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PPC 101: 3 Musts of Catchy Paid Search Ad Copy

PPC 101: 3 Musts of Catchy Paid Search Ad Copy was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

You have been handed a new account to manage. Congratulations! Freaking out? Don’t! No need to start pulling out your hair. In this post, we will cover a few 101-level PPC tips to get you writing ads that draw eyeballs and clicks. Note that these methods are applicable for new accounts and accounts with historical data alike.

Writing creative ad copy is an important skill for the small business managing their own paid advertising as well as a company who hires an agency to manage their account(s) for them. The skill of writing ad copy that gets clicks is one that is honed through repetition, testing and seeing what works with practice. But to give you a boost I’ve distilled the vital qualities into three key points that when kept in mind can help you obtain the results you want from your ad copy.

But First, Research

Going back to our scenario presented in the beginning, you have just been handed a new account to manage. Yet, before creating any content for your ad copy, you need to do your research first. Research includes:

Identifying the target audience
Identifying existing competitors

Are they running any paid advertising?


Keyword research to identify potential search volume and estimated cost relatable to your client’s product or service
Identifying the conversions

Conversions are anything from form submissions, e-commerce transactions, or any other goal identified by the client

Once you know the information mentioned above, you are ready to get started with ad creation!

3 Qualities of Effective Ad Copy

Calls to Action
Following Editorial Guidelines
Presenting Features and Benefits

Calls to Action

“Sign-Up for your Free Trial”
“Big Savings – Call Us Today!”
“Subscribe for Weekly Auction Updates”

Straight-forward, right? Yet, it’s interesting to see a handful of advertisers forget this key feature of an ad. Without a calls to action, your potential consumer or lead might not click on your ad. Why? Well for starters, the viewer doesn’t know what will possibly follow after the click. Yikes! You just lost a possible customer, where it gets recorded as an impression for the related search query and not a click. Remember, too many impressions with very few clicks are one of the factors that will contribute to a low CTR. When creating your amazing ad copy, you have to remember to give the ad a purpose and put yourself as the viewer while asking yourself, “is the action or message clear”?

Not sure where to start or experiencing writers block? Don’t freak out! Remember in the beginning, you did the research, specifically keyword research. Find out what ads are showing for your search query and review the ads on the first handful of search pages. What are some “Call to Actions” you see being used? Another key point when evaluating other competing ads, would be to ask you yourself, “How can I stand out”? Stand out you must, like our friend Yoda might say. While you are reviewing the ads being displayed, keep in mind that being unique will work in your benefit. If all the ads being displayed look or read the same, wouldn’t you think a different verbiage would help the viewer find more interest and prefer the unique ad instead?

Following the Search Engines’ Editorial Guidelines

Yes, following the rules, especially editorial guidelines for Google AdWords or Bing Ads, will benefit you when creating compelling ads. Why? Because by following guidelines you will:

Reduce the likelihood of your ads being disapproved for not following policy, and
Contribute to writing a clear message to lead potential viewers to your converting landing page.

If you have done your research, you have a clear understanding of who your client wants to reach. Next, you need to know the limits of the ad format so you can craft an ad with the appropriate number of characters, use of punctuation and content verbiage as allowed on the platform.

Knowing the limits of the ad type, develop ad copy that reads with flow and is consistent with your other channels of communication.

Google AdWords Character Limits:

Ad Copy Areas
Character Length


Headline
25


Description 1
35


Description 2
35


Display URL
35


Destination URL
2,048

Bing Ads Character Limits:

Ad Copy Areas
Character Length


Ad Title
25


Ad Text
71


Display URL
35


Destination
1,024

 

Highlighting Features and Benefits

Let’s say that your new client is an online computer store that wants to advertise laptops in hopes of growing profits. How can you attract the right customer? This comes down to the message you send through the text of your ad. Let’s get more descriptive with our example.

In your preliminary research you identified the targeted audience, your ideal customer. This computer store client wants to target college students, and as it’s mid-summer, you want to sell as many laptops as possible to freshmen beginning their academic school year in August. So, what do you include in your message? Yes, features and benefits!

The features in your ad act as the information the student needs to know about the laptop. Possible features to focus on include how much memory it has, its size or dimensions, its weight, etc. The benefits in your ad highlight, why the feature, specifically the product, is worth the purchase. Here are some examples.

Product: X Laptop

Features
Benefits


16 GB of Memory
Math class just got easy. With 16 GB of memory compute and analyze calculations in no time. Time saver!


Built-in webcam
X Laptop comes with a built-in webcam to help you stay in touch while studying out of state.


13-inch wide screen
Don’t strain your eyes while studying. Enjoy a comfortable 13-inch screen and give your eyes a rest.


Weight: 1.53 pounds
Textbooks are heavy enough, your laptop doesn’t have to – weighing only under 2 pounds! (OR) A laptop under 2 pounds will make running across campus for class a breeze.

Still not sure what features and benefits to use? See what others are doing, and then improve on those while being unique!

Like everything, especially in the area of creating effective ad copy, it takes time, practice and continuing education. Just how the internet continues to change every day, we as progressive marketers should also continue to keep updated and not forget the foundation of effective account management.

RECOMMENDED READINGS AND REFERENCES

“8 Actionable AdWords Tips for PPC Managers” by Diana Becerra

“12 PPC Tips from the Experts to Start 2014 with a Bang” by John Gagnon, Bing Ads

“Tips for Creating Successful Text Ads” in Google AdWords support

Recap of SEO Course in Italy: 4 SEO Tips to Remember

Recap of SEO Course in Italy: 4 SEO Tips to Remember was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

While many Americans enjoyed getting their head out of work during last week’s holiday, a room full of Europeans dove into SEO practices for online business as taught by one American.

Bruce Clay, an expert on natural search engine optimization, came to Milan, Italy, to teach a sold-out, special two-day SEOToolSet® Training hosted by Bruce Clay Europe. During the advanced SEO course held July 2–3, 2014, I took note of some valuable SEO tips arising from the numerous questions he answered.

1. “Penalties will continue”

In 2014, Google will continue to increase its penalties, and the next update may be the heaviest, coming possibly by the end of summer. At SMX Advanced (in June 2014), there was talk of a spam update that will impact about 30% of organic results. Website owners can prepare for this by cleaning up all inbound links and pruning the low-quality ones.

