Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

How To Create a Custom Report in Google Analytics by Customizing a Standard Report [Tutorial]

Custom reports in Google Analytics are incredibly powerful.They enable you to tailor reporting, based on your own business, your own conversion goals, key metrics, etc.The problem is that custom reports can be confusing to create. You have metric drilldowns, dimension groups, report views, filters, etc. If you aren’t familiar with creating custom reports, the interface could be daunting. That said, you shouldn’t give up trying to create custom reports! Again, they can be very powerful for analyzing traffic.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through creating a custom report that displays organic search traffic from mobile devices. The report will also enable you to view those visits by location. It’s a nifty custom report for any local business. The report lets you quickly view top keywords leading to your site via organic search (mobile traffic), but also lets you view how many of those visits are from potential buyers (people located near your business).

In addition, Google recently released functionality for customizing a standard report versus having to create every custom report from scratch. This is a great option if you are new to custom reports and want to tailor some of the existing reports in Google Analytics to fit your needs.

Creating a Custom Report from a Standard Report
As I mentioned earlier, we’ll start with a standard report in Google Analytics and tailor it to meet our goals. Since we are going to create a report showing organic search from mobile devices, let’s start with the Mobile Overview report and customize it to display:

Organic keywords leading to the site (mobile traffic).
The region those visits are from (i.e. states).
The cities within those regions that visits are coming from.
The mobile operating system from those visits (android, iphone, etc.)

The goal of the report is to know the organic keywords leading to the site from mobile visits, and how many of those visits are from potential customers (people located near your business).

How to Create the Custom Report (from a Standard Report)

1. Open up Google Analytics, click the “Audience” tab, and then expand the “Mobile” link in the left side navigation. Click the “Overview” link to view the Mobile Overview report.

2. Click the “Customize” link in the action bar of the report. This will enable you to customize this report for your own needs (by creating a custom report based on this standard report). Note, not all standard reports can be customized this way. Tabular reports can be customized this way, but you will find other reports within GA that cannot be converted to custom reports:

3. When you click “customize”, the standard report will be loaded into “report builder”. The initial view will show you the current report mapped out already in report builder. Then you can tailor the various elements, based on what you are trying to achieve with your own custom report.

4. You can keep the current metric groups if you want. If you ever want to go back and customize the metric groups, you can by editing the custom report. For example, you definitely want to set up various conversion goals and events so you can better understand quality traffic. Once you do, you can add them to your metric groups so you can view performance by traffic in your custom report.

5. Under dimension drilldowns, you will only see “Mobile” listed. Adding more dimensions will enable you to drill into each level to find more data. As I explained above, we want to drill into mobile traffic to reveal the organic keywords leading to the site. Then we want to view location by region and state. So, let’s add those additional dimensions to our report.

6. Click the “Add Dimension” box in dimension drilldowns and select “Keyword” from the “Advertising” list.

7. Next, add more dimensions to your report. Click the “Add Dimension” box again, and include the “Region” dimension from the “Visitors” list. After adding “Region”, you should go through the same process to add another dimension for “City”.

8. Filter Your Traffic
The last step is to make sure the traffic is only from organic search. We only want to view mobile traffic from organic search, so we need to tell Google Analytics to filter that traffic for us. Click the “Add a Filter” box under the “Filters” category. Select the “Medium” dimension under the “Traffic Sources” list. Then select “include” from the first filter dropdown, leave “Medium” as the dimension, leave “Exact” in the third dropdown, and then enter “organic” in the text box (without quotes). See the screenshot below to follow along. This text tells Google Analytics to include all traffic that exactly matches “organic” as the medium. “Organic” is what’s listed for all organic search traffic.

Congratulations! You just created a custom report, based on a standard report. Click “Save” at the bottom of the report and you’ll be taken to the functioning report in Google Analytics.

You can start drilling into the report by clicking “Yes” in the mobile report, which will reveal all organic keywords from mobile traffic. Then you can click any keyword to view the region those visits are from. If you click the region, you can view the cities within that region. Again, this report can help you identify mobile traffic from organic search, the keywords being searched for, and identify if these are potential customers (based on their proximity to your local business).

Bonus: Access the Custom Report Template
As an added bonus, I have shared the template for this custom report and you can access it by clicking the link below. Once you click the link, you can add this template to a Google Analytics profile and start using the report today. You can also analyze the report setup so you can work through creating similar custom reports. Click the following link to access the custom report for organic search visits from mobile devices.

