Bruce Clay's Blog, page 33

How SEOs Should Deal with Direct Answers: Eric Enge, Bill Slawski and Ehren Reilly Discuss

How SEOs Should Deal with Direct Answers: Eric Enge, Bill Slawski and Ehren Reilly Discuss was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Direct answers — threat or opportunity? Three of digital marketing’s brightest minds — Eric Enge, Bill Slawski and Ehren Reilly — dig into this hot topic in today’s first SMX West session: “The Growth Of Direct Answers: How Should SEOs React?”

Eric Enge: Results from Massive Direct Answer Study

Stone Temple Consulting conducted a study of 855,000 different search queries to see how many would generate a direct answer in search. All of the queries had some chance of generating a direct answer. How were the questions formulated?

250,000 were from Google Suggest
250,000 were from Bing Suggest
355,000 were generated manually

Those latter 355,000 were based on historical events, television shows, famous people, books, restaurants, movies, fruits and vegetables – anything with a chance to generate a direct answer. For each one, Stone Temple Consulting fashioned questions around them — for example what would you want to know about the Eiffel tower? Who built it? When was it built?

The Results

19.4 percent of the time Google responded with a direct answer. Enge points out that while this might not seem like a large number, two years ago there were zero direct answers. He estimates that last year, 4 percent of queries generated direct answers.
Bing generated direct answers 1.1 percent of the time.
25 percent  of Google direct answers included titles.
More than 3,000 direct answers only partially answered a query.
More than 1,000 direct answer results came in the form of a table.
There were more than 6.000 “sliders.” (What’s a slider? Let’s say you search for something like “what time is it in Russia?” There are many time zones in Russia, so the direct answer is something that looks like a table but acts like a slide show displaying each result.)
More than 18,000 direct answer results appeared in the form of a list of instructions.
There were more than 45,000 results with rich answer boxes and a side bar.
There were 5,356 direct answers that populated with forms — such as the calories in pizza, etc.
There were 33 direct answers that contained charts.
There were 4,824 carousel results. Here, Enge points out that carousels are constantly changing — “They’re experimenting with them all the time.”
25.3 percent of direct answer results did not include attribution and 72.7 percent did. “We only show the lyrics for songs for which we have the appropriate rights” — Google.

How, then, do Internet marketers proceed? Enge recommends not trying to make a living on public domain info. (Click to Tweet) Google will be displaying pubic domain info more and more in direct answers. Google may also license info — if it’s easily licensable by Google, it’s risky for you to count on this as a source of traffic.

Slawski: The Increasing Importance of Direct Answers

Slawski had mononucleosis in the sixth grade — he notes that we would have really appreciated having Google direct answers at that time to answer his questions about the illness!

He quotes Google: “Now we are increasingly able to provide direct answers — even if you’re speaking your question using voice search — which makes it quicker, easier and more natural to find what you’re looking for.”

He quotes Eric Schmidt: “In each case we’re trying to get you direct answers to your queries because it’s quicker and less hassle than the ten blue links Google used to show. This is especially important on mobile where screens are smaller and typing is harder.”

Slawski points out that Google Israel filed a patent aimed at “finding direct answers to natural language questions in November 2014.”

All this is evidence of Google’s commitment to increasing and strengthening direct answers from authoritative sources. What does Google view as authoritative sources? Those that are frequently selected in search results and consistently rank high in search results for queries dealing in the subject matter.

Ehren Reilly: How Content Sites Can Win with Direct Answers

Reilly says that if you think back to the last big thing that Google did, it was Panda. And when Panda comes up, people talk about it as a thin content issue. But Reilly contends that Panda is actually about quality. Content, he argues, can be high-quality but bite-sized. Ask a simple question, get a simple answer, success! But now … direct answers will snatch up those bite-sized bits. For example …

Ask what time is it in Moscow : no one wants a long article — just the answer.
Ask the exchange rate from dollars to rupees: again, no one wants a diatribe, just an answer.

Google decided it was unnecessary to send people off to publisher sites for queries such as these. Google will take care of it it in a direct answer.

Direct answers are reshaping what kinds of businesses are viable. Anything that has an easy answer is not a viable business. (Click to Tweet)

Types of sites that are threatened by direct answers:

Facts about celebrities
Metric conversions
Calories
Weather
Song lyrics

Is this a threat to a high-quality site? Yes. Google provides “spoiler alerts” — snippets of your best content — displayed right in the SERP.

Reilly manages SEO for Glassdoor. Recently, he saw salary direct answers starting to appear. Although Glassdoor ranks No. 1, direct answers from other sources were rising to the top via the direct answer. What was particularly frustrating was an article about a study Glassdoor appeared in the direct answer box rather than Glassdoor’s actual study.

We found that the article had a simple answer that had the answer for the query (Facebook software engineer salary” – Glassdoor didn’t have the natural language on its page that would warrant a direct answer.

So, they put the sentence on the page and now show up in the direct answer rather than the article.

The Solution

You can also look at direct answers in another way. Direct answers are a huge real estate opportunity that you can take advantage of. Get picked up as a direct answer by:

Doing basic SEO well.
Matching the formula. Every direct answer follows a formula — figure out the formula and structure your content accordingly. Create a sentence that answers specific queries.
Avoid unhelpful structure and markup.

Unprecedented Google Announcement of a Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Change

Unprecedented Google Announcement of a Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Change was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

This is a huge announcement, guys. Circle your calendars – April 21, 2015.

Google made an announcement today regarding their mobile search algorithm. In an unprecedented move, they have announced the exact date that they intend to change their mobile organic SERP algorithm to more heavily weigh “mobile friendliness” as a ranking signal. That date is April 21.

Here’s an excerpt from the announcement on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, with emphasis in red (mine):

In Google’s history, I can NEVER remember them naming a DAY that they WILL be making an algorithm change. Unprecedented. Their language is also telling: “have a significant impact in our search results.”

This is a game-changing announcement. We need to treat it as such.

What Is Changing?

Prior to this, the mobile rankings for a website were usually tied to the ranking strength of the desktop site. If you ranked well on the desktop SERP, you usually ranked well on the mobile SERP as well. Google has always alluded to the fact, however, that the mobile-friendliness of your website could (would?) impact your organic rankings. This is Google definitively following through with that promise.

Starting on April 21, we can assume that mobile-friendly sites will see a dramatic boost in rankings, especially in spaces where their competition has not taken the time to get their “mobile houses” in order and do not enjoy the mobile-friendly distinction. To be clear, this blog article specifically talks about mobile search rankings — NOT desktop rankings.

What We Don’t Know (Yet)

Although the language of this announcement indicates that this is a change to mobile search results, there has been speculation that mobile friendliness will also impact desktop rankings in the future. (Some believe it already does to a small degree.) While this announcement stops short of indicating that this will occur on April 21, if mobile usability doesn’t begin to effect desktop rankings on that date, one day soon, I expect it definitely will.

What Google doesn’t indicate in their announcement is if the mobile-friendly ranking shift will apply on a site-wide or page-by-page basis. This distinction is especially important for websites using dynamic serving or separate mobile sites that contain mobile versions of some (but not all) content. We do know that the “mobile-friendly” label in SERPs is awarded to individual pages on a domain. It is not an all-or-nothing annotation. So the question is this: can we assume (always dangerous with Google) that the mobile search algorithm will judge website pages on their individual merits as well? Or, if the percentage of mobile-friendly pages on a domain is too low, will the entire domain see a demotion after April 21?

