The bucket list is all the things you want to do before you die. I argue that every website needs a bucket list, too. This list prioritizes all the things that need to happen before the site becomes so irrelevant it “dies” in the search results.

There is a lot I could say here. To keep it short and sweet, though, I have categorized the SEO “bucket list” into three main buckets:

1. Get a strong foundation 
2. Create an SEO-friendly architecture
3. Write quality content 
4. FAQ: How can SEO Siloing improve my website’s subject and website authority?

1. Get a Strong Foundation

Search engines want to rank websites that provide a good user experience. That means: Get the technical stuff right.

This includes:

• An SEO-friendly content management system
• SEO-friendly web design (HTML Living Standard code and W3C compliance, for instance)
• A mobile-friendly website
• A fast website
• A modern design
• User-friendly webpages
• Technical SEO best practices

This list may seem small, but getting everything right in each of those bullet points is a huge undertaking. When you do get it right, though, your site can better compete in the search results.

2. Create an SEO-Friendly Architecture

How you organize the content on a website matters to both search engines and website visitors. This includes the navigation and internal linking of webpages.

SEO-friendly site architecture is created through SEO siloing. Siloing creates content categories/directories on a site based on the keywords you’ve selected through keyword research.

This SEO strategy helps to build subject and website authority and clearly tells the search engines what the content is about. In other words: It can make your website more relevant for a search.

For more on this, read:

• SEO Siloing: What, Why, How
• 5 Times When SEO Siloing Can Make or Break Your Rankings

3. Write Quality Content

If you haven’t seen Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, then it’s time to do some reading on how important it is that you get the “quality content” piece right.

Of course, those guidelines are not the end all be all, but they are useful to understand how Google thinks about quality. Ultimately, you have to decide what is quality content for your website, and Google agrees.

Giving your website visitors useful information written by experts on the matter is the goal. How you go about doing that is up to you.

In general, though, you will need things like:

• A webpage with a clear purpose that delivers on that purpose.
• Content that is created with a good amount of expertise on the subject matter.
• Information that is well-written and useful.
• An optimized webpage in keeping with SEO best practices.

Content is one of the most important ranking factors, and quality content can often trump other ranking signals all else equal.

For more on this, read:

• What Makes a Webpage Quality?
• The Complete Guide to the Basics of Google’s E-E-A-T
• What Are Meta Tags?
• The Always-Up-to-Date SEO Checklist

This SEO bucket list helps ensure that your website is relevant for search queries and useful to your target audience. Don’t wait until your website dies before you prioritize doing all the important things that will keep your business alive online.

FAQ: How can SEO siloing improve my website’s subject and website authority?

SEO siloing is a powerful website structuring technique that significantly influences how search engines perceive and rank your website. By organizing your content into distinct categories or “silos” based on relevant keywords, you can create a logical and hierarchical structure that enhances your website’s subject relevance and authority.

When implementing SEO siloing, start by conducting comprehensive keyword research to identify primary topics related to your website’s niche. Group these keywords into relevant clusters, each representing a specific content category. For example, if you own a gardening website, you might have silos for “Vegetable Gardening,” “Flower Gardening,” and “Gardening Tools.”

Within each silo, create in-depth and valuable content that covers various aspects of the topic. Ensure that the content is interlinked through contextual internal links, guiding visitors and search engine crawlers to related articles within the same silo. This internal linking strategy reinforces the subject relevance and authority of each silo.

It is vital to keep each silo focused on its primary topic without mixing unrelated content. By doing so, you enhance the clarity and expertise of your website, establishing yourself as a trustworthy resource within your niche. Search engines recognize the organization and topical focus which can lead to improved rankings for your targeted keywords.

Another benefit of siloing is that it allows you to demonstrate expertise on specific subjects. When your content consistently delves deep into a particular topic, it signals to search engines that your website is a valuable and authoritative source on that subject. This can lead to higher rankings for related search queries and increased organic traffic.

Siloing enhances user experience by making it easier for visitors to navigate your website. The logical organization and clear interlinking guide users to relevant information, reducing bounce rates and increasing engagement. This positive user experience signals search engines that your website provides valuable content, contributing to improved rankings.

To make the most of siloing, regularly update and expand the content within each silo. As your website’s authority on specific subjects grows, you can explore broader or more specialized topics, further solidifying your website’s position as a go-to resource in your industry.

