Server Side Design

BREAKING NEWS: Introducing the New Google Keyword Planner Tool!

Roger Janik — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:33:12 +0000

AdWords has just rolled out AdWords Keyword Planner, a new tool that combines two of the most popular existing AdWords tools, the Google Keyword Tool and the AdWords Traffic Estimator, and adds to it a wizard-like integrated workflow to guide users through the process of finding keywords for creating new Ad Groups and/or Campaigns.

I’m guessing that at some point in the future, the AdWords Keyword Planner may replace the Google Keyword Tool and AdWords Traffic Estimator – tools which have been in service for over 10 years and are widely used for both PPC and SEO. So if you’ve used either tool in the past, take note here – your process is probably about to change!

Getting Started With AdWords Keyword Planner

The AdWords Keyword Planner supports three key use cases:

Search for keyword and ad group ideas
Enter or upload keywords to get estimates
Multiply keyword lists to get estimates

The functionality is exposed via a wizard-like interface, as shown here:

Searching for Keyword and Ad Group Ideas Using Keyword Planner

Adding keywords to your account based on Google suggested keywords is the primary use case. The Keyword Planner (illustrated below), provides a robust keyword workbench for researching and picking keywords to add to your AdWords account.

Using the Keyword Planner Tool you can:

Look for keyword and ad group ideas: Brainstorm keyword ideas based on individual keyword ideas, or based on your landing page, a product category, or any combination of the above.
View keyword statistics and performance estimates: Specify targeting options that you select such as country, language and search network to inform your keyword estimates.
Filter keywords: You can narrow your keyword list based on various criteria, such as average CPC and average monthly search volume. You can also include or exclude keywords containing specific terms, and exclude keywords that are already in your AdWords account.

List View vs. Grouped View and “Your Keyword Plan”

Keywords in the Keyword Planner appear either in list view or in grouped view, which is sort of analogous to the concept of keyword niches and keyword lists that we’ve long supported in WordStream’s own keyword tools.

Additionally, you can add individual keywords or keyword groupings to “Your Plan,” which is sort of a temporary storage area for saving interesting-looking keywords and keyword groupings for later.

The Keyword Planner maintains state for the duration of your session – keywords that you add are saved while you’re in the process of looking for keywords.

Finally, when you’re done finding keywords, click on the “Get Estimates and Review Plan” button.

Getting Estimates and Reviewing Your Keyword Plan

The next step of the Keyword Plan process involves setting a keyword bid and daily budget for your portfolio of keywords and keyword groupings.

Since keyword volume and CPC bid estimates vary wildly based on your budget, bid, location, and other factors, it’s important that you provide Google with some information to customize your estimates.

For example, you could enter in a bid of $40 and a daily budget of $1,000.00 and based on those settings, the Keyword Planner will generate detailed daily estimates for clicks, impressions, average ad position, and costs, as shown here.

Enter or Upload Your Own Keyword List in Keyword Planner

Sometimes in search marketing, you’re lucky to have your own analytics data, for example, a list of top keywords that generate conversions for your website. If you’re this fortunate, it would definitely make sense to use those battle-proven keywords rather than the generic keyword suggestions you get from the Google Keyword Suggestion Tool. Here’s what that looks like:

When you press the Get Estimates button, you’ll be brought to the same keyword workbench area; the only difference is that you’ll be looking at your own keyword list, rather than the generic keywords suggested via the Google Keyword Tool.

Multiplying Keyword Lists Using Keyword Planner

A completely new feature in Keyword Planner which isn’t available in either the existing Google Keyword Tool or AdWords Traffic Estimator tools is the ability to mash up and multiply keyword lists. For example, you might want to multiply a bunch of names of cities and towns with different action words to come up with all the different keyword permutations, as shown here:

You can add up to 3 lists to mash up, and clicking on the Get Estimates button brings you to the same keyword workbench area.

Summary: The AdWords Keyword Planner

The new Keyword Planner tool supports various workflows for building ad groups and ad campaigns either starting from scratch, or based on your existing lists, and provides a more cohesive user experience by integrating the keyword selection, keyword grouping, keyword analysis and filtering aspects of the keyword selection workflow.

The Keyword Planner is currently available in a small number of AdWords accounts today. To find it, I just loaded up my MCC and checked every account to see if it had the Keyword Planner (thankfully, we have hundreds of accounts linked up). I found an account with Keyword Planner on around my 67^th account. Google tells me that they plan to roll out Keyword Planner to a broader audience in the near future!

Written By Larry Kim

How Will Google Glass Affect the Search Engine World?

Roger Janik — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:41:09 +0000

Most everyone in the tech world has seen the Google Glass product through images of people wearing it, to the cool You Tube videos showing them in action. The tech industry is all about it, and how could they not be? The only problem is, how will the people who are immune to it’s charm react to it?