What This Means for YOU

We’ve expanded on the advantages of responsive design in the past. Responsively designed websites have a one-to-one relationship between desktop and mobile pages because they are one in the same. As Google’s preferred method of serving content to mobile users, we can assume that responsive sites will be favored by Google in search results going forward, and this is the first real step in that process.

If going responsive before April 21 is not an option for you, it is of vital importance that you consider the mobile solution you have in place and address its deficiencies as soon as possible. Google has gone to great lengths to help webmasters identify mobile site pitfalls and issues by adding things like the Mobile Usability Report to Google Webmaster Tools. That report details mobile usability errors that are specific to your domain. Google has also released the Mobile Friendly Testing Tool, which will analyze a URL and report if the specific page has a mobile-friendly design. Use the tools and resources available to earn the mobile-friendly badge across your website.

Here are more articles to help you along the way:

All-In-One Mobile SEO & Design Checklist
Mobile Design Cheat Sheet: Pros and Cons of Responsive Design, Dynamic Serving and Mobile Sites
6 Mobile-Friendly Navigation Best Practices
Optimizing Your Site for Mobile — SEO Tutorial

Enter Eric Enge’s World: Stone Temple Consulting CEO Talks SEO #SMX Series

Enter Eric Enge’s World: Stone Temple Consulting CEO Talks SEO #SMX Series was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Eric Enge, CEO of Stone Temple Consulting, has been an SEO force since 1997. He’s a co-author of “The Art of SEO,” has a popular YouTube channel, and has written digital marketing articles for major publications such as Forbes, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Watch, among others. Next week, he’ll be speaking in two Search Marketing Expo (SMX) sessions: “The Growth of Direct Answers: How Should SEOs React?” and “How to Secure Your Site for Google’s HTTPS Algorithm.”

In a preview of the knowledge bombs he’ll drop in those sessions, he joins us on the blog today for the final segment in a series of interviews with select SMX speakers. All month long, we’ve featured interviews of SEO VIPs sharing amazing insights on every aspect of digital marketing.

Today, Enge will shed light on the current state of search and social, complete with insights from his recent four-million tweet case study. Without further adieu, let’s get to the interview!

Kristi Kellogg: What are your tips when it comes to technical SEO in 2015? What trends do you see for online marketers to be aware of this year?

Eric Enge: The big change during this coming year I see is the growing capability of Google to directly measure content quality. This began back in February 2011 with the release of their Panda algorithm, but Google’s capabilities have evolved significantly. I wrote about this last June, and again in November. Google is already doing things to measure how comprehensive and valuable your pages are.

This is an area that the industry still speaks little about, but I think it’s coming on like a freight train. The days of creating hundreds or thousands of pages to chase the long tail of search are fading, and it’s increasingly important to focus on building the very best pages.

And, to your next question, I think that direct answers in search (or rich answers as I now call them) is really going to continue.

KK: Direct answers (the answers that show up directly at the top of Google — no click-through necessary — with answers to common questions or information like movie times or sports scores) are a matter of hot debate among SEOs. What do you think? Are direct answers a threat to publishers … or an opportunity?

EE: It’s a good question, but I will answer it with an analogy. Many of your readers probably had the experience as a little kid. You built a sandcastle down by the ocean. You built it in the wet sand because that’s what worked the best. But, a few hours later the ocean came in and washed it away. Most little kids are really upset by the experience the first time it happens.

My point is that Google’s direct answers are like the ocean. They are coming whether we like them or not. So, the best thing for publishers to do is to prepare for the inevitable. (Tweet this!)

There are some key things that you can do to prepare:

Don’t depend on publishing public domain data to get traffic to your website. If Google’s rich answers haven’t wiped that out for you already, it will.
Don’t depend on publishing data that Google may cheaply obtain a license to for getting traffic to your websites. In some cases, Google may go get such a license, as they appear to have done for some songs (try a search on “jump lyrics” for an example of this).
Focus on the core value of your business, and publishing rich, unique, and proprietary information that makes your site incredibly valuable to your potential customers and also to Google.
This may not be a simple thing to do, but it’s what you need to do in this day and age.

KK: You recently published a massive a Twitter study, featuring data amassed from four million tweets. What prompted you to do this study and what were some of the most shocking findings?

EE: We have built an internal lab at Stone Temple Consulting that focuses on studying many aspects of the digital world and how it works. The four million-tweet Twitter study is just one of many that we have published, or are working on. We consider it our mission to demystify digital marketing (as much as we can!).

As for the findings, here are three of our most interesting conclusions:

We all knew that including images was an important factor in growing engagement, but what we did not know is just how much of a factor they are. For people with a Followerwonk Social Authority of 60 or less, including images can increase the number of RTs you get by 5 to 9 times! Now that does not mean you should shove an image in every tweet you do, but for the ones that are most important to your business, it would be crazy not too.
Other studies (using far fewer tweets as a sample) have suggested that Time of Day is a big factor in engagement on Twitter, but our study showed that this has no material influence at all.
Including a mention in your tweets was found to be a negative to engagement (as measured by total RTs your tweet gets). My guess is that once it becomes a conversation that few people that are not in the conversation are inclined to retweet it.

KK: In a recent YouTube video, you and Mark Traphagen broke down “Why is SEO So Hard?” In 140 characters or less, can you tell us … why is SEO so hard?

EE:

Indexing all the world’s info is amazingly complex.
Search algos are kept secrets.
We learn by experimentation and experience.

KK: How does your staff keep up with all the SEO and social media best practices?

EE: It’s a really tough challenge. You have to read the industry news, go to conferences, and keep experimenting and learning from your work on different sites. Then, even as you learn, things keep changing. There is only one really good solution to this problem, and that is to be passionate about learning. Of course, it’s helpful to have people who focus on different things so that other members of the team can learn from them.

KK: What is your response when you read or hear people saying “SEO is Dead?”

EE: They just don’t understand. Back to the my 140 character answer, there is so much complexity to what the search engines do, and so many different flavors of it. Local search is different than video search is different than shopping search is different than rich answers, and so forth. And, the desire for people to search for things will never go away. So, SEO is a long way from dead. As long as people need to search for things, and as long as the complexity of the search engine’s job is high, there will be a need for SEO.

You just have to think about it as consisting of these two things:

Making it easier for search engines to understand what you have that there users are looking for.
Doing marketing work so they understand why what you have is more important to those users than the other people that offer similar things.

These are just basic needs!

KK: What do you think SEO will look like in ten years?

EE: That’s a really tough question. I stand by my answer in the prior question, but there will be so much change in the next 10 years that it’s hard to say what it will look like.

The rate of change in technology that we have experienced in our lifetimes so far is accelerating. Even 5 years from now, the technology and web worlds will already be radically different!

KK: If you could give three SEO tips to a business startup with a very limited budget, what would they be?

EE: Here is my short formula!

Get enough expert help to make sure your website is being fully crawled and indexed. You can’t get out of the starting gate with SEO unless you solve this one.
Focus on publishing expert level, comprehensive content. This is the way that Google is going. If you don’t do this, then they will start to see your site as being very low in value.
Promote your business in a way that causes people to recognize you as an/the expert in the topic matter of your business. This will get you links (yes, they still count) and other forms of social proof that could be influencing your SEO, too.

Note that items 2 and 3 are really about how you conduct the day-to-day operations of your business. Even if you can’t get help with them, you should try to do this with the time that you have available to do so.

