Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category
Google to Personalize ALL Search Results
8 Dec 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
Take a look at today’s blog post from SEO Roundtable: Google is now personalizing search results for all users by default. Which means a search performed on 10 machines could pull up 10 different results pages.
Previously, Google was personalizing results only for users logged in to their own Google Accounts. Now, by default, Google will customize search results for every user based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in the browser.
To say Google is trying to discourage rank-checking is an understatement. Too early to tell if this development will automatically favor websites with a huge reach, or if it will help to meet the needs of each and every searcher. Or both.
Google Adwords: The Conversion Comes First
20 Oct 2009
by Timothy Nolan
It may sound like a “Captain Obvious” statement, but when developing a Google Adwords campaign (or any online marketing strategy for that matter) it is essential to create goals and define conversions, for the following reasons:
1. Analytics: Meaning and Purpose
When looking at trends and analyzing data for an internal site or external client, the numbers mean nothing without context (a conversion rate). I have been looking through some of the campaigns for a major client. The numbers themselves seem to be moving in a positive direction, but without an identified end result I have no way of interpreting any of the trends.
2. Keyword Success
Perhaps you have been looking at your Adwords campaign thinking, “How can I ever increase these numbers?” It is much easier to analyze data that already exists. With goals, funnels, and conversion rates established, it is easy to tweak and test new ad groups against the current successful ones. By establishing goal conversions you can notice keyword success and decrease costs.
3. Visitors vs. Clients
Just as an established sales cycle helps companies close sales quicker, studying conversion rates is the key to quickly turning clicks into revenue streams. The conversion “ding” in your Analytics account will help to identify where that individual came from, what they looked at, and how they ended up converting. Now you can use that information to gain insights into what visitors are thinking.
Conversions Defined
Each one of these can be defined as a conversion:
- Download
- Purchase
- Sign-up/Subscribe
- View of a video(s)
- Click-thru
Don’t forget the landing page(s). A customized landing page and a prominent call to action makes it more likely visitors will follow your Reese’s Pieces (had to have an “E.T.” reference) to the end. But whatever the case may be, make sure that the goals are set on your end, and the path is illuminated on theirs.
Just Because Google’s Matt Cutts Says Meta-Keywords Don’t Matter Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Important
23 Sep 2009
by Jonathan Thomas
Matt Cutts managed to shock the SEO world yesterday by confirming something that many of us already suspected, that Google does not use meta-keyword data to determine it’s search rankings.
Back in the early days of SEO, people discovered that they could easily game a search engine by manipulating meta-keywords. The Search Engines caught on quickly and that pretty much ended the prominence of meta-keywords in search results.
And now, Google says they don’t care about meta-keywords and in fact, it hasn’t used them in years.
But just because Google doesn’t care about your meta-keywords doesn’t meant that they don’t have value – SEO or otherwise.
Here’s our reasons why you should still spend time developing your meta-keywords.
1. They Help YOU
Taking the time to write your meta keywords will force you to sit down and think about what content will be on a given page. It will give you ideas for how to target your content and overall give you an idea of what a page, and your site in general is going to be ‘about.’ Those are all factors that will help you develop the best search engine targeted content.
2. Google Is Not the Only Search Engine
While Google drives a huge percentage of organic traffic, we must not forget that there are still many other search engines out there – and I’m not just talking about Yahoo and Bing. Google may be forsaking using meta-keywords, but that doesn’t mean that every other search engine doesn’t use them. Other search bots may expect those keywords to be there – so, they should. You never know if your next biggest client will come through some obscure search engine you’ve never heard of.
3. Bot Friendly
Your site gets crawled by more than just search bots – it’s constantly being crawled by many other services, whether its RSS bots, blog indexers, etc – those bots count on your meta keywords being there to get an accurate picture of what’s on a page.
4. Using Web Services and Social Media
Many social media websites and other web services that utilize your web content take advantage of tags to help parse your profiles. When it comes to submitting your website to all these services, oftentimes the easiest thing to do is to use your meta-keywords as tags. They’re already written and they’re already there. It saves you having to write them over and over for the many social media websites out there.
5. Baseline for PPC
Another way they help you is when it comes time to setup a PPC campaign. The best place to find keywords to get you started is to look no further than your meta-keywords. They will provide a good springboard in developing your keyword lists for all your PPC campaigns.
So, there you have it. While Google may be flushing meta-keywords down the toilet – they’re still useful and we will continue to recommend to our clients that they’re developed.
The SEO Value of the Wikipedia
21 Aug 2009
by Jonathan Thomas
There is none.
But that doesn’t make links from Wikipedia worthless.
First, let me explain why Wikipedia links have no SEO value. Wikipedia has one of the highest pageranks you can get – it’s usually at the top of the search results for anything located in it’s massive database.