The answer is probably not as calmly as you would think. If you don’t believe me try this – Walk around with your smart phone and start snapping pictures or recording videos of random people. You’ll start out getting some strange looks and before long someone is trying to snatch your phone away because you are invading their privacy. Once people realize that everyone with these cool new tech glasses can snap a picture or video of them without lifting a finger, people are going to get paranoid.

Another pending question is what effect Google Glass will have on SEO, PPC & Social Media Marketing? As with the smartphone, the easier a consumer can access a search engine, the more likely they are to search. And like when smart phones came into the picture, online marketers were forced to tailor some campaigns towards that device. It’s possible we could see similar customized campaigns for Google Glass in the future.

Google Glass will almost certainly have a major impact on the way we market locally online. As people walk by their favorite restaurant or service provider they will be able to capture information with much more ease.

We’re still a ways away from seeing 1 out of 3 people walking down the street with Google Glass. In fact, the only way to get Google Glass now is if Google deems you worthy. Through their Explorer program, people can tweet using the hashtag #ifihadglass and tell Google what they would do with the product. And if Google is impressed, they’ll let you fork over the $1,500 to purchase them.

Another problem even techies will be steaming over is Google’s sell/loan restrictions for the Explorer edition. As of right now, once you buy Google Glass it is yours and only yours. You can’t turn around and sell it on eBay for a 200% profit. The product is linked to an individual Google account and if it’s transferred to someone else, the product could be deactivated to the point no one can use it. Here’s the verbiage straight from Google’s Terms of Sale:

“Unless otherwise authorized by Google, you may only purchase one Device, and you may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your Device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google’s authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the Device, and neither you”

That opens up a whole can of worms when the retailer is telling you what you can and can’t do with the product you just paid $1,500 for. But on the plus side, it may keep people from snatching the device off of your head while you are busy checking the weather.

For more information about Google Glass, visit the official page: www.google.com/glass.

Author: Ricky Westbrook of SSD Fair Marketing

New SEC Ruling Officially Opens the Door to Social Media for Financial Advisors

Roger Janik — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:05:20 +0000

For the financial advisors already communicating with customers on social media, the big announcement from the SEC encourages them to take their social media engagement up a notch.

Finally ending the investigation surrounding Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his use of Facebook to announce disclosed corporate information, the SEC decided not to pursue civil charges against Hastings. Even bigger, the commission ruled that it appreciates the use of social media sites as a new form of market communication. Furthermore, the SEC ruled that as long as companies are clear to investors about their plans for social media, it supports those seeking new ways to communicate with shareholders.

This announcement is a huge leap for the financial services industry – and perhaps more so for the financial advisor incorporating social media into their practices, as well as a push for those reluctant to jump aboard the bandwagon. In a previous 2008 ruling, the SEC said only corporate home pages could be used for sensitive information announcements. Now, as long as they follow compliance protocol and reveal no information that would give one group of investors an unfair advantage, social media stands as a sufficient method of communication between advisors and clients.

So, what can we expect for the financial services industry now that the SEC has given its blessing for social media?

According to a FTI/LinkedIn study, seven in ten financial advisors are already using social networks for business purposes. At the time of the study, adoption rates were expected to significantly grow since more than half of advisors expected social media to play a significant role in their 2013 marketing efforts. This represented an 80% increase year-over-year. That fact alone was huge but now, with the social media doors officially opened by the SEC, how will this statistic change? Will those advisors concerned with social media compliance risks finally take the chance and include contemporary marketing communications into their practices?

So now comes the time when financial advisors need to make the big decisions. For those already active online, will you broaden your reach and build a stronger social media presence? And, for those who have yet to embrace social, what is your excuse for avoiding a communication channel that 5 million affluent investors are using to research their final decisions?

You may have heard the phrase “What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?” Advisors need to ask themselves that question. With the new SEC ruling and the existence of archiving solutions that ensure social media compliance, the time to act is now. So I challenge you to not be afraid – take a deep breath, do your research and take the social media plunge.

Remember the key steps to get your social media initiatives started:

Establish a social media policy.

Leverage a record-keeping platform to archive your activities.

Get the proper training and best practices covering compliance and the day to day use of social media in business.

For the most recent SEC commentary on social media, see their April 2 and March 15, 2013 releases at:

April 2 – SEC Says Social Media OK for Company Announcements if Investors are Alerted.

March 15 – SEC Issues Guidance Update on Social Media Filings by Investment Companies.

Orginal post at: http://financialsocialmedia.com

Is SEO dead?

Roger Janik — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:36:42 +0000

by Matthew Burns

As the Internet becomes more and more prominent in the eyes of the consumer, and more business people think of ways to grow, one question always seems to come up after the slightest modicum of research. Is SEO dead?

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is the process of attempting to achieve higher rankings of the organic results generated by a query in a search engine (e.g. Google, Bing, Yahoo). In April 2012, with the release of the Penguin and then Panda updates from Google, this question was asked constantly by both SEO and business professionals.

