Category: Search Engine Marketing

Social Media Counts Towards SEO

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The rapid growth in popularity of social media has caught the attention of the major search engines like Google and Bing. In October 2009, Google Social Search was launched, which delivers results for the terms you searched from within your online social circle. By October, Bing implemented a new feature that delivers ‘Liked by Your Friends’ in Facebook information along with the search results. Many website owners interested in achieving page one rankings in the major search engines for the terms important to them wondered if their popularity on the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others could or would influence their rankings.

Well as it turns out, it does to some degree. In a recent interview with search engine guru Danny Sullivan, quoted here at seomoz.org, a Bing representative stated the search engine does “look at the Social Authority of a user.

Tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.” Google uses what it terms ‘Author Authority’ for both organic and news rankings. Google also looks to see how many people share a news article, much the same way Twitter ranks the top re-tweeted Tweets and Tweet topics. Google’s Author Authority and Bing’s Social Authority rank content according to their proprietary ‘authority’ scores. Google points out, however, that Author Authority differs from and is separate from PageRank, which impacts where on the search results pages a web page may be listed.

I highly recommend you read the post at seomoz.org for the ideas the author presents. Concerning search engine optimizing the social media content you produce, as always you want to include the keywords around which you are building your authority. You’ll want to keep your titles brief, containing only one or two keywords, so that the search engines can easily find your content.

Build your Followers by providing important content that is interesting to them. Reach out to new Followers both online and offline. Build a community among other “authoritative authors” who also write about the same subjects as you. And by all means, keep your social media sites, as well as your website, updated regularly with fresh, relevant and interesting content that makes readers want to share it with others.

Business Development Tip to Optimize for Google Preview – It may be time for a website facelift

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Google’s new Instant Preview feature allows users to click on a magnifying glass icon to get a screen shot of the web page associated with the search result link being displayed. With instant access to the ‘look’ of a website page, Google’s new browser feature has big implications for business website owners.

People, in general, are highly influenced by the way something looks. During a search, the first thing they will look for on the ‘instant preview’ is the item or information they were searching for. Additionally, they will be evaluating whether or not they want to interact with the page. If anything about the way it looks is unappealing, they will not even click through.
The history of culture and societies, never mind the brief history of the internet, tells us that people pass judgment based on the way a person, place or thing looks. Your website isn’t excluded here. That brief snapshot, in that split second,  now represents your entire business!

Here’s a good test to start with to let you know if your web pages need improvement. Have  someone you trust with a critical eye, evaluate your ‘instant previews’ against others on the Google Results page for:
1) First impression
2) Fulfilling expectations (can they see what you said you offer?)
3) Professionalism
5) Experience (does it look pleasurable and inviting?)
With Google’s ‘instant preview,’ first impressions count more than ever before.

Think about it.  If you have done a good enough job to even be found in Google within ranking results your buyers are looking, what a shame it would be to not get a click-through to your site based on the fact that you did not put your best foot forward.  If you’re ranking you have the content, DO NOT let leads / sales slip through your fingers because of poor design!

Ranking in Google: Understanding What Google Expects

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Remember “Mayday”, the day a few months ago when Google released the results of algorithm changes that affect the way web page listings would be ranked for ‘long tail’ searches (phrases with 3 words or more)?

One of the most critical explanations Google provided about the change was actually quite simple and can be applied to any of the more than 400 adjustments to the algorithm the company makes throughout a given year.

Google’s Matt Cutts explains that the change is a way of “making sure things look good from a quality perspective.”

That’s it.

This is the explanation that should be your guiding principle behind the development, expansion and search engine optimization of each page of your website.  In their ‘Ranking in Google’ webmaster tutorial video on Youtube, Google states that among the many ranking factors ‘relevance’ and ‘importance’ are the two principle valuations.

To ensure the highest quality, Google aims to provide ‘relevant’ results that match the “query and interest of the user.” There are systems in place to help them achieve this including a degree of ‘personalization’ where the result is “customized to the individual’s search history.” Additionally, a degree of “importance” is attached to the web page through a system that evaluates the “quantity and quality of pages that link to it.” One of the more than 200 components of this valuation is something called “PageRank™”, which is a type of link analysis that determines the perceived value of a web page by the number and quality of “inbound links” from relevant, high quality sources that point to it.

Google recommends that the best way to increase your page’s PageRank™ “is to create good content, participate thoughtfully in relevant communities online and offline, and from this garner links naturally.” It is not acceptable to buy or sell pages with a high PageRank™. This includes the buying or selling of advertising where “you’ll want to make sure those links don’t pass PageRank by using the ‘no follow’ attribute.”

Google warns that that the web is changing at a frantic pace and that “constant content and link updates around the web” can affect your site’s presence in Google. It also cautions that web pages that violate the Google Webmaster Guidelines will “fall to a lower ranking.” The recommendation is to “carefully evaluate your site identifying and fixing any issues.”

For long term results, Google advises the following:

  • Think like your users
  • Provide content designed for users not search engines (no cloaking – sending different content to Googlebot than you are sending to users)
  • Consider how your users are likely to search for this content (use the language they use to search)
  • Don’t disappoint your users as they engage with content and links on your site (fulfill their expectations)
  • Regularly verify that all links on your site are still pointing to relevant resources that reflect well on you and your organization

To improve your ranking in Google you must first be honest with yourself about what is and isn’t working. Don’t confuse a sharp looking site with one that works to convert your target audience groups in addition to attracting them by ranking well in Google. Remember what Cutts said: “make sure things look good from a quality perspective.”