SEO Bucket List: How To Effectively SEO Silo Your Site

1. Perform comprehensive keyword research to identify primary topics and keywords related to your website’s niche.
2. Group similar keywords into content categories or silos, each representing a specific subject area.
3. Create high-quality and valuable content within each silo, covering various aspects of the topic.
4. Ensure contextual internal linking between articles within the same silo to reinforce subject relevance and authority.
5. Keep each silo focused on its primary topic and avoid mixing unrelated content to maintain clarity and expertise.
6. Regularly update and expand the content within each silo to demonstrate ongoing expertise and relevance.
7. Implement SEO best practices, including proper URL structures, meta tags and optimized headings within each silo.
8. Monitor and analyze the performance of each silo using web analytics tools to identify areas for improvement.
9. Engage in off-page SEO activities such as building quality backlinks and guest posting to further boost website authority.
10. Conduct competitor analysis to identify gaps and opportunities within your niche and adjust your siloing strategy accordingly.
11. Optimize website speed and performance to enhance user experience and reduce bounce rates.
12. Use responsive web design to ensure an optimal user experience across devices.
13. Audit your website regularly for broken links, duplicate content and any technical issues that could impede its SEO performance.
14. Monitor search engine algorithm updates and adjust your siloing strategy accordingly to stay competitive.
15. Pay attention to topics relevant to your audience and modify your content strategy using data-driven insights.
16. Utilize user-generated content like testimonials and reviews to establish trust among your target market.
17. Foster a community around your website by engaging with your audience through comments and discussions.
18. Stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and industry developments to maintain a competitive edge in your niche.

The post The SEO Bucket List: 3 Things To Do Before Your Site Dies appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

And I hope that’s what I’ve done for you, dear readers. Over the years, I’ve given my all reporting on search marketing issues (almost 300 posts for the blog!) because the Bruce Clay brand has been and always will be synonymous with education. It’s admirable that this company has contributed to its community the way it has for more than 17 years now.

And I’ve enjoyed being a part of it. Helping businesses solve problems and participating in the idea-exchange that’s amazingly a “standard” practice within the search industry, well it’s really something special.

I struggled with the idea of writing this post. I didn’t want it to come off as “self-important.” I mean, people leave companies all the time, quietly. But then the other part of me wanted to put the community first, which is way more important than anything I’m feeling personally.

So I talked it over and Virginia had a great idea; she suggested I center the post on the issue – when part of your brand’s voice moves on, what then? I thought that was a fantastic idea.

So for my last blog post as the content and media manager for Bruce Clay, Inc., I thought we’d explore some of the things that create and preserve a brand’s identity over time, even as communication teams inevitably change.

Remember, your brand is what you stand for …

People come and go, but brands have staying power. While you might have a public-facing team that’s known as the “voice” of the company, it’s what the company stands for that will remain no matter who’s in the position of communicating it.

If you’re not sure what your brand stands for. Well, that’s where you need to start. Check out this post on discovering your brand and how to communicate it. The exercises in there can help you set the standards for how you deal with your community on all fronts.

The Bruce Clay brand is synonymous with knowledge transfer – to both clients and the community. It’s because of this that we, as a communications team, are able to spend so much time and resources on things like our blog and newsletter – because the company believes in the value of that.

It’s also worth mentioning the level of creative freedom this company gives to its staff — because it believes in our ideas. These sorts of attributes together make up a brand, and those attributes become apparent in a company’s daily behavior.

Remember, your brand is not just what you say, it’s what you do.

… So your brand’s identity should not be “hearsay”

Do you have your brand identity documented and the communications procedures that surround it? If not, how do you expect to preserve the things that are important to your company over time?

Positions switch hands, and things as important as your brand’s communications process should not be “hearsay,” passed from one person to another verbally. Anyone in a position of responsibility should always document the things that are integral to keeping a company running smoothly.

Sure, the next person may modify them as new developments occur, but company communication guidelines should be a living, historical document that is updated at least yearly if not quarterly – and especially prior to a role switching hands.

To help protect branding and communications consistency over time, consider creating guidelines for things like:

• Your department’s mission.
• A style guide with common spellings of terms in your industry, and grammar and punctuation guidelines for the writing style your company goes by.
• Procedures for any publications you create.
• Processes for proofing, editing or optimizing content.
• Biographies for the main players and the company descriptions in various formats.
• Guidelines for logo usage and any other graphical representations of your brand.
• International guidelines, if applicable.

And don’t forget: your team matters.

Your brand will set the stage for everything you do, and the documentation will help immortalize the identity. But there’s one important factor in making sure your brand is represented in the best possible light year after year: the people. Great brands hire great people. And it’s not always easy to find them.

Finding good people who “get” your brand and “get” how to handle themselves in multiple scenarios is important, and especially when they’re representing company communications. So as you think about how your communications team will evolve over time, place an emphasis on the attributes of the people in that role – what’s important to you, to your company.

