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Tips For Creating High Quality Sites Part 2

October 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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The following article by Francesco Angeli, Google’s AdSense Policy team, gives further advice and tips on how to create a high quality websites for Adsense use.
The goal of the Google Display Network is to provide valuable and relevant content for our users and advertisers. We’ve previously provided some tips for creating high quality sites for AdSense. To build on that, we’d like to share some more information about which types of sites and pages are best suited for monetization.

Pages should provide originality and added value
The Google Webmaster Guidelines highlight the importance of providing original content that sets your site apart, but this is only one component of creating a high quality website. Our guidelines also recommend, for example, that you do not use doorway pages and doorway domains, pages with little to no content, or pages optimized for specific keywords or phrases.Strive for well-organized and information-rich content
Providing original content is only one component of creating a high quality website. The content should also be informative and organized in a manner that is easy for users to navigate.

Here is a short – but not exhaustive – list of things you may want to keep in mind:

  • Focus on topics you’re knowledgeable and enthusiastic about.
  • Avoid duplicating the same content on several pages or producing overlapping or redundant content.
  • Focus on engaging the user (i.e., providing an interactive experience with relevant information based on user interests) rather than generating content in the attempt to trick our bots, for instance with irrelevant high-paying keywords.
The organization and navigational structure of your site are also important, as users should be able to easily navigate through your pages and find the information or service they’re seeking. In addition, there should always be a good balance between the ad implementation and the content of your page. Ads should be an additional resource for users, enriching the value of the page and not be overwhelming or more prominent than the content itself.

Avoid placing ads on non-content-based pages
Sometimes websites that provide valuable content as a whole may have certain sections or pages that are not well-suited for monetization. This includes pages that users visit before potentially exiting a domain, such as a page where users are shown a “thank you” message for their visit or purchase. Another example are 404 error pages where users are informed there is no content to be found at that given URL.We hope you found this helpful. For more information about creating high quality content, check out Google Webmaster Guidelines, AdSense Program policies and the policy section of the AdSense Help Center.Our best suggestion is to follow what we at Google still maintain as our core principle: “Focus on the users and all else will follow.”

Posted by Francesco Angeli, AdSense Policy team


Inside AdSense

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Online Shopping Tips

October 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Google Give Advice On Online Shopping

The following article by Angela Lai, VP Engineering, Google Wallet, gives valuable advice, hints and tips about online shopping and how to protect yourself from fraudsters. The original article can be found here.

As people in many parts of the world do the last of their back-to-school shopping and prepare for the holiday rush, we thought it was a good time to share a few recommendations for a safer online shopping experience.

Protect your Google Account
Whether you’re buying a bestseller on Google Play or tapping your Google Wallet-supported phone on an NFC terminal at your favorite coffee shop, it’s important to understand that Google Wallet uses the security features of your Google Account to protect your credit cards. In other words, you need to guard your Google Account just like you would your physical wallet. If you leave your wallet lying around unprotected, somebody could steal it and make unauthorized purchases or worse. The same consequences could result if you don’t properly secure your Google Account. That’s why we encourage everyone to create a strong password that you don’t use on other websites, enable 2-step verification on your account, and keep your account recovery information up to date.

If it looks too good to be true…
If you haven’t shopped from a particular merchant before, it’s worth taking a few minutes to do some research. For example, search for reviews from other buyers who have experience with the seller. Legitimate merchants should provide you with contact information that you can reference if you have any questions or problems with your transaction. Never wire money to a seller you haven’t reviewed very thoroughly and stay alert for phishing attempts, spoofed invoices, and “work from home” money scams that try to cheat you.

Only send information over secure connections
Look for the https:// in your address bar when transmitting any sensitive information like credit card or bank numbers. Your banking website may use additional methods to demonstrate their authenticity, and if so, keep an eye out for them to help avoid scams. Online threats are here to stay, but you can use the right tools to prepare yourself for when that one-day sale beckons or the holiday blowouts come calling. For more safe shopping tips, visit our Good to Know page here.


Posted by Angela Lai, VP Engineering, Google Wallet


Google Commerce

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Tips for Writing a Successful Landing Page

August 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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I came across this article by Todd Bailey, where he gives 5 simple tips on how to write a successful landing page for your website.

