Enter advanced search operators. These commands help you extract everything the search engine knows about a specific subject – and efficiently.

These tricks of the trade can definitely save you time, especially if you’re doing any kind of competitor analysis or SEO research.

Soon you’ll be searching like a pro as you learn:

• What are search engine operators?
• Why should I use a search operator?
• How do I use advanced search operators?
• Bing and Google search operator documentation
• Search operators used in SEO research
• List of advanced search operators (your cheat sheet)
• FAQ: How can I use Advanced Search Operators to extract precise information from search engines?

What Are Search Engine Operators?

Search operators are commands that use special characters along with a query to make the search engine results more specific. Essentially, they work like filters that you can customize as needed.

To use a search operator, add the command into the search box and search as you normally would. The results are entirely different from the average search.

Why Should I Use a Search Operator?

SEOs routinely use search operators to filter results from a search engine. These advanced search skills let you easily:

• Locate something specific online
• Research a site you’re optimizing
• Investigate the competitive field

When you get comfortable with a few of these commands, you can find what you’re looking for much faster.

How Do I Use Advanced Search Operators?

Enter search operators in the search bar along with your regular query, but with some modifications.

A search operator typically has:

• A prefix: Something that comes before the search query
• An addition: Something that is appended to the search query and contains special characters

For example, you can use the cache: prefix in front of the query, or you can use the OR command in between two words in a query.

In many instances – but not all – you want to ensure you do not put a space between the search operator character and the query.

So if you were using the site: command you would want it to look like this:

site:bruceclay.com page experience update

And not like this:

site: bruceclay.com page experience update

OK, all this information is helpful … but how about some examples?

Example 1: Quotation Marks

Quotation marks (“) help you to match an exact phrase. So searching for “advanced search tips” as an example (with the quotes) finds only pages that contain those words used as a phrase.

Example 2: Site Search

The site: command filters your search results to just one website. In other words: You are searching only one domain for the information you need.

Start with the command, which is site: then add the domain name you want to search and finally the topic you want to search the domain for.

In the example below, site: tells the search engine you want to browse a particular domain–bruceclay.com–and siloing is the topic you are interested in finding.

Your results would look something like the screenshot below. Google found 362 pages about siloing on BruceClay.com:

Example 3: Combining Search Operators

You can combine search operators to refine results even further. For example, you can combine site search with quotation marks to search for a longer phrase within a particular website.

This search found 157 pages. Without the quotation marks, the query would return way too many results. For instance, the search engine would find pages about “voice” or “search” — so nearly all the pages on our site.

Bing and Google Search Operator Documentation

Each search engine has its own set of advanced search operators. Here’s the official documentation from the two major search engines for your reference:

• Google search operators
• Bing advanced search keywords
• Bing advanced search options

Search Operators Used in SEO Research

Here are seven ways to use the search commands for SEO research:

1. Analyze the competition
2. Find information about a specific page or site
3. Discover indexing problems
4. Help with site maintenance
5. Further refine results
6. Find social profiles
7. Find potential internal links

In the examples below, the search query is in bold.

1. Analyze the Competition

related:bruceclay.com
The related: operator gives you a glimpse of competitor content. You’ll see a small selection of what Google considers to be similar. Then you can analyze their SEO metrics — including word count, keyword use, meta data and inbound links — so that you can make your page equal to and then better than the competition.

allintitle:seo blog
This query brings up webpages that have both “SEO” and “blog” in their metadata title. We could use this to find competing blogs to our own. The search operators allintitle: and intitle: let you find pages using your keywords in title tags.

Similarly, the commands allinurl: and inurl: let you identify competitors that use keywords in URLs. (Note that as of this writing, the intitle: command works in both Google and Bing searches, but allintitle:, allinurl: and inurl: work only in Google.)

cache:https://www.bruceclay.com/seo/
The cache: command shows you a search engine’s cached version of a page. It’s a way to check how the search engine actually sees your page. Cache shows what page content the search engine considers relevant to retrieve, making this Google search operator a valuable SEO diagnostic tool.

2. Find Information About a Specific Page or Site

info:competitorsite.com
Using the info: command in Bing gives you results that seem like a collection of these advanced search operators. It’s a one-stop shop to access a variety of onsite and offsite results about a website. Note: Google deprecated the info: operator in 2017.

3. Discover Indexing Problems

site:yourdomain.com
A site: command shows how many pages the search engine has indexed. Though the total number of results is only an approximation, it is a quick way to find out if you have an indexing problem — either too few or too many pages in the index.

site:yourdomain.com/blog/*
Specify a particular subfolder of your site to see how many pages it contains. For instance, adding the wildcard * finds all pages under the /blog/.

4. Help with Site Maintenance

site:yourdomain.com contains:pdf
The contains: Bing search operator gives you a powerful tool to find links within a site that point to a particular type of file. For example, the query above lets you locate every page on your site that has a link to a PDF file.

5. Further Refine Results

cats -musical
A minus sign (-) before a keyword removes any results with that word. Again, it’s a way to help filter results when a query might be ambiguous. If you’re looking for info about cats the animal, but there’s a showing of Cats the musical in your town, you can search cats -musical to remove results about the theater production.

intitle:keyword -site:yourdomain.com
You can use the minus sign (-) before a search command, too. The above example finds webpages that have your keyword in the title tag, excluding those on your own site. This reduces the clutter when doing competitor research.

6. Find Social Profiles

john doe (site:linkedin | site:twitter)
If you want to get in touch with someone via their social profiles, you can use the site: for social media profiles along with the person’s name (and company name if you have it). This will search any of the social media channels you want to look up for that person. The example above would show LinkedIn and Twitter.

7. Find Potential Internal Links

site:bruceclay.com/blog -site:bruceclay.com/seo/siloing/ intext: “siloing”
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know that I recommend siloing as an SEO strategy. A key part of siloing is internal linking.

This advanced search is useful to find potential linking opportunities within a website. The example above combines the site: command with intext:, the minus sign (-) and exact match quotations (“).

What this particular search would do is find any webpages on the blog that mention siloing so that we could link to the main siloing page on the site. It uses the minus sign to exclude the page we want to link to from other pages.

List of Advanced Search Operators for SEO (Cheat Sheet)

In the table below, you’ll find the search engine operators that we routinely use in SEO research. (This is not an all-inclusive list.)
<!—
Open this operators cheat sheet as a PDF and save or print it for your reference!—>

Doing research takes time. Especially when there are so many search engine results. These advanced search operators will get you searching like a pro – more efficiently with better results.

If you liked this advanced search operators guide, please share it!
We have lots of tips for search marketing. (It’s what we do!) Learn more ways to improve your SEO, PPC, and overall ROI by subscribing to our blog.

FAQ: How can I use Advanced Search Operators to extract precise information from search engines?

Becoming proficient with Advanced Search Operators will enable you to extract accurate and pertinent data from search engines. These commands act like filters allowing for tailored queries with more precise results.

To begin, consider using quotation marks around your search query to find an exact phrase match. This can be especially helpful when researching specific topics or phrases. For example, searching for “advanced search tips” (with the quotes) will retrieve pages containing that exact phrase.

Another powerful operator is the “site:” command, which allows you to search within a specific website. This is particularly useful when conducting competitor analysis or investigating a particular site. For instance, by using “site:example.com SEO tips,” you can narrow down your search to SEO-related content within the specified domain.

Combining multiple search operators can further refine your results. For instance, combining the site search with quotation marks can help you find longer phrases within a particular website. This is invaluable for in-depth research.

Other search engines, like Bing, offer their own suite of Advanced Search Operators that you can utilize. You can learn more by consulting the documentation provided by these search engines. It’s important to note that while these operators enhance your search experience, precision and relevance may vary. Therefore, it’s essential to become familiar with the various operators and practice using them to refine your results effectively.