Because Bruce Clay, Inc. has a brand that will always be synonymous with education, because the internal process has been developed, and because it has the people, the content that the company produces for its community will continue to aim for the highest quality.

Virginia Nussey has always been a staple in the success of the Bruce Clay blog, newsletter, communications and content for the company. (Much love, V!) So I don’t have to tell you that with her heading the team, not much will change. Except now we have the addition of the talented Kristi Kellogg, who brings her own unique perspective to the content the company is publishing.

And there’s also plans to add more savvy people to the department, as it grows to meet the demands of clients and in-house priorities alike.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight …

The lessons I’ve learned here as part of the Bruce Clay team, the relationships I’ve forged and the community that I’ve become a part of is something I’ll always be grateful for.

I love the search marketing community and I enjoy what I do. So I plan to be around, just in a different capacity. I’m excited about this next chapter in my life, where I will be pursuing a content development and strategy venture of my own.

Please stay connected with me @BzzContent on Twitter. And thank you, thank you, thank you for everything.

The post A Fond Farewell: When Part of Your Brand’s Voice Moves On appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

That letter from Google telling you that your manual link penalty has been revoked is likely the culmination of blood, sweat and tears; but it proves that lifted penalties is not an elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Manual link penalties can be revoked if you put in the work and pay your dues.

Not too long ago, Virginia wrote about how to disavow links in Google and Bing. And while the link disavow option was a factor in the success stories I’m about to share with you, they were the last step in an arduous process.

So today, I’ll share with you three clients who recently had their manual link penalties revoked as a result of the hard work between our SEO analysts and our clients, together.

What Got the Clients into Trouble?

Sometimes sites get messed up with the wrong crowd. Sometimes site owners don’t foresee the trouble they’re getting into. We’re not here to point fingers, but we do want to share with you some of the scenarios that caused these manual link penalties to occur.

Client 1: Launched a new site and wanted to get rankings in a hurry, so they decided to buy some links to get on the fast-track to visibility. No question there on why the penalty occurred.

Client 2: Had a content-rich site with useful information including podcasts and a thriving blog. But this site had been around for so long that it developed “baggage” over the years. The inbound/outbound link profile needed to be cleaned up.

Client 3: This site had a few things working against it, like purchased links, article spinning and participating in link farms. This became the trifecta that triggered the penalty.

As you can see, the reasons behind penalties vary. But one thing these clients all had in common was that they didn’t know the repercussions of their link profile until their rankings dropped and organic traffic disappeared.

How Did We Help Lift the Penalty?

No matter how a client ends up in “no man’s penalty land,” the process that the SEO analysts go through is typically the same:

1. Have “the talk” with the client.
2. Evaluate the inbound links.
3. Blood, sweat, tears, etc.
4. After bleeding, disavow.

Let’s look at those a little more closely …

1. Have “the talk” with the client. Sometimes the client knows they’ve done something to compromise their site, but they’re afraid to tell us. Sometimes we have to wait to see that fateful letter from Google before they are willing to fess up – or sometimes we discover the penalty on our own and work backwards from there. After we do some digging in analytics and run rankings reports, we usually have enough info to approach the client for “the talk.”

“Sometimes the client doesn’t want to tell us upfront about any online marketing schemes they may have participated in. Other times, they aren’t even aware that there is a penalty problem. But once we start digging into their site, we notice red flags,” says Ty Carson, senior SEO analyst. “When we present them with the backlink data, they usually start talking about the history of their site in a bit more detail, and everything begins to unfold.”

In any case, “the talk,” as uncomfortable as it can be needs to happen, because it’s crucial to know the history of a site upfront. Remember, your SEO team is not here to judge; we’re here to help you solve problems and move forward.

2. Evaluate the inbound links. Here at BCI, we use Google Webmaster Tools, Majestic SEO and internal tools to help evaluate the website’s backlinks. In addition to using scores from Majestic SEO’s “advanced backlink” report, we also go through a manual rating process.

You may remember SEO analyst Bob Meinke’s link assessment flowchart – a visual that documents the process he and the team go through to evaluate links, which includes loading the pages in question and going through a series of questions:

But we also look at things like exact-match anchor text to see if anything looks fishy. “PivotTables in Excel are great for helping you discover too many exact-match keyword links,” says Bob. “Upload all the links and anchor text associated with them in the spreadsheet, and then create a PivotTable from the data to identify any suspicious activity.”

You can learn more about creating PivotTables here.

