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SMX West Series: Mindy Weinstein Talks Keyword Research — and the Critical Missing Step

SMX West Series: Mindy Weinstein Talks Keyword Research — and the Critical Missing Step was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

The Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West Speaker Series continues with Mindy Weinstein — Bruce Clay, Inc.’s own director of training. Alongside Bruce Clay, Weinstein leads the acclaimed SEOToolSet® Training and speaks on the latest digital marketing trends at major industry conferences, including SMX, Pubcon and others.

Bruce Clay, Inc. Director of Training Mindy Weinstein

Audiences are in for a treat when she takes the SMX West stage on March 2 for “Keyword Research for Better Content & Audience Engagement.” Her presentation, entitled “Becoming a Mind Reader First,”  will focus on the steps digital marketers should take — before wielding their favorite keyword research tools. Weinstein will discuss how to use customer and prospect data to begin a keyword list.

“A mistake that some content creators make is that they jump into writing text before they have taken the time to truly think about their target audience. Writers need to think about the concerns, interests and desires of their readers. That is how content becomes more relatable and effective. Part of knowing your audience is also understanding the words they use to describe your products/services. Those are potential keyword opportunities,” Weinstein said.

Weinstein’s interview is the second installment of the SMX West Speaker Series. Last week, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes joined us on the blog for an exclusive interview. Check back all month for interviews with Bing’s Duane Forrester, Experian Hitwise’s Bill Tancer, Stone Temple Consulting’s Eric Enge, and many more as we gear up for SMX West 2015.

Let’s jump into Weinstein’s interview and discover her thoughts on what’s missing from keyword research, plus the most common SEO questions she encounters, her top tips for creating content, insight into SEO tools, her thoughts on social media and more.

Kristi Kellogg: You recently transitioned into a new role at Bruce Clay, Inc. as the first director of training. Tell us about what that transition means for you and Bruce Clay, Inc. in 2015.

Mindy Weinstein: I’m very excited about the new role. As the director of training, I will focus on internal training, teaching our SEOToolSet Training courses, speaking at conferences, and expanding our education offerings. Our industry is one that is constantly evolving and changing, which means we need to constantly train and update on SEO best practices and search engine guidelines.

KK: In the coming year, you’ll be traveling worldwide to spread the white-hat SEO word with Bruce. Where can people look for you in the coming year?

MW: The year has just started, but my travel schedule is filling up quickly. So far, I am scheduled to speak at the SEJ Summit in Santa Monica, SMX West and Pubcon Austin. I am also in Southern California six times this year teaching our SEOToolSet. Stay tuned for more!

Eric Enge, Brent Csutoras and Mindy Weinstein at the U.S. Search Awards 2014.

KK: Speaking of the SEOToolSet Training, you’ve been presenting with Bruce since 2013. In that time you’ve heard hundreds of questions from digital marketers. What are the most common questions you are asked during training?

MW: One of the most common questions we get is how to optimally structure a website. We teach about siloing, which has to do with site architecture — building themes by grouping related pages together. This concept is one that we have been teaching about for years, as we have seen significant results when people are able to properly silo their websites.

We also hear a lot of questions related to mobile SEO, which prompted us to create a section in our training devoted to this subject.

KK: You’re a big advocate of quality content, and your SEO background comes from the content side of online marketing. For all the content creators out there, can you share three tips to improve their content?

MW: Absolutely.

1. Don’t write anything until you know your audience inside and out.

A mistake that some content creators make is that they jump into writing text before they have taken the time to truly think about their target audience. Writers need to think about the concerns, interests and desires of their readers. That is how content becomes more relatable and effective. Part of knowing your audience is also understanding the words they use to describe your products/services. Those are potential keyword opportunities.

 2. Always be on the lookout for inspiration.

When I write, one of my biggest challenges is coming up with new and unique topics to write about. That was especially true when I wrote content for industries that weren’t overly exciting. I used to keep a folder in my desk that I would use to store newspaper clippings, magazine articles, web pages and even junk mail (yes, you read that right), that I thought could somehow relate to my audience. I would then look for a unique angle I could take that would make the content relevant to the readers.

3. Stay focused on the reader.

Honestly, no one cares about how great you and your business are, at least not at the time they initially arrive on your website. Web visitors first want to know if you have the information they are looking for, so let them know with your content. As humans, it is in our nature to ask ourselves, “How does this message impact me?” Content has to be able to answer that question and right away. That means the message should be tailored to the reader, such as how the products, services or simply the tips given in an article are going to positively impact him or her.

KK: How do you suggest people go about keyword research?

MW: There is a preliminary step in keyword research that not everyone takes, and that is trying to understand what goes on in the searcher’s mind. It is the prior step to validating a keyword list using the various research tools out there. Social media, customer interviews, surveys and talking with your customer service department are all ways you can get a glimpse into the needs, desires and interests of your target audience. Once you know what people think and how they describe things, you can start building your keyword list.

KK: Bruce Clay, Inc. is about to launch its sixth version of the SEOToolSet. What makes this iteration of the SEOToolSet more powerful than ever?

MW: We have incorporated many powerful features that weren’t in the fifth version, including a comprehensive site analysis. You can view a Site SEO report that identifies problem areas that you should address, such as pages with no Title tag, broken links, pages without enough content and so on.

The sixth version of the SEOToolSet even includes a Link Graph, which allows you to visualize the links on your site from the home page into the site. We spider the website and keep track of all of the links from page to page.

There are some other great additions to the latest version that are worth checking out.

KK: What are your 2015 resolutions?

MW: My big 2015 resolution, which applies both professionally and personally, is to spend more time expanding my knowledge. (I recognize that it’s a vague resolution!) Basically, I subscribe to the notion that you can never stop learning, so I plan to read and study more this year — not just topics related to digital marketing, but also general psychology and human behavior.

Oh yeah, I have one more 2015 resolution: do more yoga!

KK: What’s your favorite social platform and why?

MW: LinkedIn has become one of my favorite social platforms. I have joined various groups within LinkedIn that help me stay on the forefront of the “chatter” going on in the digital marketing industry. I also use LinkedIn to learn about someone’s professional background before I meet him or her in person. Not sure if that is something I should admit …

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

MW: I read quite a few great books last year. One of the best books I read in 2014 was “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Dr. Robert Cialdini. Also, I finally read “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell. It was on my reading list for a while, and I can say it will go down as one of my favorites.

I’m currently reading “What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People” by Joe Navarro, which is fascinating. Next on my list is “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping” by Paco Underhill. My reading list will keep growing this year.

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

MW: My three favorite are:

Search Engine Journal
Search Engine Land
USA Today (sometimes you need non-SEO news!)

Have a question for SMX speaker Mindy Weinstein? Share it in the comments.

SMX West Speaker Series: Diving into SEO with Googler Gary Illyes

SMX West Speaker Series: Diving into SEO with Googler Gary Illyes was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

A major West Coast search marketing education event, Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West, comes to San Jose in one month. If you’re interested in attending, heads up! Early Bird rates expire Friday. Add our discount code for friends and clients, BRUCECLAYSMXW15, to get 10 percent off the cost of all passes and workshops, including Bruce Clay’s SEO Workshop on Monday, March 2.

Today we’re kicking off a month of interviews with brilliant minds from the SMX West speaker line up, including Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager at Bing; Bill Tancer, General Manager at Experian and New York Times best-selling author; Dr. Pete Meyers, Marketing Scientist at Moz; and Luke Summerfield, Partner Services Program Manager at HubSpot. Look for these white-hot interviews every week.

Up first is an interview with a very special guest: Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes. SMX West attendees can catch him speaking in two sessions on Wednesday, March 4:

Things You Don’t Know About Mobile SEO, But Should (9 a.m.)
How to Secure Your Site for Google’s HTTPS Algorithm (3:30 p.m.)

Diving into SEO with Advice from Google’s Illyes

Gary llyes is an avid sky diver and scuba diver. (That’s him above!) His adventuring personality probably serves him well when it comes to forging new frontiers in online security and mobile user experience. Here are some highlights from our interview, with Illyes’ comments in bold:

What Gary works on at Google: We’re focusing on helping website owners and content creators develop beautiful, useful websites by improving and extending our outreach channels.