Mastering advanced search operators allows you to extract precise information from search engine results quickly and accurately, saving time while meeting research and analytical requirements more effectively. By mastering them, you can unlock hidden knowledge found online with just the right combination and practice. 

Step-by-Step Procedure: How to Use Advanced Search Operators to Extract Precise Information from Search Engines:

1. Understanding the Basics: Familiarize yourself with the concept and functionality of Advanced Search Operators found within search engines.
2. Identify Key Operators: Explore the most commonly used Advanced Search Operators, such as quotation marks and site search.
3. Use Quotation Marks: Practice using quotation marks to search for exact phrase matches, which are particularly useful for specific research topics.
4. Master the Site Search: Learn how to use the “site:” command to filter your search results within a specific website or domain.
5. Combine Operators: Experiment with combining multiple operators to refine your search results further.
6. Utilize Other Operators: Explore additional operators, such as “inurl,” “intitle,” and “cache,” to enhance your search capabilities.
7. Study Documentation: Refer to the official documentation provided by search engines like Google and Bing to understand the full range of available operators.
8. Analyze Competitors: Use Advanced Search Operators to conduct competitor analysis, gaining insights into their SEO strategies and content.
9. Discover Indexing Problems: Use the “site:” command to identify potential indexing issues with your website or specific subfolders.
10. Find Internal Links: Use operators like “intext” and “inurl” to locate potential internal linking opportunities within your website.
11. Analyze Social Profiles: Utilize the “site:” operator with social media platforms to find and connect with individuals through their profiles.
12. Refine Search Results: Practice using the minus sign (-) to exclude specific keywords from your search queries, improving result relevance.
13. Test Different Queries: Experiment with various combinations of Advanced Search Operators to find the most effective search results for your needs.
14. Verify Information: Double-check the accuracy and relevance of the information obtained through Advanced Search Operators.
15. Enhance Research Efficiency: Incorporate Advanced Search Operators into your regular research workflow to save time and improve data accuracy.
16. Stay Updated: Stay informed about changes or updates to search engine operators to adapt and improve your search techniques.
17. Share Knowledge: Educate your team or colleagues about Advanced Search Operators to enhance overall research productivity.
18. Practice and Patience: Become proficient in using Advanced Search Operators through consistent practice and patience.
19. Continuous Learning: Stay curious and keep exploring new ways to leverage Advanced Search Operators for research and analysis.
20. Mastering Advanced Search Operators: Achieve expertise and efficiency by mastering Advanced Search Operators and becoming a proficient researcher in your field.

The post Advanced Search Operators for Bing and Google (Guide and Cheat Sheet) appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Google’s sophisticated link analysis algorithm, Penguin, has run in real-time as part of Google’s core ranking algorithm since the Penguin 4.0 update in September 2016. Because it can recognize most bad links, Google’s algorithm just ignores them now rather than penalizing the sites they point to.

However, in our experience managing SEO for clients, we’ve found many cases when a low-quality link profile still hurts a website. In these cases, we must closely evaluate every link and be honest about its value to the brand.

Search engine link disavowal tools are needed in today’s link penalty environment. These tools cut ties between a site and links pointing at it that might be seen by engines as dark marks. As with all powerful tools, Google’s and Bing’s disavow tools require careful use to avoid damaging mistakes.

This guide provides steps on disavowing links for both Google and Bing and includes:

• Commentary on Google and disavowal
• How disavow files help you
• Who needs a disavow file
• Drawbacks and limitations of disavow
• How to build a disavow links file for Google
• Bing’s disavow links tool
• What’s next
• FAQ: How can I effectively disavow harmful backlinks to improve my website’s search engine rankings?

Commentary on Google and Disavowal

In 2019, Google’s John Mueller stated during a webmaster hangout that the “vast majority of sites” do not need to use the disavow tool. In line with that statement, Google did not immediately include the disavow tool as part of the new Search Console experience. However, access to the original tool was not removed.

You do not have to be working in SEO for long to realize that it’s not always wise to take Google at face value when they make such statements.

We have long found that actions Google states are unnecessary and sometimes continue to work very effectively. This isn’t because Google is trying to mislead, necessarily. But the internet is a big place, and they cannot possibly make statements that apply equally to every site.

Additionally, such statements often arise from advancements in the algorithm, such as new ways to detect bad links. These changes have allowed Google to make massive strides in bad link identification over the years. But even their technology is fallible and can be fooled.

In November 2020, almost three years after the launch of the new Search Console experience, Google finally added a new version of the disavow tool.

As you can see from the screenshots below, little has changed in the disavow tool, and the process remains largely the same.

Old Google disavow tool:

New Google disavow tool:

Our view is that disavow is still a powerful tool for SEOs, as long as it is used lightly. As one of the BCI team puts it, “You need a scalpel, not a hacksaw.”

How Disavow Files Help You

Quality backlinks are a requirement of healthy search rankings. But you can’t go far if your site is associated with off-topic or spammy inbound links. While it’s important to attract good links, removing bad ones is just as important. This is why link pruning is a critical task of SEO.

A problem arises, however, when you’re stuck with a few bad backlinks. If you can’t get them removed, and Google is not discounting them from your link profile, then how do you avoid a search engine ranking loss for these backlinks? Fortunately, both Google and Bing have an answer: each search engine has a tool for disavowing links, which means telling them the backlinks you want them to ignore.

The search engines’ disavow links tools can help your website in many ways.

First, it can improve your inbound link profile. Disavowing a low-quality backlink essentially blocks it from the search engines’ considerations. If a search engine feels that a low-quality link is dragging down your trust factor, removing that link via disavow can help your site regain some of that trust. In fact, we’ve seen that getting rid of low-quality backlinks can provide positive results in a way similar to attracting quality links to your site.

Another benefit to using the tool is the opportunity to discover negative SEO. While gathering link information, you might find artificial links pointing to your site that you did not generate. If you are indeed negatively targeted by your competition, asking nicely to remove the links may not work. While rare, negative SEO is a great example of when disavowing links can stop poor-quality links from harming your site.

Who Needs a Disavow File?

As mentioned above, Google states that most sites should not need the disavow links tool. In a Webmaster Hangout, John Mueller reiterated it this way:

That’s kind of the goal with all of this. And that’s why the disavow tool isn’t like a main feature in Search Console. You kind of have to look for it explicitly. That’s all done on purpose. Because for most sites you really don’t need to focus on links that much.

Search Console Help calls it an advanced tool and warns users to use the tool only if:

You have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, AND The links have caused a manual action, or likely will cause a manual action, on your site.

So do you really need this tool?

The short answer: probably. (Sorry, Google.)

Why? There are many reasons disavowing links might be the right choice for you, the first of which is that few sites have a perfect link profile.

If we think of your site like a home, over the years “stuff” accumulates. You have to dedicate time to finding the things that are no longer helpful and getting rid of them. From cleaning out the gutters to decluttering the garage, we know this is a necessary maintenance task.

Websites are no different. As sites age, they can attract more junk. Also, links that once were useful may now be broken or outright dangerous. As our founder, Bruce Clay says: “Everyone has the weakest link. We all have links that we wish would go away.”

That’s why many sites today have a disavow file. While initially envisioned as a last resort, disavow tools have become a required last step in a complete link-pruning process.

Once you’ve worked to remove as many low-quality, off-topic, or spammy inbound links from your site, if you’ve found you’re stuck with a few stragglers (which is very common), the disavow links tool might be the best way for you to avoid current or future penalty.