3. Blood, sweat, tears, etc. What comes next requires that you are somewhat comfortable being a stalker. See, we find the contact information for all webmasters for every link we deem not worthy. Then we contact them, one by one, through email so it’s documented, and ask them to remedy the link.

Here’s a generic email request for link removal:

I’m [Name] with ThisIsMyDomainName.com, and I wanted to thank you for linking to our site from [page URL].

However, it has come to our attention that this link may have been acquired against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

It is important for us to bring our site into compliance. Would you please add a rel=”nofollow” attribute or remove our link from this page and any other page on your site?

Thanks,

[NAME]

Do they always comply? No. Do they sometimes come up with asinine reasons why they can’t remove the links? Yes, like this one:

“A few times I got a response like, ‘I’m sorry but I’m not sure how to remove the links. However, if you need search engine optimization for your site, I can get you 100 links on PR5 sites for the low price of $9.99’,” says Bob.

“One funny and unusual email response we got was from a directory site,” says Ty. “They claimed that since their client pays them to place multiple links in their directory, removing the paid directory links would only hurt their own site.”

So what do we do in those cases? Yep, you guessed it: contact them again, with a different form of the letter above specific to the email response, documenting everything. We usually contact the site owner three times before we deem the link non-removable and worthy of disavow.

4. After bleeding, disavow. Once we’ve put in our due diligence and tried to get those pesky links remedied to no avail, then we typically turn to the disavow tool. This is a last resort, but if you’ve tried your darndest and documented everything, you can go through the disavow process. Check out Google’s instructions on the disavow links process here.

After disavow, we apply the client for reconsideration. We make sure our reconsideration requests are thorough enough to show evidence of our detailed efforts. Learn more about reconsideration from Google here.

So the Penalty is Lifted. Now What?

Can you expect your traffic and rankings to return to the same state pre-penalty? Not usually — at least not right away. Bob explains, “The visibility the site experienced prior was inflated due to spammy practices. So it’s not likely it will return quickly and without a lot of good work. But a site’s organic rankings and traffic should slowly rise over the two weeks following the penalty being lifted.”

He adds, “And best case scenario, while you are working to have your penalty removed, you are also working on building nicer links through good practices, which will help you recover.”

Ty adds, “There are lots of opportunities for a site after the penalty is revoked, including the fact that keywords that were once penalized now have the chance to help it rank again, so new traffic can be achieved.”

Do you have a link penalty story you want to share? Please chime in below in the comments section!

The post Manual Link Penalties Revoked! (It’s Not Just Unicorns and Rainbows) appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Jessica Lee: If I don’t have a mobile-ready website yet, what are my first steps?

Thom Craver: The first place you start is a “needs assessment.” Consider the following:

• What is the ultimate goal you expect to achieve from mobile?
• Do you want to cater your site to the ever-increasing number of visitors using mobile devices?
• Are you trying to directly sell or provide a cloud-based service?
• Do you simply want to brand an app that helps your customers and potential customers do something useful so you stay top-of-mind?

Once you have the answers to these questions, then you can pick a platform on how to measure. Web-based “apps” are measured differently than true, native (through code) apps.

What’s a good approach to setting up tracking for mobile?

There are a few ways to track mobile. Again, it depends on what you’re measuring. My part of the panel at SES New York will focus primarily on Google Analytics. They have a familiar interface and a completely separate set of reports for measuring apps. Yet, it all works together with your mobile website, even though the data are separated.

Their reports help you stay atop of usage, like which users have older versions of your app, crashes, time of use and even time between uses — all of which are able to be segmented by intelligent groupings with their easy-to-use web-based interface.

For the money (free!), Google Analytics is quick and easy. They even provide software development kits (SDKs) for building native Android and iOS apps.

Give an example of how you might interpret mobile data and make adjustments to your marketing.

Generally speaking, device and OS usage is an important indication of your user base. Especially if you have ongoing development in your app, you’ll want to know how many are using phones versus tablets. The screen dimensions and overall user experiences are completely different. Creating a bad user experience creates users who never come back.

So do crashes. Look at crash logs to see if you can find patterns of behavior. With the diversity of Android hardware and OS versions, there are a lot of device/OS combinations. Make sure you’re catering to everyone.

Earlier this year, the Google Play store allowed app developers to directly reply to users leaving feedback. If your app crashes and someone comments, address it. Start a dialog around data, reassuring the users to letting them know you’re on top of the problem.

If you’re at SES New York this week, check out Thom’s session, “Driving Consumer Insights with Mobile Analytics” on March 27 at 10:15 a.m.  You can stay connected with Thom on Twitter @ThomCraver. 