2. “Responsive design is Google’s preference for mobile sites”

Often the question arises whether it is better to redo the site in a mobile version (such as m.domain.com) or with responsive design. Today Google has in its index 60 trillion pages, 90% of which were created for your desktop. The increase in mobile usage forces companies to make sites that are suited to smartphones and other mobile devices. If everyone created a mobile version of their site today, tomorrow there would be 120 trillion pages. This would have a severe economic impact on Google. It’s understandable why Google prefers responsive design, which enables a website to work across devices by adapting to the size of the user’s browser window. Google will save a tremendous amount of server capacity if everyone implements this approach. For more information on mobile design choices, see our post in English or download this mobile SEO Guide in Italian.

3. “If your SEO might damage the UX on Google, DON’T DO IT”

Often when you’re doing SEO, you encounter unexpected questions. The criteria to figure out if what you’re doing on the SEO side goes in the right direction is simple: if you do could harm to the economic interests of Google or the user experience, you’d better not do it. Google does not want its users to go on Bing due to poor search results.

4. “Having a lot of data is not the same as understanding it”

Bruce Clay restated it this way: “Data is different than wisdom.” You have to be careful to draw the right conclusions from your data, not the wrong ones.

SEO training in the shadow of the Cathedral was attended by 43 digital marketing professionals from 7 countries. At the end of the course I asked some of the participants on-the-fly for their opinions (translated here):

“I liked the course, but most of all the interesting content quality and level of exposure. I’m really glad I made this choice.” – Vincent Gengaro of Punto.Net

“The course of Bruce Clay, Inc., offers a complete and professional project for the construction of a concrete and effective SEO. It provides a 360 degree understanding with insights focused on the basics, which are often overlooked in favor of myths. Bruce, on the other hand, is an experienced and credible voice, sometimes out of the choir, to trust without delay. I recommend this course for everyone, experts and others, to better understand and rethink their own experience in the matter.” – Alexander Vriale, Online Specialist Multinational Electronics

Note: Original version in Italian is published at http://www.aleagostini.com/recap-corso-seo-milano-04072014.html

15 Questions to Ask When Hiring a PPC Agency

15 Questions to Ask When Hiring a PPC Agency was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Shopping for the right PPC management agency can be just as tough as managing PPC campaigns themselves. In an industry that is becoming increasingly flooded by PPC “agencies,” how do you find the right one for you? I’m the SEM manager at Bruce Clay, Inc., and over the years I’ve worked with dozens of companies, many with horror stories of prior experiences with sub-par PPC agencies.

Clients who have worked with other PPC agencies have shared tales of wasted spend due to poor quality keywords, poor campaign setup, failure to track to conversions and more — choosing an unqualified PPC agency is a costly mistake. The awesome thing is you can save a lot of time, headache and money by thoroughly vetting PPC agencies. Read on to discover the questions you should be asking in order to find the right PPC agency.

The Track Record

Research the PPC agency. Ask questions and do your own research to determine the PPC agency’s strengths and weaknesses. Find out how long they’ve been around and what reputation they’ve earned. Get answers to the following questions:

When was the PPC agency established?
Are they recognized as a thought leader?
Do they attend conferences? Speak at conferences?
What books or articles have they written?
Who are their key players, and are they quoted and referenced in outside publications?

The Client Roster

In order to be an industry leader in PPC management, you must have a wide array of experience, across industries and business functions. It’s a good sign if an agency has work examples of various types of PPC programs.

Does the PPC agency’s experience align with your business type?
Do they have a solid track record of working with e-commerce and lead generation clients? B2B, B2C?
What types of budgets do they manage? Small, local clients with monthly ad budgets in the low thousands? Fortune 100’s with millions of dollars of ad spend? Most importantly, have they managed budgets similar to yours?

The Project Resources

Understanding how the PPC management agency is able to adequately support your account is vital to understanding whether or not they can deliver what you need. From personnel to tools, you need to determine if their resources cater to your needs.

Does their internal team structure make sense to you?
Do they use any industry-leading, or proprietary tools?
Do they have one person, or multiple people trained and working on your account?
What types of resources are available to you?

At BCI, each PPC client receives a project manager and a dedicated team of at least two analysts that are cross-trained on accounts. We find this allows for optimal client communication and account management, which leads to results.

The Client Retention Rate

It’s one thing to be able to acquire new business, but does the prospective agency retain their clients? A high client retention rate is indicative of an agency that is able to continuously meet their clients’ PPC goals. Hint: The higher the CRR, the better! The best PPC management agencies usually have at least a 90% CRR.

What is their CRR?
What’s the average client length of engagement?
What percentage of their client base have been with the agency for 2+ years?

The Proof

Last but not least, don’t just take a PPC agency at their word. Case studies can be extremely helpful in providing insight into how prospective agencies are able to move the needle. Not all agencies have these materials readily available, but they should at least be able to provide examples of successful PPC projects.

Are you interested in learning more about the PPC services offered at Bruce Clay, Inc.? Contact us — we’ll be happy to answer any of your questions (including the ones listed above!).

Internet Marketers On Learning SEO and the Future of SEO Education

Internet Marketers On Learning SEO and the Future of SEO Education was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Last week, Bruce Clay, Inc. hosted #SEOchat on Twitter and the topic of discussion was SEO Education. Seasoned Internet marketers candidly revealed how they went about learning SEO, sharing tales of internships, books, training courses, conferences and more.

Having begun in the mid-’90s, SEO is still a relatively new industry — the education paths Internet marketers have taken is widely varied. Read on to discover how several SEO managers, senior SEOs and content marketers learned SEO as they answered questions on:

Learning SEO
Formal Training
The Desire to Learn SEO
SEO First Steps
SEO Conferences
Real-World SEO Lessons
Becoming a Professional SEO
Advice for Those Just Getting Started
Continuing SEO Education
The Future of SEO Education

Eager to jump to a particular topic? Click a heading above … or read them all!

Learning SEO

Q1: How much formal training is necessary for an SEO?

@KevinWaugh: Little to none, it is not covered in higher education, and it has moved very fast over the last 5 years.

@MatthewAYoung: Formal training is essential, but a moderate amount is sufficient. SEOs have to learn by doing and sometimes failing.

@SanDiegoSEO: I don’t think any formal training is “needed” but it can sure help separate fact from fiction.

@sonray: It can be helpful if the degree adds value (I went for Phys ED) but DESIRE to learn is more valuable.

@MindyDWeinstein: I think some form of formal training is needed. Hands on is huge, though.

@cshel: I think everything you need to know can be learned outside of a classroom, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to know.

@LanceMoore22: I would say it’s not a formal training, but an art and science.

