Updating as this plays out with deeper analysis and links…

Just a few moments ago, Facebook officially filed an S-1  for an initial public offering seeking to raise $5 billion. Here are a few key findings…

- 845 million monthly active users, year over year growth of 39%

- 483 million daily active users as of December, year over year growth of 48%

- 425 million monthly mobile users

- 100 billion friend connections as of December 31, 2011

- 2.7 billion Likes and comments per day during the last quarter of 2011

- $1 billion in profits in 2011

- $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011, soaring 88% between 2010 – 2011

- Profits grew 65% from $606 million in 2010

- Zynga makes up 12% of overall Facebook revenue

- Google posted $961.8 million in revenue and $105.6 million in profit when it initially went public…Facebook’s profits are nearly 10x heading into its IPO

- Facebook 2011 profits were 1.6x that of Amazon, which posted a 45% drop in net income between 2010 and 2011 at $631 million

For press seeking analyst commentary, please contact Altimeter Group at 650-212-2282 or via email.

UPDATE 1: The Hacker Way

Really appreciate the culture of Facebook as mentioned in the S-1 under the heading “The Hacker Way.” Here’s an excerpt:

The Hacker Way

As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.

The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.

The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.

Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.

Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”

Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.

UPDATE 2: Risks

As a matter of disclosure, Facebook must release risks to caution investors against buying blindly. Here is the full list as pulled from the S-1. I share it here with you to learn from Facebook’s diligence in constant innovation or as they say “shipping.” It’s a healthy form of inspiration to always compete for the moment and for relevance over time.

1. users increasingly engage with competing products;

2. we fail to introduce new and improved products or if we introduce new products or services that are not favorably received;

3. we are unable to successfully balance our efforts to provide a compelling user experience with the decisions we make with respect to the frequency, prominence, and size of ads and other commercial content that we display;

4. we are unable to continue to develop products for mobile devices that users find engaging, that work with a variety of mobile operating systems and networks, and that achieve a high level of market acceptance;

5. there are changes in user sentiment about the quality or usefulness of our products or concerns related to privacy and sharing, safety, security, or other factors;

6. we are unable to manage and prioritize information to ensure users are presented with content that is interesting, useful, and relevant to them;

7. there are adverse changes in our products that are mandated by legislation, regulatory authorities, or litigation, including settlements or consent decrees;

8. technical or other problems prevent us from delivering our products in a rapid and reliable manner or otherwise affect the user experience;

9. we adopt policies or procedures related to areas such as sharing or user data that are perceived negatively by our users or the general public;

10. we fail to provide adequate customer service to users, developers, or advertisers;

11. we, our Platform developers, or other companies in our industry are the subject of adverse media reports or other negative publicity; or

12. our current or future products, such as the Facebook Platform, reduce user activity on Facebook by making it easier for our users to interact and share on third-party websites.

UPDATE 3: Facebook’s Friends or Who Owns Facebook

Ken Yeung over at bub.blicio.us found this interesting graphic complied by Learnvest based on data published by The WSJ and The Guardian. It’s a visual look at the distribution of Facebook stock. Some interesting pre-trading numbers reveal just how big this IPO is worth to the market, employees, investors, and partners.

UPDATE 4: A Letter from Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg urges understanding before investment. This is an approach that conditions investors for a long-term play rather than a quick and profitable turn. As important, is the focus on culture and values. Facebook invests emotion and aspiration in its mission and purpose, something I think more companies should consider to effectively connect with the human network (you and me).

Here are some highlights…

Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.

Zuckerberg believes that personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society

Facebook’s 5 core principles are 1) Focus on impact, 2) Move Fast, 3) Be Bold, 4) Be Open, and 5) Build Social Value.

The Facebook team is inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information.

Facebook hopes to strengthen how people relate to each other.

Even though Facebook’s mission sounds big, the company is focusing on starting small — with the relationship between two people.

Facebook is building tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.

Facebook has already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections with a goal of accelerating this “rewiring.”

Facebook seeks to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy.

The company believes a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services.

Facebook observes that as people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. As a result, the global social network strives to makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives.

This quote by Zuckerberg really captures the spirit of Facebook’s mission, “Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they’re thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.”

More data available at SEC.gov.

Connect with me: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Google+ | Pinterest

Order The End of Business as Usual today…

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/socialmediatoday_allposts/~3/CjWAaSmXTIw/facebook-files-s-1-5-billion-ipo-revealing-stats-revenue

“Why can’t you just give me a straight answer?”

Johanna’s voice showed a trace of irritation.  “All I’m asking is how much you charge for SEO services!”

I smiled. This was familiar terrain. As an SEO consultant, almost every client asks me a similar question. My answer is always the same.

“It depends. On many things. Because SEO is not a turn-key solution you plug in to play.”

“Wait.  You’re an expert – and you can’t tell me what you’ll charge?!”

That’s when I explain why and when SEO matters, and the dynamic process of fixing my price for SEO consulting.

Broadly speaking, here’s what I share – and 3 analogies I use to make it easier to understand – buying a car, an iceberg or a dam!

Why SEO Matters

Every client likes to save money while getting great results from search engine optimization. But by always looking to save money on SEO, you’ll take your eye off the more important issue of intelligently allocating your marketing budget across various tactics, of which, SEO is often the most cost effective.

SEO isn’t simple or easy. Google itself rates websites based on over 200 ranking criteria – and keeps tweaking the algorithm constantly, up to 600 times in a year.

So if an ‘expert’ takes one look at your site and quotes you a “complete price” for SEO, run for the hills (or at least exercise extreme caution). Sure, they may fix some glaring weaknesses, or help you pick the low hanging fruit – but deep and lasting SEO is about a lot more than that.

Simple ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’ and ‘Bronze’ packages don’t work for SEO. SEO isn’t something you install or plug in to your website. It’s not a ‘one-time’ operation. Good SEO is a process. Research and planning are critical components of it.

That’s why no SEO consultant can make an off-hand estimate, or set a ‘price per site’ for their services. Everything depends upon your goals and targets, the nature of your business, your audience, and more.

There’s good reason why, as a client, you shouldn’t focus on the cost alone. It’s better to concentrate on the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business such as the cost per acquisition, profit per sale, conversion rate and others.

A cheap SEO service may save you a little cash, but you won’t earn a lot from it either. In fact, it’s more likely that you’ll “save yourself into the poor-house!”

So ask yourself these critical questions first:

• Why are you even thinking about hiring an SEO consultant?
• Is SEO merely going to be your alibi instead of your ‘secret weapon’?
• Are you looking for SEO help just because everyone’s doing it, or your marketing department insists upon trying it?
• Or are you developing an SEO strategy to skyrocket your rankings, and along with it your profit?

Then, depending on the type of client, I introduce one (or all) of the 3 analogies.

Analogy #1: SEO Is Like Buying a Car, Your Price Will Match Your Needs

Johanna kept nodding her head, listening attentively to all that I said… but she still wasn’t convinced.

“Well, that’s fine,” she continued. “But I still want to know what it will cost to get my site optimized for search engines. How much does SEO cost?”

I asked her, “How much does it cost to buy a car?”

Johanna was a little confused. “Why, that depends.”

“Exactly” I said.  “The price you’ll pay for a car will depend on the make and model, its size and purpose, where you’ll drive it, and with whom. A sturdy station wagon for your family will be priced differently from a sports car you want to show-off!”

SEO services also range in price depending on what you want from it. The best SEO strategy begins by evaluating needs and problems of your prospective clients. It then deploys SEO as a magnet to attract only the most relevant leads out of the vast ocean of online Web surfers.

Setting up your website to do this effectively and well isn’t easy. Building laser focused landing pages targeted at sub-segments of your audience can draw a flood of relevant traffic that converts nicely into customers. But getting this right takes time and resources.

Cheap SEO is like bargain hunting. You might save some money. But you won’t earn much either. The way I practice SEO is not qualified guesswork that endangers a client’s business. Research and analysis come first, often followed by a face to face meeting with clients to gather all relevant information.

There’s nothing “turnkey” or “standard” about this kind of SEO. You can’t buy it, install it, and sit back. It is dynamic and constantly evolving. The ranking signals are in constant flux, and are impacted by various external factors, not just on-site ones.