On the importance of creating a good mobile experience: In several countries there are a large number of people that access the internet primarily through a mobile phone. Ignoring those people is hardly an option anymore, if you want to stay in business.


On Google’s future: Suggestions and feedback from the community help us a lot, actually! My team’s goal is to help website owners with their issues, and the feedback will help us influence teams inside Google to deliver features and improve our products, including Webmaster Tools and Search.


Information Gary seeks out to do his job: Knowing what kind of content would business owners read, what’s the writers’ technical level in general, or how can we better reach designers will hopefully steer our webmaster outreach in another, so far unexplored, better direction. In fact we don’t even know if we’re using the word “webmaster” correctly either; it would be nice to fix that, too.

Read the whole interview below. Let’s dive in!

Kristi Kellogg: What projects are you involved in as a Webmaster Trends Analyst? What does your day-to-day look like at Google?

Gary Illyes: I’m focusing mostly on large scale analysis and development, but I’m kind of the oddball in my team. We’re focusing on helping website owners and content creators develop beautiful, useful websites by improving and extending our outreach channels. This means that when needed, we may publish documentation for a new feature or evangelize it at conferences, or try to figure out what new audiences should we reach to help with creating a website. Indirectly all these efforts also help our users, those who search on Google, as they will find better results, and sites that are usable anywhere on any device.

This, of course, also means that we have to work with many teams inside Google, practically any team that develops features that may have an impact on webmasters. To list a few, Webmaster Tools, Web and Image Search, News, but really, I would need many more hands to count how many teams we work with.

Google Webmaster Trends Analysts John Mueller and Gary Illyes at Google’s Zurich campus.

KK: Before you were a Googler, you taught journalism. Do you ever feel you use your journalism background in your role as a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst?

GI: I was teaching journalist new grads how to apply what they learned — traditional offline journalism — on the online environment and how to publish engaging stories online. I don’t really use this skill now at Google, but of course my journalism background does help when communicating with the press in general, or when I talk at conferences. I’m used to talking to huge audiences, and that’s been really useful.

KK: At SMX East, you candidly said “You can blame me for the HTTPS ranking boost.” Your Google+ profile lists web security as one of your interests. On what fronts do you foresee Google fighting threats to online security in 2015?

GI: Several teams across Google, including Chrome and Search, are looking for ways to make the Internet a better, safer place. This is an ongoing effort and we’ll make announcements as we launch a new feature or improvement.

KK: What’s your 30-second pitch to your favorite small business owner on the importance of designing a good mobile website UX?

GI: I believe my pitch would depend on what kind of website we’re talking about, but for an online shop with international delivery I would probably go with this, with a reference to this Time article:

In several countries there are a large number of people that access the internet primarily through a mobile phone. Ignoring those people is hardly an option anymore, if you want to stay in business.

KK: Do you have any premonitions on the future of mobile website development and optimization? Whether related to new devices or Google’s guidelines and expectations of a good mobile UX?

GI: I don’t really have premonitions on the future of mobile website development, but I do hope that it will become natural for website owners to create beautiful, usable mobile friendly websites. Currently it feels that website owners think that creating such a website is a hassle, and they choose to delay development or not to do it. I really hope this will change; whether to create a mobile friendly website shouldn’t be a question at all!

KK: +Google Webmasters invited suggestions for improvements to Web search and Webmaster Tools in 2015. How much do suggestions and feedback from users influence the projects you and the Webmaster Trends team work on?

GI: Suggestions and feedback from the community help us a lot, actually! My team’s goal is to help website owners with their issues, and the feedback will help us influence teams inside Google to deliver features and improve our products, including Webmaster Tools and Search.

KK: There’s a common refrain in Google’s advice to SEOs and webmasters: do what’s best for users. Does any team, perhaps the Google Webmasters team, look out for webmasters, website owners and businesses as a priority?

GI: One of our goals is to try to figure out what’s best both for our users and the website owners, kind of trying to find the sweet spot. This is a challenging, but generally satisfying position to be in, as, if our input is taken in account during a feature development, we can help millions of webmasters, business owners, and ultimately users of search.

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

GI: If I told you we’ll have any special announcement at SMX West, I’d set an expectation which is not necessarily a good thing; generally we try not to pre-announce things, and the same applies on announcements as well. Also, pre-announcing an announcement feels too meta, and frankly we’re also quite far away from SMX so things may change on our end.

KK: Good point. Google has a program that sends Googlers to businesses in Europe and North Africa to observe firsthand how developers, designers, content creators, SEOs and decision-makers are managing their sites’ content and infrastructure. How is that program going? I learned about this because you shared it on Google+. What’s your interest in this program?

GI: This program was started by my team and it’s an ongoing effort. The holidays and other, unrelated issues slowed us down a notch, but in general it will help us better help those who are involved in creating websites. Knowing what kind of content would business owners read, what’s the writers’ technical level in general, or how can we better reach designers will hopefully steer our webmaster outreach in another, so far unexplored, better direction. In fact we don’t even know if we’re using the word “webmaster” correctly either; it would be nice to fix that, too.

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

GI: I have several conferences lined up for the first two quarters. It looks like the SMX organizers wouldn’t mind having me at their events, so there’s that, but I’ll be presenting at several other conferences as well, including Superweek in Hungary, RIMC in Iceland, and a few others that don’t have their schedule up yet.

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

I’m a collector with special interest in Japanese culture, so I read quite a bit on that (for example Kojiki or Nihon Shoki), but I do read contemporary authors, as well. Dan Brown, John Green, Steven Levy to name a few, they’re all present on my bookshelves. I don’t typically read “SEO” books or anything close to that topic so I can’t suggest anything from that category, but if I had to pick something random, for personal reasons I’d go with Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds.

KK: Sounds like you have an impressive bookshelf. Thanks for the book recommendation! Do you have any personal resolutions for 2015?

GI: I’m a person who lives for the moment: whatever comes, I’ll take it on. I’ll probably jump out of a few perfectly well-functioning planes, jump off of a few bridges, and explore the bottom of the Antarctic Ocean, but I don’t have specific plans yet though.

KK: Well that sounds exciting! What’s the best way to connect with you online?

GI: I use Facebook for communicating online with my friends and sometimes check Twitter, but the best way is still Google+; I’m there 24/7.

Have a question of your own for SMX West speaker Gary Illyes? Ask in the comments.

Free SEO Tool Tuesday: Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword Tool Vets Your Keywords

Free SEO Tool Tuesday: Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword Tool Vets Your Keywords was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Did you know that in addition to the SEOToolSet suite of diagnostic tools, many of the Bruce Clay, Inc. SEO power tools have a free, light counterpart? These free tools can help you perform research and collect insights about keywords, links, on-page analysis and competitive analysis. To introduce you to our collection of free SEO tools we’re starting a Free SEO Tool Tuesday series, in which we spotlight one of our 10 free tools, what it does and how to use it. Here’s the first free tool. Enjoy! 

Today’s Free SEO Tool: Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword

Tool type: keyword research, competitive research

What you learn: Enter a keyword phrase to learn the top domains and top URLs that rank in the search engines for that phrase.

Why this matters: By knowing the top ranked sites and pages for a keyword, you get a sense of the competition for this keyword and whether or not your site is a good fit for this SERP. You can use this information during your keyword research process to vet your own keyword list, confirming that a keyword is a target or one that should be scratched off the list.

Here’s the tool; enter a keyword phrase to try it out.

Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword Tool



Search Word:





SEOToolSet® Top Domains



Domain
PR
AllInTitle
Pages Indexed
Inbound Links

Individual Pages Ranked

Page URL















How to Use It

1. Enter a keyword phrase into the free Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword tool and press Research Keyword. For best results, only enter one keyword phrase at a time (you can run this tool over and over again with as many keyword phrases as you want).

2. The tool will return two lists, one showing the top 10 domains with the most top-25 rankings for that keyword phrase, and a second list showing the top 10 unique URLs that rank highest for the phrase you entered. The lists show Google, Bing and Yahoo! rankings, and show numbers that represent each site’s current (real-time) ranking position. All of the results you are seeing are unbiased results 100% free of local/historical personalization.