Summary – Customize It!
I hope this post helped clear up some of the confusion associated with building custom reports in Google Analytics. I love that Google added the ability to customize standard reports, since that’s sometimes all you want to do… If you are new to custom reports, then I recommend starting with a standard report and then customizing that report to fit your needs. Going through that process should help you get more comfortable with working in report builder and could lead to more advanced custom reports. And that can all lead to advanced analysis of your traffic. Good luck.

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 8:48 am in google, google-analytics, local-search, mobile, SEO, small-business, web-analytics

7 Comments »

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

How To Troubleshoot Authorship Markup When rel=author and rel=publisher Clash [Case Study]

Last year, Google rolled out authorship markup which displays author information (including a thumbnail image) right in the search engine results pages (SERPs). It can be extremely powerful and can absolutely make your content stand out. For example, here’s what a search result looks like for my post about bounce rate and exit rate.

With author details in the SERPs, a thumbnail image shows up for the author, there’s a link to the author’s Google profile (or Google+ profile), and you can link to additional posts from that author right from the search listing. If you are logged into Google+, you can also circle that author right from the search results. This can all lead to higher levels of trust with users, which can lead to higher engagement and click-through. Think about it, if Google is highlighting the author by providing all of the information I listed above, it can bring a higher level of credibility when users are searching for solutions, answers, help, etc.

The Problem with Authorship Markup
Although authorship markup can yield powerful results, there are some problems associated with it. As many webmasters have found out the hard way, adding authorship markup to a website or blog can be confusing. Google lists several ways you can add authorship markup to a website, which is both good and bad. It’s great to have options, but it leaves too much room for error, especially for non-technical website owners.

Also, since you’re never given all the feedback you need to make sure authorship markup is working, it can lead to a flawed (or botched) implementation that goes untouched and unfixed for too long. Google does provide the Rich Snippets Testing Tool, but it doesn’t include detailed instructions for making changes (nor does it always provide clear information).

Since Google doesn’t guarantee it will show author details for all markup implementations, you basically have to wait it out and see how the new markup takes. If it takes, you’ll see the robust search listings I showed you earlier. If it doesn’t take, you’ll see the standard listings (all text).

Again, not every author is eligible for author details in the SERPs. That’s algorithmically determined. Therefore, you won’t know right away if it’s your setup that’s the problem, or if you just aren’t eligible. As you can guess, this can be very frustrating for webmasters.

Yes, It Gets More Complicated, Enter rel=publisher
With the rollout of Google+ business pages, Google added a way to connect your business page with your website (and vice versa). The benefit of doing this is that a company can share +1’s across its website content and business page on Google+. It also makes you eligible for Google+ Direct Connect.

The Google+ Developers Page About Connecting a Website to a Business Page:

In order to connect your Google+ page with your site, you need to add more code. Google recommends adding a snippet of code to the head of your webpages using rel=publisher. The problem, once again, is that webmasters were adding the code, but never knew if it was implemented correctly. In addition, people were confused whether rel=publisher would work with rel=author? Could the two pieces of code be located on the same page? How would Google handle that? And would it screw up authorship markup? These were all good questions, and again, it caused a lot of confusion for webmasters.

Fixing a Botched Implementation
So, based on what I listed above, there are definitely webmasters out there who have implemented authorship markup that aren’t reaping the benefits in the SERPs. I know how frustrating this can be for webmasters, since I just finished helping one site fix a botched implementation. The author was at her wit’s end. And she isn’t alone.

But don’t fear. I’m going to explain what went wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes. I also hope this post can help you troubleshoot implementations that aren’t yielding the desired results. For example, if the SERPs don’t display author information, thumbnail images, etc. Let’s learn more about what was happening.

Some Background Information About The Setup
The site in question had implemented rel=author by linking directly to the Google+ profile for that person (it was a single author blog). According to Google, you can implement authorship markup this way, as documented in their help section about authorship markup. Note: Google just added a new way to add authorship markup, but the original methods are still supported.

With regard to the company I was helping, linking directly to a Google profile from each piece of content is easy, but it’s not what I recommend. Instead, I recommend linking to a dedicated author page on your site using rel=author, which then links to a Google profile using rel=me. Then you would link back to your author page from your Google profile using rel=me to complete the process. This three way linkage seems to work best, based on my experience.

If you haven’t dealt with authorship markup yet, then I’m sure the last paragraph completely confused you. :) Stick with me, though. There’s a good lesson to learn. Back to the site I helped.

So, the site in question was linking directly to a Google profile from each piece of content on the site. Then the Google profile was linking back to the site using rel=me. Using the Rich Snippets Testing Tool, the implementation of authorship markup looked correct. Also, for a short period of time, author information did show up in the SERPs (according to the company). All looked good from their end.