In brief, he talks about:

  • Making sure that the heading on the page matches the search term bringing people to the site
  • Write in the second person, using words like “you” and “your”
  • Think about the design
  • Keep the reader engaged with concise writing
  • Write for the web – short sentences, short paragraphs and simple language (as previous)

The full article can be found here.

 

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Part 4 – Mobile Website Optimisation: 10 Tips to Make Mobile Conversions Easier

July 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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This is the last part (1 of 4) of the Mobile Website Optimisation series by Shane Cassells, from Google’s Conversion Team.

The previous three posts covered are:

Part 1: Mobile Website Optimisation : Content Consideration

Part 2: Mobile Website Optimisation : White Space

Part 3: Mobile Website Optimisation : Designing Buttons

<h3>Mobile Website Optimisation : Increase Conversion Rate</h3>

In Summary: Making it easy to convert on a mobile device is key to maximising conversion rate. Mobile conversions must play to the strengths of mobile devices and simply replicating the desktop experience is often not enough.

As in previous posts in this series, I invite readers to think about the way the mobile user experience is different from desktop. On desktop, many conversion funnels require visitors to jump through a series of hoops (often forms) before the visitor can become a customer. While this is often an unsatisfactory experience for a person with a mouse and a keyboard, mobile visitors are even less likely to put up with this in order to convert.

Mobile devices are increasingly touchscreen and the majority of smartphones have only a virtual keyboard. Mobile users also don’t have the speed of multi-finger typing and many will enter data solely with relatively large unwieldy thumbs. While there are vehicles for data-entry specific to mobile which can really help, like voice entry and text completion, these methods are rarely useful when a visitor is using uncommon language such as when they are entering a postal address or email address.

So, how do we help mobile users complete a conversion or even partially complete? By partially completing a conversion I mean allowing them to perform an action that they can complete conveniently through another medium. Here are some ways that can help make mobile conversions easier:

Have a Single Customer Experience Across all Platforms

The means by which visitors can interact with your site are varied. Mobile users will be using small screens and their thumbs; tablet users will be using medium size screens and their fingers; and desktop users will be using medium to large screens and a mouse and keyboard. However, it should be possible for a visitor to begin the conversion process on one platform and complete it on any of the others. This is what we mean by a single customer experience. For example, with amazon.co.uk a visitor can login to their account on a desktop and start adding things to their shopping cart. If they need to leave their desktop, they can simply login to their account on their mobile device and complete the transactions while they’re on the move. And this functionality is not limited to ecommerce websites. On autotrader.co.uk a visitor can add a car they are interest in to their garage on their desktop and then open their garage on mobile or tablet and find the same car there as they travel to see it.

On Amazon.co.uk, it is possible to begin a conversion on one device and complete it on another

Allow Visitors to Save Searches

The ability to save searches can be particularly useful for travel or local website owners but really it is suited to any website where a user is likely to search for the same things repeatedly. In the case of travel, it is not unusual for visitors to have favourite destinations or even for them to re-visit a site multiple times before completing a purchase. Or a take-away restaurant is likely visited time and again by users who have a favourite meal. Allowing visitors to save their searches makes the journey to their regular purchases that little bit easier. If the visitor doesn’t have an account, make it easy for them to save searches by just adding an email address or use cookies to remember the last search they completed.

Have Clear Calls To Action

This one stands to reason everywhere but it is still a barrier to conversion on many sites. Often the website owner has provided too many conversion options or not clearly enough labeled to the visitor where they are expected to go next. Avoid using multiple conversion options and use button colour and size to clearly indicate to a visitor what you want them to do next.

On Mothercare.com, the call-to-action is clear and easy to find

Allow Visitors to Save Baskets

For website owners with a basket for their visitors to fill prior to checking-out, it is a good idea if those visitors can save their baskets for their return or even for them to access the basket again from another platform. This will also encourage cross-platform purchases. Easy account login is imperative for this to work. Have an account login button on every page and keep login simple. If a visitor doesn’t have an account and is not making an immediate purchase, entering their name and email address should be sufficient for them to save their basket and access it again elsewehere.

Keep Forms Short

The best way to ensure that conversions are easy is to make sure that all forms are only as long as absolutely necessary. Get your conversions in before asking irrelevant marketing or cross-sales questions. By keeping forms short you can make conversion on a mobile device much easier indeed.

