Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Pam Slim Reveals How to Get Happy
With Your Body of Work'
Excerpt from my interview with the incredible Pam Slim, whose new book Body of
Work is exceptional. A must-read, its also in paperback for only $10, and Kindle
for less than $8. Grab a copy, you wont be sorry. (affiliate) Watch the entire
video above for the complete interview. Jay: Hey everybody, its Jay Baer []Pam
Slim Reveals How to Get Happy With Your Body of Work 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/personal-branding/pam-slim-reveals-how-to-get-happy-with-your-body-of-work/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pam-slim-reveals-how-to-get-happy-with-your-body-of-work
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 31 December 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] The Best of 2013: The Top Posts and People on the Moz Blog
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'The Best of 2013: The Top Posts
and People on the Moz Blog'
Posted by Trevor-Klein
Continuing what has become an annual tradition at Moz, on the last day of 2013
we're excited to bring you a roundup of the very best of this year's posts on
the Moz Blog and YouMoz.
After asking Roger to work overtime to crunch these numbers, we've whittled
the posts down to the cream of the crop, and have organized them in several
different ways:
The top Moz Blog posts by unique pageviews
The top YouMoz Blog posts by unique pageviews
The top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up
The top Moz Blog posts by number of comments
The top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains
The top comments from our community by number of thumbs up
The most active community members by number of comments posted
This year's data was more difficult to collect, as we migrated to our new
domain in May. My eternal gratitude goes to Cyrus Shepard for helping make sure
the right numbers were pulled.
Top posts by unique pageviews
One of the quintessential metrics for a piece of content is its number of
unique pageviews. Reflecting our audience's thirst for advanced SEO, content
marketing, and data analysis, these posts were winners from the very beginning.
1. 10 Tools for Creating Infographics and VisualizationsFebruary 6 - Posted by
Miranda Rensch
Communicating visually is one of the most effective ways to explain complex
concepts and relationships, both internally with your teammates and externally
with your clients. Our very own Product Manager, Miranda Rensch, offers a list
of tools you can use to create beautiful visualizations and let your visual
communication skills shine!
2. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page OptimizationAugust 6 -
Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of
on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly
optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to
steer you in the right direction.
3. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The
Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers
all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online
marketers and developers.
4. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
5. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search RankingsAugust 20 -
Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation
between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why.
Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other
platforms.
6. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and
InfographicJanuary 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout
your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and
JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article
will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real
money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you
bring to your website?
7. 2013 Search Engine Ranking FactorsJuly 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters
presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.
8. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
9. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge -
InteractiveJuly 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you
need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional
support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a
collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid
options, and free trials.
10. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What
Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard FridaySeptember 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has
skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and
speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special
Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this
drastic change.
Top YouMoz posts by unique pageviews
We saw some real gems come through the YouMoz queue this year. Most of these
posts were promoted to the Moz Blog shortly after they were published, as their
resonance with the Moz community was readily apparent.
1. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and
InfographicJanuary 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout
your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and
JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article
will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real
money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you
bring to your website?
2. 96 Quick SEO Wins - What Can You Do With an Hour?January 31 - Posted by
kevingibbons
If you want to win at SEO in 2013, you must commit to a solid long-term
strategy. However, that's not to say you can't build small wins into your
long-term strategy to strengthen it along the way. Here are 96 quick wins you
can implement in an hour or less to see tremendous results.
3. The Ultimate Guide to Advanced Guest BloggingJanuary 21 - Posted by
Pratik.Dholakiya
With "content marketing" being the indisputable SEO buzzword of 2012, we can
expect 2013 to see an onslaught of marketers trying to build links with guest
posts. The growth in this market will cause some sites to lower their guest
posting standards, others to raise them, and still more to stop accepting them
altogether. We're going to help you combat this by sharing how we got posts up
on ProBlogger and Search Engine Journal, and by introducing you to our strategy
for success with our clients.
4. 33 Link Building Questions AnsweredApril 4 - Posted by Rhea Drysdale
When it comes to link building idea generation, the sky's the limit! In
today's post, Rhea Drysdale offers her tips for best practices and a
philosophical approach to link building that will help bring your ideas to life.
5. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case StudyJanuary 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic.
Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been
really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If
sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems
to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any)
anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a
good, old fashioned case study.
6. 5 Lessons Learned from 100,000 Usability StudiesAugust 28 - Posted by Phil
Sharp
As helpful as analytics can be, they simply can't give as complete a picture
as usability studies. This post walks through five of the most important lessons
we've learned after performing hundreds of thousands of those studies.
7. How to Build Links to Your Blog - A Case StudyJune 4 - Posted by
MatthewBarby
After a month or so of development, my site was finally ready and I wanted to
start thinking about how to get some traffic going on the website. Whilst paid
advertising and social media were a huge part of the strategy, I knew that
appearing in the search engines for a wide selection of long-tail phrases was
going to be instrumental to the blog's success. This is when I began developing
my link building strategy and, after trialing out some very successful
approaches, I've decided to now share my link building tactics with you all.
8. How to Build a Great Online Fashion Brand - 34 Things that Really Amazing
Fashion Retailers DoMay 30 - Posted by ILoveFashionRetail.com
Despite the title, we believe this article can also benefit and inspire
retailers in industries outside fashion and help them find their way to success
in online retail business in this new social commerce environment. The Online
Fashion Retail Industry, particularly at the luxury end, seems to be doing well.
Over the past few years, lot of money has been invested into fashion retail
businesses. Valuations of these companies might seem inflated, but these
companies are growing fast with the help of clear revenue stream and a value
proposition thatâs beyond price advantage. But while some companies in
Fashion technology are successfully raising more money and growing, there is
another segment thatâs struggling to survive. These businesses are
stalling because of their ability to adopt to the shift in the media consumption
behavior of the consumer.
9. How To Blog Successfully About AnythingJanuary 9 - Posted by TannerC
In order to create a successful blog, you must be passionately curious about
the topic you're covering. Learn how to turn even the most uninteresting blog
post topics into goldmines with these tips for successful bloggers.
10. Semantic Web and Link Building without Links > The Future for
SEO?January 10 - Posted by simonpenson
Randâs recent WBF about co-occurrence was a real wake up call for those
still transfixed with link building practices of old. While anchor text based
links may still have some effect, there is little arguing the fact that the
factorâs importance is dwindling. In its place are things like social
signals, link age, and, most importantly, a growing reliance on relevancy and
how that is deciphered.
Top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up
While something of a controversial metric, there's nothing more satisfying for
an author (or, I admit, for a publisher!) than seeing a bunch of thumbs up.
These posts went far beyond satisfying, though, garnering jaw-dropping numbers
of thumbs up.
1. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
2. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
3. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The
Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers
all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online
marketers and developers.
4. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page OptimizationAugust 6 -
Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of
on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly
optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to
steer you in the right direction.
5. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search RankingsAugust 20
- Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation
between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why.
Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other
platforms.
6. 2013 Search Engine Ranking FactorsJuly 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters
presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.
7. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge -
InteractiveJuly 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you
need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional
support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a
collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid
options, and free trials.
8. From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing
AgencySeptember 19 - Posted by NiftyMarketing
This post is a combination of stories and thoughts about what I have gone
through building Nifty Marketing. My hope is that a few of you who are out there
hustling will benefit from doing some of the things that I did, and most of the
things that I didn't.
9. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case StudyJanuary 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic.
Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been
really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If
sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems
to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any)
anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a
good, old fashioned case study.
10. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and
InfographicJanuary 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout
your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and
JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article
will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real
money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you
bring to your website?
Top Moz Blog posts by number of comments
Some posts, whether due to truly inspired content or a touch of controversy
(sometimes a little of both), generate significantly more discussion in the
comments than others. Many of these have comment sections that dwarf the
original post! We expected our announcement of the shift from SEOmoz to Moz
would drum up some conversation, but we were interested to take a look at the
rest of this list.
1. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
2. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case StudyJanuary 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic.
Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been
really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If
sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems
to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any)
anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a
good, old fashioned case study.
3. The Ultimate Guide to Advanced Guest BloggingJanuary 21 - Posted by
Pratik.Dholakiya
With âcontent marketingâ being the indisputable SEO buzzword of
2012, we can expect 2013 to see an onslaught of marketers trying to build links
with guest posts. The growth in this market will cause some sites to lower their
guest posting standards, others to raise them, and still more to stop accepting
them altogether. We're going to help you combat this by sharing how we got posts
up on ProBlogger and Search Engine Journal, and by introducing you to our
strategy for success with our clients.
4. Why We Can't Just Be SEOs Anymore - Whiteboard FridayMay 2 - Posted by
randfish
There's a movement happening in our industry where many SEOs are changing
their titles and practices to "inbound marketing." Where did this shift
originate, and how is it shaping our industry at large? In today's Whiteboard
Friday, Rand shares his thoughts on why we can't just be SEOs anymore if we're
aiming for the bigger picture.
5. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge -
InteractiveJuly 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you
need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional
support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a
collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid
options, and free trials.
6. Ultimate Guide to Google Penalty RemovalOctober 14 - Posted by
PinpointDesigns
A few months back, I wrote an article on Moz all about a penalty our web
agency received for unnatural links pointing to our website. At first, this was
a bit of a shock to the system, but since then, we've learned so much about
Google's webmaster guidelines and we've helped lots of companies get their
businesses back on track and remove manual penalties associated with their
websites.
7. From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing
AgencySeptember 19 - Posted by NiftyMarketing
This post is a combination of stories and thoughts about what I have gone
through building Nifty Marketing. My hope is that a few of you who are out there
hustling will benefit from doing some of the things that I did, and most of the
things that I didn't.
8. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What
Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard TuesdaySeptember 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has
skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and
speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special
Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this
drastic change.
9. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
10. Why Google Analytics Tagging Matters - Whiteboard FridayMarch 15 - Posted
by RachaelGerson
In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rachael Gerson sheds some light on "dark social"
and explains why tagging in Google Analytics improves the accuracy of your
referrals. Take credit for the work that you're doing, and tag your links!
Top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains
It just wouldn't seem right to use unique pageviews, thumbs, and comments to
judge an SEO-focused blog without throwing in linking root domains as well.
Using data from Open Site Explorer, here are the 10 posts that garnered the most
attention from unique domains across the web.
1. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search RankingsAugust 20
- Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation
between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why.
Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other
platforms.
2. 2013 Search Engine Ranking FactorsJuly 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters
presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.
3. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What
Should Marketers Do? â Whiteboard TuesdaySeptember 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has
skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and
speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special
Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this
drastic change.
4. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
5. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The
Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers
all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online
marketers and developers.
6. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page OptimizationAugust 6 -
Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of
on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly
optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to
steer you in the right direction.
7. How Website Speed Actually Impacts Search RankingAugust 1 - Posted by
Zoompf
Google has long stated website performance will impact search ranking, but
what exactly does this mean? In this article, Zoompf researches over 40
different speed metrics to determine the most impactful performance changes you
can make to your website to improve search ranking.
8. 10 Tools for Creating Infographics and VisualizationsFebruary 6 - Posted by
Miranda.Rensch
Communicating visually is one of the most effective ways to explain complex
concepts and relationships, both internally with your teammates and externally
with your clients. Our very own Product Manager, Miranda Rensch, offers a list
of tools you can use to create beautiful visualizations and let your visual
communication skills shine!
9. The SEO of Responsive Web DesignJanuary 28 - Posted by Kristina Kledzik
Will Critchlow announced back in November that Distilled's blog was updated
with a new responsive design, but it occurred to me recently that we never went
into the specifics of why responsive web design is so great. It's been a hot
topic in online marketing for the past few months, but is it really going to
become an industry standard? Short answer: yep.
10. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
Top comments by number of thumbs up
We're always impressed by the discussions we see in the comments below blog
posts. In addition to the great many insightful points that add to what the
authors say, one of our favorite parts is the support our community members show
for one another. Here are the most thumbed-up comments from 2013.
1. Stephan_Boehringer | September 24 When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent
of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard Tuesday
2. gfiorelli1 | July 19 Heart to Heart About Link Building - Whiteboard Friday
3. MarkTraphagen | August 20 Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher
Search Rankings
4. jcolman | May 29 Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!