An example of using the Rich Snippets Testing Tool to view authorship markup:

Adding Complexity – Connecting a Google+ Page with a Website
Then Google+ business pages rolled out and Google recommended that webmasters link their websites to their Google+ business pages using rel=publisher (as I covered earlier). So the site did just that, adding rel=publisher to each page of the site (using the code that Google provided), which was included in the Google help documentation.

When testing the pages using the Rich Snippets Testing Tool after rel=publisher went live revealed some strange results. The tool said authorship markup was correct, but the SERP preview showed the business page as the author. Needless to say, that’s not what the author wanted. After the site got crawled again, author details disappeared from the SERPs. Instead, just the typical SERP details were displayed. Note, rankings were unaffected (which you would hope would be the case), but author details, including the beautiful thumbnail image, were gone. Weeks went by and nothing changed in the SERPs.

The Fix
When I got involved, I immediately had a few recommendations:
1) I wanted to remove rel=publisher from each page of the site, other than the homepage. I believed that was confusing Google and could be screwing up author details in the SERPs.
2) I wanted to revamp the way authorship was installed on the site. Instead of linking directly to the Google profile from each page of the site using rel=author, I recommended adding links to a dedicated author page on the site using rel=author. Then, as I covered earlier, the website should link to the Google profile from the author page using rel=me. And last, they should add a link from the Google profile to the author page using rel=me. That’s the three part linkage I mentioned earlier.

The Results & Key Takeaways
After implementing the changes listed above, we needed to let the site get crawled again. This took about 5-6 six days. After which, I was excited to see that author details were back in the SERPs! For each piece of content ranking in Google, you can now see all the beautiful SERP details via authorship markup. And yes, it makes a huge difference for the site and author I helped. The listings just stand out.

So, if you have implemented authorship markup, while also connecting your site to your Google+ page, then beware of a botched setup. If you believe you should have author details showing up in the SERPs, but aren’t seeing them, don’t automatically assume you aren’t eligible. Some of you might be eligible… I recommend double-checking your setup, having someone familiar with SEO check it out, and then making changes, if necessary. Then it’s just a matter of waiting to get crawled again (which varies depending on your specific site).

So don’t hesitate, enhanced SERPs await. :)

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 7:34 am in blogging, google, google-plus, SEO, social-media

18 Comments »

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Search, Plus Your World and the Power of the Google+ Outlier

Change occurs at a frantic pace in digital marketing, and I love that about the industry. It definitely keeps you on your toes. There are times that small changes occur, and you can barely notice the changes. And then there are times that major shifts occur. Shifts that drastically change how companies need to think about marketing. This month, one of those major shifts occurred in Search, and as you can guess, Google drove the change.

On January 10th, Google announced Search, Plus Your World, which in certain cases, drastically impacts the search results for users. Search, Plus Your World is Google’s big push to tie Search with Social (using Google+ as its foundation). Google+ is growing rapidly, and based on the impact that Search, Plus Your World can have, it’s only going to keep on growing.

What is Search, Plus Your World?
With Search, Plus Your World, the search results are being tailored by your social connections (and weighted heavily by Google+). Personalized results can contain user profiles, posts, shares, images, related people and pages, etc. from your social connections, along with standard search results (the results you have been seeing for some time).

Google now presents a toggle so users can switch between personalized results and search listings without personalized results. In addition, there is an option at the top of the screen showing you how many personalized results are possible (based on your connections in Google+). Clicking this link is a “pure” personalized experience, showing you a full listing of personalized results. And last but not least, autocomplete can now contain user profiles (when you search for people). Talk about having an impact on online reputation management. Thumbnail images showing up in autocomplete is darn powerful. Note, personalized results contain a small blue icon next to the them (shaped like a person).

For example, here are the personalized search results for “android smartphones” when I’m logged in:
Click the image to view a larger version.

And here are the un-personalized results:
Click the image to view a larger version.

And here are the “pure” personalized results (by clicking the link at the top of the search results):
Click the image to view a larger version.

Yes, there’s a big difference between the three screenshots, especially the pure personalized results. Note, the default view is personalized (the first screenshot). Then you can toggle between un-personalized and personalized by clicking the icons in the upper right-hand corner. The pure personalized results can be accessed by clicking the link above the search results (which shows thumbnails of your connections next to the link). See below:

The Search Plus Your World Toggle Buttons:

Your Google+ Perspective Means Everything
As I’ve been reading numerous blog posts about Search, Plus Your World, I think one point is getting lost. What you see in the search results is your own view, based on your own social connections. That view completely depends on the number of people you have in your circles, and what they are sharing. If someone has 1000 people in their circles, they are more apt to see personalized results for a number of topics than someone that has 50 people in their circles. That said, if you are in someone’s circles that doesn’t have a lot of connections already, then you have a strong chance of showing up for searches focused on your niche, location, etc. I cover this in more detail below.

