Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Killer Tools to Monitor Your
Personal and Blog Brand'
Monitoring your brand mentions and knowing your online reputation is extremely
important. Not only does this apply to people who use their personal name as
their business, but also for the name of your business, website or blog. For
example, my persona...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/Eqzo2GKQGo4/monitor-your-brand.html
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posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Thursday 31 October 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Three Frightfully Fun Examples of Brand Generated Halloween Social Media Content
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Three Frightfully Fun Examples of
Brand Generated Halloween Social Media Content'
Happy Halloween! In celebration of this spooktactular holiday, were skipping the
tricks and going right to the treats. From Facebook, to Twitter, Vine, and
YouTube, check out these three clever content and promotion examples Petco, Tide
and Crest have been scaring up leading into Halloween today. Leave a comment
below with your favorite, or share []Three Frightfully Fun Examples of Brand
Generated Halloween Social Media Content is a post from: Convince and Convert:
Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-image-of-the-week/three-frightfully-fun-examples-of-brand-generated-halloween-social-media-content/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=three-frightfully-fun-examples-of-brand-generated-halloween-social-media-content
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Brand Generated Halloween Social Media Content'
Happy Halloween! In celebration of this spooktactular holiday, were skipping the
tricks and going right to the treats. From Facebook, to Twitter, Vine, and
YouTube, check out these three clever content and promotion examples Petco, Tide
and Crest have been scaring up leading into Halloween today. Leave a comment
below with your favorite, or share []Three Frightfully Fun Examples of Brand
Generated Halloween Social Media Content is a post from: Convince and Convert:
Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-image-of-the-week/three-frightfully-fun-examples-of-brand-generated-halloween-social-media-content/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=three-frightfully-fun-examples-of-brand-generated-halloween-social-media-content
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] What Scares Google?
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'What Scares Google?'
Posted by Dr-Pete
As SEOs, we spend a lot of our collective time afraid of what Google might do
next. This Halloween, I thought maybe it was time to turn the tables. It's easy
to think of Google as an unstoppable force, but, like any company, Google has
weaknesses and their behavior suggests some very real fears about the future.
Fear #1: Lack of revenue diversity
Google does everything, right? They've got Chrome, Android, Google Glass,
Motorola Mobile, self-driving cars, flying WiFi, and now they're even trying to
make you immortal. It all makes for great PR, except for one very important
factâthis is how Google's revenue broke down in Q3 of 2013:
Factor in profitability, and the situation gets even worse (Motorola Mobile
operated at a loss in Q3). Compared to physical products or even traditional
advertising, AdWords and AdSense are as close to magic money-making machines as
you're going to find. Google didn't just find a pot of goldthey found the only
key to Leprechaun City, and the door locks from the outside. If the leprechauns
escape, Google is in trouble, and no self-driving car is going to find them.
Fear #2: Falling cost-per-click (CPC)
Even as Google's revenues continue to rise, their average CPC has fallen for
eight quarters in a row. So far, Google has managed to offset this CPC fall by
increasing overall impressions and creating advertising enhancements that drive
higher click-through rates (CTRs), but the trend is a very real problem and
absolutely tops Google's list of worries. What's driving this trend? That leads
us to #3...
Fear #3: Changing face of mobile
Traditionally, mobile ads have just been cheaper than desktop ads, and as
mobile devices proliferate, average CPCs have fallen. This problem led Google to
take an extreme approachâthey forcibly rolled out "Enhanced Campaigns" to
all advertisers, effectively removing the option to have separate bids on mobile
devices.
The problem for Google is that this sleight-of-hand doesn't remove the reality
of how consumers behave on mobile phones and tablets, where traditional search
advertising is simply less effective (at least, so far). There's also just less
space for ads. Consider this desktop search result for "artificial christmas
trees":
Counting paid product placement, there are parts of 14 ad units visible on one
screen. There are 19 total ad units on the page (the right-hand AdWords block
contains 8 ads). Now compare this to the same query on iOS7 on my iPhone 5S:
On one screen of mobile results, there are only two visible ads, with five
total ads (two before and three after the organic results). Google promotes the
message that mobile is becoming more like desktop every day, as screen size and
resolution increases, and hybrid devices (like "phablets") become more popular.
The reality, though, is that mobile is still a unique animal, and will be for
the foreseeable future.
Google's development also suggests that they don't really believe this
desktop/mobile unification story. Desktop search UI is being driven more and
more by advances in the mobile UI. As smartphone traffic grows and Google dives
into even more experimental directions (like Google Glass), consumer behavior is
evolving quickly, and it's unclear how this evolution will change our
interactions with advertising.
Fear #4: Fickle investor confidence
Most days, Google is still a darling to investors, but as a publicly traded
company their amazing history is both a blessing and a curse. Google's core
revenues (not counting Motorola) have been up every quarter since Q1 of 2011:
It's a great story, except for one problemâGoogle is a mature company
with massive market share. The expectation that Google can continue to grow,
quarter after quarter, indefinitely, is unrealistic bordering on ridiculous. Of
course, investors don't want to hear that. Google will have a bad quarter, and
their investors have been trained on good news for far too long.
We tend to believe that someone has to beat Google at their own game, and that
a competitor like Bing has to best them at search. The reality is that Google is
fighting their own market expectations, and if Google fails to meet expectations
by enough, they may start to unravel.
Fear #5: The Facebook factor
We tend to focus on whether Facebook can ever compete with Google on search,
but there's one area where the social giant dominates Google. People go to
Facebook and stayâthey go to Google to leave as quickly as possible.
Google's entire model flies in the face of the traditional advertising
philosophy of doing everything possible to increase pageviews and time-on-site.
Google is keenly aware of this problem. In addition to Google+, they've made
many moves in the past year that seem to be designed to increase pageviews. For
examples, carousels (including the local carousel) and related searches in
Knowledge Graph boxes don't lead to outside sitesâthey lead directly to
more search results. Google is testing new Knowledge Graph entities that use
data from third-party sites but then link prominently to more Google searches.
For example, we recently spotted this KG entry in testing:
All of the blue links in this box (there are 7 visible in this image) go to
additional Google searches. Only the smaller, light-gray links go to the
original source websites.
Put simply, while Facebook may be struggling to define its revenue model, the
social giant is a platform. It's a place people go to do things, and it's a
place people spend a lot of time. For most of us, Google is a place we go to for
quick answers and then leave. The faster and better Google is at search, the
faster we leave, and for a company with 84% of its revenue tied up in
advertising, this is a serious problem.
Fear #6: Government regulation (US/EU)
I put this one last for one reason â while I think US and/or EU
regulators could theoretically cause significant harm to Google, I don't think
either government has the political will to crack down on an industry giant.
Google's problem, though, is that they can't simply play nice. They have to push
the envelope with advertising, and that's going to mean an ongoing battle with
regulators.
Take this recent example of a paid shopping result we spotted in testing (the
live version is a bit different):
Other than the "Sponsored" designator at the top, this paid shopping result
looks a lot like a Knowledge Graph entry. The test version is even placing one
selected provider and [Shop now] button before the specs and other information.
With CPCs falling, Google is going to keep pushing harder, and they're going to
keep testing government regulators' limits.
Why should we care?
This is not a "gotcha" post, and I don't necessarily think that Google is
doomed to fail. What I do think is that it's vital to maintain a healthy
perspective about Google's motives and possible futures. Last year, I said that
my #1 SEO tip for 2013 was to diversify. If I wrote that article again, I doubt
I'd change much. If your entire business is built on Google, you're riding a
wave that's eventually going to crash into the shore. It may be because Google
changes the rules, or it may be because they fail, but you've built your future
on something you absolutely can't control. If you understand Google's fears and
aspirations, you may at least start to appreciate why it's critical to build
your business on more than one marketing channel.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/d5B2ZpNXjyk/what-scares-google
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Posted by Dr-Pete
As SEOs, we spend a lot of our collective time afraid of what Google might do
next. This Halloween, I thought maybe it was time to turn the tables. It's easy
to think of Google as an unstoppable force, but, like any company, Google has
weaknesses and their behavior suggests some very real fears about the future.
Fear #1: Lack of revenue diversity
Google does everything, right? They've got Chrome, Android, Google Glass,
Motorola Mobile, self-driving cars, flying WiFi, and now they're even trying to
make you immortal. It all makes for great PR, except for one very important
factâthis is how Google's revenue broke down in Q3 of 2013:
Factor in profitability, and the situation gets even worse (Motorola Mobile
operated at a loss in Q3). Compared to physical products or even traditional
advertising, AdWords and AdSense are as close to magic money-making machines as
you're going to find. Google didn't just find a pot of goldthey found the only
key to Leprechaun City, and the door locks from the outside. If the leprechauns
escape, Google is in trouble, and no self-driving car is going to find them.
Fear #2: Falling cost-per-click (CPC)
Even as Google's revenues continue to rise, their average CPC has fallen for
eight quarters in a row. So far, Google has managed to offset this CPC fall by
increasing overall impressions and creating advertising enhancements that drive
higher click-through rates (CTRs), but the trend is a very real problem and
absolutely tops Google's list of worries. What's driving this trend? That leads
us to #3...
Fear #3: Changing face of mobile
Traditionally, mobile ads have just been cheaper than desktop ads, and as
mobile devices proliferate, average CPCs have fallen. This problem led Google to
take an extreme approachâthey forcibly rolled out "Enhanced Campaigns" to
all advertisers, effectively removing the option to have separate bids on mobile
devices.
The problem for Google is that this sleight-of-hand doesn't remove the reality
of how consumers behave on mobile phones and tablets, where traditional search
advertising is simply less effective (at least, so far). There's also just less
space for ads. Consider this desktop search result for "artificial christmas
trees":
Counting paid product placement, there are parts of 14 ad units visible on one
screen. There are 19 total ad units on the page (the right-hand AdWords block
contains 8 ads). Now compare this to the same query on iOS7 on my iPhone 5S:
On one screen of mobile results, there are only two visible ads, with five
total ads (two before and three after the organic results). Google promotes the
message that mobile is becoming more like desktop every day, as screen size and
resolution increases, and hybrid devices (like "phablets") become more popular.
The reality, though, is that mobile is still a unique animal, and will be for
the foreseeable future.
Google's development also suggests that they don't really believe this
desktop/mobile unification story. Desktop search UI is being driven more and
more by advances in the mobile UI. As smartphone traffic grows and Google dives
into even more experimental directions (like Google Glass), consumer behavior is
evolving quickly, and it's unclear how this evolution will change our
interactions with advertising.
Fear #4: Fickle investor confidence
Most days, Google is still a darling to investors, but as a publicly traded
company their amazing history is both a blessing and a curse. Google's core
revenues (not counting Motorola) have been up every quarter since Q1 of 2011:
It's a great story, except for one problemâGoogle is a mature company
with massive market share. The expectation that Google can continue to grow,
quarter after quarter, indefinitely, is unrealistic bordering on ridiculous. Of
course, investors don't want to hear that. Google will have a bad quarter, and
their investors have been trained on good news for far too long.
We tend to believe that someone has to beat Google at their own game, and that
a competitor like Bing has to best them at search. The reality is that Google is
fighting their own market expectations, and if Google fails to meet expectations
by enough, they may start to unravel.
Fear #5: The Facebook factor
We tend to focus on whether Facebook can ever compete with Google on search,
but there's one area where the social giant dominates Google. People go to
Facebook and stayâthey go to Google to leave as quickly as possible.
Google's entire model flies in the face of the traditional advertising
philosophy of doing everything possible to increase pageviews and time-on-site.
Google is keenly aware of this problem. In addition to Google+, they've made
many moves in the past year that seem to be designed to increase pageviews. For
examples, carousels (including the local carousel) and related searches in
Knowledge Graph boxes don't lead to outside sitesâthey lead directly to
more search results. Google is testing new Knowledge Graph entities that use
data from third-party sites but then link prominently to more Google searches.
For example, we recently spotted this KG entry in testing:
All of the blue links in this box (there are 7 visible in this image) go to
additional Google searches. Only the smaller, light-gray links go to the
original source websites.
Put simply, while Facebook may be struggling to define its revenue model, the
social giant is a platform. It's a place people go to do things, and it's a
place people spend a lot of time. For most of us, Google is a place we go to for
quick answers and then leave. The faster and better Google is at search, the
faster we leave, and for a company with 84% of its revenue tied up in
advertising, this is a serious problem.
Fear #6: Government regulation (US/EU)
I put this one last for one reason â while I think US and/or EU
regulators could theoretically cause significant harm to Google, I don't think
either government has the political will to crack down on an industry giant.
Google's problem, though, is that they can't simply play nice. They have to push
the envelope with advertising, and that's going to mean an ongoing battle with
regulators.
Take this recent example of a paid shopping result we spotted in testing (the
live version is a bit different):
Other than the "Sponsored" designator at the top, this paid shopping result
looks a lot like a Knowledge Graph entry. The test version is even placing one
selected provider and [Shop now] button before the specs and other information.
With CPCs falling, Google is going to keep pushing harder, and they're going to
keep testing government regulators' limits.
Why should we care?
This is not a "gotcha" post, and I don't necessarily think that Google is
doomed to fail. What I do think is that it's vital to maintain a healthy
perspective about Google's motives and possible futures. Last year, I said that
my #1 SEO tip for 2013 was to diversify. If I wrote that article again, I doubt
I'd change much. If your entire business is built on Google, you're riding a
wave that's eventually going to crash into the shore. It may be because Google
changes the rules, or it may be because they fail, but you've built your future
on something you absolutely can't control. If you understand Google's fears and
aspirations, you may at least start to appreciate why it's critical to build
your business on more than one marketing channel.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/d5B2ZpNXjyk/what-scares-google
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Our Top 10 Posts from October are Scary-Good'
Happy Halloween!
You're probably too distracted by candy and costumes today to get any real work done – amirite? – so why not kick back with some hot cocoa or what-have-you and catch up on the WordStream Blog's greatest hits of the month? Here are our top 10 most popular posts from October:
1. Find Your Old Tweets: How to See Your First (Worst?) Tweet – Ever wonder what your first tweet was? Here are two easy ways to find your earliest tweets, plus first tweets from a bunch of celebs and high-profile search marketers. #fun
2. How to Get Phrase & Broad Match Traffic Data Back from Google Keyword Planner – Victor offers three methods for hacking Keyword Planner to get data beyond exact match.