The post Mobile Websites and Marketing – Where to Start appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Jessica Lee: What structural factors do international and multilingual sites need to consider and why?

Andre Alpar: Two cases need to be distinguished:

1. First, some websites can be set to different languages but won’t be customized to a country or the language in question. In those cases, a U.S. and a UK version would be the same. Facebook is a classic example.
2. The other case is when there are different versions of the website for each country, for example, online retailers such as Amazon.

In these circumstances, it’s important to consider how to get search engines to properly understand what content targets are for which country. There are three different solutions good for this:

1.  Separate top-level domains.
2. Subdomains targeting the different countries.
3. Using subfolders.

From a programming perspective, subfolders are often the best solution as it happens to be the cheapest. From an off-page SEO perspective, the best results are reached with different TLDs in the long term.

Tell us a bit about duplicate content issues for international sites.

International websites used to have massive duplicate content issues. A classic example would be a website with information about a certain brand or product that would be the same for several countries using the same language but on different top level domains.

Luckily, through the annotations rel=”alternate” hreflang=”X” – introduced approximately a year ago now – most critical duplicate content issues that international sites had are now easily resolved.

What are some of the issues international sites face with geotargeting, and how do you approach handling them?

Our experiences with geotargeting are very mixed. There is always danger of search engines misinterpreting automated redirects based on geotargeting with cloaking, which may then be a violation of webmaster guidelines.

If you have an ad server that can do geotargeting for large ad spaces for onsite marketing on the root URL, then that is something we often recommend.

We have positive experiences with “only one click away” popups that offer the visitor to the right version of the website. It’s not the most user-friendly approach, but it keeps the SEO efforts robust and safe.

Also, the case of a visitor landing on the wrong language or region should actually never happen, provided that the SEO setup handles multilingual and international sites correctly.

If you’re headed to SES New York , you can catch Andre in the session, “Breaking Down the Borders: International and Multilingual SEO” on March 27 at 4:00 p.m. Stay connected with Andre on Twitter @AndreAlpar or Google+.

The post International SEO: Creating a Great Web Experience Worldwide appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

• Where do I begin?
• What makes a good campaign?
• What if I only have a small budget to start?

These are the questions we asked Tal Baron of DataXu, speaker at upcoming SES New York conference, where he’ll be tackling the topic of Facebook Ads. And while Facebook Ads take skill, the four-step approach Tal lays out in this post to create successful campaigns makes it manageable for those who are just starting out.

Jessica Lee: If I’m new to Facebook Ads, what do I need to know about them? 

Tal Baron: There are a variety of ad types available on Facebook to meet different marketing objectives. For fan acquisition and engagement on Facebook, marketers can use Facebook “native ads” such as “Like” ads, page post ads and “Sponsored Stories.” Marketers can leverage demographic, geographic and interest-level data from Facebook for highly targeted ads through the marketplace.

For direct response objectives, the Facebook Exchange (FBX) has been driving performance for advertisers since it was first introduced last year.

FBX lets marketers use their own first-party site data to retarget site visitors who have shown purchase intent (third-party data can also be targeted). FBX ads are only available through Facebook’s DSP partners like DataXu.

What are some of the components of a successful Facebook Ads campaign from start to finish?

1. Set clear objectives for your campaign and select the Facebook tools that are best designed to meet those goals.

2. Test a variety of creatives and audiences throughout your campaign and follow common best practices:

• Treat your Facebook ad like a billboard – less is more.
• Use eye-catching imagery with bright colors.
• Include a time prompt and a clear call to action.
• Seasonal messaging is recommended.

3. Measure results against goals. For fan acquisition or Facebook engagement campaigns, you can measure:

• CPL (cost per like), which can be calculated by taking media spend and dividing it by the number of likes achieved.
• CPSA (cost per social action — such as sharing a page post ad). This can be calculated by taking media spend and dividing it by the number of social actions.

For direct response campaigns run on FBX, measure CPA (cost per action). Keep in mind that FBX can only be used to drive action off of Facebook.

4. Finally, make sure someone in-house or from a partner is keeping tabs on Facebook’s latest options. Facebook is constantly testing new advertising offerings and it can be hard to keep up! There are many resources available across the web, but a good place to start would be the Facebook Marketing page.

How do you suggest getting started if I only have a small budget to play with?

It really depends on the campaign goals. Set a clear objective, leverage the right tools, follow best practices and optimize constantly to get the most out of each campaign.

For example, to build a fan base on Facebook, marketers can utilize “Like” ads (be sure to test multiple creative concepts) across different target groups, and measure which ads and which audiences generate the lowest CPL.