KK: What are your three favorite accounts to follow on Twitter?

EE: @randfish, @bruceclayinc and @jaybaer.

KK: Those are some of my favorites, too Besides SMX West, where can we find you speaking in 2015?

EE: So far, here is what I know:

ClickZ Live NY
Pubcon Austin
SMX Advanced
SMX East
Pubcon Las Vegas
(I am sure there will be others, but those are the ones I know about for now!)

Eric, we can’t wait for your sessions at SMX West 2015! Virginia Nussey and I will be on the scene, liveblogging key sessions, including both of yours. We’ll see you next week

Catch other interviews in our SMX West Speaker series here: Pushfire’s Rae Hoffman, Experian’s Bill Tancer, Bing’s Duane Forrester, Google’s Gary Illyes, SEO by the Sea’s Bill Slawski, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Mindy Weinstein, HubSpot’s Luke Summerfield, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, Alliance-Link’s Debra Mastaler and Moz’s Pete Meyers.

Fired Up for Links? So is Rae Hoffman #SMX Speaker Series

Fired Up for Links? So is Rae Hoffman #SMX Speaker Series was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

In less than one week, digital marketers from around the world for Search Marketing Expo (SMX). Today, we’re excited to talk with one of SEO’s most fiery females and SMX speaker: Rae Hoffman, CEO of Pushfire and master of affiliate marketing and link acquisition. If you’re headed to SMX, you can catch her in “Penguin Penalty Prevention: Link Acquisition & Audit Techniques You Need To Know” on March 4.

Here Hoffman shares the tools she’s using for link audits and analysis today, and describes her firm belief that the most effective Internet marketers stay “in the trenches.” No doubt you’ll find her insights on link acquisition strategies that work thought-provoking, and may relate to her opinion of Google’s most unfair update. Some actionable recommendations for dealing with duplicate manufacturer content on affiliate sites are in here, too.

Kristi Kellogg: You’ve been an online marketer since 1998. That’s many Internet moons of experience on SEO, Google, link building and what ranks. Are there any tactics you’d categorize as “SEO classic” ━ things that work today that worked in 2000?

Rae Hoffman: Now I feel old. Ha. I think several of the SEO basics still work – like title tags and making your site technically sound from a crawling perspective. And spam still works, though the punishments have gotten more severe. And creating good content still works. Though what “good content” is has changed. (Tweet this!) You know, I heard a discussion the other day that wasn’t about search, but it applied to marketing websites. It was a podcast by Adam Carolla, and he was discussing how several classic TV shows weren’t great TV shows, but rather simply made it because the programming options were so limited.

When I was a kid, we didn’t have more than 20 channels. There weren’t a lot of options once you removed niche channels like news and weather – so the most decent option on whatever number of channels were left won. But, with 200+ cable channels now and the Internet, what constitutes “good television” has changed – big time. Being on ABC during prime time isn’t enough to make a hit show anymore. It helps, but it’s no longer a guarantee. Likewise, being able to rank in Google isn’t enough to build an online business anymore. As I’ve said before, Google doesn’t want to make websites popular; they want to rank popular websites (Tweet this!).

KK: You recently tweeted: “The minute you think you’re ‘above writing title tags,’ feel free to slap yourself in the face … #StayInTheTrenches #NotSittingOnBenches.” Why is it so important to stay hands-on when it comes to digital marketing?

RH: Because otherwise, you have no idea what works. If you work with big brands and only big brands, then you have no idea what’s going on in the “real world” of search – where other 95 percent of businesses live. When you aren’t hands on, then you have to take the word of others. If you’re lucky, those “others” know what they’re doing. More often lately it feels like one person says what sounds good and sounds like it should work. But they’re so busy blogging eight times per week and promoting their company that they haven’t tried it. But, it sounds good. And it’s in line with what Google says. So, let’s roll with it.

And then ten more guys with high profiles who like that guy and also aren’t in the trenches themselves say, “that sounds plausible,” and they begin to state it as fact. Before you know it, half the search community is spouting this theory as fact and people in the trenches feel stupid because they can’t make it work. Because it doesn’t work and if you tried it before you gave a presentation on it at a conference, you’d know that. That’s not going to be a popular answer, but it is what it is.

KK: At SMX West you’re speaking on avoiding questionable link acquisition techniques. What tools do you use in a link audit?

RH: The primary tool I use is LinkResearchTools.com, but I have some caveats vs. a blanket recommendation. First, I use it primarily for gathering and segmenting link data and attributes. I don’t use LRT’s recommendations or values or recommendations. I solely use them as my nurse so to speak to gather the basic information. I don’t believe in letting tools think for me. A tool is a tool, and I use it as such. Second, LRT is expensive. They don’t offer the title rank feature (which I use in audits) for less $399 per month. That’s hella steep for a lot of consultants and small businesses. That said, you can do what you need to for clean up and occasionally monitoring by using it a few months per year. To me, the $99 plan is missing too many features. However, I wish LRT would make a consultant option that was in between the $99 and $399 per month. We do enough recovery work that we can justify the higher tiers, but on principal, I always feel bad recommending such a pricey tool. That said I’ve yet to find anything that sorts the links into all the nice and neat segments LRT does. (If you know a tool I need to try, please tell me!)

KK: What are good link acquisition tactics today? Can you maybe share two money ideas for attracting or inviting quality links?

RH: “Good link” acquisition – to me – centers around exposure strategies that get you publicity and exposure to your target market (Tweet this!). Google has done their best to kill linking tactics. What still works as far as “tactics” you won’t find being “shared,” because then it stops working. If you hear about a “tactic” that is easy to replicate, it either no longer works or soon won’t work. Solve problems. That’s my number one piece of link acquisition. What “solving problems” will mean will vary by industry. But you need to solve problems for your target user base. Just like your product or service needs to solve a problem, so does your content. Of course controversy, creativity and being “first” with any idea goes a long way. But the typical commercial website can’t do those kinds of initiatives every day. So, for the long haul, solving problems is a defensible strategy – both for your business as a whole and your link acquisition strategy.

KK: While your session is on avoiding Google Penguin, I read that your least favorite Google update is Panda. Affiliate websites are a big target of Panda. What do you recommend if a site has thin or duplicate manufacturer content?

RH: I hate Panda – because it’s arbitrary and often inaccurate. It’s one thing to not reward a site for stuff that you believe is an attempt at deception (thin content simply to rank). It’s quite another to make it impossible for them to rank well because you believe you’ve found an attempt at deception. I see more innocent victims with Panda – especially e-commerce websites (which are similar to affiliate sites in the data feed aspect) – than I do deserving ones. There are only so many words I can write about a pair of black socks. Google always tells us to build site content for users and to ignore search spiders – and then it comes out with an algorithm that has manufacturers writing product descriptions for search spiders. It’s hypocritical at best and reckless at worst. These are people’s livelihoods.

As far as recommendations – creating a hefty amount of value add and truly awesome content goes a long way to lowering the percentage of thin product pages your site has. Condensing product pages into one page that don’t need sixteen separate pages (meaning not having a page for pink [product] in small, pink [product in medium], blue [product in small], etc.) is another common recommendation I have to make. I’d also stress the importance of not using the same data feed to populate your site as you give to your affiliates and external shopping portals like Amazon or Shopping.com. If you’re an affiliate, keep in mind that the merchant provides that same data feed to 10,000 other affiliates. Affiliates should also keep in mind that they can have a “store” without opening the entire thing up. Sometimes disallowing access to product pages, while allowing access to categories and non-shopping site content can allow you to have your cake and eat it, too.