3. Funny Ads: Weird, Wacky Ads and Why They Work – Meg showcases some unusual ad techniques that might even help you in PPC.
4. Case Study: The Anatomy of a Killer Quality Score – One of our clients has an average impression-weighted Quality Score of 8.8. DAYUM! Here's how they did it.
5. Multi-Channel Marketing 101: Why Does Cross-Channel Marketing Matter? – Learn how to use multiple marketing channels in concert to better reach your customers.
6. What the New AdWords Ad Rank Algorithm Really Means – Erin explores the big changes to Ad Rank and offers some theories as to why Google is making the push for ad extensions.
7. Blog SEO Tips for Non-SEOs: 3 Things Bloggers that Aren't Search Nerds Forget to Do – Top bloggers do a lot of SEO work without even trying – stuff like user-friendly design and community building. Here are a few things they could be doing to get even better results.
8. Want a Free AdWords Budget for 2014? Grade and Get Paid! – Have you heard about our big PPC Makeover contest yet? There's still time to enter!
9. Is the Change to Ad Rank Good or Bad for Small Businesses? – SMBs have historically been slow to adopt some of Google's most powerful features. If they don't step up to the plate and start using ad extensions, they're going to be punished with lower ad rankings.
10. Google Stock History Shows Shares Trending Up, CPC Trending Down – Here's Why – People keep predicting that costs per click on AdWords will rise – but the numbers tell a different story. Larry explains why CPC's are still trending down.
Stay safe out there, kids!
Image via istolethetv
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Wednesday 30 October 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Meet Bing's New "Hero Ads"' 
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/73vFYcsEp7g/bing-hero-ads You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Bing Ads has today announced a way to potentially one-up Google's Image Banners in Search Listings.
The new ad format, called "Bing Hero Ads," were shown off at a Bing Ads event at the Microsoft Campus, and are currently visible on a subset of keyword searches conducted within the recently released Windows 8.1.
Hero Ads provide a bold, strongly-branded, task-completion oriented experience for certain branded searches, as you can see by the photos I snapped here for Home Depot, Radio Shack and Disney:
The pilot project is currently limited to searches conducted in Windows 8.1 in the US. No word yet on if this will make it to the Web version of Bing Search. The test is being run with a limited number of big brands. If you don't see them, it's because they're only show up on a subset of branded searches. Organic search listings appear on the next page, which is accessible by swiping the screen.
Why I love Bing Hero Ads
Branded searches have navigational intent – meaning the user is almost always simply trying to navigate to a brand's website. Companies with strong brands would definitely be interested in providing a better branded experience than a 25-character headline, and the new Hero Ad format delivers user intent, branding and task completion! It's like a landing page directly in the search results!
What do you think of Bing Hero Ads? Let me know in the comments below.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
[Build Backlinks Online] 2 Twitter Changes Making Life Easier for Big Brands
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '2 Twitter Changes Making Life
Easier for Big Brands'
In this bandwidth-challenged-from-a-hotel edition of The Baer Facts, I talk
withKyle LacyofExactTargetabout Twitters new move to enable direct messages to
be sent and received even if both parties are not following one another. This
has always been one of the quirks of Twitter, that you had to follow back to
exchange DMs. In some ways, []2 Twitter Changes Making Life Easier for Big
Brands is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content
Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/twitter/2-twitter-changes-making-life-easier-for-big-brands/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2-twitter-changes-making-life-easier-for-big-brands
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Easier for Big Brands'
In this bandwidth-challenged-from-a-hotel edition of The Baer Facts, I talk
withKyle LacyofExactTargetabout Twitters new move to enable direct messages to
be sent and received even if both parties are not following one another. This
has always been one of the quirks of Twitter, that you had to follow back to
exchange DMs. In some ways, []2 Twitter Changes Making Life Easier for Big
Brands is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content
Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/twitter/2-twitter-changes-making-life-easier-for-big-brands/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2-twitter-changes-making-life-easier-for-big-brands
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Tuesday 29 October 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Case Study: White-Hat Link Building in the Gambling Industry
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Case Study: White-Hat Link
Building in the Gambling Industry'
Posted by sammirandaThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the
main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The
author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz,
Inc.
During 2012, Google clamped down on poor link building tactics, eliminating
directories, article submission sites and adjusting the criteria for natural
links. Consequently, the gambling industry has been facing the daunting task of
restructuring its content marketing and SEO initiatives. Abusing article
directories and paying for guest posts with keyword rich anchor text no longer
cut the mustard.
Alongside brand building through social media and delivering value-added
content, white-hat link building is high on the agenda to restore rankings. But
it's often dubbed mission impossible by gambling marketers.
Traditionally, gambling websites are short of linkable assets. First-party
games often constitute a casino's most valuable content, but they're developed
infrequently and reputable websites are hesitant to link to gambling-related
content because of the social stigma attached to the industry.
White-hat link building (an admittedly contentious term) is possible. In this
post I'm going to outline four strategies that I have obtained from my
experiences of content marketingâspecifically 'guest posting' for want of
a better termâfor a gambling affiliate website.
To conclude, I'll also provide three examples of the valuable backlinks I've
managed to obtain through using these tactics.
1. Lead generation
Gambling is a multi-faceted entity, incorporating psychology, legislation and
social issues. It features heavily in sports, discourse surrounding marketing
and advertising techniques, and even celebrity culture. Contrary to popular
belief, the scope for gambling related content is massiveâit stretches far
beyond the roulette guides and blackjack strategies found on poorly constructed,
niche gambling websites.
Content marketers let the stigma attached to gambling dictate their
initiatives, saying "There's no way awesomedomain.com will link to a gambling
website." But this blinkered outlook represents a wasted opportunity. Providing
there's no explicit material, a website should link to any credible source that
enhances reader understanding.
The kind of headline that demoralises gambling industry marketersStart to
build a diverse list of online publications that can be approached for guest
posting. Ask yourself the following questions:
Do they accept freelancer contributions or guest posts?
Do they accept organic links in the article body?
If not, do they at least offer a promotional link in the author byline?
Are outbound links restricted to trusted contributors? In this case, you'll
need to build up your credibility before benefiting from links.
Note: I dislike the term guest posting as it's often (now) associated with
systematic efforts to produce mediocre articles and place them on any website in
a similar niche. I do not endorse, nor follow this churned approach to content
production. However, we'll use the term to keep it simple!
Finish by categorising your leads based on the subject (i.e. business,
education, entertainment etc) and the website's SEO metrics (page rank, citation
flow, trust flow, PA etc).
Top takeaways
Don't let the stigma attached to your niche cloud your thought process.
Think of guest posting as feature writing, not copywriting. Avoid the churn!
It is not always about getting a link straight away. Sometimes you'll need to
prove your worth with valuable posts to build up trust and credibility.
2: Topic generation
My topic generation tends to fit into three subject categories.
Gambling
The first is gambling itself. You should aim to cover the full emotional
spectrum, from negative articles surrounding consumer gambling addiction to more
imaginative, uplifting pieces covering novelty bets and celebrity gamblers. You
don't have to glorify gambling. For instance, you might want to take a critical
standpoint towards PaddyPower's agreement with Facebook to launch a
sports-betting app, highlighting the perils of social gambling. This would
interest any gambling B2B website.
Marketing and business
Ironically, the second subject area is exactly what I'm doing now. When you're
discussing anything business or marketing related, you can write objectively
about the gambling sector. Gambling websites are known for audacious
advertising, flashy design and clever conversion optimisation, making them
perfect case studies for marketing and UX-related articles.
Though valuable, deep-links to your gambling website's core landing pages are
hard to embed as organic links within an article body. Rarely is it ever organic
to link to a page full of gambling bonuses, but it is possible. If you're
discussing website design and innovation, you can specify an excellent landing
page, which gives you ammunition for an organic link in a user experience post.
You can also look within for an engaging business story. Does your company
have a colourful history? Is your CEO a budding Richard Branson? Entrepreneur
websites love to feature original case studies, and should be happy linking to
your website if it underlines an intriguing corporate venture.
Shareable content
The third area is shareable, viral content. The internet is awash with trend
websites that disseminate funny and digestible content. You should be looking to
jump in with a snappy, "Top 10 Amazing Bets" kind of list that incorporates a
mix of images, videos and memes.
I've hijacked a quirky "question asking" formula from viral scientist Jonah
Berger to drill out facts and generate interesting ideas. Using 'roulette' for
exampleâ
Who chooses to play roulette?
What types of roulette are there?
What can we learn about the type of person who plays X version of roulette?
Now to mix it up a bitâ
Where do those people come from?
What is the majority gender?
Now make it controversialâ
Are people from region X more prone to gambling? Are men playing the "live"
version more? Is this because they are physically attracted to the croupier?
As you can see, questioning your own topic triggers a web of interesting and
contentious content - the kind of material which a much wider audience can
relate to, enjoy and share. Another creative formula I use for topic generation
is 'subject + random category or buzzword '. For instance:
Roulette + films (which brings me to the iconic Russian roulette scene from
The Deer Hunter).
Roulette + social (which brings me to the webcam-based phenomenon Chat
Roulette).
Roulette + travel (which in the case of Heineken, brought them to a video
whereby holiday makers were offered to play 'Departure Roulette' and board a
flight to a random destination).
Roulette + magic (which brings me to popular British mentalist Derren Brown's
'Russian Roulette' trick).
Writing
Once you've seeded a topic and an angle, you should be looking to delegate the
writing of an article to a crack in-house writerâsomeone with a passion
for journalism and developing their online presence. In my experience,
outsourcing to freelancers or an agency comprises quality and article
authenticity. The work is thin on research, low on personality and possesses a
'churned' feel to it, which brings me back to my stereotypical guest post gripe.
Make sure you leverage the knowledge of your internal teamâi.e. your
designer for design-related materialâto cover all potential article bases.
Top takeaways
Explore your niche. It is sure to bring up topics that bear wider social
significance.
Have you successfully implemented a marketing campaign? Is your business doing
great? Tell your own company story.
Brainstorm and generate shareable content. Use the "question asking" formula
above to come up with interesting topics.
3: Original and convincing outreach
Here's a fantastic post entitled "Revealed: Outreach Campaigns from some of
the Biggest SEO firms." It underlines just how useless some SEO agencies are at
establishing credibility and building rapport with editors and webmasters. They
have to resort to manufactured guest-post outreach.
My outreach is far more tailored and elaborate. I throw in a bio, examples of
my published work and a brief employment history. There really is no substitute
for published work, and I'm fortunate enough to have articles on websites like
Buzzfeed and The Bleacher Report. My emails will be personalised, complimentary
and explain why my content is suitable for the website's target demographic.
Email outreachâsummarised perfectly by this infographicâis a science
in its own right.
I sugar-coat my job role (senior editor at a gaming information portal) and
justify my outreach on the grounds of a writer wanting to broaden his horizons
and bolster his portfolio. For the most covert infiltrations, I pose as a
journalist looking for an actual job as a remote freelancer. Though I'm
approaching these websites for a link to my company website, it's not always at
the forefront of my agenda. I want to diversify my writing portfolio and elevate
my own online presence to establish regular writing gigs in the future.
For first time contact with an editor, I always include an article attachment.
I've enjoyed a lot more traction with this tactic. Editors receive and reject an
inordinate number of pitches, but are far more likely to respond if you've gone
to the effort of constructing an original article.
Another top tip is when I've linked to a business or website in a previous
article, I'll approach them for a guest post later down the line so they can
return the favour. This is a great way to break the ice simply by letting them
know you mentioned their insightful article.
Top takeaways
Personalise your outreach. Research the editor, the website and its target
audience, and explain why your content is suitable.
Ask yourself: Are you emailing a webmaster, or an editor? The former will be
familiar with SEO, and will scrutinise your outreach more heavily. An editor
with a journalistic background should be more receptive to content proposals.
Be yourselfâan ambitious, talented freelance writer. By mentioning your
company, you run the risk of being ignored on the basis of seeking commercial
gain.
Where possible, include an original article for the target website as part of
your email outreach.
4: Build your website's linkable assets
Successful link building means working with the internal content team to
develop linkable assets. This can be a mix of ephemeral news content,
infotainment articles and more academic, educational resources. Across our
websites, we've covered the whole spectrumâfrom a Vegas-themed HTML5
puzzle game that amassed 1,000 shares, to a serious investigation into casino
design.
One of my company's more ambitious projects was the creation of an infographic
documenting the probability of stumbling upon any given piece of image-based web
content. The luck factor prevalent in gambling was a springboard for our
tagline, "How Lucky Are You To be Reading This Infographic?" The outreach
campaign went far beyond standard infographic "directories," earning us links
from the likes of Cheezburger.com (the heart of many viral pieces),
Shortlist.com (known for their magazines in the UK), and even a Mashable.com
editor's personal blog.
Top takeaways
Focus on all media types. If you're conducting a video interview with a key
industry figure, get it transcribed and make it into a podcast to maximise your
outreach.
Formalise a comprehensive outreach plan: Find relevant twitter influencers
through Followerwonk, track down key bloggers through Google blog search and
contact industry journalists through Journalisted to cover your story.
Three "guest post" examples
Here are three examples of the aforementioned tactics being put into practice.
Naturally, I can't divulge too many leads!
1: The Bleacher Report: "Should Gambling Be Given The Boot From English
Football?"
The Bleacher Report is the world's fourth largest sports website. It thrives
on user engagement, and its article base is growing rapidly courtesy of an
advanced contributor program. Anyone can apply to write for Bleacher Report, and
after a two stage screening process, you're awarded admin rights to publish an
internal article. I was accepted into contributor program after providing
examples of my sports writing. The Bleacher Report prides itself on attributing
relevant resources, so I decided to produce an op-ed piece about gambling in
football with a link to Roulette.co.uk's internal blog posts; "Footballers in
Vegas."
