[Build Backlinks Online] Take the 2013 Moz Industry Survey: Your Peers Need You!

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Take the 2013 Moz Industry
Survey: Your Peers Need You!'

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
We're very excited to announce the 2013 Moz Industry Survey is ready to take.
This is the fourth edition of the survey, which started in 2008 as the SEO
Industry Survey and only ran every two years. So much has changed since the last
survey that we thought it was important to run it anew in order to gain fresh
insights. Some of what we hope to learn and share:

Who works in inbound marketing and SEO today?
What tactics and tools are most popular?
Where are marketers spending their dollars?
What does the future of the industry hold?

This year's survey was redesigned to be easier and only take 5-10 minutes.
When the results are in we'll share the data freely with you, our partners, and
the rest of the world.




Prizes

It wouldn't be the Industry Survey without a few excellent prizes thrown in as
an added incentive.


This year we've upped the game with prizes we feel are both exciting and
perfect for the busy inbound marketer. To see the full sweepstakes terms and
rules, go to our sweepstakes rules page. The winners will be announced by June
4th. Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date.

Grand Prize: Attend MozCon 2014 in Seattle
+ Flight
+ Hotel
+ Lunch with an industry expert



Come see us Mozzers in Seattle! The Grand Prize includes one ticket to MozCon
2014 plus airfare and accommodations. We'll also arrange a one-on-one lunch for
you with an industry expert.

2 First Prizes: iPad 2

We're giving away two separate iPad 2s.



10 Second Prizes: $100 Amazon.com gift cards

Yep, 10 lucky people will win $100 Amazon.com gift cards. Why not buy yourself
a nice book?






Why the survey is important

By comparing answers and predictions from one year to the next, we can spot
trends and gain insight not easily reported through any other source. This is
our best chance to understand exactly where the future of our industry is
headed. Some of the things we hope to learn:

Demographics: Who is practicing inbound marketing and SEO today? Where do we
work and live?
Agencies vs. in-house vs. other: How are agencies growing? What's the average
size? Who is doing inbound marketing on their own?
Tactics and strategies: What's working for people today? How have strategies
and tactics evolved?
Tools and technology: What are marketers using to discover opportunities,
promote themselves, and measure the results?
Budget and spending: What tools and platforms are marketers investing in?

Every year the Industry Survey delivers new insights and surprises. For
example, the chart below (from the 2012 survey) lists average reported salary by
role. Will it change in 2013?






2012 SEO Industry Survey



Thanks to our partners

Huge thanks to our partners who are helping to spread the word and encouraging
their audience to participate in the survey. We'd especially like to give
special recognition to Search Engine Land, Buffer, aimClear, SEOverflow,
CopyBlogger, Econsultancy, Content Marketing Institute, TopRank Marketing,
MarketingProfs, HootSuite and Entreprenuer.com, Distilled and Hubspot.





Sharing is caring

The number of people who take the survey is very important! The more people
who take the survey, the better and more accurate the data will be, and the more
insight we can share with the industry.


So please share with your co-workers. Share on social media. Share with your
email lists. You can use the buttons below this post to get you started, but
remember to take the survey first!



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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[Build Backlinks Online] Volkswagen UK Caters to Dog Lovers with New #woofwagen Campaign

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Volkswagen UK Caters to Dog
Lovers with New #woofwagen Campaign'

Following the trend of integrating social media with traditional ads, Volkswagen
UK has introduced a new advertising campaign targeted at dog lovers. The
campaign, which premiered during the UKs X Factor on October 19, leverages a
variety of cute dogs to showcase the companys breadth of vehicles. While clever
and engaging as an advertisement alone, []Volkswagen UK Caters to Dog Lovers
with New #woofwagen Campaign is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media
Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy

You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-image-of-the-week/volkswagen-uk-caters-to-dog-lovers-with-new-woofwagen-campaign/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=volkswagen-uk-caters-to-dog-lovers-with-new-woofwagen-campaign

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posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
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[Build Backlinks Online] Hummingbird Unleashed

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Hummingbird Unleashed'

Posted by gfiorelli1
Sometimes I think that us SEOs could be wonderful characters for a Woody Allen
movie: We are stressed, nervous, paranoid, we have a tendency for sudden changes
of mood...okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit, but that's how we tend to
(over)react whenever Google announces something.Cases like this webmaster, who
is desperately thinking he was penalized by Hummingbird, are not uncommon.




One thing that doesn't help is the lack of clarity coming from Google, which
not only never mentions Hummingbird in any official document (for example, in
the post of its 15th anniversary), but has also shied away from details of this
epochal update in the "off-the-record" declarations of Amit Singhal. In fact, in
some ways those statements partly contributed to the confusion.
When Google announces an updateâespecially one like
Hummingbirdâthe best thing to do is to avoid trying to immediately
understand what it really is based on intuition alone. It is better to wait
until the dust falls to the ground, recover the original documents, examine
those related to them (and any variants), take the time to see the update in
action, calmly investigate, and then after all that try to find the most
plausible answers.
This method is not scientific (and therefore the answers can't be defined as
"surely correct"), it is philological, and when it comes to Google and its
updates, I consider it a great method to use.
The original documents are the story for the press of the event during which
Google announced Hummingbird, and the FAQ that Danny Sullivan published
immediately after the event, which makes direct reference to what Amit Singhal
said.
Related documents are the patents that probably underlie Hummingbird, and the
observations that experts like Bill Slawski, Ammon Johns, Rand Fishkin, Aaron
Bradley and others have derived.
This post is the result of my study of those documents and field observations.