Use Top-Aligned Labels

When a mobile phone user taps on a form field, very often the browser zooms in to that field. Mobile devices are also long but narrow when vertically orientated. Thus, having form field labels to the left as is common on desktop is less feasible. By implementing field descriptions above the field it is easier for a visitor to see where they are and it allows more space for form fields.

Booking.com uses top-aligned labels in their checkout

Use HTML5 for Form Fields

By using HTML5 in form fields, it is possible to help users to complete those fields more efficiently. For example, a field for telephone number will be filled using the number keypad. Find a simple introduction to HTML5 in plain English here.

Use Check Boxes, Lists & Scroll Menus

Data entry needs to be kept to a minimum when a user has only their finger or thumb and a virtual keyboard to help them. By using check boxes, lists and scroll menus to make data entry easier, you will be helping the visitor to proceed through the conversion process. However, it is important not to give a visitor too many options in these lists or they may be less decisive.

Implement Click-to-Call

Mobile users are much more likely to make a phone call than a desktop user. If your business converts over a telephone line, make sure that all references to phone numbers on your website are tagged for click-to-call and where possible make those links into buttons.

RAC.co.uk have implemented click-to-call buttons for their breakdown service

Use Geo-Technology for Offline Conversions

A key difference between mobile and desktop users is that mobile users are using a device with location based technology. Where a conversion can take place offline, it is advisable to use this technology to help a visitor find their way to your store. In such cases it can be useful for there to be a stock checking functionality on the page and a button which will link to directions, preferably with a map, to the nearest store with the product(s) in stock. If you wish to track purchases which began on a phone, consider allowing visitors to reserve products in advance and attributing a unique tracking code to each reservation. Or to encourage quick offline sales, you might also consider having a discount code for mobile shoppers who come to the shop and convert quickly.

So, in summary, 10 ways to make conversion completions easy from a mobile device include:

  • Have a Single Customer Experience across Channels
  • Allow Saved Searches
  • Have Clear Calls to Action
  • Allow Saved Baskets
  • Keep Forms Short
  • Use Top Aligned Labels
  • Use HTML5 in Form Fields
  • Use Check Boxes, Lists & Scroll Menus
  • Implement Click-To-Call
  • Use Geo-Technology for Offline Conversions

Mobile Website Testing Tip:

When you are building your mobile site, test it on different devices to make sure it looks well on different sized screens. Check out this tool to replicate phones from different operating systems on your desktop.

In my next post, I will be looking at best practices for Search & Refinement on mobile websites. If you have a comment, please post it.

Posted by Shane Cassells, Google Conversion Team

Conversion Room

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SEO Secrets, Tips & Tricks – Why it’s Not Worth Your Time

May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Whenever I go to a conference, or at least a dozen times a week by email, I get asked “What are some ‘SEO secrets’?” or “Hey–what keywords do you rank for, and can you show me some of your websites?” Until you have earned my trust, though, I’m really not going to show you anything. I made that mistake once and 3 months later saw a “clone” site from that person. It’s not that I’m a stuck up jerk and am not interested in helping people or paying it forward, because I really believe it’s a part of my role in the community. But there’s a difference between someone showing up at my door to ask for free food and someone asking, “Hey, can I go fishing with you so I can learn how to fish for myself?”


While I’m not a first generation SEO like Greg, Rae, or Todd, I have been been around a while, asked a lot of (sometimes stupid) questions, experimented and made a lot of small and awesomely catastrophic mistakes along the way, dabbled in the black arts, tried stuff and failed, and that’s how I learned. So much of what goes on today in the SEO community isn’t about asking questions, learning, and teaching; it’s about attention whoring, popularity contests, and SEO drama. Too many people are focused on finding the secrets for quick and easy ways to set up ATM machines on their front lawn so they can parade around like peacocks on display, having people tell them how they are like fabulously famous rockstars, when instead they should be putting in the effort to learn how it works, what keeps it running, and what do when when something breaks or your whole network gets torched. Because they don’t put forth that effort, when something goes off the rails, they are right back where they started: with no knowledge. All they can do is look for the next “handout” or SEO Secret.