From Google’s standpoint, quality is measured by ‘relevance’ and ‘importance’. You are charged with proving that your web pages provide a frequented and valued resource to users whose search queries include your target keywords and phrases.

Better Conversion with Targeted Landing Page

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The success of your website promotion and marketing initiatives is dependent upon your goals and your carefully planned strategy.

An element of campaign success often overlooked is the landing page your targeted respondents will arrive at by following the link in your ad. You need to ask yourself where you want them to go and what will best address their needs.

Would it be best to send them to the home page of your corporate website? To a specific internal page of your website? Or to a highly focused, targeted landing page?

The home page of your website is typically designed as a general introduction to all that you offer. It functions as your beautiful lobby where visitors learn more about reaching the department that interests them. Hopefully you have presented your content to welcome and guide your different audience groups effectively; however, it is still a general introduction that may not be addressing the specific concern raised in your latest targeted email, AdWords or banner ad campaign.

An internal page of your website may contain the specific product or service information promised in your ad but does it speak directly to respondents in the same way that compelled them to click your ad’s link in the first place? Probably not.

It most likely provides a generic description of the product or service or addresses a typical need different from the one in your ad.

A targeted landing page offers you the ability to control, track and report on each element of your campaign. You are able to present a marketing message that takes advantage of information you already know as well as the information you will learn from the campaign over time.

For example, let’s say you are selling energy drinks. Currently you are targeting two user groups: athletes and college students. You strategically place your ads on various content sites specifically geared to the different target groups: maybe healthy living and exercise sites for the athletes and popular video and gaming sites for the college students.

You know that athletes are interested in physical endurance and performance while college students are interested in mental endurance and performance. In order to specifically address the differing needs and interests of the two groups, a targeted landing page is developed to receive each one separately. Highly focused content is developed for each of the landing pages that clearly confirms to the user the reason why he responded to the ad and clicked on the link in the first place. The landing page speaks directly to the specific pain identified in your ad that prompted the user to respond.

The content developed also takes into consideration the frame of mind of the person clicking on the link. The college student, for example, who wants to overcome his tiredness and do well on his exams, and not give up any time he spends playing games :), clicks on the ad for the energy drink that promises the solution. He arrives at a landing page that acknowledges how he feels, accepts his need to engage in these targeted activities, and demonstrates how the energy drink is the solution to his pain. As long as the offer is a good one and the “Call to Action” to take advantage of it is clear and easy to follow, this college student is most likely to convert because the message fulfilled his need.

Here are some questions to consider:

  • Where is your respondent coming from? Health journal, popular video site, etc…
  • What type of content was around him? Tips on healthy eating and exercise, information on performance enhancement supplements/vitamins, social networking, online video gaming, etc…
  • What type of reader is he – interests, what motivates him to take action? Solution to enhance physical endurance, solution to enhance wakefulness or mental endurance, etc….

Use what you know now about your anticipated respondents, and what you learn throughout your campaign, to craft a targeted landing page that speaks directly to a specific group about why they clicked your link in the first place.

Targeted landing pages also allow you to conduct A/B testing to learn which ad creative and CTA’s (calls to action) are most effective. Although not impossible, it is more difficult to conduct this type of comparative testing on the home page or internal pages of your website, particularly where there are CTA’s not specifically related to your ad.

Another great benefit of targeted landing pages is the ability to track both user interaction and conversion using tools like Google Analytics. By tracking results on targeted landing pages (especially by setting up Goals in Google Analytics) the data you gather is specific to your campaign and not diluted in any way by visitor behavior outside of your campaign. This concentrated data can be used to make adjustments to improve your overall results and increase your ‘return on advertising spend’ (ROAS).

I will talk more about the benefits of Google Analytics in future posts.

SEO for Google Images Search for Added Visibility

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With Google’s recent updates to Google Images, it just makes good sense to SEO your website’s images, particularly if they are an asset to your selling toolkit. Having indexed more than 10 billion images, Google’s densely populated tool attracts users who are “learning and even shopping.”

Searchers who have a very specific need may use Google Images to identify or learn more about what they want while at the same time consider possible solutions. For example, a home owner with a mold problem wants to identify the mold she has, learn more about it, and discover what can be done to get rid of it and keep it from coming back. Using Google Images, she would search ‘black mold on walls.’ Providing eighteen results per page, Google displays images related to the search. When the user clicks on an image, a new screen opens that displays the image and caption on top and the web page where the image resides below.

Ways in Which Google Identifies Images

The context in which the image resides on the web page carries the most amount of weight for image identification. Google’s indexing algorithm is predominantly concerned with the body copy or textual information on the page that surrounds the image or that the image supports. In other words, identification and relevance both play a factor in indexing and ranking. Think of Google’s overriding objective: to provide end-users with information relevant to their query. The assumption is that people search images as a stepping-stone to the more detailed information they are after. They don’t just wnt to see the picture. They want to learn something about it.

What You Can Do

Search engine optimization of your images ensures two very important things:

1) images are clearly identified and contextually placed on your web pages to offer you the greatest support for your sales and marketing or informational message; and

2) Google Search can easily identify them and their contextual relevance, making them easy to index and rank within the Google Image search results pages.

Strategically placing images on your web pages and ensuring they are surrounded by carefully crafted body copy offers you an additional opportunity to increase your visibility online and be discovered by potential buyers, members, or supporters who are actively looking for what it is you offer.

Search engine optimization of your images is another aspect of the optimization process that is designed to help you get discovered by your target audience groups and identify your highly focused content as relevant to their needs.