Why did Amit Singhal mix apples with oranges?

When announcing Hummingbird, Amit Singhal said that it wasn't since Caffeine
in 2010 that the Google Algorithm was updated so deeply.


The problem is that Caffeine wasn't an algorithmic change; it was an
infrastructural change.


Caffeine's purpose, in fact, was to optimize the indexation of the billions of
Internet documents Google crawls, presenting a richer, bigger, and fresher pool
of results to the users.


Instead, Hummingbird's objective is not a newer optimization of the indexation
process, but to better understand the users' intent when searching, thereby
offering the most relevant results to them.


Nevertheless, we can affirm that Hummingbird is also an infrastructural
update, as it governs the more than 200 elements that make up Google's
algorithm.




The (maybe unconscious) association Amit Singhal created between Caffeine and
Hummingbird should tell us:

That Hummingbird would not be here if Caffeine wasn't deployed in 2010, and
hence it should be considered an evolution of Google Search, and not a
revolution.
Moreover, that Hummingbird should be considered Google's most ambitious attempt
to solve all the algorithmic issues that Caffeine caused.

Let me explain this last point.


Caffeine, quitting the so-called "Sand Box," caused the SERPs to be flooded
with poor-quality results.


Google reacted by creating "patches" like Panda, Penguin, and the exact-match
domain (EMD) updates, among others.


But these updates, so effective in what we define as middle- and head-tail
queries, were not so effective for a type of query thatâmainly because of
the fast adoption of mobile search by the usersâmore and more people have
begun to use: conversational long tail queries, or those that Amit Singhal has
defined as "verbose queries."


The evolution of natural language recognition by Google, the improved ability
to disambiguate entities and concepts through technology inherited from Metaweb
and improved with Knowledge Graph, and the huge improvements made in the SERPs'
personalized customization have given Google the theoretical and practical tools
not only for solving the problem of long-tail queries, but also for giving a
fresh start to the evolution of Google Search.


That is the backstory that explains what Amit Singhal told about Hummingbird,
paraphrased here by Danny Sullivan:


[Hummingbird] Gave us an opportunity [...] to take synonyms and knowledge
graph and other things Google has been doing to understand meaning to rethink
how we can use the power of all these things to combine meaning and predict how
to match your query to the document in terms of what the query is really wanting
and are the connections available in the documents. and not just random
coincidence that could be the case in early search engines.

How does Hummingbird work?

"To take synonyms and knowledge graph and other things..."


Google has been working with synonyms for a long time. If we look at the
timeline Google itself shared in its 15th anniversary post, it has used them
since 2002, even though we can also tell that disambiguation (meant as
orthographic analysis of the queries) has been applied since 2001.




Last year Vanessa Fox wrote "Is Google's Synonym Matching Increasing?..." on
Search Engine Land.


Reading that post and seeing the examples presented, it is clear that synonyms
were already used by Googleâin connection with the user intent underlying
the queryâin order to broaden the query and rewrite it to offer the best
results to the users.


That same post, though, shows us why only using a thesaurus of synonyms or
relying on the knowledge of the highly ranked queries was not enough to assure
relevant SERPs (see how Vanessa points out how Google doesn't consider "dogs"
pets in the query "pet adoption," but does consider "cats").


Amit Singhal, in this old patent, was also conscious that only relying on
synonyms was not a perfect solution, because two words may be synonyms and may
not be so depending on the context they are used (i.e.: "coche" and
"autom³vil" both mean "car" in Spanish, but "carro" only means "car" in
Latin American Spanish, meaning "wagon" in Spain).


Therefore, in order to deliver the best results possible using semantic
search, what Google needed to understand better, easier, and faster was context.
Hummingbird is how Google solved that need.





Synonyms remain essential; Amit Singhal confirmed that in the post-event talk
with Danny Sullivan. How they are used now has been described by Bill Slawski in
this post, where he dissects the Synonym identification based on co-occurring
terms patent.


That patent, then is also based on the concept of "search entities," which I
described in my last post here on Moz, when talking about personalized search.


Speaking literally, words are not "things" themselves but the verbal
representation of things, and search entities are how Google objectifies words
into concepts. An object may have a relationship with others that may change
depending on the context in which they are used together. In this sense, words
are treated like people, cities, books, and all the other named entities usually
related to the Knowledge Graph.


The mechanisms Google uses in identifying search entities are especially
important in disambiguating the different potential meanings of a word, and
thereby refining the information retrieval accordingly to a "probability score."