You might also want to use the tool if you’re turning a new leaf in your SEO strategy. You or a past vendor may have consciously created unnatural backlinks in the past. Whether or not you have been penalized for these backlinks yet, you’re eager to follow the search engine’s guidelines. Using this tool helps you to get on the path of SEO best practices.

Here are other important reasons you might need to use the disavow links tool.

You know you need a disavow links file if any of the following are true:

• You receive a manual action or a Google link warning in Search Console. (Also see our 9 Tips for Getting Your Manual Link Penalty Overturned.)
• You suspect an algorithmic ranking penalty based on links.
• You believe you might be a victim of negative SEO.*

*Note: If you suspect negative SEO against your site, we strongly recommend working with an experienced SEO. Negative SEO that works is exceedingly rare. Commonly, the links cited as negative SEO are so bad that they cannot be missed. Generally, if you can easily identify spam, so can Google. We strongly recommend ruling out all other issues before determining that negative SEO has impacted your site.

Drawbacks and Limitations with Disavowing Links

If you fall into one or more of the categories mentioned above, the disavow links tool might be the best option for you. That said, there are drawbacks and limitations to disavowing links.

The biggest problem with the disavow links tools is that disavowing links may backfire on the user.

Sites may inadvertently damage their link profile during a clean-up effort. This often happens to sites with manual actions. You may be forced to prune links that still have value in the effort to appease Google. So, your site may end up getting unpenalized, but your link profile is severely depleted as a result.

For this reason, we greatly stress the importance of using search engine disavow tools with the help of a professional and even offer an SEO Penalty Assessment Service to help you.

How to Build a Disavow Links File for Google

Google’s disavow links tool requires you to submit a list of the domains and pages you wish Google to ignore when evaluating your inbound link profile.

The first step to using the Google disavow links tool is to create a .txt file. Per Google’s instructions, this file type has to be a.txt file encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII. Within this file, list the URLs and domains you want to disavow; each domain and URL should have its own line.

To include a domain-level link in the file, add “domain:” before the URL of the domain home page (for example, “domain:shadyseo.com”).

To submit a page-level link, simply list the URL.

Add notes to each submission by starting the message with “#” on the line before the URL or domain listing.

Once you have your .txt file, you can now submit the final list to Google’s Disavow Links tool. Here’s how:

1. Sign into Google Search Console.
2. Go to https://search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links.
3. From the drop-down menu, select the website for which you are disavowing links.
4. Select “Disavow Links.”
5. Select “Choose file.”
6. Upload your .txt file.

Important: When you upload future disavow files, you must include all previously disallowed domains and URLs. Google overwrites each previous disavow file, rather than appending new data to it. Incidentally, if you have disavowed something you shouldn’t have, uploading a new file with that address omitted will remove it from your disavow list.

Pro Tip: Domain-Level Disavow

Google cautions users about the domain-level disavow because of the potential damage it can cause. However, disavowing links on the domain level can be a more thorough approach to cleaning up bad links. Commonly, domain-level disavow is used in situations where a site is generating many links or is likely to create additional unwanted links in the future. For instance, a spam directory that lists you in every county nationwide would be better blocked at the domain level. A link can be a moving target within a site, and the only way to safely extract it is by disavowing the domain as a whole.

Bing’s Disavow Links Tool

The way to use Bing’s disavow links tool is slightly different from Google’s tool because you don’t upload a .txt file. Instead, you have to manually enter each domain or URL.

1. Log into Bing Webmaster Tools.
2. Go to “Configure my site” and then select “Disavow Links.”
3. Within the Disavow Links tool, use the drop-down menu to indicate that you are disavowing a page, directory, or domain URL.
4. Enter the URL you want to disavow and click “Disavow.”
5. Your submission will be featured underneath the tool along with the date it was disavowed.
6. If you want to delete a submission, select the check box and click the “Delete” button.

For more details, see the Bing Help file for disavowing links in Bing.

What’s Next?

After you’ve submitted the links you want Google and Bing to ignore, it’s time to wait. Google says it could take weeks before it recrawls your site and “reprocesses the pages.” This might be especially frustrating if you’re waiting to recover from a certain manual or algorithmic penalty. Bing says you might not notice any dramatic changes at all! At least you can sleep a little better knowing that you’ve cleaned your house of low-quality backlinks – until, of course, it’s time to do it again.

Want some help identifying which linking sites shouldn’t be trusted? DisavowFiles.com is a free crowdsourced database and SEO tool that gives users insight into their websites’ backlinks. This tool was the buzz of SMX Advanced when we launched it because it offers data that can simplify the process of backlink evaluation and disavowal. Read more about the free DisavowFiles tool.

FAQ: How can I effectively disavow harmful backlinks to improve my website’s search engine rankings?

Backlinks, the links from other websites pointing to yours, play a pivotal role in determining your website’s search engine ranking. However, not all backlinks are beneficial. Disavowing links that originate from low-quality or spammy sources is crucial in protecting the credibility of your site, and can wreak havoc with its ranking and credibility. Here is where disavowing comes into play.

Understanding the Disavow Process

Disavowing backlinks is the strategic action of telling search engines to disregard certain links when evaluating your website. This process involves creating a disavow file, which contains a list of the harmful backlinks you want to disassociate from your site. It’s essential to approach this task with caution, as disavowing legitimate links can also harm your ranking.

Identifying Harmful Backlinks

The first step is to identify which backlinks are harmful. Utilize tools like Google Search Console and third-party backlink auditing tools to compile a list of suspicious or toxic links. Look for links from irrelevant, spammy, or low-quality websites, as well as those with over-optimized anchor text.

Creating the Disavow File

Crafting an accurate and comprehensive disavow file is vital. This file, typically a .txt document, contains a list of the harmful backlinks you want to disavow. Each link should be formatted correctly, including the domain and subdomain if necessary. Submit this file through Google’s Disavow Tool, specifying the domains or URLs you want to disavow.

Monitoring and Iterating

After submitting the disavow file, monitor your website’s performance and ranking closely. Keep in mind that the effects of disavowing might not be immediate. Regularly analyze new backlinks to ensure you catch and disavow harmful ones promptly. Additionally, periodically review your disavow file, removing entries that are no longer relevant.

Expert Insights for Effective Disavowing

Seasoned SEO practitioners often emphasize the importance of a balanced approach. While disavowing harmful links is crucial, it’s equally vital to focus on building high-quality, authoritative backlinks. Cultivate a diverse link profile by engaging in ethical link-building practices and creating valuable, shareable content.

Disavowing harmful backlinks is a meticulous yet necessary process to enhance your website’s search engine rankings. By skillfully identifying and disavowing toxic links while maintaining a strong link-building strategy, you can ensure that your website climbs the ranks while maintaining its credibility.

Step-by-Step Procedure: How to Effectively Disavow Harmful Backlinks

1. Gather Data: Use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Moz to identify potentially harmful backlinks.
2. Evaluate Quality: Assess the quality of each link based on relevance, authority, and anchor text.
3. Compile List: Create a list of harmful backlinks that you want to disavow.
4. Create Disavow File: Format the list as a .txt document with each link on a separate line, preceded by “domain:” or “url:”.
5. Specify Domains: If you want to disavow an entire domain, use the “domain:” directive to cover all its URLs.
6. Use Comment Lines: Include comments in the file to document your actions and reasoning for each disavowal.
7. Submit through Google Disavow Tool: Access the Disavow Tool in Google Search Console and upload your disavow file.
8. Monitor Changes: Observe your website’s performance and rankings after the disavowal. Be patient, as results may take time.
9. Regular Backlink Audits: Conduct frequent backlink audits to catch and disavow new harmful links promptly.
10. Update Disavow File: Continuously update your disavow file by adding new harmful links and removing outdated ones.
11. Balance Link Building: Focus on building high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources to outweigh the negative impact of harmful links.
12. Create Valuable Content: Develop engaging and shareable content to attract organic, reputable backlinks.
13. Diversify Anchor Text: Use varied and natural anchor text to avoid over-optimization and penalties.
14. Build Relationships: Cultivate relationships within your industry to foster organic link-building opportunities.
15. Review Disavow Decisions: Periodically reassess your disavowal decisions to ensure you haven’t disavowed any valuable links.
16. Stay Informed: Keep up with SEO trends and search engine algorithm changes to adapt your disavow strategy.
17. Avoid Over-Disavowing: Be cautious not to disavow too many links, which can harm your site’s link profile.
18. Consult Experts: If unsure, seek advice from experienced SEO professionals before making significant disavow decisions.
19. Educate Team Members: If working in a team, ensure everyone understands the disavow process to prevent inadvertent mistakes.
20. Document Everything: Maintain records of your disavowal actions, updates to the disavow file, and their effects on your site’s performance.