KK: You’ve built many affiliate sites from the ground – key to their success is a strong following. Can you share a few tips on building a brand new brand’s following?

RH: Focus on finding people, and you’ll naturally put out the signals to please the engines. If you launch a site and you think “I need to start getting this links” instead of “I need to start getting this traffic” then you’re doing it wrong for the long-term. Again, Google wants to rank popular websites. Find your point of difference and then attack it with a vengeance. You know, it’s funny. In 2007 I wrote a post about surviving the affiliate evolution and every year I go to update it and realize I’d still give the same advice. You become a brand when people decide you’re one. There’s a great book on this topic called “Brand is a Four Letter Word.” I highly recommend it.

KK: What advice would you give to someone looking to build an affiliate marketing business? Are there characteristics that make someone a better affiliate marketer?

RH: Be willing to learn. Be willing to work. Be willing to do whatever work needs doing. Be willing to fail. Never stop learning. Never stop failing. And remember that “passive income” comes after “years of hard work.” If you’re looking for easy money, you’re going to be very disappointed. I think busy minds with a talent for multitasking make the best affiliate marketers.

KK: What does an average day in your life look like?

RH: It depends on the day, aside from being up early and going to bed early, lol. Some days I’ll pull a 15-hour day, head down at my computer. Other days, I’ll go shoot pool at noon. I don’t think I have a standard day haha. I am a mom of four. We have football, baseball, guitar, basketball, horseback riding … Somewhere in there I have to fit in getting to the gym (if at all humanly possible) a few times a week. I also enjoy gardening, decorating and hosting parties, so I find ways to make time for those. I also almost never go a single day without educating myself in some way about something. I avoid phone calls like the plague.

But I don’t want to create this false vision of the freedom I have as if it didn’t have a decade of hard work before it. I’ve never worked for money wealth. I have a much bigger interest in time wealth. And I’ve worked very hard to obtain it.

KK: What are you top three most visited websites, besides the ones you own?

RH: They’re all social, LOL. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you’re asking for non-social sites, I’d have a hard time giving any that I visit on the regular. I’m a drifter.

KK: What’s your current smartphone OS and device? What are your five most-used apps?

RH: I have an iPhone. This list is going to be so embarrassing, but my five most used apps are:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Sonic the Hedgehog
Wild Dice

KK: If the Internet shut down tomorrow, what new career would you choose?

RH: If I still needed or wanted to make bank, I’d probably be a real estate broker. I love the potential of not only earning money off what I sell, but also in having a ton of “sub-affiliates” (realtors) underneath me giving me a cut of their sales, too.

Otherwise? I’d probably be a farmer.

Dead serious.

Huge thanks to Rae Hoffman for sharing her insights on link acquisition – her “in the trenches” approach is an inspiration! For more lessons from SMX speakers, check out the other interviews in our SMX West 2015 Speaker Series? Over the past month, we’ve interviewed Experian’s Bill Tancer, Bing’s Duane Forrester, Google’s Gary Illyes, SEO by the Sea’s Bill Slawski, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Mindy Weinstein, HubSpot’s Luke Summerfield, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, Alliance-Link’s Debra Mastaler and Moz’s Pete Meyers . Our final interview with Stone Temple Consulting’s Eric Enge comes out tomorrow!

​Getting Things Done the Enterprise Way #SEJSummit Liveblog

​Getting Things Done the Enterprise Way #SEJSummit Liveblog was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Jeff Preston is the senior SEO manager at Disney Interactive. Disney Interactive includes the company’s websites, video games, mobile apps and more in the “Getting Things Done the Enterprise Way” session at Search Engine Summit in Santa Monica.

Disney’s Senior SEO Manager Jeff Preston asks himself which Disney character exemplifies the kind of leader he wants to emulate.

First, he shares the challenges of the enterprise SEO job:

Lots of content
Lots of sites
Lots of links
Different publishing platforms
Stakeholders varied

3 Takeaways for Enterprise SEO at Disney

Technical Excellence
Team Culture
Win Influence

Technical Excellence

Make sure site is crawled right

Internal crawl: CMS list of published URLs

Set a goal to get these numbers (Google indexed pages and published URLs) as close as possible

Watch out for conflicts:

rel=”canonical”
http canonical
OG URL

Use structured data

Deploy:

Open Graph
Schema.org
Twitter Cards


Validate and re-validate all code; things can break easily
Keep up with latest changes and opportunities

Check for redirect hops

Scan site for redirect links.

Add it to the monthly checklist.

Check code updates in dev cycles

Take time to write clear instructions and requirements
Explain benefits to the changes
Check work as soon as possible
Recheck throughout development cycles
Let quality assurance know a change request is coming down the pipe so they can act as an advocate

Team Culture

Should the SEO team be structured like a NASCAR team? Football team? He thinks they should be like a Navy SEAL team ━ experts at everything. Every individual can do first aid, fight, communicate.

Team structure

SEO team members are accountable for their own sites
Seo team members manage relationship with site stakeholders
Help each other as needed

Recruiting

Hire someone that runs their own sites
Use conferences to spot talent
Remember: tech skills are easier to teach than people skills. Charisma and persuasion go far in getting things done and can’t be taught.

International

Have international goals? Hire a native speaker from the target market.

Remember: use conferences to hire talent.

Get trained

Keep up on the latest in search engine algorithm changes.

Learn to be a better manager.

Win Influence

To get buy in, you build your influence in the organization.

If you’re a manager and you’re leading an SEO team and you’re responsible for SEO and it falls on your shoulders, you need help. You don’t build the site yourself. It’s great to have the support of senior leadership, but you can’t run to the top (“mommy and daddy”) every time. You may need to convince other directors and managers for assistance. Have regular meetings with these key people.

Have a big internal network

If there’s anything non-SEO you can do to help out, you should do it
Build an internal network of friends and connections
Celebrate other internal team wins
Be sincere and dependable
Volunteer for non-SEO projects that will build your network
Soft answer turns away wrath

Invite to act

People respond better to invitations
Be convincing rather than commanding
Remember: meet one-on-one with key players as needed

Attitude

Have a positive mental attitude toward your site
Take personal responsibility for results
Be calm, be patient and learn as you go

We’re reporting live from the SEJ Summit in Santa Monica! Read more liveblog coverage here.

Engaging Content Marketing for ‘Boring’ Industries #SEJSummit Liveblog

Engaging Content Marketing for ‘Boring’ Industries #SEJSummit Liveblog was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

On the stage is Mindy Weinstein, director of training at Bruce Clay, Inc. Mindy manages content development and SEO teams, and is also an author of two books on personal finance. She’s going to share her top three pieces of advice for creating content when brands are “boring” or topics not usually addressed in polite company.

3 Content Marketing Takeaways

Develop Real-Life Stories
Keep your Eyes Open for Inspiration
Focus on Being Practical and Personal

From left: Katrina Jefferson (CEO of Chica Intelligente) and Mindy Weinstein (Director of Training at Bruce Clay, Inc.) onstage at the Search Engine Journal Summit in Santa Monica.

A story: Mindy’s son is in elementary school and one day she picked him up from school and they walked back to the car together. When she got to the car she saw that there were rats in her car. How could she have known that? The story starts a few weeks before. She lived in a neighborhood with a lot of fruit trees and giant tree rats. She went to a mechanic and he told her that there were rats having a party in her engine. She searched online for a solution to get rid of the rats. She found an exterminator with a blog full of stories about people going through the same situation.