5. randfish | August 29 The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0
6. Dr-Pete | April 15 The Difference Between Penguin and an Unnatural Links
Penalty (and some info on Panda too)
7. Bill Sebald | July 16 9 Experts and a Summary: What Makes an Ideal SEO
Employee?
8. KeriMorgret | February 7 Going Beyond Moz Metrics to Answer: "Why is this
Site Outranking Me?"
9. evolvingSEO | February 12 Stop Clicking Here! 7 Superior SEO Alternatives to
Generic Links
10. KeriMorgret | March 8 6 Ways to Use Fresh Links & Mentions to Improve Your
Marketing Efforts - Whiteboard Friday
Most active users by number of comments
While quality certainly trumps quantity in most cases, we're continuously
impressed by the ability of our community members to cover both bases. On
average, the folks on this list (which intentionally omits our own staff and
associates) have left a comment on every second or third post we've published,
and we couldn't appreciate their contributions more.
1. Charles_SEO
mozPoints: 516 | Rank: 161
2. Spook SEO
mozPoints: 259 | Rank: 350
3. Brahmadas
mozPoints: 341 | Rank: 248
4. Dubs
mozPoints: 946 | Rank: 85
5. steviephil
mozPoints: 1,030 | Rank: 77
6. paints-n-design
mozPoints: 224 | Rank: 435
7. danatanseo
mozPoints: 3,298 | Rank: 10
8. manishbhalla
mozPoints: 230 | Rank: 422
9. skifr
mozPoints: 234 | Rank: 407
10. Matt-Antonino
mozPoints: 1,681 | Rank: 36
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/dRfKcCRiK3I/the-best-of-2013
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
and People on the Moz Blog'
Posted by Trevor-Klein
Continuing what has become an annual tradition at Moz, on the last day of 2013
we're excited to bring you a roundup of the very best of this year's posts on
the Moz Blog and YouMoz.
After asking Roger to work overtime to crunch these numbers, we've whittled
the posts down to the cream of the crop, and have organized them in several
different ways:
The top Moz Blog posts by unique pageviews
The top YouMoz Blog posts by unique pageviews
The top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up
The top Moz Blog posts by number of comments
The top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains
The top comments from our community by number of thumbs up
The most active community members by number of comments posted
This year's data was more difficult to collect, as we migrated to our new
domain in May. My eternal gratitude goes to Cyrus Shepard for helping make sure
the right numbers were pulled.
Top posts by unique pageviews
One of the quintessential metrics for a piece of content is its number of
unique pageviews. Reflecting our audience's thirst for advanced SEO, content
marketing, and data analysis, these posts were winners from the very beginning.
1. 10 Tools for Creating Infographics and VisualizationsFebruary 6 - Posted by
Miranda Rensch
Communicating visually is one of the most effective ways to explain complex
concepts and relationships, both internally with your teammates and externally
with your clients. Our very own Product Manager, Miranda Rensch, offers a list
of tools you can use to create beautiful visualizations and let your visual
communication skills shine!
2. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page OptimizationAugust 6 -
Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of
on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly
optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to
steer you in the right direction.
3. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The
Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers
all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online
marketers and developers.
4. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
5. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search RankingsAugust 20 -
Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation
between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why.
Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other
platforms.
6. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and
InfographicJanuary 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout
your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and
JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article
will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real
money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you
bring to your website?
7. 2013 Search Engine Ranking FactorsJuly 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters
presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.
8. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
9. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge -
InteractiveJuly 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you
need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional
support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a
collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid
options, and free trials.
10. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What
Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard FridaySeptember 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has
skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and
speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special
Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this
drastic change.
Top YouMoz posts by unique pageviews
We saw some real gems come through the YouMoz queue this year. Most of these
posts were promoted to the Moz Blog shortly after they were published, as their
resonance with the Moz community was readily apparent.
1. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and
InfographicJanuary 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout
your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and
JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article
will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real
money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you
bring to your website?
2. 96 Quick SEO Wins - What Can You Do With an Hour?January 31 - Posted by
kevingibbons
If you want to win at SEO in 2013, you must commit to a solid long-term
strategy. However, that's not to say you can't build small wins into your
long-term strategy to strengthen it along the way. Here are 96 quick wins you
can implement in an hour or less to see tremendous results.
3. The Ultimate Guide to Advanced Guest BloggingJanuary 21 - Posted by
Pratik.Dholakiya
With "content marketing" being the indisputable SEO buzzword of 2012, we can
expect 2013 to see an onslaught of marketers trying to build links with guest
posts. The growth in this market will cause some sites to lower their guest
posting standards, others to raise them, and still more to stop accepting them
altogether. We're going to help you combat this by sharing how we got posts up
on ProBlogger and Search Engine Journal, and by introducing you to our strategy
for success with our clients.
4. 33 Link Building Questions AnsweredApril 4 - Posted by Rhea Drysdale
When it comes to link building idea generation, the sky's the limit! In
today's post, Rhea Drysdale offers her tips for best practices and a
philosophical approach to link building that will help bring your ideas to life.
5. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case StudyJanuary 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic.
Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been
really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If
sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems
to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any)
anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a
good, old fashioned case study.
6. 5 Lessons Learned from 100,000 Usability StudiesAugust 28 - Posted by Phil
Sharp
As helpful as analytics can be, they simply can't give as complete a picture
as usability studies. This post walks through five of the most important lessons
we've learned after performing hundreds of thousands of those studies.
7. How to Build Links to Your Blog - A Case StudyJune 4 - Posted by
MatthewBarby
After a month or so of development, my site was finally ready and I wanted to
start thinking about how to get some traffic going on the website. Whilst paid
advertising and social media were a huge part of the strategy, I knew that
appearing in the search engines for a wide selection of long-tail phrases was
going to be instrumental to the blog's success. This is when I began developing
my link building strategy and, after trialing out some very successful
approaches, I've decided to now share my link building tactics with you all.
8. How to Build a Great Online Fashion Brand - 34 Things that Really Amazing
Fashion Retailers DoMay 30 - Posted by ILoveFashionRetail.com
Despite the title, we believe this article can also benefit and inspire
retailers in industries outside fashion and help them find their way to success
in online retail business in this new social commerce environment. The Online
Fashion Retail Industry, particularly at the luxury end, seems to be doing well.
Over the past few years, lot of money has been invested into fashion retail
businesses. Valuations of these companies might seem inflated, but these
companies are growing fast with the help of clear revenue stream and a value
proposition thatâs beyond price advantage. But while some companies in
Fashion technology are successfully raising more money and growing, there is
another segment thatâs struggling to survive. These businesses are
stalling because of their ability to adopt to the shift in the media consumption
behavior of the consumer.
9. How To Blog Successfully About AnythingJanuary 9 - Posted by TannerC
In order to create a successful blog, you must be passionately curious about
the topic you're covering. Learn how to turn even the most uninteresting blog
post topics into goldmines with these tips for successful bloggers.
10. Semantic Web and Link Building without Links > The Future for
SEO?January 10 - Posted by simonpenson
Randâs recent WBF about co-occurrence was a real wake up call for those
still transfixed with link building practices of old. While anchor text based
links may still have some effect, there is little arguing the fact that the
factorâs importance is dwindling. In its place are things like social
signals, link age, and, most importantly, a growing reliance on relevancy and
how that is deciphered.
Top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up
While something of a controversial metric, there's nothing more satisfying for
an author (or, I admit, for a publisher!) than seeing a bunch of thumbs up.
These posts went far beyond satisfying, though, garnering jaw-dropping numbers
of thumbs up.
1. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
2. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
3. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The
Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers
all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online
marketers and developers.
4. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page OptimizationAugust 6 -
Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of
on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly
optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to
steer you in the right direction.
5. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search RankingsAugust 20
- Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation
between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why.
Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other
platforms.
6. 2013 Search Engine Ranking FactorsJuly 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters
presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.
7. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge -
InteractiveJuly 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you
need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional
support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a
collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid
options, and free trials.
8. From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing
AgencySeptember 19 - Posted by NiftyMarketing
This post is a combination of stories and thoughts about what I have gone
through building Nifty Marketing. My hope is that a few of you who are out there
hustling will benefit from doing some of the things that I did, and most of the
things that I didn't.
9. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case StudyJanuary 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic.
Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been
really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If
sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems
to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any)
anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a
good, old fashioned case study.
10. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and
InfographicJanuary 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout
your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and
JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article
will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real
money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you
bring to your website?
Top Moz Blog posts by number of comments
Some posts, whether due to truly inspired content or a touch of controversy
(sometimes a little of both), generate significantly more discussion in the
comments than others. Many of these have comment sections that dwarf the
original post! We expected our announcement of the shift from SEOmoz to Moz
would drum up some conversation, but we were interested to take a look at the
rest of this list.
1. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
2. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case StudyJanuary 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic.
Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been
really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If
sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems
to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any)
anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a
good, old fashioned case study.
3. The Ultimate Guide to Advanced Guest BloggingJanuary 21 - Posted by
Pratik.Dholakiya
With âcontent marketingâ being the indisputable SEO buzzword of
2012, we can expect 2013 to see an onslaught of marketers trying to build links
with guest posts. The growth in this market will cause some sites to lower their
guest posting standards, others to raise them, and still more to stop accepting
them altogether. We're going to help you combat this by sharing how we got posts
up on ProBlogger and Search Engine Journal, and by introducing you to our
strategy for success with our clients.
4. Why We Can't Just Be SEOs Anymore - Whiteboard FridayMay 2 - Posted by
randfish
There's a movement happening in our industry where many SEOs are changing
their titles and practices to "inbound marketing." Where did this shift
originate, and how is it shaping our industry at large? In today's Whiteboard
Friday, Rand shares his thoughts on why we can't just be SEOs anymore if we're
aiming for the bigger picture.
5. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge -
InteractiveJuly 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you
need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional
support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a
collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid
options, and free trials.
6. Ultimate Guide to Google Penalty RemovalOctober 14 - Posted by
PinpointDesigns
A few months back, I wrote an article on Moz all about a penalty our web
agency received for unnatural links pointing to our website. At first, this was
a bit of a shock to the system, but since then, we've learned so much about
Google's webmaster guidelines and we've helped lots of companies get their
businesses back on track and remove manual penalties associated with their
websites.
7. From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing
AgencySeptember 19 - Posted by NiftyMarketing
This post is a combination of stories and thoughts about what I have gone
through building Nifty Marketing. My hope is that a few of you who are out there
hustling will benefit from doing some of the things that I did, and most of the
things that I didn't.
8. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What
Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard TuesdaySeptember 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has
skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and
speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special
Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this
drastic change.
9. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
10. Why Google Analytics Tagging Matters - Whiteboard FridayMarch 15 - Posted
by RachaelGerson
In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rachael Gerson sheds some light on "dark social"
and explains why tagging in Google Analytics improves the accuracy of your
referrals. Take credit for the work that you're doing, and tag your links!
Top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains
It just wouldn't seem right to use unique pageviews, thumbs, and comments to
judge an SEO-focused blog without throwing in linking root domains as well.
Using data from Open Site Explorer, here are the 10 posts that garnered the most
attention from unique domains across the web.
1. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search RankingsAugust 20
- Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation
between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why.
Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other
platforms.
2. 2013 Search Engine Ranking FactorsJuly 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters
presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.
3. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What
Should Marketers Do? â Whiteboard TuesdaySeptember 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has
skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and
speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special
Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this
drastic change.
4. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering,
marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the
next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but
ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce
that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our
company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.
5. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The
Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers
all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online
marketers and developers.
6. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page OptimizationAugust 6 -
Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of
on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly
optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to
steer you in the right direction.
7. How Website Speed Actually Impacts Search RankingAugust 1 - Posted by
Zoompf
Google has long stated website performance will impact search ranking, but
what exactly does this mean? In this article, Zoompf researches over 40
different speed metrics to determine the most impactful performance changes you
can make to your website to improve search ranking.