Although Google+ is growing rapidly, it still hasn’t reached the number of users that some other popular social networks have. The fact of the matter is that there are still a lot of people not using Google+, or not using it regularly. Connecting with these outliers when they join Google+ presents a strong opportunity for current users of Google+ to influence their search rankings. For example, if you are brand, business owner, etc., you have a chance of directly influencing their search results if you become one of their connections. And when I say “influence” their search results, I’m not kidding. Read on.

The Power of The Google+ Outlier
After Search, Plus Your World launched, I received a very interesting email from someone that had added me to their circles. She was new to Google+ and didn’t have many people in her circles. And from what I can gather, I was the most active out of them all. This once Google+ outlier couldn’t help but view a boatload of information from me when she searched Google. Search results-wise, it wasn’t “Search, Plus Your World”, it was more like “Search, Plus Glenn’s World”. And that presents a huge opportunity for businesses looking to get noticed in Search.

When searching for anything related to technology, marketing, advertising, mobile, social, etc., I was there. The standard personalized results had several listings from my activity on Google+. That’s great, but it got even deeper when she clicked on the “pure” personalized results. When clicking the link to view all the personalized results, I was in almost every single listing. That’s incredibly powerful, and could very well be happening to a lot of people new to Google+. You can see a few examples below.

Outlier Example 1: Example of personalized results for “Google Analytics”:
Click the image to view a larger version.

Outlier Example 1a: Example of pure personalized results for “Google Analytics”:
Click the image to view a larger version.

Let’s try a search for a location:
Outlier Example 2: Example of personalized results for “Princeton, NJ”:
Click the image to view a larger version.

Outlier Example 2a: Example of pure personalized results for “Princeton, NJ”:
Click the image to view a larger version.

After reviewing the screenshots above, you can see that I was listed several times in the personalized results, but also dominated the pure personalized results. Google may adjust the level of personalization in the future (as they test this out), but for now it’s heavily weighted by your Google+ connections.

Key Points To Consider:

There are many Google+ outliers now. You should think about the best ways to get in their circles (especially when they first make the move to G+.)
Keep sharing high quality content about your given industry, niche, etc. The more you share on Google+, the more opportunity you have for showing up in someone’s personalized listings. And for outliers that make the move, you might be able to dominate the results.
The sharing effect with outliers won’t be strong (at least on Google+). That said, they might be heavily using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Additional shares might come, but those shares might come via Facebook, Twitter, etc. You can always use Google Ripples to analyze content you are sharing on Google+.
Don’t overlook people that are new to Google+. Who cares if they only have a few connections. You can be one of them, and then show up when they search (a lot).

Summary – Entering “Their World”
If you have been sitting on the sidelines with Google+ (as an outlier), now is the time to jump in. It’s going to be incredibly important for you, your business, your influence, and your rankings. In addition, if you are already on Google+, don’t overlook the outliers that will soon join Google+. Search, Plus Your World provides an unprecedented opportunity to rank for extremely targeted queries. The opportunity cost of sitting on the sidelines is enormous. So start today.

And oh yeah, don’t forget to add me to your circles. :)

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 10:25 am in google, google-plus, SEO, social-media

2 Comments »

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

How To Use Google Plus Ripples To Analyze Content, Sharing, and Influencers

Being neck deep in digital marketing, I can’t get my hands on enough data! Analytics is a core service of mine at G-Squared and I’m always looking for more sources of quality data (and tools that give me that data). Based on my experience over the past 16 years, I’m a firm believer that digital strategies should be guided by hard data and not opinion. And to me, Social Media Marketing should be no different. Yes, it can be a bit more challenging to get that information, but performance should dictate future efforts.

A core piece of Social Media Marketing involves the building and sharing of content. This includes developing the right content and sharing that content via number of mechanisms. It’s also incredibly important to build a following across social networks in order to spark that sharing, when you need it. That said, there are many times that marketers build some content, quickly shorten a URL, share on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, and then lose sight of that content as it hits the web. Sure, you can get some insight via various tools in the market, but it’s darn hard to track content as it gets shared across social networks. That’s an unfortunate reality.

So, wouldn’t it be cool if you could post an update and then view how that update was shared across a specific social network, including identifying influencers along the way? Yes, that’s my subtle lead-in to a free social analytics tool that enables you to do just that. It’s called Google Plus Ripples, it’s already live, and you can tap into its power right now. In addition, I’m going to help you understand more about Ripples and how you can use the functionality to impact your digital marketing efforts.