1. Develop real-life stories

“Why are stories so valuable? One reason is that a story exerts a power beyond the obvious. The whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts — the facts, the events, the context — that a story creates a deep resonance. “Think like a freak,” Mindy says.

Stories allow us to put ourselves in the character’s shoes. As the reader, we start to project ourselves onto the character. You want them to think: “Yes! That’s is what I thought too!”

People become interested when they are in need and want to know how you have helped others like them. When they are in need, and you tell them a story that helps solve their problem, a once boring topic is no longer boring to them.

Develop stories that address how people have used the product or service.

Take testimonials a step further by painting the entire picture for the reader.

Big brand example: Land O Lakes has a blog of bakers and families and their experience with butter. They have a column called Ask Becky.

2. Keep your eyes open for inspiration

 It’s often difficult to sit down at your computer and try to determine what to write. Prepare ahead of time by storing a file on your desk that is labeled “Content Topics.” Say goodbye to writer’s block.

Behave like a critical thinker. Reexamine every article or book you read and story you hear. Is there some type of angle or insight you could provide your target audience?

Harness your inner news reporter. Look for events and news items, holidays and bits of news to create content around. What are other companies saying? What can I say that is different?

One of Mindy’s books is titled “Rich and Thin.” She combined two topics: personal finance and weight loss. People care about both but add them together and it gets a whole new feel and resonance.

Some places to look for content inspiration:

Google Trends
Google Alerts
BuzzFeed
Buzzsumo
Addict-o-Matic
Even junk mail

3. Focus on being practical and personal

Big brand example: Dyson vacuum cleaners focus on being practical and personal.

What concerns does the reader have and how can you make it simple to get help?

Embarrassing question? No problem. Look at the Dollar Shave Club. They talk about every personal hygiene and grooming issue with a practical approach.

Mindy’s team wrote a lot of legal content. There were a lot of personal issues they needed to address, like providing advice after a car accident. But what about practical? They made sure to include ways on the page to make it easy for the visitor to learn more and get deeper and get in contact, like a live chat button. That’s the kind of thing that you need to think of — how to fit into your consumers life.

We’re reporting live all day from the SEJ Summit in Santa Monica! Read more liveblog coverage here.

Neil Patel’s 6 Unorthodox Conversion Tactics #SEJSummit Liveblog

Neil Patel’s 6 Unorthodox Conversion Tactics #SEJSummit Liveblog was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Neil Patel is the co-founder of CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics, analytics and conversion optimization tools and platforms. He’s been doing business online for 11 years and he does at least four new A/B tests a month. He’s a CRO master and he’s sharing his insights this morning at the Search Engine Journal Summit in Santa Monica.

Neil Patel onstage at Search Engine Journal Summit in Santa Monica.

A lot of businesses aim for one thing: driving traffic. Long-term ethical traffic driving tactics costs a lot of money. If you can optimize your conversions, you’re going to make more from the traffic you have.

How to think about conversion optimization the right way. This will help you get more wins.
How to come up with tests. Create tests based on what you see as problems, not based on what you want. Tests have to be data driven.
Suggestions on tests you can run that should help boost your conversion rate.

Here are six CRO tactics.

Idea 1: Flip around your funnel.

CRO is like dating. Don’t ask them to marry you first. Get to know them. Instead of asking for their name and email in form, ask for their URL and give them some info about what you can do for that site.

Idea 2: Give a reason to stick around.

Leave some mystery, evoke curiosity. This gives people a reason to follow through, increasing your sales.

Idea 3: Stay top of mind.

Here’s an idea: give homework assignments. Then your potential customers will be thinking of you outside the time you have with them. They’ll be drawn back to you to get the homework answers.

Idea 4: Quiz your visitors.

Tips on quizzes:

Start with five questions
Use images when possible
Limit your choices per question to four

Revolution Golf makes $20 million a year on quizzes, quizzing people to improve their golf game.

Idea 5: Make signing up easy.

You’ve probably signed up for 200 accounts in your lifetime. But don’t ask people to sign up for another account for your site. That’s an unnecessary hurdle. Instead have them log in with an account they already have. Authentication via Twitter, Google+ and Facebook is common today.

Idea 6: Get personal.

People want to feel special. Dating sites serve this desire well. Use geo-based data throughout your messaging and people will feel like you’re talking to them.

Q & A

What’s the ROI from social media? Collect emails.
Do you have any favorite platforms for interactive quizzes? Patel has a developer code it up into XML and CSS. The sole purpose of the quiz is to collect leads so you want the XML to collect it straight into your CRM and a platform can make that data transfer more complicated.
Do you recommend any pop-up lead generation tools? He suggests some expensive ones and then says that OptinMonster WordPress plugin is pennies on the dollar.

 

We’re reporting live all day from the SEJ Summit in Santa Monica! Read more liveblog coverage here.

SEO 101: The 29-Point SEO Checklist

SEO 101: The 29-Point SEO Checklist was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

If you’re just getting the hang of all the things that go into an optimized website, there’s no doubt the list can be overwhelming. In Bruce Clay, Inc.’s SEO training course, we offer students an SEO checklist as one of the many take-home materials. Here, we’d like give you an excerpt of that list to help you on your way. While not exhaustive, many people find a list like this to be a great reminder of the many “to-do” items during their SEO projects.

On-Page Optimization

1. Head Section Order

BCI’s best practices is to ensure your web pages’ Meta tags are in the right order: Title > Description > Keywords. Remember, the information you put in these tags is used to render the title and description in the search engine results pages, and is what searchers see.

2. Title Tag

BCI methodology states Title tags should be approx. nine words, plus or minus three. You want to make sure the most important information, including top keywords, show up before the cutoff in the SERP in Google at 512 pixels, which translates to approximately 55-65 characters including spaces.

3. Description Tag

The description tag should also be mindful to include the most important info and  keywords before the SERP cutoff at approximately 920 pixels wide, which translates to approximately 156 characters including spaces.

Side note: Don’t forget to make the title and description compelling as this text assists in conversions. You don’t want to waste your prime real estate in the SERP with boring copy. (Read more about the ins and outs of Meta data.)

4. Keywords Tag

Even though Google has stated the keywords tag is not a consideration in ranking, we always include it as a best practice. We list keywords in order from longest in length to shortest in length, separated by commas.

5. Heading Tags

In the body of your content, make sure your first heading tag always begins as an . Subsequent heading tags should be , , , etc., and be used as the page’s table of contents.

6. Overall Word Count

The amount of words you have on a web page will vary by topic, keyword and intent. But, in general, less than 250 words is rarely recommended – especially if you’re trying to optimize for keywords. Informational web pages will almost always warrant at least 450 words. Quality content is key. Since the Google Panda Update penalizing low-quality content, avoid duplicate content and thin content and focus on robust coverage of your website topics that prove your subject matter expertise.

7. Alt Attributes with Keywords

The American with Disabilities Act says you should always describe the image on the page for the vision impaired. Ensure your images have proper descriptions associated with them, and if appropriate, keywords for the page. Alt attributes are also required to validate your HTML code.

8. Dashes vs. Underscores in URLs

Underscores are alpha characters and do not separate words. Dashes (or rather, hyphens) are word separators, but should not appear too many times or it could look spammy. For more on this topic, check out this post by Google’s Matt Cutts.