Learning SEO is a lot like hunting. Without learning how to stalk your prey, how to hunt ir down, and how to “make the kill” that will feed you and your family, you won’t survive. Instead, everyone wants an ATM funded by SEO secrets. But when Google announces they are changing the algorithm specifically targeting SEO sites, your website built on tricks without knowing what you were doing or why you were doing it is likely to be a casualty caught in the crossfire. However if your website has strong technical platform with good information architecture practices, good or better quality content that exists for the users’ benefit and isn’t a wrapper for Adsense, and a solid social media and real world marketing plan and strategy, you are lot more resistant to these fluctuations. Content may be king, but if your tech foundation is so bad that search engines can’t understand it (listen up, Ajax and Flash developers!), your information architecture is so crazy and convoluted that search engines cant make heads or tails of it, and you don’t market on the proper channels where you can find your customers (not just the new hot social media channel that the techno weenies are talking about like your Pinterest page for whole life insurance), the best content lies trapped under lock and key where no one but you can see it. It’s the combination of all the pieces working together–content, information architecture, and good marketing & promotion–that leads to true success, not the elusive secret you are looking for to avoid one or more of those the steps.

Instead of focusing on ferreting out SEO secrets, concentrate on learning the fundamentals–like choosing the right URL structure. Learn how to silo your website, create evergreen content, and create seasonal content. Learn when you need to pay for premium content. Learn how to market with social media, how to automate it to get more ROI for your time. Learn how to develop and and when to email to your list. Learn how to build trust through links. Learn how to audit your content regularly and to keep your website lean, mean, and up to date. Learn to trim the fat, those useless parts of your website that don’t help you or your customers. When you learn those skills, you’ll find you don’t need to spend so much time looking for shortcuts, secrets, and tips … and you’ll spend less time worrying about algorithm changes. SEO drama my be a fun distraction or give you your 15 minutes of fame–but, unless it’s adding to your bottom line, it’s not helping you. It’s a distraction.

photo credit: Shutterstock/Willyam Bradberry

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SEO Secrets, Tips & Tricks – Why it’s Not Worth Your Time


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Tips for creating high quality sites

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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We receive a lot of questions from publishers wanting to know best practices to grow your businesses with AdSense. While there’s no one right answer, our advice continues to be to focus on creating high quality content and delivering the best possible user experience on your websites. Here are some key suggestions on how to design and organize your website content with an overall emphasis on the quality of the site.

Don’t create multiple pages or sites with duplicate content.

We encourage you to create high quality sites rather than a large quantity of sites. Focusing on one site and making it richer in information and authentic in content not only benefits users, but also helps you win more of them. When users are browsing online, they want to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily without combing through endless multiple pages, subdomains, or sites with substantially generic or duplicate content. If you have pages or sites that are similar in content or template design, consider consolidating the pages or sites into one.

 
Provide content that gives users a reason to visit, and return, to your site.
When you create content on your site, it’s important to ask yourself if the page provides substantial value or service when compared to sites covering similar subjects. It’s worth the effort to create original content that sets your site apart from the rest. This will provide useful search results and keep your visitors coming back.
 
Provide the information or service promised.
Some publishers create sites that appear to offer a product or service, but instead trick users into navigating through several pages and viewing ads. This results in a negative user experience, and causes your site to be perceived as untrustworthy. Use keywords appropriately and in context with your content and make sure users are able to easily navigate through the site to find what products, goods, or services are promised.There’s no shortcut to success. Building high quality site takes effort and time. However, we’ve seen that publishers who focus on their users instead of using quick and deceptive techniques are the real winners and experience long-term revenue growth and success in our network. For more information, check out Google Webmaster Guidelines and the policy section of the AdSense Help Center.

Posted by Lingjuan Zhang, AdSense Policy team


Inside AdSense

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Want to Have a Larger Impact on Your Organization? 4 Tips for Becoming A Better Influencer

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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How Can You Become A Better Influencer? Tip: You'll attract more bees with honey than you will with vinegar!

Last week Lee Odden shared a post  on attracting the attention of influencers online.  Whether we’re talking about influencers with mass appeal, or those that have a closer and more personal relationship with their followers, each person presents an opportunity to learn and grow.