SEO is also not about “fixing” things. Viewing SEO as a quick fix for reduced sales or traffic is a big mistake. You’ll only end up leaving money on the table (a lot of it!)

Good SEO must deliver a huge ROI. It is not just about getting high rankings and more traffic, clicks and page views. It’s about converting those visitors into paying customers. What happens before the landing page has a major impact on conversion rates.

SEO consulting of high caliber will help you:

• find your customers’ intent, needs and pressing problems
• identify their expectations from your business or website
• decide how you will deliver value (on the landing page)
• uncover areas of profitability
• pick triggers that convert visitors into customers
• personalize the experience for each visitor

Getting all these elements of SEO right takes a lot of time. Knowing where to begin for the best, fastest results will takes tremendous research. But the investment is worthwhile, because it will earn you a high return.

That’s why SEO should never be viewed as a cost. It’s an investment. One that pays off for a long time.

Analogy #2: SEO Is Like An Iceberg, Mainly Hidden But With Massive Impact

It is said 90% of the mass of an iceberg is under the water, hidden from view. SEO is just the same.

While you might see only the attractive top ranking on Google as the impact of your SEO, there are a hundred unseen elements at play, all working in concert to deliver the collective impact of intelligent optimization.

Like icebergs, SEO has some serious risks to balance the great opportunities it creates. Boats, ships, cruisers and even ocean liners have run aground on hidden rocks under the sea. And countless businesses have paid a steep price for wrongly executed SEO campaigns.

Mainly, such campaigns were put together by amateurs. Business owners wrongly assume that any Internet consultant is capable of “good enough” SEO, and hand it over to a Web designer or developer.

Just because they’re already in there coding or designing your website is not a reason to thrust SEO upon a Web designer or programmer. That’s like saying you’ll just get your plumber to do the wiring because he’s already working on the walls! Web developers are great at developing. SEO experts are best at SEO.

Sometimes, through sheer good luck (or even accident), you may own a great business with top search rankings and a steady flow of traffic coming in. That’s “good enough” – but with SEO, it can become so much more. And only a specialist can deliver great results.

SEO is well known to be one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. For this reason, SEO should have a larger budget. Yet even after Web analytics data prove beyond doubt that SEO is the absolute winner at driving more traffic, many companies pay little attention to it.

In today’s competitive online arena, SEO cannot be relegated to the status of a secondhand job any longer.

It is not a trivial task to be handed over to a friend or distant cousin who knows how to “fix it”. It shouldn’t be put off until the site is ready to launch. SEO should be the first thing to focus on. And there’s a reason for this.

Not everyone will arrive at your website through the homepage. Search engines will not ask you which of your landing pages you wish to have listed in their directory.  Generic searches on business critical keywords will throw up different entry points into your website. Many visitors will enter through these back doors.

Knowing why they landed at your site, what they expect to find, and what motivates or drives them to seek your solution is critical information if you are to capture their attention, retain their interest and gain their trust.

How will you optimize every page on your large website later on?

It’s far easier to plan for it in advance. This is something I insist upon with SEO clients. After all, if your website (or any section of it) is not important enough for you to do this, why does it even exist in the first place?

Analogy #3:  SEO Is Like a Dam – Open Flood Gates Traffic Just Keeps Flowing

Dams across massive rivers store water. Think about search engines like Google as huge dams that store your targeted visitors, and your listing on SERPs (search engine results pages) as holes in the dam. Punch enough of them, and you’ll be drowned in a flood of traffic!

That’s a great reason to start optimizing your website right now – and not take it in small steps, but go for a massive overhaul.

No matter what niche you are involved in, there are ‘evergreen’ search phrases with the potential to drive a large amount of traffic to your website for years. And this traffic is free! It will continue without any dent in your ongoing or proposed marketing budget.

But optimizing just one page on your website will only deliver one extra traffic stream. What if you opened the flood gates?

Keyword research will reveal that many searches are carried out on business related and highly relevant ‘non-brand’ generic keywords. These are used by people who have never even heard about you, but are focused on their needs and problems, actively seeking out solutions. That’s the ‘water’ behind the ‘dam’ that you can tap into through SEO.

Or if you don’t like the idea of punching holes in a dam, think of your keyword research as finding a pinata, the decorated papier mache container full of candy, that you can break open to get a treat. SEO is the candy king!

Speaking of candy, a website without strategically planned design is little more than eye candy. If all it does is look nice without providing any value, then it’s like playing trick-or-treat with kids – but keeping all the sweets for yourself!

Elements other than SEO are important. You should use SEO as a way to convert and engage your visitors. Knowing the intent behind keywords that lead visitors to an individual page on your site will be valuable for your Web designer.

But don’t let your designer start outlining your site or your programmer begin coding your pages before you’ve finalized an SEO strategy and done your keyword analysis. That’s the platform upon which you can build your future success.

You may get everything else right. Your inbound marketing strategy may cover all the bases – heavy SEO, social search, local SEO, mobile optimization – and may integrate nicely with other parts of your offline and digital marketing. But without diligent keyword research underlying it all, you’re only building a superstructure upon quicksand. That’s just not smart or effective.

In 2012 or 2013, I’m guessing that search and social media will meld. Researching generic long tail keywords and merging them with local terms like cities, place names and more will become important. The growth of mobile search and the rising awareness and experience of search engine users in general will power this trend.

When you know what savvy searchers are looking for, identify the exact keywords and combinations they use, and map them to individual pages on your website, it will make the difference between a 1% and a 20% conversion rate.

Do you think it might be a good idea to raise earnings from an individual page by 20% or more? Definitely, yes!

Do you think it’s quick and easy work to do this for each page?  Absolutely not!

An extensive e-commerce website with thousands of products for sale will have prospective buyers with totally (or at least slightly) different tastes and needs. Optimizing your site for each of them is important.  The text on your site, the visual appearance, the products and services you present to them – all need to fit into the concept of an “ideal solution” that your visitor has in his or her mind.

If you add value to their lives based on uniquely individual needs, you will boost sales.

Who Should Be In Charge of Your SEO?

Definitely not the information technologists.  The project should be owned by your marketing department.

At a local conference on SEM a few years ago, I heard the term “Business Prevention Unit” applied to the IT department! There was a brief stunned silence. A few seconds later, everyone burst out laughing.

During breaks and in other presentations, people talked about this remark. It’s especially appealing to me because so many of my clients start out thinking about SEO as a purely technical challenge. That’s so wrong!

SEO is about becoming a detective, a hunter, an explorer. You’re out looking for opportunities hidden inside the psychology of your prospects and customers.

This is a mindset that’s totally foreign to an IT manager, server administrator, programmer, Web designer or other technician. If you want to put food on the table, hire a hunter!

At the same time, it is wise to keep in mind that SEO is a team game. One of my clients runs a large website with over 10 million pages indexed in Google. Optimizing each one of them individually is simply not feasible. It would be too costly in time and money. Manually tweaking every page isn’t practical, even if it’s the ideal solution.

Therefore, an SEO strategy is critical.

Where is the highest profit lying hidden? Where should we focus to reach business goals set strategically for the long term?

The answers to those questions are important. And automation is important. So is optimizing the website structure and coding. A comprehensive plan to work on such a big site is mandatory. Having an expert programmer and great server administrator as part of the team is helpful. With literally millions of page views each day, it won’t help to hire just a great SEO strategist.

It also pays to keep in mind that your website is probably the best salesman in your company. But you’re locking him up in a closet! Release him right away.

Knowing that SEO is one of the most cost effective forms of marketing out there, it’s surprising that more companies don’t invest heavily into this. Is it because it “looks too good to be true”? Probably, because so many of my clients seem to think so.

Explaining to them that it’s real, and possible, is quite a challenge.

A part of the problem is technical language, jargon and lingo used by SEO specialists to outline the benefits of their craft to regular business owners.

So, What Does SEO Cost?

If you’ve been watching closely, you’ll notice that I still haven’t answered Johanna’s initial question…  What does SEO cost?

I’ll stick to the same response. It depends.

How high are you willing to jump? How fast are you going to run? I need to know this if I am to estimate how much energy and resources you’ll need.