This technique is not so different from what the Knowledge Graph does when
disambiguating, for instance, Saint Peter the Apostle from Saint Peter the
Basilica or Saint Peter the city in Minnesota.


Finally, there is a third concept playing an explicit role in what could be
the "Hummingbird patent:" co-occurrences.


Integrating these three elements, Google now is (in theory) able:

To better understand the intent of a query;
To broaden the pool of web documents that may answer that query;
To simplify how it delivers information, because if query A, query B, and query
C substantively mean the same thing, Google doesn't need to propose three
different SERPs, but just one;
To offer a better search experience, because expanding the query and better
understanding the relationships between search entities (also based on
direct/indirect personalization elements), Google can now offer results that
have a higher probability of satisfying the needs of the user.
As a consequence, Google may present better SERPs also in terms of better ads,
because in 99% of the cases, verbose queries were not presenting ads in their
SERPs before Hummingbird.





Maybe Hummingbird could have solved Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers speaking
issues...

90% of the queries affected, seriously?

Many SEOs have questioned the fact that Hummingbird has affected the 90% of
all queries for the simple reason they didn't notice any change in traffic and
rankings.


Apart from the fact that the SERPs were in constant turmoil between the end of
August and the first half of September, during which time Hummingbird first saw
the light (though it could just be a coincidence, quite an opportune one
indeed), the typical query that Hummingbird targets is the conversational one
(e.g.: "What is the best pizzeria to eat at close to Piazza del Popolo e via del
Corso?"), a query that usually is not tracked by us SEOs (well, apart from Dr.
Pete, maybe).


Moreover, Hummingbird is about queries, not keywords (much less long-tail
ones), as was so well explained by Ammon Johns in his post "Hummingbird - The
opposite of long-tail search." For that reason, tracking long-tail rankings as a
metric of the impact of Hummingbird is totally wrong.


Finally, Hummingbird has not meant the extinction of all the classic ranking
factors, but is instead a new framework set upon them. If a site was both
authoritative and relevant for a query, it still will be ranking as well as it
was before Hummingbird.


So, which sites got hit? Probably those sites that were relying just on very
long tail keyword-optimized pages, but had no or very low authority. Therefore,
as Rand said in his latest Whiteboard Friday, now it is far more convenient to
create better linkable/shareable content, which also semantically relates to
long-tail keywords, than it is to create thousands of long tail-based pages with
poor or no quality or utility.

If Hummingbird is a shift to semantic SEO, does that mean that using Schema.org
will make my site rank better?

One of the myths that spread very fast when Hummingbird was announced was that
it is heavily using structured data as a main factor.


Although it is true that for some months now Google has stressed the
importance of structured data (for example, dedicating a section to it in Google
Webmaster Tools), considering Schema.org as the magic solution is not correct.
It is an example of how us SEOs sometimes confuse the means with the purpose.




What we need to do is offer Google easily understandable context for the
topics around which we have created a page, and structured data are helpful in
this respect. By themselves, however, they are not enough. As mentioned before,
if a page is not considered authoritative (thanks to external links and
mentions), it most likely will not have enough strength for ranking well,
especially now that long-tail queries are simplified by Hummingbird.

Is Hummingbird related to the increased presence of the Knowledge Graph and
Answers Cards?

Many people came up with the idea that Hummingbird is the translation of the
Knowledge Graph to the classic Google Search, and that it has a direct
connection with the proliferation of the Answer Cards. This theory led to some
very angry posts ranting against the "scraper" nature of Google.


This is most likely due to the fact that Hummingbird was announced alongside
new features of Knowledge Graph, but there is no evident relationship between
Hummingbird and Knowledge Graph.


What many have thought as being a cause (Hummingbird causing more Knowledge
Graph and Answer Cards, hence being the same) is most probably a simple
correlation.


Hummingbird substantially simplified verbose queries into less verbose ones,
the latter of which are sometimes complemented with the constantly expanding
Knowledge Graph. For that reason, we see a greater number of SERPs presenting
Knowledge Graph elements and Answer Cards.


That said, the philosophy behind Hummingbird and the Knowledge Graph is the
same, moving from strings to things.

Is Hummingbird strongly based on the Knowledge Base?

The Knowledge Base is potent and pervasive in how Google works, but reducing
Hummingbird to just the Knowledge Base would be simplistic.




As we saw, Hummingbird relies on several elements, the Knowledge Base being
one of them, especially in all queries with personalization (which should be
considered a pervasive layer that affects the algorithm).


If Hummingbird was heavily relying on the Knowledge Base, without
complementing it with other factors, we could fall into the issues that Amit
Singhal was struggling with in the earlier patent about synonyms.

Does Hummingbird mean the end of the link graph?

No. PageRank and link-related elements of the algorithm are still alive and
kicking. I would also dare to say that links are even more important now.


In fact, without the authority a good link profile grants to a site, a web
page will have even more difficulty ranking now (see what I wrote just above
about the fate of low-authority pages).


What is even more important now is the context in which the link is present.
We already learned this with Penguin, but Hummingbird reaffirms how inbound
links from topically irrelevant contexts are bad links.