That got me thinking, when it comes to the inner workings of an organization: what makes a good influencer, and would I consider myself an influencer at TopRank Online Marketing?  In my opinion, there are some key factors that make a good influencer.

  • Building a strong relationship and trust with your peers is essential in influencing their decisions.
  • Having a team centric attitude towards those that you work with (no man is an island).
  • Presenting an attitude that says “I’m lucky to be here” vs. “the company is lucky to have me”.

There is a certain power that comes with having influence over your peers.  A power that should not under any circumstances be abused.  After all, what is power without trust?  The bigger question to ask is: why should you want to be an influencer?  There are many benefits to being an influential member of a team including flexibility, trust, decision making power, and proof of ability just to mention a few.  I would like to dive into some of the qualities that I think make a better influencer, as well as some signs that you may already be an influencer and didn’t even know it!

4 Tips for Becoming a Better Influencer

#1 Listen More Talk Less:  Think back to your “Sales 101” training, what is one of the most important rules that salespeople must always remember?  Don’t talk yourself out of the sale.  By listening to what your customers (or in this case peers) are really saying, you can  better formulate recommendations that will have the largest impact on both their perception of you as well as the project, situation, or problem at hand.

#2 Give Before You Get:  One thing that I have found is that you cannot automatically expect that your peers will want to help you.  I enjoy seeing the organization I work for from a variety of perspectives and not just my own.  Being aware of when your peers may be struggling or need help is the perfect opportunity to offer your help.  Offering assistance on a fairly consistent basis will show that you are invested in making each person on your team successful, and are not simply looking to pull ahead of the pack. This will in turn increase your team’s willingness to help when you’re in a bind.

#3 Work Outside Your Comfort Zone: As online marketers our industry evolving at a rapid pace.  What was best practices when you go to sleep, may be vastly different than when you wake up the next morning.  There will always be tactics that you don’t know but  by charging full ahead and working on projects or platforms that are outside of your standard comfort zone you will increase your adaptability and ability to think on your feet. Adaptability and quick problem solving will increase perception that you are an innovator within the organization.

#4 Suggest Collaboration: I’m sure you’ve heard the saying: “two heads or better than one” well imagine what you could do when your whole team puts their brains together.  When we come up with ideas on our own without collaborating it’s easy to self validate concepts and consider only one point of view on the subject.  By creating an open brainstorming you will give your fellow team members an opportunity to share their opinions and feel that they have an impact on the end product, recommendation, or solution.  What you will end up with will most likely be a better version of what team members would have come up with individually.

4 Signs That You’re An Influencer & Didn’t Know It

While many of us may be working on becoming a bigger asset or a bigger influencer within our organization there are many people who are influencers, but don’t know it.  What are some signs that you may be more influential than you think?

  • When your company is making new hires they ask if there is anyone you know that might be a good fit for the organization.
  • You’re asked to work on projects or tasks that are outside of your job description.  Proof that you are adaptable and can work freely.
  • Team members come right out and ask what you think they should do as it relates to one of their clients or customers.
  • You’ve formed a meaningful and unique relationship with each member of your team, which shows that you are interested in them as an individual.

Truth Be Told: I shared what being an influencer means to me but I’m curious to know what you think.  Do you thinking working towards influencing your team members is a self serving strategy, or will it help the greater good?  Is there anyone in your organization that you would like to nominate as an influencer?  Why would you nominate them?

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7 Tips a 10 Year Old Child Can Give You about Marketing

March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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7 Tips a 10 Year Old Child Can Give You about Marketing

Post from: Quality SEO Services & Link Building Services

7 Tips a 10 Year Old Child Can Give You about MarketingPost from: Quality SEO Services & Link Building Services Back when I was ten years old, the world was a much simpler place. Cell phones came in brief cases, an iPhone was a phone you had your eye on and marketing often meant putting [...]
SEO Blog – Quantum SEO Labs

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5 Basic SEO Troubleshooting Tips for Content Marketers

January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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troubleshoot SEO basics for content marketers

Content Marketing Not Performing? Troubleshoot SEO Basics.

This post is a preview of a new downloadable guide I will be offering for those who pre-order Optimize by March 13, 2012. The full guide will have screenshots, examples and more “SEO Deep Dive” advice. If you want the full, illustrated Content Marketing SEO Troubleshooting Guide, visit OptimizeBook.com to pre-order and subscribe to our mailing list for more details.