2: Growth Business: "Five Reasons To Start An Affiliate Business"
Growth Business is a highly respectable business news and advice website. It
doesn't advertise guest posting opportunities, but I noticed that a range of
entrepreneurs supplied content in the comments and analysis section. On the back
of my experience in affiliate marketing, I pitched an original article "Five
Reasons To Start An Affiliate Business." Lists are an integral part of content
marketing: they're tangible, digestible and make for convenient reference
points. Since I was referencing my own websites as case studies, I was able to
embed organic links, and my contribution was duly accepted. I linked to other
affiliate marketing resources within the article body to aid reader
understanding and avoid any suspicions of commercial gain.
3: Grads Blog: "Gibraltar: An Opportunity For Graduates?"
The Grads.co.uk blog welcomes student and career-related content. It's a
growing, multipurpose website offering career advice, job listings and
interactive student engagement, so I expect the metrics to increase
significantly over time. Having graduated a little over two years ago and moved
to gambling operator hub Gibraltar, I offered a featured article on the merits
of relocating and finding employment abroad. I embedded a link to my company's
Gibraltar infographic, which included a vexel replica of the peninsula and
important stats about its economy and lifestyle. I want to cement a long-term
relationship with the editor and avoid the 'one-off' guest posting tactic so I
offer monthly contributions.
Conclusion
It's worth noting that the aforementioned tips shouldn't necessarily be
followed in order. Topic generation might be the last thing I do if I've forged
an editorial contact and secured a regular writing gig. I might publish an
internal article on a whim to establish a relevant backlink, or build a whole
guest posting campaign around a static, linkable asset.
I've written this post with reference to the gambling industry. However, it
can be applied to any difficult niche. Left-field topic generation, skilled
feature writing and tailored outreach can generate sterling results.
Finally, I want to stress that these guest posting tactics are more than a
link building exercise. They're something we tie into an overall, content
marketing strategy to drive referral traffic and social shares. After a
three-month implementation period, we recorded an overall referral traffic
increase of 45.54% on the previous three months. The majority of this came from
social websites, with overall social referral traffic increasing 247.98% in the
same period.
Do you agree with these tactics? Have you devised your own, unique outreach
plan?
I'd love to hear the Moz community's thoughts on link building for difficult
niches!
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/ZrjC7qtwjrQ/case-study-whitehat-link-building-in-the-gambling-industry
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Building in the Gambling Industry'
Posted by sammirandaThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the
main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The
author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz,
Inc.
During 2012, Google clamped down on poor link building tactics, eliminating
directories, article submission sites and adjusting the criteria for natural
links. Consequently, the gambling industry has been facing the daunting task of
restructuring its content marketing and SEO initiatives. Abusing article
directories and paying for guest posts with keyword rich anchor text no longer
cut the mustard.
Alongside brand building through social media and delivering value-added
content, white-hat link building is high on the agenda to restore rankings. But
it's often dubbed mission impossible by gambling marketers.
Traditionally, gambling websites are short of linkable assets. First-party
games often constitute a casino's most valuable content, but they're developed
infrequently and reputable websites are hesitant to link to gambling-related
content because of the social stigma attached to the industry.
White-hat link building (an admittedly contentious term) is possible. In this
post I'm going to outline four strategies that I have obtained from my
experiences of content marketingâspecifically 'guest posting' for want of
a better termâfor a gambling affiliate website.
To conclude, I'll also provide three examples of the valuable backlinks I've
managed to obtain through using these tactics.
1. Lead generation
Gambling is a multi-faceted entity, incorporating psychology, legislation and
social issues. It features heavily in sports, discourse surrounding marketing
and advertising techniques, and even celebrity culture. Contrary to popular
belief, the scope for gambling related content is massiveâit stretches far
beyond the roulette guides and blackjack strategies found on poorly constructed,
niche gambling websites.
Content marketers let the stigma attached to gambling dictate their
initiatives, saying "There's no way awesomedomain.com will link to a gambling
website." But this blinkered outlook represents a wasted opportunity. Providing
there's no explicit material, a website should link to any credible source that
enhances reader understanding.
The kind of headline that demoralises gambling industry marketersStart to
build a diverse list of online publications that can be approached for guest
posting. Ask yourself the following questions:
Do they accept freelancer contributions or guest posts?
Do they accept organic links in the article body?
If not, do they at least offer a promotional link in the author byline?
Are outbound links restricted to trusted contributors? In this case, you'll
need to build up your credibility before benefiting from links.
Note: I dislike the term guest posting as it's often (now) associated with
systematic efforts to produce mediocre articles and place them on any website in
a similar niche. I do not endorse, nor follow this churned approach to content
production. However, we'll use the term to keep it simple!
Finish by categorising your leads based on the subject (i.e. business,
education, entertainment etc) and the website's SEO metrics (page rank, citation
flow, trust flow, PA etc).
Top takeaways
Don't let the stigma attached to your niche cloud your thought process.
Think of guest posting as feature writing, not copywriting. Avoid the churn!
It is not always about getting a link straight away. Sometimes you'll need to
prove your worth with valuable posts to build up trust and credibility.
2: Topic generation
My topic generation tends to fit into three subject categories.
Gambling
The first is gambling itself. You should aim to cover the full emotional
spectrum, from negative articles surrounding consumer gambling addiction to more
imaginative, uplifting pieces covering novelty bets and celebrity gamblers. You
don't have to glorify gambling. For instance, you might want to take a critical
standpoint towards PaddyPower's agreement with Facebook to launch a
sports-betting app, highlighting the perils of social gambling. This would
interest any gambling B2B website.
Marketing and business
Ironically, the second subject area is exactly what I'm doing now. When you're
discussing anything business or marketing related, you can write objectively
about the gambling sector. Gambling websites are known for audacious
advertising, flashy design and clever conversion optimisation, making them
perfect case studies for marketing and UX-related articles.
Though valuable, deep-links to your gambling website's core landing pages are
hard to embed as organic links within an article body. Rarely is it ever organic
to link to a page full of gambling bonuses, but it is possible. If you're
discussing website design and innovation, you can specify an excellent landing
page, which gives you ammunition for an organic link in a user experience post.
You can also look within for an engaging business story. Does your company
have a colourful history? Is your CEO a budding Richard Branson? Entrepreneur
websites love to feature original case studies, and should be happy linking to
your website if it underlines an intriguing corporate venture.
Shareable content
The third area is shareable, viral content. The internet is awash with trend
websites that disseminate funny and digestible content. You should be looking to
jump in with a snappy, "Top 10 Amazing Bets" kind of list that incorporates a
mix of images, videos and memes.
I've hijacked a quirky "question asking" formula from viral scientist Jonah
Berger to drill out facts and generate interesting ideas. Using 'roulette' for
exampleâ
Who chooses to play roulette?
What types of roulette are there?
What can we learn about the type of person who plays X version of roulette?
Now to mix it up a bitâ
Where do those people come from?
What is the majority gender?
Now make it controversialâ
Are people from region X more prone to gambling? Are men playing the "live"
version more? Is this because they are physically attracted to the croupier?
As you can see, questioning your own topic triggers a web of interesting and
contentious content - the kind of material which a much wider audience can
relate to, enjoy and share. Another creative formula I use for topic generation
is 'subject + random category or buzzword '. For instance:
Roulette + films (which brings me to the iconic Russian roulette scene from
The Deer Hunter).
Roulette + social (which brings me to the webcam-based phenomenon Chat
Roulette).
Roulette + travel (which in the case of Heineken, brought them to a video
whereby holiday makers were offered to play 'Departure Roulette' and board a
flight to a random destination).
Roulette + magic (which brings me to popular British mentalist Derren Brown's
'Russian Roulette' trick).
Writing
Once you've seeded a topic and an angle, you should be looking to delegate the
writing of an article to a crack in-house writerâsomeone with a passion
for journalism and developing their online presence. In my experience,
outsourcing to freelancers or an agency comprises quality and article
authenticity. The work is thin on research, low on personality and possesses a
'churned' feel to it, which brings me back to my stereotypical guest post gripe.
Make sure you leverage the knowledge of your internal teamâi.e. your
designer for design-related materialâto cover all potential article bases.
Top takeaways
Explore your niche. It is sure to bring up topics that bear wider social
significance.
Have you successfully implemented a marketing campaign? Is your business doing
great? Tell your own company story.
Brainstorm and generate shareable content. Use the "question asking" formula
above to come up with interesting topics.
3: Original and convincing outreach
Here's a fantastic post entitled "Revealed: Outreach Campaigns from some of
the Biggest SEO firms." It underlines just how useless some SEO agencies are at
establishing credibility and building rapport with editors and webmasters. They
have to resort to manufactured guest-post outreach.
My outreach is far more tailored and elaborate. I throw in a bio, examples of
my published work and a brief employment history. There really is no substitute
for published work, and I'm fortunate enough to have articles on websites like
Buzzfeed and The Bleacher Report. My emails will be personalised, complimentary
and explain why my content is suitable for the website's target demographic.
Email outreachâsummarised perfectly by this infographicâis a science
in its own right.
I sugar-coat my job role (senior editor at a gaming information portal) and
justify my outreach on the grounds of a writer wanting to broaden his horizons
and bolster his portfolio. For the most covert infiltrations, I pose as a
journalist looking for an actual job as a remote freelancer. Though I'm
approaching these websites for a link to my company website, it's not always at
the forefront of my agenda. I want to diversify my writing portfolio and elevate
my own online presence to establish regular writing gigs in the future.
For first time contact with an editor, I always include an article attachment.
I've enjoyed a lot more traction with this tactic. Editors receive and reject an
inordinate number of pitches, but are far more likely to respond if you've gone
to the effort of constructing an original article.
Another top tip is when I've linked to a business or website in a previous
article, I'll approach them for a guest post later down the line so they can
return the favour. This is a great way to break the ice simply by letting them
know you mentioned their insightful article.
Top takeaways
Personalise your outreach. Research the editor, the website and its target
audience, and explain why your content is suitable.
Ask yourself: Are you emailing a webmaster, or an editor? The former will be
familiar with SEO, and will scrutinise your outreach more heavily. An editor
with a journalistic background should be more receptive to content proposals.
Be yourselfâan ambitious, talented freelance writer. By mentioning your
company, you run the risk of being ignored on the basis of seeking commercial
gain.
Where possible, include an original article for the target website as part of
your email outreach.
4: Build your website's linkable assets
Successful link building means working with the internal content team to
develop linkable assets. This can be a mix of ephemeral news content,
infotainment articles and more academic, educational resources. Across our
websites, we've covered the whole spectrumâfrom a Vegas-themed HTML5
puzzle game that amassed 1,000 shares, to a serious investigation into casino
design.
One of my company's more ambitious projects was the creation of an infographic
documenting the probability of stumbling upon any given piece of image-based web
content. The luck factor prevalent in gambling was a springboard for our
tagline, "How Lucky Are You To be Reading This Infographic?" The outreach
campaign went far beyond standard infographic "directories," earning us links
from the likes of Cheezburger.com (the heart of many viral pieces),
Shortlist.com (known for their magazines in the UK), and even a Mashable.com
editor's personal blog.
Top takeaways
Focus on all media types. If you're conducting a video interview with a key
industry figure, get it transcribed and make it into a podcast to maximise your
outreach.
Formalise a comprehensive outreach plan: Find relevant twitter influencers
through Followerwonk, track down key bloggers through Google blog search and
contact industry journalists through Journalisted to cover your story.
Three "guest post" examples
Here are three examples of the aforementioned tactics being put into practice.
Naturally, I can't divulge too many leads!
1: The Bleacher Report: "Should Gambling Be Given The Boot From English
Football?"
The Bleacher Report is the world's fourth largest sports website. It thrives
on user engagement, and its article base is growing rapidly courtesy of an
advanced contributor program. Anyone can apply to write for Bleacher Report, and
after a two stage screening process, you're awarded admin rights to publish an
internal article. I was accepted into contributor program after providing
examples of my sports writing. The Bleacher Report prides itself on attributing
relevant resources, so I decided to produce an op-ed piece about gambling in
football with a link to Roulette.co.uk's internal blog posts; "Footballers in
Vegas."
2: Growth Business: "Five Reasons To Start An Affiliate Business"
Growth Business is a highly respectable business news and advice website. It
doesn't advertise guest posting opportunities, but I noticed that a range of
entrepreneurs supplied content in the comments and analysis section. On the back
of my experience in affiliate marketing, I pitched an original article "Five
Reasons To Start An Affiliate Business." Lists are an integral part of content
marketing: they're tangible, digestible and make for convenient reference
points. Since I was referencing my own websites as case studies, I was able to
embed organic links, and my contribution was duly accepted. I linked to other
affiliate marketing resources within the article body to aid reader
understanding and avoid any suspicions of commercial gain.
3: Grads Blog: "Gibraltar: An Opportunity For Graduates?"
The Grads.co.uk blog welcomes student and career-related content. It's a
growing, multipurpose website offering career advice, job listings and
interactive student engagement, so I expect the metrics to increase
significantly over time. Having graduated a little over two years ago and moved
to gambling operator hub Gibraltar, I offered a featured article on the merits
of relocating and finding employment abroad. I embedded a link to my company's
Gibraltar infographic, which included a vexel replica of the peninsula and
important stats about its economy and lifestyle. I want to cement a long-term
relationship with the editor and avoid the 'one-off' guest posting tactic so I
offer monthly contributions.
Conclusion
It's worth noting that the aforementioned tips shouldn't necessarily be
followed in order. Topic generation might be the last thing I do if I've forged
an editorial contact and secured a regular writing gig. I might publish an
internal article on a whim to establish a relevant backlink, or build a whole
guest posting campaign around a static, linkable asset.
I've written this post with reference to the gambling industry. However, it
can be applied to any difficult niche. Left-field topic generation, skilled
feature writing and tailored outreach can generate sterling results.
Finally, I want to stress that these guest posting tactics are more than a
link building exercise. They're something we tie into an overall, content
marketing strategy to drive referral traffic and social shares. After a
three-month implementation period, we recorded an overall referral traffic
increase of 45.54% on the previous three months. The majority of this came from
social websites, with overall social referral traffic increasing 247.98% in the
same period.
Do you agree with these tactics? Have you devised your own, unique outreach
plan?
I'd love to hear the Moz community's thoughts on link building for difficult
niches!