Even with small budgets, advertisers can gain meaningful insights at a small scale on which audiences are receptive to their offering and which ads were most effective for the next campaign.

You can catch Tal at SES New York speaking at the session, “Maximizing Twitter and Facebook Ads for Lead Gen, Engagement & ROI” on March 26 at 11:45 a.m. Stay connected with him on Twitter @TSBaron. 

The post Facebook Ads Campaigns: Easy as 1-2-3-4! appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Our first interview is with Marcus Tober, founder of Searchmetrics. Marcus recently presented in-depth research on the SEO metrics that matter at SES London. I caught up with him to talk about those metrics, the potential impact of Facebook Graph Search, and how businesses can stay relevant and visible online as the Web continues to grow and change.

Jessica Lee: More and more, we’re seeing that rankings as a measurement of SEO is going away. What are some alternative metrics you recommend to track SEO success and why?

Marcus Tober: Besides rankings, traffic and conversions are the key performance indicators (KPIs) we recommend people should be paying attention to. That’s why we integrate Searchmetrics with web analytics tools, and also why we include conversions as a KPI.

Everything you do in SEO – link-building, on-page optimization and of course optimizing the paths on the website – ends up in conversions. Successful conversions are what separate successful companies from the ones that fail online.

And I strongly believe in social signals. Not only as a ranking factor (about which the debate continues), but also as a KPI that measures social interaction. You need to measure which content and pages are being shared on social networks and how much.

This demonstrates how involved and engaged your customers are with your content and also, indicates their preferences about the products and services you’re selling. If it isn’t already, then social should become an important measurement metric for you as an online marketer.

Many search professionals create their own metrics and we’ve also done this. One of them is the “SEO visibility” score, and we use it as a measure of how sites are performing in organic search. We track millions of keywords to calculate the score based on several elements:

• The number of times a domain appears in the SERPs across the keyword set.
• Its prominence within those SERPs (a higher ranking equates to a higher visibility score).
• The competitiveness of the keyword (higher search volumes equate to a higher score).

SEO visibility provides a useful way of showing how a domain is performing over time, and is an objective standard for comparing against others. It can highlight trends such as how sites might have been affected by an algorithm update or by re-launches or other changes.

What’s your take on Facebook Graph Search and its potential impact?

I think this development was just a matter of time, and it shows the direction Facebook is evolving. It’s clear to me that Facebook plans to use its wide reach to grab a bigger share of advertising budgets.  

Traditionally, of course, recommendations for products and services would spread by simple word of mouth.

But now they can be shared in a split-second with likes, photos and videos on the various platforms.

With Graph Search, Facebook takes the idea a step further and brings together all the likes, images, and comments from people you’re connected to in one search result. So simple and yet so powerful!

You currently can’t buy ads on Graph Search, but you would expect this to be coming soon.

What do you believe is necessary for businesses to remain relevant and continue to vie for visibility online when the Web only keeps growing?

There are so many areas you probably need to be aware of. Two aspects I want to highlight are:

• Understanding and learning from your competitors.
• The importance of Google author integrations.

You’re not operating in a vacuum, and you need to be keeping close tabs on your online competitors because their strategies are going to impact your visibility. What keywords are they ranking for? Are they weak anywhere? Can you learn anything from what they are doing in paid search? Can you benefit from analyzing their backlink profile?

And as search engines are placing increasing importance on content, you should pay close attention to your rivals’ content strategies. This includes analyzing which content is drawing most interest on social networks. What ideas can this inspire for your own strategy?

Google Authorship is something we’ve spent time looking at, and something I’ve been speaking about at events recently. It’s important if you want to stay visible, because to a certain extent, it’s reducing the importance of the top results on results pages as searchers click on the result they trust. And of course, the face and credibility of the author both influence that trust.

We know that author integrations attract attention and hence generate more CTRs. And as click behavior is relevant for ranking, this further underlines the importance of using author integrations.

If you’re headed to SES New York next week, you can catch Marcus at the session, “Spy vs. Spy: Key Insights to Outperform the Competition” on March 27 at 2:30 p.m. Connect with Marcus and Searchmetrics on Twitter @MarcusTober and @Searchmetrics.

The post SEO Metrics, Facebook Graph Search and Staying Visible Online with SES New York Speaker Marcus Tober appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Scott Brinker is co-founder and CTO of ion interactive and author of the blog Chief Marketing Technologist. There, he discusses more traditional marketing concepts tied to the technology we have at our fingertips today.

Instead of talking tactics, I wanted to explore with him the “why” behind mobile marketing. So today, we’ll hear more about the driving force behind the way we market, and the intersection of tech and marketing. I think you’ll enjoy his insight.