Content Marketing at its core is about planning information that is thoughtful about the needs and interests of target customer groups as they take the journey through the buying cycle, interacting with content and pulling themselves towards purchase. The role of search engines in making ebooks, white papers, case studies, newsletters, webinars, reports, video, images and many other content marketing tactics is often underestimated or overlooked.

The effect of best practices SEO on content to attract relevant audiences can be substantial. However, search is a dynamic marketing channel requiring ongoing attention. Without proper care and feeding, search traffic can fluctuate, fall victim to more aggressive competitor SEO practices or never get off the ground. Or search engines can simply take away features that make SEO easier to do. Because search can provide such a significant and relevant audience to content, it’s worth investing time to troubleshoot for better performance.

Seeing great SEO, social media and content marketing strategy and tactics being implemented every day, I can’t help but be biased towards having a dedicated agency, consultant or in-house resource for optimization. However, dedicated resources are not very valuable unless there’s some appreciation for what an Optimize and Socialize approach can provide.

To provide some practical and tactical perspective on this essential intersection of SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing, here are a few tips for basic SEO troubleshooting that just about anyone responsible for content in an organization can use. I’ve also included some “SEO Drilldowns” that a pro might explore further and key considerations for content marketers.

Before we get into the Basic SEO Troubleshooting tips, here are a few important things to understand regarding Google and personalization:

Logged out – Google search results when you or other users are not logged in are as close to “generic” as you’ll get, but they are still customized according to your geographic location and your click activity during the session.  The days of generic search results that can be predictably viewed by more than one person in different locations is gone. If you do search while logged out, you’ll get a more generic experience than logged in – so it’s worth noting the difference.

Logged in – Users of Google services who are logged in while searching will almost certainly be presented with unique search results.  Personalization can be influenced by a variety of factors, including the recent social signals integration of Google+ into Google search results – aka Google Search Plus Your World and especially from the universal Google product data sharing that will start March 1st 2012. Other influences include past search history, geographic location and your interaction with search results are factors for Google to adjust search results just for you. Keep in mind, logged in or out, there are over 20o signals used to sort search results.

Google has made SEO troubleshooting increasingly difficult by encrypting search for users who are logged in to Google. Initially at 9%, our “Unknown” keyword referrers to Online Marketing Blog are now at 26%. Through a combination of historical data analysis and extrapolation from other data sources, you can fill in that gap somewhat, but it definitely takes an experienced SEO/Web Analytics person to do so. 

For our purposes, we’re focusing on the basics that can provide insight regardless of logged in or logged out since they are so fundamental to improved visibility of content marketing assets in search engines. Basic troubleshooting often starts by a review of web analytics showing a decrease in traffic from a certain phrase over time or the aspiration to increase search traffic for a particular topic. Keep in mind, there is a difference between business competitors and content competitors in the search results (SERPs). Perform the following troubleshooting actions while not logged in:

1. Benchmark

From your web analytics, log the past 1-3 months of search traffic for the phrase in question (if any) to your website.  

What you’re looking for: How often has the target keyword phrase driven traffic via search engines to your website each month, week and day? What does the trend line look like over time? Which pages are attracting search traffic for this phrase and any obvious variations of it? (singular vs. plural).  If you’ve optimized specific pages for this phrase, look at all search traffic to it, including “Unknown” encrypted phrases. Basically, you’re documenting the performance of the phrase as a starting point.

SEO Drill Down: How a SEO professional approaches benchmarking current keyword performance might vary, but here are a few ideas. Expand on all the variations of the target phrase, the distribution of “unknown” vs. identifiable phrases, the split between different search engines as sources of traffic, brand vs. non-brand queries, the distribution of different pages and content objects across your domain that attract search traffic related to the phrase. Also review the appearance of the target keyword phrase(s) in Google Webmaster Tools ranked list of keyword phrases.  What are the trends for this keyword phrase for ranking (iffy), traffic, inquiries and sales over time?