In the below example we’re analyzing the phrase “backpacking sleeping bags.” Feel free to enter a keyword phrase in the above tool to see results unique to your keyword list.

What to Do With This Data

As part of your keyword research vetting process, use the ranking information provided by this tool to evaluate the keyword’s competitive space.

1. Make sure you’re in the right space. Are the websites listed your competitors? Would you be happy ranking for this keyword phrase amongst these websites, or would your website make no sense here? If you would fit right in, your keyword phrase is on the right track. If you stick out like a sore thumb this phrase doesn’t mean to the world (and Google) what it means to you. Scratch it off your list.

2. Feel out competition. Is the space too competitive? When performing keyword research you’re looking for phrases that have high a search volume and low competition mix. You will never outrank Amazon or REI for backpacking gear; are all of the top competitors in this space Amazons and REIs? If yes, you may want to scratch this one off your list and seek out a less competitive high-volume phrase. Remember, we want to capitalize on the opportunity to rank on page one — not page four.

3. Learn from what’s working. Use the list of top Individual Pages Ranked to learn what type of content the search engines consider to be top-notch and highly-relevant for this keyword phrase. How are these pages optimized? What type of content is getting ranked for these keywords? How much crawlable content is on each page?

A great example: Notice the REI page ranking in the number one Google spot isn’t a product page but an article page from the Expert Advice section of their website. This tells me that, when possible, the search engine is looking to rank long-form informative content highly for this keyword phrase. In this scenario you might want to ask yourself: Can I make some long-form informative content that is optimized for this keyword phrase?

Find All Our Free SEO Tools

If you like this tool, bookmark this blog post to use this tool over and over again — or feel free to use this tool embedded within the competitive research step of our SEO tutorial.

Every week for the next 10 weeks we’re going to be telling you how our free tools work, what each tells you, and why you might want to consider using each. Stay tuned to Free SEO Tool Tuesday for more free tools. Or, if you’re not the waiting type, see all the 10 free SEO tools embedded within our free SEO tutorial right now.

Free SEO Tool Tuesday: ‘Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword’ Vets Your Keywords

Free SEO Tool Tuesday: ‘Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword’ Vets Your Keywords was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Did you know that in addition to the SEOToolSet suite of diagnostic tools, many of the Bruce Clay, Inc. SEO power tools have a free, light counterpart? These free tools can help you perform research and collect insights about keywords, links, on-page analysis and competitive analysis. To introduce you to our collection of free SEO tools we’re starting a Free SEO Tool Tuesday series, in which we spotlight one of our 10 free tools, what it does and how to use it. Here’s the first free tool. Enjoy! 

Today’s Free SEO Tool: ‘Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword’

Tool type: Keyword research, competitive research

What you learn: Enter a keyword phrase to learn the top domains and top URLs that rank in the search engines for that phrase.

Why this matters: By knowing the top ranked sites and pages for a keyword, you get a sense of the competition for this keyword and whether or not your site is a good fit for this SERP. You can use this information during your keyword research process to vet your own keyword list, confirming that a keyword is a target or one that should be scratched off the list.

Here’s the tool; enter a keyword phrase to try it out.

Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword Tool



Search Word:





SEOToolSet® Top Domains



Domain
PR
AllInTitle
Pages Indexed
Inbound Links

Individual Pages Ranked

Page URL















How to Use It

1. Enter a keyword phrase into the free Top-Ranked Websites by Keyword tool and press Research Keyword. For best results, only enter one keyword phrase at a time (you can run this tool over and over again with as many keyword phrases as you want).

2. The tool will return two lists, one showing the top 10 domains with the most top-25 rankings for that keyword phrase, and a second list showing the top 10 unique URLs that rank highest for the phrase you entered. The lists show Google, Bing and Yahoo! rankings, and show numbers that represent each site’s current (real-time) ranking position. All of the results you are seeing are unbiased results 100% free of local/historical personalization.

In the below example we’re analyzing the phrase “backpacking sleeping bags.” Feel free to enter a keyword phrase in the above tool to see results unique to your keyword list.

What to Do With This Data

As part of your keyword research vetting process, use the ranking information provided by this tool to evaluate the keyword’s competitive space.

1. Make sure you’re in the right space. Are the websites listed your competitors? Would you be happy ranking for this keyword phrase amongst these websites, or would your website make no sense here? If you would fit right in, your keyword phrase is on the right track. If you stick out like a sore thumb this phrase doesn’t mean to the world (and Google) what it means to you. Scratch it off your list.

2. Feel out competition. Is the space too competitive? When performing keyword research you’re looking for phrases that have high a search volume and low competition mix. You will never outrank Amazon or REI for backpacking gear; are all of the top competitors in this space Amazons and REIs? If yes, you may want to scratch this one off your list and seek out a less competitive high-volume phrase. Remember, we want to capitalize on the opportunity to rank on page one — not page four.

3. Learn from what’s working. Use the list of top Individual Pages Ranked to learn what type of content the search engines consider to be top-notch and highly-relevant for this keyword phrase. How are these pages optimized? What type of content is getting ranked for these keywords? How much crawlable content is on each page?

A great example: Notice the REI page ranking in the number one Google spot isn’t a product page but an article page from the Expert Advice section of their website. This tells me that, when possible, the search engine is looking to rank long-form informative content highly for this keyword phrase. In this scenario you might want to ask yourself: Can I make some long-form informative content that is optimized for this keyword phrase?

Find All Our Free SEO Tools

If you like this tool, bookmark this blog post to use this tool over and over again — or feel free to use this tool embedded within the competitive research step of our SEO tutorial.

Every week for the next 10 weeks we’re going to be telling you how our free tools work, what each tells you, and why you might want to consider using each. Stay tuned to Free SEO Tool Tuesday for more free tools. Or, if you’re not the waiting type, see all the 10 free SEO tools embedded within our free SEO tutorial right now.

Bruce Clay’s 2015 Predictions for the SEO Industry

Bruce Clay’s 2015 Predictions for the SEO Industry was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Since 2006, Bruce has posted annual predictions of what he expects will jostle the Internet marketing industry in the year to come. What follows are nine predictions by Bruce Clay on mobile, local, video, voice search, and shifts in the Internet’s dominant players.

In keeping with our annual tradition here at Bruce Clay, Inc., I’d like to share with you my forecast of the search climate in 2015. I predict:

Mobile results satisfaction will be more important than any other technical issue.

As of yesterday Google issued warnings through Webmaster Tools to webmasters whose websites contain critical mobile usability errors. The signs point to a mobile ranking algorithm that is near launch. Voice search will rapidly expand, a consequence of increasing mobile use. Long-tail searches will increase as a result of these unstructured voice queries.

The first page Google results will be entirely made up of pages that are mobile friendly, fast, and contain mission specific content (answers questions).

In order to serve long-tail conversational queries, Google will focus on serving results that have very specific answers to questions. We’ll see fewer results at the top of page 1 which cover a theme in a general way, and more sites that cover very specific topics in-depth. Among the ranking algorithm’s variables that correlate with characteristics of E-A-T, expertness will come to outweigh authority and trust. With trust and authority equal, expertness will be weighted the most important. This is how Google will be able to algorithmically give preference to results that answer questions.

The search engines will continue to emphasize local results on all searches. Local results will include opportunities for paid enhancements.

I predict that more queries will include local results. Google reports slightly shrinking market share and they have growing pressure for increased revenue. With avenues for generating revenue in search limited to page 1, I expect local results will be the next SERP real estate to get paid results, sold as enhanced entries. These paid enhancements, a form of paid inclusion, could include coupons, phone numbers and images.

Google will continue to fight spam via algorithmic changes, resulting in every site having some degree of penalty.

There is no variable in the algorithm that is not worth protecting. Any activity outside the bounds of natural for every variable is subject to penalty. Google is going to be looking across the board to improve the results in every algorithmic category. I don’t expect to see new named algorithmic penalties. We may see small algorithmic penalties, in effect, smaller tolerances across every algorithmic variable. If there are 200+ variables in the algorithm, someone will be responsible for improving all 200 of them.