8. 10 Tools for Creating Infographics and VisualizationsFebruary 6 - Posted by
Miranda.Rensch
Communicating visually is one of the most effective ways to explain complex
concepts and relationships, both internally with your teammates and externally
with your clients. Our very own Product Manager, Miranda Rensch, offers a list
of tools you can use to create beautiful visualizations and let your visual
communication skills shine!
9. The SEO of Responsive Web DesignJanuary 28 - Posted by Kristina Kledzik
Will Critchlow announced back in November that Distilled's blog was updated
with a new responsive design, but it occurred to me recently that we never went
into the specifics of why responsive web design is so great. It's been a hot
topic in online marketing for the past few months, but is it really going to
become an industry standard? Short answer: yep.
10. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master BlueprintMay 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If youâre like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest
SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of
it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page
for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.
Top comments by number of thumbs up
We're always impressed by the discussions we see in the comments below blog
posts. In addition to the great many insightful points that add to what the
authors say, one of our favorite parts is the support our community members show
for one another. Here are the most thumbed-up comments from 2013.
1. Stephan_Boehringer | September 24 When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent
of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard Tuesday
2. gfiorelli1 | July 19 Heart to Heart About Link Building - Whiteboard Friday
3. MarkTraphagen | August 20 Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher
Search Rankings
4. jcolman | May 29 Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!
5. randfish | August 29 The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0
6. Dr-Pete | April 15 The Difference Between Penguin and an Unnatural Links
Penalty (and some info on Panda too)
7. Bill Sebald | July 16 9 Experts and a Summary: What Makes an Ideal SEO
Employee?
8. KeriMorgret | February 7 Going Beyond Moz Metrics to Answer: "Why is this
Site Outranking Me?"
9. evolvingSEO | February 12 Stop Clicking Here! 7 Superior SEO Alternatives to
Generic Links
10. KeriMorgret | March 8 6 Ways to Use Fresh Links & Mentions to Improve Your
Marketing Efforts - Whiteboard Friday
Most active users by number of comments
While quality certainly trumps quantity in most cases, we're continuously
impressed by the ability of our community members to cover both bases. On
average, the folks on this list (which intentionally omits our own staff and
associates) have left a comment on every second or third post we've published,
and we couldn't appreciate their contributions more.
1. Charles_SEO
mozPoints: 516 | Rank: 161
2. Spook SEO
mozPoints: 259 | Rank: 350
3. Brahmadas
mozPoints: 341 | Rank: 248
4. Dubs
mozPoints: 946 | Rank: 85
5. steviephil
mozPoints: 1,030 | Rank: 77
6. paints-n-design
mozPoints: 224 | Rank: 435
7. danatanseo
mozPoints: 3,298 | Rank: 10
8. manishbhalla
mozPoints: 230 | Rank: 422
9. skifr
mozPoints: 234 | Rank: 407
10. Matt-Antonino
mozPoints: 1,681 | Rank: 36
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[Build Backlinks Online] The Naked Truth About Your Podcasting Stats and Why You Should Host Your Show on Libsyn
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'The Naked Truth About Your
Podcasting Stats and Why You Should Host Your Show on Libsyn'
Just like bloggers, most podcasters are obsessed with checking their stats. I'm
a huge stats junkie myself so I can totally relate to why people are constantly
checking their stats. But if you're hosting your podcast with Libsyn (which I
highly recomme...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/dkZPwEcSNus/podcasting-stats-libsyn.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
Podcasting Stats and Why You Should Host Your Show on Libsyn'
Just like bloggers, most podcasters are obsessed with checking their stats. I'm
a huge stats junkie myself so I can totally relate to why people are constantly
checking their stats. But if you're hosting your podcast with Libsyn (which I
highly recomme...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/dkZPwEcSNus/podcasting-stats-libsyn.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
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Deduping Keywords: How to Identify & Remove Duplicate Keywords from Your PPC Account' 
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/QV1q9dbDxb4/remove-duplicate-keywords 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
Around this time last year, I had a pretty ambitious list of New Year's resolutions cued up for 2013. I'm ashamed to report that I did not successfully complete a single item during the course of the year. In retrospect, my problem was that I set the bar far too high—I mean really, who loses 20 pounds and masters the Spanish language in only 365 days?—and as a result, I gave up pretty quickly. When it comes to managing PPC accounts, I face a similar problem. I tend to bite off more than I can chew and then get too discouraged to complete it.
This year, I've learned my lesson. I'm setting more manageable goals and am determined to complete them. The first item on my checklist is to identify and remove duplicate keywords, so I can start the New Year with a nice, clean account.
Why You Need to Clean Up Your Duplicate Keywords
It's nearly impossible to maintain a PPC account that is free of duplicate keywords, particularly if you have multiple managers working in one account, or are frequently adjusting match types and account settings. Some advertisers even set duplicates intentionally, thinking that their ad will appear twice for the same auction. Do not be fooled by this common misconception. AdWords will only show one ad per advertiser for each search.
Believe me, duplicates are dangerous. Not only can they have a detrimental impact on your Quality Scores, but they can also cannibalize your budget. If you are bidding on the same keyword twice, both will be entered into the same auctions and you will compete with yourself, driving up your own CPCs. Taking some time to dedupe an account every few months is a critical (albeit rarely executed) activity.
There seems to be a lot of confusion among advertisers regarding what constitutes a harmful duplicate keyword. Let's set the record straight—duplicate keywords can hurt your account if they are identical keywords with the same match types, targeting the exact same audience. There is one caveat to this definition, which comes into play with broad match keywords. Be cognizant that broad match keywords are duplicates if they contain the same words, even in different orders. For example, chocolate cupcake frosting on broad match and frosting chocolate cupcakes on broad match are considered duplicates.
When Is It OK to Have Duplicate Keywords in PPC?
There are some situations in which it is perfectly acceptable to have duplicate keywords. For example:
- You can use duplicate keywords in campaigns set to serve ads to different geographical locations. This is a common practice, as many advertisers segment their account by region. In this case, it is fine to bid on the same keyword in each campaign, as they will never compete in the same auction.
- You can use the same keywords in search campaigns and display network campaigns. Since these keywords will be utilized in different circumstances, they will not hurt your account performance.
- Bidding on keywords that contain the same terms, but are set to different match types is completely kosher. In fact, this is a great way to test which match type is the right fit for a particular keyword. However, if you give this a shot, I highly recommend employing a stacked bidding strategy.
How to Find and Remove Duplicate Keywords in Your AdWords Account
Identifying all duplicate keywords in an account may sound like a daunting task, but with a little AdWords Editor magic, you can tick it off your to-do list pretty quickly. Here's all you need to do:
Step 1
First things first, if you don't already have it, download AdWords Editor. This is Google's free, offline tool and a must-have for all serious PPC-ers (even if Larry thinks it's eventually going the way of the dodo).
Step 2
Once you've downloaded your account, head to the Tools dropdown and select "Find duplicate keywords."
Step 3
As we discussed earlier, different types of duplicates have different impacts on an account. Select exactly what types of duplicates you want to catch based on word order, match types and location. You can also filter out those in deleted or paused campaigns, which will clutter your list.
There you have it, my fellow PPC-ers—all of your duplicate keywords in just a few clicks!
Now, all you need to do is review the list and make some executive decisions. I recommend nixing or editing any duplicate keywords that are in the same campaign and have the same match type.
WordStream clients: Please note that, for the time being, you cannot run this deduping process through WordStream. However, PPC Advisor will identify any duplicate keywords created within your work session and automatically delete them before your changes are posted live to AdWords.
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 30 December 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Foursquare Quietly Unlocks Its Own "Local Data Aggregator" Badge
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Foursquare Quietly Unlocks Its
Own Local Data Aggregator Badge'
Posted by David-Mihm
I was wrong about Foursquare.
While five of my 2013 local search prognostications came to fruition, my sixth
predictionâthat Foursquare would be boughtâdoesn't look like it will
(unless Apple has silently acquired Foursquare in the last couple of days).
In fact, Foursquare has been turning away from an acquisition path, setting
off on a fundraising spree in 2013. While this quest for cash has struck some
analysts as a desperate tactic, PR from the company indicates that it remains
focused on growing its userbase and its revenues for the foreseeable future.
It's one of the few companies in tech to successfully address both sides of the
merchant and consumer marketplace, and as a result, might even have a chance at
an IPO.
As the company matures, we hear less and less about mayorships, badges, and
social gamificationâperhaps a tacit admission that checkins are indeed
dying as the motivational factor underlying usage of Foursquare.
Foursquare: the data aggregator
Instead, the company is pivoting into a self-described position as "the
location layer for the Internet."
Google, Bing, Nokia, and other mapping companies have built their own much
broader location layers to varying degrees of success, but it's the human
activity associated with location data that makes Foursquare unique. Its growing
database of keyword-rich tips and comments and widening network of social
interactions even make predictive recommendations possible.
But I'm considerably less excited about these consumer-facing recommendations
than I am about Foursquare's data play. If "location layer for the internet" is
not a synonym for "data aggregator," I'm not sure what would be.
In the last several months, Foursquare has been prompting its users to provide
business details about the places they check-in at, like whether a business has
wi-fi, its relative price range, delivery and payment options, and more. It's
also accumulating one of the biggest photo libraries in all of local search. For
companies that have not yet built their own services like StreetView and
Mapmaker, Foursquare "ground truth" position is enviable.
So from my standpoint, Foursquare's already achieved the status of a major
data aggregator, and seems to have its sights set on becoming the data
aggregator.
Foursquare: The Data Aggregator?
That statement would have sounded preposterous 18 months ago, with "only" 15
million users and 250,000 claimed venues.
But while many of us in the local search space have been distracted by the
shiny objects of Google+ Local and Facebook Graph Search, Foursquare has struck
deals with the two largest up-and-coming social apps (Instagram and Pinterest)
to provide the location backbone for their geolocation features. Not to mention
Uber, WhatsApp, and a host of other conversational and transactional apps.
And buried in the December 5th TechCrunch article about Foursquare's latest
iOS release was this throwaway line:
"Foursquare has a sharing deal with Apple already â it's one of over a
dozen contributors to Apple's Maps data."
So, doing some quick math, we have
Foursquare's ~20 million users (U.S.)
Apple Maps' 35 million users (U.S.)
Instagram's 50 million users (U.S.)
Pinterest's 55 million users (U.S.)
All of a sudden that's a substantial number of people contributing location
information to Foursquare. Granted, there's considerable overlap in those users,
but even a conservative 80-100 million would be a pretty large number of
touchpoints.
In fact, one thing that Wil Reynolds and I realized at a recent get-together
in San Diego is that for many people outside the tech world, Foursquare and
Instagram are basically the same app (see screenshots below). I'm seeing more
and more of my decidedly non-techie Instagram friends tagging their photos with
location. And avid Foursquare users like Matthew Brown have always made
photography their primary network activity.
Providing the geographic foundation for two appsâPinterest and
Instagramâthat are far more popular than Foursquare gives it a strong
running start on laying the location foundation for the Internet.
What's next for Foursquare?
While Facebook is undoubtedly building its own location layer, Zuckerberg and
company have long ignored local search. And they've got plenty of other short-
and mid-term priorities. Exposing Facebook check-in data to the extent
Foursquare has, and forcing Instagram to update a very successful API
integration, would seem to be pretty far down the list.
As I suggested in my Local Search Ecosystem update in August, to challenge
established players like Infogroup, Neustar, and Acxiom, in the long run
Foursquare does need to build out its index considerably beyond the current
sweetspots of food, drink, and entertainment.
But in the short run, the quality and depth of Foursquare's popular venue
information in major cities gives start-up app developers everything they need
to launch and attract users to their apps. And Foursquare's independence from
Google, Facebook, and Apple is appealing for many of themâparticularly for
non-U.S. app developers who have a hard time finding publicly-available location
databases outside of Google or Facebook.
Foursquare's success with Instagram and Pinterest has created a
self-perpetuating growth strategy: it will continue to be the location API of
choice for most "hot" local startups.
TL;DR
Foursquare venues have been contributing to a business's citation profile for
years, so hopefully most of you have included venue creation and management in
your local SEO service packages already. Even if you optimize non-retail
locations like insurance agencies, accounting offices, and the like, make one of
your 2014 New Year's resolutions be a higher level of engagement with
Foursquare.