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/ZrjC7qtwjrQ/case-study-whitehat-link-building-in-the-gambling-industry
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] Quick Guide to Scaling Your Authorship Testing with Screaming Frog
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Quick Guide to Scaling Your
Authorship Testing with Screaming Frog'
Posted by kanejamison
Nearly all of us have used Screaming Frog to crawl websites. Many of you have
probably also used Google's Structured Data Testing Tool (formerly known as the
Rich Snippet Testing Tool) to test your authorship setup and other structured
data.
This is a quick tutorial on how to combine these two tools to check your
entire website for structured data such as Google Authorship and
Rel="Publisher", along with various types of Schema.org markup.
The concept:
Google's structured data tester uses the URL you're testing right in their own
URL. Here's an example:
When I enter this URL into the testing tool...
http://www.contentharmony.com/tools/
...the testing tool spits out this URL:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.contentharmony.com%2Ftools%2F&html=
We can take advantage of that URL structure to create a list of URLs we want
to test for structured data markup, and process that list through Screaming
Frog.
Why this is better than simply crawling your site to detect markup:
You could certainly crawl your site and use Screaming Frog's custom filters to
detect things like rel="author" and ?rel=author within your own code. And you
should.
This approach will tell you what Google is actually recognizing, which can
help you detect errors in implementation of authorship and other markup.
Disclaimer: I've encountered a number of times when the Structured Data
Testing Tool reported a positive result for authorship implementation, but
authorship snippets in search results were not functioning. Upon further review,
changing the implementation method resolved the issue. Also, authorship may not
be granted or present for a particular Google+ user. As a result, it's important
to note that the Structured Data Tester isn't perfect and will produce false
positives, but it will suit our need in this case, quickly testing a large
number of URLs all at once.
Getting started
You're going to need a couple things to get started:
Screaming Frog with a paid license (we'll be using custom filters which are only
available in the paid version)
One of the following: Excel 2013, URL Tools for Excel, or SEO Tools for Excel
(any of these three will allow us to encode URLs inside of Excel with a formula)
Download this quick XLSX template: Excel Template for Screaming Frog and
Snippet Tester.xlsx
The video option
This short video tutorial walks through all eight steps outlined below. If you
choose to watch the video, you can skip straight to the section titled "Four
ways to expand this concept."
Steps 1, 2, and 3: Gather your list of URLs into the Excel template
You can find the full instructions inside the Excel template, but here's the
simple 1-2-3 version of how to use the Excel template (make sure URL Tools or
SEO Tools is installed before you open this file or you'll have to fix the
formula):
Step 4: Copy all of the URLs in Column B into a .txt file
Now that Column B of your spreadsheet is filled with URLs that we'll be
crawling, copy and paste that column into a text file so that there is one URL
per line. This is the .txt file that we'll use in Screaming Frog's list mode.
Step 5: Open up Screaming Frog, switch it to list mode, and upload your file
Step 6: Set up Screaming Frog custom filters
Before we go crawling all of these URLs, it's important that we set up custom
filters to detect specific responses from the Structured Data Testing Tool.
Since we're testing authorship for this example, here are the exact pieces of
text that I'm going to tell Screaming Frog to track:
Authorship is working for this webpage.
rel=author markup has successfully established authorship for this webpage.
Page does not contain authorship markup.
Authorship is not working for this webpage.
The service you requested is currently unavailable.
Here's what the filters look like when entered into Screaming Frog:
Just to be clear, here's the explanation for each piece of text we're
tracking:
The first filter checks for text on the page confirming that authorship is set
up correctly.
The second filter reports the same information as filter 1. I'm adding both of
them for redundancy; we should see the exact same list of pages for custom
filters 1 and 2.
The third filter is to detect when the Structured Data Testing Tool reports no
authorship found on the page.
The fourth filter is to detect when broken authorship is detected. (Typically
because either the link is faulty or the Google+ user has not acknowledged the
domain in the "Contributor To" section of their profile).
The fifth filter contains the standard error text for the structured data
tester. If we see this, we'll know we should re-spider those URLs.
Here's the type of text we're detecting on the Structured Data Tester. The two
arrows point to filters 3 and 4:
Step 7: Let 'er rip
At this point we're ready to start crawling the URLs. Out of respect for
Google's servers and to avoid them disabling our ability to crawl URLs in this
manner, you might consider adjusting your crawl rate to a slower pace,
especially on large sites. You can adjust this setting in Screaming Frog by
going to Configuration > Speed, and decreasing your current settings.
Step 8: Export your results in the Custom tab
Once the crawl is finished, go to the Custom tab, select each filter that you
tested, and export the results.
Wrapping it up
That's the quick and dirty guide. Once you export each CSV, you'll want to
save them according to the filters you put in place. For example, my filter 3
was testing for pages that contained the phrase "Page does not contain
authorship markup." So, I know that anything that is exported under Filter 3 did
not return an authorship result in the Structured Data Testing Tool.
Four ways to expand this concept:
1: Use a proper scraper to pull data on multiple authors
Screaming Frog is an easy tool to do quick checks like the one described in
this tutorial, but unfortunately it can't handle true scraping tasks for us.
If you want to use this method to also pull data such as which author is being
verified for a given page, I'd recommend redesigning this concept to work in
Outwit Hub. John-Henry Scherck from SEOGadget has a great tutorial on how to use
Outwit for basic scraping tasks that you should read if you haven't used the
software before.
For the more technical among us, there are plenty of other scrapers that can
handle a task like this - the important part is understanding the process so you
can use it in your tool of choice.
2: Compare authorship tests against ranking results and estimated search volume
to find opportunities
Imagine you're ranking 3rd for a high-volume search term, and you don't have
authorship on the page. I'm willing to bet it would be worth your time to add
authorship to that page.
Use hlookups or vlookups in Excel to compare data from three tabs: rankings,
estimated search volume, and whether or not authorship is present on the page.
It will take some data manipulation, but in the end you should be able to create
a Pivot Table that filters out pages with authorship already, and sorts the
pages by estimated search volume and current ranking.
Note: I'm not suggesting you add Authorship to everythingânot every page
should be attributed to an authorâe-commerce product pages, for example.
3: Use this method to test for other structured markup besides authorship
The Structured Data Testing Tool goes far beyond just authorship. Here's a
short list of other structured markup you can test:
E-commerce product reviews and pricing
Rel Publisher
Event Listings
Review and price markup on App Listings
Music Snippets
Recipes
Business Reviews
Just about anything referencing schema.org, data-vocabulary.org, and similar
markup.
4: Blend this idea with Screaming Frog's other capabilities
There's a ton of ways to use Screaming Frog. Aichlee Bushnell at SEER did a
great job of cataloging 55+ Ways To Use Screaming Frog. Go check out that post
and I'm sure you can come up with additional ways to spin this concept into
something useful.
Not to end on a dull note, but a couple comments on troubleshooting:
If you're having issues, the first thing to do is manually test the URLs you're
submitting and make sure there weren't any issues caused during the Excel steps.
You can also add "Invalid URL or page not found." as one of your custom filters
to make sure that the page is loading correctly.
If you're working with a large number of URLs, try turning down Screaming
Frog's crawl rate to something more polite, just in case you're querying Google
too much in too short a period of time.
When you first open the Excel template, the formula may accidentally change
depending on whether or not you have URL Tools or SEO Tools installed already.
Read the instructions on the first page to find the correct formula to replace
it with.
Let me know any other issues in the comments and I'll do my best to help!Sign
up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest
pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it
as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to
read!
You may view the latest post at
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Authorship Testing with Screaming Frog'
Posted by kanejamison
Nearly all of us have used Screaming Frog to crawl websites. Many of you have
probably also used Google's Structured Data Testing Tool (formerly known as the
Rich Snippet Testing Tool) to test your authorship setup and other structured
data.
This is a quick tutorial on how to combine these two tools to check your
entire website for structured data such as Google Authorship and
Rel="Publisher", along with various types of Schema.org markup.
The concept:
Google's structured data tester uses the URL you're testing right in their own
URL. Here's an example:
When I enter this URL into the testing tool...
http://www.contentharmony.com/tools/
...the testing tool spits out this URL:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.contentharmony.com%2Ftools%2F&html=
We can take advantage of that URL structure to create a list of URLs we want
to test for structured data markup, and process that list through Screaming
Frog.
Why this is better than simply crawling your site to detect markup:
You could certainly crawl your site and use Screaming Frog's custom filters to
detect things like rel="author" and ?rel=author within your own code. And you
should.
This approach will tell you what Google is actually recognizing, which can
help you detect errors in implementation of authorship and other markup.
Disclaimer: I've encountered a number of times when the Structured Data
Testing Tool reported a positive result for authorship implementation, but
authorship snippets in search results were not functioning. Upon further review,
changing the implementation method resolved the issue. Also, authorship may not
be granted or present for a particular Google+ user. As a result, it's important
to note that the Structured Data Tester isn't perfect and will produce false
positives, but it will suit our need in this case, quickly testing a large
number of URLs all at once.
Getting started
You're going to need a couple things to get started:
Screaming Frog with a paid license (we'll be using custom filters which are only
available in the paid version)
One of the following: Excel 2013, URL Tools for Excel, or SEO Tools for Excel
(any of these three will allow us to encode URLs inside of Excel with a formula)
Download this quick XLSX template: Excel Template for Screaming Frog and
Snippet Tester.xlsx
The video option
This short video tutorial walks through all eight steps outlined below. If you
choose to watch the video, you can skip straight to the section titled "Four
ways to expand this concept."
Steps 1, 2, and 3: Gather your list of URLs into the Excel template
You can find the full instructions inside the Excel template, but here's the
simple 1-2-3 version of how to use the Excel template (make sure URL Tools or
SEO Tools is installed before you open this file or you'll have to fix the
formula):
Step 4: Copy all of the URLs in Column B into a .txt file
Now that Column B of your spreadsheet is filled with URLs that we'll be
crawling, copy and paste that column into a text file so that there is one URL
per line. This is the .txt file that we'll use in Screaming Frog's list mode.
Step 5: Open up Screaming Frog, switch it to list mode, and upload your file
Step 6: Set up Screaming Frog custom filters
Before we go crawling all of these URLs, it's important that we set up custom
filters to detect specific responses from the Structured Data Testing Tool.
Since we're testing authorship for this example, here are the exact pieces of
text that I'm going to tell Screaming Frog to track:
Authorship is working for this webpage.
rel=author markup has successfully established authorship for this webpage.
Page does not contain authorship markup.
Authorship is not working for this webpage.
The service you requested is currently unavailable.
Here's what the filters look like when entered into Screaming Frog:
Just to be clear, here's the explanation for each piece of text we're
tracking:
The first filter checks for text on the page confirming that authorship is set
up correctly.
The second filter reports the same information as filter 1. I'm adding both of
them for redundancy; we should see the exact same list of pages for custom
filters 1 and 2.
The third filter is to detect when the Structured Data Testing Tool reports no
authorship found on the page.
The fourth filter is to detect when broken authorship is detected. (Typically
because either the link is faulty or the Google+ user has not acknowledged the
domain in the "Contributor To" section of their profile).
The fifth filter contains the standard error text for the structured data
tester. If we see this, we'll know we should re-spider those URLs.
Here's the type of text we're detecting on the Structured Data Tester. The two
arrows point to filters 3 and 4:
Step 7: Let 'er rip
At this point we're ready to start crawling the URLs. Out of respect for
Google's servers and to avoid them disabling our ability to crawl URLs in this
manner, you might consider adjusting your crawl rate to a slower pace,
especially on large sites. You can adjust this setting in Screaming Frog by
going to Configuration > Speed, and decreasing your current settings.
Step 8: Export your results in the Custom tab
Once the crawl is finished, go to the Custom tab, select each filter that you
tested, and export the results.
Wrapping it up
That's the quick and dirty guide. Once you export each CSV, you'll want to
save them according to the filters you put in place. For example, my filter 3
was testing for pages that contained the phrase "Page does not contain
authorship markup." So, I know that anything that is exported under Filter 3 did
not return an authorship result in the Structured Data Testing Tool.
Four ways to expand this concept:
1: Use a proper scraper to pull data on multiple authors
Screaming Frog is an easy tool to do quick checks like the one described in
this tutorial, but unfortunately it can't handle true scraping tasks for us.
If you want to use this method to also pull data such as which author is being
verified for a given page, I'd recommend redesigning this concept to work in
Outwit Hub. John-Henry Scherck from SEOGadget has a great tutorial on how to use
Outwit for basic scraping tasks that you should read if you haven't used the
software before.
For the more technical among us, there are plenty of other scrapers that can
handle a task like this - the important part is understanding the process so you
can use it in your tool of choice.
2: Compare authorship tests against ranking results and estimated search volume
to find opportunities
Imagine you're ranking 3rd for a high-volume search term, and you don't have
authorship on the page. I'm willing to bet it would be worth your time to add
authorship to that page.
Use hlookups or vlookups in Excel to compare data from three tabs: rankings,
estimated search volume, and whether or not authorship is present on the page.
It will take some data manipulation, but in the end you should be able to create
a Pivot Table that filters out pages with authorship already, and sorts the
pages by estimated search volume and current ranking.
Note: I'm not suggesting you add Authorship to everythingânot every page
should be attributed to an authorâe-commerce product pages, for example.
3: Use this method to test for other structured markup besides authorship
The Structured Data Testing Tool goes far beyond just authorship. Here's a
short list of other structured markup you can test:
E-commerce product reviews and pricing
Rel Publisher
Event Listings
Review and price markup on App Listings
Music Snippets
Recipes
Business Reviews
Just about anything referencing schema.org, data-vocabulary.org, and similar
markup.
4: Blend this idea with Screaming Frog's other capabilities
There's a ton of ways to use Screaming Frog. Aichlee Bushnell at SEER did a
great job of cataloging 55+ Ways To Use Screaming Frog. Go check out that post
and I'm sure you can come up with additional ways to spin this concept into
something useful.
Not to end on a dull note, but a couple comments on troubleshooting:
If you're having issues, the first thing to do is manually test the URLs you're
submitting and make sure there weren't any issues caused during the Excel steps.
You can also add "Invalid URL or page not found." as one of your custom filters
to make sure that the page is loading correctly.
If you're working with a large number of URLs, try turning down Screaming
Frog's crawl rate to something more polite, just in case you're querying Google
too much in too short a period of time.