An Introduction to Google+ Ripples
Google Plus Ripples presents an interactive graph of public shares on Google+. It’s free to use and comes built-in with Google+. Ripples will visually show you who has shared a public post, along with any reshares. People who have shared a post will show up as a circle in the graph, and inside their circle, you can see others who have reshared that person’s post.

In addition, the size of each circle reflects the relative influence of that person. While interacting with the Ripple, you can hover over a member’s name to reveal their photo, name with a link to their profile, and their comment when they reshared the post. The graph is interactive, so you can zoom in, move around, etc. It’s awesome and enables you to drill into the various people (and now pages) that are sharing posts. To access a Ripple, click the dropdown arrow in the upper right-hand corner of any public post in Google+. Then click “View Ripples”.

Here is a screenshot of a Ripple in action:

Hovering over a user brings up their share, comments, and a link to their profile:

The right sidebar contains the comments users have added when resharing the post. These are the same comments you will see if you hover over a person’s name in the graph. The sidebar lets you get a quick view of the comments people are adding as they reshare a post.

But we’re not done yet. Below the graph is a timeline that shows how the post has been reshared over time. You can click the play button to view an animated representation of how that post has been shared by users on Google+.

And last, but not least, you can view additional statistics below the timeline, including Social Hubs (people with the most reshares), the average chain length, and the native language in which the post was shared.

A few important notes:
* Ripples only show public shares, so you are not seeing 100% of the activity for each post.
* Ripples will show activity over the past 53 days. I don’t know why 53 days was chosen, but that’s what is listed in Google’s Help Center for Ripples.
* You can share any Ripple, by copying the URL and sharing with others.

How Digital Marketers Can Use Ripples:
I don’t know about you, but I think this is a pretty nifty tool Google has given us for free. Used properly, it can provide important insight for digital marketers. I have provided some ways you can use Ripples today to analyze how content gets shared across Google+.

1. Find and Connect With Influencers by Vertical
Finding the right people to connect with across social networks can be a daunting task. Google Plus Ripples enables you to see who has interest in specific pieces of content, who reshares posts, what they are saying about those posts, etc. In addition, you have a mechanism for viewing their profile right from Ripples (by clicking their names in the graph or from the right sidebar). This enables you to find people that 1) are actively sharing content, 2) are interested in content within a specific category, and 3) might be providing how they feel about that topic via their comments. That’s outstanding data for anyone looking to follow the right people.

For example, if you focus on selling the latest computer gear, then finding people that actively share content about computer gear is obviously a smart thing to do. Using Ripples, you can find those people, and then find the downstream users that reshared posts. Compare that process to browsing Circles to find people to connect with. I’ll take a user that actively shares over a profile bio any day of the week. :) Remember, these can be the people that end up resharing your own posts about a given subject.

2. Analyze How Various Types of Content Get Shared (and Which Types of Content Get Shared The Most).
If you are developing a content generation strategy, then analyzing Ripples can be incredibly powerful. Using the functionality in Ripples, you can identify the types of content that get shared heavily, how that content is written or presented, and which members are sharing it. You can also view comments about the content, which can tailor your own content generation plan.

For example, you can track how blog posts, videos, infographics, and whitepapers all get shared within your vertical. Based on the data you collect via Ripples, you can tailor your own content plan (which can give you a greater chance of success). Building content takes time, resources, and money. Ripples enable you to analyze what works and what doesn’t within your specific category. You can also combine this data with an inbound link analysis to view activity, shares, comments, and then inbound links that the content has built. More about linkbuilding below.

3. Using Ripples Data for Linkbuilding
Linkbuilding for SEO is extremely important. When developing a linkbuilding strategy, you want to identify the right content to produce, while also finding the right people to connect with that can potentially link to your new content. Google Plus Ripples provides a way to view both pieces of data.

As I explained earlier, you can view how pieces of content get shared and who is sharing that content. But then you can also correlate that information with the number and quality of inbound links the content is generating. Therefore, you can determine what to build, and who to connect with, in order to start building high quality links to your content.

Summary – Watch the Ripples
I hope this post helped explain what Ripples are and how to use them to analyze content, shares, and influencers on Google+. I’m excited that Google decided to empower users by providing a free social analytics tool that’s interactive, easy to use, and extremely valuable. Now it’s time for you to try out Google Plus Ripples. I have a feeling once you dig in, you’ll see how powerful it can be.