The post The Complete Guide to Disavowing Links for Google and Bing appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

I think the acquisition could actually be the cornerstone of an important new Bing Ads strategy: the creation and expansion of a Microsoft Display Network.

Urgent Push for a Microsoft Display Network

Microsoft has never been a major player in display advertising. Currently, Bing Ads advertisers can place text ads on Microsoft’s owned and operated sites (like MSN Money), but that’s just a handful of sites, and targeting options are limited to rudimentary demographics.

Facebook and Google display advertising, on the other hand, account for billions in revenue for those two dominant players. Flexible hypertargeting capabilities have helped advertisers finally reap ROIs that rival those obtainable through search advertising.

Two recent developments underscore Microsoft’s sense of urgency:

1. First, Google just announced that they’re expanding their display network (already reaching, they say, 90 percent of all internet users) by the addition of Cross-Exchange Buying inventory.
2. Secondly, Facebook has been quietly building the size of its Facebook Audience Network to include people and sites outside the set of Facebook users. And they recently announced a new feature that will let advertisers target an even bigger audience.

3 Moves for Microsoft to Rival Google & Facebook

Look for Microsoft to muscle its way in and grab a big slice of the display ads pie. I see three big moves by Microsoft ahead:

• Step 1 will be the integration of Bing Ads and LinkedIn Advertising.
• Step 2 will be the introduction of additional ad sizes and formats for display advertising.
• For Step 3, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft grows its display network through other means, like additional acquisitions, or the creation of a publisher program to rival Google’s AdSense.

Long-time Microsoft watchers know that the Redmond giant rarely gets it right the first time, but time and again has “versioned” its way to dominance. Could the Bing Ads we know today be the Windows 3.1 of PPC advertising — and is Microsoft about to go all Windows 95 on us? A Microsoft Display Network would be a big play that would give display advertisers exciting new options for their ad dollars.

Want help getting more customers from search? Request a free PPC audit from David Szetela and the PPC team at BCI.

The post Szetela’s Scoop! Microsoft’s LinkedIn News May Imply More than LinkedIn Ad Integration for Bing Advertisers appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Search advertising is changing – it’s thinking beyond the keywords into action. It’s about audience, buying, actions, feeds and automation, digital assistants and predictions and global and mobile presence. Bing is developing tools, technology and platforms to help you do what you want to do. Bing is a part of the every day.

Bing is Integral to the Windows 10 Experience

Bing is integrated into Windows, Xbox, Microsoft Office and Cortana. Note: 1.5 billion people use Windows everyday. There’s a free upgrade for one year to current users. Windows has 75% market share.

• 200 million+ devices use Windows 10.
• 20% of Bing clicks and searches are from Windows 10.
• 30% more Bing queries with Windows 10 vs queries.

Microsoft Edge: go from search go doing with a new tap page, quick answers, and Cortana assistance. Cortana is integrated into the search bar.

With voice search, questions phrases are more likely to be used — who, what, when, where, why, how, etc.

Bing has found more clicks via persona assistant go to brand names.

Search queries in voice search use long tail phrases, where text searches are around 1-3 words.

Adapt for voice search by:

• Use questions words
• Modify bids based on intent
• Bid on your brand terms

In 2015, Bing’s market share has climbed to 20.90%, rising steadily year after year. In 2010, it was at 11.97%.

1 in 3 searches happens in the Bing network.

12% of search queries are new terms that haven’t been searched on Google

Bing Ad products that display in AOL search:

• Ad extensions
• Annotations
• Ad products

The AOL audience tends to spend more than the average user, have a college education, and is comprised of more females.

New Feature Deep Dive

Internal Bing data shows that 96% of site visitors leave websites without converting. Remarketing in paid search gives you a second chance to engage with these valuable audiences.

Remarketing in paid search allows you to upsell, cross sell, drive actions that are valuable to your business and improve your ROI.

5 Steps to Getting Started with Remarketing

1. Tag your website
2. Define your audiences
3. Add lists to ad groups
4. Adjust bids
5. Customize ads and keywords

The UET tag has two purposes: conversion tracking and remarketing. Identify, segment and target users based on the specific stage of the buying funnel. Define your audiences based on pages visited.

Don’t forget to use the Bing Ads Keyword Planner! Keywords are the foundation to any campaign. Find and improve your campaigns with Bing-network specific data.

Looking Ahead

Bing’s Recently Released Features

• Bing-powered AOL search
• Inline opportunities
• call-out extensions
• Review extensions
• Keyword Planner version 2
• Bing ads for iOs and Android Updates
• Cross-Partner Linking and Unlinking

To be Released by May

• Inline Download Phase 1
• Inline Keyword Diagnosis
• Agency IQ Management
• Segmentation Phase 1
• Europa

To be Released Eventually

• Upgraded Urls
• Bing Ads Editor 11
• App Install Ads
• Credit Limit Recognition
• Native Ads

The post Behind The Scenes With Bing #SMX appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

The truth is, inside an engine is a busy place. I spent nearly six years representing a search engine to the SEO industry and I can tell you that, contrary to many search engine optimization conspiracy theories, neither Bing nor Google have designs on harming businesses. Both do have profit motives, however, just like you do.

Updates happen because … pause for drum roll … something undesirable is happening!

What Motivates Search Engines?

Research suggests that WordPress powers about 25 percent of the World Wide Web’s sites. More websites use WordPress, but of those using it, they are not “higher traffic” sites. OK, that makes sense — WordPress powers blogs mostly, we can loosely infer.

Let’s say, for example, someone made a WordPress plugin that managed ads across one quarter of the Internet. And that WordPress plugin placed the ads above the content on a page. Obviously, on an individual level, this is a recipe for increased revenue. But taken across the entirety of the user base, if even a fraction of WordPress sites adopt the plugin, it results in a disturbing trend.

If the engine is judged by users on the quality of the experience the user sees after clicking through on a result, then this places the engine in a difficult position. Do you police for quality or do you “throw it over the fence” and declare it not your problem?

But see, it is the engine’s problem.

Google faces ever-growing competition. Competition that’s gaining, albeit slowly, and in some ways seeking to change the game. Bing faces a similar problem on the other side of the coin — satisfying searchers enough to convert them.

In either case, the common ground is making searchers happy.

Reread that, as it’s a critical and often-forgotten point. The engines do not exist to satisfy a business. They exist to satisfy searchers. More subtly, they exist to develop revenue, to source data, and to feed that data into inter-related systems across the companies operating them.

When Do Search Engines Make Updates?

So when someone builds a popular plugin for WordPress, again, and it shows a trend that goes against the goal of happy searchers, the engines take an action. In this example, Google gave us the Page Layout Algorithm back in 2012. On Bing’s side of the graph, while the updates aren’t named or publicized, they happen. Indeed, they happen frequently. So frequently, in fact, that it simply doesn’t make sense to announce everything.