Getting the top rankings for a particular search query can bring an absolute flood of potential customers to your website, so it’s natural for people to wonder just how this process is achieved. Before April of2012 there was a fairly well known set of formulas for achieving these rankings. However, Google’s business depends entirely on the quality of their service – otherwise no one would use their search engine to find what they are looking for (and more importantly advertisers would not spend their dollars with Google). This was not their first update, but this one certainly garnished people’s attention.

After the dust settled slightly, one of the most well-known Forbes articles was published on July 20, titled “The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content.” (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/07/20/the-death-of-seo-the-rise-of-social-pr-and-real-content/) This article stayed on the top of Forbes for nearly a week due to its intense popularity. This was because the professionals (and sometimes not so professionals) of the community took a huge interest in these theories. The ultimate question was whether or not the author was correct: Is SEO dead? Will it ever be dead?

The answer is most certainly no. While Google exists, its entire business model is hinged on the results a consumer gets when searching. Businesses want those top rankings and will do whatever they can to get there. The fact is that SEO will never die, but it has changed. Old methods are irrelevant and if you were a studied SEO professional before 2011, this post Penguin/Panda world is an entirely new game. Google is placing value on what is extremely difficult to fake – content, relevance, and making it easy for your visitors to share things they find valuable. One of the constant theories being thrown out there is that links are no longer going to be valuable for SEO and this is simply not true.

Studies have shown that nearly 80% of all search traffic on Google goes to the organic results, most of which stop because they find what they are looking for in the top 3 listings. Part of getting there is having a quality link building process in your formula. Matt Cutts himself (Google’s Head of Webspam) says very clearly that social is not the end all be all and links are still important, which you can view here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXJylyR2Lc0) I hope the end result of our conversation here today shows you that while SEO is not dead, it is undergoing changes. If you do not keep up with the constant flurry of new updates, you could get left behind. At Server Side Design, the reason we’re going strong year over year is due to our extensive research so nothing takes us by surprise. Next time someone tells you SEO is dead, perhaps you can ask a few key questions to understand where they are coming from. If they are still reeling from the updates Google made and having trouble, here are some great resources to help them get back on their feet and on the right path.

http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo - This extensive guide is long, but the detail is helpful for people new to the world of SEO.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/important-seo-habits-to-adopt-for-post-panda-penguin-era-survival/59415/ - This article is not only great, but the comments are almost all constructive and helpful in their mindset. Some talk about the importance of underlying code and others how critical relevant content is. All values we adhere to strictly at Server Side Design.

Thanks for your time reading!

Google To Replace Keyword Tool With New Keyword Planner

Roger Janik — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:55:04 +0000

Original Author: Lisa Raehsler

Several pay-per-click marketing leaders gathered in Austin, Texas, for HeroConf this week and shared their top tips and tricks on PPC topics including retargeting, product ads, and PPC abroad.

Also at the search conference, Paul Feng, product management director, Google AdWords, shared a couple pieces of news during an afternoon keynote:

Keyword Planner: This new tool is a combination of the keyword research tool and traffic estimator. It features a new integrated workflow, so users can find new keywords and get traffic estimates at the same time. It’s available in beta in about 5 percent of accounts as of this writing. This tool was developed in response to feedback that the current system, which consists of two tools, is awkward and clunky, requiring PPC marketers to navigate and work with a single keyword lists in different screens. You can expect this tool to be released “soon”.
Flexible bid strategies: This new feature was cooked up as a response to the enhanced campaigns backlash. Advertisers can set bid adjustments at campaign, ad group, or keyword level. For example, you could adjust bids based on a user’s place in the sales funnel. One major feature of this flexible bidding to PPC marketers will be the return of the bid to page positions.

We also now know when all AdWords campaigns will become enhanced. The upgrade, originally slated for mid-June, has been pushed back to late July and assigned an exact date July 22, 2013, according to a note at the bottom of an AdWords blog post discussing a coming update that will allow advertisers to set mobile bid adjustments at the ad group level.

PPC marketers have had strong feelings about the enhanced campaign upgrade because it limits mobile and tablet targeting options. You can learn more about enhanced campaigns in these posts:

AdWords product announcements were only a small part of the search marketing conference. Several speakers shared tips and tricks. A few takeaways are featured here:

Nick Herinckx, Obility Consulting, presented at Remarketing: Your First Chance at a Second Impression. He recommended you get as granular as possible on the reporting for retargeting campaigns. Don’t stop at the form fill. Try to get beyond the sales funnel to get the lifetime value of the sale. Pass values in URL parameters and hidden form fields.
Big Data was the keyword for the day and the topic of the keynote presented by marketing optimization expert Bryan Eisenberg on Tuesday. Big data is big, unstructured, and real-time. “We don’t need to be as data-focused as we have been demanded to be, we need to tell good stories and be better marketers.”
International AdWords expert Brad Geddes, founder of Certified Knowledge, joined the conference via video chat on Skype. An attendee asked about his keyword match type strategy for a new account. Geddes noted the approach will vary, however, a good place to start is a combination of match and broad match modified.
Rick Galan of 1-800 Contacts expertly presented in Faster, Lighter, Cheaper: Increasing ROAS for SMB Ecommerce. Knowing exactly what you can spend, not what you spend, gives you the power in the auction. Understand your metrics, your margins, your costs, and base your return goals on strategy – not forecasts.
Mike Olson of Core Digital Media said advertisers should think of many targets vs only one target. You’ve segmented the search campaigns, why not the funnels? Get demographics from the data feedback. Look at how they are behaving on the site and responding via form, email, etc, keep it simple. Start with an easy way to ask your users for information and get the information you want.
Chris Kostecki of Keurig was a panelist on they Might Be Giants: Enterprise Ecommerce. Whether you choose to work with an agency or bring it in house, he said, you need to invest in PPC. You must invest in paid infrastructure, tools, and resources.
Shawn Livengood from homeimprovementleads.com spoke at Past, Present and Future PPC Trends. He said PPC has been through many iterations in the last decade. Long-term prospects for PPC are good, considering search engine efforts to emphasize paid results over free listings in the search engine results pages. He also noted that concerns about user privacy and changes in device usage will likely be challenges to face in the short term.
John Lee, Clix Marketing and SEW contributor, spoke on A Friend of a Friend: PPC for Facebook. Facebook Ads are the hot topic these days (well, other than enhanced campaigns). A few of the newest developments are making it even more enticing. Conversion tracking is huge. And it seems to work – so far. With the tracking, optimized CPM has evolved to include off Facebook conversions as well as likes, shares, etc. But what is most exciting is the Facebook Exchange (FBX) and Facebook remarketing. CPAs are solid with this new channel and is something he would recommend any advertiser give a try.

5 Tips on how to choose a good web marketing (SEO) company

Roger Janik — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 03:07:12 +0000

Written by: Joel Herrera, SSD Fair Strategist. See Spanish version here »

Organic placement on search engines consists of a set of various techniques called (SEO) Search Engine Optimization. Such techniques can help to achieve top rankings on Google, Yahoo & Bing.

The main objective is that when someone types in a search query that relates to your business, products or services on any of the major Search Engines that query returns results with your site appearing on the top choices. The end result of this process should be: top placement, an increase in traffic to your web page & an increase in potential clients.

These days, the majority of businesses promote themselves online through web marketing techniques, as such, the implementation of a good (SEO) Search Engine Optimization marketing campaign could be the best investment for your business.

Next you will find a few tips on what to look for in an SEO web-marketing firm:

Credibility: It is very important to investigate and corroborate that the SEO company you are considering is credible. If they guarantee things such as placing you on the first page of Google, it is advisable to ask how they are planning to accomplish this. Nobody can guarantee such a thing. The only guarantee that an SEO web Marketing company can offer you is that the processes they implement and level of quality comply with general SEO standards.
Cooperation: Any company of choice has to be open to answering all of your questions and concerns, as well as to clarifying all your doubts about the subject. If you feel like they are hiding any important facts or they are not being transparent, this could mean that they do not have the right approach towards SEO. This could also mean that their methods do not comply with the with the norms and rules required by the major search engines, and it could end up hurting you and your web rankings in the long run.
Ethics: Serious web-marketing companies make you aware that you have to be prepared financially and emotionally, because results do not happen overnight. Natural SEO takes time and effort in order to achieve the desired results. It they tell you otherwise, they might be untruthful and it could be an indicator that they might be using techniques such as “Black Hat SEO”. Such techniques are prohibited by the Search Engines and you could be penalized indefinitely.
Case Studies: Before you make a final decision, we recommend you look at case studies from each of the companies in which you are interested. Find out what types of clients they have worked with and most importantly, what type of results they have achieved for them. This should give you a better idea of who are you dealing with and also if they can deliver the promised results.
Reporting: The best way to measure your ROI and the results of your campaign is through reporting. Such reports can come directly from Google Analytics and they should always come with a professional opinion from your web-marketing agency. This information can give you a clear idea on whether your dollars are being well spent.

There are plenty of good companies out there that can help you to gain a good online presence by utilizing SEO techniques, just don’t forget to do your homework first.

5 Tips para escoger una compañía de (SEO) web marketing

Roger Janik — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 02:58:27 +0000

Written by: Joel Herrera, SSD Fair Strategist. See English version here »

El posicionamiento natural en los buscadores consiste en una serie de técnicas de web marketing (SEO) que ayudan a lograr un óptimo posicionamiento en los principales buscadores como Google, Yahoo y Bing.

El objetivo central es que cuando un usuario busque en Google, Yahoo o Bing una palabra o termino relacionado con tu negocio, producto o servicio, tu pagina web aparezca en las primeras posiciones. El resultado de este proceso es la creación de un buen posicionamiento, incremento en trafico hacia tu pagina web y la creación de clientes potenciales.

Hoy en día, la mayoría de los negocios se promueven por medio de la web así que, la implementación de una buena campaña de web marketing (SEO) podría ser la mejor inversión para tu negocio.