The bottom line is that irrespective of its user growth and beyond just SEO,
Foursquare is going to get more important to the SoLoMo ecosystem in the coming
year.
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/i3dukj-i1HA/foursquare-as-data-aggregator
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
Own Local Data Aggregator Badge'
Posted by David-Mihm
I was wrong about Foursquare.
While five of my 2013 local search prognostications came to fruition, my sixth
predictionâthat Foursquare would be boughtâdoesn't look like it will
(unless Apple has silently acquired Foursquare in the last couple of days).
In fact, Foursquare has been turning away from an acquisition path, setting
off on a fundraising spree in 2013. While this quest for cash has struck some
analysts as a desperate tactic, PR from the company indicates that it remains
focused on growing its userbase and its revenues for the foreseeable future.
It's one of the few companies in tech to successfully address both sides of the
merchant and consumer marketplace, and as a result, might even have a chance at
an IPO.
As the company matures, we hear less and less about mayorships, badges, and
social gamificationâperhaps a tacit admission that checkins are indeed
dying as the motivational factor underlying usage of Foursquare.
Foursquare: the data aggregator
Instead, the company is pivoting into a self-described position as "the
location layer for the Internet."
Google, Bing, Nokia, and other mapping companies have built their own much
broader location layers to varying degrees of success, but it's the human
activity associated with location data that makes Foursquare unique. Its growing
database of keyword-rich tips and comments and widening network of social
interactions even make predictive recommendations possible.
But I'm considerably less excited about these consumer-facing recommendations
than I am about Foursquare's data play. If "location layer for the internet" is
not a synonym for "data aggregator," I'm not sure what would be.
In the last several months, Foursquare has been prompting its users to provide
business details about the places they check-in at, like whether a business has
wi-fi, its relative price range, delivery and payment options, and more. It's
also accumulating one of the biggest photo libraries in all of local search. For
companies that have not yet built their own services like StreetView and
Mapmaker, Foursquare "ground truth" position is enviable.
So from my standpoint, Foursquare's already achieved the status of a major
data aggregator, and seems to have its sights set on becoming the data
aggregator.
Foursquare: The Data Aggregator?
That statement would have sounded preposterous 18 months ago, with "only" 15
million users and 250,000 claimed venues.
But while many of us in the local search space have been distracted by the
shiny objects of Google+ Local and Facebook Graph Search, Foursquare has struck
deals with the two largest up-and-coming social apps (Instagram and Pinterest)
to provide the location backbone for their geolocation features. Not to mention
Uber, WhatsApp, and a host of other conversational and transactional apps.
And buried in the December 5th TechCrunch article about Foursquare's latest
iOS release was this throwaway line:
"Foursquare has a sharing deal with Apple already â it's one of over a
dozen contributors to Apple's Maps data."
So, doing some quick math, we have
Foursquare's ~20 million users (U.S.)
Apple Maps' 35 million users (U.S.)
Instagram's 50 million users (U.S.)
Pinterest's 55 million users (U.S.)
All of a sudden that's a substantial number of people contributing location
information to Foursquare. Granted, there's considerable overlap in those users,
but even a conservative 80-100 million would be a pretty large number of
touchpoints.
In fact, one thing that Wil Reynolds and I realized at a recent get-together
in San Diego is that for many people outside the tech world, Foursquare and
Instagram are basically the same app (see screenshots below). I'm seeing more
and more of my decidedly non-techie Instagram friends tagging their photos with
location. And avid Foursquare users like Matthew Brown have always made
photography their primary network activity.
Providing the geographic foundation for two appsâPinterest and
Instagramâthat are far more popular than Foursquare gives it a strong
running start on laying the location foundation for the Internet.
What's next for Foursquare?
While Facebook is undoubtedly building its own location layer, Zuckerberg and
company have long ignored local search. And they've got plenty of other short-
and mid-term priorities. Exposing Facebook check-in data to the extent
Foursquare has, and forcing Instagram to update a very successful API
integration, would seem to be pretty far down the list.
As I suggested in my Local Search Ecosystem update in August, to challenge
established players like Infogroup, Neustar, and Acxiom, in the long run
Foursquare does need to build out its index considerably beyond the current
sweetspots of food, drink, and entertainment.
But in the short run, the quality and depth of Foursquare's popular venue
information in major cities gives start-up app developers everything they need
to launch and attract users to their apps. And Foursquare's independence from
Google, Facebook, and Apple is appealing for many of themâparticularly for
non-U.S. app developers who have a hard time finding publicly-available location
databases outside of Google or Facebook.
Foursquare's success with Instagram and Pinterest has created a
self-perpetuating growth strategy: it will continue to be the location API of
choice for most "hot" local startups.
TL;DR
Foursquare venues have been contributing to a business's citation profile for
years, so hopefully most of you have included venue creation and management in
your local SEO service packages already. Even if you optimize non-retail
locations like insurance agencies, accounting offices, and the like, make one of
your 2014 New Year's resolutions be a higher level of engagement with
Foursquare.
The bottom line is that irrespective of its user growth and beyond just SEO,
Foursquare is going to get more important to the SoLoMo ecosystem in the coming
year.
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/i3dukj-i1HA/foursquare-as-data-aggregator
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] When 2 Become 1: How Merging Two Domains Made Us an SEO Killing
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'When 2 Become 1: How Merging Two
Domains Made Us an SEO Killing'
Posted by WPMU DEVThis 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.
This is a ...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/rCxzxvsg74A/2-become-1-merging-two-domains-made-us-an-seo-killing
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
Domains Made Us an SEO Killing'
Posted by WPMU DEVThis 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.
This is a ...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/rCxzxvsg74A/2-become-1-merging-two-domains-made-us-an-seo-killing
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 27 December 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] The IdeaGraph - Whiteboard Friday
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'The IdeaGraph - Whiteboard
Friday'
Posted by wrttnwrd
There can be important links between topics that seem completely unrelated at
first glance. These random affinities are factoring into search results more and
more, and in today's Whiteboard Friday, Ian Lurie of Portent, Inc. shows us how
we can find and benefit from those otherwise-hidden links.
Whiteboard Friday - Ian Lurie - The Ideagraph
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Howdy Moz fans. Today we're going to talk about the IdeaGraph. My name's Ian
Lurie, and I want to talk about some critical evolution that's happening in the
world of search right now.
Google and other search engines have existed in a world of words and links.
Words establish relevance. Links establish connections and authority. The
problem with that is Google takes a look at this world of links and words and
has a very hard time with what I call random affinities.
Let's say all cyclists like eggplant, or some cyclists like eggplant. Google
can't figure that out. There is no way to make that connection. Maybe if every
eggplant site on the planet linked to every cycling site on the planet, there
would be something there for them, but there really isn't.
So Google exists purely on words and links, which means there's a lot of
things that it doesn't pick up on. The things it doesn't pick up on are what I
call the IdeaGraph.
The IdeaGraph is something that's always existed. It's not something new.
It's this thing that creates these connections that are formed only by people.
So things that are totally unrelated, like eggplant and cyclists, and by the way
that's not true as far as I know. I'm a cyclist and I hate eggplant. But all
these things that randomly connect are part of the IdeaGraph.
The IdeaGraph has been used by marketers for years and years and years. If
you walk into a grocery store, and you're going from one aisle to the next and
you see these products in semi-random order, there's some research there where
they test different configurations and see, if someone's walking to the dairy
section way at the back of the store, what products can we put along their walk
that they're most likely to pick up? Those products, even if the marketers don't
know it, are part of the IdeaGraph, because you could put chocolate there, and
maybe the chocolate is what people want, but maybe you should put cleaning
supplies there and nobody wants it, because the IdeaGraph doesn't connect them
tightly enough.
The other place that you run into issues with the IdeaGraph on search and on
the Internet is with authorship and credibility and authority.
Right now, if you write an article, and it gets posted on a third-party site,
like The New York Times, and it's a huge hit, and it gets thousands and
thousands and thousands of links, you might get a little authority sent back to
your site, and your site is sad. See? Sad face website. Because it's not getting
all the authority it could. Your post is getting tons. It's happy. But your site
is not.
With the IdeaGraph it will be easier because the thing that connects your
site to your article is you. So just like you can connect widely varying ideas
and concepts, you can also connect everything you contribute to a single central
source, which then redistributes that authority.
Now Google is starting to work on this. They're starting to work on how to
make this work for them in search results. What they've started to do is build
these random affinities. So if you take cyclists and eggplant, theoretically
some of the things Google is doing could eventually create this place, this
space, where you would be able to tell from Google, and Google would be able to
tell you that there is this overlap.
The place that they're starting to do it, I think, remember Google doesn't
come and tell us these things, but I think it's Google+. With authorship and
publisher, rel=author and rel=publisher, they're actually tying these different
things together into a single receptacle into your Google+ profile. Remember,
anyone who has Gmail, has a Google+ profile. They may not know it, but they do.
Now Google's gathering all sorts of demographic data with that as well.
So what they're doing is, let's say you're using rel=author and you publish
posts all over the Internet, good posts. If you're just doing crappy guest
blogging, this probably won't work. You'll just send yourself all the lousy
credit. You want the good credit. So you write all these posts, and you have the
rel=author on the post, and they link back to your Google+ profile.
So your Google+ profile gets more and more authoritative. As it gets more and
more authoritative, it redistributes that authority, that connection to all the
places you publish. What you end up with is a much more robust way of connecting
content to people and ideas to people, and ideas to each other. If you write
about cycling on one site and eggplant on another, and they both link back to
your Google+ profile, and a lot of other people do that, Google can start to
say, "Huh, there might be a connection here. Maybe, with my new enhanced query
results, I should think about how I can put these two pieces of information
together to provide better search results." And your site ends up happier. See?
Happy site. Total limit of my artistic ability.
So that becomes a very powerful tool for creating exactly the right kind of
results that we, as human beings, really want, because people create the
IdeaGraph. Search engines create the world of words and links, and that's why
some people have so much trouble with queries, because they're having to convert
their thinking from just ideas to words and links.
So what powers the IdeaGraph is this concept of random affinities. You, as a
marketer, can take advantage of that, because as Google figures this out through
Google+, you're going to be able to find these affinities, and just like all
those aisles in the grocery store, or when you walk into a Starbucks and there's
a CD thereâyou're buying coffee and there's a CD? How do those relate?
When you find those random affinities, you can capitalize on them and make your
marketing message that much more compelling, because you can find where to put
that message in places you might never expect.
An example I like is I went on Amazon once and I searched for "lonely
planet," and in the "people who bought this also bought," I found a book on
making really great smoothies, which tells me there's this random affinity
between people who travel lonely planet style and people who like smoothies. It
might be a tiny attachment. It might be a tiny relationship, but it's a great
place to do some cross marketing and to target content.
So if you take a look here, if you want to find random affinities and build
on them, take a look at the Facebook Ad Planner. When you're building a Facebook
ad, you can put in a precise interest, and it'll show you other related precise
interests. Those relationships are built almost purely on the people who have
them in common. So sometimes there is no match, there's no relationship between
those two different concepts or interests, other than the fact that lots of
people like them both. So that's a good place to start.
Any site that uses collaborative filtering. So, Amazon, for example. Any site
that has "people who bought this also bought that" is a great place to go try
this. Go on Amazon and try it and look at "people who bought also bought."
You'll find all sorts of cool relationships.
Followerwonk is a fantastic tool for this. This one takes a little more work,
but the data you can find is incredible. Let's say you know that Rand is one of
your customers. He's a perfect customer, and he's typical of your perfect
customer. You can go on Followerwonk and find all the people who follow him and
then pull all of their bios, do a little research into the bios and find what
other interests those people express.
So they're following Randfish, but maybe a whole bunch of them express an
interest in comic books, and it's more than just one or two. It's a big number
of them. You just found a random affinity. People who like Rand also like comic
books. You can then find this area, and it's always easier to sell and get
interest in this area.
Again, you can use that to drive content strategy. You can use that to drive
keyword selection in a world where we don't really know what keywords are
driving traffic anymore, but we can find out what ideas are. You can use it to
target specific messages to people.