As Google’s paying PPC clients complain of an inability to compete with Amazon, Google will be forced to launch a program to support ecommerce and compete with Amazon result listings.

A large share of product purchases are going through Amazon. Amazon’s plan is to double that year over year. Amazon no longer needs Google searches because of the strength of its own brand and market penetration. Nobody needs to search in Google to find Amazon.

Consumers going straight to Amazon to search for products threatens Google. Amazon’s growing strength in providing products will cause a decay in the number of people searching for those products in Google and an increase in the number of people searching for them in Amazon. PPC revenue will drop because fewer people will search Google for those products.

I’ve also seen merchants of high revenue brands being squeezed by Amazon, as Amazon has set out to be the only distributor in high revenue product segments. Having fewer merchants leads to less PPC demand for those products. I see that Google will have to do something to strengthen the consumer use of Google for product searches.

On-page video will be more heavily weighted as a ranking signal as bandwidth capacity today allows for video to be served for everyone.

I’ve predicted this for some time, but bandwidth, especially on mobile, has gotten to the point where it’s justified. Video can communicate many words’ worth of content in a small area of your website. Users don’t have to scroll in order to receive your message, explaining your benefits to people, concisely. As mobile bandwidth grows it will be easier for users to download videos.

Google has been working to add on-page video as a ranking signal for a long time. They own YouTube, so they have incentive to promote the importance of video, and they have a property with engagement and quality signals they trust. What we’ll find is that video is a signal of expertness, as well as an authority signal if the video is pulled in from YouTube. I expect Google to examine all of its properties, looking for what signals it can extract regarding expertness and authority.

SEO will become more technical, but those doing SEO will become more than programmers. Marketing skills re-emerge as vital to doing the job.

If you’re a successful SEO, you have to do several things. You have to be a problem solver. You have to be really good at games because this is a business simulation where SEOs are competing against the business’s competition. The only thing that could make the job of an SEO more fun is if Google introduced a game controller. If there was a game controller to play the game of ranking in Google, SEO would be a lot more fun because we could shoot the enemy. Instead, working to win within the Google algorithm is something that’s increasingly technical.

And yet, in order to optimize for E-A-T, site maintenance, and usability (especially in the mobile world), the brands that will win in Google need to know marketing. To improve a site’s E-A-T and usability, you have to understanding marketing, reach, client psychology and how clients think, calls to action — and that’s influencing SEO more. The marketing and messaging component is not a little discipline out there called conversion rate optimization. Technically minded SEOs will have a harder time incorporating marketing strategy into their methodology than marketing professionals will who integrate technical SEO requirements into their discipline. So, I expect marketing to absorb SEO.

User experience will be a significant discussion point, causing conversion methods to evolve into a gentler experience.

Consumers in many segments are maturing in regards to their ability to research topics and become familiar with any subject through self-directed learning. As a result, consumers are less receptive to a hard sell, seeing it as disrespectful to their tech savvy. Businesses will find themselves experimenting with a range of tones in messaging, with many finding more success with a familiar tone. Calls to action and conversion methods will soften.

Bing will lead the search engines in market share expansion as the search engine’s marketing skills overtake Google’s programming skills. Google will maintain dominance of market share, but Bing will expand.

Bing has one massive and timely opportunity to gain ground in the search market and that’s the mobile experience. If they hit mobile search experience out of the park, then Google won’t be able to touch them. I’ve watched a succession of Internet companies become dominant: Netscape, followed by IE, then Mozilla then Chrome, and what that tells me is that no one company is safe from being edged out, and it’s all up to the public opinion of what’s best and what’s acceptable. If popular opinion swings against Google due to Google’s increasing emphasis on the bottom line and an influx of sponsored results in search, competitors have an opportunity to shake up the status quo with a next-generation technology, and the biggest opportunity for that is in mobile.

21 Liveblog Reads that Will Make You a Better SEO: Virtual Internet Marketing Conference

21 Liveblog Reads that Will Make You a Better SEO: Virtual Internet Marketing Conference was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

I’ve got a mixed record with resolutions at the start of a new year, but when that calendar flips I feel a sense of renewed vigor and an urgency to add a few new good habits. Do you ever make New Year’s resolutions?

You may have some SEO goals in your 2015 queue, whether it’s getting your site’s mobile experience tight and right or finding the time to bring a local presence to life on Google My Business. If you’re a driven, self-led learner and are hungry for some SEO insights to power up your 2015 digital marketing agenda, we’ve got a buffet for you.

Best of Search Conferences 2014

Last year, BCI bloggers covered 69 keynotes, sessions and mini-sessions from digital marketing conferences SMX West and SMX East, Pubcon New Orleans and Pubcon Las Vegas. Attending a conference can be pricey but the takeaways gleaned can be priceless as far as improving your ability to do your job better. Consider this post the shortcut track of the best sessions and speakers from these events. It’s your CliffsNotes of the best of Search Conferences 2014.

Keynotes

Google Search Chief Amit Singhal’s Keynote Conversation

Amit Singhal is a Senior Vice President and Google Fellow at Google, Inc. Singhal is described by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land editor-in-chief, as “the one who knows how Google ranks things.” Here’s what this Google executive and influencer had to say about advancements in serving natural language queries, ranking signals from social and links, and the role of the Knowledge Graph as a tool for users.

Hummingbird (Google search infrastructure update of August 2013) was a complete rewrite of the system. It enabled Google to better understand “natural language, longer queries, how close various words are in order to signal a concept.”
Links are an important ranking signal that shows the importance of popular content.
Social signals are not used for ranking because they are currently unreliable; however, Singhal says that social signals could be tested and added if they do become reliable.
Signals from Google+ are considered reliable data. Logged in searchers see an impact on their SERPs based on Google+ signals. Google believes that they’re able to better serve users based on their needs and psychology by incorporating Google+ signals into ranking.
Google sees Knowledge Graph as their “understanding of the world.” Singhal describes the web as a Swiss army knife. You’re comfortable with the knives and scissors, but sometimes you need a corkscrew. Knowledge Graph is a tool that you can use on the go, especially in the mobile world. And the more you use one of the tools, the more you use all the tools at your disposal.

Robert Cialdini On the 6 Universal Principles of Persuasion

Robert Cialdini, author of Influence, is the most cited social psychologist in the sphere of business. The principles of Influence have come to be the measuring stick on which business decisions are made. At Pubcon New Orleans, Cialdini talked about persuasion, which can move people in a desired direction, and uncertainty, which is a hinderance to persuasion.

There are six universal principles of persuasion:

Reciprocation: In every human culture there is a rule that we are trained in from childhood that says: “If you do me a favor I owe you a favor.” Meaningful, unexpected and personalized — those are the three keys to the principle of reciprocity.


Liking: If you’re dealing with someone, find out about that individual’s background and interests and hobbies. Bring up commonalities when you realize them. You’re much less likely to find yourself in a deadlock if you believe you are similar.


Commitment/consistency: People want to be consistent with what they’ve done previously, especially publicly. The best way to get people to commit is by getting them write it down. Get them to click multiple times, type in something, and they will stay more stable as a consequence.


Scarcity: If people are unsure and don’t know what to do in a situation, they act to prevent losing. Framing a message in terms of what you’re losing if you don’t try it draws more interest than framing some product or offering as new.


Authority: Credibility is made of two things: knowledge and trustworthiness. Before you try to influence people, inform them of your background, experience and credentials. This is harder than it sounds because talking up your own credentials makes you come off as a braggart. It’s better if someone else introduces you as the expert. Another takeaway on this point is that revealing drawbacks or weaknesses can make you more trustworthy. If you, share your strongest argument after a moment where you have admitted a weakness, that weakness will be received in an open way, affording you credibility and trust.


Consensus: People reduce uncertainty by looking at the advice of peers. 98% of online shoppers say they check product reviews online before buying. We follow the lead of many others and of similar others. The consensus principle is at the core of the social media revolution.

SEO

Deconstructing Pigeon, Google’s New Local Search Algorithm

Discover what’s new when it comes to searches with generic and geo-locally modified terms.
See firsthand some broken results that will make you scratch your head.
Take a look at how Pigeon effects real estate clients specifically.