Key Content Marketing questions: For the content assets you’re optimizing, what role does the content play for target customers in the buying cycle? Is it optimized for phrases relevant to awareness, consideration, evaluation or purchase? What is the relationship of your optimized content assets to each other and to a landing page (if used)?  If you’re using a hub and spoke or constellation model for publishing, map out the content and media objects intended to perform for the target phrase in question. Audit them to see what has actually been optimized for the phrase. What new content assets will be created on a go forward relevant to the target phrase?

2. Search Results Landscape

Search for the phrase on Google and/or Bing (logged out) and document the URL, title and description for each of the top 10 search results:

What you’re looking for: Identify the type of websites and content that have high visibility on the target keyword phrase.  Capture information about the pages or digital assets that the search engine finds most relevant. Besides capturing the title, description and web address, note the types of content and sources – commercial, non-commercial, web page vs. media or local. It’s helpful to know what kinds of content as well as which websites/pages the search engine finds most relevant for the phrase and topic. If the search engine favors video content, PDF files and news sources, then it might mean an adjustment in your content marketing media mix for that phrase.

SEO Drill Down: More data about the SERP can be quite useful to log including: Content Type (web page, social, news, image, video thumbnail, local, product, pdf, MS Word doc), Content Category (Business, News, Blog, Media, University). Documenting the search results page over time can reveal trends such as whether the same pages maintain top positions, and what the diversity of content types is. Additional research into social signals is worth tracking as well. All such SERP analysis is performed while logged out.

With the level of personalization now in place with Google, savvy SEOs will have access to user accounts that exemplify the target audience persona’s online behaviors in order to trigger a personalized search experience that is similar to the customer segment.

Key Content Marketing questions:  According to your content plan, what types of content and media are you creating and what’s the difference between those media types and the categories/formats of content presented in search results for your target keyword phrases? It’s useful to know of the content marketing types in place for your efforts have any particular preference in the search results for the target phrase. If not, what other types of content, sources and media are in favor? Having a picture of the logged-out search results landscape for target keyword phrases can influence editorial decisions about formats used.  If blog posts are virtually ignored but press releases are favored, then it may be useful to leverage news story-style press releasees in addition to your blog posts.

This task is also used to collect information about content competitors for use in our other steps below.

3. Keyword Presence

Use the Advanced search option in Google or Bing to check for the presence of the target search phrase anywhere within the pages of your site. Refine that search to look for the exact match presence of the phrase in the title tags of your pages. 

What you’re looking for: Does the target keyword phrase exist within content on your site? If so, where?  It’s simply amazing how many companies expect traffic from certain keyword phrases when the target keywords are either not present in a significant way or not at all on the website.

SEO Drill Down: Further refinements might include looking for exact match of the phrase as well as variations and with modifiers. Look for the phrase in Title Tags, within H1 tags as headings, within body copy, within anchor text links between pages, as image alt text, annotations to images, video or other media, use within breadcrumb and navigation links.

Additional considerations include any page level barriers to a search engine finding or crawling links. Document the presence as well as the lack of presence for keywords in the areas commonly used by search engines to determine page relevancy.

A review of the top ranking pages documented in Step 2 above should also be checked for the presence of the target keyword phrase.

Key Content Marketing questions:  Are keywords being used in your PDF templates used to create eBooks, Reports or White Papers? Are digital assets such as infographics, videos, blog posts, press releases and other content marketing objects using keywords where relevant? Are keywords used in file names, folder names and navigation to content assets?

4. Inbound Link Footprint

Using a link tracking tool such as majesticseo.com or opensiteexplorer.org, check for the total number of links to the content assets that have been optimized for the target keyword phrase. Do the same review with the top 10 competing URLs found in step 1.

What you’re looking for: Links are like electricity for content when it comes to visibility in search results. Links are also important sources of direct traffic. If you expect a page or digital asset to be considered the “best answer” for a query by a search engine, keywords on the page are not enough. A quantity of links to a specific page will make it easy to find and also serves as a ranking signal.

The more topically relevant the content is of the link source, the better. Also the actual text used to link from another web page to your web page matters as well. “Click here” for our White paper and Get “More info” on our Newsletter are not nearly as useful as “Download our Red Widget Whitepaper” or “Sign Up for our Product XYZ Newsletter” when it comes to anchor text.