The ways you capitalize on this, on your own site you want to make sure that
you have rel=author and publisher set up, because that's the most obvious
IdeaGraph implementation we have right now, is rel=author and publisher.
Make sure you're using schemas from Schema.org whenever you can. For example,
make sure you use the article mark-up on your site because Google's enhanced
articles, results that are showing up at the bottom of search results right now,
those are powered, in part, by pages that have the article mark-up, or at least
there's a very high correlation between them. We don't know if it's causal, but
it seems to be.
Use product mark-up and review mark-up. I've seen a few instances and some of
my colleagues have seen instances where schema mark-up on a page allows content
to show up in search results attributed to that page, even if they're being
populated to the page by JavaScript or something else.
Get yourself set up with Google Analytics Demographics, as Google rolls it
out. You'll be able to get demographic data and categorical data in Google
Analytics based on visitors to your site. Then again, if you have a demographic
profile, you can look at the things that that demographic profile is interested
in and find those random affinities.
So just to summarize all of this, links and words have worked for a long
time, but we're starting to see the limitations of it, particularly with mobile
devices and other kinds of search. Google has been trying to find a way to fix
this, as has Bing, and they're both working very hard at this. They're trying to
build on this thing that has always existed that I call the IdeaGraph, and
they're building on it using random affinities. Selling to random affinities is
much, much easier. You can find them using lots of tools out on the web like
collaborative filtering, Facebook, and Followerwonk. You can take advantage and
position your site for it by just making sure that you have these basic mark-up
elements in place, and you're already collecting data.
I hope that was helpful to all Moz fans out there, and I look forward to
talking to you online. Thanks.
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/EKkUlffTEfU/the-ideagraph-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 wrttnwrd
There can be important links between topics that seem completely unrelated at
first glance. These random affinities are factoring into search results more and
more, and in today's Whiteboard Friday, Ian Lurie of Portent, Inc. shows us how
we can find and benefit from those otherwise-hidden links.
Whiteboard Friday - Ian Lurie - The Ideagraph
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Howdy Moz fans. Today we're going to talk about the IdeaGraph. My name's Ian
Lurie, and I want to talk about some critical evolution that's happening in the
world of search right now.
Google and other search engines have existed in a world of words and links.
Words establish relevance. Links establish connections and authority. The
problem with that is Google takes a look at this world of links and words and
has a very hard time with what I call random affinities.
Let's say all cyclists like eggplant, or some cyclists like eggplant. Google
can't figure that out. There is no way to make that connection. Maybe if every
eggplant site on the planet linked to every cycling site on the planet, there
would be something there for them, but there really isn't.
So Google exists purely on words and links, which means there's a lot of
things that it doesn't pick up on. The things it doesn't pick up on are what I
call the IdeaGraph.
The IdeaGraph is something that's always existed. It's not something new.
It's this thing that creates these connections that are formed only by people.
So things that are totally unrelated, like eggplant and cyclists, and by the way
that's not true as far as I know. I'm a cyclist and I hate eggplant. But all
these things that randomly connect are part of the IdeaGraph.
The IdeaGraph has been used by marketers for years and years and years. If
you walk into a grocery store, and you're going from one aisle to the next and
you see these products in semi-random order, there's some research there where
they test different configurations and see, if someone's walking to the dairy
section way at the back of the store, what products can we put along their walk
that they're most likely to pick up? Those products, even if the marketers don't
know it, are part of the IdeaGraph, because you could put chocolate there, and
maybe the chocolate is what people want, but maybe you should put cleaning
supplies there and nobody wants it, because the IdeaGraph doesn't connect them
tightly enough.
The other place that you run into issues with the IdeaGraph on search and on
the Internet is with authorship and credibility and authority.
Right now, if you write an article, and it gets posted on a third-party site,
like The New York Times, and it's a huge hit, and it gets thousands and
thousands and thousands of links, you might get a little authority sent back to
your site, and your site is sad. See? Sad face website. Because it's not getting
all the authority it could. Your post is getting tons. It's happy. But your site
is not.
With the IdeaGraph it will be easier because the thing that connects your
site to your article is you. So just like you can connect widely varying ideas
and concepts, you can also connect everything you contribute to a single central
source, which then redistributes that authority.
Now Google is starting to work on this. They're starting to work on how to
make this work for them in search results. What they've started to do is build
these random affinities. So if you take cyclists and eggplant, theoretically
some of the things Google is doing could eventually create this place, this
space, where you would be able to tell from Google, and Google would be able to
tell you that there is this overlap.
The place that they're starting to do it, I think, remember Google doesn't
come and tell us these things, but I think it's Google+. With authorship and
publisher, rel=author and rel=publisher, they're actually tying these different
things together into a single receptacle into your Google+ profile. Remember,
anyone who has Gmail, has a Google+ profile. They may not know it, but they do.
Now Google's gathering all sorts of demographic data with that as well.
So what they're doing is, let's say you're using rel=author and you publish
posts all over the Internet, good posts. If you're just doing crappy guest
blogging, this probably won't work. You'll just send yourself all the lousy
credit. You want the good credit. So you write all these posts, and you have the
rel=author on the post, and they link back to your Google+ profile.
So your Google+ profile gets more and more authoritative. As it gets more and
more authoritative, it redistributes that authority, that connection to all the
places you publish. What you end up with is a much more robust way of connecting
content to people and ideas to people, and ideas to each other. If you write
about cycling on one site and eggplant on another, and they both link back to
your Google+ profile, and a lot of other people do that, Google can start to
say, "Huh, there might be a connection here. Maybe, with my new enhanced query
results, I should think about how I can put these two pieces of information
together to provide better search results." And your site ends up happier. See?
Happy site. Total limit of my artistic ability.
So that becomes a very powerful tool for creating exactly the right kind of
results that we, as human beings, really want, because people create the
IdeaGraph. Search engines create the world of words and links, and that's why
some people have so much trouble with queries, because they're having to convert
their thinking from just ideas to words and links.
So what powers the IdeaGraph is this concept of random affinities. You, as a
marketer, can take advantage of that, because as Google figures this out through
Google+, you're going to be able to find these affinities, and just like all
those aisles in the grocery store, or when you walk into a Starbucks and there's
a CD thereâyou're buying coffee and there's a CD? How do those relate?
When you find those random affinities, you can capitalize on them and make your
marketing message that much more compelling, because you can find where to put
that message in places you might never expect.
An example I like is I went on Amazon once and I searched for "lonely
planet," and in the "people who bought this also bought," I found a book on
making really great smoothies, which tells me there's this random affinity
between people who travel lonely planet style and people who like smoothies. It
might be a tiny attachment. It might be a tiny relationship, but it's a great
place to do some cross marketing and to target content.
So if you take a look here, if you want to find random affinities and build
on them, take a look at the Facebook Ad Planner. When you're building a Facebook
ad, you can put in a precise interest, and it'll show you other related precise
interests. Those relationships are built almost purely on the people who have
them in common. So sometimes there is no match, there's no relationship between
those two different concepts or interests, other than the fact that lots of
people like them both. So that's a good place to start.
Any site that uses collaborative filtering. So, Amazon, for example. Any site
that has "people who bought this also bought that" is a great place to go try
this. Go on Amazon and try it and look at "people who bought also bought."
You'll find all sorts of cool relationships.
Followerwonk is a fantastic tool for this. This one takes a little more work,
but the data you can find is incredible. Let's say you know that Rand is one of
your customers. He's a perfect customer, and he's typical of your perfect
customer. You can go on Followerwonk and find all the people who follow him and
then pull all of their bios, do a little research into the bios and find what
other interests those people express.
So they're following Randfish, but maybe a whole bunch of them express an
interest in comic books, and it's more than just one or two. It's a big number
of them. You just found a random affinity. People who like Rand also like comic
books. You can then find this area, and it's always easier to sell and get
interest in this area.
Again, you can use that to drive content strategy. You can use that to drive
keyword selection in a world where we don't really know what keywords are
driving traffic anymore, but we can find out what ideas are. You can use it to
target specific messages to people.
The ways you capitalize on this, on your own site you want to make sure that
you have rel=author and publisher set up, because that's the most obvious
IdeaGraph implementation we have right now, is rel=author and publisher.
Make sure you're using schemas from Schema.org whenever you can. For example,
make sure you use the article mark-up on your site because Google's enhanced
articles, results that are showing up at the bottom of search results right now,
those are powered, in part, by pages that have the article mark-up, or at least
there's a very high correlation between them. We don't know if it's causal, but
it seems to be.
Use product mark-up and review mark-up. I've seen a few instances and some of
my colleagues have seen instances where schema mark-up on a page allows content
to show up in search results attributed to that page, even if they're being
populated to the page by JavaScript or something else.
Get yourself set up with Google Analytics Demographics, as Google rolls it
out. You'll be able to get demographic data and categorical data in Google
Analytics based on visitors to your site. Then again, if you have a demographic
profile, you can look at the things that that demographic profile is interested
in and find those random affinities.
So just to summarize all of this, links and words have worked for a long
time, but we're starting to see the limitations of it, particularly with mobile
devices and other kinds of search. Google has been trying to find a way to fix
this, as has Bing, and they're both working very hard at this. They're trying to
build on this thing that has always existed that I call the IdeaGraph, and
they're building on it using random affinities. Selling to random affinities is
much, much easier. You can find them using lots of tools out on the web like
collaborative filtering, Facebook, and Followerwonk. You can take advantage and
position your site for it by just making sure that you have these basic mark-up
elements in place, and you're already collecting data.
I hope that was helpful to all Moz fans out there, and I look forward to
talking to you online. Thanks.
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!
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/EKkUlffTEfU/the-ideagraph-whiteboard-friday
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posted.
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[Build Backlinks Online] Forget Best Practices – Get 100,000+ Likes with Your Genuine Voice
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Forget Best Practices – Get
100,000+ Likes with Your Genuine Voice'
David Oliver, Chief of Police at the Brimfield Police Department in Ohio, joins
theSocial Pros Podcastthis week to discuss the insane popularity of his
departments Facebook page, his book at the foundation its proceeds benefit, and
the importance of maintaining a consistent presence and voice in social media.
Read on for some of the highlights []Forget Best Practices Get 100,000+ Likes
with Your Genuine Voice 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/forget-best-practices-get-100000-likes-with-your-genuine-voice/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=forget-best-practices-get-100000-likes-with-your-genuine-voice
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
100,000+ Likes with Your Genuine Voice'
David Oliver, Chief of Police at the Brimfield Police Department in Ohio, joins
theSocial Pros Podcastthis week to discuss the insane popularity of his
departments Facebook page, his book at the foundation its proceeds benefit, and
the importance of maintaining a consistent presence and voice in social media.
Read on for some of the highlights []Forget Best Practices Get 100,000+ Likes
with Your Genuine Voice 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/forget-best-practices-get-100000-likes-with-your-genuine-voice/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=forget-best-practices-get-100000-likes-with-your-genuine-voice
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
Thursday 26 December 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] How To Do Better Product Reviews On Your Blog
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'How To Do Better Product Reviews
On Your Blog'
One piece of advice I would like to share with readers is something that gets
asked to me quite often as a product reviewer and that is how do you get
companies to give you products that you can review. To understand why company's
and brands reach out ...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/ozzeBCps_CI/better-product-reviews.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
On Your Blog'
One piece of advice I would like to share with readers is something that gets
asked to me quite often as a product reviewer and that is how do you get
companies to give you products that you can review. To understand why company's
and brands reach out ...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/ozzeBCps_CI/better-product-reviews.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
[Build Backlinks Online] Mission ImposSERPble 2: User Intent and Click Through Rates
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Mission ImposSERPble 2: User
Intent and Click Through Rates'
Posted by CatalystSEMThis 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.
Itâs been quite a while since I first read (and bookmarked) Slingshot
SEOâs YouMoz blog post, Mission ImposSERPble: Establishing Click-through
Rates, which showcased their study examining organic click-through rates (CTR)
across search engine result pages. The Slingshot study is an excellent example
of how one can use data to uncover trends and insights. However, that study is
over two and a half years old now, and the Google search results have evolved
significantly since then.