That said, Google still has to improve on the link front, as Danny Sullivan
said well in this tweet:




Links are the fossil fuel of search relevancy signals. Polluted. Not getting
better. And yet, that's what Google Hummingbird drinks most.
â Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) October 18, 2013


At the same time, though (again because of context and entity recognition),
brand co-occurrences and co-citations assume an even more important role with
Hummingbird.

Is Hummingbird related to 100% (not provided)?

The fact that Hummingbird and 100% (not provided) were rolled out at almost
the same time seems to be more than just a coincidence.


If Hummingbird is more about search entities, better information retrieval,
and query expansionâan update where keywords by themselves have lost part
of the omnipresent value they hadâthen relying on keyword data alone is
not enough anymore.


We should stop focusing only on keyword optimization and start thinking about
topical optimization.


This obliges us to think about great content, and not just about "content."
Things like "SEO copywriting" will end up being the same as "amazing
copywriting."


For that, as SEOs, we should start understanding how search entities work, and
not simply become human thesauruses of synonyms.


If Hummingbird is a giant step toward Semantic SEO, then as SEOs, our job "is
not about optimizing for strings, or for things, but for the connections between
things," as brilliantly says Aaron Bradley in this post and deck for SMX East.






Semantic SEO - The Shift From Strings To Things by Aaron Bradley #SMX from
Search Marketing Expo - SMX

What must we do to be Hummingbird-friendly?

Let me ask you few questions, and try to answer them sincerely:

When creating/optimizing a site, are you doing it with a clear audience in your
mind?
When performing on-page optimization for your site, are you following at least
these SEO best practices?
Using a clear and not overly complex information architecture;
Avoiding canonicalization issues;
Avoiding thin-content issues;
Creating a semantic content model;
Topically optimizing the content of the site on a page-by-page basis, using
natural and semantically rich language and with a landing page-centric strategy
in mind;
Creating useful content using several formats, that you yourself would like to
share with your friends and link to;
Implementing Schema.org, Open Graph and semantic mark-ups.

Are your link-building objectives:
Better brand visibility?
Gaining referral traffic?
Enhancing the sense of thought leadership of your brand?
Topically related sites and/or topically related sections of a more generalist
site (i.e.: News site)?

As an SEO, is social media offering these advantages?
Wider brand visibility;
Social echo;
Increased mentions/links in the form of derivatives, co-occurrences, and
co-citation in others' web sites;
Organic traffic and brand ambassadors' growth.


If you answered yes to all these questions, you don't have to do anything but
keep up the good work, refine it, and be creative and engaging. You were likely
already seeing your site ranking well and gaining traffic thanks to the more
holistic vision of SEO you have.

If you answered no to few of them, then you have just to correct the things
you're doing wrong and follow the so-called SEO best practices (and the 2013 Moz
Ranking Factors are a good list of best practices).


If you sincerely answered no to many of them, then you were having problems
even before Hummingbird was unleashed, and things won't get better with it if
you don't radically change your mindset.


Hummingbird is not asking us to rethink SEO or to reinvent the wheel. It is
simply asking us to not do crappy SEO... but that is something we should know
already, shouldn't we?
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
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You may view the latest post at
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[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Facebook Graph Search & Privacy Concerns: Should You Be Worried?'

Facebook Graph Search & Privacy Concerns: Should You Be Worried?

What is Facebook Graph Search?

Facebook Graph Search first launched in March 2013, allowing users to search for people, photos, places, and interests within the Facebook search engine. Facebook Graph Search provides custom search results based on your own personal data, including information in the profiles of your friends. As you type a search query, Facebook Graph Search auto-completes the query, suggesting friendships through existing connections, Facebook pages, and apps, before finally providing web results.

New Facebook Graph Search: Now With More Stalking Power!

In recent months, Facebook developers have made Graph Search even more powerful, now capable of providing results on searches for:

• status updates

• photo captions

• comments

• check-ins

The updated Facebook Graph Search can also search for posts from a specific place or time period.

It's a bit hard to understand what this really means until you see Facebook Graph Search work in action. Below are some example search queries users might search in Facebook Graph Search.

• Posts I commented on

• My posts from the last year

• Posts written at Yellowstone National Park

• Posts by my friends last month

• Posts about Breaking Bad

Why Is Facebook Graph Search Upsetting People?

Some people are grabbing their pitchforks and torches at news of Facebook Graph Search – and with good reason. While technically those risqué photo comments you posted on your cousin's bachelorette party album a few years ago have always been available on Facebook for prying eyes, for all intents and purposes they were invisible once they disappeared from the feed.

Time heals all wounds and buries the evidence – at least it used to. Finding those inappropriate Facebook photo comments in the past would have required clicking "see more photos" hundreds of times, digging around for the exact incriminating photo, and opening it to see the comments. This is commonly referred to as privacy by obscurity. And with the new Facebook Graph Search, it's a thing of the past.

Facebook Graph Search has the ability to dredge up nearly any user content with a few clicks of the keyboard. Imagine the search a potential employer might conduct of your photo comments, with a "drunk" keyword filter. Yup, that's possible. Now you understand why folks are nervous.