SEO Drill Down:  Using advanced features of link analysis tools, check for the quantity and diversity characteristics of links to target pages. Also check for the on-topic relevance of the link sources. How authoritative are the link sources? What is the context? Is it a news story in a major industry publication or is it one of 200 links on the same page pulled together by automated software?  Look at the types of links: text, image, follow vs. no follow, redirect, placement on page (high, low), number of links on the page, context for the link, overall topic. How many links use the target keyword phrase as anchor text? How many variations of the target phrase are used? What is the rate of link acquisition over time for your optimized page?

Besides performing this link research on your own optimized pages for target keywords, it can be useful to review this data on the content competition identified in Step 1 for benchmarking and comparison purposes as well as to identify new linking opportunities for your own content.

Key Content Marketing questions: As you craft relevant content in alignment with target customers and their stage in the buying cycle, think about how you’re promoting that content to attract inbound links from relevant websites. Social networks (Step 5) can have a significant impact on the reach of the content you promote, but social isn’t the only channel of distribution. If your white papers, case studies, archived newsletters and webinars get links from other sites that have commenting functionality, be sure to publicly thank them in a relevant comment. Link out from your blog to get on the radar of industry bloggers and they may link to the next press release, infographic or report that you publish.

5. Social Shares

Check for social shares of the target URLs on your site that are most relevant for the search phrase in question. Do the same for the top 10 competing URLs found in step one.

What you’re looking for: Is your content being shared on the social web? It’s not a “nice to have” anymore. Social engagement and sharing of your content is absolutely essential in order to gain advantage within search and social distribution of your content. Social media optimization of your content is essential and includes making it easy for readers to share your content to their social networks as well as having an active social presence that’s focused on building up a community you can promote content to. Documenting the presence of social shares for your own content and that of the top 10 competing URLs form Step 1 can help identify opportunities.

SEO Drill Down: For the content that you’ve created, optimized and built links to, document the presence, frequency and sources of social media shares. Do so at regular intervals in the way you might take snapshots of the SERPs page for your most important target keyword phrases. Social shares means links within public Facebook posts, Tweets, public Google+ shares, Q/A sites like Quora and even bookmarking/news services. Pay attention to the presence of keywords along with those socially shared links and whether they are congruent with your keyword targets.

Beyond link sharing on social sites, look for social engagement with your content where there’s commenting functionality. Cross promotion with different social channels such as blog, video, image, document hosting (Slideshare) as well as social networks like Twitter and Google+ can provide rich signal for both search engines and users.

Key Content Marketing questions: While social network participation for content marketers is often focused on the social channel conversation relevant to the buying cycle and customer segments, it’s also important to consider broader visibility. In other words, when it comes to social promotion and shares as well as network size, bigger is better. As always, a quantity of quality (relevance) is the ideal. At the same time, the size of your network determines the universe of exposure.  In other words, the more Facebook and Google+ fans/friends you have, the greater the likelihood that your shared content will be seen overall. Facebook’s recent report showed on average, you are more than 7 times more likely to share a link on Facebook if you’ve seen the link from one of your friends, so get friendly and grow your network.

Social media and it’s direct influence on search visibility is a reality and content marketers must consider not only the topical relevance of the content they create, the keywords and links but also social promotion, sharing and engagement.

Another consideration for Content Marketers and the Social SEO equation is the importance of Author authority and trust. Officially there may be no such thing as “TrustRank” at Google, but with the forced Google+ accounts, Author Markup and unified user data sharing across Google services, trust associated with a user is clearly important.  An individual who has a significant social network, produces a quantity of quality content that a community actively engages with will have distinct advantages when promoting content over a brand that publishes generically.  Content Marketers should factor in named entities of individuals and/or the brand itself and what it will take to create a relevant presence to be considered authoritative for important topics.

Conclusion:

Clearly the dynamic and increasingly complicated nature of today’s search engines can make the reliability of any one conclusion valuable for an indeterminate period of time. That’s why, if search traffic is important to your business, that your business has an experienced professional analyzing search, social and website performance data on a regular basis. As content marketers, we put a lot of hard work into planning, creating and managing thoughtful content designed to attract, engage and inspire readers to become customers, advocates and participants in the brand community. Keeping tabs on how those community members and customers discover our content is essential for it’s ability to have an impact.

If you like this type of advice, then be sure to pick up a copy of Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing (Wiley) available March 13.

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