Jessica Lee: Your upcoming session at SMX West is about converting the mobile customer. Instead of talking tactics here, let’s take a step back and talk about why mobile is important and how society is changing to become a mobile culture.

Scott Brinker: It’s kind of amazing when you think about it. Smartphones – and the access to the web they provide — are effectively ubiquitous.

I’ve heard people compare the capabilities we have in our pockets today to science fiction devices from films only a decade or two old.

As Warren Ellis said, we carry around these glowing glass windows where we can make amazing things happen by pointing at them with our fingers like wizards.

Pretty incredible, right?

But already just a few years into that revolution, most of us take it for granted. I think society has already become a mobile culture, and we’re probably not too far away from a “post-mobile” culture — where mobile is a distinction that most people won’t care to make.

We’re just connected. All the time. Everywhere we go.

Sure, there will be different things we prefer to do working at a desk, lounging on the couch, sitting at a restaurant, or walking through Disneyland. But those preferences will be less about device and more about context.

Of course, marketers aren’t most people. We still have a lot of work to do to deliver the experiences that people really want when they connect with us through such devices — or, more forward-thinking, in these different contexts.

We want those experiences to flow seamlessly, so they don’t stop abruptly in the middle of something to exclaim, “Crap, this mobile site is really awful!”

So to us marketers, explicitly thinking about mobile is important — and will be for a while — because we’ve got responsibility for constructing big chunks of this science fiction film our audience is living.

Recent AdWords changes called Enhanced Campaigns has lumped tablets with PCs in campaigns. In Google’s announcement of the new model, it stated tablet and PC behavior is becoming more and more the same. Do you think this approach is a mistake?

I actually like the new enhanced campaigns. I think it’s a good step towards emphasizing context over device.

However, I appreciate that many PPC marketers have spent years crafting tactics around the previous architecture, and this change is disruptive to the models they had in place.

But if we step back, there are two interesting lessons we can take from this:

First, modern marketing is all about living under a stampede of constant change. Google, Facebook, Twitter — all these channels we rely on for reaching our audience — are still rapidly evolving.

In my opinion, one of the most advantageous capabilities that any marketing organization can acquire is a fluid responsiveness to change. We’re operating in an incredibly complex and uncertain environment, and we need to adapt marketing management and culture to thrive under these dynamics. That’s one of the reasons I’m a big advocate for agile marketing methodologies.

Second, as marketers we sometimes take the way software works — in this case, the AdWords console — as a given. Once we start using it, it’s easy to think the way it works is really the only way it could work.

But in truth, there’s effectively an infinite number of different ways that software can be designed, from its operational engine to its user interface. Many designs can tackle the same underlying problem — but do so with radically different approaches.

This is why there is so much robust competition in many marketing software categories. Different software teams can produce amazingly diverse products in the exact same space.

And since software is the eyes and hands of marketers in a digital world, these different approaches have a huge material impact on how we think about and actually do our jobs as marketers.

Enhanced campaigns is a great instance of this. Google is demonstrating that the same basic task, managing PPC, could be organized in a different way. Better? Worse? That’s a matter of opinion. But I think an open mind to how our software tools can — and should — evolve is healthy.

What’s next for mobile marketing?

The challenge with so much marketing technology — and mobile is no exception — is that there’s an extremely skewed tail of early adopters that lead many of the trends we hear about, all the latest “cool stuff.” But the majority of marketing organizations are far behind that leading edge.

Frankly, the biggest opportunity in my opinion is helping to bring the majority forward.

We could start with empowering the majority of marketers to deliver really amazing post-click experiences to mobile users. Actually, that’s exactly what my company is aiming to do.

If you’re headed to SMX West, you can catch Scott in the session, “Converting the Mobile Customer” on Monday, March 11 at 3:30 p.m. Connect with him on Twitter @ChiefMartec.

The post Mobile, Marketing and Science Fiction with SMX West Speaker Scott Brinker appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Jessica Lee: Why do online businesses need to consider retargeting?

Susan Waldes: Visitors to your site (or YouTube videos, or email opens) not only have expressed an interest in your offerings, but also in your brand. As such, this is usually the most valuable segment of people you can target. The ROI is almost always there with the right gentle reminder.

Beyond that, smart retargeting campaigns also look at increasing lifetime value of users, increasing loyalty, driving social engagement with the brand and increasing average order sizes.

What are some of the aspects of an effective retargeting campaign?