What SEOs Should Be Doing with Mobile

Catch up on the state of mobile with insights from straight from Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes.
BrightEdge’s CEO Jim Yu shares exclusive data on error rates associated with different mobile site structure.
Learn why there’s no “one-size-fits-all” design choice when it comes to mobile sites.

HTTPS & the Future of Secure Search: Google’s Gary Illyes and SEO VIPs

This session is offers more straight-from-Google insights, including musings on the possible return of keyword data.
Stone Temple Consulting’s President Eric Enge reveals he’s seen “no material change” since moving to secure search.
Discover the panel’s thoughts on RSS and WordPress in relation to secure search.

New Mobile Behavior and Click-to-Call Strategies

Learn why click-to-call extensions are vital to the health of your PPC campaign.
Why what worked “then” still works “now” when it comes to ads.
Fast facts about leads generated via phone calls.

25 Smart Examples of Structured Data You Can Use Now

Discover insights on how to track the ROI of rich snippets.
Get seven examples of structured data you can implement today.
Learn the importance of connecting Google Analytics to your structured markup.

Q&A with the SEO “Old School”

Called “the most interesting conversation” of Pubcon Nola, this no-rules open forum showcases knowledge from the industry’s seasoned experts.
Find out where the industry’s leaders (including Bruce Clay, Greg Boser, Joe Laratro, Tony Wright, Rob Garner and more) think the future of SEO is headed.
Check out a candid conversations regarding the penalization of Ann Smarty’s guest blog network.

Matt Cutts and Duane Forrester Talk Online Marketing — Meet the Search Engines

Matt Cutts (Google’s Distinguished Engineer) shares the top seven SEO themes of 2014.
Find out how Cutts and Bing’s Senior Product Manager Duane Forrester recommend handling parameter bloat due to tracking referral strings.
See a power SEO selfie if ever there was one — plus “listen” in to all the other insights these search dynamos share in this Q&A session with Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan.

Long-Term SEO: How to Win for Years, Not Days

Discover the hallmarks of a great website.
Learn why strategy is more important than tactics.
How to guard against the SEO disaster that is waiting around the corner.

SEM

Creating, Testing & Optimizing Paid Search Ads

Get PPC pros top tips for testing ads.
How the shifting mobile landscape effects paid search.
Find out what matters most when creating, testing and measuring ROI on ads.

Power Boosting Sales with PLAs

Product Ads give consumers rich info in an engaging format. It will show custom images from an advertiser’s own product catalog plus promo text and pricing. The foundation of this approach is the retailers most powerful asset: the product.
Best practices for setting up your PLA campaigns: the more specific your product targets are, the more control you have over which product serves. Create at least one Product Target that targets all products. Group similar product IDs. Then create additional Product Targets that include specific brands or product types. Product Target attributes are critical for success. As a rule of thumb, think of reporting. You’re looking at what can be manipulated to increase ROI. (Brand, Condition, Product Type, ad group, etc.)
89% of all sales from PLAs were not from keywords that contained the product title. Let search queries drive your product titles. Put that high volume search term at the beginning of your product titles. Create search campaigns off your search query reports. Let your PLA campaigns dictate other search network campaigns.

Content Marketing

Keyword Research for Better Content & Audience Engagement

Keyword research is in disarray – the things you find in keyword research are crazy. People are searching for keywords, but that that’s data without wisdom. Good keyword research accounts for intent.
As you research, map keywords to personas. This ultimately helps you understand what people are trying to do with their search. Understand your users’ vocabulary and work to get a sense of what people are talking about when they’re searching.
Map keywords to need states.
If you’ve mapped keywords to persona needs, the fact that keyword data has gone (Not Provided) in Google doesn’t matter. All that matters is who is searching and what matters to them. Google provides more than enough data to determine what types of users are coming to your site. Use that in the context of landing pages, internal search and channels.

Shifting From Content Marketing to Media Company

In this session, Copyblogger Media Founder and CEO Brian Clark told the audience all the ingredients of engaging content, what it means to adopt a media-first business strategy, and the changes organizations must make to survive in the era of content-first marketing. Brands doing the best today have transformed themselves into functioning media outlets.
Business owners should think of their marketing more as informational content than traditional marketing. Think of the marketing and creative you produce like cable TV shows — educational but also engaging.
If you want to win hearts and minds, create entertainment, media, and stories that resonate with people. Examples of brands that are doing this today are Coca-Cola, Netflix and Google.

How Small Companies Can Achieve Big Results

This session coverage is being included in this Content Marketing category, but it’s more like an uncategorized selection of productivity tips. Apply the recommendations in this session and you can work smarter so that your small business can compete against big brands with content and a rich online presence.
A small business can compete with a big brand if they are lean and agile and quick. Get your internal communication tight. Identify your best assets from throughout the organization. Identify the best content you have and understand how all your content is performing. Repurpose content, squeezing every last drop of goodness from the content you have that is already winning.
If you want to be the best, you should know the market the best, and that includes learning everything about your competition. Sign up for their newlsetters. Read their content. Learn from what they are doing well.

Social Media

Twitter Cards & Facebook’s Open Graph

Social markup makes it easier for users to share your content, and therefore more likely. When you share a link and it looks really poor, the user is going to rethink even posting it. Investing in social markup improves the health of your content in the long term.
Approach social markup like ad creative. No one else is (probably) going to edit the post — you need to treat the post like an ad and make it awesome and accurate. This is essential for increased content sharing. And note that OG tags are also read by LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.
There are nine types of Twitter Cards, including cards that provide a summary of content, include photos, provide product details, let you play videos, songs and view slides, and even lead generation cards.

Twitter For Business

Twitter is about human communication. Any brand that has an audience that they want to connect with can excel on Twitter. It’s all about finding the community; using the tools they’re using; engaging your community with content that adds value.
Should I have two Twitter profiles? One for me, and one for me as X-brand advocate? Social media is all about being human. People want to know that Jon the Dell worker is also into Fishing. They want to see Jon as a human. Only positivity can come from showing your personality next to your professional tweets.
Twitter for business best practices: Write more @ tweets! Don’t automate tweets. Add value in what you tweet! Leave room for retweets. Use Twitter lists to connect with influencers. Consider the story that your list of lists is telling. Subscribe to lists that include you.

Paid Social Media Opportunities Including Facebook for Business

Paid social works because of microtargeting, personalization, variety of specialized networks, good distribution and exposure, its real-time nature, the speed with which someone can start, its mobile reach and the potential viral aspect.
Start with goals of brand building (vs. direct response). Balance your expectations and figure out what you’re trying to achieve.
It’s become harder and harder to reach your fans organically in the Facebook News Feed. Organic reach is down and it’s becoming a necessity to use ad options. Facebook offers marketers the biggest network with the most opportunity.
Try to avoid the tempting shortcuts that Facebook presents to you (like “Boost Post”). They’re very pricey and you can do better with the power editor.
Custom Audiences let you build relationships. Advertisers find their existing audiences among people who are on Facebook. 6x return on ad spend when you create a custom audience from email addresses or phone numbers.

 

Closing Remarks and Big Picture Thoughts

Revolutionizing Decision Making: How The Analyst Will Take Over Business

Data lets us to better connect with our consumers during specific/targeted phases in their lives.

3 Ways to Nurture Successful Ongoing Analytics

Make sure your data collection meets a strategic business need.
Explain the analytics in a way that the stakeholders can understand.
Demonstrate ROI to stakeholders.

4 Tips for Communicating Analysis to Stakeholders

What does it the person you’re communicating to need?
Run your presentation past a nontechnical supporter.
Create proof points for your techniques.
Watch your assumptions!

Pro Tips

Only take two-minutes to explain your methodology.
Use analogies!

Evening Forum with Danny Sullivan

Search Engine Land Founding Editor Danny Sullivan takes questions from the SMX audience. Find out how Sullivan respond to thought-provoking questions about SEO education as a part of college curriculum and the future of Right to Be Forgotten. Sullivan also tackles technical queries such as “Structured data seems like a good opportunity but it seems 1% of sites use it – and now dynamic links render automatically, is it worth it to implement schema?”