It’s important to note here that, in many cases, updates are not “to fix something that’s broken.”

Updates are a move from one state to a more advanced state.

Maybe that’s a matter of perspective, but if you’re still asking me today about links, I’d say your perspective is wrong. Things change over time, and with thousands of smart people seeking to improve a product daily, things tend to keep moving. At the scale those projects work at, it can take time to manifest, but I’ve seen first-hand the changes at Bing.

If you think of Google as being a highway, every now and then you encounter a speed bump. It can be jarring. Everything is smooth, then suddenly WHAM! you hit an update. Bing, on the other hand, takes a different approach. The road surface at Bing is slightly less smooth overall, but once you’re up to speed, you don’t notice the slight surface irregularities. It feels smoother. Doesn’t mean things aren’t going on, just that your perception is it’s smoother.

This can help explain why ranking is harder in Bing at times, and more stable in the long run. And on that note, let the corrective comments, refuting examples and hate email start! I’m certain there are more than a few examples to rebut what I just suggested. But again, scale. When looked at not just across the sample set that even the biggest agency works with, the actual scale the engine operates at is enormously larger. In that context — the context of the engines — the statement makes sense.

How Do Engines Feel about SEO?

Does this all mean that the engines dislike SEOs, their tactics and businesses doing this work?

Nope. They readily recognize the improvements made by the work. The flip side is that the engines have to protect against gaming. This is why engines always take an arms-length approach.

The job of representing a search engine to the industry is not an easy one. I know. I was that face for Bing for about six years. Matt, Gary, John, Maile, now Christi Olson at Bing have all had to balance carefully. As individuals, all are approachable, helpful and knowledgeable. But that doesn’t mean any of us can give away secrets, or share things the engine wants kept secret. This is obvious, yet countless times at conferences the impossible is asked for, then derision heaped on socially when answers are not forthcoming.

The reality in some cases is that due to the structure of the product, it’s completely conceivable the person you’re speaking to may not have access to the information, or that something changed since the last time they connected internally on the topic. Bing has a few thousand employees working on search. Google has, what, maybe 20,000 applied to search in some degree? I grew up in a city of 30,000 people, so asking me to know all the information and be current is like asking me to know the details on two-thirds of a city. Unrealistic. Even at Bing’s smaller scale, it’s an unrealistic expectation.

The bottom line here is there will always exist a push/pull reality. Engines want the improvements that optimization brings to a product, but they cannot be trusting to the point where results suffer. And in a space where searchers are growing ever savvier, ever clearer about expected results, it might seem like changes being made are punitive to businesses. But the reality is they are designed to appeal to searchers.

How Can Businesses Appeal to Search Engines?

Now, what might happen if your efforts were all geared towards improving the users’ experience, meeting their expectations and providing the highest quality result for their need? Do you think that might be something the engine would want to showcase?

So what should you expect from a search engine?

Exactly what they’ve given us for years. A lack of in-depth answers in some instances, rapid change and advancement, a searcher-first mentality, and a drive for revenue. We all know these are the ground rules. So why is it so hard for businesses to adapt?

There’s a better approach for businesses to take when it comes to SEO and rankings.

Don’t cater to search engines. Cater to users. Don’t settle for search engine optimization. Think bigger — user experience optimization. Internet marketing is SEO, PPC, content development, social media marketing, website design, and conversion optimization. Businesses are born to serve customers. Get back to your roots with your Internet marketing.

The post What Should You Expect from a Search Engine? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Founding Editor, Search Engine Land (@dannysullivan)

Speaker: Cindy Krum, CEO, MobileMoxie (@suzzicks)

Predictive Search: How It’s Changing Our Interaction with Technology

We’re going to talk about predictive search (PS), and that’s an exciting area for search. Danny is jaded, yet this gets him excited.

Some questions that will be covered in this session include:

• What is the future of predictive search and where is it going?
• What are the signals used to predict searches?
• What do predictive search results look like?

PS is exciting, but it’s changing quickly.

What is predictive search and why is it important?

Search engines take all the information they can gather and give you an answer before you search. To predict a person’s needs, they use:

• User’s current context
• Historical personal behavior patterns
• Aggregated behavior patterns
• Active solicitation of information

This enables search on connected devices. This is important because technology is evolving and more of our devices are connected. Things like casting options in Chromecast are allowing more things to be web-enabled.

Predictive search has some strong use cases. There are lots of things you may want to search, but they don’t have a keyboard or even a screen.

Wearables, for instance, are a strong category for growth. Predictive search is the best answer on wearable devices because it means you’re not talking out loud, although voice search is the second option. The presentation layer (where the information is displayed) is very small.

What is Google Now?

Google Now’s two main characteristics:

1. Card formatting – You’ll see items formatted in the shape of a card to provide one screen’s worth of information. Cards show up automatically based on your history.
2. Voice search

Google Now is cross-device. We see it on wearables, mobile, desktop and TV.

What signals are used to drive PS results and what do those results look like?

Current signals contributing to predictive search:

• Where are you?
• How fast are you moving?
• What day is it?
• What time is it?

Google Now looks at what you usually do on that day and time (in the past) to give a prediction response without your asking.

What signals are used to predict searches?

Google aggregates the apps to see a combined “you.”

Google Now: App Notifications

There’s an option for showing you a notification in a Google Now result. Here are some examples of what these Google Now cards might look like:

Google Now email integrations:

If emails are marked up for an action behavior, Google can include that information in a Google Now card. It’s especially common in travel-type notifications. There’s a tool in Search Console that can be used to test the markup you’re developing to add to your email HTML.

Cross-device data collection:

You can see that Google connects a previous search from your desktop and brings it up on your phone. Even just typing “s” brings up a previous search query in the suggestions.

You never gave permission for Google to connect your mobile and desktop devices. It just does that because it knows you’re logging in on both devices. Because desktops/laptops don’t usually have GPS devices built in, Google Now will base your location on the location of your phone. If you leave your phone at home and do a Google search from another location, it will get your location data from your phone and think you’re in the wrong place.

YouTube and Google Play are other apps that Google Now will try to combine data from into your profile.

Those are examples of passive data collection. Google also solicits information from you, for instance:

There’s also an app called Google Opinion Rewards — you get asked your opinion on different things and are rewarded with points that you can use to buy things. #bigdata

Examples of Predictive Search Results

Here are some of the cards you’ll see:

• Stocks
• Weather
• Reminders/calendar
• Sports
• Shopping
• Travel
• TV shows
• Travel and transportation
• Parking locations
• Public transportation delays
• Traffic and alternate routes
• Flight and train tickets
• Meeting reminders based on travel time
• Activities
• Nearby events
• Nearby attractions
• Nearby photo spots
• And the list is growing every day

Google Now is predicting that when you’re traveling, you’ll need to know more things about where you are. It’ll also give you weather for where you are and your home town.

Controlling offline devices:

• Nest is the thermostat Google runs.
• You can use Google Now as your remote control.
• When you’re setting up your Google Now, it solicits information about your entertainment providers.

It pulls your ZIP code and all of your providers to make recommendations for you.

Voice Search and TV Audio Search

You can listen to the TV and get more information about the episode you’re watching.

Real-time TV suggestions and from-SERP reminders are based on what Google Now knows you like. Because you’ve watched this before, it’ll give you suggestions.

Reminders for Live TV and Links to Online Episodes

These types of reminders help Google sell more advertising. They also gain more traction for the Google Play service.

You can tell that the right-side image is a Google Now result because of the menu along the bottom.

There are relationships between similar shows derived from Google+ and Google Now.