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 7:21 am in google, google-plus, SEO, social-media, web-analytics

3 Comments »

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

When We’re All On Page 1 – The Potential Impact of Google’s Infinite Scroll

Last month, there were several sightings of Google testing “infinite scroll” in its main search results. If you’re not familiar with infinite scroll, it would all but eliminate the need to click through to page 2, 3, and beyond of the search engine results pages (SERPs). Instead, you could simply click a button at the bottom of the search results to “show more results”. Then via AJAX, Google would load additional sets of search results. Yes, that means we would all achieve page 1 rankings. Not exactly, but you get the point. :)

Note, Google Images already uses infinite scroll, and Yandex just rolled it out on yandex.ru last week. You can check out both properties to see how it works. You can also check out the YouTube video below to see one of Google’s tests in action.

Google Testing Infinite Scroll (Credit: Waebo):

Google has also been testing a locked search bar (the header), which makes sense. Google will still want users to be able to refine their searches, even when viewing additional sets of results via infinite scroll. By implementing a locked header, the search bar would remain at the top of the page as you scroll down. It’s similar to freezing a row in Excel. The search box would always be accessible.

The Potential Impact of Infinite Scroll
It’s widely known in Search that many people won’t click through to page 2 or beyond. This has been highlighted in various studies, and I also documented this when analyzing the long tail of SEO. Instead of clicking through to page 2, many users would scan the top listings on page 1 and then refine their queries if they didn’t find what they needed. This obviously made ranking on page 1 extremely important, but also made targeting the long tail extremely important (as you would want to rank for long tail keywords that followed searches for head and torso terms).

So, now that Google is testing infinite scroll, there are many questions about how this could impact organic search, paid search, local search, etc. Therefore, I spent some time taking a look at infinite scroll, with the goal of trying to determine its potential impact. Below, I’ll cover several ways that the Search results could be impacted by infinite scroll and what this means for companies trying to gain more exposure, clicks, and sales. Note, I did not cover every possible way that infinite scroll could affect the Search results. Instead, I focused on some core elements within each category of Search.

Multiple Number 1 Rankings
Prior to infinite scroll, if you didn’t rank on page 1, you would need to rely on users clicking through to page 2 and beyond to see your listings. With infinite scroll, users might be more apt to simply click a “show more results” button to reveal another set of listings on the same page. If that’s the case, then rankings 11, 21, 31, etc. will become more important real estate-wise. Sure, they won’t be as strong as a true #1 ranking, but the first listing in a new set of results will give that listing more exposure than it gets now.

In addition, this doesn’t just apply to rankings 21, 31, etc. The first few listings in each new set will increase in importance. We know via eye tracking studies that users tend to focus on the first few listings in the search results and then their focus fades as they scan down the listings. If you have content ranking high on page 2, those listings could very well gain more exposure when infinite scroll kicks in.

Standing Out Via Universal Search
When infinite scroll kicks in, users might be viewing many more listings per search session (versus just 10). For example, if someone clicks the “show more results” button twice after searching, they will see 30 listings. This leads me to think that Universal Search will become even more important than it is now. If you’re not familiar with the concept of Universal Search, it’s the blending of various types of content in the SERPs. For example, video, images, news, blog posts, shopping, etc.

An example of universal search in action (Shopping Results):

Universal Search can help you stand out, since it often includes image thumbnails, whether that’s a video thumbnail, news thumbnail, product thumbnail, etc. With infinite scroll, users might be scanning 30 or 40 listings to find what they need. If you make sure that you target various types of content with a strong content generation strategy, you can have a greater chance at showing up within the blended results. And that can very well lead to more exposure and click-through.

Rich Snippets Will Become Richer
Similar to what I explained about Universal Search, rich snippets could become more important too. If you’re not familiar with rich snippets, you should start researching the topic today. The core engines have come together to support schema.org markup , which can provide more information about content across the web. For example, you can use markup on your site for articles, events, ratings, reviews, people, etc. Rich snippets enhance listings in the SERPs, and each snippet can look different based on the data at hand.

When you break it down, the engines advocate using this additional markup, the snippets can help your listings stand out, and the markup is relatively easy to implement. Again, I recommend understanding how rich snippets work and then determine how your content can benefit from adding the necessary markup. You can see an example of a recipe rich snippet below.

An example of rich snippets in action (recipe):
Rich Snippet Example (Recipe)

(Stronger) Paid Search Inventory
Although Google already provides additional paid search ads when users click through to page 2 and beyond, we know that many people don’t take the effort to actually venture beyond page 1. Since Google generates ~97% of its revenue from paid search, ad inventory is very important. With infinite scroll, I believe users will be more apt to load additional sets of search listings. If this is the case, then AdWords inventory will increase, which can help both paid search advertisers and Google. In addition, I believe the “new” ad space will be stronger for advertisers. The increased ad inventory can help both advertisers gain more exposure and clicks, while also helping Google increase revenue. It’s a win-win.