Pricing SEO is equally difficult. It is complex. There are many rich opportunities. Several external factors and ranking signals skew the scenario further. And then, there’s the natural skepticism of a client to overcome.

Is SEO too good to be true?  Are SEO consultants snake oil salespeople who are out to trick and cheat you?

Yes, there are charlatans and cheats out there, and you ought to keep your eyes open and your feet firmly on the ground.

But any Internet marketing manager or business owner who is still not taking SEO seriously should consider stepping down. Because, let’s face it… the most dangerous person is yourself! Especially if you’re a frugal penny pincher looking for cheap results. Remember, in SEO as with life, you reap what you sow!

In the construction industry, there used to be people who dug with shovels. A company that invented and used the “digging machine” made results happen faster, easier and at lower cost.

Effective SEO is just like that. It can bring you better results faster and at a lower cost. That’s why you shouldn’t even consider letting anyone else handle your SEO tasks.

What does a rope cost?

Asking how much SEO will cost is like asking how much rope costs. It will depend upon how many meters you need, the quality of the rope, what you plan to use it for, or how long you want it to last. You can buy the cheapest rope you find, but will it be good enough?

Hiring an SEO consultant is similar. Just like rope has its per meter price, SEO has a price too – maybe a per hour rate. How many hours you will pay for depends upon all these factors we’ve discussed earlier.

And what you pay for is not what it costs you. That is defined by the return you get on your investment. If an SEO consultant delivers a boost in sales and profit that’s 5, 10 or 25 times what you paid, it didn’t cost you anything!

So that’s how I answer Johanna’s question – which is the same question many clients ask their SEO consultants.

I’m sure you’ve faced some frustrating challenges while trying to explain the value of what you do, to a client who can’t see it as any different from the dozen other marketing and designing tasks underway. Or when you’re called in as an SEO specialist to fix things after the entire website is built and running. Got any interesting stories that come to mind?  Go ahead and share it in a comment.

What do you do when you’re asked about pricing your SEO services? Do you have any personal experiences or favorite analogies you use?  What happens when you’re asked to give a ‘fixed price quote’ upfront? Tell us how you overcome price objections.

As a customer, what do you look for with SEO consulting? What parts do you wish your SEO consultant explained better or insisted upon more firmly? Please let us know, too.

Image credit: Crestock.com

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Google: SEO

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/NjpuIxfi_6w/how-much-does-seo-cost-3-analogies-to-help-you-determine-its-value-108870

Local business marketers often hyper-focus on Google search rankings, but it’s important not to forget that even if Bing and Yahoo! do not have the lion’s share, even 15% of search volume can create a sizable number of potential business referrals. So, here are a few basic tips for optimizing for Bing Local search rankings.

Optimization of business profiles in the Bing Business Portal (or “BBP”) is not difficult nor time-consuming. Microsoft’s newish Beta interfacing for administrating business listing details is actually pretty slick and easy to use.

10 Tips For Optimizing Local Business Listings In Bing

1.  The first key is to claim your business listing

As with other local search engines, having a business owner claim a listing helps to validate the information and establish that the business is active, helping increase “trust ranking” factors.

One of the hardest issues for local search engines and online directories to handle is figuring out which businesses have expired so that they can remove their listings from the databases — so, they have a horror of displaying stale listings to consumers. It’s reasonable to think that businesses which have some signal indicating they’re active will be more likely to be presented more prominently to searchers.

2.  Correct and standardize your basic business contact information

The core contact information needs to be consistently shown in all major places including in Bing Local. The basic contact data is the business Name, Address, and Phone # (a.k.a. “N.A.P.”) — along with the website URL.

3.  Add an image to your listing!

One striking characteristic of Bing Local searches is how higher-ranking businesses appear to more frequently have images associated with their listings! (See also my earlier articles on optimizing images for local search here and here.) Could be that listings that have images are claimed, and rank higher due to that status, or it could be directly related to the presence of the thumbnails.

Either way, businesses that have pics may have greater chance of ranking well in Bing Local. Example – top two listings for a search for “intellectual property attorneys, chicago, il”:

4.  Set your hours of operation!

Bing Local business profiles actually include a small sign icon. While I haven’t tested this, I wouldn’t be surprised if businesses might be a little more likely to rank better during times when they list themselves as being open, particularly in mobile search.

Even if it isn’t a direct ranking signal, however, the fact that the profile page gets the bright, attention-getting icon makes it worthwhile as a possibly conversion-increasing element!

5.  Check your categories, and add more where possible!

Business categories like “Plumbers”, “Florists”, and “Attorneys” are core elements involved in local search rankings, yet they can often be wrong or so minimally specified as to detract from the promotion potential that business listings would otherwise possess.

When a local search keyword matches a business’s category — either partially as a “fuzzy match” or as a thesaurus match — the listing is far more likely to rank for it.

6. Go a step beyond categories

Bing appears to treat “Specialities” similarly to categories or like subcategories, so add relevant specialties.

7. For restaurants, integrate with OpenTable

Integrating with OpenTable to handle reservation scheduling will enable a convenient ”reservations” link to appear on the profile page in Bing.

8.  Add deals to your listing!

Bing appears to have also integrated with Groupon, so if you have a Groupon offer going on, it could appear with your local listing in Bing, too. But, Bing Group Deals may be set up directly within the BBP as well.

9.  Develop citations!

Just as with Google Place Search and Google Maps, Bing Local listings need to have citations and inlinks in order to rank well. Local citation sources which may be influential in Bing include YP.com, Superpages.com, Yahoo! Local, Manta, Judy’s Book, and more. Vertical directories also likely work well here, too, such as Restaurants.com, FindLaw.com, Dentists.com, Contractors.com, etc.

10.  Optimize your local business website

Having a well-optimized local biz website helps all of your external optimizations work hand-in-hand with the on-site optimization. Businesses with good website optimization have a better chance of ranking well and getting found by consumers seeking their products and services.

Bing and other search engines compare listing information against the information found on the website, so keeping the listing data and “N.A.P.” consistent helps reinforce and validate the vital local search criteria.

These basic local optimization tips are pretty obvious to any experienced local marketer, but it’s always amazing how many local businesses fail to check their listings for correctness, consistency and areas where information may be expanded or enhanced.

Sites which follow these simple tips often get an edge over their competition — and, in internet marketing the “early worm” which grabs marketshare first often gets an advantage that extends well into the future. For more details around optimizing local directory profiles, see my earlier article, Anatomy Optimization Of A Local Business Profile.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Local Search | Microsoft: Bing Maps Local

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/Mc76fgKYC7Q/10-basic-bing-local-optimization-tips-109158

One of my favourite SEO anecdotes goes like this: two men are walking through an African game reserve when they come across a lion, one of the men calmly puts down his backpack and slips on the running shoes he has been carrying.

The other man chuckles and says, “You’ll never outrun a lion.”

To which the other man calmly responds, “I don’t need to outrun the lion; I just need to outrun you.”

SEO, contrary to popular belief, is not about ‘beating Google’ or ‘cracking their enigma code’; it is about beating the competing websites on the keywords that matter to your business. This means SERP analysis and competitor analysis should be key components in shaping your SEO strategy.

I am not advocating creating a carbon copy link profile for your site by building competitor links like for like. This methodology is about learning from their site and link profile in order to close the natural search gap; understand what is working (and to a certain extent, the limits); and then eventually to outmanoeuvre them.

In this post, I am going to explore a number of different eCommerce verticals and identify what I think makes that SERP ‘tick’ as well as the different link building tactics which can be utilised to ensure natural search dominance.

I wholeheartedly believe that when it comes to link building, quality and sustainability are the ‘end game.’ Google will eventually fully understand the true quality of a link. However, different markets have different ‘requirements.’ If you understand what it takes to rank in the market you are trying to target then you can ensure you are working strategically rather than adopting the “throw links at the wall and see what sticks” approach.

I will also be exploring how analysing the counterpart market in a more SEO-advanced country can help you understand the future of your home market.

The Data

Far too often in the world of SEO, sweeping statements and all-encompassing judgements are made with little evidence or data to back it up. This is just a snippet of the research I carried out which helps to underpin the conclusions I make later in this post

SERP 1 – ‘online shopping’ Google.com.au

According to SEOmoz’s Keyword Difficulty tool, this keyword has a 71% difficulty rating.