@tony_dwm:  I think that knowledge of biz & training in marketing are pre-req of SEO training. The “why” is key and these help.

@treycopeland: no formal training is needed. read seo blogs. technical experience does help. former web dev turned seo here.

@KevinWaugh: Based on the college students on my team, I’m glad it is not covered. I had to reteach HTML, which is bad.

@CallMeLouzander: Fundamentals don’t change; don’t try to game the system, serve good content, keep up with tech changes.

Formal Training

Q2: If there is formal training, what does that look like? An apprenticeship? An internship? Something else?

@MatthewAYoung: The Bruce Clay SEO training of course! Which I took a few times in my day

@KevinWaugh: Workshops might be the closest to formal, easy to get into, gives you wings, and lets you go.

@LysaChester: I think formal classroom fundamentals in SEO is great, but most learning is done through internships and entry level jobs.

@MindyDWeinstein: Regarding higher education, I actually went through “SEO” textbooks. They are all outdated as soon as they go to print.

@CaitlinBoroden: I began with an internship. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to dig in and learn!

@sonray: I spoke at @SearchDecoder’s NYU Master’s level class. I was super impressed with the class and quality.

@SanDiegoSEO: I would think formal training would consist of a combo of hands on experience, and lessons on what NOT to do and why.

@CallMeLouzander: Whether interning or studying under someone, vet them first. Bad practices in SEO hurt both you and your clients.

@paulaspeak: I learned SEO on the job, but I work for Bruce Clay! #advantage

@ScottCowley: I teach SEO, but I wish there were an ecommerce site to just hand to the students and let them optimize. The system is imperfect.

@KristiKellogg: It seems like formal training of SOME kind ensures bad habits don’t develop.

@MatthewAYoung: I learned SEO through a combo of formal training, client work, personal study, engaging in a community of SEOs.

@crbawden: Went through some online training courses, they covered the basics well but not details, simply reading articles worked better.

@nikipayne: I started learning about SEO taking webinars on behalf of a marketing director who didn’t have time to take them herself.

The Desire to Learn SEO

Q3: When was the first time you heard “SEO?” What made you want to dive in?

@tony_dwn: Late nineties. Primarily a fascination with words and their meaning, coupled with a deep interest in marketing.

@sonray: Working at a bike shop during the winter and was looking for ‘busy work’; started w/ eBay and local search.

@SanDiegoSEO: When an ecommerce client wanted the service. No one was offering it, so I figured I’d learn it. over 14 years ago.

@KristiKellogg: The first time I heard SEO was a week before my interview with @BruceClayInc. SEO, SEM, SMM, PPC, etc. #TooManyAcronyms

@MatthewAYoung: At an old job, the sales and marketing director asked if I could rewrite content on the site with SEO in mind.

@MatthewAYoung: She asked if I knew what SEO was, I lied and said sure …

@LysaChester: First time I heard of SEO was when I went for a job interview asking me about SEO and Social Media experience 1 1/2 ago.

@CallMeLouzander: When I first heard “SEO” I asked programmer friend about it; he didn’t even know white hat SEO existed.

@DigitalDionne: It was 2010 or so. I was still a journo with AP. I was intrigued by strategic word use to “catch” someone. Like fishing. I eventually decided I liked the concept of words that made money. And my career in news was soon dunzo. lol

@KevinWaugh: I heard of it at a job interview for an #ecommerce site, so I decided I should really learn it. Never stopped learning since

@crbawden: Learned of #SEO from a drunk friend who said people make money by getting sites listed on Google. And here I am now.

SEO First Steps

Q4: After you heard those three magic letters, how did your SEO training begin? Online? With a book? With a course?

@CaitlinBoroden: My training kicked off with @sonray and @dragonsearch! Reading lots of blogs and books as well.

@ScottCowley: I had informal job training, but I bought SEO for Dummies and read at night. My wife would write quizzes for me.

@sonray: Read all the blog posts until they become boring. Experimented and failed often which was the best learning.

@MindyDWeinstein: You also learn a lot at SEO conferences by networking. A collection of knowledge all in one place.

@paulaspeak: @smx sets the standard IMO for Internet marketing conferences. Even @dannysullivan & @mattcutts are there.

@KristiKellogg: Fun and random fact — March is the busiest month for #SEO conferences. How do I know? I made the Internet Marketing Conference Calendar.

SEO Conferences

Q5: What about learning at Internet marketing conferences? Which ones do you attend, and are they worth the price?

@sonray: Depends on your knowledge level and the level of the conf. Some are duds, some are FANTASTIC.

@KevinWaugh: I went to Internet Retailer Web Design conference last year and the SEO part was high level, nothing in part of new tricks. Score: 6/10.

@MatthewAYoung: I think if you’re learning something that can improve your business, conferences are worth the cost.

@MindyDWeinstein: SMX and Pubcon conferences are always great. SMX Advanced is one I highly recommend.

@KristiKellogg: I think perhaps conferences are good once a base level of #SEO knowledge is in place.

@DigitalDionne: I’ve done Digital Summit and Digital Atlanta. I’ve learned good stuff. But really wanna hit SMX.

Real-World SEO Lessons

Q6: What is the most important lesson you had to learn as you gained experience as an SEO?

@sonray: Hustle wins. Pick yourself up off the mat when you fail big and be willing to put yourself back out there.

@MatthewAYoung: How to distill complex SEO concepts to clients so they could understand them.

@KristiKellogg: At first, I was hesitant to trade clever titles for optimized ones — until I saw keyword optimization maximizes reach!

@LysaChester: The fact that it is ever-changing and in SEO there is always something new to learn.

@SanDiegoSEO: Test everything no matter what you’ve heard.

@tony_dwm: That it wasn’t about me. It was about helping clients achieve online results. If they won, I won. If not, why?

@crbawden: Just because we understand #SEO is important doesn’t mean everyone else does.

@MatthewAYoung: You can learn all you want about SEO, but if you aren’t good at client services, then expertise means little.

@nikipayne: Most important lesson learned: Don’t ever buy links!!!

@DigitalDionne: Patience. You won’t be an SEO sorceress in a few days, weeks, months or years.

@ScottCowley: SEO is one piece of a gigantic pie. It works better for some than others. 85% of it doesn’t change. People in SEO are awesome.

@CallMeLouzander: Also, good point. SEO has to work in conjunction with marketing and development to be effective.

Becoming a Professional SEO

Q7: When did it seem that the training wheels had come off and that you warranted the title “SEO”?