A continuación encontraras una serie de tips que te ayudaran a escoger una buena compañía de web marketing (SEO):

Credibilidad: Es importante investigar y corroborar que la compañía de web marketing (SEO) sea creíble. Si hablan de garantizar resultados como el posicionar tu pagina web la primera página de Google, es recomendable el preguntar como piensan lograr esto ya que es imposible el garantizar ciertos resultados. La única garantía que una compañía de web marketing (SEO) puede darte es que el nivel de calidad y procesos implementados cumplirán con las reglas generales de la Optimización web (SEO).
Cooperación: La compañía de preferencia tiene que estar dispuesta a contestar todas tus preguntas y clarificar todas tus dudas acerca del tema. Si sientes que de alguna manera están guardando secretos o no están siendo transparentes contigo, esto podría significar que no tienen la perspectiva correcta sobre la Optimización web (SEO). También podría ser que sus métodos no cumplan con las normas que requieren los buscadores y a largo plazo pueda dañar tu posicionamiento en la web.
Ética: Una compañía seria de web marketing (SEO) te hará saber que alcanzar los resultados deseados tomará tiempo y esfuerzo, siempre y cuando los procedimientos y técnicas de la optimización cumplan con los requerimientos de los buscadores. Si te dicen lo contrario, esto podría indicar que sus procedimientos podrían ser “Black Hat SEO” o técnicas de “Sombrero Negro”. Estas son técnicas prohibidas y pueden causar que los buscadores censuren tu pagina web indefinidamente.
Casos de Estudio: Antes de tomar una decisión final se recomienda ver casos de estudio de las compañías que te ofrecen sus servicios para ver con que tipo de clientes han trabajado y sobre todo que tipo de resultados han logrado. Esto te dará una idea mas clara para saber si de verdad pueden alcanzar los resultados prometidos.
Reportes: La manera más eficaz para medir los avances y resultados de una campaña de web marketing (SEO) está en recibir reportes periódicos. Estos reportes, que pueden ser mensuales de Google Analytics y tienen que venir acompañados con una opinión profesional de parte de la compañía de web marketing (SEO) correspondiente.

Existen muchas buenas compañías que te pueden ayudar a incrementar la presencia de tu web por medio de la utilización de técnicas de web marketing (SEO), No olvides hacer tu tarea e identificar la compañía que mas te convenga.

Defensible Link Building in a Post-Penguin World

Roger Janik — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:00:08 +0000

March 14 by Kevin Gibbons

This article is primarily useful if a new client had been hit by the Google Penguin update.

Are Panda and Penguin Related?

Looking back at Google’s algorithm updates over the last 12 months, I think we’re seeing a very similar trend:

Panda = penalising websites with thin or weak content
Penguin = penalising sites which have links from thin or weak content

When you think about Penguin and Panda updates in this way — in combination with the huge range of brand and social signals that Google are getting much better at reading and bringing into their algorithm — it becomes clear that human engagement and activity is starting to have a much greater impact on search results.

For example, here is an advert I saw in the London underground recently:

In my opinion, this type of advertising is genius. Firstly, it’s getting people to find out for themselves about the product from existing customers using third-party endorsements for honest reviews and showing that they are putting their money where their mouth is.

And secondly, Sonos are sending Google one the best messages you can: people are “talking” about their brand. We all know Google loves brands and they’re getting much better at reading the signs. So whether it’s branded anchor text or brand queries, Google knows there’s a popular brand behind this traffic increase, and maybe that brand deserves a bit more attention in the search engine result pages (SERPs) as a result.

That to me is the biggest shift — it’s now much more about building high quality links as a by-product of great content. Look at page authority in many ways, more than you would domain. If you have an active audience there, it’s relevant to readers or users; if no one reads it, that means no one cares – why should Google?

So how do you build a link profile that can compete at the very top of your market sector?

Think Ahead: 13 Steps to Building a Market Leading Link Strategy

I’ve broken down the process we take when looking at link modelling across our clients sites into 13 key steps. This doesn’t only apply to sites which have been hit by Penguin, we do this for everyone to ensure they are on the right track — turning your link profile into a goldmine and not a ticking time-bomb!

1) Change your mindset on metrics of link or site quality

Firstly, stop thinking like a link builder and start thinking like a Google engineer or a customer instead. Ask yourself this question:

Does my link provide value to the end user?

Good link building should be a natural by-product of great content. This means you need to think firstly about providing value to the end user, as opposed to what would Google think.

Google hates old-school link building, so if you’re thinking about them first, you’re still not really getting away from the problem.

Think about the important link metrics. That means forgetting about the search engine optimisation (SEO) metrics we are so used to for now — such as PageRank or Domain Authority — and start considering what really matters:

Traffic potential a link can send.
RSS subscribers of target audience.
Bounce rate of your content.
Average number of social shares or comments your blog generates per post.
Would the spam team like this link? Does it make Google look bad?

There’s often a re-education process involved in getting these metrics across to your client or boss, but it’s more important than ever that you focus on building the right links. In order to do this, you need to shift your mindset.