On the face of it, this would seem like a highly competitive keyword to try and target.

The number 1 result (http://www.oo.com.au) has over 36,000 external links, a high domain authority (59), and a domain mozRank of 4.9. A seemingly challenging keyword target. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t be easy; however, if we dig below the surface, we can get a clearer picture of just how OO.com.au is ranking which can help shape our link building strategy.

Link Quantity

Number of external links to the root domain according to OpenSiteExplorer

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 84,683

Anchor Text

Percentage of links with ‘online shopping’ as anchor text

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 7.35%

Link Quality

Percentage of links deemed to be of ‘low power’ by Link Research Tools. Cemper (the makers of Link Research Tools) guard their link power algorithm closely, but they have said that the link power is usually measured by looking at the number of links pointing at that page. A buried page in a rubbish web directory is likely to be considered low power as there will be very few links and certainly very few good quality links pointing at that page.

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 77.01%

Link Target

Percentage of links that point at the homepage according to Link Research T ools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 73.37%

Link Status

Percentage of external followed links according to Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 89.13%

Link Locality

Percentage of links from .au domains according to Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 25.7%

Social Metrics

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 465 Facebook Shares and 10 Google +1s

*Note – with regards to the social metrics, the figures are for social signals pointing at the homepage of the sites and have just been included for comparison purposes.

Analysis – how can we come out on top?

An immediate takeaway from this mini-study is that it would seem social signals aren’t weighted that heavily in this particular SERP.

Despite the furore around social media, this data right here proves that links should be your immediate focus and social should be a part of your SEO strategy in a long term sense. Google will undoubtedly get smarter on the social front; not only that, but also as competing websites become more social, there will be a natural progression towards social signals carrying more weight. No site wants to be left behind when/if this happens. Building links, certainly in this niche, is still the activity which delivers the results right now however.

To rank for this particular keyword, it could be argued that two particular factors appear to be the most pertinent: link volume and anchor text. This would seem to go against common wisdom that link quality is the overriding factor as, in this scenario, and according to Link Research Tools’ automated analysis, the vast majority of links pointing at the websites which rank highly are of ‘low power.’

Whilst some would say, high quality links are what you need to rank; for the keyword “online shopping,” you need to mix high-quality links that deliver longevity and stability with less powerful links that have the right anchor text in relatively large volumes.

Conclusion

In this scenario, suitable link building tactics include:

• Thematic/ quality article submissions – despite Google’s Panda update, we still notch up good results utilising quality and thematic article submissions as a way of generating volume and anchor text specific links.
• Guest Posting – a proactive link development campaign which involves content placement on niche and relevant websites in return for a link.
• Infographic Promotion – developing an engaging linkable asset like an infographic can be a good way to generate high volumes of anchor text links by including an anchor text attribute link at the bottom of the graphic which automatically gets placed when somebody uses the embed code. Obviously, in some situations, this will be removed by a webmaster using the graphic on their website, but we have seen this work successfully.
• Shopping Directory Listings – numerous submissions to good quality general and shopping directories still provide value in conjunction with other link development tactics.
• Social Bookmarking – another link building tactic which is seen as low quality, but when used with other methods can deliver the kinds of results you need.

Remember, the methods discussed above do not constitute recommendations across the board as they are very much SERP-specific; you will see the need to tailor your tactics as we explore other SERPs.

SERP 2 – ‘online shopping’ Google.co.uk

On to our second SERP. For this one, I have chosen the same keyword; but this time, we’ll look at the UK SERP.

According to SEOmoz’s keyword difficulty tool, this is a terrifying 87% difficulty score.

ASOS.com, which ranks #1 in the UK for the term ‘online shopping,’ is similar to OO.com.au in Australia. It’s a real juggernaut of the retail world with over 157,000 external links pointing at the domain; a domain mozRank of 6.26; and domain authority of 85. How on earth do you go about competing in a SERP like that then?

Link building with strategy ensures you are focusing on the SERP-specific metrics that appear to matter.

Link Quantity

Number of external links to the root domain according to OpenSiteExplorer

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 2,678,561 (this is skewed by Amazon.co.uk which has a colossal 15million external followed links).

Anchor Text

Percentage of links with ‘online shopping’ as anchor text

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 0%

In this SERP, anchor text doesn’t appear to be a ranking factor at all. Indeed, to demonstrate this a little further, I continued with my research, and the 16^th result had 1.2% links containing the anchor text ‘online shopping.’ Other than this result, the others were 0% anchor text.

This in itself would make building a great deal of anchor text links very suspicious indeed and likely very ineffective if you are looking to target this particular keyword.

Link Quality

Percentage of links deemed to be of ‘low power’ by Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 30.23%

Link Target

Percentage of links that point at the homepage according to Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 61.73%

Link Status

Percentage of external followed links according to Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 91.61%

Link Locality

Percentage of links from .uk domains according to Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 28.46%

Social Metrics

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 1393 Facebook Shares and 73.85 Google +1s

In comparison to its Australian counterpart, this SERP has a much higher average number of Facebook shares and Google +1s.

This bigger social signal sample appears to allow Google to make ranking decisions which are much more closely aligned with what the social signals are telling them rather than weighting link metrics so heavily, as is the case with the Australian SERP we investigated above.

Does this mean social should form more of an integral part of efforts to rank for this term? Almost certainly, but that doesn’t mean link metrics should be forgotten about.

Analysis – how can we come out on top?

On the face of it, this SERP appears very brand heavy with limited options for a website looking to break into the top 10 for this keyword, so what can be done? And what kinds of tactics are likely to be effective?

We would look to deploy combination link development and social tactics in order to help clients rank for this term.

• Linkable assets – think Evolution of Western Dance Music,  why witty job titles are all the rage,  12 awful Christmas presents, and Why Bill Gates is selling nuclear power to China. Linkable assets or linkbait come in all shapes and forms, not just infographics as the above examples demonstrate. Even news stories can be turned into link generation machines with a great title and the right composition.
• Contests – great competitions and creative contests can generate a great deal of social attention and will usually attract links from blogs, forums, competition directories, and more.
• Discount codes – a well-planned and properly seeded discount code or saving coupon can have a dramatic impact on the number of links you generate and the social activity you see around your site.
• Blogger Partnerships – reaching out to bloggers and industry website owners by contributing your content, expertise, or even products for them to try can be a very effective way to build high numbers of good quality links; particularly as many bloggers read other blogs so the feature can very often have a viral effect.
• Online press – if you have a product that you can create an engaging story around then generating online press is often easier than you might think.

This SERP is also a good example of a fast-paced environment where ongoing activities are vital in order to stay ahead of competing sites.

The chart above looks at the number of referring domains linking to some of the top 10 results in the UK SERP for the keyword ‘online shopping.’ It gives a snapshot of the quarterly growth or decline in links from unique referring domains. This helps to give a more accurate reflection of the link profile as number of backlinks can be misleading if, for example, there are multiple links from the same site.

As I am sure you will notice, over the past 5 years, the sites have all followed near enough the same pattern. Only once or twice does a site rise or fall above the general trend: presumably as a site has a promotional push or something happens which causes a reduction in the number of unique referring domains.

This emphasises the importance of on-going link development and SEO campaigns. It also highlights an opportunity, because Google has recognised that there is, in some respects, a fault in their algorithm; there is nearly always a lag time between a page being important and useful enough to mean it should rank and when it has enough links to compete in that SERP.

In response to this, Google developed ‘Query Deserves Freshness’ or QDF which means a page doesn’t need as many links as the incumbent sites that rank if the page is generating a good number of fresh links. Google, logically, has determined that fresh links might indicate a more relevant page than thousands or even hundreds of thousands of stale links.

The internet is a dynamic place so it makes sense that a link profile should be constantly developing.

So in this particular scenario, we would also look at link building tactics that deliver fresh links in great numbers as an attempt to beat the incumbent sites on velocity rather than volume.

This makes tactics like contests and linkable assets such as infographics highly suited to ranking for keywords like this. It also makes it that much more important to coordinate your efforts to ensure maximum link and social impact.

SERP 3 – ‘online shopping’ Google.com

The final SERP we will take a look at is ‘online shopping’ in the US which, according to SEOmoz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool, is extremely competitive and more challenging than any of the others we have looked at.