Today, Google Chrome v2 was announced. It has more interactive and gaming options. Because so many media devices don’t have a keyboard, using voice search capabilities that they’re learning from Google Now is going to help Google web-enable more things.

Google Now and Android Wear

What is Cortana?

The main difference between Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant is that Cortana has less information about you. This is because Microsoft is not as integrated in people’s lives.

Cortana integrates with Windows 10. This might be promising, but it hasn’t taken off yet.

Because it doesn’t have as much information on you, it solicits information about you, such as restaurants you like or things you never want to see.

What is the future of predictive search?

Google Now on Tap = Mobile OS Central Interface

Google Now on Tap provides better and more predictive search results that integrate more seamlessly with your web and app behavior.

Lots of new cards in SERPs:

She thinks we’ll see a blurring of lines between Chrome searches, voice search, and Google Now (as well as between apps and the web). She thinks that Google Now will be the start screen, where Google has you begin. Google’s Android M(arshmallow) is sticky enough to bring together the app and the web world. The more they’re able to marry the app to the web world, the less work they’ll have to do to index it and get people to it. And the better it will be for users and to maintain.

When that happens, we’ll see more inter-app operability and deep link integration of apps in search results.

Verified App Deep Links

For Android devices, web links can automatically open apps. She gives these tips for handling app links (and suggests https://developer.android.com/training/app-links/index.html for developer-level information):

• Create intent filters within an app for website URLs.
• Configure the app to request verification of app links.
• Publish a digital asset links JSON file on the website.

Click a blue link and you don’t have to worry about whether its app or web — that’s what Google is going for.

There will be more casting functions, listening functions and music cards. Worldwide, Google Play Music is one of the most installed apps.

Sponsored Google Now Cards: Pay to Play

In one example, Cindy had been viewing a dress on Target, then she saw a Google Now card of the dress with a price drop.

More use of photo learning, like the current ability to find “visually similar products,” which is a way to get in front of people with similar products. Get your product that’s similar to a popular product in front of people with a similar photo. If the photo is on a woman, use a woman in your photo, and if on a mannequin, use a mannequin.

There are more interactive cards coming.

Google Now, Microsoft Cortana and predictive search are changing everything from how we find things to how we interact with our devices.

The post Google Now, Microsoft Cortana & the Predictive Search World – #SMX Liveblog appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Anything to announce?
Nope.

What about changes to the name Bing Webmaster Tools?
Duane: Bing Webmaster Tools is the only tool in Microsoft that hasn’t had a name change in the last year!

Can the Knowledge Graph sort through bad and incomplete data to identify brands at the local level?
Gary: That’s the goal. I don’t know anything about local SEO.

Can you tell us more about Google’s hotel booking engine?
Danny says that this question will be answered in the Ask the SEMs session happening now in another room.

Updates on crawling AJAX and JavaScript?
Gary: There’s a blog post being finalized right now. It’ll be sent out for final approval next week and published 2 weeks. No longer recommending AJAX crawling scheme. We’re not deprecating AJAX but no longer recommending AJAX crawling scheme, the weird escaped fragment. We’ve tried to make sure whatever publishers have will continue to work and not deprecate the index. They want the crawlers to be able to crawl hashbang and other URL fragments.

In this blog post, Google will recommend snapshots because it might be better for users, not for Google. If you generate a snapshot on your server, that can be loaded much faster. That’s a simple HTML rather than reading resources. For users, snapshots are great. [Editor’s note: Google published the blog post here.]

Duane on AJAX: Bing has run into the same problems as Google, and he agrees with what Gary explained. Nothing to announce at this time.

Does Bing still use meta keywords?
Duane: Simple answer is, not in the way you think if you’re looking at meta keywords and thinking they have any impact on ranking. Their usefulness is in other areas. They’re clues. Contextual ad networks may take your meta keywords for relevance. If you’re going to do them, then don’t stuff keywords into them. Matt Cutts said that if you’re thinking about meta keywords for SEO, you’re already thinking in the wrong direction. But there’s a lot more to running a business than SEO. You may still want to do them for serving relevant contextual ads, for instance. Don’t keyword stuff because you won’t get a pass from Bing for doing manipulative SEO things.

Danny says that Google still uses meta keywords for Google News. Barry Schwartz is sitting next to me and nodding vehemently. Gary says he doesn’t know.

What’s going on with Google+ and why’s it so hard to combine profiles? Did you have to worry about it for search?

Gary says you never had to worry about Google+ for SEO. Danny says that the +1 button was put into search and Google said it was one thing they might be looking at. For signed-in Google users, Google+ signals can influence content ranking.

The partnership between Google and Twitter means that there’s integration of tweets in search results, mobile and desktop.

Do you look at links in Twitter posts?
Gary: He doesn’t know of any such plans. In general, using social signals in search ranking is a terrible idea. The social network you’re working with may just shut off the fire hose, and what if your ranking system relies on it? Search engines need long-term, reliable, consistent ranking signals.

Duane: Predominantly, social data is used for the Knowledge area. It can be used for ranking, like a check and balance, but as Gary mentioned, you can’t rely on it. But if there are social signals such as a high number of followers, then it supports the rest of the data.

Danny asks: Is this right? Bing doesn’t penalize for paid links, just discounts them. Google comes down on paid links on both sides of the link.

Duane encourages people to step back and look at a higher level. If your plan is to buy links and hope Gary doesn’t notice it and Bing doesn’t penalize it, what is the value of the link?

Inbound traffic, Duane says, still has merit. He tells businesses that when pursuing links, be smart about it. It’s easy to tell the algorithm that when you see new links, don’t pass any value for the first 90 days.

“If you want to dumb it all down into a sound bite: Take this approach: get links naturally. Produce an awesome experience. If you crack the quality content nut, you’ll be rewarded,” Duane advises.

It’s incredibly important to study and get in the minds of millennials. Every brand is susceptible to millennials right now. Authenticity. Quality of engagement. Millennials don’t care about brands. They care about experiences and authenticity. It will come back to you as links. If millennials judge you first, search engines pick up on that.

Gary: People are thinking about what Bing or Google wants. That’s the wrong approach. Most sites and businesses that don’t think about millennials will be going out of business. He’ll add to Duane’s description that millennials have short attention spans. If you can keep it to five minutes, then you’re in a good span.

Duane: There’s also the amount of time you have to get their five-minute investment. That’s seconds. Millennials will see the largest transfer of wealth when their parents die, in the next 10 years. This is a generation that was pounded by the recession, stayed in school longer, got more advanced degrees, and are getting higher paying jobs. This is the money you seek. Are you ready for a day when there isn’t such thing as a search engine as we know it? Apps are like vertical search engines. Millennials are used to that search experience. Search is the data layer powering the experiences. So how are you working your way into that? How are you getting your work in front of these people in a meaningful way to drive value or save the existence of your company? Typing into a box is soon going to be a quaint idea.

The topic transitions to voice search.

You can do voice search where the context flows from query to query. Apps like Google Now and Cortana are expected to answer these follow-on, context implied queries. The answers come from public data. If you’re building your business around public data, that’s not the best idea. Provide something more that users want.

Any stats on if people are using the Cortana search button?
Duane: 100 percent of voice search happens vocally.

Best practices for content syndication?
For other business purposes, it might have merit. If you’re using it as an SEO tool, or link building exercise, that’s not a good thing. For duplicate content, Bing isn’t at 100 percent correct attribution. A lot of smart things can be done to signal the original content to search engines. Canonical. A block that says that the content is from a syndication partner.

Gary: There’s no duplicate content penalty. If many pages duplicate the same content, they pick the canonical from the cluster of pages. A bigger problem is if you think you’re doing something legitimate, like selling your content to another site, and you might have problems.

What about HTTPS for ecommerce sites?
Gary: Don’t do it for the ranking boost. Do it for users. You never know where your user is.