When you first open the Excel template, the formula may accidentally change
depending on whether or not you have URL Tools or SEO Tools installed already.
Read the instructions on the first page to find the correct formula to replace
it with.
Let me know any other issues in the comments and I'll do my best to help!Sign
up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest
pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it
as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to
read!
You may view the latest post at
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[Build Backlinks Online] Use Humor and Ridiculousness to Reach Your Audience
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Use Humor and Ridiculousness to
Reach Your Audience'
Tim Washer, Senior Marketing Manager in Social Media at Cisco, joins the Social
Pros Podcast this week to discuss the value in making your customers laugh, how
to spend less and storytell more, and bringing ridiculousness to big
corporations. Read on for some of the highlights and tweetable moments, or
listen to the full podcast. []Use Humor and Ridiculousness to Reach Your
Audience is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content
Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-pros-podcast/use-humor-and-ridiculousness-to-reach-your-audience/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=use-humor-and-ridiculousness-to-reach-your-audience
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Reach Your Audience'
Tim Washer, Senior Marketing Manager in Social Media at Cisco, joins the Social
Pros Podcast this week to discuss the value in making your customers laugh, how
to spend less and storytell more, and bringing ridiculousness to big
corporations. Read on for some of the highlights and tweetable moments, or
listen to the full podcast. []Use Humor and Ridiculousness to Reach Your
Audience is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content
Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-pros-podcast/use-humor-and-ridiculousness-to-reach-your-audience/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=use-humor-and-ridiculousness-to-reach-your-audience
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Buy Facebook Fans! They're Worth $174 More than Non-Fans On Average!'
According to the internet, a Facebook fan is worth $174.
I imagine this was Zuck-dawg's first response to the news.
Every month, 12,100 people search on the keyword [buy Facebook fans], and there are two types of people who search for this query that worry me. The first type is someone who believes that the number of Facebook fans they have is a measure of Facebook marketing success. Then there are those who make a living off of people who hold those beliefs. These people are necessary in any marketing function, but it becomes a problem when they lose track of the true value behind what a Facebook "like" is supposed to stand for.
In today's post, I'll be breaking down the misconceptions we hold about the value of a Facebook fan on your brand page, including three questions to ask about these kinds of studies, and then explain why buying Facebook fans is a bad idea.
What Is a Facebook Fan Worth?
Back in April, Mashable reporter Todd Wasserman covered a report from Syncapse, a social media services company, on the value of a Facebook fan. And everyone started quoting the absurd $174 price tag. It didn't go viral because it was great reporting (no offense Todd). It went viral because people only remembered the headline. Much of the actual reporting was skipped, causing misconceptions to be widespread. I'd like to caution readers of the WordStream blog to the dangers of summary statistics of any sort of data-driven report.
What the flying duck tours is going on with this data? Let's dig in and find out
Question the Source: Does This Facebook Fan Value Research Apply to Your Brand?
The answer is probably no. The research disclosed that 2,000 panelists were selected for this research data – and from the look of these multi-million-dollar brands, your little brand was not even considered. These are giant corporations, not SMBs. Surely, you wouldn't expect 50 Facebook Fans that "like" a local pizza store to generate $8700 (50 Fans X $174 Average Facebook Fan Value = $8700) more in sales.
Based on the way the survey was conducted, the results do not apply to you. As a matter of fact, it would be ridiculous for any brand that was a panelist to compare their fan worth against $174. However, compliments are due to the Syncapse marketing team for incorporating brands to make the study more relatable. We've done the same thing in our research on Google Earnings.
Pro tip: When looking at any sort of social media research, look at the source where the data is sampled.
(More: What Industries Contributed the Most to Google's Earnings?)
Understand What Is Being Measured: How Did the Average Facebook Fan Become So Valuable?
"The study compared Facebook fans and non-fans based [on] their corresponding product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value, cost of acquisition and brand affinity to arrive at the figure."
There's more than one way you can define the value of a Facebook fan as there's more than one way you can a slice the pizza. I've highlighted the questionable factors in the Syncapse study that contribute to their average value calculation. If there are any factors in a research study that's being used which you don't agree with, then you should disregard the study. Likewise, if a research study is missing out on a big variable in reaching its conclusion, you should also take their conclusions with a grain of salt.
Pro tip: Be wary of averages used in any study. Remember, the average is derived from the source. Therefore, if the source does not include you, the averages do not apply to you.
I agree there are a few fluffy figures here. Fluffy figures are things that wouldn't pass an IRS or SEC audit.
(More: Dear eBay, Your Ads Don't Work Because They Suck)
Identify the Stakeholders: Who Benefits From This Facebook Fan Study?
Whenever you're looking at any report or study, you should ask who gains the most financial benefit from a study. For example, when Twitter collaborated with Neilsen to release a study on how Tweets can increase a TV show’s ratings, the special interest was clear. Twitter sponsored the study to gain favor from traditional TV advertisers, while Nielson also gained to profit by releasing a new ratings systems that incorporated social media signals. Bias immediately becomes a concern.
In Syncapse's study, the goal is to capture leads. It's for big brands that need to validate that they're not undervaluing the importance of Facebook with simple traditional metrics like product sales and the cost of customer acquisition.
The difference in behavior is the golden nugget in this study, not the $174 average value on the headlines. The devil is in the details.
Syncapse wants brands that are interested in fostering a more profitable community to take notice of their study. These brands don't just want any fans though. They want fans with favorable brand-promoting social media habits.
Pro tip: All research studies try to answer a question. The ones that are usually published are the ones that are favorable to the publisher. Keep this bias in mind.
So How Does This Relate to Buying Facebook Fans?
Syncapse is saying that people who clicked "Like" on your brand page act differently than those who didn't. That difference, on average, was $174 based on their value factor calculation.
What it doesn't say is that any Facebook Fan is worth $174.
However, people will mistakenly believe that the value of a Like on a brand page is, on average, worth $174. This mathemagical conclusion will fuel the "Buy Facebook Fans Cheap!" scamwagon. The same pattern happens with the search industry – conclusions are often prematurely drawn on correlation studies.
Google's distinguished engineer had to publicly dismiss the myth that Google +1's rank webpages.
At WordStream, we've seen studies with good intentions misinterpreted at a larger scale with Twitter followers, and a growing one with fake Pinterest followers. Some websites will even go as far as adding banners from news sites and quotes from journalists and appeal to visitors by authority.
How A Facebook Fans Scam Could Hurt Your Business
If you believe that the number of Facebook Fans is a measure of success, then be ready to be scammed. It only takes $5 to cheat the system. Heck this SEO shows that you could cheat search marketing success with just $1.
When you buy Facebook Fans, the Like increase will look good on paper in the short run. In the long run, the Facebook Fans you bought will come back to haunt you for three reasons:
- You are watering down the data you have on your real fans that are doing awesome stuff for you. By buying fake Facebook Fans, you decrease the value of your true Facebook Fans because there's no way to separate the two with Facebook's current built-in analytics tool.
- You will immediately lose trust from a web-savvy visitor if they use a fake fan checker tool or visit your historic Like data and notice a low brand activity vs total like ratio.
- Your Facebook Fan page could be marked as a spam and removed for violating Facebook's Terms of Service.
So please, please, please. Don't buy Facebook Fans. Facebook marketing success isn't measured in just Likes, but the increased difference in behavior exhibited by people who are naturally your brand's Facebook Fans.
Disclaimer: The author was upset when he realized just how many people had misinterpreted the news from reading the comment section. Foolish, but he couldn't help it. Please don't argue with the fool.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Monday 28 October 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Search News from the Future
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Search News from the Future'
Posted by Reinhart
Citizens of Moz, I come to you at a most desperate hour. I've just returned
from London, Distilled's international headquarters, and I've been patiently
awaiting this moment to share some potentially niche-shattering news with you
all.
I don't quite know where to begin, so I'll just say it: You see, the stories
are all true. Will Critchlow is a wizard. I know, it's common knowledge that
nearly all Englishmen are wizards, I've seen Harry Potter too. But Mr. Critchlow
is a wizard with a most peculiar and exciting gift: that of clairvoyance. He can
see the future!
And no, I don't mean in a Steve Jobs/Carl Sagan/George Orwell futurist kind of
way either. I mean he quite literally has a translucent, viridian ball of
crystal sitting on his desk that divines that which has yet to transpire! I
wouldn't have thought anything of the object upon first glance, but one night I
came back to the office to grab my misplaced jacket to low mutterings, frantic
typing, and wisps of smoke coming from the other side of the room. I dove into
the bean bag room so as not to draw his attention and waited patiently, shaking
with dread but with a fully piqued curiosity.
I couldn't make out what he was chanting and I don't think I would have been
able to translate the Latin anyway. After about 30 minutes of this I heard him
pack up his things and leave. I'm normally more of the craven type when it comes
to adventure, but something that night pressed me to snoop around my boss's desk
for the truth.
The smoke and emerald glow dissipated as I shuffled some papers around. The
smell of ozone lingered in the air. Nothing looked too out of the ordinary: the
latest issue of Inc. Magazine, a Post-it note with a hastily scrawled and
circled "Fire Phil Nottingham: Oct 31"... wait... this news clip read... 2016?
Maybe he was just tired and mistakâ 2020?! What was I looking at here?!
What I'm about to reveal may shock or even scare some readers, but I believe
it is essential that the Moz community hear it nevertheless. I may lose my
jobânay, I may be turned into a toad with a dreadful cockney
accentâbut it will have all been worth it to bring this knowledge to you
all. My interpretations may be shaky at best, but the headlines were as clear as
day: These are digital marketing news items from the future!
You may never get a better chance to peek behind the tapestries of time as you
do now. So read on, friends, and be brave.
Term "mobile" removed from Analytics, Google's vocabulary
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â April 14, 2015 â A term commonly used by
webmasters, digital marketers and industry analysts may not be so common after
today. Over the weekend, Google removed the term "mobile" from all of its web
products, including Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and the company's AdWords
tool set.
"Mobile has been a deprecated term for some time now," the search giant
explained in a corresponding blog post. "The lines between where and when we
view our various screens have been blurred beyond parsability. All web-based
content can be viewed on any device these days and thus it makes little sense to
refer to all non-traditional desktop visitors as 'mobile.' "
The web is very close to becoming truly device-neutral largely thanks to
thoughtful webmasters, CMS development teams and device manufacturers who have
all come together to deal with the issue of rendering content from multiple
angles. Data on device type, screen size, and other metrics is still readily
available throughout Google's suite of webmaster tools. [...]
Voice searches now constitute 28% of all queries
AUSTIN, TX â June 29, 2020 â Search engine corporations such as
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have traditionally held on tight to their data,
offering limited info on global search trends, but a recent study conducted by
the University of Texas has unearthed compelling evidence that shows almost a
third of all search queries are now conducted via voice search.
The nation's only "Professor of Search," Dr. Pete Meyers of the University of
Texas explains the results of his institution's study:
"They called me mad back in 2013, but voice searches now constitute a huge
chunk of the search pie. Several years ago we would have found it laughable to
be walking down the street talking to our devices, let alone talking to our
devices within our home. But with the advancement of voice recognition software
and the nearly ubiquitous nature of the hardware to back it up, today we're
estimating that voice search makes up almost a third of all search queries, and
that number seems to be on the rise."
A few of the major contributing factors to the ascendancy of voice search
include web-enabled automobiles, home appliances, [...]
Traditional television advertising revenues wane as new year begins; YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook post record annual reports
NEW YORK, NY â January 1, 2019 â Google's video platform, YouTube
(GOOG) along with social networks Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB), posted
record gains in 2018 as social and video advertising revenues shattered
forecasts and industry expectations. Analysts speculate that this was due in no
small part to the transference of advertising spends on traditional television
media. When FB and TWTR first hit the stock market, many buyers felt the social
networks needed to prove themselves in the competitive world of media
advertising, but as the multi-billion dollar industry of traditional television
advertising continues to crumble amid stiff competition from a la carte
alternatives like Netflix and Amazon, more marketing budgets are now trickling
down to companies such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google's AdWords
platform.
"Television is evolving and has been for some time," says Will Critchlow,
founder and president of the world's foremost digital marketing agency,
Distilled International. "Companies want to get their products in front of
consumers, and those consumers are now watching television online. They're doing
everything online." [...]
Netflix introduces video, text advertisements for streaming content
LOS GATOS, CA â January 16, 2019 â Earlier this month we saw
reports that television advertising revenues were waning in the new year. Today
we can report that some of those dollars will most certainly be spent on
Netflix's streaming video platform. The company issued a press release this
morning indicating that the company, for the first time in its history, will now
display advertisements before many of their most popular original programs such
as Arrested Development, Orange is the New Black, and the much-anticipated final
season of House of Cards. Advertisements will be similar to those seen on
YouTube, Hulu, and other video sites.
"With the amount of quality content and general media access we're collecting,
we have no choice but to find revenue from other sources if we want to remain at
the $9.99 price point we set in 2015," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said on an
investor conference call yesterday. [...]
Google cracks down on fake, purchased +1s
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â February 1, 2017 â For the first several years
of the social platform's life, Google Plus seemed a joke to many. Comparisons
were made to MySpace and other defunct social platforms, and G+ was often called
"a graveyard" as it faced competition from the already-established Facebook. But
since that time, the network has shown some real staying power with the full
faith and credit of Google Inc. behind it. To that end, in late 2016 we reported
on Google's announcement that plus ones, Google's own brand of "Likes," would
help determine the order in which documents appeared in its search engine
results pages. This move forced webmasters everywhere, for big and small
companies alike, to reconsider the social platform for conducting regular
business. Since then, various scams have been created to generate fake or paid
"+1s" for sites who want quick and easy exposure in Google's search engine.
While this practice has been effective for some, it is not sitting at all well
with the search giant.
Today, Google announced a crack-down on those sites which it has determined to
have been generating fake +1s. The process should be easy enough for Google as
it has access to all of its users' account data and history. One well known
Google representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, cut straight to the
point, asking "What were they thinking?" in reference to marketers who've been
attempting to game Google's algorithm. "As if we haven't been aware of fake
Google plus accounts since Plus's inception?... [...]