The top result, Overstock.com, has a domain authority of 90; a domain mozRank of 6.52; and nearly 300,000 external followed links, so this certainly looks the most challenging SERP to conquer.

As a side note, you might have seen the spot of bother Overstock.com got themselves into early on in 2011; it was encouraging links from college websites. Anyway, it cleaned up its act to the satisfaction of Google who released the retailer from the “sin bin” in late April 2011.

Link Quantity

Number of external links to the root domain according to OpenSiteExplorer

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 6,860,105 (this result is skewed by Ebay.com’s nearly 30million links)

Anchor Text

Percentage of links with ‘online shopping’ as anchor text

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 0%

Link Quality

Percentage of links deemed to be of ‘low power’ by Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 3.75%

Link Target

Percentage of links that point at the homepage according to Link Research T ools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 48.4%

Link Status

Percentage of external followed links according to Link Research Tools

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results =65.81%

Link Locality

Analysing the locality of the links is a little more challenging with US SERPs because of the worldwide nature of the .com domain. We don’t know whether the link originates from the USA or elsewhere in the world.

Social Metrics

*The average of the remaining 7 top 10 results = 19,708 Facebook Shares and 1441 Google +1s

Links over time

Similarly as we analysed the UK SERP of ‘online shopping’ for ongoing activity over time, below is a graph showing the non-cumulative view of referring domains pointing at the top 5 search results. You will note that Overstock.com and WalMart.com have largely mirrored each other in terms of link profile growth and decline over the past 5 years, and it could be argued, therefore, that they have been tussling in a competitive sense — vying for the top search engine positions.

This graph once again highlights the need for on-going activities to maintain and enhance positions as competitors react to your SEO. That isn’t to say that you need the same or even a greater volume of links in relation to your competitors. For example, Forever21.com ranks better than WalMart.com, but has fewer domains linking to it. But as the graph highlights, there is a need to be building or encouraging links on an ongoing basis. Overstock.com, at the start of 2011, acquired links with greater velocity than competing sites like Forever21.com and HSN.com, which likely contributed to their #1 position for this competitive keyword.

Analysis – how can we come out on top?

To come out on top in the US SERP – natural or certainly a natural appearance is the name of the game.

Link quality is paramount in order to rank for this keyword. There are next to no ‘low power’ links apparently contributing to the rankings of the top 10 results. This is different to the other SERPs we have analysed, because in the case of the UK and Australian SERPs, there are sites that are still very much enjoying prominent positions helped by low quality links.

Social is an equally important factor as we can see the top results have a much higher average Facebook share and Google +1 count — in terms of the remaining 7 top 10 results — than the other SERPs we looked at.

Also, in comparison to the other SERPs we have looked at, the distribution of links is also an important factor; it is natural for a website, particularly an eCommerce website, to have links to various sections and categories of the site rather than the majority of inbound links pointing at the homepage. Given this and the fact that Google is stepping up its efforts on unnatural linking patterns and communicating these warnings to site owners, I would think that HSN.com, which has a very high percentage of links to the homepage, is at least inviting a manual review from a Googler.

It could well be argued that the US SERP is the guinea-pig-lab-experiment for Google. This would seem to align with the way they roll out new features, e.g. US English Speaking Countries Rest of the world. If this is the case, the US SERP is probably the UK SERP of the future and so on.

It is also easier for Google to work more legitimate signals like social into the ranking algorithm and tuning down others in a Google.com SERP because there are more data points which would make the results more consistent with their quality expectations. In the Australian SERPs, there are sub-1000 social shares in most cases; whereas in the US SERPs, there are in most cases many thousands. Google, at this point, could not tune down link factors too much in the Australian SERPs because it would likely send the search results crazy as most sites that deserve to rank haven’t got the social signals in place to react to a switch of that kind.

My theory is that the difference in SERPs isn’t just down to a Google whim; it’s also the market as a whole.

What can we take-away from all this?

There is a trade-off that needs analysing…

Studying each of these SERPs as we have certainly raises the question of strategy.

As an SEO, you have to be strategic with your budget and resource allocation. Depending on your market and how ‘SEO-advanced’ it is, these factors will impact how and what you need to do to rank now and also continue to rank into the future.

It is a case of balancing appropriate financial investment, short term results, long term stability, and mitigating risks. Identifying not shortcuts, but fast and safe routes to the top is what any good SEO does.

Clients and agencies are fearful of low-quality link building; but as the data above suggests, in some markets, this is still a very effective tactic.

Although you don’t need me to tell you, only a fool is still freewheeling off the back of low-quality links alone.

From the above, we can deduce that in the US market — arguably a more ‘SEO advanced’ market — lower quality links are starting to wane in terms of effectiveness as the social signal dial gets turned up a little. So for anyone reading this in Australia, you could say that the US is our canary down the mine; and therefore, learning from what is working there and balancing it with what works here presently is the smartest strategy to adopt.

However, Wil Reynolds argued a strong case that — even in markets like the US – links are still the dominant factor and not necessarily good quality links either; in fact quality and social signals don’t appear to impact rankings as much as you might think.

Balance your link building tactic portfolio – adopting a combination approach

You are likely familiar with the Boston Matrix, which is an established tool for analysing the product or service portfolio of a business.

Below is an adapted version of the Boston Matrix, which should help you to visualise and more effectively plan your link building efforts. Thus, ensuring you are getting the results you seek now whilst being mindful of future developments.

A balanced ‘portfolio’ is essential. Too much in one area can be hampering short-term success; too much in another area could be jeopardising long-term stability.

It is a balancing act, and what might seem like extra ‘paperwork’ is actually a quick and effective planning tool that can also help clients to better understand your approach.

How to use the matrix

1. Understand the segments (see below).
2. Categorise your tactics (depending upon your market).
3. Assign a percentage of your budget to each one (understand your own or your client’s objectives and expectations and then assign accordingly).
4. Monitor regularly (SEO is a constantly changing environment, and as such tactics will likely move through all stages of the matrix at some point).

• New recipes

This is the ‘development kitchen’ for your link building efforts – where you explore new tactics which might or might not be providing value.

By new tactics, I am not specifically talking about ‘unheard of in the industry,’ but perhaps just new to your market or your site. Some verticals still have very few infographics, for example.

• Consume in moderation

This segment is for tactics which offer medium to long-term value, but little in the way of short-term gains. So it should be consumed in moderation if you are looking to maximise return on investment.

• Staple diet

This is the bread and butter segment and likely to be where most resources are allocated. You know these tactics work, and they provide short-term gain without compromising medium to long-term stability.

• Fruitless

The graveyard of link building tactics. Obviously, it is up to you when you feel that a certain tactic is no longer pulling its weight. It can be an idea to keep a track of the ‘fruitless’ tactics and perhaps a note as to why; then if things should change, you have the option of pulling it back into your portfolio via the ‘new recipes’ section.

Furthermore, Google’s crackdown on unnatural link patterns means that now is definitely the time to be varying your anchor text to ensure your site’s profile is as natural looking as it possibly can be.

Overall conclusion

The overall conclusion we can draw is that link building is certainly not a one size fits all approach. Different SERPs, keywords, and markets require very different strategies.

You also need to be thinking SERP-specific when it comes to link building tactics. Certainly, there are other ways to view link building, but this is just the way I look at it so as to make it more tactical. Some would argue that by looking at what competitors are doing, you are always going to be chasing their tail. I would say this isn’t the case; as with my proposed methodology outlined above, you are learning from their successes and their mistakes. Then you are executing, using your own well thought out tactics, which should close the natural search gap and then outpace the competition over time.

An interesting point, up for discussion and testing, would be whether a company can leap-frog the lower-end link building and overcompensate with the more legitimate tactics and get this recognised and rewarded by Google. My instincts and research tell me no, but I would love to hear from you in the comments if you have any data or experiences that would go against this.

By David Klein, Founder and Director of Orange Line – SEO and online marketing specialists based in Sydney, Australia. Visit us for more information about our link building services and methodology.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/NJKf7foTe94/strategic-link-building-why-you-dont-need-to-outrun-lions

In the real world, things go wrong. While we might all wish that everything we did was “fix once, stay fixed”, that’s rarely the case.