Creative is often the focus of retargeting, but retargeting can be successful even with your standard creative. The two things that advanced marketers focus on in retargeting campaigns are:

• The right cookie length
• The right impression cap

Are people seeing your ads at the right time in the purchase cycle and with the right frequency to drive re-engagement but not become weary with over-saturation?

What are some elements of great ads for remarketing?

Great remarketing ads are smart about providing gentle and compelling reminders while being mindful not to overdo the “creepy” factor and make users feel they are being stalked.

They acknowledge sensitivities, and offer some value-add to customers that re-engage, like a promo or free shipping offer that encourages people to pull the trigger.

They target people at the right time and with messaging that aligns with where they are in the funnel. They use the brand and logo prominently in the creative and appear in the right places.

Thanks for the insight, Susan. You can stay connected with Susan Waldes on Twitter @SuzyVirtual. If you’re headed to SMX West next week, don’t miss Susan in the session, “Ready, Aim, Fire … Then Retarget!” on March 11 at 10:45 a.m.

The post Creep-Free Retargeting and More with SMX West Speaker Susan Waldes appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

1. Understanding your Facebook Insights.
2. Promoting your status updates.
3. Optimizing your about section.
4. Creating a schedule for posting.

1. Understand Your Facebook Insights

As a Facebook Page owner, you have access to Facebook’s analytics for your page, Facebook Insights. Get intimate with your Facebook Insights to understand what your audience is looking for. This is an area that should be monitored regularly to see how your community is engaging, and what sorts of things it responds to. The goal is to experiment, and give them what they want.

For a crash course, check out this document from Facebook circa 2011 on getting to know Insights.

The following snapshot shows the Insights landing page graph — what you first see when you go to the analytics from your page. There’s a lot of data to mine, but let’s just look at a couple graphs you can learn from quickly.

Explore the data on the main graph on the Insights home page as well as the data below it. This is where you can see how the page is performing over a specified period of time, and which posts have proven to have the most engagement.

Find the posts that have a higher engagement percentage or “virality” (as indicated by the shadow boxes), analyze those updates and use that as fuel for creating more posts like those to see if they consistently receive higher engagement.

There could be many factors contributing to the success of a status update on Facebook. It could be the topic or an element within the post (like including an image or a particular tip, etc.). Consider creating a spreadsheet that breaks down common elements of your status updates to see if the more popular updates have anything in common.

2. Promote Your Status Updates

If and when a post becomes popular as defined by your Facebook Insights, consider using the “promote” option to get even more eyeballs on it. This has worked well in our experience and is a relatively inexpensive solution for visibility. Take care to promote only those status updates that you feel are important to your goals.

We’ve seen several posts enjoy more reach and bring in more likes to our page from the promote feature. Check out the results of this one:

There’s been some controversy about the promote functionality. Mainly, people are worried that you’re going to have to pay to play in the future; however, a Facebook rep tells us in this post that they apply a similar approach to both paid and organic stories in news feeds:

“Regardless of whether you’re paying to promote a story or just posting one to your Page, the news feed will always optimize for stories that generate high levels of user engagement and filter out ones that don’t.”

3. Optimize Your About Section

The “About” section is a perfect place for branding your organization. Use this section wisely to clearly communicate what your organization is about and use keywords that are important to your company.

The arrow on the following image indicates the area on the home page where the short description you have created in the About section will render. Use this space well to quickly convey what your organization is and consider putting your website so people can click through directly from the Facebook landing page.

The About section offers ample opportunity to go into more detail about your company:

• Tell your story and highlight your unique value proposition (what makes you different).
• If there’s a link you really want your community to check out, include it. But minimize any call to actions to only the most important, so as not to split the attention.
• Use keywords throughout that are important to your offerings.
• Cross-promote your presence in other places on the Web so people can find content that is useful to them coming from you. If you have other Facebook profiles or a YouTube or Twitter account, let your community know.

Here’s an example using the Bruce Clay, Inc. Facebook About section:

4. Create a Schedule for Posting

Knowing how often to post is never easy, and typically comes with some experimentation. Posting too much can annoy your community, and not posting enough can leave you forgotten.

Using data from third-party tools can be very helpful in giving you a starting point for a schedule. EdgeRank Checker looks at historical data of your Facebook account and comes up with some suggestions on how often to post, and when is an optimal time for your particular community:

And another suggestion:

Use that data as a starting point for experimentation on how often you post and which days you publish status updates. And here’s a post on social media scheduling that might help you in your efforts, too.

Well, I hope this has given you a starting point to audit your Facebook presence and start making more informed decisions right away. Comments welcomed below!

Want more Facebook optimization tips?
Read our 4 Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Search post!

The post 4 Ways to Start Optimizing Your Facebook Presence appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..