Jason Calacanis on Startups that Save the World

Angel investor Jason Calacanis’s keynote is unique – it’s not tactical or strategy-driven. It’s steeped in reality and meant to simply inspire and inform the audience of the amazing progress that startups and forward-thinking companies are bring to the world in the areas of six global problems. Startups, he asserts, will solve our world’s problems rather than governments. His keynote, that is meant to inspire us, will cover major advances by tech and startup companies.

Drive Social, Spike Traffic: Social Media’s Effect on SEO

Drive Social, Spike Traffic: Social Media’s Effect on SEO was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Yesterday, Bruce Clay, Inc. hosted the first #SEOchat of 2015 and the topic inspired hot conversation. “Drive Social, Spike Traffic” honed in on the impact of social media on SEO initiatives. Guests, including some well-recognized and respected digital marketers like Andy Crestodina and Lisa Buyer, talked about their 2015 social strategy as it relates to SEO.

#SEOchat is a Twitter chat held every Thursday at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. Learn more about #SEOchat here.

Read on to see what SEOs had to say about:

Social Media in 2015
SMM Knowledge for the SEO
Traffic-Driving Tools and Social Tactics
Social Media + Content Discovery
Social Media Links
Paid Social Media
Social Media Resolutions
Social Media + Blogging
Community Management Pet Peeves
Determining Social Media Value

Social Media in 2015

How do you plan to use social media as a traffic driver in 2015?

@LisaBuyer: Stay newsworthy and current on spreading company and industry news via social media.

@DragonSearch: As Facebook’s organic reach continues to drop, we’re using social ads more than in the past.

@kg7maj: Be active in a variety of networks, engage with the following & produce good content for a blog. Traffic will follow.

@CallMeLouzander: Get targeted. @paulaspeak shared great article describing how teens see various #socialmedia apps: https://medium.com/backchannel/a-teenagers-view-on-social-media-1df945c09ac6

@d50Media: Facebook paid ads and boosted posts have lead to leads and brand awareness for our clients. We can choose pages to drive traffic to.

@KristiKellogg: I plan to use #socialmedia aggressively, that’s how. Practically, that means strategically and consistently & NICHE-TARGETED. In other words, don’t just tweet into the wind. Share/Post/Promote things that people will want to engage with.

SMM Knowledge for the SEO

To what degree should an SEO know social media and contribute to SMM?

@ChelseaBeaAdams: Some social channels can help organic SEO (in a way). For instance, Pinterest boards are indexed for keyword phrases. Also, don’t forget the power of the Google+ social network. Google+ posts definitely rank high in SERPs for phrases: http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/google-plus-strategy-serps/

@d50media: Write quality content (w/SEO keywords in mind) and share/promote on social media. Track everything.

@KevinWaugh: An #SEO should know what social media can do for them. The lines between the two have been blurring.

@DragonSearch: We recently launched a client’s tumblr blog, and to be effective on tumblr, you really have to know social AND #SEO.

@KristiKellogg: In a perfect world, both the #SEO and the #SMM know both backwards and forwards. But that’s a lot — so they can each benefit from the other’s knowledge.

@EricLanderSEO: An SEO has to understand, at a bare minimum, the influence of SMM and link equity into the broader organic algorithm.

Should social media be part of the SEO strategy, and how?

@Crestodina: Social Media –> Research –> Relationships –> Mentions/Links –> Rank

@d50media: Absolutely! Keywords–> Quality content–> Share on #SM –> track–> get feedback from users–> Write new content

@CaitlinBoroden: SEO, social media, and link building should all be looped in together when it comes to strategy in my book.

@ChelseaBeaAdams: You need to know what tools to use when; if your goal is SERP discovery, I think a G+ strategy (& circle growth) should be a priority.

Traffic-Driving Tools and Social Tactics

How have you used social media & SMM tools to drive traffic to your website?

@Crestodina: I like to use social media to find bloggers to build relationships with. People who create content create links …

@DragonSearch: If content is the Emerald City, then social is the Yellow Brick Road to get people there.

@VirginiaNussey: We use tool CoSchedule to regularly push content to social.

@KristiKellogg: Constantly. CONSTANTLY. Never is there an article at Bruce Clay, Inc. that doesn’t get promoted on EVERY channel.

@ChelseaBeaAdams: Well, social media is undoubtedly a great way to increase EXPOSURE. Someone can only search for your site once they know you exist.

@d50media: TweetDeck to see what people are posting, FB boosted posts, picmonkey to create strong images.

Social Media and Links

Do links from social media (which networks) provide SEO value?

@Crestodina: This is a great question. I think the answer is basically ‘no’ … and that’s a good thing!

@PaulaSpeak: While PageRank doesn’t pass from SM, I’ve been reading a lot about the overall engagement becoming important for ranking.

@CallMeLouzander: If SEO=strictly onpage, then No. But broader definition of SEO includes backlinks, which of course includes social engagement.

@DragonSearch: In the not-so-distant future I suspect we’ll see links in social posts start to provide more equity.

@DavidProHQ: Most links from social networks are nofollow.

@MichaelBurjack: Interesting article about Twitter indexing at https://www.stonetemple.com/how-does-google-index-tweets/ TL; DR: only large accoutns affect the index.

@Siddlal: No social links don’t provide link value as they are behind passwords but they are like friends with benefits.

@EricLanderSEO: Yes, but in many different forms. Don’t overlook discussion networks (hint). Use Moz AHREFs, etc. to research verticals.

Social Media + Content Discovery

Do you use social media to get content discovered and indexed in search faster?

@Crestodina: Posting to G+ is the modern way to submit to Google …

@HackingSearch: Well, Googlebot shows up immediately after sharing a link on Google+, so yes.

@CaitlinBoroden: Facebook, Twitter, the usuals. I’ve been really curious about what @Pinterest will be introducing. I want to know more.

@DavidProHQ: I post every article in G+ whether it’s in a community or just to the public. I’ve heard it’s indexed faster that way. I definitely use SM to get content discovered. Half the time is writing content, the other half is promoting it

@DirectOM: It helps with getting content discovered, that’s for sure!

@EricLanderSEO: Drive social activity using resources and guides like this from Search Engine Journal: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/be...

Paid Social Media

Are you using paid social media and on which social platforms? What results are you seeing from paid SMM?

@d50media: Paid #SMM, especially on Facebook, is a necessary evil

@KristiKellogg: We see great returns on promoted posts on Facebook. I’ve also started playing around w/ #ads on LinkedIn. Jury is still out. I started experimenting with LinkedIn ads because they give so many free advertising credits. Free is always good.

@DragonSearch: YES YES YES YES YES. On Facebook in particular. Organic reach there has plummeted. It REALLY hurts smaller clients.

@LisaBuyer: If no, then #Fail.

@DragonSearch: We’ve seen the best ROI from Facebook. Twitter seems to have a higher CPC and the verdict is still out on LinkedIn.

Social Media Resolutions

What are your social media resolutions for 2015?

@VirginiaNussey: I want to test the content mix on our blog to see if we can get more comments.

@DragonSearch: I’m constantly toying with ideas about Instagram. Bigger than Twitter. Gets great engagement. Hard to analyze though

@PaulaSpeak: Get better at analyzing #SMM results data. Also, promote OTHER people’s content more.

@LisaBuyer: Less is more. Better is best. Customer first, brand second. Share is better than Like.

Social Media + Blogging

Does blogging success depend on social media? Neil Patel predicts this for 2015: http://bit.ly/1AnwYhK.

@KristiKellogg: We touched on this earlier — yes, social media drives traffic — but if the content is less than engaging, HELLO bouncing Social promotion without good content is useless.

@HackingSearch: Not as much as it depends on regular posting.

@CallMeLouzander: Irregular posting can lead to invisibility, I’m finding.

@NavahK: Yes!

Community Management Pet Peeves

Do you have any pet peeves in social media marketing? Kristi Kellogg shared her top 10 pet peeves: http://bit.ly/13YrKe8.