Things that were previously “not a problem”(TM) can become “a problem”(TM) rapidly for a variety of reasons:

• someone changes something unrelated / without realising it would impact you or just screws up (e.g. deploying a staging version of robots.txt or an old version of a server config)
• the world changes around you (there was a Google update named after a black and white animal a while back)
• the technical gremlins gang up on you (server downtime, DDoS etc.)

In all of these cases, you’d rather know about the issue sooner rather than later because in most of them your ability to minimise the resulting issues declines rapidly as time passes (and in the remaining cases, you still want to know before your boss / client).

While many of us have come round to the idea that we should be making recommendations in these areas, we are too often still creating spectacularly non-actionable advice like:

• make sure you have great uptime
• make sure your site is quick

Today, I want to give you three pieces of directly actionable advice that you can start doing for your own site and your key clients immediately that will help you spot problems early, avoid knock-on indexing issues and quickly get alerted to bad deploys that could hurt your search performance.

#1 Traffic drops

Google Analytics has a feature that spots significant changes in traffic or traffic profile. It can also alert you. The first of these features is called “intelligence” and the second “intelligence alerts”.

Rather than rehash old advice, I’ll simply link to the two best posts I’ve read on the subject:

• Here on SEOmoz by Rebecca Lehmann - 7 essential google intelligence custom alerts
• Over on Blueglass by Annie Cushing - stay alert with google analytics

This is the simplest of all the recommendations to implement and is also the most holistic in the sense that it can alert you to traffic drops of all kinds. The downside of course is that you’re measuring symptoms not causes so you (a) have to wait for causes to create symptoms rather than being alerted to the problem and (b) get an alert about the symptom rather than the cause and have to start detective work before paging the person who can fix it.

#2 Uptime monitoring

It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realise that SEO is dependent on your website. And not only on how you optimise your site, but also on it being available.

While for larger clients, it shouldn’t be your job to alert someone if their website goes down, it does no harm to know and for smaller clients there is every chance you’d be adding significant value by keeping an eye on these things.

I have both good and bad reasons for knowing a lot about server monitoring:

• the good: we made a small investment in Server Density in May last year (and scored our only link from Techcrunch in the process)
• the bad: we’ve been more enthusiastic users of our portfolio company’s services than we might have hoped – some annoying server issues have resulted in more downtime for distilled.net than I care to think about. To add insult to injury, we managed to get ourselves hit with a DDoS attack last week (see speed chart below)

There are three main elements you might want to monitor:

1. Pure availability (including response code)
2. Server load and performance
3. Response speed / page load time

Website availability

There are two services I recommend here:

• Pingdom‘s free service monitors the availability and response time of your site
• Server Density‘s paid service provides more granular alerting and graphing as well as tying it together with your server performance monitoring

Here’s what the Server Density dashboard looks like:

And here is the response time graph from pingdom:

You can see the spike in response time during the DDoS attack and the lower average response time over the last few days after we implemented cloudflare

Incidentally, you may not have noticed (it had passed me by until Mike gave me the heads-up the other day) that Google rolled out site speed to all analytics accounts without the previously required change to the GA snippet so you can get some of this data from your GA account now – here’s the technical breakdown from some of Distilled’s pages:

#3 Robot exclusion protocols, status codes

This was the most ambitious of my ideas for SEO monitoring. It came out of a real client issue. A major client was rolling out a new website and managed to deploy an old / staging version of robots.txt on a Saturday morning (continuous integration FTW). It was essentially luck that the SEO running the project was all over it, spotted it quickly, called the key contact and got it rolled back before it did any lasting harm. We had a debrief the following week where we discussed how we could get alerted to this kind of thing automatically.

I went to David Mytton, the founder of Server Density and asked him if he could build some features in for you lot to alert when this kind of thing happens – if we accidentally noindex our live site or block it in robots.txt. He came up with this ingenious solution that uses functionality already present in their core platform:

Monitoring for any change to robots.txt

First create a service to monitor robots.txt – here’s ours:

Then create an alert to tell you if the MD5 hash of the contents of robots.txt changes (see a definition of MD5 here):

If you copy and paste the contents of your robots.txt into an MD5 generator you get a string of gobbledegook (ours is “15403cbc6e028c0ec46a5dd9fffb9196″). What this alert is doing is monitoring for any change to our robots.txt so if we deploy a new version I will get an alert by email and push notification to my phone. Wouldn’t it be nice to get alerted in this way if a client or dev team pushed an update to robots.txt without telling you?

Spotting the inclusion of no-index meta tags

In much the same way, you can create alerts for specific strings of text found on specific pages – I’ve chosen to get an alert if the string “noindex” is found in the HTML of the Distilled homepage. If we ever deployed a staging version or flipped a setting in a wordpress plugin, I’d get a push notification:

Doing this kind of monitoring is essentially free to me because we are already using Server Density to monitor the health of our servers so it’s no extra effort to monitor checksums and the presence / absence of specific strings.

#4 Bonus – why stop there?

Check out all the stuff that etsy monitor and have alerts for. If you have a team that can build the platform / infrastructure, then there are almost unlimited things you could monitor for and alert about. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• status codes – 404 vs 301 vs 302 vs 500 etc.
• changes in conversion rates / cart abandonment
• bot behaviour – crawling patterns etc – given how disproportionately interested I was in the simple “pages crawled” visualisation available in cloudflare (see below – who’d have guessed we get crawled more by Yandex than Google?), I feel there is a lot more that could be done here:

PS – today is the last day for early bird discounts on our Linklove conferences in London and Boston at the end of March / beginning of April. (There’s also a sign-up form on that page if you want to make sure you always hear about upcoming conferences and offers). I hope to see many of you there.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/3NrOiwOuEnk/seo-monitoring

Last November Canadian digital agency Mediative (owned by Canada’s Yellow Pages Group) released an eye- and click-tracking study focused on Google Places and Google Maps on the PC. We wrote up the results when they were published. Mediative then followed up that study with a similar one focused on the Google Places app on the iPhone.

For the iPhone-app study, just published yesterday, Mediative monitored eye- and click-tracking with 12 people in Canada. They ranged in age from 21 to 45. The participants were asked to find places to get a tattoo in each of several Canadian cities. Here’s the task as described by Mediative:

Every participant in the study was given the same scenario as in the previous Google Places study – an imaginary road trip with stops in Hamilton, London, Winnipeg and Edmonton, with the task of choosing a place for a friend to get a tattoo in each of those cities based on the Google Places search results. From the participants in the eye tracking part of our study, we recorded each individual session, and then compiled the sessions to create heat maps that represent aggregate gaze data and supplement the qualitative findings.

Screen size was a critical difference between the PC and iPhone studies. Beyond this Mediative found that images and reviews were very important in capturing users’ eye movements and clicks.

The image on the left shows yellow bubbles of various sizes. The larger the size of the bubble, the more time the eye spent in that area of the screen. The numbers represent the progression of movement of the eye across the screen during the first several seconds. In other words the eye spent the most time on an image on the right, which was nearly the last thing considered in this sequence.

On the right screen above, red indicates more time spent and green less time spent. The second image in this case got the most attention among the three images. Mediative explains: “It’s the only image on this screen of a tattoo; both the other images are of storefronts.” Thus the image was directly relevant to the searcher’s objective: find a tattoo vendor.

As a general matter, people on the iPhone app scanned left to right and then down the page, not unlike eye-tracking patterns on the desktop. According to Mediative, reviews were an especially significant factor in eye-tracking patterns in the iPhone test:

People typically start looking in the upper left part of the screen, scan from left to right, then move down to the next result, and scan from left to right again. However, given the small space of the iPhone screen, some people will have their attention pulled to the right to look at an image, and may continue a scan down to the next image, before resuming a left-to-right scan pattern. If they start scrolling down, then their gaze will stay on the left side until they hit a listing of interest. In the examples we used in this study, in almost every case it meant that they would scroll down until they hit a listing with a better than 3-star review.

What Mediative observed is that where there were fewer “social signals” (e.g., reviews) among the top results users went further down the page to find places that had not only reviews but at least three stars. According to the report, “This presents an opportunity for businesses whose websites are not listed at the top; they can be more competitive by adding positive reviews.”