@SanDiegoSEO: The first time a client referred me to a friend of theirs, then again when a firm gave me continued pay days.

@sonray: When my clients started seeing sustained traffic & conversion increases month over month.

@KevinWaugh: When the scenario in A6 happened, it shaped my standing in that organization on SEO.

@LysaChester: When I started creating SEO marketing campaigns on my own and they paid off! FTW!

@MindyWeinstein: When I was no longer the one asking the questions, but was the one answering them (and I was seeing results).

@crbawden: When I could finally hold conversations on industry events, probably took at least 6 months of research and reading.

@DigitalDionne: When I started having my own ideas. I’m still just two years in. But it’s like a kid… when they’re a baby, they just listen. But by 11, they have their own thoughts. When I got my own thoughts, I felt like an SEO.

@KristiKellogg: When I saw my articles begin to rank #1.

@MatthewAYoung: When SEO became my state of mind.

Advice for Those Just Getting Started

Q8: What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into SEO?

@LanceMoore22: Be willing to learn. Always learn.

@sonray: Never say no to the opportunities that come your way; be giving with your knowledge.

@SanDiegoSEO: Learn the technical side as well as learning analytics to show what your work has been producing.

@MindyDWeinstein: Work with an SEO company that is willing to train you. Take your time, study and when you are ready, get your hands dirty.

@DigitalDionne: Develop mentors you can trust. Do the white hat – but learn the black hat too. There’s value in knowing the good and bad.

@KristiKellogg: Carefully consider you’re going to learn from. #IChooseBruce

@MatthewAYoung: Learn all you can from the white hat community on what do right, also attend #SEOchat every Thurs!

@djpaisley: Follow and engage with OLD School SEOs still in the game working at the top levels of the industry!!

@kickstartseo: Work with an SEO company that is willing to train you. Take your time, study and when you are ready, get your hands dirty.

Continuing SEO Education

Q9: How do you continue your SEO education?

@MindyDWeinstein: Read SEO blogs and attend conferences. Of course, join the #seochat whenever you can!

@SanDiegoSEO: With no job ever “done” continued work is the best education, but shows, blogs, and articles help too.

@sonray: Building up and teaching my team, sharing what we’ve learned whenever and however possible. Helping others.

@DigitalDionne: Currently doing Market Motives for work. But mostly by reading books and testing (or at least trying to).

@KevinWaugh: Twitter is great to get pulse of industry. Along with forums link @Inboundorg

@CallMeLouzander: Following good SEOs on Twitter and G+ helps. @sonray is right- good SEO involves helping and educating each other. #payitforward

The Future of SEO Education

Q10: Where do you think SEO education is headed? Is this going to be something the class of 2025 will major in?

@sonray: Depends on what happens w/higher ed and people’s opinions; self-learners will always be but degrees will add legitimacy.

@MindyDWeinstein: I believe more colleges will start to offer SEO education. Things change, of course, but students need a foundation.

@KevinWaugh: I think it will baked into the Marketing Degrees, along with other digital endeavors.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this week’s #SEOchat! #SEOchat is held every Thursday at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET on Twitter. Learn more about participating here .

A Cheat Sheet for Mobile Design: Responsive Design, Dynamic Serving and Mobile Sites

A Cheat Sheet for Mobile Design: Responsive Design, Dynamic Serving and Mobile Sites was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

We’ve all heard the statistics: 2014 is the year when more people access the Internet on a smartphone than on a computer or laptop. Mobile design is the future. You don’t want your site left behind, but how exactly do you program for this increasingly mobile Internet? There are three main options, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. In this post, I’ll break down your mobile-readiness options, giving you the pros and cons of each to help you choose the best path forward for your website.

Option 1: Responsive Design

Responsive design determines the resolution of the screen on which a page is being viewed using media queries, then adjusts the size and layout of the page appropriately. Google has stated it prefers responsive web design, which makes it the heavyweight in this discussion.

Pros:

There’s only one version of each page. The same page adapts to the type of device displaying it (rather than detecting the type of device and then serving content based on that). Having the same HTML and URL across all devices simplifies your site maintenance.
Responsive design doesn’t rely on user-agent detection, as the other two options do. User-agent detection (i.e., detecting what browser or device is requesting a web page) isn’t bad in itself, but it’s not perfect, and if there’s a glitch in the process, users may get served the wrong version of your site. In addition, this saves the search engine spiders from having to crawl your site as several different user-agents — meaning more of your site gets crawled.
Responsive generally loads more quickly in browsers. Because all devices get the same content, there’s no process of request-user agent detection-possible redirection. And anyone who’s ever been hungry and looked for a good restaurant on their smartphone knows, speed counts.

Cons:

It can be a long and intensive process to redesign an existing site. So, if you’ve got a big site, moving to responsive may not be the best choice.
Depending on the layout of your site, it may simply be too difficult to cram the contents onto a mobile screen. Sites like NYTimes.com maintain separate mobile sites because it’s easier to break the content up than it is to put it into a single page.
Navigation elements don’t always resize well; hover-over elements don’t work on a touch-screen at all. So going responsive may mean changing your navigation.
There have been instances where responsive pages with lots of images have loaded more slowly with responsive design. I should stress that this is not the norm, but it has happened.

Should you opt for responsive design, keep in mind that you’ll want to optimize your images (covered previously on our blog) and test your site on various browsers and devices (or use a good user-agent emulator) before pushing it live.

Here is a good example of responsive design, from wwf.org.uk:

Screenshot taken 6/26/14

The mobile version resizes quite nicely:

Screenshot taken 6/26/14

Option 2: Dynamic Serving

Sometimes referred to as user-agent “sniffing,” dynamic serving can be done in two ways and is tricky to implement. In fact, Google outlines some common mistakes made with dynamic serving. What this technique does is detect a visitor’s user-agent (i.e., what device they’re using to view your site) and then redirects at the server level. One way to implement dynamic serving is unidirectional redirecting, in which links to a site default to the desktop site, but mobile devices get redirected from the desktop site to the mobile site.

The second type, bidirectional redirecting, has code on both the desktop and mobile sites, making sure that any visitor, regardless of device, is served the appropriate content. (These pieces of code are sometimes called switchboard tags.) Implementation means putting a rel=”alternate” tag on the desktop, pointing to the mobile site; and, on the mobile site, putting a rel=”canonical” tag pointing to the desktop site.