Facebook Graph Search Privacy: Protecting Your Secrets

Now that we've got you good and spooked, it's important to tell you that not all hope is lost – Facebook Graph Search results are shaped by users' privacy settings, so if you choose to restrict certain content from being shown, it will remain hidden from searches. While you can't outright disable Facebook Graph Search, you can get close by beefing up privacy settings to prevent your content from appearing in Graph Search results.

That means it's time for some Facebook house cleaning!

As we're all well aware, Facebook loves to mess around with privacy policy and settings. So first off, let's head over to your current privacy settings and see what's happening there.

Here you'll be able to:

• Tailor who can see future posts

• Review all posts you are tagged in

• Limit the audience for posts you've shared with Friends of Friends or Public

• Choose who can send you friend requests

• Choose who can look you up by email address or phone number

• Decide whether or not you want search engines to link to your timeline

Note: While you can choose who is able to see your timeline and posts, Facebook has recently declared that all profiles are searchable – that is, you can't hide yourself when someone searches your name.

Done? Next go to Timeline and Tagging. Here you can adjust settings such as:

• Who can post on your timeline

• Set whether or not you want to review photos tagged of you before they appear on your timeline (you probably do)

• Who can see posts you've been tagged in

• Other tagging options

Another setting you'll find in "Timeline and Tagging" is the option to choose whether or not you want people getting tag suggestions when a photo of you is uploaded, i.e., do you want Facebook facial recognition turned on or off?

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not crazy about this idea, so I took a minute to turn that off by setting the audience for tagging suggestions to "no one."

These Privacy and Timeline/Tagging sections are great for adjusting settings on a massive scale, but maybe there are specific posts from the past you'd like to fine-tune the audiences for. This is where Activity Log comes in. You can get to the Activity Log from within the Settings>Privacy section, or just go to your timeline profile and you'll see "Activity Log" in the right hand corner of your cover photo.

Welcome to Your Facebook Nightmare: Activity Log

Take a deep breath. Everything you've ever posted, tagged, or been snapped in is here. Yikes! It's a bit overwhelming at first, but for now just focus on the left navigation bar. Here you'll see options for:

• Your Posts

• Posts You're Tagged In

• Posts by Others

• Posts You've Hidden

• Photos

• Likes

• Comments

To get started, let's try looking at comments. Here you'll find anything you've ever commented on – articles, friends' status updates, photos, etc. It's all here, and with Facebook Graph Search, it's easy for people to find this stuff.

Let's dig a bit deeper – you can navigate to past months or years on the right hand navigation.

You'll notice next to each comment there's a small icon. Mousing over the icon will show the privacy settings for each piece of content.

You can't change the privacy setting of a comment if it was posted to a friend's account (which most probably will be), but you can delete the comment by clicking the small pencil ("Edit") icon.

Have fun weeding through your activity log – get ready for some fond memories and/or serious embarrassment.  

One more word about Photos – since that tends to be where people really want to keep things private. Within the Photos section of activity log, you can see:

• Photos of You

• Your Photos

Here you'll see all the photos you are tagged in, by yourself and others. You always have power over what photos you are tagged in, even when the photos belong to another user. Feel free to change the audience settings where you see fit.

Note: Photos that you've hidden from your timeline are still searchable. Review these photos by going to the top of the selection tool and clicking "On Timeline: Hidden." Now you can remove tags and make sure the photos die once and for all!

Want to change the privacy setting for your albums? No problem, just leave activity log and head to Photos>Albums. Icons in the bottom right of each corner show you the privacy settings for each album and let you change them. Some, like Timeline photos, will require that you go in and change pictures manually.

Facebook Graph Search Privacy: Review Your Cover-up Work

Have you hidden the skeletons in the closet? Just make sure by going to your profile and clicking the "View As" option in the gear dropdown, next to Activity Log. Here you can put yourself in an outsider's shoes and see what they see on your profile.

We've given you the tools and techniques to defend yourself against the murderous onslaught of Facebook Graph Search. God be with you brothers. Don't shoot till you see the comments made drunkenly.

The Future of Facebook: Should Twitter Watch its Back?

Twitter has largely been seen as the #1 place for real-time news and corresponding dialogue. If you want to see what folks are saying about tonight's episode of The Walking Dead, you're likely using a #WalkingDead hashtag.

However, Facebook Graph Search could end up giving Twitter some competition. Search "posts about Walking Dead" or "posts about Dancing With the Stars" and you'll be inundated with real-time content.

This makes Facebook a much more viable option for online conversation, since Facebook Graph Search makes finding friends who are talking about specific subjects vastly easier. Add that to the fact that Facebook now recognizes hashtags, and you can see why the little blue bird better watch its back!

Why Facebook Graph Search is Great For Businesses & Brand Monitoring

Facebook Graph Search also makes it easier for businesses to monitor discussion about their brands via Facebook. Search "Status updates about Pepsi" or "Posts about Toyota" and you'll find real-time talk about businesses. This new tool can be used to discover fans talking about your brand, who you can then engage with.