9. Fully Qualified Links

If you make your links fully qualified, there’s no question by search engine spiders, browsers, etc. as to where the file is located and what it’s about. If your link looks something like “../../pagename” (a relative link), then it may result in crawl issues for some search engines. Rather than complex URLs, use fully qualified links (http://www.URL). And the site map should always have fully qualified URLs.

10. Make JavaScript/CSS External

You want to be sure the most important code is the first thing the search engine bots crawl. You can externalize the code that gets in the way of this to ensure there aren’t unnecessary lines above the body text.

Sitewide Optimization

11. Site Map

Your site should have an HTML sitemap, and every page should link to that sitemap, probably in the footer. You should also have an XML Sitemap you submit to search engines. (Editor’s note: You can learn how to create a sitemap in our SEO Tutorial.)

12. Text Navigation

Verify there is text navigation, not JavaScript or Flash navigation that spiders can’t see. Make sure you at least have text navigation on the bottom of the page if there aren’t any spiderable navigation links in the top nav.

13. Make Robots.txt File

It’s important this file exists, even if it’s empty. The Robots.txt file tells the search engine spiders what not to index. Also make sure the file doesn’t accidentally exclude important files, directories or the entire site (this has been known to happen!).

14. Keyword Strategy

The keyword strategy is an ongoing process that essentially never ends. It starts with extensive research and iterates with extensive research. One could write novels about this topic; just know it’s part of any solid SEO checklist.

15. Web Analytics

There’s much you could say about web analytics in your SEO strategy. The important thing is to make sure you have it. Ensure your analytics are properly set up and monitor them regularly to find out of if the keywords that are generating traffic are in your keyword list, and that your site is optimized for them.

16. Linking Strategy

This section warrants way more than just a few sentences, but it should be noted as part of the SEO checklist. Your internal linking structure typically stems from your siloing strategy. Your inbound/outbound links should be part of an organic, natural strategy in compliance with search engine guidelines, and be monitored regularly.

17. Server Configuration

Regularly check your server, looking for 404 errors, 301 redirects and other errors.

18. Privacy Statement

Some reports say a “privacy statement” on your site is an important element in bing. It’s best practices to include one anyway; this is so you can let site visitors know what you’re doing with any data you collect about them.

19. Static Pages

Complex, dynamic URLs could be a problem. If your URLs have more than two query string parameters and/or dynamic pages aren’t getting indexed and/or you have a lot of duplicate content, consider converting them to static pages. You can also use mod_rewrite or ISAPI_rewrite, as appropriate, to simplify URLs. Rewritten URLs will appear to be static pages. This tends to be a lot of work, but is a surefire way to address this issue; you can also use the Canonical tag.

20. Static Index Pages

If you have a home page with content that constantly changes, it can result in diluting the theme of your site and cause poor rankings for key terms. Try to maintain chunks of constant text on the home page.

21. Use Text over Images

Any time you can use text for something instead of image files, this helps the spiders understand what the page is about. This is because search engine spiders can’t “see” all the text on an image file.

22. Ensure No SPAM Tactics

Make sure your SEO strategy is following Google Webmaster Guidelines. If ever in doubt about any of your tactics, refer to what Google accepts for SEO.

23. Check for Duplicate Content

Do a search to see if your content exists elsewhere on the Web. You may want to check out CopyScape.com and use it regularly.

Webmaster Tools

24. Set Up a Webmaster Tools Account for Google and Bing

Webmaster Tools accounts for Google and Bing give site owners insight into how search engines view their sites with reports on issues like crawl errors and penalties. If you haven’t already set up a Google Webmaster Tools account, this article will walk you through it.

25. Check Crawl Errors Reported

When a page has a crawl error, it means Google is unable to access the page. The first place to begin troubleshooting crawl errors is with the Crawl Errors Report, which can be found in the Crawl section of Google Webmaster Tool. Read more about crawl errors here.

26. Review Mobile Usability Issues

Google is invested in providing users a great mobile experience. See how your site is performing on mobile devices with the Mobile Usability Report, located within Search Traffic section of Google Webmaster Tools. This report lets you know if your touch elements are too close, if your content is sized to the viewport, your flash usage, font size and more.

You can also use Fetch as Google within the Crawl section of Google Webmaster Tools to render your site the way Google sees it different mobiel devices. Lastly, you can run important URLs through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test for developers here.

27. Check for Manual Penalties Reported

If a manual penalty has been levied against you, Google will report it to you within Google Webmaster Tools. Check the Manual Actions Report within Search Traffic. Read more about the Manual Actions Report here.

You can also find out if you’ve suffered a penalty from Bing. Review the Index Summary chart with the dashboard of Bing Webmaster Tools — if the number of pages for a given site is set at zero, you have been hit with a penalty.

28. Analyze Your Site Traffic Against Known Google Algorithm Updates

If your site is running Google Analytics, use the Panguin Tool to check your traffic levels against known algorithmic updates.

29. Improve Site Speed and Performance

Check PageSpeed Insights in Google Webmaster Tools or use tools like Gmetrix.com to analyze and improve a website’s performance.

Want more SEO tips? Our SEO Tutorial teaches you search engine optimization step-by-step, and it’s free!

‘Online Reviews on Purchase Pages Increase Conversions’ — A Conversation with Bill Tancer

‘Online Reviews on Purchase Pages Increase Conversions’ — A Conversation with Bill Tancer was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Search Marketing Expo (SMX) audiences are in for a treat next week when New York Times best-selling author and general manager of global research at Experian Marketing Services Bill Tancer delivers the keynote address. His keynote, like his latest book “Everyone’s a Critic: Winning Customers in a Review-Driven World,” will explore the staggering effect of online reviews. Today, he joins us on the blog for a review on reviews. Read on to find out:

How reviews affect purchasing decisions
What industries are review-challenged
Why even negative reviews are a positive
Mistakes big brands make when engaging online

 

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Kristi Kellogg: Your SMX West keynote is right around the corner. What should the audience be gearing up for?

Bill Tancer: One thing I look for as an analyst and an author is inefficiency. There’s a large gap between the importance that reviews play in online commerce and the amount of attention that online marketers give the review “channel.” According to the latest research over 80% of all consumers consult online reviews before making purchase decisions. All research points to the fact that the mere existence of online reviews on purchase pages increases conversion. In addition to that, online reviews are the intersection of search and local content. For all these reasons online marketers and search marketers should pay more attention to the online review world.

KK:  80 percent of consumers consult online reviews before making a purchase?! That’s huge. And yet, still, some businesses have yet to invest time/strategy into the garnering online reviews. What would you say to the business owner that is starting from scratch? Where should they most focus their efforts? What are the best strategies to get reviews?

BT: For the business owner that’s starting from scratch, the most impactful practice is to give your customers a reason to want to write a review for you. Go out of your way to provide some small service that delights your customer. An example that I use in “Everyone’s a Critic” is Jay the locksmith — at the end of a job he goes through the customer’s house or apartment and oils the hinges of all the doors. Its a little act that costs him nothing, takes a few minutes, and is so unexpected and appreciated that his customers flock to Yelp to give him five-star reviews.

KK: Negative reviews — they happen. The good news, as you’ve pointed out, is that even negative reviews have a positive effect. What mindset and method do you advocate for responding to negative reviews?