Duane: It’s tough for engines to take a line on security. We’re all in for safety for our own users, employees and customers. If you want to wrap your head around these concepts, read a book called “Future Crimes” by Mark Goodman. This ex-FBI agent explains how porous everything is and how far and fast data spreads. This explains why search engines are recommending it. This book keeps Duane up at night and made him depressed. Private browsing in a Firefox window — anything like this is window dressing to security. That’s the level of problem solving they’re dealing with at the engines, and seeing how they can rationally influence what’s happening to businesses.

Will Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools treat HTTP and HTTPS versions of my site as being part of the same domain?
Gary’s evasive.
Duane: He pushes for things like that. Tools are powered by a series of other services that the search engine uses. The net effect is that they may want to integrate that, but it requires other teams to make changes.

Why is a scraper site outranking me?
Gary: When a scraper copies your site, search engines are pretty good at discovering the original source. If your site is not ranking for your content, there might be something on your site dampening its rankings.
Duane: He gives a warning about using DMCA requests too much.

What’s the best URL structure or site architecture for an international, multi-language hub site?
Gary: It doesn’t matter. Use locale and language identifiers. It doesn’t matter in the end. If you use hreflang, you can specify exact language and locale. It’s not necessarily good to think about what will be good for a search engine. Think about what users will want.

Duane: It depends on your business. If you have a big office in France, you probably want a .fr. If you’re a U.S. business who wants to touch an area, then you may want it in a folder. It’s all about giving the search engines as many signals as possible. The folder may be the way to go so that all the content is collected for you. This page is for this product for customers in France, please rank it as such. This is a level of audience segmentation that you need to know about. In France, the mindset is very nationalistic. They default to it as much in their daily life as possible. So, you may find that sites with a .fr would be more trusted by a French national.

How is page speed playing into Google rankings? The PageSpeed Insights tool only ever recommends browser caching.
Gary: Page speed is great. Optimize your site for your users because users like fast sites. We also talk about attention spans, because people demand the content fast. How do you create fast sites? Web Speed Test, a bunch of resources you can check for making a site faster. You can compress JS, CSS, HTML, convert images …

Duane: (He picks up where Gary leaves off.) … Less dependencies on third parties. Here’s one more way speed matters for SEO. The faster a user clicks back from a SERP click-through, the faster you’ll rank lower.

Danny picks up that this is an admission that Bing uses click data for ranking.

Duane uses a suspicious voice and says “Do we?” and he says he doesn’t disagree.

Gary: Google uses click-through data when they’re experimenting with new features. Google uses click-through data in personalization and disambiguation (like searches for Apple). Other use of click-through data and user signals is a real pain.

Duane: If you look at all of the data, that’s a lot of noise. It’s not easy to use user signals. You can’t trust the data you’re seeing because there are outside influences. Bing also looks at click-through data in experiments to see how it influences usability.

Why does the number of results on a Bing SERP change?
It’s experimentation. The number of items on a page generally differs by topic. There’s an above-the-fold page real estate issue that they have to deal with. The more they understand data from a source, the more comfortable they feel answering the query.

Referrer spam in analytics — when will Google handle that?
Gary: The issue is being escalated. There’s a plug-in you can use now.

Why did Google go from 7 to 3 in the Local Pack?
No answers.

Penguin and Panda?
Gary: Panda is rolling out. Gary checked it yesterday. The new Panda update will be a multi-month update. (Note: This is news!)
Regarding Penguin, Gary says it’s rolling out in the foreseeable future. He won’t give a specific date or else Barry will get him in trouble again. The next Penguin will be a real-time algorithm factor, and he is hoping it will be before the end of the year. He’s not working on Penguin, though.

Safe to use anchor links on page?
Yes.

Should we avoid giving you too much structured data because you’ll cut our pages out of SERPs?
Gary: The assumption that a search engine will drive you out of results for rich data is wrong. Sites getting featured snippets see increased clicks.

Does using incognito search give impersonalized SERPs?
Everything is personalized at least by geographic region.

Google’s @methode says leave authorship markup on page, never know when the team will start using it again.

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) October 1, 2015

Will disavow data be cut off prior to the next update?
Gary: Keep your disavow files up-to-date. When Google moves Penguin to a real-time version, it won’t matter when you submit your disavow files.

The post Meet the Search Engines: Bing’s Duane Forrester and Google’s Gary Illyes Answer SEO Questions appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Anyone who knows Duane Forrester, Bing’s senior product marketing manager, knows he’s a got a ton of SEO knowledge to share, plus personality to go with it (he is, after all, the U.S. Search Awards reigning Search Personality of the Year). Duane joined Bruce Clay in the studio for a special episode of digital marketing podcast SEM Synergy.

The podcast episode is 30 minutes filled with future-forward perspective on a lot of the search engine optimization industry’s favorite topics — from how and when wearable tech will really take off to the emergence of digital assistants like Cortana and Siri.

Listen to the full interview here:

Read on for highlights from this exclusive interview with Duane Forrester. You don’t want to miss it when he sounds off on:

• Why Google Glass actually matters
• What users really want from mobile search
• The growth of mobile-specific algorithms
• How Duane uses technology to overcome human flaws
• Bing’s approach to SEO wish lists
• Why search engines are as transparent as they’d like to be

Duane Forrester on Why Google Glass Matters

Everyone saw Google Glass come and go. I had Glass. I still have Glass. I still don’t use it. It didn’t meet my expectations but in some ways it exceeded my expectations because it was a first generation object moving us in a direction (towards wearables and augmented reality).

“What #GoogleGlass does is expose society to the coming change.” — @DuaneForrester
Click To Tweet

The biggest thing that something like Glass does is expose society to the coming change. Now you start to see things like Hollow Lens and you see all of these ideas that are natural low growths. Let’s be clear, all of these things were under development at the same time. You don’t bring something to market just after something else goes off the market because it took you a month to develop it. These are years in development and the time you roll out is generally decided by a number of factors, the least of which would be a competitors product.

Virtual reality, augmented reality, I personally can’t wait for these things. I’ve already told my wife to clear the credit card because whenever ones comes from market, doesn’t matter what the price is it’s coming home and that will be it. This is where Google Glass was pivotal for us. It’s that first iteration. It’s that gen one of a product. That gen one taught us that being able to talk to our technology, as goofy as it felt the first few times, actually had tangible benefits for me. Now we have things like Cortana on my phone. I’m constantly talking to my phone now. What’s entertaining and intriguing about it is that she talks back to me. I can carry an ongoing conversation across multiple points of reference just like I would with a human being and the system understands that what I mean is a continuation of the conversation, not individual, individual, individual each time but a continuation. Things have really progressed.

What Users Really Want on Mobile

Someone doesn’t necessarily want the latest, beautiful 3D movie playing in the background on their handheld device because they’re walking down the street trying to get to a location because they want dinner at this restaurant. The first thing in their mind is I want to go to dinner, not what does this experience look like and how do I feel about this place. It’s “get me to my location.” It’s “give me the object I want right now.”

Users don’t necessarily want the latest, beautiful 3D movie playing on #mobile — @DuaneForrester
Click To Tweet

The Growth of Mobile-Specific Algorithms

If you don’t render a good experience on mobile then you lose the affinity of the people. They generally becoming dissatisfied with you and they kind of move away. We face that same wall as everyone else does except the problem that we have is we also have the added hassle of we have to return the result and it has to nail it every time or people are disappointed with us.