Panda and Penguin now refresh daily
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â July 22, 2016 â Five years ago, Google
launched a pair of systems designed to keep poor content out of its search
engine's results and combat questionable citation building tactics. The former
is known as the "Panda" update and the latter, "Penguin." Until this week, the
two algorithms have been updated on unpredictable schedules based on when the
massive amounts of data required to make proper determinations about the quality
of a website and its internet-wide citations were parsed. This would result in
periodic "refresh" days, where webmasters who engaged in deceptive marketing
practices would brace themselves for potential losses of traffic to their
webpages. These updates would traditionally occur four or five times per year.
Last Monday, Google announced that they've dedicated additional resources to
these systems and are now able to parse the same data sets many times faster
than before, meaning that these updates will now essentially occur in real time.
"Our users don't want clean and relevant answers three months from now, they
need them immediately," declared a Google representative at an industry
conference in San Diego... [...]
Google removes "organic keywords" tab from analytics
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â October 31, 2020 â [...] and for those who
don't remember, Google used to give webmasters access to what was known as
"keyword data," allowing them to make better decisions about their sites'
development and what their users' intent might be when visiting. In the fall of
2013, Google denied access to almost all of this organic data by encrypting all
searches generated through Google.com. Today, Google took it a step further and
completely removed the "Organic Keywords" tab from its popular web analytics
program.
"We've been meaning to do this for some time now," said a senior Google
representative, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We're very concerned about
our users' privacy, and that's why we started to deny access to sensitive data
such as search queries. We know our users don't want webmasters knowing what
they're searching for, and we want to respect that."
Later in the same conversation, the same Googler said with a grin and a
chortle, "There'll always be keyword data in AdWords." Adopting a sing-song
tone, one might have quoted Arrested Development's timeless one-liner, "There's
always money in the banana stand."
In other news, Google added a new tab to analytics titled "ASL," which
includes less-sensitive data about users such as age, sex, location, weight, and
sexual preference [...]
Cutts: Given today's technology, page speed a "deprecated metric" for
determining site quality
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â October 31, 2022 â For as long as there have
been websites, there have been slow websites. In past generations, particularly
in the 2000s and 2010s, internet users have been frustrated with delay times and
unresponsive pages. Because of this, Google has made several attempts to help
webmasters create more efficient sites, and has also taken measures to ensure
that particularly slow sites do not register as frequently in their search
results. But technology has come a long way since the days of 4G and 5G wireless
networks.
Matt Cutts, the long-time head of Google's anti-spam team, addressed a group
of fledgling digital marketers this weekend at SMX 2022 saying, "Given the
bandwidth speeds of today's internet service providers, we're no longer using
page speed as an indicator of 'site quality,' as this metric is now almost
completely deprecated. In the past it made sense to devalue a site that took 10
to 15 seconds to load, and thus provided a negative experience for Googlers. But
with today's 7G Quantum LTE-X technology, the difference between page load times
are negligible, almost instant and ultimately irrelevant.
"Does anyone else remember 4G LTE? How about 2G? [Expletive], I'm old."
So, there you have it. That's all I found in Will's office that fateful night.
Leave a comment and wish me good tidings if you be so bold. Though as a
soon-to-be-toad, I may have a difficult time responding to your queries.
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Posted by Reinhart
Citizens of Moz, I come to you at a most desperate hour. I've just returned
from London, Distilled's international headquarters, and I've been patiently
awaiting this moment to share some potentially niche-shattering news with you
all.
I don't quite know where to begin, so I'll just say it: You see, the stories
are all true. Will Critchlow is a wizard. I know, it's common knowledge that
nearly all Englishmen are wizards, I've seen Harry Potter too. But Mr. Critchlow
is a wizard with a most peculiar and exciting gift: that of clairvoyance. He can
see the future!
And no, I don't mean in a Steve Jobs/Carl Sagan/George Orwell futurist kind of
way either. I mean he quite literally has a translucent, viridian ball of
crystal sitting on his desk that divines that which has yet to transpire! I
wouldn't have thought anything of the object upon first glance, but one night I
came back to the office to grab my misplaced jacket to low mutterings, frantic
typing, and wisps of smoke coming from the other side of the room. I dove into
the bean bag room so as not to draw his attention and waited patiently, shaking
with dread but with a fully piqued curiosity.
I couldn't make out what he was chanting and I don't think I would have been
able to translate the Latin anyway. After about 30 minutes of this I heard him
pack up his things and leave. I'm normally more of the craven type when it comes
to adventure, but something that night pressed me to snoop around my boss's desk
for the truth.
The smoke and emerald glow dissipated as I shuffled some papers around. The
smell of ozone lingered in the air. Nothing looked too out of the ordinary: the
latest issue of Inc. Magazine, a Post-it note with a hastily scrawled and
circled "Fire Phil Nottingham: Oct 31"... wait... this news clip read... 2016?
Maybe he was just tired and mistakâ 2020?! What was I looking at here?!
What I'm about to reveal may shock or even scare some readers, but I believe
it is essential that the Moz community hear it nevertheless. I may lose my
jobânay, I may be turned into a toad with a dreadful cockney
accentâbut it will have all been worth it to bring this knowledge to you
all. My interpretations may be shaky at best, but the headlines were as clear as
day: These are digital marketing news items from the future!
You may never get a better chance to peek behind the tapestries of time as you
do now. So read on, friends, and be brave.
Term "mobile" removed from Analytics, Google's vocabulary
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â April 14, 2015 â A term commonly used by
webmasters, digital marketers and industry analysts may not be so common after
today. Over the weekend, Google removed the term "mobile" from all of its web
products, including Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and the company's AdWords
tool set.
"Mobile has been a deprecated term for some time now," the search giant
explained in a corresponding blog post. "The lines between where and when we
view our various screens have been blurred beyond parsability. All web-based
content can be viewed on any device these days and thus it makes little sense to
refer to all non-traditional desktop visitors as 'mobile.' "
The web is very close to becoming truly device-neutral largely thanks to
thoughtful webmasters, CMS development teams and device manufacturers who have
all come together to deal with the issue of rendering content from multiple
angles. Data on device type, screen size, and other metrics is still readily
available throughout Google's suite of webmaster tools. [...]
Voice searches now constitute 28% of all queries
AUSTIN, TX â June 29, 2020 â Search engine corporations such as
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have traditionally held on tight to their data,
offering limited info on global search trends, but a recent study conducted by
the University of Texas has unearthed compelling evidence that shows almost a
third of all search queries are now conducted via voice search.
The nation's only "Professor of Search," Dr. Pete Meyers of the University of
Texas explains the results of his institution's study:
"They called me mad back in 2013, but voice searches now constitute a huge
chunk of the search pie. Several years ago we would have found it laughable to
be walking down the street talking to our devices, let alone talking to our
devices within our home. But with the advancement of voice recognition software
and the nearly ubiquitous nature of the hardware to back it up, today we're
estimating that voice search makes up almost a third of all search queries, and
that number seems to be on the rise."
A few of the major contributing factors to the ascendancy of voice search
include web-enabled automobiles, home appliances, [...]
Traditional television advertising revenues wane as new year begins; YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook post record annual reports
NEW YORK, NY â January 1, 2019 â Google's video platform, YouTube
(GOOG) along with social networks Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB), posted
record gains in 2018 as social and video advertising revenues shattered
forecasts and industry expectations. Analysts speculate that this was due in no
small part to the transference of advertising spends on traditional television
media. When FB and TWTR first hit the stock market, many buyers felt the social
networks needed to prove themselves in the competitive world of media
advertising, but as the multi-billion dollar industry of traditional television
advertising continues to crumble amid stiff competition from a la carte
alternatives like Netflix and Amazon, more marketing budgets are now trickling
down to companies such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google's AdWords
platform.
"Television is evolving and has been for some time," says Will Critchlow,
founder and president of the world's foremost digital marketing agency,
Distilled International. "Companies want to get their products in front of
consumers, and those consumers are now watching television online. They're doing
everything online." [...]
Netflix introduces video, text advertisements for streaming content
LOS GATOS, CA â January 16, 2019 â Earlier this month we saw
reports that television advertising revenues were waning in the new year. Today
we can report that some of those dollars will most certainly be spent on
Netflix's streaming video platform. The company issued a press release this
morning indicating that the company, for the first time in its history, will now
display advertisements before many of their most popular original programs such
as Arrested Development, Orange is the New Black, and the much-anticipated final
season of House of Cards. Advertisements will be similar to those seen on
YouTube, Hulu, and other video sites.
"With the amount of quality content and general media access we're collecting,
we have no choice but to find revenue from other sources if we want to remain at
the $9.99 price point we set in 2015," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said on an
investor conference call yesterday. [...]
Google cracks down on fake, purchased +1s
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â February 1, 2017 â For the first several years
of the social platform's life, Google Plus seemed a joke to many. Comparisons
were made to MySpace and other defunct social platforms, and G+ was often called
"a graveyard" as it faced competition from the already-established Facebook. But
since that time, the network has shown some real staying power with the full
faith and credit of Google Inc. behind it. To that end, in late 2016 we reported
on Google's announcement that plus ones, Google's own brand of "Likes," would
help determine the order in which documents appeared in its search engine
results pages. This move forced webmasters everywhere, for big and small
companies alike, to reconsider the social platform for conducting regular
business. Since then, various scams have been created to generate fake or paid
"+1s" for sites who want quick and easy exposure in Google's search engine.
While this practice has been effective for some, it is not sitting at all well
with the search giant.
Today, Google announced a crack-down on those sites which it has determined to
have been generating fake +1s. The process should be easy enough for Google as
it has access to all of its users' account data and history. One well known
Google representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, cut straight to the
point, asking "What were they thinking?" in reference to marketers who've been
attempting to game Google's algorithm. "As if we haven't been aware of fake
Google plus accounts since Plus's inception?... [...]
Panda and Penguin now refresh daily
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â July 22, 2016 â Five years ago, Google
launched a pair of systems designed to keep poor content out of its search
engine's results and combat questionable citation building tactics. The former
is known as the "Panda" update and the latter, "Penguin." Until this week, the
two algorithms have been updated on unpredictable schedules based on when the
massive amounts of data required to make proper determinations about the quality
of a website and its internet-wide citations were parsed. This would result in
periodic "refresh" days, where webmasters who engaged in deceptive marketing
practices would brace themselves for potential losses of traffic to their
webpages. These updates would traditionally occur four or five times per year.
Last Monday, Google announced that they've dedicated additional resources to
these systems and are now able to parse the same data sets many times faster
than before, meaning that these updates will now essentially occur in real time.
"Our users don't want clean and relevant answers three months from now, they
need them immediately," declared a Google representative at an industry
conference in San Diego... [...]
Google removes "organic keywords" tab from analytics
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â October 31, 2020 â [...] and for those who
don't remember, Google used to give webmasters access to what was known as
"keyword data," allowing them to make better decisions about their sites'
development and what their users' intent might be when visiting. In the fall of
2013, Google denied access to almost all of this organic data by encrypting all
searches generated through Google.com. Today, Google took it a step further and
completely removed the "Organic Keywords" tab from its popular web analytics
program.
"We've been meaning to do this for some time now," said a senior Google
representative, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We're very concerned about
our users' privacy, and that's why we started to deny access to sensitive data
such as search queries. We know our users don't want webmasters knowing what
they're searching for, and we want to respect that."
Later in the same conversation, the same Googler said with a grin and a
chortle, "There'll always be keyword data in AdWords." Adopting a sing-song
tone, one might have quoted Arrested Development's timeless one-liner, "There's
always money in the banana stand."
In other news, Google added a new tab to analytics titled "ASL," which
includes less-sensitive data about users such as age, sex, location, weight, and
sexual preference [...]
Cutts: Given today's technology, page speed a "deprecated metric" for
determining site quality
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA â October 31, 2022 â For as long as there have
been websites, there have been slow websites. In past generations, particularly
in the 2000s and 2010s, internet users have been frustrated with delay times and
unresponsive pages. Because of this, Google has made several attempts to help
webmasters create more efficient sites, and has also taken measures to ensure
that particularly slow sites do not register as frequently in their search
results. But technology has come a long way since the days of 4G and 5G wireless
networks.
Matt Cutts, the long-time head of Google's anti-spam team, addressed a group
of fledgling digital marketers this weekend at SMX 2022 saying, "Given the
bandwidth speeds of today's internet service providers, we're no longer using
page speed as an indicator of 'site quality,' as this metric is now almost
completely deprecated. In the past it made sense to devalue a site that took 10
to 15 seconds to load, and thus provided a negative experience for Googlers. But
with today's 7G Quantum LTE-X technology, the difference between page load times
are negligible, almost instant and ultimately irrelevant.
"Does anyone else remember 4G LTE? How about 2G? [Expletive], I'm old."
So, there you have it. That's all I found in Will's office that fateful night.
Leave a comment and wish me good tidings if you be so bold. Though as a
soon-to-be-toad, I may have a difficult time responding to your queries.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/6Vi5EaivkLY/search-news-from-the-future
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Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
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[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'AdWords Impression Share: Understanding and Improving Your Impression Share'
Many times I have seen instances where clients pause keywords because they aren't generating click or impression volume. While pausing is certainly one method for acting on low-performing keywords, I typically recommend pausing only as a last resort. There is plenty to consider when it comes to diagnosing why a keyword isn't generating volume, and one often overlooked, yet informative metric is impression share.
Impression share is the number of impressions you’ve received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. Eligibility is based on your current ads’ targeting settings, approval statuses, bids, and Quality Scores. You can view impression share data at the campaign, ad group and keyword levels.
Types of Impression Share in AdWords
There is more to impression share than just a simple number; there are different facets that you can use to get an even greater depth of analysis. The different breakdowns for impression share are as follows:
- Search impression share – your impression share strictly for impressions generated through the Search Network.
- Display impression share – your impression share strictly for impressions generated through the Display Network.
- Search lost impression share (budget) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Search Network due to an insufficient budget (this is available at the campaign level only).
- Display lost impression share (budget) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Display Network due to an insufficient budget (this is available at the campaign level only).
- Search lost impression share (rank) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Search Network due to low ad rank.
- Display lost impression share (rank) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Display Network due to low ad rank.