Using the Slingshot CTR study (and a few others) as inspiration, Catalyst
thought it would be beneficial to take a fresh look at some of our own
click-through rate data and dive into the mindset of searchers and their
proclivity for clicking on the different types of modern organic Google search
results.
Swing on over to Catalystâs website and download the free Google CTR
Study: How User Intent Impacts Google Click-Through Rates
**TANGENT: I'm really hoping that the Moz community's reception of this
'sequel' post follows the path of some of the all-time great movie sequels
(think Terminator 2, The Godfather: Part II) and not that of Jaws 2.
How is the 2013 Catalyst CTR study unique?
RECENT DATA: This CTR study is the most current large-scale US study available.
It contains data ranging from Oct. 2012 â June 2013. Google is constantly
tweaking its SERP UI, which can influence organic CTR behavior.
MORE DATA: This study contains more keyword data, too. The keyword set for this
study spans 17,500 unique queries across 59 different websites. More data can
lead to more accurate representations of the true population.
MORE SEGMENTS: This study segments queries into categories not covered in
previous studies which allows us to compared CTR behavior attributed to
different keyword types. For example, branded v. unbranded queries, and question
v. non-question based queries.
How have organic CTRs changed over time?
The most significant changes since the 2011 Slingshot study is the higher CTRs
for positions 3, 4, and 5.
Ranking on the first page of search results is great for achieving visibility;
however, the search result for your website must be compelling enough to make
searchers want to click through to your website. In fact, this study shows that
having the most compelling listing in the SERPs could be more important than
âranking #1â (provided you are still ranking within the top five
listings, anyway).
Read on to learn more.
Since Slingshotâs 2011 study, click-through rates have not dramatically
shifted, with the total average CTR for first page organic results dropping by
just 4%.
While seemingly minor, these downward shifts could be a result of
Googleâs ever-evolving user interface. For example, with elements such as
Product Listing Ads, Knowledge Graph information, G+ authorship snippets, and
other microdata becoming more and more common in a Google SERP, usersâ
eyes may tend to stray further from the historical âF shapeâ
pattern, impacting the CTR by ranking position.
Positions 3-5 showed slightly higher average CTRs than what Slingshot
presented in 2011. A possible explanation for this shift is that users could be
more aware of Paid Search listing located at the top of the results page, so in
an attempt to âbypassâ these results, they may have modified their
browsing behavior to quickly scan/wheel-scroll past a few listings down the
page.
What is the distribution of clicks across a Google SERP?
Business owners need to understand that even if your website ranks in the
first organic position for your target keyword, your site will almost certainly
never receive traffic from every one of those users/searchers.
On average, the top organic SERP listing (#1) drives visits from around 17% of
Google searches.
The top four positions, or typical rankings âabove the foldâ for
many desktop users, receive 83% of first page organic clicks.
The Catalyst data also reveals that only 48% of Google searches result in a
page one organic click (meaning any click on listings ranging 1-10). So what is
the other 52% doing? Two things, the user either clicks on a Paid Search
listing, or they âabandonâ the search, which we define as:
Query Refinement â based on the displayed results, the user alters their
search
Instant Satisfaction â based on the displayed results, the user gets the
answer they were interested in without having to click
2nd Page Organic SERP â the user navigates to other SERPs
Leave Search Engine â the user exits the Google search engine
How do branded query CTRs differ from unbranded queries?
Branded CTRs for top ranking terms are lower than unbranded CTRs, likely due to
both user intent and the way Google presents results.
These numbers shocked us a bit. At the surface, you might assume that listings
with top rankings for branded queries would have higher CTRs than unbranded
queries. But, when you take a closer look at the current Google UI and place
yourself in the mindset of a searcher, our data actually seems more likely.
Consumers who search unbranded queries are often times higher in the
purchasing funnel: looking for information, without a specific answer or action
in mind. As a result, they may be more likely to click on the first result,
particularly when the listing belongs to a strong brand that they trust.
Additionally, take a look at the example below, notice how many organic
results are presented âabove the foldâ for a unbranded query
compared to an branded query (note: these SERP screenshots were taken from
1366x768 screen resolution). There are far fewer potential organic click paths
for a user to take when presented with the branded query's result page (1
organic result v. 4.5 results). It really boils down to 'transactional' v.
'informational' queries. Typically, keywords that are more transactional (e.g.
purchase intent) and/or drive higher ROI are more competitive in the PPC space
and as a result will have more paid search ads encroaching on valuable SERP real
estate.
We all know the makeup of every search result page is different and the number
of organic results above the fold can be influenced by a number of factors,
including, device type, screen size/resolution, paid search competiveness, and
so on.
You can use your website analytics platform to see what screen resolutions
your visitors are using and predict how many organic listings your target
audience would typically see for different search types and devices. In our
example, you can see that my desktop visitors most commonly use screen
resolutions higher than 1280x800, so I can be fairly certain that my current
audience typically sees up to 5 organic results from a desktop Google search.
Does query length/word count impact organic CTR?
As a userâs query length approaches the long tail, the average CTR for
page one rankings increases.
The organic click percentage totals represented in this graph suggest that as
a userâs query becomes more refined they are more likely to click on a
first page organic result (~56% for four+ word queries v. ~30% for one-word
queries).
Furthermore, as a query approaches the long tail, click distributions across
the top ten results begin to spread more evenly down the fold. Meaning, when a
consumerâs search becomes more refined/specific, they likely spend more
time scanning the SERPs looking for the best possible listing to answer their
search inquiry. This is where compelling calls-to-action and eye-catching page
titles/meta descriptions can really make or break your organic click through
rates.
As previously stated, only about 30% of one-word queries result in a first
page organic click. Why so low? Well, one potential reason for this is that
searchers use one-word queries simply to refine their search based on their
initial impression of the SERP. This means that the single word query would
become a multiple word query. If the user does not find what they are looking
for within the first result, they modify their search to be more specific, often
resulting in the query to contain multiple words.
Additionally, one-word queries resulted in 60% of the total first page organic
clicks (17.68%) being attributed to the first ranking. Maybe, by nature,
one-word queries are very similar to navigational queries (as the keywords are
oftentimes very broad or a specific brand name).
Potential business uses
Leveraging click-through rate data enables us to further understand user
behavior on a search result and how it can differ depending on search intent.
These learnings can play an integral role in defining a companyâs digital
strategy, as well as forecasting website traffic and even ROI. For instance:
Forecasting Website Performance and Traffic Given a keywordâs monthly
search volume, we can predict the number of visits a website could expect to
receive by each ranking position. This becomes increasingly valuable when we
have conversion rate data attributed to specific keywords.
Identifying Search Keyword Targets With Google Webmaster Toolsâ
CTR/search query data we can easily determine the keywords that are
âlow-hanging fruitâ. We consider low hanging fruit to be keywords
that a brand ranks fairly well on, but are just outside of achieving high
visibility/high organic traffic because the site currently ranks âbelow
the foldâ on page 1 of the SERPs or rank somewhere within pages 2-3 of the
results.). Once targeted and integrated into the brandâs keyphrase
strategy, SEOs can then work to improve the siteâs rankings for that
particular query.
Identifying Under-performing Top Visible Keywords By comparing a brandâs
specific search query CTR against the industry average as identified in this
report, we can identify under-performing keyphrases. Next, an SEO can perform an
audit to determine if the low CTR is due to factors within the brandâs
control, or if it is caused by external factors.
Data set, criteria, and methodology
Some information about our data set and methodology. If youâre like me,
and want to follow along using your own data, you can review our complete
process in our whitepaper. All websites included in the study are Consumer
Packaged Goods (CPG) brands. As such, the associated CTRs, and hypothesized user
behaviors reflect only those brands and users.
Data was collected via each brandâs respective Google Webmaster Tools
account, which was then processed and analyzed using a powerful BI and data
visualization tool.
Catalyst analyzed close to 17,500 unique search queries (with an average
ranking between 1â10, and a minimum of 50 search impressions per month)
across 59 unique brands over a 9 month timeframe (Oct. 2012 â Jun 2013).
Here are a few definitions so weâre all on the same page (we mirrored
definitions as provided by Google for their Google Webmaster Tools)â
Click-Through Rate (CTR) - the percentage of impressions that resulted in a
click for a website.
Average Position â the average top position of a website on the search
results page for that query. To calculate average position, Google takes into
account the top ranking URL from the website for a particular query.
Final word
I have learned a great deal from the studies and blog posts shared by Moz and
other industry experts throughout my career, and I felt I had an opportunity to
meaningfully contribute back to the SEO community by providing an updated, more
in-depth Google CTR study for SEOs to use as a resource when benchmarking and
measuring their campaigns and progress.
For more data and analysis relating to coupon-based queries, question based
queries, desktop v. mobile user devices, and more download our complete CTR
study.
Have any questions or comments on our study? Did anyone actually enjoy Jaws 2?
Please let us know and join the discussion below!
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/WvIGffHi4Vw/mission-imposserpble-2-user-intent-click-through-rates
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
Intent and Click Through Rates'
Posted by CatalystSEMThis 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.
Itâs been quite a while since I first read (and bookmarked) Slingshot
SEOâs YouMoz blog post, Mission ImposSERPble: Establishing Click-through
Rates, which showcased their study examining organic click-through rates (CTR)
across search engine result pages. The Slingshot study is an excellent example
of how one can use data to uncover trends and insights. However, that study is
over two and a half years old now, and the Google search results have evolved
significantly since then.
Using the Slingshot CTR study (and a few others) as inspiration, Catalyst
thought it would be beneficial to take a fresh look at some of our own
click-through rate data and dive into the mindset of searchers and their
proclivity for clicking on the different types of modern organic Google search
results.
Swing on over to Catalystâs website and download the free Google CTR
Study: How User Intent Impacts Google Click-Through Rates
**TANGENT: I'm really hoping that the Moz community's reception of this
'sequel' post follows the path of some of the all-time great movie sequels
(think Terminator 2, The Godfather: Part II) and not that of Jaws 2.
How is the 2013 Catalyst CTR study unique?
RECENT DATA: This CTR study is the most current large-scale US study available.
It contains data ranging from Oct. 2012 â June 2013. Google is constantly
tweaking its SERP UI, which can influence organic CTR behavior.
MORE DATA: This study contains more keyword data, too. The keyword set for this
study spans 17,500 unique queries across 59 different websites. More data can
lead to more accurate representations of the true population.
MORE SEGMENTS: This study segments queries into categories not covered in
previous studies which allows us to compared CTR behavior attributed to
different keyword types. For example, branded v. unbranded queries, and question
v. non-question based queries.
How have organic CTRs changed over time?
The most significant changes since the 2011 Slingshot study is the higher CTRs
for positions 3, 4, and 5.
Ranking on the first page of search results is great for achieving visibility;
however, the search result for your website must be compelling enough to make
searchers want to click through to your website. In fact, this study shows that
having the most compelling listing in the SERPs could be more important than
âranking #1â (provided you are still ranking within the top five
listings, anyway).
Read on to learn more.
Since Slingshotâs 2011 study, click-through rates have not dramatically
shifted, with the total average CTR for first page organic results dropping by
just 4%.
While seemingly minor, these downward shifts could be a result of
Googleâs ever-evolving user interface. For example, with elements such as
Product Listing Ads, Knowledge Graph information, G+ authorship snippets, and
other microdata becoming more and more common in a Google SERP, usersâ
eyes may tend to stray further from the historical âF shapeâ
pattern, impacting the CTR by ranking position.
Positions 3-5 showed slightly higher average CTRs than what Slingshot
presented in 2011. A possible explanation for this shift is that users could be
more aware of Paid Search listing located at the top of the results page, so in
an attempt to âbypassâ these results, they may have modified their
browsing behavior to quickly scan/wheel-scroll past a few listings down the
page.
What is the distribution of clicks across a Google SERP?
Business owners need to understand that even if your website ranks in the
first organic position for your target keyword, your site will almost certainly
never receive traffic from every one of those users/searchers.
On average, the top organic SERP listing (#1) drives visits from around 17% of
Google searches.
The top four positions, or typical rankings âabove the foldâ for
many desktop users, receive 83% of first page organic clicks.