If you don’t render a good experience on #mobile then you lose the affinity of the people.
Click To Tweet

People aren’t disappointed with the website that’s poorly designed and doesn’t render well — they’re disappointed with the search engine because we didn’t give them a good result. To avoid that, you see this growth of the mobile-specific algorithms happening. There’s a very good reason for it because it makes it a lot easier to be able to go into that environment and assure that that user, when they are on a mobile device, is getting the best possible mobile experience …

The natural growth is you will see that algorithms develop specifically for the mobile environment. You’ll see things like tags that are mobile friendly so that the searcher then has some indication.

That’s a step for us to help the searcher understand but it is a very long road to walk down because it doesn’t matter how much you actually put that out there, the general population of users will take a long time to adapt to that change and say, “Oh, hang on a second. I get it, so if it’s tagged as mobile friendly I have a better experience when I go there.” It is something that we feel is an important step to alert people to.

How Duane Uses Technology to Overcome Human Flaws

I was going out the other day and I promised my wife I would pick up the mail on the way home. I am probably the worst human being on the planet for making these innocuous commitments and then totally spacing out on them and just not …

Walking in the house happy that I’m home and hoping everyone’s happy to see me and being genuinely baffled when I’m asked where’s the mail and seeing the disappointment because I had previously promised I would get it. I grab my phone and I said set a reminder and it said what. I said get the mail. When? When I am near home again. That’s the when.

These digital assistants understand proximity to a location. They understand location because it tracks my time there over a period of time. Over about a three-week period of time my assistant looked at my pattern of whether I was in the office, whether I was at home and it determined that home was where I was when I was there for a long period of time overnight.

Bing’s Approach to SEO Wish Lists

There’s no sense being coy about this — there’s absolutely a wish list of items that comes to me. I never don’t get wish list items. That is a consistent inflow. What’s remarkable to me is how much overlap there often is. There’s a lot of chatter that happens in the industry and comes up. You’ll have different versions of the same concept basically. Then from there we have to look at it and understand what the business implications are for Bing.

Obviously if we will invest our resources, there has to be some return on that for Bing. Sometimes the return can simply be if you build a better website, the better the quality the search results are, the better it is for Bing. Other times the resources, the return on that resource investment has to be much more direct. A lot of ideas are great ideas but then the resourcing behind them, it may be a two and a half million dollar a month cost to us to actually enable that at the level it’s desired. I can tell you right now, right? Webmaster tools is not a cost center. We don’t make money.

Why Search Engines Aren’t as Transparent as They’d Like

If there were no such thing as black hat tactics, I think you’d see (Webmaster Tools) being even more transparent and even more helpful. Ultimately, if I want you to paint your barn blue it would be probably good if I called you, talked to you and sent you an email asking you to paint your barn blue …

The problem right now is that if I go around telling everybody they need more blue barns then suddenly all these fake blue barns start popping up and it becomes really difficult to separate an actual blue barn from a fake blue barn. This will always be a challenge. This is why you see this gap that exists, right? We, otherwise, wish there was no gap and it never existed.

To listen to more free SEM Synergy podcasts, check us out on iTunes. New shows air every Wednesday at 3 p.m. PT on WebmasterRadio.fm. Join Bruce Clay, Virginia Nussey, Mindy Weinstein, Robert Ramirez and me for lively discussion on digital marketing hot topics every week!

The post Interview with Bing’s Duane Forrester: Looking Into the Future of Search & Tech appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

We recently accomplished AdWords Quality Score improvements for one of our clients by addressing CTR and ad relevance alone — things you can do, too! Here we get in to how we were able to achieve it, but first let’s understand Google’s formal definition and the components of Quality Score.

Google’s Definition of Quality Score

Google AdWords Help defines Quality Score as: An estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing page. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.

• The components of Quality Score (expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience) are determined every time your keyword matches a customer’s search.
• You can get a general sense of your ad quality in the “Keyword Analysis” field of your account (reported on a 1-10 scale). You can find this by selecting the Keywords tab and clicking on the white speech bubble next to any keyword’s status.
• The more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you’ll see higher 1-10 Quality Scores and benefit from having higher quality components of your Ad Rank, like a higher position or lower CPC.

Now that we understand Google’s definition of Quality Score, how can you, the SEM account manager, improve it? Know that the tactics described here also address Bing Ads’ quality scoring calculations (outlined here) and should improve your Bing Quality Score as well.

We know there are three main components used to determine Quality Score for AdWords and Bing:

1. Expected CTR
2. Ad relevance
3. Landing page experience

It’s not uncommon to hear feedback from clients and agencies alike that the landing page component is the most costly and time consuming to improve. This is because, as mentioned earlier, changes to landing pages can require the involvement of individuals on many teams, like designers and web developers and IT pros. That’s okay. While you’re waiting for those beautiful landing pages to come to fruition, you can still improve the other two components and see tangible results. On to the optimizing!

Refine Your Campaign Structure

Having a well-designed and executed campaign structure is key. Many times we’re asked what the ideal campaign structure is, and our collective answer is, you guessed it: “It depends!” As with almost everything else, what works for one account may not work for another. Therefore, we recommend basing your campaign structure on the following elements:

1. Performance: Let the data guide how you structure your keyword sets. By analyzing historical cost and conversion data, you can begin to group like-performing keywords into their appropriate groups.

Tip: Start by grouping keywords into two general buckets — high purchase intent vs. research-based keywords — and continue to refine keyword groups from there.

2. Match Types: Time and time again, we find significant differences in performance amongst the various match types. Here’s an example straight from the account that we recently optimized. Sometimes, segmenting your ad groups or campaigns by match type will give you more granular control by which to analyze performance. In addition, you can custom tailor your ad copy to each match type set.

Tip: Think about creating ad groups based on similar expected click-through rate and by ad relevance! By improving your match type selection and ad copy, you’ll improve these two Quality Score levers over time.

3. Landing Pages: While you may not be able to modify or create landing pages, you can stick to the best ones you’ve got. Use your account data to understand the landing pages that perform best from both a user engagement (bounce rate, time on site) and conversion rate perspective, and only direct traffic to those pages. With our example client, the account was utilizing 10 landing pages for five keyword themes, with two landing pages per theme. After analyzing our data, we found that the pages with the best engagement metrics also had the best conversion rate (surprise, surprise). It just so happened that these pages also had a better utilization of our PPC keywords and better tied in with our ad copy.

Tip: Think landing page experience. Put your lowest performing landing pages on the sidelines and direct all traffic to your top performing landing pages in terms of site engagement and conversion. Google will see an overall improvement to the landing page experience.

Refine Your Keyword Selection

We already touched a bit on this with the match type discussion. However, in addition to knowing which match types to focus on, it is also important to review the actual keywords your bidding on. As mentioned, try to segment your “purchase” keywords from your “research” keywords. In addition, be sure to review your negative keyword selection, as this is an all-to-often overlooked element.

For our example client, we reviewed all account data, including search query reports, and modified both our positive and negative keyword lists to better align with our performance goals.

Refine Your Ad Copy

Again, let the data tell you what to do here. In our example account, we were running multiple ad copy variations per keyword theme. When we analyzed the data, we eliminated the poor-performing variations and introduced new variations to test. This exercise also ensured that our ad copy was best aligned with our keywords and landing pages.

Ad testing is a process that will help to improve click-through rate (CTR) over time, which should help improve Quality Score!

The Results

By following the steps outlined above, we were able to increase our client’s impression-weighted AdWords Quality Score by 18%! This goes to show how having a well-built campaign structure can improve your Quality Score. Over time, we will pay less per click to achieve our ad positions, give searchers a better experience and capture additional conversions for our client!

Have any interesting tricks or observations you’ve used in your accounts to improve Quality Score? Please share!

The post How to Improve Quality Score without Modifying Your Landing Pages appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DF:

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

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

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

Fiction

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

Business

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

Reality

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

KK: What are your personal resolutions for 2015?

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

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

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