2) Identify if and when you’ve been hit by a penalty

If you think you’ve been hit by Penguin, the first thing you should do is to check Google Webmaster Tools for messages from Google to confirm if your suspicions are correct.

Following this, take a look at Google’s algorithm change history to figure out if a drop (or hopefully increase!) in traffic coincides with a Google algorithm update.

If you’ve been hit by Panda, I would recommend going back and analysing your content performance ratio as the first step. Figure out how much content you have indexed vs. pages which are generating search traffic.

If you’ve been hit by a Google Penguin penalty, use tools like PanguinTool.com to dig deeper and highlight what Google updates were rolled out at the time as a comparsion overlay against your organic traffic in Google Analyitcs; then continue working through the next stages of this post.

3) Download all of your links

Take an Excel dump of all of your links, I would suggest using Majestic for this. For example, we decided to analyse the online dating market and here’s what the profile looks like for the number-one site in the sector, Match.com:

4) Analyse your anchor text distribution (ATD%)

One of the biggest warning signs of a site that has been hit by Penguin is unnatural anchor text. What stands out the most to Google is a high percentage of anchor text using key “money terms.” People just don’t link like that, so a strong backlink profile needs to have a natural mix of anchor text across branded and non-branded terms.

If you’ve received a message from Google Webmaster Tools saying that your site has been penalised, there’s a good chance it’s a manual penalty and it’s phrase specific (as opposed to Panda, where your whole site’s content has been devalued).

It’s often a long way back from here, so you want to make sure you’re doing things the right way so you can get this lifted as soon as possible. But that doesn’t mean you should rush into removing or disavowing links or submitting reconsideration requests.

Our first step would be to analyse the anchor text distribution for the site, pinpointing the phrase(s) which have experienced a drop. Here’s the ATD% for Match.com as an example:

This shows a score of 0.061% for the keyword “online dating,” which is very healthy. We’ve found that anything between 0.05% and 0.1% is often the sweet-spot for sites with strong profiles. However, don’t just take our word for it, results vary a lot based on the market so make sure you do your research.

5) Dig Deeper Using SEO Tools for Excel

Using SEOTools for Excel allows you to use Regular Expressions in Excel. The idea behind using this tool would mean greater efficiency in helping you to better establish:

Branded vs. non branded anchor text distribution
Related keyword inclusion of keyword anchor text distribution

(For those that are not familiar with Regex, I would recommend reading these posts by Annie Cushing on regular expressions.)

This can help you quickly distinguish whether the keywords in the columns are branded or non-branded. For example, Match.com wouldn’t be too difficult a term to comprehend without filtering out the branded anchor texts. However, for a site like Plenty of Fish, there would be a range of alternate brand expressions such as:

pof
pof.com
plentyoffish
plenty of fish
plenyoffish.com

With SEOTools, we can use the Regular Expressions to help us provide a formula of true or false:

By filtering out the brand related anchor text in the columns, you are able to effectively (and quickly) analyse and compare the anchor text distribution compared to that of your competitors:

Furthermore, anchor text can then be filtered to show key terms related to the anchor text.

From here, you can then start to build a much clearer picture of what the marketplace looks like and what the profiles of leading sites look like.

6) Analyse link volume vs. referring traffic

As you would analyse site indexing vs. traffic to pages, you’ll want to compare the volume of links vs. the number of links sending referring traffic.

In my opinion, one of the the most significant changes over the last 6-12 months is that Google has become much better at reading human engagement and audience signals behind content.

This means that Google is far more likely to pick up on any links they consider to have been built solely for SEO purposes and attribute more attention to content with high levels of human activity. Mashable, for example, is normally a good example of this, as they generate a large volume of social shares and comments for most published stories:

Again, forget about SEO for now and start thinking about what is most important: a link’s ability to drive traffic from a targeted audience. If a link is a by-product of great content, it has much more chance of being clicked by users, and as a result, valued by Google.

Analyse how much traffic is being sent from your links. For now, pretend that Google doesn’t exist and you’re building links like you’re back in 1997 — to generate traffic, leads, and sales. In doing this, it makes sense that you’d want to keep the ratio of link volume vs. links sending traffic high. If Google values brands as highly as we think – surely they’d do the same?

7) Analyse topical relevancy of links

Sometimes it can be too easy with Penguin updates to assume that the penalty is anchor-text related. Most reports are of over-anchor text optimisation, but I wouldn’t rule out other reasons and signs of unnatural links being hit too.

Beyond anchor text, another obvious sign that a link perhaps isn’t natural, is if it’s located on a completely unrelated site. That doesn’t mean for sure that it’s unnatural, but if a perfume site, for example, had a large percentage of ForEx links, it’s likely to stand out as unnatural.

We analyse the topical relevancy of links by assigning them each an ODP (Open Directory Project/DMOZ) category:

This way we can spot common trends across the market and if something looks like it shouldn’t be there, it probably shouldn’t. And if we can find it, I’m pretty sure Google can too.