BT: First, I suggest that business owners approach negative reviews in the same manner that they would handle a customer who lodges a complaint in person. Most business owners wouldn’t ignore an in-person complaint yet the majority of business owners ignore complaints or one-star reviews on online review sites. As far as mindset, think of a negative review as an open door to start a conversation with a customer that had a negative experience and potentially win them back and in the process show the universe of those reading your reviews that you care about your customers and provide excellent products or services.

KK: In “Everyone’s a Critic,” you assert that everything (books, cafes, dry cleaners, doctors, dentists, blenders, professors, music, dates) is reviewable — is there any industry under the sun where reviews aren’t as prolific?

BT: Professional services are lagging, specifically the medical community. The challenge facing professionals like physicians are restrictions on how they can respond publicly due to confidentiality and patient privacy issues. Without the free flowing discussion between business and customer, overall popularity of reviews for that sector suffer.

KK: What’s the biggest mistake brands and businesses make when engaging with consumers online?

BT: First, ignoring negative reviews. Second, not recognizing the wealth of information contained in the channel not only about their own brands but also the competitive intelligence that is flourishing about competing brands.

KK: Let’s talk Twitter chats. @Experian_US hosts a #MarketingChat every Thursday at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET. What’s the value of a Twitter chat, for the host and the participants?

BT: I use Twitter chats following our Experian Marketing Services’ webinars. I find that these tweet chats turn what’s normally a broadcast channel into a more conversational medium that contains some very valuable nuggets of information.

KK: Are any seeds germinating in your mind for a new book?

BT: Yes, I’m actually exploring several topics for my third book, including returning to the analysis of observed online behavior and what those observations can tell us about ourselves and how we might behave in the future.

KK: As the general manager of global research at Experian Marketing Services, what does your day-to-day look like? What are the biggest challenges and rewards of your job?

BT: I have the greatest job in the world (for a data geek). I get to play in the sandbox of Experian Marketing Services Data, like the Hitwise Dataset, Simmons Research, ConsumerView and others and look for interesting insights. The only challenge I can think of is that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do the analysis I would like to do.

KK: What are the best books (of any kind) you read last year? What’s on your reading list?

BT: My favorites last year were Charles Duhigg’s “Power of Habit,” Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” and Clayton Christensen’s “Innovator’s Dilemma” (read for the second time). This year I’m going to reread some of my favorites like Nassim Taleb’s “Black Swan.”

KK: What are your resolutions for 2015?

Analyze more data!

KK: Where else can we catch you speaking this year?

Experian Marketing Services – Marketing Forward Tour stops in Chicago and New York
SMX West
SMX Sydney
UTSA Big Data Conference
and many more to follow …

A busy schedule for an inspirational speaker, no doubt. Looking forward to liveblogging and live tweeting Tancer for Bruce Clay, Inc. next week!

Can’t get enough of the SMX West 2015 Speaker Series? Over the past month, we’ve interviewed Bing’s Duane Forrester, Google’s Gary Illyes, SEO by the Sea’s Bill Slawski, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Mindy Weinstein, HubSpot’s Luke Summerfield, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, Alliance-Link’s Debra Mastaler and Moz’s Pete Meyers. The SMX West 2015 Speaker Series wraps up this week with two final interviews featuring Pushfire’s Rae Hoffman and Stone Temple Consulting’s Eric Enge.

Bada BING, Bada Boom! Man at Center of Microsoft Backtrack Heard ‘Round the Search World: Exclusive Duane Forrester Interview

Bada BING, Bada Boom! Man at Center of Microsoft Backtrack Heard ‘Round the Search World: Exclusive Duane Forrester Interview was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Getting a deal done in two months at a tech conglomerate like Microsoft is the corporate equivalent of a double back handspring. And that’s exactly how long it took Microsoft to fully backtrack on the publicly derided layoff of Duane Forrester.

Duane Forrester was awarded Search Personality of the Year at the 2014 U.S. Search Awards last October. Later that month, his job was cut. Two months after that, Forrester was offered his job back as Webmaster Outreach at Bing. Photo by Search Engine Journal | CC by 2.0

Forrester, a larger than life personality in the SEO world — literally dubbed the 2014 Search Personality of the Year — has been the voice of Microsoft’s Bing search engine to the marketing community since 2011. Last October, Forrester found his name on a layoff list of 3,000. Search marketers who adore Forrester for his straight-talking, webmaster championing, laid-back demeanor were by turns shocked and annoyed. How could the No. 2 search engine spare its most public figure and PR Ace? What did the move say about Bing’s attitude and support for the search marketing community? In December, Microsoft put any doubt of its commitment to search and the online business community to rest by admitting mea culpa and returning Forrester to his previous seat.

Photo by Grant Wickes | CC by 2.0

Forrester is officially Sr. Product Manager of the Bing Webmaster Program, and holds a second title of Webmaster Outreach. He’s spent the last four years improving search for users by way of increased transparency and tools for SEOs and webmasters. He’s the mind who built Bing Webmaster Tools, which gives website owners critical insight into and control over how the search engine appraises their website. As a celebrated speaker, Forrester travels the globe to educate digital marketers on SEO and spread the white hat gospel (oftentimes in a white cowboy hat of his own). Forrester is hitting the road soon to attend SMX West, which we used as an excuse to invite him for a pre-appearance interview, with hopes of gaining a lesson or two on the inner workings of Bing this year.

Read on to learn firsthand what happened behind closed doors to return Forrester to his role at Bing. We also get a peek of big things on the horizon at Bing, including Forrester’s recommended process for a mobile usability audit … and a brand new ad type in the works.

Kristi Kellogg: Last October your name came up for layoffs at Microsoft, and two months later you were back at Bing. How has your role changed? Is there now more awareness at the top levels of Microsoft about the importance of webmaster outreach for Bing?

Duane Forrester: Previously my focus was solely on webmasters and now my remit includes working across groups on business-facing efforts (so, an expansion) and I also work more closely on the API side of things now.

As for awareness, that’s always been in place. No program with the depth and breadth of Webmaster moves forward without senior leaders signing off on the work and investment. Our focus on businesses hasn’t faltered one bit, and let’s keep in mind: I’m only a single person. I might be on stage at conferences, but there were eight guys and gals back in the office making those tools run and adding new features. That didn’t change one bit.

No, its safe to say the decision makers are well focused on the importance of businesses in the bigger picture. The understanding is clear — this is a partnership arena, and it works better when we all work in similar directions. This is why you see us partnering so much, and why you saw the investment in 2012 to dramatically update Webmaster Tools and change what businesses should expect from our tools.

KK: Do you think the outpouring of support by the SEO community changed any opinions of decision makers at Bing and Microsoft?

DF: I have to admit, I was personally humbled by the outpouring of support. I was unprepared for it and it caught me by surprise. You try to do the right things during your career, help others, answer questions, etc. Often we all hit that moment where we realized we’ve had good days, did good things, and days when we’ve failed.

To see the “phone lines light up” as they did was simply inspiring. I literally had tears in my eyes by the end of that Thursday after having to give up responding to the tons of supportive tweets, emails, calls and wall posts. I’m sure I even missed some posts on Ello … I lost count after the 400th moment, and realized I needed to focus on things like looking for work.

It would have been tough for anyone to miss the buzz generated (and I’ll insert a thanks for boosting my Klout score all the way up to 75 gang!, though it’s now stabilized … LOL). I know folks internally came across it. They heard the message that was being sent. Though it helps to keep in mind that decisions are rarely made on a single data point. Let me just say this … the teams here at Bing were extremely fast movers when the conversations started. Supportive, honest, open. I’d be hard pressed to find better folks to work beside.