How to Get Facebook Graph Search

Facebook Graph Search started as a limited beta, and then later became available to all US English users. The newer, more advanced search options are at the moment only available to a small group of US/English users. Facebook will monitor their usage, take feedback into consideration, and then roll out the feature to all users at a later unknown date.

At the moment the entirety of Graph Search is English only, due to the fact that Facebook Graph Search is a semantic search engine that relies on sentences rather than simple keywords. This makes it difficult to internationalize, so don't expect to see this option available in other countries for quite some time.

How to Use Facebook Graph Search: Glorious, Terrifying Nostalgia

Although privacy advocates are likely to despise the new Facebook Graph Search, it will actually allow for some pretty cool interactions between users. Considering that most millennials will have the majority of their entire lives documented on Facebook, Graph Search allows for some serious nostalgia (or ghastly embarrassment) as users can sort through old photos and posts, providing a blast from the past.

One thing is for sure – creating group collages or slideshows has become a heck of a lot easier since now a simple search can return all photos of chosen individuals in various settings and time periods. Much better than digging through hundreds of old albums.

What do you guys think of Facebook Graph Search? Is it a wonder or a pestilence? 

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.

You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/j3w1DnOCXKA/facebook-graph-search You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

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Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'What the New AdWords Ad Rank Algorithm Really Means'

The PPC world is abuzz with this week's announcement that AdWords is introducing a new component to its Ad Rank formula. In the past, an ad's position was dictated by a combination of two factors, the keyword's Quality Score and its max CPC bid.

Google has now thrown Ad Extensions into the mix to serve as a tie-breaker of sorts. As Google describes it, "if two competing ads have the same bid and quality, then the ad with the more positive expected impact from extensions will generally appear in a higher position than the other." This is, by far, the biggest change to Google's ad rank algorithm since AdWords' inception over a decade ago. So let's take a look at what it means.

Why did Google adjust the ad rank algorithm?

For all intents and purposes, the old ad rank formula seemed to be working just fine. So why did Google rock the boat and incorporate yet another factor for advertisers to worry about? I have a few theories:

Theory #1

Google wants to give searchers the best experience possible. Remember, it is the world's premier search engine because users trust that it will always offer the most relevant, helpful results—for both organic listings and paid ads. To encourage advertisers to adopt a searcher-centric approach, Google emphasizes Quality Score. Now, Google is taking it one step further and pushing advertisers to focus on extensions. No doubt, the incorporation of additional contact information and website links will be beneficial to searchers.

Theory #2

Sneaky as it may be, Google is slowly pushing organic results (read: profitless results) further and further down the SERP. We know that searchers are more likely to click on listings that appear above the fold. By shifting organic listings down, Google is redirecting searchers who typically opt for organic listings toward paid ads. As more advertisers enable ad extensions, the average ad size will become exponentially larger (for those in top positions). These huge, blinged-out ads will detract attention from organic listings and are likely to garner a high click volume. Google is even testing placing huge banner ads at the top of the SERP!

In the past few months, we've seen Google experiment with many tactics to de-emphasize SEO. This ad rank change is yet another thorn in the side of SEO enthusiasts.

Theory #3

My final theory: The new ad rank formula will increase competition in the PPC space. For Google, more competition means more revenue. Think about it this way, in order for your ad extensions to be displayed, your ad must appear in one of the top positions—a bit of a Catch 22. In order to develop positive historical data for their extensions, many companies will be clamoring for top spots. To achieve these, they have two options: either raise their bids or boost their Quality Scores. I suspect many advertisers will resort to higher max CPC bids, which is easier and faster than working to raise your Quality Scores.

Has this been Google's plan all along?

Although advertisers are referring to this as a Google "sneak attack" of sorts, in retrospect it is clear that this plan has been teed up for quite some time.

Throughout the past six months, Google has placed a much greater emphasis on ad extensions. It all started back in February, when Google released major improvements to both Sitelink and Call Extensions. These updates gave advertisers the opportunity to establish extensions at the ad group level, allowing them to truly cater the extensions to their searchers. Along with this, AdWords released more in-depth reporting for extensions, encouraging more advertisers to utilize them.

The next hint came along a month later, when the Google policy team put out a mandate forbidding advertisers from including telephone numbers within their text ads. This forced many account managers to turn to call extensions to ensure that their contact information was readily available to searchers.

As account managers started to get comfortable with basic extensions, Google stepped it up a notch and started experimenting with a number of beta extensions. You may recall advertisers rejoicing at the prospect of Image Extensions, Review Extensions, and Offer Extensions – however, we're still waiting on Google to make them official and available for everyone.

It's clear that Google has long been a proponent of implementing extensions, and it's easy to see why – they reliably increase CTR. (More clicks, more money.) The problem is that advertisers are a little too slow on the uptake. So many of us have neglected to take advantage of these "bells and whistles" that Google got impatient and had to take extreme measures. By incorporating ad extension usage into one of their most impactful calculations, Google is forcing advertisers to implement extensions, or suffer major consequences.