Pros:

Because the redirection is done at the server level, you only need one URL per page.
Dynamic serving also works well for feature phones. As defined by PCMag.com, a feature phone is a “cellphone that contains a fixed set of functions beyond voice calling and text messaging, but is not as extensive as a smartphone.” For example, feature phones typically can’t download apps, but usually have some web browsing capability. Per Google, the biggest difference is that feature phones can’t process CSS, so they can’t handle responsive design very well. So it’s important to know your audience and what type of mobile devices they’re using.
If you want to have a separate set of keywords specifically for your mobile users, then this option will let you do that since mobile users and desktop users each see distinct HTML. (Search Engine Land has a great article that discusses mobile-specific keywords.)

Cons:

Dynamic redirecting doubles your site maintenance work because it sets up a separate site for mobile, with a separate set of indexed HTML requiring a separate SEO project.
The necessary list of user-agent strings also requires constant maintenance, since new strings have to be added whenever a new mobile device is released.
Lastly, keep in mind that you’ll need to use a “Vary HTTP-User Agents” header if your site serves content dynamically. The header helps content get served properly and helps engines cache it properly. Google has details on how to add this header.

Option 3: A Mobile Site

This option, as the name implies, involves creating a separate domain specifically for mobile users. The most common examples are m.domain.com or mobile.domain.com. It’s a popular option for large retailers; Bridget Randolph points out that “73% of websites ranked in the Quantcast Top 100,000 sites used URL redirects to a mobile specific URL.” Like dynamic serving, this technique involves developing content specifically for visitors using a mobile device; however, a separate mobile site’s URLs are distinct, so there is no server-level redirection.

Pros:

For larger sites with page counts in the hundreds of thousands or millions, implementing responsive design may simply be too much work. A mobile site allows you to tailor your user’s experience, and slowly build up a unique mobile experience.
Like dynamic serving, a mobile site is better for feature phones than responsive design. Depending on your site’s demographic, this may not be a criterion; but for some businesses, it’s an important consideration.

Cons:

Your mobile site won’t benefit from any positive backlink profile that your desktop site has built up (unless you implement bidirectional redirects). So if you’re looking to get your mobile users to find you in organic search, this may be a real setback.
Your mobile site will require some extra SEO work. You’ll have to submit a separate XML Sitemap to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools. Plus, smaller screens mean smaller SERPs, so you may need to edit your Meta tags. Mobile-specific Meta tags should be shorter than those for a desktop site.

Here is an example of a mobile site done right. As mentioned above, NYTimes.com has a full site for desktop visitors:

Screenshot taken 6/26/14

And mobile.nytimes.com for mobile visitors:

Screenshot taken 6/26/14

As you can see, the content has been dramatically reformatted and reduced to make it readable on a mobile device.

In sifting through all of this information to make the right choice for your site, don’t forget to ask yourself how many of your visitors are using mobile devices to access the site. Check your analytics. If the total percentage of mobile traffic is under five percent, then you can probably wait to implement mobile design. For now. If the predictions are correct, then mobile usage will only continue to claim more and more Internet traffic.

Why Press Releases Still Matter to SEOs … and How to Write a Press Release that Entices Media

Why Press Releases Still Matter to SEOs … and How to Write a Press Release that Entices Media was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

In recent years, search engines have devalued links coming from press releases — and while Internet marketers were less than thrilled over the loss of direct SEO benefits, press releases still matter – a lot. Press releases have strong branding value, especially if a journalist turns your press release into an article that will reach the masses and live online.

When a press release gets picked up, it’s not by chance; press releases that get turned into stories are written with the editor and the journalist in mind. They’re relevant, concise, engaging and error-free. I recently wrote about this topic in PR News’ “Media Relations Guidebook.” Read on for an excerpt from “Get Your Press Release Turned into an Article by Crafting an Engaging Message,” and find out how you can best leverage press releases within your Internet marketing campaign — and how to write a press release that entices the media.

Get Your Press Release Turned into an Article by Crafting an Engaging Message

Engaging press releases benefit all parties involved — journalists and editors get clued in on story leads, and brands and businesses are able to get highly valuable media coverage. How valuable is media coverage? According to Starch Research, news articles have “three times more credibility and six times more readership than paid advertising.” For more than a century, press releases have served as a direct line to media professionals and the starting point of many articles.

Editors and journalists are inundated with press releases. PR Newswire and Business Newswire alone send out more than 2,000 press releases a day. If you want your own press release to stand out among the daily flood of press releases journalists and editors receive, it’s essential that you:

Only issue press releases that are truly newsworthy.
Get to the point and be concise.
Leverage statistics, quotes, photos and videos.
Take the format, spelling and grammar as seriously as an editor will.

Whenever you write a press release, cater to the sensibilities of journalists and editors — they’re the ones, after all, with the power to turn your press release into an article. Read on to discover why these four factors make or break a press release for a journalist or editor.

Only Issue Press Releases that are Truly Newsworthy

Any time you issue a press release, consider whether the material is worthy of a news article. Is the information you’re providing in the press release going to be relevant to readers? Is your press release the starting point of a high-quality article? If you can’t answer yes to both of those questions, you shouldn’t be writing a press release. It’s better to send out one press release a month that is substantial than four that are insubstantial.

Journalists and editors don’t have time to read press releases that aren’t worthy of a story. Issuing a press release that is not truly newsworthy is a waste of your time and the media’s time. Moreover, a brand that issues irrelevant press releases will lose clout among the editors and journalists who read it — and they’ll run the risk of being ignored when they issue a press release that is truly relevant.

Newsworthy press release cover items such as:

A grand opening
A new product, service, book or program
An upcoming event
An award or recognition
A donation or volunteer effort
An acquisition
VIP hires or departures

Get to the Point and Be Concise

A press release should be between 400 to 600 words and the first line should get to the point  straight away. As a journalist would say, don’t bury the lead — media professionals want to know why they’re reading this, immediately — the reason for the press release should be clear in the first sentence. Dispose of any fluff — there’s nothing that will turn a journalist or editor off more quickly. Resist the temptation to engage in hyperbole.

Let’s say the CEO of an investment company just published a new book and the company is issuing a press release. Here’s an example of press release that a journalist is not going to finish reading, let alone turn into a story:

Are you ready for the book that is going to change your life and revolutionize the way you invest? It’s finally here! Throw every other investment book away and get ready to make money hand over fist.

A strong press release should open with facts and get right to the point. Here’s an example of that same press release, stripped of jargon and focused on the facts:

Kinsey Group CEO Grace Kinsey shares her top investment tips and insights — based on more than two decades of experience, her latest book ‘Financial Freedom 101′ will be released by McRiley House next week.