Mediative offered the following conclusions and recommendations:

• Reviews and other social signals grab attention: “If a business website is listed in any position other than the top three, and the listing does not include any social signals, it will be relatively ignored, especially if there are other listings that do have social signals.”
• Reviews drive clicks: “Positive reviews on the Google Places iPhone app were the biggest single factor we observed that determine which listings got clicks and which did not.”
• Volume of reviews matter: Mediative found “that 29 of the 47 clicks went to listings that had at least four reviews.”
• Images matter too: “People . . . look at the images to see if the business looks trustworthy.” The type of image may matter as well: “We recommend giving the image that accompanies a listing some special consideration, and remember that an image that might work on a desktop might not work so well when reduced to a phone.”

You can download the entire report here (registration required).

Related Entries

• Eye-Tracking In Google Maps: Study Shows Value Of No. 1 Ranking Social Content
• Eyetracking SEO: Fad, Fact, Or Fiction?
• Eye-Tracking Study: Everybody Looks At Organic Listings, But Most Ignore Paid Ads On Right
• Survey: 6-10 Local Business Reviews Required For Trust
• Survey: Local Reviews Gaining In Importance
• Eye Tracking Study Shows Importance Of Search Snippets

Related Topics: Google: Maps Local | Google: Mobile | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/1CE8j8LPk5I/study-reviews-and-images-drive-clicks-in-mobile-109659

Videos Indexed in the SERP

Did you know that major search engines want you to make video sitemaps for all of your embeds, even if you’re hosting on Vimeo or Youtube?

Not only does it help them spider your website by giving the search engines clues as to where to look for video embeds, it may also earn your site a click through boost by giving you a picture in the SERP. Below I’ll show you how I managed to index my Vimeo video embeds to include a thumbnail. Don’t worry, the same steps should work for Youtube as well.

Benefits of a Video Sitemap

There are several reasons why you’ll want to add a video sitemap.

• It makes it clear to Google what your content is.
• You have the opportunity to provide a range of details through schema.
• Additional presence on video.google.com search.
• RAD picture thumbnail, which is a pretty great call to action.

Video Embed Code

It’s important to pay special attention during this part. Video embedding is largely done using iFrames these days and that poses a problem if you want the search engines to index your videos. For whatever reason Google doesn’t currently spider iFrames. This is frustrating as iFrames are great for playback compatibility on mobile devices, iPads, and the like. There is a workaround, but first, let’s discuss how a video sitemap works.

A video sitemap is simple guide for the search engine bot. Think of it as a map to treasure, it just makes it easier for the bot to find the treasure. If you use an iFrame, the bot can’t find the video making the video sitemap useless. However, Google can find and spider standard object embeds, AKA the old fashioned way of doing things. With this in mind, I’m going to describe the safest way to get your videos indexed by using old embed code still available on Vimeo and Youtube. Here is a picture to help you find it:

Embed Code

If you found it correctly your embed code should look something like this. (vimeo example)

You don’t have to cleanup your code like I did above, I only did it so we could easily see what’s happening. Pay special attention to the embed src line, the URL inside looks like this..

vimeo: http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=35117351

youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/VMeXGE_a8Gg

This is the RAW video player link, it tells google/bing where to find the original video file. We’ll need this information later when building the video sitemap.

Nested iFrame/Embed *OPTIONAL*

There is one thing worth mentioning. Some people have developed a technique to trick google and still use an iFrame. I haven’t actually tried it myself as I’m happy playing it safe with the old method and showing up in the SERP.

Anyhow, the idea is that you use the new iFrame code and the old embed code at the same time with the noframes tag. This essentially nests the two videos, such that end users will see the new html5 iFrame version and google is served the old embedded version.

A couple drawbacks worth mentioning.. First, this is technically cloaking content as you’re serving one thing to the user and giving google something else. Second, your page will take longer to load as the original embed starts to fire up before the iFrame gets control. Lastly, noframes wasn’t designed to work like this, it’s a hack. With that in mind here is what it’d look like:

Video Sitemap Requirements

Now that you have your embed code all sorted out, it’s time to start working on the video sitemap. Google requires that your video sitemap MUST contain the following information and that it should MATCH what is on your webpage.

• Title – This should be the same as the title of the page your video appears.
• Description – Make this exactly match the meta description of your page.
• Play page URL – The canonical URL of the page your video appears.
• Thumbnail URL – By thumbnail they mean a high resolution image up to 1920×1080.
• Raw video location – This is the embed src link noted from above pointing at the clip.
• More Details: Google: Creating a Video Sitemap

Example Video Sitemap

The best way to learn how a video sitemap works is to see one. First start by creating a new file, name it something like: video-sitemap.xml

Then fill it in so that it looks like the example sitemap below, except replace the white text with your own information. For every video you have copy/paste the url/url block. In the example below there are two video URL blocks, the top block has descriptors for the fields, the bottom block is exactly what my video sitemap looks like. I prefer to keep mine in chronological order with the newest video on top. Once you’re done you’ll upload it to the root of your website ex. http://yourdomain.com/video-sitemap.xml

Tweak Robots.txt

This isn’t absolutely necessary, but it doesn’t hurt. Add your sitemap to your robots.txt file. Don’t worry about being redundant, you can have a video sitemap describe the same page as a standard article sitemap. To add your sitemap to robots.txt place the following line at the top:

Sitemap: http://yourdomain.com/video-sitemap.xml

Update Google Webmaster

Once you’re ready with your sitemap head over to Google Webmaster Tools and submit it under site configuration. Google will crawl it and report if there are any errors. If everything looks good the videos will be queued to be spidered and you should see them online after about a week.

Conclusion

This is actually the bare minimum to get you started. There is a lot of depth to the schema and you can include a range of details in your video sitemap including tags, categories, and author just to name a few. Hopefully with the above information you can get your embedded vimeo/youtube videos indexed with a picture. Feel free to contact me if you get stuck or check out my video sitemap at http://winefolly.com/video-sitemap.xml

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/1Mhc7F1rtAk/video-sitemap-guide-for-vimeo-and-youtube

For a long time I’ve been pulling an RSS feed from Twitter for the query: “guest post” OR “guest author” [TOPIC] into my Google Reader. Every morning I would check it, blaze through 15-20 URLs — most of which were the same URL being tweeted. Then, I’d record the best guest post opportunities, reach out to bloggers, publish a guest post and get links. It was a great strategy and resulted in a lot of guest post links.

Although having an RSS feed was a bit more efficient than performing a Twitter search every day, it was boring, time consuming and I just really didn’t like doing it. Things you don’t like, don’t last.

So, I made a tool that does all the heavy lifting. This tool pulls the same RSS feed that I had in my Google Reader into Google Docs, finds all of the t.co URLs, enlarges them, eliminates duplicates based on domain, and presents them in a nice package.

Because it has helped me tremendously, I thought it could also help out other agency SEOs and small business marketers / owners.

How to use it

1. Go to http://ow.ly/8x9gF.

2. Make a copy of the sheet.

3. Type a one word topic that most describes your client / niche in cell B1.

You’ve likely chosen a topic too narrow if you’re seeing an error.

4. You’ll notice a bunch of t.co links populating cell A2. Wait five seconds (I know, tough, right?) and they will change into unique URLs.

5. Copy 5-6 URLs:

6. Paste them into Ontolo’s Link Reviewer: http://ontolo.com/link-building-url-reviewer

7. Click “Review URLs” and watch all of the URLs open in new tabs in your browser:

8. When you find a viable linking opportunity, paste the URL in column D:

9. Because no one expects you to remember all of the linking prospects in column D, it will tell you if there’s a duplicate in column F:

10. Now, add your link prospect’s contact info in column G.

11. Go to your calendar, create an event about an hour after you wake up that says, “Find Guest Posts Via Twitter” and add this link: http://ow.ly/8x9gF in the event. Set it to repeat every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

12. Lastly, perform outreach. Use John Doherty’s Twitter outreach article as a base and start building links!

Parting Remarks

Because the guest post opportunities are curated by Twitter users, it could pick up posts that might not explicitly say guest post in the title or even in the body of the article, yet be a guest post. So it should help you uncover some gems that you might not find via Google.

