet marketing and Internet advertising tactics. While writing the initial piece, the need to chunk the content into digestible posts quickly became clear. With that, the Terrific Time for Traffic series was born.

One of the biggest challenges that business owners face online or off is to be found. Discovery of a new website can be especially challenging. Business owners ask how can we cost-effectively market our website on the Internet? Another related question is how can we quickly ramp up website visitors? Not just any visitors, but targeted visitors otherwise known as qualified prospects? How can we connect with those businesses and consumers researching purchases online for the very products and services we offer?

The question is will these businesses and consumers in market for the products and services sold by your business find your website? If they don’t find your website, won’t they likely find your competitor’s website? This is a huge challenge for new businesses and for business whose name and brand are not currently well-known in the market.

Business owners have many Internet advertising options available to lead online researchers to their products and services on their business website, including:

Internet advertising and Internet marketing options to drive targeted, qualified visitors to your website

• Purchasing advertisements on search engines where ads are shown for search term bid on for placement in the paid search results.
• Purchasing display advertisements on websites; these can be contextually targeted based on context (what type of site they are on) or behavioral factors such as show ads to those who have already visited your website (remarketing)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website, mostly accomplished through obtaining non-paid links from other authoritative websites to your. These links are required to rank well for user searches that are relevant to the products and services offered by your business. More on this topic in an upcoming segment.
• Issuing press releases with links to your website; this can provide huge value if/when the press release get picked up by mainstream news outlets or niche news outlets in the case of a more targeted release.
• Writing and publishing articles and posting those articles to article directories with links to your website; this practice is referred to as Article Marketing. Other places to publish include newspapers, magazines and other publications looking for relevant content.
• Commenting on blogs whose content is contextually relevant to your website, focusing on blogs that allow you to link back to your website in the comments form. Avoid automated commenting software or leaving spam comments.
• Inter-linking multiple websites owned by the same company to create a network of websites, focusing on carefully worded links with preferred placement. This practice can also be viewed as risky as search engines may view as an attempt to manipulate search results, risking possible ranking penalties.
• Purchasing targeted advertising on social media networks such as facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook and LinkedIn offer self-serve options including the ability to target your ads to specific user demographics and geographies (more on this in subsequent posts).
• e-mail marketing with messages that contain links back to your website; email marketing is safest when using a double opt-in list to avoid email marketing pitfalls.
• Listing your website in search engines and local directories under your business category or categories.
• Creating social media profiles and then using those profiles/pages to promote your products and services while networking and engaging potential clients online.
• Referencing the website address (e.g. www.eBizROI.com) in all marketing materials and communications, both online and offline.
• Purchasing text links to your website from other websites whose content is relevant to your products and services; Caution: negative impacts on search engine rankings a risk with purchased links.
• Create a blog and post content of interest to your target market which, according to HubSpot, a leading supplier of marketing software, results in obtaining 97% more inbound links that websites without a blog - Source: Hubspot, State Of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010. Blogging also adds value to your clients while building trust.
• Too many more to list without needing to break this first post in the series into a series itsel, but you get the idea.

The key takeaway is that If you are a business owner, marketing manager or CMO with a marketing budget and better yet, an Internet advertising/marketing budget, there has never been more options for businesses, large and small, to target and reach well-defined niche(s) online efficiently and effectively.

In the next post in the Terrific Time for Traffic series, we will discuss data points that demonstrate the breadth of US Internet users and how they rely on search engines over 50% of the time to begin researching products and services that they are in the market for.

If you found value in this post, please like eBiz ROI on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ebizroi(or click like button directly below) and Follow eBiz ROI on Twitter @eBizROI (or click the Twitter follow button directly below) to stay connected to the Terrific Time for Traffic series and other quality content for growing your business online while maximizing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

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Online Shopping Experts predict Cyber Monday to Smash Existing Record by 20%

Cyber Monday shoppers trading convenience over crowds by shopping online

According to a report on Reuters, ChannelAdvisor said clients saw same-store sales via Amazon.com surge 51.4 percent during the first half of Cyber Monday, compared to a year earlier. ChannelAdvisor clients saw same-store sales via eBay’s online marketplace climb 17.1 percent during the first half of Cyber Monday, versus the same period last year. Given the dominant roles of Amazon and eBay in eComerce, merchant figures samples such as these are strong growth indicators for new Cyber Monday 2011 record sales.

Online sales in the US increased 15 percent as of 6 p.m. New York time Cyber Monday 2011 as compared with a Cyber Monday sales year earlier, according to Benchmark, a unit of International Business Machines. IBM Benchmark also reported that 7.4 percent of Cyber Monday shopping as of mid-day was done on Internet-linked mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This means that shopping online is no longer mean confined to a desktop or laptop, possibly blocking access to the largest online shopping destinations by corporate firewalls in an effort to maximize productivity. Experts expect Cyber Monday 2011 spending to reach $1.2 billion from $1.03 billion last year, according to comScore.

Cyber Monday 2011 on pace to beat previous online sales record by 20%

By Coremetrics’s estimate, online sales on Cyber Monday 2011 were up 15% through 2:25 p.m. EST from Cyber Monday sales from a year earlier. Department stores’ online sales are up 39% and apparel retailers’ are 24% higher according to Coremetrics. Despite more buyers purchasing online, eMarketer, a well-known analyst firm specializing in eCommerce and eMarketing and Internet Advertising, believes overall US retail sales for the year would see “meager growth” of about three percent thanks to sales this holiday season.

Akamai, a leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences, saw 58% retail traffic growth between the hours of midnight and 9:00 AM EST on Black Friday, with the peak during that time period just after midnight. According to Akamai, shoppers continued strong through 2:00 AM, with the 1:00 AM hour alone showing 86% traffic growth year over year. Online sales were strong even over the weekend. Thirty-eight percent of all purchases were made online this year, up from 31 -32 % last year, says Sherif Mityas, partner in the retail practice of A.T. Kearney.

For retailers with a strong online channel, these early sales reports for the long holiday weekend, culminating in Cyber Monday are encouraging figures indeed and are likely driven by at least 3 factors:

1. Strong proliferation of mobile devices – smartphones and tablets,
2. Free shipping and no sales tax in many cases,
3. The price of gas which is, on average, $1/gal higher than this time last year.

The convenience of shopping at home and the bonus of not having to fight over Black Friday deals in brick and mortar stores make online shopping a more compelling experience.

Trust in online shopping has never been higher. Besides, comparison shopping, a survival skill today, is just a few clicks (or scans) away. If you missed your bargain on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, no worries as the deals are sure to be promoted both online and off over the coming weeks. As many watchful economists hope, a new Cyber Monday 2011 sales record could signal a spark of economic optimism amidst a sea of global economic uncertainty.