Because of this, Wikipedia is well aware that it would not take long for people to start gaming Wikipedia for free high quality backlinks since anyone can edit a Wikipedia article. So, to make sure no one abuses external links on Wikipedia, all external links are no-follow – meaning they are not counted as links by the search engine spiders.
You can add all the links you want to Wikipedia, but it will not help your pagerank in anyway.
However, just because they are not counted as backlinks, does not mean that they aren’t valuable.
Including links in the Wikipedia is a good, old fashioned marketing strategy. Look at it this way. Since most people are likely to read a Wikipedia article about a particular subject, they’re more likely to click relevant links related to that article. So, don’t you want to make sure your links are there for people to find?
To give you an example, on my personal blog Anglotopia – which is a blog dedicated to the Anglophile audience, I wanted to generate more traffic for the generic term Anglophile. If you search for ‘anglophile’ in Google, the Wikipedia definition is first. I went to the page, edited it and added a few relevant Anglophile websites, with mine at the top.
I now get a few high quality hits a day from that very Wikipedia article. I may not be getting any SEO link juice, but I’m at least getting some great traffic.
Now, generally it can be a little difficult to edit a Wikipedia article, especially if it’s moderated by a lot of people. Your edits/links may get rejected. I’ve found it just take a little persistence and it’s important to add value to a Wikipedia article, not just spam it with links.
So, go out there are find a relevant Wikipedia article and experiment with adding a link to your website. Watch your analytics reports and see what happens.
Twitter Search Results on Google
5 Aug 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
One of my very favorite tools is a Firefox add-on from Userscripts.org called Twitter Search Results on Google. As the name implies, you enter a search-term in Google and the resulting SERP displays the most recent 5 tweets for that query, giving both real-time Twitter search results and Google results on the same page. You don’t have to be a Twitter subscriber to use it … Just a Firefox user.
Worth noting: I’ve used this Firefox add-on since March with no glitches at all. Today, I upgraded to Firefox ver. 3.5.2 and the add-on still works. 
Below is a SERP for the term “custom publishing” … pretty cool.
Screenshot: Twitter Results for Google
Imagination is Hitting the Road for Blog Indiana Next Month
16 Jul 2009
by Jonathan Thomas
I wanted to let everyone know about a great blogging and social media conference taking place next month in Indianapolis called Blog Indiana. I’ll be attending the conference and I’ll speaking about Blogging Platforms.
Blog Indiana is a statewide conference featuring the best bloggers from all around Indiana. The goal of the conference is to learn everything we can about blogging from each other. Whether that’s improving our personal blogs or helping our companies make the best use of blogging in their business model.
The conference is jam packed this year with great speakers, including: Christ Brogan, Jason Falls, Chris Baggott and Brad Ward. Last year was awesome and everyone learned quite a bit. The best part was being able to meet and talk to other great bloggers.
On top of the two day conference this year, there is going to be three special summits running concurrently. There will be one about Higher Education, Non-Profits and Social Media.
I’ll be there representing Imagination Publishing and I’ll be speaking in two sessions about How to Choose Blogging Platform. I am very excited about speaking this year and it will be a great chance for people to learn how to best choose a blogging platform for personal or business use.
Blog Indiana is being held in Indianapolis, IN from August 13th to August 15th at the IUPUI Campus in beautiful downtown Indy. If you’re interested in attending, you can buy tickets on their website.
If you have any questions about the conference or have suggestions for what I should cover in my presentation, feel free to leave a comment.
For more information, check out the Blog Indiana Website here.
SEO Corner – How to Move Your Google Analytics Account
14 Jul 2009
by Jonathan Thomas
Google Analytics is quickly becoming the web standard for web analytics. The data it provides is awesome and the fact that it’s free makes it easy to adopt in a lot of organizations.
One problem with it though, is that many people sign up for Google Analytics with their personal Gmail accounts when they get started. This creates problems over data ownership if that person ever moves on to another job or gets hit by a bus.
It can also be a pain if several people within an organization have different Google Analytics accounts, it can be a nightmare for SEO’s to navigate. There is no official way to move your Google Analytics data out of one account to another – a frustrating limitation. But we’ve discovered a great workaround.
It’s pretty simple actually and we’ll walk you through it.
First Step – Create New Account
Create the new account you want to use for all your Google Analytics accounts. This requires a Gmail account then registering for Google Analytics.
Second Step – Add New Account
Log into the Google Analytics account you want to move and go to the users control panel, there is a link below your URL list.
Add the new Google Analytics Account as an Administrator and then logout.
Third Step – Remove Old Account
Log into your new account and you should see all your websites there. Now, the trick is to go to the user accounts and either downgrade the other user or remove them completely.