- Search exact match impression share – your impression share from the Search Network for search queries that matched your keywords exactly.
Impression share is important because it can give you a great indication of why a keyword may not be performing. Based on the data breakdowns mentioned above, you can use it to identify if your keywords aren't performing due to bidding or budget-related issues, which are two important items to keep in mind when assessing performance.
If your keyword bids are too low, you might risk your ads not appearing on the first page, which may lead to missed opportunities for impressions, clicks, and even conversions. Ensuring that your bids are high enough that your ads are appearing in competitive positions will greatly improve your chances of capturing impressions and clicks, and generating traffic to your site. You will definitely want to use this metric in conjunction with the average position of your keywords. You may notice that the average position for your keywords is high, but that your impression share is low. This can tell you that when your ads appear, they appear in high positions, but because your impression share is low, those ads aren't getting as much exposure as they could be in those high positions.
As a general rule of thumb, Google will stop displaying your ads for the day once your daily budget is exhausted. If your campaigns have a low daily budget, and that budget limit is reached early in the day, your ads will not be shown later in the day. So again, your ads may be generating impressions for you, but they can only generate those impressions for as long as your budget can allow for. Increasing your budget can allow Google to run your ads more frequently throughout the day, and allow you to increase that impression share.
How to Improve Your AdWords Impression Share
Take a look at the impression section of the WordStream dashboard graph for a client I have been working with. When they signed onto WordStream at the beginning of September, their impression count was 12,839. The client was focused on how exactly they could improve that impression share, so we worked together to examine their metrics and construct a plan of action. As all things in the PPC world, the improvement didn't happen overnight, but within just a couple of weeks, their impression level jumped up to 38,331 – that's almost a 200% increase.
So as you can see, impression share can be improved, using the techniques we have discussed. There are also some additional strategies you can use to increase your impression share:
- Adjust geo-targeting settings – If you decrease or restrict your location settings, you may see a spike in impression share. Targeting one specific location or area only will allow you to focus all efforts on that one area, and allow you more control over a specific target. While you will be serving your ads to a smaller area in general, you can take steps to ensure your ad is shown to as much of that area as possible.
- Improve your ad quality – As mentioned earlier, ad quality can also have an impact on impression share. If you can take steps to improve your PPC ads, then Google will display those ads more frequently by virtue of quality score. Try improving your ad text by making it as specific and relevant as possible to the keywords in their respective ad groups.
You can find impression share under the Columns button in AdWords. You will want to choose "customize columns," then "competitive metrics," where you will find all of the different impression share metrics (again, don't forget that lost impression share due to budget is only available on the campaign level).
Impression share can really give you a great indication of how you can act on low-performing keywords. Whether it is increasing bids or daily budget, improving the overall quality of your ad and keywords, or using search terms to identify new keywords and negatives, you have many options for improvement before considering pausing a keyword. If you have questions about how to interpret impression share, leave a comment or reach out to your Customer Success rep.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Sunday 27 October 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Give Link Discovery a Fighting Chance with Monitor Backlinks
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Give Link Discovery a Fighting
Chance with Monitor Backlinks'
There are two things that many bloggers struggle with in the fight to grow a
successful blog. The first is developing well-written, relevant content and the
second is attracting high-quality backlinks. The latest search engine updates
and all of the ot...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/kwnf1FumBro/monitor-backlinks.html
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Chance with Monitor Backlinks'
There are two things that many bloggers struggle with in the fight to grow a
successful blog. The first is developing well-written, relevant content and the
second is attracting high-quality backlinks. The latest search engine updates
and all of the ot...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/kwnf1FumBro/monitor-backlinks.html
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Saturday 26 October 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Cooperative Content Will Eventually Dominate Your Polished Content
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Cooperative Content Will
Eventually Dominate Your Polished Content'
The legions of companies now embracing content marketing as a piece of their
communications arsenal grew by 11% as I typed this sentence. Alas many (perhaps
most?) of these new content devotees have not embraced Youtility in the least,
and are instead making content they think they need, rather than content real
people actually want. []Cooperative Content Will Eventually Dominate Your
Polished Content is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and
Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing-2/cooperative-content-will-eventually-dominate-your-polished-content/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cooperative-content-will-eventually-dominate-your-polished-content
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Eventually Dominate Your Polished Content'
The legions of companies now embracing content marketing as a piece of their
communications arsenal grew by 11% as I typed this sentence. Alas many (perhaps
most?) of these new content devotees have not embraced Youtility in the least,
and are instead making content they think they need, rather than content real
people actually want. []Cooperative Content Will Eventually Dominate Your
Polished Content is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and
Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing-2/cooperative-content-will-eventually-dominate-your-polished-content/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cooperative-content-will-eventually-dominate-your-polished-content
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] Five Reasons Why College Students Should Get Blogging!
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Five Reasons Why College Students
Should Get Blogging!'
Starting a blog is super idea for anybody but its a particularly good plan for
college students looking to further their employment prospects. A blog has a
million and one advantages-but that would make for a rather lengthy article! So
instead, I'd like to bring you five reasons why you should consider blogging as
a student.
VISIT THE BLOG TO CONTINUE READING: http://basicblogtips.com
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/MAL-TX5N8lk/college-students-get-blogging.html
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Should Get Blogging!'
Starting a blog is super idea for anybody but its a particularly good plan for
college students looking to further their employment prospects. A blog has a
million and one advantages-but that would make for a rather lengthy article! So
instead, I'd like to bring you five reasons why you should consider blogging as
a student.
VISIT THE BLOG TO CONTINUE READING: http://basicblogtips.com
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/MAL-TX5N8lk/college-students-get-blogging.html
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Friday 25 October 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Link Reclamation - Whiteboard Friday
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Link Reclamation - Whiteboard
Friday'
Posted by RossHudgens
The one thing any good marketer appreciates more than a mention of their brand
is a link back to their own domains. For a variety of reasons, some
authorsâno matter how well meaning they areâdon't include that link
with the mention. With the right tools and a little diplomacy, these are some of
the easiest opportunities to earn valuable links back to our own properties, and
in today's Whiteboard Friday, Ross Hudgens gives us several great places to
start.
Ross Hudgens - Link Reclamation - Whiteboard Friday
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard:
Video Transcription
Hey Moz fans, welcome to Whiteboard Friday. My name is Ross Hudgens, and I
work for Siege Media, a content market agency/link building and link development
agency. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about link reclamation, one of my
favorite subjects.
Link reclamation, if you're not familiar with it, is the task of finding
opportunities on the web where you've been linked to or you've been mentioned,
but haven't been properly linked to for whatever reason. Maybe the webmaster
messed something up, maybe they just didn't find the right URL, maybe they
misspelled your domain name, all kinds of reasons inform why someone might do
that incorrectly.
For the purposes of hopefully getting more traffic and also getting those
links that we like that potentially can add a lot of value to our domain and
help us rank for keywords we want to, it makes sense to do link reclamation. And
even more so, I really like it because the conversion is so high. Because
someone has already mentioned you, you get a really high conversion on your
request, because normally they already have a positive brand sentiment for you.
So one thing to think of in general for link reclamation, if you think about
it as a main concept, is it most frequently occurs when your brand has an
experience outside of the digital world or disconnected from your main domain.
So it could still be digital, but disconnected. So for example, if you're
Target, you probably have a lot of experiences in store where people refer to
that, and it doesn't necessarily make sense to refer to your domain.
Similarly, if you have a YouTube video, it might not make as much sense. But
there are still opportunities to ask for a citation back to your domain in those
instances that you might not have totally realized before that. That is possible
with these kinds of opportunities.
So there are a lot of ways to go about doing that. I'm going to dive into a
few of them in this strategy section. A big one for big brands is brand
misspellings. Frequently, people will have webmaster error. For whatever reason,
they will misspell your domain name.
For example, if you're a giant company, Pepsi or something like that, you
could look for PEPS.com, and likely you're going to find some instances where
people have linked to that thinking it's Pepsi. So you can go to them and say,
"Hey, please fix your error on your site, how you've linked to us. It will help
your users. It will help us. It will be a great thing all around." They will
generally do that.
So a good process for finding those and also seeing if there is actually
link volume around different misspellings is detailed on this link by John Henry
Scherck, who I might have mispronounced his name. But that URL, you can find
that process, which I can't really get into as much as I would like to here. But
I definitely recommend you go to that post and check it out.
The most powerful ongoing process is simple brand monitoring. So Moz's tool,
Fresh Web Explorer is especially powerful for that. You can use advanced
operators to see where your brand has been mentioned but you haven't been linked
to. I think it's negative LD, or you can see in the advanced operators dropdown.
But that's extremely powerful to just monitor and see who's mentioning you and
all those things as an ongoing thing.
Similarly, Google by date, so Google has an advanced search setting where
you can search by 24 hours, a week, a month, things like that, and it will give
you the opportunity to see recent mentions that sometimes offer a nice
supplement to the fresh web index. So it's always good to get multiple looks at
the web, Fresh Web Explorer I believe uses RSS feeds specifically. Google, by
date has, of course, their own comprehensive index. So it's nice to get a blend
of both for finding mentions where people have talked about you, but not linked
to you.
So another good one is allinURL/tag/brand. So insert brand. If you're Pepsi,
allin/tag/Pepsi. So these are instances where people think you're significant
enough to actually link to you, significant enough to actually mention you. But
sometimes they haven't linked to you. They've created a tag for you because
they've talked about you in some way in a post. So there's a lot of sometimes
opportunity to get links on those kinds of pages.
So it's kind of a cool way to easily use Google search engine to find pages
that do those kinds of things. So you can just search by that, scrape the
results, dump it into like a spreadsheet, and you can quickly find who hasn't
linked to you by doing that kind of process.
Short form text is a kind of a unique thing. It's any kind of asset that is
short, like a definition, a stat, anything like that, that might have been
mentioned or stolen without attribution. So examples of that: One stat that is
frequently referred to is every second of page load time is a seven percent dip
in conversation rate.
So if you have that stat and you actually were the source of that stat, you
could track it in Fresh Web Explorer and Google search, these same kind of
things just like you do your brand, see who's mentioned it, and say, "Please
attribute us properly with that stat."
Other examples I like pointing to frequently is Content Marketing Institute.
They have a "what is the definition of content marketing," and that has been
stolen like 125,000 times. There is this huge opportunity where people are just
taking that, not linking to it, not attributing it properly just because they
are lazy or what have you. If you go out and reach out to those webmasters, you
can easily get links back, because most of the people will panic in that moment
and be like, "Oh, it was just a honest mistake," and link to you as they should
have.
So sometimes you might have that asset, sometimes you might not, but it's
also something to think about and have in the back of your mind when you do that
kind of data analysis that might come with an interesting stat that people might
want to take.
Reverse image search, so you have a logo or a set of logos, maybe you have
interesting assets on your site. For example, if you're National Geographic, you
might have images that everyone takes. You can start monitoring those images,
see who's taken them without attribution, and get links back by doing requests
of, "Please attribute properly."
There are tools like Image Raider, which I know does that. I haven't used it
extensively, but it's pretty good. Similarly you can use tools like TinEye and
also just reverse image search on Google to find those mentions. Of course, an
explicit and powerful one is your own logos. So you can see who has mentioned
your logo, but not linked to you in the same kind of ways.
Also, just as a tangent from this, Screaming Frog is a really powerful tool.
If you haven't heard of it, it's a good way to dump a lot of links in there,
because sometimes you might see this as a negative process if you go to a lot of
these links and you've already been linked to. So you can use Screaming Frog as
a custom filter and find exactly who hasn't linked to you by setting an exclude
to your domain name. So it can make this process more efficient for you and less
frustrating depending on the domain.
YouTube videos, so a lot of people make video assets that are hosted on
YouTube or some other platforms, but they don't necessarily get linked to for
whatever reason. Again, it's something separate from your main domain. So
because of that disconnect, they don't probably link to it a lot of time. Or
they're going to link to the YouTube video, but it doesn't mean that they're not
willing to link to you as a business if you request it.
So a good way to find that is either dump the YouTube URL in Open Site
Explorer or whatever your link management tool is and see what the data is
behind that. Or just look at the dashboard. YouTube specifically has an embed
dashboard, so you can see where people have embedded that video and not linked
back to you, or hopefully they have already linked to you, of course. But you
can capture that gap where they haven't linked to you and they should have
because it has a slight disconnect from your main domain as a YouTube video.
Links and tweets and +1s. This is more of an advanced thing. If you have a
pretty powerful Twitter account or a Google+ account, you can actually take your
archive from Twitter and create a spreadsheet essentially, dump all of your
tweets in there. Use a tool like Screaming Frog or use the Moz API for example.
Look at the data and see if any of those have been linked to and then see if
there is an opportunity to actually reach out and say, "Hey, this tweet, you
looked to my Twitter account. I'd really appreciate it if you link to my domain
instead."
A similar thing can be done for Google+. You have to do a site search for
your Google+ URL, and they won't get all of your URLs. But if you scrape that
and do the same kind of process, you might find places where people have linked
to maybe an interesting tweet by you or some interesting quote you gave or
something like that, where you might have not been linked to that you might have
wanted to and do a request like that.
So finally, moving links to primary domain. So what that means is, if you're
a big brand, sometimes you have multiple owned properties across the web, but
not all of them are you primary KPI for SEO purposes. So I've worked with
companies who have two main domains, because they can't make up their mind
really, and one is very clearly their SEO domain where they want to rank for
stuff. It's not totally clear which one in the mind of consumers is the primary
one.
So something that you can do and that I did in that instance is you go to
the one that they don't really have reason to rank for anything and ask them to
link to the other one because maybe you're changing focus or that's how you
would evangelize it to them. Most of the time they'll do it because they like
you and they're already linking to you and things like that. You'll get the more
direct link power from those kinds of links.
So, when you're doing this process, it's not as simple as asking every
single person to link to you. There's risk involved if you do this incorrectly.
So it's definitely be delicate and don't step on the wrong toes, because when
you do this, there'll be sites if you're a big brand that people cover you all
the time. Occasionally people will write about you, but maybe in that single
post they don't link to you, but in the previous ten they linked to you.