What does this mean for you?

This new Ad Rank calculation has already been implemented and will influence every single account that is opted into the Search Network. Whether you are a paid search expert or a fringe AdWords user, Ad Rank is a critical factor in your paid search success.

If you're not using extensions right now, it's time to get busy. The good news is, they require very little set-up time and minimal maintenance. Even better, they are displayed at no additional cost. To get started, head to my Google AdWords Ad Extensions Cheat Sheet.

If you're already running ad extensions, it doesn't mean that you're off the hook. Remember, Google is considering the "expected impact of extensions and ad formats," meaning that they are assessing the quality of your extensions. To boost Ad Rank, your extensions should be relevant, have strong click-through rates and appear prominently on the SERP. You are one step ahead of many advertisers because you've already collected performance data for your existing extensions. Keep up your momentum by optimizing your extensions now.

My parting piece of wisdom is to set up any and all extensions that are relevant to your business. In their announcement, Google explained that they will "generally show your highest performing and most useful combination of extensions and formats among those eligible." I suspect that the more options you give them, the better off you will be!

No doubt, as SEMs begin to measure the impact of this algorithmic change, we will learn more and more about its impact. Looking forward to hearing how it has affects your accounts. Please, comment below!

This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.

You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/ongBfVs4oaE/adwords-ad-rank-algorithm You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

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Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Google's New Ad Rank Formula: Is the Change to Ad Rank Good or Bad for Small Businesses?'

Yesterday, Google announced that it was releasing a major change to its Ad Rank algorithm, which determines the order of the paid search ads on each SERP as well as how much advertisers pay in the ad auction.  

In a nutshell, Google is now using the presence and performance of ad extensions in determining Ad Rank. Previously, Ad Rank had just two components: your Max CPC Bid (the most you were willing to pay per click) and your Quality Score (Google's assessment of the quality of your keywords, ads, and landing pages). Now, the formula has three components: your Max CPC Bid, your Quality Score, and, as Google puts it, "the expected impact from your ad extensions and formats."

I was chatting with our founder, Larry Kim, about the change, and he noted that this change is bad for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Here at WordStream, we're committed to helping small advertisers succeed at PPC, so I want to dive a little deeper to give my take on why Larry is right.

It all starts at the top

Before diving into the numbers, let's take a look at this change from 10,000 feet up.

Previously, Google had a pretty simple message for advertisers: Be highly relevant and you can reach qualified searchers at a great price. Even if the calculation of Quality Score was a little bit of a black box, the message resonated with advertisers because they understood why Google would reward good advertisers and punish bad ones.

With the new change, Google's message has changed from the simple "be relevant" to the more vague "be relevant and use more of Google's features." Even if Google believes that the ad extensions make for a better paid search experience, it has to recognize that the message is significantly more complicated, which makes it harder for SMB advertisers to understand what they are supposed to be doing. Plus, it makes all of those great Hal Varian videos obsolete!

How Will the New Ad Rank Formula Impact SMBs?

Now that we've established that the change makes advertising on AdWords more confusing, let's see how requiring the use of ad extensions will actually impact SMBs.

If all SMBs already used ad extensions, then this wouldn't be a big deal. Unfortunately, the reverse is true. According to our research on small business AdWords accounts, very few of them are currently using ad extensions. For example:

• 19 out of 20 SMB advertisers do not currently have call extensions set up on all mobile campaigns
• 20% of SMBs send all clicks to their homepage
• 25% of SMBs send all traffic to just one landing page

This data indicates that not only do advertisers need to start using ad extensions more, they also need to make fundamental changes to their websites so that they have enough landing pages to utilize sitelink extensions where appropriate. With this change, Google is actually influencing web design (assuming that you don't want to get penalized by Google), which could prove to be overly burdensome for less sophisticated advertisers.

And because ad rank depends on the actual performance of these extensions, not just whether they're there, Google has now given advertisers another thing to optimize on top of their keywords, text ads and bids. Otherwise, you risk being crowded out by larger, more experienced, bigger-budget advertisers.

What's the Good News?

The good news is, ad extensions are free to use, so you don't need a bigger budget in order to make the most of them. You just need the savvy to know which ad extensions to use and when. This is one of the easiest ways to increase your click-through rates and Quality Scores, and now using extensions is more important than ever.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, WordStream is committed to helping SMBs achieve PPC success. We know that as AdWords continues to get more complicated, there is a greater need to help advertisers focus on the most impactful actions that they can take, so we'll be working tirelessly in the upcoming months to help advertisers create and optimize their ad extensions. That's why we recently introduced a set of tools to help you build landing pages more quickly and easily. It's also why we're currently running a contest to give one lucky advertiser a $25,000 marketing makeover. That's $25K in free advertising spend for AdWords, plus tools from WordStream and Constant Contact to help you use it. Throw your hat in the ring here.  

 

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.