@ChelseaBeaAdams: I HATE post-follow auto DMs. Especially ones that are clearly promotional and not focused on relationship building.

@davidprohq: Brands replying when you compliment them, but say nothing when you have a question regarding service.

@LisaBuyer: Highjacking a hashtag is annoying and ruins for the legit and authentic.

@Official_IAA: Totally annoyed that Facebook won’t let us edit the picture of a scheduled post!

@kg7maj: Brands who – only promote – don’t reply – use the same content wording across all platforms.

Determining Social Media Value

How do you determine social media value and does it match client expectations?

@KristiKellogg: Dive into analytics and look for conversions. Everything is trackable.

@VirginiaNussey: Sometimes I get sad when clients have too high expectations on attributing sales to social media efforts.

@kg7maj: Analytics … analytics … analytics. Track and present anything relevant to goals.

 @davidprohq: Not by follower count, but by engagement. It somewhat matches client expectations.

@Tommy_Landry: Agree up front on what “demand gen” metrics matter, and monitor those closely. Success is way more than just lead volume.

@MWilton13: Set goals for your social media efforts & track in analytics. Also, don’t forget social as an attribution channel.

@TalentLeopard: How much leads my client get through social media … it is the best way to check value of social media.

 @Siddlal: Hard to determine value. Some only value likes, while the learned see beyond to benefits like relationship and links.

@kg7maj: Instagram is the tough one for tracking ROI, but again, all depends on goals & what the organization is looking for.

Join #SEOchat every Thursday at  10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET . Bruce Clay, Inc. will be there. #SEOchat is a great opportunity to ask questions, get answers and share insights with industry leaders and the engaged digital marketing community. Read more about #SEOchat here.

How to Design a 404 Error Page that Saves a Sale

How to Design a 404 Error Page that Saves a Sale was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Whatever baby wants, baby gets.

Unless baby mistypes a URL, or tries to navigate to a bookmarked page that was moved or retired in 2012. In that case – regardless of what she wants – baby gets a 404 error page.

When baby gets a 404 error page – and not what she wants – there’s a good chance she’s going to be confused, annoyed, or frustrated. Nobody likes it when baby doesn’t get what she wants…

So, what do we do?

Turn adversity into opportunity, of course!

I like to think of the 404 error page as your damage control page. Your customer just tried to go to a page on your website, and now they are faced with disappointment. The 404 error page greets them immediately at their peak moment of disappointment – what a perfect opportunity for you to tell them you couldn’t care less with a machine-generated white-screen error message. Said no one ever. This is your time to deflect those bad feelings and offer a solution that inspires positive feelings!

Follow these five steps to get on your way to creating custom 404 error pages that make your customer feel like you’re there for them, even when your content can’t be.

Five 404 Error Page Design Tips that Keep Visitors On-Site
1. Keep It Branded and On-Brand

Keeping your 404 page branded means your 404 error page should make it clear that the visitor is still on your website. This can mean keeping your custom 404 error page within the template of your website – complete with standard top and footer navigation – or, simply making sure to include a logo if you build a custom 404 page outside your standard template.

And oh, what a difference a logo can make. Compare the three examples below: a standard machine-generated 404 page, a custom page outside the website template, and a 404 message built inside the standard website template.

A standard 404 error page, a custom page outside the website template, and a 404 built inside the website template.

The second two options approach the 404 error page in very different ways, but both make it clear which website you’re on. In the first one, there’s no logo and no clues; who knows? Which experience do you want your users to see?

Keeping the 404 error page on-brand means every word and image you use accurately represents the personality and tone of your brand. If you are a serious brand like The New York Times, keep your messaging professional and straightforward. If your brand voice is conversational and appreciates a good laugh here and there, your 404 page can be a good time to toss in an ice-breaker joke. Whether or not you apologize or say thank you also falls into your brand voice guidelines. Only you know how much formality and silliness your brand voice allows. Figure it out, and follow it to a T. Always.

Make your 404 page on-brand. Is your brand serious like the example on the left, or silly like the brand on the right?

2. Acknowledge What Happened

Your visitor was looking for a page, and what they’re seeing isn’t that page. Help them understand what happened by telling them what happened. You can do it with your own spin, but do tell them there was an error and that – for one reason or another – the page they are looking for cannot be found. You can choose whether to mention the “one reason or another” like Adidas does in the center example below (“maybe it’s moved, or maybe the URL is incorrect”).

Each of these 404 error page examples tells it like it is. Help your visitor understand where they are by telling them their content cannot be found.

3. Thwart the Back Button by Showing Your Personality

When a customer is dished up a 404 page they are going to be surprised; they were expecting one thing and they are seeing another. It’s inevitable. Whether this is an annoyed surprised or a pleased surprised is up to you (and your web designer). 404 error pages are rarely seen, so why not use your brand personality to make this rare occurrence memorable in a good way?

Consider:

Using an on-brand image to visually engage the visitor. With the right image, you may even be able to turn your visitor’s inconvenient “this is annoying” moment into a fun Easter Egg that makes him/her like you even more.

Your 404 error page is a great time to show your personality.

 

Use your headlines and body copy to make the exchange feel more human. It’s often much easier to accept an apology from a fellow human than it is to accept an access denied notice from a robot.

You know that awkward moment at dinner when someone just needs to break the tension with a joke? This tactic works wonders on 404 pages as well. Nobody likes being disappointed; including an on-brand joke on your 404 page is a great way to break the “something went wrong and you didn’t get what you want” tension.

4. Do the Best You Can to Serve the Customer

“Focus on the user and all else will follow.” Wise words from Google with deep-seated truth. Your visitor lives in a cyber world where they are surrounded by endless purchasing options; if they try to buy some shoes on your website and your website offers a “Page Not Found” dead-end, they have no choice but to use the back button and head toward someone else’s online shoe store to make their purchase. Unless you can use your 404 damage control page to offer resources that help them find what they need, or discover new options they never knew they needed…!

Think about the needs of your personas; what are their needs?

Make an educated guess about what they were trying to accomplish when they landed on this error page and offer some links that help them accomplish that task. This can save sales, turn disappointment into satisfaction, and help keep bounce rate low(er).

Add a search box and a link to your sitemap to make it easier for them to find what they need on their own.

Make it easy for them to contact you if they need help.

5.  Serve Yo’self! Ask for What You Need and Funnel Conversion

Your 404 error page is your damage control page, but it is also your opportunity page. Remember, we’re striving to turn adversity into opportunity, here! Think of this page as an opportunity for you to keep the ball rolling… and why not tilt the ramp so the ball rolls strategically toward one of your conversion funnels? Always keep the user first, but there’s no reason to assume that customer happiness and conversion completion are mutually exclusive.

For instance, if one of your conversions is lead generation, why not offer a link to your free demo page, like Hubspot does? (See example below.)

In this example, Hubspot does a great job strategically directing their 404 traffic toward three conversion goals.

The key is to tell them what you want them to do. If you want them to shop women’s clothing, give them a link that says shop the women’s section – don’t send them to the home page where they might get lost or distracted. Notice in the Land’s End example, below, that they give you links to shop women’s, men’s and kid’s, or home goods, but they don’t mention heading to the home page once? Their conversion goal is clearly to increase sales in their top four categories.

Land’s End uses their 404 error page to direct traffic toward four strategic shopping categories.

The 404 error page is also a good time for you to ask them to help you solve the problem. Error pages are delivered when something goes wrong. Sometimes it is user error (a mistyped URL, for instance), but other times is a hidden website error (a moved, removed or broken page). By landing on your 404 page it’s likely your visitor just discovered an error on your website; use this page as an opportunity to ask them to send you an error report. Make sure to include a link that makes it easy for them to take action.

These three 404 error page examples ask visitors to report errors.

On the flip side, make sure you don’t tell them to do something you don’t want them to do – like “return at a later time.” You want them to stay put.

404 Errors are Inevitable: Be Proactive!

The world is an imperfect place. Screws fall out all the time, URLs are mistyped and – as much as you try to prevent it – web pages get moved, removed or broken. Since error pages are inevitable, I vote we take the proactive route and create the best darn damage control pages possible.