In this second version of the press release, needless hype is disposed of and, in the first sentence, the reader understands exactly why this press release is coming across his or her desk. With a lead like this, you’ll grab an editor’s attention and possibly get your press release turned into a story.

Leverage Statistics, Quotes, Photos and Videos

When journalists write a news story, it’s laden with statistics, quotes and usually includes an image. Journalists include statistics, quotes and photos to engage their readers; in the same way, press releases that include statistics, quotes and photos will engage the journalist.

Mickie Kennedy, the founder and president of eReleases agrees — in the “Beginner’s Guide to Writing Powerful Press Releases,” he advises brands to use statistics, noting that “statistics are an easy way to show the consequence or weight off something, and journalists often cite them to convey the importance of information.”

Quotes from VIPs are also a strong addition to a press release, and often get pulled straight from the release and into the journalist’s article. Whenever possible, include a quote from the C-suite.

Press releases should always include a graphic element. In “Social PR Secrets,” The Buyer Group CEO and award-winning digital strategist Lisa Buyer asserts that embedding images images in press releases increases engagement by approximately 18 percent and linking to videos within press releases increases engagement by 16 percent. It’s clearly in a brand’s best interest to include a photo or video in their press releases.

Take the Format, Spelling and Grammar as Seriously as an Editor Will

Believe it or not, some press releases are issued with spelling and grammatical errors. This is unacceptable — a press releases with errors of this sort will not be taken seriously, and whoever issued it will lose credibility. Triple check your press release for spelling, grammar and formatting. Furthermore, make sure the press release is written in a third-person, objective and adheres to proper press release structure, including a headline, dateline, media contact and boilerplate — and bonus points for anyone who writes the press release in Associated Press (AP) style.

When you write a press release, keep the concerns of your audience — editors and journalists — at the forefront of your mind. Give your press release a fighting chance to get turned into a story by keeping them relevant, concise, engaging and error-free. These are the kinds of press releases that will grab the attention (and earn the respect) of the media.

Still have questions about how to write a press release? Share them in the comments!

Discover What REAL SEO Clients Have to Say About Bruce Clay, Inc.

Discover What REAL SEO Clients Have to Say About Bruce Clay, Inc. was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Ever wondered what it’s like to work with Bruce Clay, Inc.? We offer Internet marketing services including SEO, PPC, content marketing, web design, and social media marketing. Chances are you’ve read our blog, seen Bruce Clay at conferences or attended one of the SEOToolSet Training sessions … and now you’re thinking of hiring BCI.

Contracting an SEO firm is a major commitment — and even with an award-winning Internet marketing firm that’s been around since 1996, hearing what actual clients say about their experience with BCI is invaluable.

SourcingLine, an independent research firm based in Washington, D.C., recently interviewed four BCI clients as it prepared to release a series of reports ranking digital marketing agencies in major cities (SourcingLine currently ranks BCI as the No. 1 digital marketing agency in Los Angeles and the country).

Read what the following clients had to say in completely independent interviews regarding their experience working with BCI:

The Golf Warehouse
Soundproof Cow
Sylvan Learning
Netpicks

The Golf Warehouse: ‘It’s All About Web Architecture, Rather Than Performing for a Particular Term’

The Golf Warehouse, a sporting goods retailer, rated BCI:

Quality of Work: 5/5
Ability to Meet Deadlines: 5/5
Value for Money Spent: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

The Golf Warehouse approached BCI after attending a few SEOToolSet Training sessions. With a goal of improving organic search rankings, BCI played a consultative role on SEO matters including site architecture, page load times and overall improvement. The result? A 50 percent increase in traffic, which has doubled since last year.

“Everything that they tell you to do is grounded in that general approach to SEO site-wide rather than one project’s web architecture,” said Tom Murray, the content development manager for The Golf Warehouse.

Read the the full review here.

Soundproof Cow: ‘We Are Definitely Satisfied. They Are Extremely Knowledgeable and Easy to Work With’

Soundproof Cow, a company specializing in high-end soundproofing equipment, rated BCI:

Quality of Work: 5/5
Ability to Meet Deadlines: 5/5
Value for Money Spent: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Soundproof Cow started working with BCI after meeting Bruce Clay at an SMX event last year. The goal was to corner the soundproofing market with a newly-branded website optimized to increase web traffic, call-in volume and website sales. BCI was hired by the soundproofing company for monthly SEO consulting and pay-per-click management. After working with BCI for almost a year, Soundproof Cow reported significant increases in keyword ranks and a 10 to 35 percent increase in traffic volume and revenue. The biggest impact was the decreased cost of acquisition by almost $100 per click.

“We are definitely satisfied. The way that BCI and all of their employees operate is extremely professional, they are extremely knowledgeable and easy to work with. We signed with them for another year,” says Michael Unger, Soundproof Cow’s director of IT and marketing.

“Soundproof Cow was very diligent about implementing everything we suggested, which played a huge role in their success,” said client liaison Justin Moreau. “The key to a great working agency-client relationship lies in trust and open communication, which was present from day one with Soundproof Cow.”

Read the full review here.

Sylvan Learning: ‘They Over-Delivered in Almost Everything’

Sylvan Learning, a national tutoring company, rated BCI:

Quality of Work: 5/5
Ability to Meet Deadlines: 5/5
Value for Money Spent: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Sylvan Learning reached out to BCI after seeing Bruce Clay at a conference. The tutoring company needed to establish the groundwork for a new website being designed by a separate agency without a strong foothold in SEO-friendly web development. The search engine optimization agency was brought onboard to work with the third-party agency to oversee development of the site while keeping SEO in mind.

Sylvan’s digital marketing manager Matt Corasanti noted that the BCI team was “very clear in setting expectations.”

Since working with BCI, Sylvan Learning reported an increase in valuable traffic.

“Within weeks, we were able to show up on first page ranks on 18 new strategic keywords. That is a big task, given how competitive our industry is,” said Sylvan’s senior director for digital marketing Ya-Yung Cheng. “Bruce Clay was on the entire time. There wasn’t anything I would change in their service, deliverables, or commitment to us. If anything, they over-delivered in almost everything. They were so flexible in working with various players: the internal tech team and outsourced tech teams. They actually communicated and delivered meeting notes with every detail, so we and our technical teams were clear on what to develop.”

Read the full review here.