Compare it against your competitors

Every market sector is different, so analyse your competitors and find out what a number one ranking site profile within your industry looks like. Hopefully it’s your own, but if it’s not, that’s what you want to replicate:

We’ve used our internal tools to compare all of the above stats — find out the average anchor text distribution (ATD) scores for your competitors vs. your own site.

9) Find out what a Number One site profile looks like

From your analysis, you should now have a clearer idea of what a number one site in your industry looks like. That’s your target — you want to be there. Additionally, there’s a lot you can learn about around why and how the top sites made it there.

Use tools like Link Detective to find out what types of links competitors have and start to build an action plan on how you can start to model your own link profile in a similar way.

Apply your own SEO knowledge and common sense here. You don’t want to replicate a bad domain’s link profile which is just about to get hit by the latest roll-out of Penguin. But generally, molding into a profile that fits with the market leaders is a good start.

10) Consider removing/disavowing links which don’t match your target audience

My first piece of advice here would be to use this with caution. You need to have done your research and really know what you are looking for before you start removing links.

The decision also depends on many factors, such as:

Your link profile
The market-leaders profiles
If you’ve been hit by a Penguin-related penalty

However, if you are in a position where you need to take action in order to clean-up your profile, I would recommend prioritising the high ATD% links you’ve highlighted during analysis, alongside the off-topic links which you consider to have been built for SEO purposes.

You can then begin to look for and remove these links from your profile. Personally, I would only consider using the Disavow Tool once all else has failed — if you can remove a link manually, remove it. If you can’t, that’s what the disavow tool is there for — but again, use with caution!

11) If hit by a manual penalty, file a re-inclusion request

Once you’ve been hit by a manual penalty, just fixing the issues is often not enough – you’re likely to need to submit a Google re-inclusion request to get the issue fully resolved.

This means you’ll need to identify why you’ve been hit initially. Google’s guidelines are pretty vague at the moment, but they will be improving this by providing specific examples of suspect links. It’s important that you document everything so you can show a record of any links you’ve removed and disclose the links you’ve paid for or think Google may be holding against you.

Once the manual penalty is applied, it’s rarely a quick fix to get this lifted, so you need to be as clear as possible and accept that it takes time and patience. If you’ve only just removed links, rather than assuming Google will manually check these for you, try waiting until they have been cached instead.

You may not get there the first time either. If it was easy to get a penalty lifted, that would encourage people to push their luck again next time; Google have purposely made the process tough. But once you’re out of Penguin, you’ll start to see rankings gradually starting to return.

We’ve found that the penalty is commonly phrase-specific (especially if anchor text related). Interestingly, once you remove links and are re-included, rankings often return back to a very similar level to where they were listed pre-penalty. This suggests that those links were having no real impact in the first place, but the penalty was more of a deterrent to prevent future link building activities of this nature.

This is very clever in my opinion. Previously, these type of links had no impact, which meant SEOs could build as many links as possible, in volume — they would either work or not, so the net result was usually an increase in rankings. It no longer works that way and Google has made this a far riskier strategy by better identifying paid or manipulated links and penalising sites for this activity.

This also makes Google’s job much easier, because they can cut down this activity by increasing the risk involved. So bear this in mind when submitting your re-inclusion request, Google wants to see that you understand what you’ve done wrong, you’ve made the effort to fix it, and that you won’t be doing it again.

12) Create a scalable content marketing strategy

Your main focus should be on creating an online buzz and building a natural link profile which reflects this. By focusing on high-quality content production and outreach, you can start strengthening your brand’s reputation and audience — and with that, comes links.

Look at the different types of content you can build into your strategy, for example:

Infographics
In-Depth Articles/Blog Posts
Videos
Kinetic Typography
Interactive Infographics
HTML5 content
Quizzes
Microsites/Communities
Running Webinars/Events
etc.

I spoke about this in more detail at SES London, it’s all about being awesome!

It doesn’t necessarily have to be harder either — just focus that effort you used to spend on creating 100 blog posts towards creating one outstanding content initiative instead.

That’s a much more interesting campaign for your team to work on internally. They can now focus on something they are really passionate about and then reap the rewards by naturally acquiring high-quality, targeted links that can build long-term and sustainable results.

13) Focus on audience & topical relevancy

Once you’ve built your content strategy into an editorial calendar, you’re almost good to go.

But before you start, if you think of Penguin as penalising links from weak and thin content, then it’s vitally important to consider the content placements you’re targeting in terms of audience and relevancy, as opposed to just looking at the strength of a site or domain.

Make sure that when your content is published, it’s generating human engagement and activity in the form of comments, social signals (shares, likes, G+’s, retweets) and natural links — the type of signals that only come from great content. From a natural link acquisition perspective, you want to be generating links which generate their own links and co-citations.

The example above shows that if you publish content on a publication URL, this should naturally start to generate links back to a) itself and b) the original source (your site). This is what naturally happens when you publish content on an actively engaged and relevant audience.