KK: A 75 Klout score?! That’s legitimate What’s on the horizon for Bing in 2015? What types of initiatives are you planning to drive for Bing this year?

DF: Oh my, well, let’s see. We will be launching lunar advertising, using a laser to scroll ads across the moon’s surface, visible from Earth. It’ll run through Bing Ads, so anyone can bid to have their message scrolled. Obviously no adult or gaming ads, but we’re thinking of opening it up to the general population for special times like Valentine’s Day to let them send that message of love to some special in a galactic way.

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Otherwise, we remain focused on the usual: user experience, mobile, growing share and, of course, providing value to searchers and businesses. This is actually a tough one to answer simply because we can’t give anything away. I will say, though, that we’re always open to ideas, so if you have a feature in mind, sound off and let us know. Can’t promise it’ll get included, but better to build with input than in a vacuum is how we view it.

KK: You have asserted that “ people should start thinking of usability and SEO as one rather than two completely separate entities ” – one should not come at the expense of the other. What are you thinking of when you warn against this? What is the preferred thought process you’d like to see website owners go through when making decisions about SEO and usability?

DF: Specifically, I was thinking about the many, many failed “mobile” experiences I’ve had. You know the one. When you’re on a tablet or smartphone, you try to click on the navigation of a site, only to realize it was built solely for the operation of a mouse, which features “hover.” That moment where you “hover” your cursor over the element and the navigation is then revealed. Except there is no such feature on most mobile devices, and it’s also not on most touchscreens full stop. So what happens? Well, if I can’t navigate on your site, I go somewhere else — easy for me, as a consumer, to solve that problem.

And it’s a clear sign that usability testing was skipped, or it was done in a haphazard manner. In today’s world where mobile experiences are preferred for mobile results and the trend of mobile query growth outpacing desktop queries being the norm, why skip usability testing? For a lot of businesses, it’s seen as an added cost. The fact is, it’s an immediate reduction to most bottom lines. Before you’ve even launched the site, all the small, but numerous failure points that exist around button style, color choices, image sizing, button labeling, workflow grouping are already conspiring to make your new site less than 100 percent.

SEO is about improving a website to help the search engines understand, interpret and rank it’s content. Usability is about pleasing humans, helping them uncover content, find new, useful things and making their experience on your site a positive one. the main problem here is that SEO alone often focuses on the crawler first. The crawler, though, is focused on serving the searcher. Which means your efforts need to shift to “consumer first.” That places SEO and usability side-by-side. They shouldn’t be seen as individual workflows. When you embark on an SEO audit, it should include a Usability audit. If someone suggests a Usability study for their website, that is the moment to start talking about SEO, as well.

KK: You recently stated that SEOs will be hearing more voices from Bing, meaning “more and deeper insights from the various teams within Bing.” Any voices or teams in particular you’re hoping to get involved in speaking to the SEO community?

DF: Any that we feel have something interesting, or impactful, to share with the industry. And any that pop their heads out of their doors as I walk the halls. You’ve seen folks from our Crawl Team, our Index Team, our Spam Team, our Product Leads and myself to date. That’s pretty good coverage, but I’m betting we can find a few more voices to get published on the blog, and if I’m lucky, we’ll be able to convince some of them to visit a conference or two this year as well. We’ll see. Either way, I’ll still be out there.

KK: Should we be gearing up for any special announcements at SMX West when you take the stage?

DF: No plans at this time, but then again, we rarely announce announcements in advance. If I have my way, though, I’ll have a new pair of cowboy boots by then. Not sure that needs a press release.

KK: You speak at a lot of conferences on behalf of Bing. Where will we see you in 2015?

Bing’s Duane Forrester speaking alongside Bruce Clay, Maisha Walker and Manny Rivas at the 2015 GROWCO conference.

DF: Still working out a lot of these opportunities. SMX West, obviously. Maybe SMX East if the timing works, Pubcon if the stars align, DFWSEM in the fall, and I have a few other smaller, local events on the radar. I’ll be blogging on the Webmaster Blog and on my personal blog more, and hopefully appearing in a few other places across the web.

KK: What’s one of your favorite conference memories?

DF: Walking into day one at my first ever SES in New York City and having that deep, soulful feeling that I was among people who understood me, spoke my language. It was like finding the family you were born with, but didn’t grow up with.

Oh, and I’ll add this one — not hero worship, but you might see the oddity: I also met this guy named Matt Cutts at that conference. He was doing his best to be unnoticed, but a crowd formed and hours later it was him and me for a final question. I left that encounter thinking he had a pretty cool gig, and it was something I’d love to do someday. Who knew …

KK: You’re the reigning Search Personality of the Year. Congratulations! Who would you like to see take the crown in 2015?

DF: Loaded question! Far too dangerous to handle! To be honest, there are so many deserving people, it’s impossible to include everyone. Yeah, that’s a political answer, I realize, but the fact is, there ARE so many people across our industry who have made, or continue to make, a positive impact. I think the real key is that people from the industry get involved with the [US Search] Awards. Beyond them being fun to attend, there’s real value here in terms of networking, personal branding and career growth.

KK: What are three of your favorite accounts to follow on Twitter?

DF:

@adage for things marketing/advertising and big company.
@copyblogger because of their sheer ability to get. it. right.
@maishawalker because I know her and she has such a great head for business. I have culled by Twitter “following” list to under 300 now, and getting me to add you requires a steady commitment to usefulness. Not just to me, but it’s gotta be obvious that your usefulness extends readily to others. Otherwise there’s no hope I’ll retweet you, so you don’t make the list.
@bruceclayinc is on my list, obviously — has been for years.
Otherwise, I have a few that are “off-topic” in the realm of future tech, random people and companies.

KK: Gawsh … (blush). New topic! What were the best books (of any kind) you read last year? What’s on your reading list for this year?

DF: I’m going to list titles here and folks can go look them up as they like. They span from fiction to business to what I’ll call reality.

Fiction

Daemon
Kirov
BrainRush
Ready Player One
Freedom (Daemon Book 2)
Final Day at Westfield Arcade
Nexus
Crux
Zodiac
Wired
Amped
(I’ve read over 40 books in the last year, so I’ll stop here with fiction.)

Business

Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact The World
Search: How The Data Explosion makes Us Smarter
The Power of Habit

Reality

Does Anything Eat Wasps
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence
American Gun: America’s History Told Through The Stories of Ten Guns
Modern American Snipers: From The Legend To The Reaper

KK: What are your personal resolutions for 2015?

DF: Finish book No. 3. Publish more unique content. Maybe try walking on stage at an open mic night at a comedy club. Motorcycle trip to Death Valley. Back to Europe if at all possible. Walk my dogs more. Enjoy — and engage in — the relationships I’ve built across this amazing industry of incredible people.

Duane is a comedian, open mic or not, and we’re honored he took some time to impart laughs and SEO knowledge with us here. Want more of the SMX West 2015 Speaker Series? Discover insights from Google’s Gary Illyes, SEO by the Sea’s Bill Slawski, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Mindy Weinstein, HubSpot’s Luke Summerfield, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, Alliance-Link’s Debra Mastaler and Moz’s Pete Meyers. The SMX West 2015 Speaker Series wraps up next week with final interviews with Pushfire’s Rae Hoffman, Stone Temple Consulting’s Eric Enge and Experian’s Bill Tancer on deck.