Similar to what I explained about the organic listings, there will now be multiple top paid search rankings. If your paid search ads did not reach page 1 due to a lower Ad Rank, you now may have a greater shot at a top ranking (as users load additional results). We’ll have to see what the final implementation looks like for infinite scroll, but Yandex manipulates the page to jump the new set of listings to the top of the page. If that’s the case, the top paid search listings on load 2 and beyond will look very similar to what it looks like on page 1. And again, infinite scroll could increase the amount of time these ads show up, which can obviously impact impressions, clicks, and sales.

Paid Search Ad Formats and Ad Extensions
Both ad formats and ad extensions in SEM will become even more important when infinite scroll rolls out. If a user is viewing additional sets of paid search listings, then having your ads stand out is very important. I see this already with my own clients when they effectively use ad sitelinks, location extensions, product listing ads, product extensions, etc. If you aren’t familiar with the various ad formats and ad extensions available to AdWords advertisers, then now is a good time to research them. For example, by using the range of ad extensions, your ads gain more real estate and provide additional visuals that can help your ads stand out, gain more credibility, and enhance click-through. And those are all good things in SEM.

An example product listing ads (AdWords):
Example of Product Listing Ads in AdWords

Local Search, More Places To Choose From
Similar to organic search, rankings #11, 21, 31, etc. will be additional #1 spots for local businesses. Obviously the first set will be more important, but 11 won’t be so bad either (if infinite scroll is used more than clicking to page 2). Place Search is critically important for local businesses. With infinite scroll, more places can be dynamically displayed, which can help even more local businesses gain much-needed exposure.

In addition, if set up and managed correctly, the combination of paid search and place search could be extremely powerful for local businesses. As I explained earlier with paid search, there will be more ad inventory as users load more results using infinite scroll. Ensuring you have a solid local paid search strategy will be extremely important. Also, I mentioned ad extensions earlier in the post. Location extensions and call extensions can be a local business owner’s best friend. They enable advertisers to provide address information and a clickable phone number right in the search results.

Social and Google+
If more people use infinite scroll to view additional listings, Google could possibly add more Google+ related information in the right sidebar (along with ads and/or universal search elements). For example, if a user loads additional sets of listings via infinite scroll, Google could decide to provide social recommendations in the right sidebar that drive users to Google+ (to either sign up or to interact with other users and organizations).

Also, and it’s something I mentioned in my post about Google+ Advertising opportunities, advertisers might be able to run Google+ ads that leverage both Search and Social information. As I explained in my post, Google will be the first company to close the loop between Search and Social. This can enable Google to drive more advertising revenue, while also helping Google+ grow (which of course can lead to more users, more ad inventory, more revenue, etc.)

Infinite Summary
We’ve seen the tests, we’ve seen it in action on Google Images, and now Yandex has rolled it out. In my opinion, infinite scroll is coming soon to a SERP near you. I hope my post explained the potential impact that infinite scroll could have on organic, paid, local, and social search. Let’s face it, if Google can enhance usability, increase ad inventory, gain more clicks for advertisers, while also increasing revenue and profitability, why wouldn’t it implement infinite scroll? Now the ball is in your court. I recommend reviewing your digital marketing efforts to make sure you’re ready for infinite scroll.

And by the way, now is probably a good time to visit page 2 and beyond before they are gone forever. Go ahead and click past page 1, take some screenshots, and then say your goodbyes. It won’t be long now…

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 3:44 pm in adwords, google, google-plus, SEM, SEO

10 Comments »

Monday, June 27th, 2011

How to Use the Google +1 Button Callback Parameter to Unlock Exclusive Content

Since the release of the Google +1 button for websites in early June, many webmasters have been trying to figure out the best ways to implement it across their sites. In its most basic form, the +1 button is relatively easy to add to a webpage. You can grab two line of code, add them to your webpage, and be on your way. That said, Google has provided several parameters you can use with the +1 button that control how the button looks, what is displays, which URL should receive the +1, and which function you want to call when someone clicks the +1 button. Wait, did you catch that last part? Google added a mechanism for webmasters to trigger a JavaScript function when someone clicks a +1 button. The mechanism I’m referring to is the “callback” parameter of the +1 button, and it opens up a world of opportunity for webmasters. Let’s explore the parameter in greater detail, including what it is, how to use it, and how to avoid problems down the line.