The Catalyst data also reveals that only 48% of Google searches result in a
page one organic click (meaning any click on listings ranging 1-10). So what is
the other 52% doing? Two things, the user either clicks on a Paid Search
listing, or they âabandonâ the search, which we define as:
Query Refinement â based on the displayed results, the user alters their
search
Instant Satisfaction â based on the displayed results, the user gets the
answer they were interested in without having to click
2nd Page Organic SERP â the user navigates to other SERPs
Leave Search Engine â the user exits the Google search engine
How do branded query CTRs differ from unbranded queries?
Branded CTRs for top ranking terms are lower than unbranded CTRs, likely due to
both user intent and the way Google presents results.
These numbers shocked us a bit. At the surface, you might assume that listings
with top rankings for branded queries would have higher CTRs than unbranded
queries. But, when you take a closer look at the current Google UI and place
yourself in the mindset of a searcher, our data actually seems more likely.
Consumers who search unbranded queries are often times higher in the
purchasing funnel: looking for information, without a specific answer or action
in mind. As a result, they may be more likely to click on the first result,
particularly when the listing belongs to a strong brand that they trust.
Additionally, take a look at the example below, notice how many organic
results are presented âabove the foldâ for a unbranded query
compared to an branded query (note: these SERP screenshots were taken from
1366x768 screen resolution). There are far fewer potential organic click paths
for a user to take when presented with the branded query's result page (1
organic result v. 4.5 results). It really boils down to 'transactional' v.
'informational' queries. Typically, keywords that are more transactional (e.g.
purchase intent) and/or drive higher ROI are more competitive in the PPC space
and as a result will have more paid search ads encroaching on valuable SERP real
estate.
We all know the makeup of every search result page is different and the number
of organic results above the fold can be influenced by a number of factors,
including, device type, screen size/resolution, paid search competiveness, and
so on.
You can use your website analytics platform to see what screen resolutions
your visitors are using and predict how many organic listings your target
audience would typically see for different search types and devices. In our
example, you can see that my desktop visitors most commonly use screen
resolutions higher than 1280x800, so I can be fairly certain that my current
audience typically sees up to 5 organic results from a desktop Google search.
Does query length/word count impact organic CTR?
As a userâs query length approaches the long tail, the average CTR for
page one rankings increases.
The organic click percentage totals represented in this graph suggest that as
a userâs query becomes more refined they are more likely to click on a
first page organic result (~56% for four+ word queries v. ~30% for one-word
queries).
Furthermore, as a query approaches the long tail, click distributions across
the top ten results begin to spread more evenly down the fold. Meaning, when a
consumerâs search becomes more refined/specific, they likely spend more
time scanning the SERPs looking for the best possible listing to answer their
search inquiry. This is where compelling calls-to-action and eye-catching page
titles/meta descriptions can really make or break your organic click through
rates.
As previously stated, only about 30% of one-word queries result in a first
page organic click. Why so low? Well, one potential reason for this is that
searchers use one-word queries simply to refine their search based on their
initial impression of the SERP. This means that the single word query would
become a multiple word query. If the user does not find what they are looking
for within the first result, they modify their search to be more specific, often
resulting in the query to contain multiple words.
Additionally, one-word queries resulted in 60% of the total first page organic
clicks (17.68%) being attributed to the first ranking. Maybe, by nature,
one-word queries are very similar to navigational queries (as the keywords are
oftentimes very broad or a specific brand name).
Potential business uses
Leveraging click-through rate data enables us to further understand user
behavior on a search result and how it can differ depending on search intent.
These learnings can play an integral role in defining a companyâs digital
strategy, as well as forecasting website traffic and even ROI. For instance:
Forecasting Website Performance and Traffic Given a keywordâs monthly
search volume, we can predict the number of visits a website could expect to
receive by each ranking position. This becomes increasingly valuable when we
have conversion rate data attributed to specific keywords.
Identifying Search Keyword Targets With Google Webmaster Toolsâ
CTR/search query data we can easily determine the keywords that are
âlow-hanging fruitâ. We consider low hanging fruit to be keywords
that a brand ranks fairly well on, but are just outside of achieving high
visibility/high organic traffic because the site currently ranks âbelow
the foldâ on page 1 of the SERPs or rank somewhere within pages 2-3 of the
results.). Once targeted and integrated into the brandâs keyphrase
strategy, SEOs can then work to improve the siteâs rankings for that
particular query.
Identifying Under-performing Top Visible Keywords By comparing a brandâs
specific search query CTR against the industry average as identified in this
report, we can identify under-performing keyphrases. Next, an SEO can perform an
audit to determine if the low CTR is due to factors within the brandâs
control, or if it is caused by external factors.
Data set, criteria, and methodology
Some information about our data set and methodology. If youâre like me,
and want to follow along using your own data, you can review our complete
process in our whitepaper. All websites included in the study are Consumer
Packaged Goods (CPG) brands. As such, the associated CTRs, and hypothesized user
behaviors reflect only those brands and users.
Data was collected via each brandâs respective Google Webmaster Tools
account, which was then processed and analyzed using a powerful BI and data
visualization tool.
Catalyst analyzed close to 17,500 unique search queries (with an average
ranking between 1â10, and a minimum of 50 search impressions per month)
across 59 unique brands over a 9 month timeframe (Oct. 2012 â Jun 2013).
Here are a few definitions so weâre all on the same page (we mirrored
definitions as provided by Google for their Google Webmaster Tools)â
Click-Through Rate (CTR) - the percentage of impressions that resulted in a
click for a website.
Average Position â the average top position of a website on the search
results page for that query. To calculate average position, Google takes into
account the top ranking URL from the website for a particular query.
Final word
I have learned a great deal from the studies and blog posts shared by Moz and
other industry experts throughout my career, and I felt I had an opportunity to
meaningfully contribute back to the SEO community by providing an updated, more
in-depth Google CTR study for SEOs to use as a resource when benchmarking and
measuring their campaigns and progress.
For more data and analysis relating to coupon-based queries, question based
queries, desktop v. mobile user devices, and more download our complete CTR
study.
Have any questions or comments on our study? Did anyone actually enjoy Jaws 2?
Please let us know and join the discussion below!
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/WvIGffHi4Vw/mission-imposserpble-2-user-intent-click-through-rates
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, 'The Small Business Guide to the DMCA and Copyright Law'
Deciding how to handle copyright law in a time where 3D printers are on the rise and online media sharing is the norm is troublesome at best. Many critics admonish movie studios and record labels for their desperate attempts to retain the status quo, rather than embrace and adapt to cultural shifts. This stalwart stubbornness is reflected in the big media industries' use of the DMCA to levy absurd fines against online copyright infringers.
That being said, it'd be unfair to suggest that copyright holders or intellectual property owners should have no rights when it comes to the wild west of the Internet. It all comes to a problem of balance and fairness. While we're likely many years away from finding a suitable balancing point for properly protecting the rights of owners while being reasonable with infringers, we do hope to offer some key highlights and aspects of the DMCA and copyright law that YOU need to know as a small business or, heck, just a resident of the World Wide Web.
In this post, we’ll be examining:
- DMCA Summary: Exactly What is This Thing?
- Why the DMCA is Just Plain Terrible
- Why the DMCA is Necessary (Kind of)
- How DMCA and Copyright Law Hurt Small Businesses
- YouTube's Content ID System: Copyright Gone Wrong
- What is a DMCA Takedown Notice?
- What is Safe Harbor?
- You Received a DMCA Notice – But You Did Nothing Wrong! Now What?
- How to File a DMCA Complaint
- DMCA Fair Use: When is it OK to Use Copyrighted Material?
- The Future of the DMCA: Will it Get Better?
DMCA Summary: What is it?
The DMCA, officially named The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is a 1998 US copyright law, implementing two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The DMCA criminalizes technology intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted materials (also known as digital rights management or DRM). It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, even in cases where there is no copyright infringement occurring.The DMCA dramatically increases the penalties for copyright infringement via the Internet.
Why the DMCA is Just Plain Terrible
The DMCA has a lot of haters, and it's really no shock considering that:
It has outrageous penalties for menial crimes. The DMCA has helped create outrageous penalties for downloading music, movies, or other media illegally. Just 6 months ago, an appeals court approved a $675,000 fine for a Boston student who was caught illegally downloading 30 songs. Guess how much a Harvard student was fined recently for sending a false bomb threat, evacuating several buildings, wasting hours of the FBI, Boston, Cambridge, and Harvard University police departments’ manpower, all in hopes of avoiding a final? The answer: $250,000. So apparently downloading a few songs is the greater offense.
It's rigid in a fluid world. The DMCA is rigid and restricting, enforcing strict old-school guidelines that don't fit right in the new realm of the Internet. The Internet breaks apart classic forms of ownership as online creations mutate and multiply at an unprecedented rate. Memes alone are a copyright nightmare.Take the old meme classic Philosoraptor for example. Originally it was a t-shirt design on LonelyDinosaur, but it's grown into something much bigger, with countless variations across the web.
It lets the rich get richer while hurting the little guy. The DMCA enables those with big pockets to profit while perpetuating the embarrassing concept that the U.S. is a lawsuit-hungry monster of a country. The practice of leveraging copyrights and patent suites to make profit is damaging the economy by preventing innovation and creativity from thriving. (This American Life has a fascinating story about the upsetting patent troll schemes happening across the country – check it out when you have the time.)
It serves Hollywood, not the people. Ultimately, the DMCA can be seen as a tool that has enabled Hollywood movie studios and large record labels to prevent the natural forward movement of the entertainment industry. In a world where users are increasingly consuming the majority of their media content online, groups like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have long made efforts to throw their weight around to prevent an easy online transition out of simple laziness.
It restricts an owner's rights over their property. The DMCA prevents users from ripping and burning their purchased DVDs (even for personal use) so that movie studios can charge astronomically higher prices for the same content. Digital Rights Management (DRM) coding was placed in DVDs to prevent such copying, and circumventing this coding is extremely illegal. Under the umbrella of circumvention, the DMCA has also made it illegal to jailbreak phones, consoles, or other electronics.
It violates free speech and academic advances— or so one could argue. Researches who study DRM technologies are not allowed to share information that could aid in circumvention. Programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was incarcerated in 2001 for working on software that could modify the format of e-books, and others have also suffered punishment for similar research. The DMCA is stifling technological innovation, damaging the economy as a result.
FoxTrot comic borrowed from Against Monopoly
Why the DMCA is Necessary (Kind Of)
The DMCA in its current state is too absurd to be helpful to many, but the concept itself isn't unreasonable.
We DO need to protect creators somehow. A law built on such extremes can't really be called good, especially when it functions mainly as the Igor assistant for big Hollywood lobbyists. However, there does need to be some kind of structure designed to support artists and creators – simply posting something online shouldn't mean sacrificing the work, credit, and compensation creators deserve for their efforts.
Yet in an age where most creative works come to fruition online and morph into new mutations constantly, it would be a huge mistake to stifle creative energies.
How do we reach this delicate balancing point? The answer isn't obvious. However, it's clear that the first step is adjusting the penalty system so that the fine fits the crime (remember the war on drugs? Yeah, sending generations of young minority men to prison for marijuana didn't seem to work out so well). Charging $22,000 per song is nothing short of moronic.
How DMCA and Copyright Law Hurt Small Businesses
While the DMCA appears to protect small businesses and content creators at face value, it is ultimately a wolf in sheep's clothing. Photographers are one group often victimized by the very laws that claim to protect them. Imagine that Conglom-O, a large mega company, uses a photographer's photos without permission – let's say $300 worth. The photographer has lost that money, and additionally loses time tracking down the photos, figuring out what is happening, and writing a response. Perhaps he'd like $600 total in reparations.
The problem is that, as this article by Alex Wild shows, it makes no economic sense for someone seeking a relatively low claim to go through the federal court. One report by the U.S. Copyright Office notes that "It has been estimated that the median cost for a party to litigate a copyright infringement lawsuit with less than $1 million at stake through appeal is $350,000."