Without this, it’s a sign that your content isn’t highly valued by users — in which case, why should Google value it?

Key Takeaways

The main learnings I’ve taken away from this are that you should:

Identity (and consider removing) links which have no value to users.
Try to model the link profiles of the top sites within your sector.
Create a scalable content marketing strategy to focus on audience and human engagement.

This is how we analyse Google Penguin updates and link profiles – it would be great to hear how you have approached this in the comments below.

Google Maps for iPhone Update Adds New Local Search Features

Roger Janik — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:37:42 +0000

Danny Goodwin, March 5, 2013

Google Maps for iPhone has been updated with new local search icons to help you more quickly find restaurants, coffee shops, bars, gas stations, and other places. Tap the search box, then tap an icon, and you’ll get a list of local businesses.

As part of the free update, Google has also added your contacts as search suggestions. Now when you search for the name of a friend or family member, and you have their address saved, their address will appear on the map. This will be visible only to you, Google noted in a blog post.

Another change is to the settings menu, which lets you choose between kilometers and miles.

The English version of the app, version 1.1, is now available in the App Store, and it is available for the first time since launching in December in seven new countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

Green Eggs & Facebook: 15 Social Media Marketing Tips from Dr. Seuss

Roger Janik — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:50:34 +0000

Written By Pam Moore

Yes, Dr. Suess may have some crazy rhymes and guys drawn in his books. However, if you look at the core of his thoughts and words, the man was brilliant. I think he can teach us some nice lessons in regard to social media.

1. “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
-Authenticity and transparency in social media is the green in the green eggs and ham. I like realness Sam I am! Don’t be somebody different offline than you are on Twitter and Facebook. There is one you.

2. “Be who you are and say what you feel because those that matter don’t mind and those that mind don’t matter!” ~ Dr. Suess
Quit worrying 24/7 about what everyone thinks of you. Build your plan, work your plan and get out there! Yes you will need to manage your brand, reputation and image online. However, make it real!

3. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” — Dr. Seuss
-Are you laid off, fired from corporate or plain just quit? Out of a job, quit cryin’. It’s a blessing. Get on with your life and build your life in your own way!

4. “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” — Dr. Seuss
-You’re in love with the Twitter bird and you know it! If you’re dreamin’ of him, it’s a fact.

5. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” — Dr. Seuss
-If this isn’t the truth! Take charge of your life. Go, people go! Think of the communities you can build, the business you can win and the people you can connect with if you only try! Quit following in your competitors footsteps. Make your own path and make it happen!

6. “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” -Dr Suess
-This one makes me think of how complicated we make social media. The newbie questions of what’s a retweet, what’s a tweet vs a twit and the list goes on. The best advice I give people is “just do it!” The answers are simple if you only engage. — Dr. Seuss

7. “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” -Dr Suess
-Just because you have tens of thousands of followers on Twitter, it doesn’t make you any better than the guy who is new to Twitter and has 8. You were there once too. That person is a person and in reality probably smarter than you!

8. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”-Dr Suess
-Listen and learn. Read, engage, watch your mentors, learn from them. You’ll soon learn and build your own track.

9. “We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” -Dr Sues
-I love this one! Reminds me of all the awesome people I have met on Twitter. Late nights, early morning, I love my Tweet buddies. I have met people from around the world. We all have a bit of quirky weirdness in our walk. Let it quirk and you’ll find other quirkers!

10. “Being crazy isn’t enough.” -Dr Suess
-Being a crazy bird isn’t enough. Yes, have humor. However, you need to add value. Inspire, educate and engage with your audience. Don’t just blast craziness! Don’t approach social media like a crazy bird out of the crazy cage. Yes, you may be excited you learned how to tweet, but put some sense into those 140 characters!

11. “From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!” -Dr Suess
-Social media is filled with humor. Just look around. Do a search on Twitter for the term “get more followers” and you’ll see just how many funny crazies there are who think they are making progress spamming. Embrace the humor of social media folks.

12. “I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent!”-Dr Suess
-Stick to your words and make your words stick!

13. “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” -Dr Suess
–Think bigger than the tweet, faster than a zoom and what you can do if you reached for the moon! Be different. Be bold. Stand out from the crowd.

14. “In my world, everyone’s a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!” -Dr Suess
-This one reminds me of the people who think social media is free, that social media alone is going to save their business. Get over it folks! Social media is far from free. It doesn’t enable you to eat rainbows and it sure as heck does not poop butterflies. It poops bad ROI and negative brand equity if you don’t manage it and plan. Build your plan and work your plan!

15. “How did it get so late so soon?” -Dr Suess
-Happens to me every night on Twitter. I am just getting into it and I pass out on the laptop. If only there were more hours in the day. My how time flies when you’re having fun!

And I will close with my all time favorite Dr. Suess quote:

“You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!”

Go get-r-done peeps!

*Important Note: The above quotes are either from Dr. Seuss or inspired by Dr Seuss.