And that’s it, with that simple procedure you can move your valuable Google Analytics data to a completely new account. So, take some time and gather all the disparate Google Analytics accounts in your organization and consolidate them into one account. You’ll be saving yourself a lot of time and headaches.
SEO Corner: Title Tags Still Matter
10 Jul 2009
by Jonathan Thomas
When publishing content on the web, it’s always important to optimize page titles for the best SEO Goodness. Most people don’t really think much about the title and just sort of throw it together, but your title is a very important aspect of SEO and that’s not going to change.
Just last month, I was reminded of the power simple adjustments to Title Tags can make in the rankings of a blog.
For a year I’d been battling many other sites for page one placement of a pretty general keyword and was frustrated that I wasn’t making it to page one. The site had a PageRank of 4, thousands of backlinks and hundreds of pages of content but could not get past page 2.
Then something strange started happening. Certain blog posts from the site would appear on page one, but not the homepage of the site. I kept wracking my brain.
What the heck is wrong with my homepage that Google won’t list it in the SERPs?
And one day it hit me like a ton of bricks.
The keyword I was targeting WAS NOT even in the Title Tag of the homepage! How could I expect to rank for something that wasn’t even there? Those stray blog posts appeared on page one simply because that keyword was in the title!
So, quickly I updated the homepage Title Tag and a couple days later, sure enough, the results had updated and there was my homepage, right where it belonged – on page one of the search results for that specific keyword.
Never underestimate the power of proper use of Title Tags. It can even slip by SEO’s sometimes!
So, when writing your great content, think long and hard about your page title. Make sure it appeals to random readers but also make sure it’s keyword optimized for search bots.
Job Opportunity: SEO-Analytics Associate
21 May 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
Imagination Publishing is an award-winning custom publisher and content marketing agency; we create custom content and manage the integrated marketing efforts of more than 20 Fortune 500 clients and international trade associations.
The SEO/Analytics Associate is a junior-level position that reports to the Vice President of Search & Analytics. In this role, your responsibilities will be diverse, challenging, and rewarding. As a shared resource, you’ll work with account teams to improve their clients’ websites and web marketing initiatives through SEO and analysis. You must be a self-starter, someone who continually contributes well-researched ideas and advice. To be successful, you must enjoy and excel at:
- learning about our clients’ businesses for the purpose of assisting in creating their web marketing strategy
- performing competitive website analysis for internal and external clients and developing strategies for surpassing competition and meeting their business goalsanalyzing website traffic trends and working through various SEO efforts to increase traffic for clients
- communicating regularly with clients regarding their website’s effectiveness and the changes needed for progression
The primary responsibilities of the SEO/Analytics Associate include:
Research
Much of the work you’ll do for internal and external clients falls into the bucket of research, which may include: keyword research, link analysis, search engine results, new search engine behaviors, in-depth site reviews, and more.Reporting
All internal and external client accounts require written deliverables such as a site audit and/or weekly analysis of site metrics. You will create informative, insightful, and clear analysis and recommendations for our clients. You’ll also respond to a wide array of questions about SEO/analytics from internal and external clients.Blogging
Imagination’s blogs are a critical part of our business: they help to build our online communities, establish our credibility as a leader in our field, and serve as a valuable reference for our clients. You will blog regularly with unique and worthwhile posts and comments about SEO/analytics.
Candidate Requirements (Must Haves)
- Minimum 2 years hands-on work experience in on-page and off-page search engine optimization with a track record for successfully improving both individual rankings for keywords/phrases and improving overall site traffic
- Deep understanding of search engine technology, functionality, and optimization tactics
- Knowledge of advanced search queries, SEO tools and automated methods for site analysis and optimization
- A grasp of Internet business and marketing strategies – how to build, improve, and grow a successful property on the web
- A basic understanding of XHTML/CSS, JavaScript/Actionscript, basic web server technology, database software/functionality (ability to write code not necessary)
- Previous work experience with at least one major web analytics tool (Google Analytics, Omniture, Web Trends, etc.)
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate insight into actionable communications
- College degree (or a great reason for not having one)
Candidate Requirements (Nice to Haves)
- Expertise in social media marketing/optimization (SMM/SMO) on the web, including linkbait design and viral marketing campaigns and promotion
- Search Engine PPC Experience; Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter, and third-tier solutions
- Affiliate Marketing experience as either an advertiser or publisher
- Active participation with the SEO community on and off the web, including the surrounding blogosphere and social media outlets
- Blogging experience
Imagination Publishing offers a competitive compensation package including salary, benefits, PTO and more. Qualified applicants should submit resume, cover letter and salary history via email to Andrea Scott, Director of Talent at ascott@imaginepub.com.
To learn more about Imagination Publishing, check out our site: http://www.imaginepub.com.
Imagination Publishing is an EOE.