You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/xo5uxct4_Ho/google-ad-rank-formula-change You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

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Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Top 5 Ways You're Leaking Money in AdWords'

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The typical small business wastes 25% or more of their total paid search spend. It's obviously a big problem, but tackling wasted spend in Google AdWords can be challenging for account managers. Instead of focusing on the latest PPC fads or shiny new tools, I encourage advertisers to head back to the basics and focus on the core components of their campaigns. Oftentimes, just by tweaking your settings or adjusting your structure, you can patch up your biggest account leakages.

Here are the top five culprits that I recommend taking a second look at when assessing your wasted AdWords spend.

Overuse of Broad Match Type

Setting all of your keywords to broad match can have a devastating impact on your PPC account. Remember, by setting a keyword to a broad match type, you are opening the door for Google to show your ad anytime a query is related to or contains a part of your keyword. While broad keywords often attract a high volume of searchers, few tend to be truly qualified leads. Broad match is Google's default match type, so new advertisers often fall into this trap. If your entire keyword list is set to broad match, take some time to analyze and adjust your match types. Believe me, it will be well worth the effort!

That said, I don't want to dissuade you from using broad match occasionally. This match type is beneficial when you are looking to expand your audience and conduct keyword research. Use it wisely:

• Bid lower for broad match terms – you don't want to pay a premium for low-quality traffic.
• Monitor your search query report closely to identify new keyword/negative keyword ideas based on queries connecting to those broad match keywords.

Lack of Negative Keywords

Another rookie mistake that can wreak havoc on your performance is a lack of negative keywords in your account. With paid search, your goal is to drive relevant, qualified traffic to your website. If you detect that a searcher is looking for something that you do not offer, eliminate the possibility of showing your ad to them by setting a negative keyword.

You can sometimes predict the most important negatives for your business. For example, if you run a car dealership that only sells brand new models, it is a no-brainer to set "used" as a negative keyword. However, there are some instances in which the most critical negatives are challenging to predict. To find these terms, I recommend actively mining your search query report. To see how this saved one of my clients hundreds of dollars, check out this post: Help, My Search Query Report Has Bieber Fever! Plus 5 Tips for Setting Negatives.

Stacked Bid Modifiers

When AdWords introduced Enhanced Campaigns, advertisers were thrilled at the prospect of setting bid modifiers. Bid modifiers allow account managers to adjust their original bids based on the time of day that a search occurs, the searcher's location and the device that they are using. In theory, this is a godsend for advertisers because it allows them to easily prioritize bids for their most qualified searchers.

In reality, this feature can result in vast overbidding. Here's the catch—if a search fits the criteria for multiple bid modifiers, all adjustments are "stacked" on the base bid. For example, imagine that a keyword's base bid is $1 and you've set your device modifier to increase bids by 100% on smartphone searches, your geographic modifier to increase bids by 50% for searchers located in Florida and your time of day modifier to raise bids by 100% from 9-11PM in the evenings. If someone in Florida searches this keyword on their phone at 9PM at night, the bid will automatically be bumped to $6.

Here's the breakdown:

Base bid = $1

$1 x device modifier of 100% = $2

$2 x geographic modifier of 50% = $3

$3 x time of day modifier of 100% = $6

Final bid = $6!

As you can see, when bid adjustments are combined, your max CPC can multiply at a dangerous rate. Keep this in mind as you set your bid adjustments and monitor them carefully. If you want to play it safe, try experimenting with small, incremental adjustments or stick with one or two at a time (device is usually the most critical).

Poor Location Targeting

At first glance, AdWords' location targeting seems fool-proof, but it can actually be the source of many wasted advertising dollars. Google manipulates your geo-targeting settings to ensure that your ads are getting plenty of impressions. As anticipated, your ads will be shown to searchers located within your target area. However, they will also be shown to people who are "searching for or viewing pages about my targeted location." If you've ever noticed odd locations appearing in your geo reports, this is likely the culprit. While this setting may be beneficial for some advertisers, it could lead to many costly, unqualified clicks for others. Learn how to regain control of your location targeting.

Using AdWords Express

If there was one piece of PPC wisdom I could impart to all small businesses, it would be to steer clear of AdWords Express. If you're not familiar with this program, it is free account management service by none other than "the Goog" itself. To participate, all you have to do is write three lines about your business and set your budget. From there, Google will automatically build and maintain your account.

Free account management sounds like a small advertiser's dream, but don't get swept away too quickly. AdWords express campaigns tend to be poorly constructed and are subject to little maintenance. The major flaw in this program is that Google only provides "read only" access to participants. In reviewing the setup, the advertiser may find keywords that are not pertinent to the business or inappropriate negatives, but you do not have the option to edit the campaign.

Pinpoint Your Own Account Leakages

If you're not sure where you're wasting money in AdWords – or how much – I recommend getting a free AdWords Performance Report. We're running a contest right now where you can enter to win a $25K PPC budget for 2014 plus a year's worth of marketing tools from WordStream and Constant Contact. Just use the AdWords Performance Grader and tell us what you learned. It's free and whether you win or not, you'll have some great, actionable insight into your account performance right now. Learn more here. 

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.

You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/MI8XOTt6N5A/five-ppc-account-leakages 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