Netpicks: ‘I’m Very Satisfied. I Haven’t Worked With an SEO Firm This Structured and Organized’

Netpicks, a trading education company for active investors, rated BCI:

Quality of Work: 5/5
Ability to Meet Deadlines: 5/5
Value for Money Spent: 4/5
Overall: 5/5

BCI helped Netpicks develop an SEO strategy that included reorganizing the website for improved visibility and removing search engine penalties that was impeding their success in search.

“Some of the cleanup work and getting fresh eyes has helped quite a bit and probably improved the user interface,” said Netpicks founder Mark Soberman. “You have to be patient, but once you are, it pays off. I haven’t worked with an SEO firm that’s been this structured and organized. That was always the downfall for the others.”

The CEO reported a 25 to 40 percent increase in organic traffic and the reappearance in SERPs for key terms that had dropped off the radar previously.

“Netpicks has a great team that works well with us to accomplish tasks and meet their deadlines,” said BCI’s client liaison Stacey Bullington.

Read the full review here.

Want to learn more about working Bruce Clay, Inc.? Contact us today to learn how we can help you reach your Internet marketing goals.

SEO Questions Answered in Real Time at the Search + Social Panel

SEO Questions Answered in Real Time at the Search + Social Panel was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Tonight Bruce Clay joins Bing’s Duane Forrester, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub and Message Medium’s Maisha Walker for an evening of audience-driven Q & A in Chicago at Search + Social: The Future of Your Business Online (an interactive event powered by Inc. and Bing). Attendees will ask these Internet marketing leaders anything and everything pertaining to search engine optimization, content strategy and social media marketing.

Bruce Clay (center) answers questions during the Search + Social Q & A session in Nashville with Bing’s Duane Forrester and Message Medium’s Maisha Walker.

Last month the Search + Social panel kicked off at Inc. Magazine’s three-day Grow Your Own Business Conference in Nashville. The Search + Social panel was such a hit that when the session broke for lunch, a third of the audience stayed in their seats, hands raised and pens poised for more answers — the Q & A continued for an hour and a half past the session’s end!

Today’s Search + Social session is sold-out with all 400 seats reserved, but there are still opportunities to attend more Search + Social events as the panel travels to major cities throughout the summer:

Atlanta on July 10


Boston on July 31


Houston on August 14

All the events are free, but there is a limit to attendees — register to reserve your seat.

Search + Social Hot Topics

In Nashville, the audience was filled with business owners and webmasters. They asked the panel questions including:

How do you select keywords?
Do links still matter?
How do you deal with penalties?
How do you do SEO on brand new website?
Does Google+ help SEO?
What should I be doing in terms of local SEO?
How do I handle a negative review online?
How do I get ranked as an e-commerce site when my competition is Amazon?
Does a blog help my SEO efforts?

The panel is armed with years of hands-on experience and hundreds of presentations, and all the speakers as industry leaders committed to knowledge transfer and education. In Nashville, the panelists fielded the questions deftly, just as they will today in Chicago and in the coming months as the Search + Social roadshow travels to Atlanta, Boston and Houston.

Take advantage of the panelists’ expertise by attending the next Search + Social event near you and get the opportunity to ask Clay, Forrester, Weintraub and Walker the SEO, social media and content marketing questions you’ve had on your mind. With their insights, you can better understand and tackle critical Internet marketing issues. And best of all — it’s free!

Special Report from SMX Advanced 2014

Special Report from SMX Advanced 2014 was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Still reeling from last week’s SMX Advanced? With dozens of sessions focusing on advanced SEO, PPC and SMM tactics, it was Christmas come early for Internet marketers attending the sold-out conference. With so much critical information coming out of the conference, we sent liveblogger Jayme Westervelt to cover key SEO, social media and content marketing sessions, including:

The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors
25 Social Media Ideas for the Advanced Search Marketer
Enhancing Search Results w/Structured Data & Markup
What Advanced SEOs Should Be Doing About Mobile
You & A with Matt Cutts
Technically Speaking: Advanced Technical SEO Issues
Executing a Flawless Content Marketing Strategy
Ask the SEOs

You can click above to go directly to each liveblog, or you can check out the Special Report from SMX Advanced that we released yesterday, which shares takeaways and highlights from each of these sessions.

SMX Advanced 2014 Highlights

Some of the top highlights include the Matt Cutts You & A, where Cutts fielded questions on Author Rank, link removal and his favorite webmaster tools. He also confirmed an algorithm update that was neither Panda nor Penguin and announced Google is trying to make improvements to the reconsideration request process.

In Ask the SEOs, Greg Boser, Rae Hoffman, Jeff Preston, Marshall Simmonds and Ellen White talked about the biggest issues in search engine marketing, including the state of PageRank sculpting, the impact of global top-level domains, and Penguin penalties.

25 Social Media Ideas for the Advanced Search Marketer was another key session with Matt Siltala, Lisa Williams, Mark Traphagen and Michael King. Williams talked about using social media to make connections through storytelling while King focused on the importance of research for every Internet marketing campaign — and how to use that research to inform your marketing on all fronts. Siltala took a deep dive into the role of visual content, and Traphagen taught SEOs how to build brand authority using Author Rank.

Our SEO Newsletter subscribers got the Special Report from SMX Advanced sent directly to their inbox. If you’d like SEO conference coverage like this — plus our monthly newsletter, which is chock-full of industry news and tactical Internet marketing articles –  subscribe here.

SMX Liveblog: Ask the SEOs

SMX Liveblog: Ask the SEOs was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Alright everyone, it’s the last session of the conference – this marathon is almost over for my tired fingers.  They’ve saved one of the best for last – it’s time for Ask the SEOs. At the speaker table are SEO powerhouses including:

Greg Boser, Independent, Consultant (@GregBoser)
Rae Hoffman, CEO, PushFire (@sugarrae)
Jeff Preston, Senior Manager, SEO, Disney Interactive (@jeffreypreston)
Marshall Simmonds, Founder and CEO, Define Media Group, Inc. (@mdsimmonds)
Ellen White, SEO Director, Ford Motor Company

Search Engine Land Editor Danny Sullivan is moderating … here we go.

Can you share any stories of a recent win?

Ellen talks about a client who didn’t get SEO and she took the journey to explain it to him and get him to buy in. By making simple changes to a site like taking images and turning them into heading tags they saw large improvements in the SEO.

Do you think internal linking is still effective? Is PR sculpting dead?

Greg says he doesn’t think it’s dead. When you “move the juice” the right way you can be rewarded and he feels it’s still hugely important.