Next Versions

In next versions, expect to see Google Blog Search, multiple queries and URL analysis. That’s what I had in mind but I’d love to hear what you would like to see in the next version of this tool.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post / watch the video and hopefully you can benefit as much as I have. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/QA7i6mS9hPo/want-guest-post-links-find-them-via-twitter-tool

This has been quite the week for social media blunders, particularly on Twitter. McDonald’s most recent PR stunt is more-commonly being referred to as “#McFail.”

The campaign was intended to shift consumer opinions using the hashtag #McDStories, by tweeting facts about their organic potato farmers in an effort to more closely associate themselves with the positive attributes of organic food. But the current consumer mindset association between ‘organic’ and fast food could not be at further polar opposites.

This tweeting strategy quickly backfired as the campaign became a lightning rod for a backlog of negative public brand sentiment. Consumers began using the hashtag as a vehicle to advocate against McDonald’s by highlighting accusations ranging from drug use to food poisoning.

With this campaign, McDonald’s opened up a free-flowing communications channel with consumers. Social media sites such as Twitter are great tools for marketing and PR campaigns, as they are two-way communication channels which foster engagement between companies and their customers.

However, they also present an unpredictable path for brand-reputation management. In the case of McDonald’s, just a small transition from the predicted course of action led to a diminished brand reputation and an onslaught of negative press.

In order to effectively handle customer feedback, marketers must devise plans which clearly outline a response plan that will demonstrate professionalism, address customer concerns, and most importantly, remain authentic to the brand reputation.

To avoid having your own #McFail, be sure to follow the ABC’s of Responding to Negative Feedback on Social Media.

ABC’s of Responding to Negative Feedback on Social Media

Acknowledge the situation.
Be true to your brand.
Confirm with the customer their exact problem or complaint.
Do not delete any negative feedback.
Engage in dialogue.
Follow your crisis plan.
Go! Responses need to be sent as quickly as possible!
Honesty is key.
Information is important to solving any customer complaint.
Join the conversation.
Keep monitoring even after you resolve a customer complaint.
Listen to the customer.
Monitor 24/7 for any potential situations.
Never attack the customer or accuse them of lying.
On point messaging, always! Never stray from key messages outline in your crisis plan.
Plan, plan and plan.
Quit panicking – you have a plan in place to follow.
Respond quickly.
Say you are sorry.
The truth will prevail – so be honest.
Understand what the customer is saying.
Verbalize your company’s position on the issue.
Work hard to regain your customers trust.
Xerox copy/pasting responses never works. Respond to customers personally.
You can’t afford to ignore negative sentiment.
Zero-in on the brand’s challenges, and then offer a solution.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/socialmediatoday_allposts/~3/BJeHUZ3hRJE/mcfail-why-mcdonalds-should-have-followed-abc-s-responding-negative-feedback-so

To most PPC marketers, the Facebook paid ads program represents an ideal marketing opportunity. Finally, you aren’t limited to targeting your ads based on geographic location and time of day alone (I’m looking at you, Google Adwords!). In fact, if you wanted to run a campaign targeting 16 year old boys in San Francisco who like the video game “Gears of War” you could do it – the Facebook paid ad targeting system is that powerful.

But for all of this power, why does it seem like so many Facebook paid advertisement campaigns produce mediocre results, ending up with low click-through rates and a negative return on investment (ROI)? Let’s take a look at the Top 10 reasons your Facebook campaign isn’t working:

Reason #1 – Your Ad Isn’t Targeted Well

Despite the vast capabilities of the Facebook targeting system, plenty of advertisers wind up targeting markets that are either too large, too small or not relevant to the product they’re selling. And while there’s no set target market size that will optimize every single Facebook ad campaign, you can use your past results as an indication of how well your ads are targeted.

If you receive too many responses, pare down your targeting criteria even more. If you receive too few responses (or responses from the wrong type of people), adjust your targeting to reach different groups.

Reason #2 – Your Image Isn’t Eye-catching Enough

Perhaps the biggest weakness of the Facebook Ads program when compared to Google Adwords is that people go to Facebook to be social. When someone types a query into Google, they’re looking for information, and it’s possible that one of the paid Adwords ads will meet that need best. But on Facebook, users tend to gloss over ads because they aren’t in an information-gathering or product-purchasing mindset – they’re simply there to hang out with friends.

To remedy this, it’s crucial that you choose an image to pair with your ad that’s both eye-catching and relevant to your promotion. If you’re seeing a low clickthrough rate on your ads, the specific image you use should be one of the first elements you test.

Reason #3 – Your Headline or Description Text Isn’t Unique or Compelling

Facebook ads don’t give you a lot of room to talk up your product. With just 25 characters for your title and 135 characters for your description, you’ve got to say a lot in a very little amount of text. And when you consider that users are skipping over ads on the site anyway, you can see how crucial it is that these characters be used as effectively as possible.

If you aren’t the world’s greatest copywriter, this could be an ideal place to outsource your marketing campaign. Working with a company with a successful history on Facebook Ads could mean getting a lot more activity for your marketing dollars with a lot less frustration on your part.

Reason #4 – You Don’t Have a Clear Value Proposition

The 22 Michaels blog published a fascinating case study that demonstrates how important it is to understand the customer you’re targeting and tailor your ads to show clear value to these users. The company ran the following ad over Valentine’s Day this year, encouraging men to purchase shoes for their dates on this romantic holiday:

Ultimately, the ad failed, in large part due to the fact that there’s no clear value proposition for men. As one reader pointed out, “For a male audience who are not aware of your brand, the “Shoes of Prey” headline would have done little to catch their attention.” When advertising on Facebook, be sure you understand exactly who you’re targeting and what specific needs they might want to address.

Reason #5 – You Aren’t A/B Testing Your Ad Copy

As with so many things online, the only real way to know if your headline or description text is as effective as possible is to split test different options. Facebook Ads gives you this capability, so be sure you’re running at least two variations at all times in order to uncover your most compelling ad text options.

Reason #6 – Your Ad is Stale

Because Facebook readers’ eyes tend to glaze over at the sight of paid ads, “staleness” of ads should be a crucial concern for advertisers on the site. In fact, some experts believe that Facebook ads become stale within 2-3 days, which means that you must be constantly revising your campaigns in order to gain attention.

Reason #7 – You’re Using the Wrong Type of Facebook Ad

Facebook offers a number of different paid ad formats, including poll ads, like ads, sampling ads and others. If you aren’t seeing the results you want with your Facebook advertising campaign, it’s possible that you’ve chosen the wrong type of ad for your target market. Experiment with other types to see if your results improve.

Reason #8 – Your Bid Price Means Your Ads Aren’t Being Seen

In order to accommodate marketers with different budgets, Facebook offers both Premium and Marketplace ads – but the catch is that only Premium ads are guaranteed to display. If your ads aren’t getting the number of impressions you expected, you may need to increase your bid price or take advantage of Premium ad placements to get your campaign seen by more people.

Reason #9 – You Don’t Have a Clear Understanding of the Calue of a “like” or Your Expected ROI

With Google Adwords, your expected payoff is fairly straightforward – you get someone back to your site where they either buy products or sign up as a lead for your services. But the end goal of Facebook Ads is a little more difficult to grasp. Essentially, you could be running an ad in order to build brand awareness, which will be measured in the number of “likes” on your fan page.

But since “likes” don’t pay the bills, it’s crucial that you understand what exactly these social votes mean for your business model. Having brand awareness is important, but if you drop tens  of housands of dollars to boost the popularity of your company page and don’t see a single sale as a result, the ROI of your campaign just doesn’t make sense. For this reason, it’s important to understand the expected ROI of your social media participation and ensure that your bids and ad
spending are in line with these goals.

Reason #10 – You Aren’t Following Up with Personal Interactions

Facebook is a social site, which means that – in order to be most effective – ads can’t simply be a one-way street. If someone takes the time to follow through with your paid ad – whether by simply “liking” your fan page or taking a more involved action – it’s important to show that you value their engagement by following up with a personal interaction.

Whether you respond with a personal note or offer a special coupon or reward in return, reaching out in this way will help you to build a relationship with your target market and ensure that you get the most value possible out of your Facebook advertising campaign.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SearchEngineJournal/~3/5jGvj60rwu8/