This means that in order to fight against Conglom-O, the photographer needs to request $350,000 to make it worth his effort. The cost of going forward with a copyright infringement lawsuit is so enormously disproportionate to what most small businesses or individuals can afford (and what they would hope to earn from such a lawsuit), that it makes no sense whatsoever. The photographer needs to ask for more than they even want and the infringer needs to pay damages that don't match the offense. Meanwhile, lawyers make bank. It's either go big or go home, which means that the majority of infringement cases are never pursued – unless the cases are brought forward by Conglom-O, Hollywood, and their ilk, the only ones who can afford to leverage such sums of money.
Some suggest that the solution lies in making copyright a local issue rather than federal. The photographer only wants $600-700 in damages, which really should be considered small claims. Is there a chance of changes like this happening? Maybe someday, but at the snail's pace the government is currently operating at, you'd best not hold your breath.
YouTube's Content ID System: Copyright Gone Wrong
Similar copyright issues have recently plagued content creators on YouTube, where a new content ID system has been put in place. The content ID system scans a new uploaded video against a database of copyright-protected content. If there's a match the copyright owner as the option of:
- Monetizing your videos for profit
- Blocking your video, effectively removing it fromYouTube
- Tracking your video, letting the copyright owner simply view the video's stats
The problems that have arisen from this "compromise" between YouTube and copyright owners are disastrous. The major issue is that many of the videos now being flagged for copyright violation based on the content ID system are, in fact, allowable under fair use. This also means that copyright owners have the ability to profit off of other's creative labor. Many have hailed the new content ID system as the end of YouTube, threatening to tear apart the small content creators that can no longer make a living off their work and effectively destroying the unique video content that had made YouTube so successful in the past.
The deeper problem at play here is YouTube's need to protect itself. YouTube wants to play nice with copyright owners, since it doesn't want to be taken to court. But giving publishers and copyright owners the reigns with the content ID system wreaks havoc and hurts those using copyrighted material appropriately.
What is a DMCA Takedown Notice?
Maybe you've recently received a DMCA takedown notice from your service provider and are wondering – what exactly does this mean?
When the owner of a copyrighted piece of content sees it's being used without permission, they can file a complaint. Normally this would involve a lawsuit against the service provider, who is hosting the offending material on the web. However, exemptions exist to protect service providers from getting sued (as you can imagine, if service providers were held responsible for all content published on the web with their services, they wouldn't survive very long). These protective measures are referred to as safe harbor provisions, which we will discuss in more detail below. The safe harbor protections apply so long as service providers immediately remove the offending content. If you've gotten a DMCA takedown notice, it means your service provider is saying, "Hey, we were told you are using this without permission, so we're taking it down."
Some huge flaws of DMCA takedown notices are:
- They are often issued without prior discussion or alternate recourse
- They are used by some parties as a censorship tool against material with legitimate fair use of copyrighted material.
- You are guilty until proved innocent (and good luck proving your innocence and reversing the takedown in such a dysfunctional kangaroo court)
- Competitors may use takedown notices as a (extremely) black hat method of online marketing.
Really, labeling the use of DMCA takedown notices as black hat is a tremendous understatement – such practices are the darkest coach roach-iest of strategies, but it does happen.
The problem is, even if you are completely innocent of copyright infringement, there isn't much you can do to fight a takedown notice.
What is DMCA Safe Harbor?
Safe harbor is a provision that allows online service providers (OSPs) like search engines, content hosting sites, and ISPs to exist without being subject to DMCA lawsuits. This takes the blame off of OSPs when a user posts copyright infringing content using their services.
The DMCA safe harbor exemptions are very important – without them sites like YouTube wouldn't stand a chance. Just think of every time a TV clip has been posted on YouTube – copyright violations like those would destroy YouTube without safe harbor.
However, there is a problem. The DMCA safe harbor measure only applies when the service provider quickly takes down the offending material following a complaint from a copyright holder. This causes most service providers to take immediate action and ask questions later, making it extremely difficult for users to contest takedowns.
Safe harbor protects the tech industry while giving individuals the short end of the stick. MPAA lobbyist Fritz Attaway notes, "The ISPs wanted safe harbor provisions in return for their support for the anti-circumvention provisions, which was one of the major and most important compromises in this legislation.” Per usual, the individuals are left out in the cold while those with money and power stay protected, and big media lobbyists get richer.
You Received a DMCA Notice – But You Did Nothing Wrong! Now What?
Unfortunately, even for non-copyright-infringing users, you've got a tough battle ahead if you want to fight your DMCA takedown notice. So what can you do? It helps to look at others in similar situations, such as Stephanie Lenz.
Lenz posted a 30-second video on YouTube of her baby son dancing to a Prince song back in 2007. The video itself isn't too exciting, likely only holding interest for the child's parents and relatives. Yet that didn't stop Universal Music from sending out a DMCA takedown notice shortly after it was posted, claiming infringement. While Lenz did file a counter notice, it still took a month and a half for her video to be restored. Angry, Lenz decided she wouldn't let this one go – she filed a suit claiming a violation of fair use and free speech rights, arguing that Universal did not have a good faith belief that her video was infringing when they sent the DMCA takedown complaint. You see, one of the requirements of sending a takedown notice is that copyright owners must, under penalty of perjury, have a good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized.
Unfortunately, analyzing a copyright owner's good faith belief is extremely difficult. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals states that "a copyright owner cannot be liable simply because an unknowing mistake is made, even if the copyright owner acted unreasonably in making the mistakes…. Rather, there must be a demonstration of some actual knowledge…on the part of the copyright owner." That's no easy task to prove, which is why arguing against a copyright owner's good faith belief is really tough.
In short, all this means that you've really only got two options.
Option #1: File a counter notice. Those who feel they've been wrongly accused of copyright infringement may file a DMCA counter notice, but by doing so they risk taking on a court battle. The way it works is that you file a counter notice, and if the copyright owner doesn't bring a lawsuit to the district court within 14 days, the service provider must restore your removed content. However, if the copyright owner choses to go forward, you may find yourself in a messy court case, in which case you'll need proof showing that the copyright owner sent the notice without a good faith belief of infringement.
Option #2: Sit back and forget it. Two terrible options for a terrible situation.
How to File a DMCA Complaint
Is your intellectual property or copyrighted material being used without permission?
Before you pursue filing a DMCA complaint, consider contacting the offending party directly. Be diplomatic and fair in your appeal, kindly asking the party to comply in either removing the material, adding a link to your site or wherever the original content is hosted, or paying to use the content (whichever applies in your situation). No one wants to enter a legal battle, so always consider the direct approach before resorting to additional measures.
If you don't get a response contacting the problem party, then it's time to consider other options.
Most websites and hosting services have their own pages for filling out a DMCA complaint form. A few common ones you may be looking for are:
Gigaverse has a fairly extensive guide for contacting different web hosts, which is worth checking out, along with a template for filing a DMCA complaint form with a website, which you can find below:
Date: [Month, DD, YYYY]
To Whom It May Concern,
This letter is a Notice of Infringement as authorized in § 512(c) of the U.S. Copyright Law under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). I wish to report an instance of Copyright Infringement. The infringing material appears on your website.
1. The copyrighted material, which I contend belongs to me and appears illegally on the website for which you provide hosting services, is the following:
[Work type- e.g. article, photo, video, blog post] titled "[Title]" by [Name], posted on [Month, DD, YYYY]
It appears at: [URL of your work]
2. The page infringing the copyrighted work appears at the website address: [URL]
3. My contact information is as follows:
[Name]
[Address]
[Phone]
4. I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials as described above is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
5. I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
[Signature]
[Printed Full Name]
If the infringing material is ranking higher on targeted keywords than the original, you may also consider contacting search engines like Google.
DMCA Fair Use: When is it OK to Use Copyrighted Material?
The repercussions of the DMCA can seem pretty frightening – outlandish copyright lawsuits are something we all want to avoid. So what is DMCA fair use and how do you know when you can use copyrighted material?
Fair use is a doctrine that applies in United States copyright law, permitting the (limited) use of copyrighted work without permission under certain circumstances, such as commentary, criticism, news, teaching, and research. We will go more in-depth below.
When It's OK to Use Copyrighted Material:
1. Commentaries or critiques
Commenting on or critiquing a copyrighted piece usually requires referencing the content, especially with a video critique. In this case, you're good to use the copyrighted material.
2. For example or illustration of an argument
People may use copyrighted material when the content supports an argument or point. An example would be clips from Hollywood films used to show a series of film cut styles, or a collection of songs demonstrating a cultural shift.
3. When it is obtained accidentally
This isn't referring to "Whoops, I didn't mean to download that entire season of Mad Men, I clicked it by mistake!" Rather, it refers to when a copyrighted piece of material is recorded by happenstance when it is not the primary focus. An example would be a recording of a child opening her birthday presents while "You're So Vain" is playing in the background. The primary focus is the child opening presents – the song was accidentally recorded in the process.
4. In order to preserve an experience or event
Examples include documenting one's presence at a concert, recording a gaming performance on Xbox, posting a controversial moment on television like a Jon Stewart speech or a recent Miley Cyrus escapade. There is a limit to this though – the content can't be reproduced in amounts disproportionate to the purposes of documentation – for example, a part of a favorite rock band performance may be recorded, but not in its entirety. Material can also be recorded for archiving, but not if it is available from authorized sources.
5. For launching a discussion or debate
Here we're looking mainly at how this content is being presented – is it a simple copy, or is it being used with a certain intention to spur discussion? It could be cultural, political, educational, or social, so long as the intention is clearly to spark conversation.
6. As part of a new creation
Copyrighted content is often used in conjunction with creating entirely new content. What courts ultimately try to determine here is whether the use of the copyrighted material is "transformative." Does the use add new expression or meaning to the original content? Or is it a copy of the original work? Examples might include:
- Unusual Subtitles: One example of this is the popular subtitle variations on a clip from the movie Downfall to create numerous "Hitler reacts to…" videos.
- Fan Tributes: Such as a collection of Breaking Bad clips for a Walter White tribute.
- Parodies: Weird Al has made a career of parodying other musicians, and music video parodies crafted by YouTube celebs are common.
- Mashups: Like this Pop Songs of 2012 music mashup or Bad Lip Reading's videos, including this hilarious cut of scenes from Game of Thrones with new dubbing.
What constitutes "transformative" is pretty open to interpretation, so long as the new piece cannot be considered a substitute for the original.
Other factors courts consider in determining fair use:
- Commercial or educational? If the content is being used for a nonprofit or for educational purposes, you're likely to have much more freedom than if it is being used for commercial purposes.
- Fact vs. fiction: The use of content from factual works is more likely to be considered fair use than the use of content from fictional work.
- Amount of content being used: Courts look at how the portion of content you are using relates the entire copyrighted piece – is it just a small snip you are using, or a large portion? Courts also take into consideration the substance of the portion you are using – a small portion of copyrighted content may still not be considered fair use if it could be considered the "heart" or main point of the work.
- How will it affect the copyrighted work? Does your use potentially affect the copyright owner's ability to profit for their work? If it does, it may not fall under fair use.
- Did you show good faith? A little attribution goes a long way. If you're using copyrighted material, be polite and attribute the original sources. It gives credit where credit is due and makes you reputable.
NOTE: This has been a collection of recommendations for applying fair use as we understand it. If you're considering using copyrighted material, it's best to speak with a lawyer, as we cannot provide legal advice.
Information from this section came from two very helpful guides, one from YouTube and one from the Center for Media and Social Impact. Both are worth reading in their entirety if you'd like to understand more about fair use.
The Future of the DMCA: Will it Get Better?
Whether you're looking at the DMCA from a copyright holder's view, or as an infringer, the DMCA has oceans of room for improvement. The good news is that several major online organizations like Mozilla and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have joined together to advocate for a reevaluation of the DMCA. Groups hoping for changes have a lot fighting against them, with the MPAA, the Record Industry Association of America, and Hollywood movie execs standing in opposition.
However, we've seen before how forces online can be gathered for the greater good of the web – when SOPA was in the works, enough opposition was gathered online to put a stop the bill which would have crippled the Internet. So there is hope!
This concludes our guide to the DMCA. What will the future of the DMCA look like? What would YOU like to see be changed? Let us know in the comments!
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.
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