Marshall feels that information architecture is still really important. PR is supposed to emulate how a user uses your site. Moving content is ok but it can be difficult and time consuming.

Rae suggests that when redoing URLs, make sure you check all your internal links and update them to the new URLs – don’t rely on 301 redirects to capture those. You can use a little bit of juice by not updating them.

Marshall throws in that you also need to make sure you are updating the XML sitemap when you move content.

Will new global tld impact search?

Greg thinks those things are stupid LOL. (Thank you, I share that sentiment). Most of the panel does not feel that the new tlds such as pizza.pizza like Danny suggested, will impact search much. Danny thinks it just a sales game for domain brokers. We’ve seen this all before with other types of tlds – no reason to believe that these new ones will be any different.

Can you share your experiences on how to get somebody out of a Penguin penalty?

Rae says there are several things that are difficult things to make a client understand. One being that Google may or may not update Penguin in the next five years … it’s already been nine months. Even if you do the work you won’t see the rewards until they do update. Another is explaining to folks that there will be a dip in rankings because you’ll be removing links that may or may not have helped you rank well. Greg adds that you have to prepare the client for some really tedious rewardless work. They went out and bought the links which is sometimes a long process, but clients don’t understand that sometimes it takes even longer to get the links removed.

Greg warns about the ‘big one’ coming in regards to a Penguin update. He feels its not far around the corner and that it’ll be pretty devastating to a lot of sites. Rae adds that if you’re paranoid like her who wears the tinfoil hat, that you have to realize people have been feeding Google list after list of bad crappy sites so the next Penguin will surely cast a wide net.

When do you decide when to just give up in a Penguin penalty situation?

Greg talks about how in the first meeting he’ll evaluate the situation to decide how bad it is. Often times companies have done a lot of bad stuff including crappy content so in order to get out of the mess it means changing the overall business practice on the web and that is often times harder for the client.

Tips that you would recommend for a multi-brand ecommerce site that features its sister brand side by side?

The discussion on the panel turns to whether you should have multiple sites or put all the assets into one site.  Marshall points out that there are 10 blue links in the SERPs…having multiple sites can still be beneficial. Greg suggests considering merging the sites all into the one domain that has the age and domain authority that’s higher than the other domains. It really depends on the situation though. Marshall says there is a point to consolidating, while there can also be a case made for staying separate.

How do you discover and develop different SEO tests? How do you measure the success and how often do you test?

Greg makes a comment about how this is where ‘black’ comes in handy because they did a lot of ‘testing’ to see what was working. Greg has always been one who loves to test the boundaries and rules so he does tests that would make other folks faint such as removing all title tags to see if it negatively impacts the listings.  I’m pretty sure that’s not the type of tests the person was looking for LOL.

Rae recommends that people put up multiple dummy sites that you can run very specific tests on without the risk of hurting a client’s site.

Aside from all this the panel has said that you can test things like CTR based on changing Title or Description tags. Change the tags, run the test, compare results to the baseline data and make a decision.  Test different tags that are available and recommended and compare the results against your baseline. Greg says a common problem is making sure you don’t test too many things at the same time in order to get the data you need.

Jeff recommends that any test you decide to run, if you are managing multiple sites, start small before deploying out across all sites or whole large sites.

Ellen recommends testing for local search because it’s easy to do.

Is there a tool to test responsive design?

Greg says that responsive isn’t always the best way to do things and that people need to be aware that responsive sometimes kills the user experience once it’s reduced to the smallest screen size. Bloated code is definitely one of the biggest issues with responsive design.

Marshall adds that there are a few mobile testing sites, and he names Cindy Krum’s MobileMoxie in particular.

Panda 4.o – what tactics were targeted?

Greg says ‘high volume crap’. He says it’s not about the page, but it’s about the site. If you have 10,000 pages but a majority of your traffic is going to only 500 pages that means you’re feeding a lot of crap to the search engines that people aren’t finding useful.

Marshall loved 4.0. He says Panda forced companies to pay more attention to search again. It refocused everyone back to putting out good content. He says you can resurrect the health of a site that may have previously been hit by Panda just by fixing the problem.

What is the best way to align social with SEO?

Marshall says that what’s important is that social pays attention to search and search pays attention to social. They share the same types of signals. This means there are opportunities for sites to capitalize on. It’s important to coordinate the two teams in order to really win.

Greg says it’s a great collaborating signal. He says the more effective your social is the more the ripple effect will positively impact your search and traffic.

Marshall also adds that there is an opportunity to take a piece of content that isn’t necessarily seeing the love and figure out how to resurrect it and get it the social love it needs.

Do you believe it is possible to get the links you need simply by creating great content?

Greg says ‘NO! the build it and they will come myth doesn’t work.” Simply putting great content on your site and pushing it out on social accounts that no one knows about will not result in great rankings. You’ve got to leverage the audience of someone else to help get your foot in the door and start those links coming in.

Rae says everything you do has to be done with a great game plan and very strategically. Put time into building social networks so you can push your great content out and see results. Great content is required to have a good website but if no one knows about it it’s worthless.

Can you share some of your favorite enterprise level tools?

Nutch is an open source crawler that Marshall highly recommends. Ellen suggests Moz’s site crawler and Xenu. Greg mentions Deep Crawl out of the UK. Screaming Frog is mentioned but it has it’s limitations. Screaming Frog isn’t enterprise level but it gives you a ton of great information that you can use in multiple different ways.

Is rel=canonical really important across a network or across domains important?

Yes, you can use it without seeing any negative effects.

Suggestions for SEO and PPC integration?

Greg says you should always use PPC data because you can match up organic content to certain phrases to get those quick wins. Ellen says that they use integration for underperforming terms on the SEO to go to PPC and have them beef up the ads in that area or vice versa.  Rae recommends making sure your PPC landing pages non-indexable in order to prevent bad content or duplicate content getting indexed.

Thoughts on link sabotage?

Greg says there is a whole side industry doing this and it’s definitely on the rise. That’s why it’s important to be proactive and watching those links to make sure you spot problems early. He does not recommend link sabotage as a tactic that anyone should employ. Marshall suggests using Link Detox regularly (LinkResearchTools.com). You do have to manually check the links that Link Detox reports and categorizes. I’ve seen several mis-categorized – so take that data with a grain of salt. Just because they report it’s Toxic doesn’t mean it really is.

That’s it for this conference folks. Hope you were able to glean a nugget or two from the posts!