Since every brand is different, there will never be a one-size-fits all model for how a custom 404 error page should look. Instead, marketers should use the five steps outlined in this post as a guide to create a custom 404 error page experience that represents their brand, serves their customers, and supports their conversion goals.

How to Design a 404 Error Page That Saves a Sale

How to Design a 404 Error Page That Saves a Sale was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Whatever baby wants, baby gets.

Unless baby mistypes a URL, or tries to navigate to a bookmarked page that was moved or retired in 2012. In that case – regardless of what she wants – baby gets a 404 error page.

When baby gets a 404 error page – and not what she wants – there’s a good chance she’s going to be confused, annoyed, or frustrated. Nobody likes it when baby doesn’t get what she wants…

So, what do we do?

Turn adversity into opportunity, of course!

I like to think of the 404 error page as your damage control page. Your customer just tried to go to a page on your website, and now they are faced with disappointment. The 404 error page greets them immediately at their peak moment of disappointment – what a perfect opportunity for you to tell them you couldn’t care less with a machine-generated white-screen error message. Said no one ever. This is your time to deflect those bad feelings and offer a solution that inspires positive feelings!

Follow these five steps to get on your way to creating custom 404 error pages that make your customer feel like you’re there for them, even when your content can’t be.

Five 404 Error Page Design Tips that Keep Visitors On-Site
1. Keep It Branded and On-Brand

Keeping your 404 page branded means your 404 error page should make it clear that the visitor is still on your website. This can mean keeping your custom 404 error page within the template of your website – complete with standard top and footer navigation – or, simply making sure to include a logo if you build a custom 404 page outside your standard template.

And oh, what a difference a logo can make. Compare the three examples below: a standard machine-generated 404 page, a custom page outside the website template, and a 404 message built inside the standard website template.

A standard 404 error page, a custom page outside the website template, and a 404 built inside the website template.

The second two options approach the 404 error page in very different ways, but both make it clear which website you’re on. In the first one, there’s no logo and no clues; who knows? Which experience do you want your users to see?

Keeping the 404 error page on-brand means every word and image you use accurately represents the personality and tone of your brand. If you are a serious brand like The New York Times, keep your messaging professional and straightforward. If your brand voice is conversational and appreciates a good laugh here and there, your 404 page can be a good time to toss in an ice-breaker joke. Whether or not you apologize or say thank you also falls into your brand voice guidelines. Only you know how much formality and silliness your brand voice allows. Figure it out, and follow it to a T. Always.

Make your 404 page on-brand. Is your brand serious like the example on the left, or silly like the brand on the right?

2. Acknowledge What Happened

Your visitor was looking for a page, and what they’re seeing isn’t that page. Help them understand what happened by telling them what happened. You can do it with your own spin, but do tell them there was an error and that – for one reason or another – the page they are looking for cannot be found. You can choose whether to mention the “one reason or another” like Adidas does in the center example below (“maybe it’s moved, or maybe the URL is incorrect”).

Each of these 404 error page examples tells it like it is. Help your visitor understand where they are by telling them their content cannot be found.

3. Thwart the Back Button by Showing Your Personality

When a customer is dished up a 404 page they are going to be surprised; they were expecting one thing and they are seeing another. It’s inevitable. Whether this is an annoyed surprised or a pleased surprised is up to you (and your web designer). 404 error pages are rarely seen, so why not use your brand personality to make this rare occurrence memorable in a good way?

Consider:

Using an on-brand image to visually engage the visitor. With the right image, you may even be able to turn your visitor’s inconvenient “this is annoying” moment into a fun Easter Egg that makes him/her like you even more.

Your 404 error page is a great time to show your personality.

 

Use your headlines and body copy to make the exchange feel more human. It’s often much easier to accept an apology from a fellow human than it is to accept an access denied notice from a robot.

You know that awkward moment at dinner when someone just needs to break the tension with a joke? This tactic works wonders on 404 pages as well. Nobody likes being disappointed; including an on-brand joke on your 404 page is a great way to break the “something went wrong and you didn’t get what you want” tension.

4. Do the Best You Can to Serve the Customer

“Focus on the user and all else will follow.” Wise words from Google with deep-seated truth. Your visitor lives in a cyber world where they are surrounded by endless purchasing options; if they try to buy some shoes on your website and your website offers a “Page Not Found” dead-end, they have no choice but to use the back button and head toward someone else’s online shoe store to make their purchase. Unless you can use your 404 damage control page to offer resources that help them find what they need, or discover new options they never knew they needed…!

Think about the needs of your personas; what are their needs?

Make an educated guess about what they were trying to accomplish when they landed on this error page and offer some links that help them accomplish that task. This can save sales, turn disappointment into satisfaction, and help keep bounce rate low(er).

Add a search box and a link to your sitemap to make it easier for them to find what they need on their own.

Make it easy for them to contact you if they need help.

5.  Serve Yo’self! Ask for What You Need and Funnel Conversion

Your 404 error page is your damage control page, but it is also your opportunity page. Remember, we’re striving to turn adversity into opportunity, here! Think of this page as an opportunity for you to keep the ball rolling… and why not tilt the ramp so the ball rolls strategically toward one of your conversion funnels? Always keep the user first, but there’s no reason to assume that customer happiness and conversion completion are mutually exclusive.

For instance, if one of your conversions is lead generation, why not offer a link to your free demo page, like Hubspot does? (See example below.)

In this example, Hubspot does a great job strategically directing their 404 traffic toward three conversion goals.

The key is to tell them what you want them to do. If you want them to shop women’s clothing, give them a link that says shop the women’s section – don’t send them to the home page where they might get lost or distracted. Notice in the Land’s End example, below, that they give you links to shop women’s, men’s and kid’s, or home goods, but they don’t mention heading to the home page once? Their conversion goal is clearly to increase sales in their top four categories.

Land’s End uses their 404 error page to direct traffic toward four strategic shopping categories.

The 404 error page is also a good time for you to ask them to help you solve the problem. Error pages are delivered when something goes wrong. Sometimes it is user error (a mistyped URL, for instance), but other times is a hidden website error (a moved, removed or broken page). By landing on your 404 page it’s likely your visitor just discovered an error on your website; use this page as an opportunity to ask them to send you an error report. Make sure to include a link that makes it easy for them to take action.

These three 404 error page examples ask visitors to report errors.

On the flip side, make sure you don’t tell them to do something you don’t want them to do – like “return at a later time.” You want them to stay put.

404 Errors are Inevitable: Be Proactive!

The world is an imperfect place. Screws fall out all the time, URLs are mistyped and – as much as you try to prevent it – web pages get moved, removed or broken. Since error pages are inevitable, I vote we take the proactive route and create the best darn damage control pages possible.

Since every brand is different, there will never be a one-size-fits all model for how a custom 404 error page should look. Instead, marketers should use the five steps outlined in this post as a guide to create a custom 404 error page experience that represents their brand, serves their customers, and supports their conversion goals.

Happy Holidays from Bruce Clay, Inc.

Happy Holidays from Bruce Clay, Inc. was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

All year long we’re all about SEO, SEO, SEO — but this week it’s more like “Ho! Ho! Ho!” as we celebrate the season! First and foremost, we want to wish a safe and happy holiday to all our readers, clients and friends in the industry. What a great year it’s been!

As is tradition, our team spent the final week of 2014 battling it out on the race track at MB2 Raceway, Secret Santa-ing and, of course, eating. The office itself is a winter wonderland.

As for the racing, let’s just say we’re a competitive bunch. And our winner Ty Carson earned not only first place, but an entire year’s worth of bragging rights.

From left: second place winner Tiago Puel, first place winner Ty Carson and third place winner Jack Van Leeuwen.

Want to climb into the driver’s seat? Check out this point-of-view film from David Vasquez’s helmet camera as he races around the MB2 Raceway track.

Here’s a photo album of the whole gang.

Off to the Races: Christmas 2014

Plus tons of fun moments from our Christmas party back at the office.

Secret Santa Gift Exchange and Merriment

Have a safe and happy holiday! The Bruce Clay, Inc. office will be open again on Monday, Dec. 29. Until then!