So in those kinds of instances, just let it go. You don't need a link in
every single post that you get. Potentially it can be kind of put offish to that
person that covers you all the time, and you don't want to lose that good press
by burning bridges by being over aggressive as a SEO. So in those kinds of
instances, verify that you have links already, that they cover you all the time
and just let it go if that's the kind of instance where they just mistakenly
didn't link to you that one time.
Similarly, don't step on PR. It's kind of a similar idea. When you're doing
this process, reaching out to big people that are covering you, it's frequently
newspapers don't link cite properly so you have to do that kind of outreach.
This is where it's a high value kind of campaign when you hit those big
newspapers. But it's also at risk with PR if you step on them and they don't
like what you're doing. They hate that you are talking to their contacts
directly. So verify that this is an okay thing before you start doing this
outreach with your PR team
Ask for links where you should be linked. What I mean by that is sometimes
you'll get mentions in articles in jest. Maybe they'll be talking about general
soda trends, and they'll randomly jitter off five brands that are sodas, Pepsi,
Coca-Cola, Sprite, something like that, all in a sentence. So you could go and
say, "Hey link to Pepsi," but there are four other companies there that they
would also have to link to.
You're just kind of a one off thing in the article. You don't totally make
sense to be linked to in those kinds of situations. So it's an example of a
non-harmonious kind of event where you shouldn't ask for a link because it
doesn't make sense necessarily. So in those kinds of situations, skip it. You
want places where it gets a positive brand sentiment. You should have been
linked to in the article, but they didn't
So if you can really say in your mind it adds value to the article being
linked here, then that's when you should do outreach for this kind of link
reclamation. If not, you potentially could burn bridges, step on people's toes,
and put yourself at risk for future coverage that might have been more powerful
had you not actually ruined your relationship with that press person.
And finally, if you're doing this at scale and you have a lot of people
mentioning you, you're a huge brand, you want to use tools that make this more
efficient. So one of the problems is sometimes you'll have no idea if someone
has linked to you before, unless you have a process put in place.
So there are a lot of link management tools where you can dump all of your
links into it, and it will automatically have a popup in the corner saying that
you have a link from this domain. So if you have a lot of people doing outreach
and doing link reclamation, you can see, "Hey, I've already gotten a link from
this domain or multiple links from this domain. I don't need to do this outreach
again."
Otherwise it's kind of time intensive, trying to remember who's linked to
you, who hasn't link to you, whether or not you should do that outreach, and all
of those things. So doing that on top of all of these things I think is really
powerful.
That's pretty much it, but I hope you guys see this as a valuable thing that
I do. It's really powerful, especially the bigger your brand, the more powerful
it's going to be. But I think any business on the web today who's hopefully
building a brand, because that's what it takes to rank in Google and today's
search results, is going to get occasional mentions in any of these instances
that you can potentially capitalize on that were missed where people don't link
to you.
So I hope this was valuable and have a good one.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/RWkx7nirqS4/link-reclamation-whiteboard-friday
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Friday'
Posted by RossHudgens
The one thing any good marketer appreciates more than a mention of their brand
is a link back to their own domains. For a variety of reasons, some
authorsâno matter how well meaning they areâdon't include that link
with the mention. With the right tools and a little diplomacy, these are some of
the easiest opportunities to earn valuable links back to our own properties, and
in today's Whiteboard Friday, Ross Hudgens gives us several great places to
start.
Ross Hudgens - Link Reclamation - Whiteboard Friday
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard:
Video Transcription
Hey Moz fans, welcome to Whiteboard Friday. My name is Ross Hudgens, and I
work for Siege Media, a content market agency/link building and link development
agency. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about link reclamation, one of my
favorite subjects.
Link reclamation, if you're not familiar with it, is the task of finding
opportunities on the web where you've been linked to or you've been mentioned,
but haven't been properly linked to for whatever reason. Maybe the webmaster
messed something up, maybe they just didn't find the right URL, maybe they
misspelled your domain name, all kinds of reasons inform why someone might do
that incorrectly.
For the purposes of hopefully getting more traffic and also getting those
links that we like that potentially can add a lot of value to our domain and
help us rank for keywords we want to, it makes sense to do link reclamation. And
even more so, I really like it because the conversion is so high. Because
someone has already mentioned you, you get a really high conversion on your
request, because normally they already have a positive brand sentiment for you.
So one thing to think of in general for link reclamation, if you think about
it as a main concept, is it most frequently occurs when your brand has an
experience outside of the digital world or disconnected from your main domain.
So it could still be digital, but disconnected. So for example, if you're
Target, you probably have a lot of experiences in store where people refer to
that, and it doesn't necessarily make sense to refer to your domain.
Similarly, if you have a YouTube video, it might not make as much sense. But
there are still opportunities to ask for a citation back to your domain in those
instances that you might not have totally realized before that. That is possible
with these kinds of opportunities.
So there are a lot of ways to go about doing that. I'm going to dive into a
few of them in this strategy section. A big one for big brands is brand
misspellings. Frequently, people will have webmaster error. For whatever reason,
they will misspell your domain name.
For example, if you're a giant company, Pepsi or something like that, you
could look for PEPS.com, and likely you're going to find some instances where
people have linked to that thinking it's Pepsi. So you can go to them and say,
"Hey, please fix your error on your site, how you've linked to us. It will help
your users. It will help us. It will be a great thing all around." They will
generally do that.
So a good process for finding those and also seeing if there is actually
link volume around different misspellings is detailed on this link by John Henry
Scherck, who I might have mispronounced his name. But that URL, you can find
that process, which I can't really get into as much as I would like to here. But
I definitely recommend you go to that post and check it out.
The most powerful ongoing process is simple brand monitoring. So Moz's tool,
Fresh Web Explorer is especially powerful for that. You can use advanced
operators to see where your brand has been mentioned but you haven't been linked
to. I think it's negative LD, or you can see in the advanced operators dropdown.
But that's extremely powerful to just monitor and see who's mentioning you and
all those things as an ongoing thing.
Similarly, Google by date, so Google has an advanced search setting where
you can search by 24 hours, a week, a month, things like that, and it will give
you the opportunity to see recent mentions that sometimes offer a nice
supplement to the fresh web index. So it's always good to get multiple looks at
the web, Fresh Web Explorer I believe uses RSS feeds specifically. Google, by
date has, of course, their own comprehensive index. So it's nice to get a blend
of both for finding mentions where people have talked about you, but not linked
to you.
So another good one is allinURL/tag/brand. So insert brand. If you're Pepsi,
allin/tag/Pepsi. So these are instances where people think you're significant
enough to actually link to you, significant enough to actually mention you. But
sometimes they haven't linked to you. They've created a tag for you because
they've talked about you in some way in a post. So there's a lot of sometimes
opportunity to get links on those kinds of pages.
So it's kind of a cool way to easily use Google search engine to find pages
that do those kinds of things. So you can just search by that, scrape the
results, dump it into like a spreadsheet, and you can quickly find who hasn't
linked to you by doing that kind of process.
Short form text is a kind of a unique thing. It's any kind of asset that is
short, like a definition, a stat, anything like that, that might have been
mentioned or stolen without attribution. So examples of that: One stat that is
frequently referred to is every second of page load time is a seven percent dip
in conversation rate.
So if you have that stat and you actually were the source of that stat, you
could track it in Fresh Web Explorer and Google search, these same kind of
things just like you do your brand, see who's mentioned it, and say, "Please
attribute us properly with that stat."
Other examples I like pointing to frequently is Content Marketing Institute.
They have a "what is the definition of content marketing," and that has been
stolen like 125,000 times. There is this huge opportunity where people are just
taking that, not linking to it, not attributing it properly just because they
are lazy or what have you. If you go out and reach out to those webmasters, you
can easily get links back, because most of the people will panic in that moment
and be like, "Oh, it was just a honest mistake," and link to you as they should
have.
So sometimes you might have that asset, sometimes you might not, but it's
also something to think about and have in the back of your mind when you do that
kind of data analysis that might come with an interesting stat that people might
want to take.
Reverse image search, so you have a logo or a set of logos, maybe you have
interesting assets on your site. For example, if you're National Geographic, you
might have images that everyone takes. You can start monitoring those images,
see who's taken them without attribution, and get links back by doing requests
of, "Please attribute properly."
There are tools like Image Raider, which I know does that. I haven't used it
extensively, but it's pretty good. Similarly you can use tools like TinEye and
also just reverse image search on Google to find those mentions. Of course, an
explicit and powerful one is your own logos. So you can see who has mentioned
your logo, but not linked to you in the same kind of ways.
Also, just as a tangent from this, Screaming Frog is a really powerful tool.
If you haven't heard of it, it's a good way to dump a lot of links in there,
because sometimes you might see this as a negative process if you go to a lot of
these links and you've already been linked to. So you can use Screaming Frog as
a custom filter and find exactly who hasn't linked to you by setting an exclude
to your domain name. So it can make this process more efficient for you and less
frustrating depending on the domain.
YouTube videos, so a lot of people make video assets that are hosted on
YouTube or some other platforms, but they don't necessarily get linked to for
whatever reason. Again, it's something separate from your main domain. So
because of that disconnect, they don't probably link to it a lot of time. Or
they're going to link to the YouTube video, but it doesn't mean that they're not
willing to link to you as a business if you request it.
So a good way to find that is either dump the YouTube URL in Open Site
Explorer or whatever your link management tool is and see what the data is
behind that. Or just look at the dashboard. YouTube specifically has an embed
dashboard, so you can see where people have embedded that video and not linked
back to you, or hopefully they have already linked to you, of course. But you
can capture that gap where they haven't linked to you and they should have
because it has a slight disconnect from your main domain as a YouTube video.
Links and tweets and +1s. This is more of an advanced thing. If you have a
pretty powerful Twitter account or a Google+ account, you can actually take your
archive from Twitter and create a spreadsheet essentially, dump all of your
tweets in there. Use a tool like Screaming Frog or use the Moz API for example.
Look at the data and see if any of those have been linked to and then see if
there is an opportunity to actually reach out and say, "Hey, this tweet, you
looked to my Twitter account. I'd really appreciate it if you link to my domain
instead."
A similar thing can be done for Google+. You have to do a site search for
your Google+ URL, and they won't get all of your URLs. But if you scrape that
and do the same kind of process, you might find places where people have linked
to maybe an interesting tweet by you or some interesting quote you gave or
something like that, where you might have not been linked to that you might have
wanted to and do a request like that.
So finally, moving links to primary domain. So what that means is, if you're
a big brand, sometimes you have multiple owned properties across the web, but
not all of them are you primary KPI for SEO purposes. So I've worked with
companies who have two main domains, because they can't make up their mind
really, and one is very clearly their SEO domain where they want to rank for
stuff. It's not totally clear which one in the mind of consumers is the primary
one.
So something that you can do and that I did in that instance is you go to
the one that they don't really have reason to rank for anything and ask them to
link to the other one because maybe you're changing focus or that's how you
would evangelize it to them. Most of the time they'll do it because they like
you and they're already linking to you and things like that. You'll get the more
direct link power from those kinds of links.
So, when you're doing this process, it's not as simple as asking every
single person to link to you. There's risk involved if you do this incorrectly.
So it's definitely be delicate and don't step on the wrong toes, because when
you do this, there'll be sites if you're a big brand that people cover you all
the time. Occasionally people will write about you, but maybe in that single
post they don't link to you, but in the previous ten they linked to you.
So in those kinds of instances, just let it go. You don't need a link in
every single post that you get. Potentially it can be kind of put offish to that
person that covers you all the time, and you don't want to lose that good press
by burning bridges by being over aggressive as a SEO. So in those kinds of
instances, verify that you have links already, that they cover you all the time
and just let it go if that's the kind of instance where they just mistakenly
didn't link to you that one time.
Similarly, don't step on PR. It's kind of a similar idea. When you're doing
this process, reaching out to big people that are covering you, it's frequently
newspapers don't link cite properly so you have to do that kind of outreach.
This is where it's a high value kind of campaign when you hit those big
newspapers. But it's also at risk with PR if you step on them and they don't
like what you're doing. They hate that you are talking to their contacts
directly. So verify that this is an okay thing before you start doing this
outreach with your PR team
Ask for links where you should be linked. What I mean by that is sometimes
you'll get mentions in articles in jest. Maybe they'll be talking about general
soda trends, and they'll randomly jitter off five brands that are sodas, Pepsi,
Coca-Cola, Sprite, something like that, all in a sentence. So you could go and
say, "Hey link to Pepsi," but there are four other companies there that they
would also have to link to.
You're just kind of a one off thing in the article. You don't totally make
sense to be linked to in those kinds of situations. So it's an example of a
non-harmonious kind of event where you shouldn't ask for a link because it
doesn't make sense necessarily. So in those kinds of situations, skip it. You
want places where it gets a positive brand sentiment. You should have been
linked to in the article, but they didn't
So if you can really say in your mind it adds value to the article being
linked here, then that's when you should do outreach for this kind of link
reclamation. If not, you potentially could burn bridges, step on people's toes,
and put yourself at risk for future coverage that might have been more powerful
had you not actually ruined your relationship with that press person.
And finally, if you're doing this at scale and you have a lot of people
mentioning you, you're a huge brand, you want to use tools that make this more
efficient. So one of the problems is sometimes you'll have no idea if someone
has linked to you before, unless you have a process put in place.
So there are a lot of link management tools where you can dump all of your
links into it, and it will automatically have a popup in the corner saying that
you have a link from this domain. So if you have a lot of people doing outreach
and doing link reclamation, you can see, "Hey, I've already gotten a link from
this domain or multiple links from this domain. I don't need to do this outreach
again."
Otherwise it's kind of time intensive, trying to remember who's linked to
you, who hasn't link to you, whether or not you should do that outreach, and all
of those things. So doing that on top of all of these things I think is really
powerful.
That's pretty much it, but I hope you guys see this as a valuable thing that
I do. It's really powerful, especially the bigger your brand, the more powerful
it's going to be. But I think any business on the web today who's hopefully
building a brand, because that's what it takes to rank in Google and today's
search results, is going to get occasional mentions in any of these instances
that you can potentially capitalize on that were missed where people don't link
to you.
So I hope this was valuable and have a good one.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/RWkx7nirqS4/link-reclamation-whiteboard-friday
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
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