What is the Callback Parameter?
As I mentioned earlier, you can implement the basic +1 button on your site with just a few lines of code. You need to include a JavaScript tag and then the +1 button tag. It’s essentially two lines of code and you’ll have a +1 button on a webpage. But, if you review the Google Code page for the +1 button, you’ll notice several other parameters. You have count, size, and href, which control the display of the +1 button, as well as identifying the URL that should receive the +1. Then you have the callback parameter, which takes the name of a JavaScript function as the value of the parameter. The JavaScript function you trigger can do anything you want (ok, not anything), and I’ll cover more about this soon.

Here is what the google +1 button code would look like when using the callback parameter:

 HTML |   copy code | ?  
1 <g:plusone callback="helloWorld"></g:plusone>

When you include the callback parameter in the +1 tag, you provide the name of a JavaScript function that will be triggered when someone clicks the +1 button. In this example, the function called “helloWorld” will be triggered. Note, helloWorld() needs to be part of the global namespace, meaning it needs to be included in the page or referenced in the html file via a script tag. The function will receive a JSON object, which includes both an “href” value and a “state” value. “href” will include the URL that received the +1 and “state” is either on or off (where on represents a +1 and off means someone removed a +1). That information is good to know and you can handle each situation separately. More about this soon.

Example: A Simple JavaScript Function
Below, I have included a very basic JavaScript function that’s called when someone clicks a +1 button. It simply throws an alert displaying the state of the button when clicked. Note, this function could either reside in the page itself or it could reside in an external JavaScript file that’s referenced in your html page (via a script tag).

 HTML |   copy code | ?  
1 
2  function helloWorld(plusone) {
3 	window.alert('+1 Triggered, State=' + plusone.state);
4 }
5

How the Callback Parameter Can Be Used
Based on adding the callback parameter to the +1 button, Google is enabling webmasters to creatively use the functionality to interact with users. For example, you could reward users that +1 a page on your site. There are some rules, though. Remember, +1’s impact rankings, so you don’t want to “buy” rankings. I attended a Google webinar last week that covered best ways to implement the +1 button and Google made it very clear that you should not pay for +1’s. That means you shouldn’t incentivize users with money, product, or services based on those users clicking a +1 button on your site. Here is the actual language from Google’s policy page:

“Publishers should not promote prizes, monies, or monetary equivalents in exchange for +1 Button clicks.”

The reason Google doesn’t want publishers incentivizing users with prizes or money is simple. +1’s impact rankings, rankings should not be manipulated in any way, and paying for +1’s is like paying for links. Don’t do it.

Unlocking Content is OK
Although you can’t provide products or services, Google explains that you can unlock exclusive content. Here is the language in Google’s policy regarding enabling content and functionality:

“Publishers can direct users to the +1 Button to enable content and functionality for users and their social connections.”

If someone +1’s your new blog post, you could unlock exclusive content for that user (and you can use this approach creatively, depending on your specific industry, business, etc.) For example, you could provide a study that goes deeper into a topic, you could provide additional tutorials on the subject matter, provide additional news about a topic, etc. Just make sure you wouldn’t ordinarily charge for that content. Yes, this seems like a slippery slope, since exclusive content might already have a price tag associated with it. As a webmaster (or marketer), you might need to build new content that could be part of your +1 program.

An Alternative Approach – Catching +1 Removals
Earlier in this post, I mentioned the “state” value that gets passed to your JavaScript function in the JSON object. That value will tell you whether someone +1’d a page or removed a +1. Knowing that someone just removed a +1 is important information, and you can act on it using the callback parameter of the +1 button. For example, maybe you can ask the person why they removed the +1, ask them to reconsider their +1 removal, or redirect them to a page that provides a more creative approach to catching +1 removals. Now, you don’t want to go overboard here. If someone just removed a +1, they obviously had a reason. You don’t want to add fuel to the fire and push the limits of getting that +1 back. That said, the right messaging could act as a legitimate confirmation that a user will be removing a +1, which could potentially save some of those votes. It would be interesting to test this out to see how many +1’s you can gain back by using the callback parameter.

Unlock Content, Get More +1’s?
As you can see, the callback parameter can be a helpful addition to the +1 button code. Depending on the “state”, you can either reward users with exclusive content, or you can address the removal of a +1. Remember, +1’s impact search rankings, so they can be extremely valuable to your organic search traffic. Just be careful about what you’re giving away to users that +1 content on your website. Make sure you aren’t giving away prizes, money, or services. The last thing you want is for a creative use of +1 to get you penalized. And if history has proven anything, you can bet that some webmasters are going to try and manipulate the system to gain more +1’s. As I said earlier, don’t go down this path. It’s not worth it. Play by the rules, be creative, and gain more +1’s the right way.

By the way, have you +1’d this post yet? :)

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 9:09 am in google, SEM, SEO, social-media

26 Comments »

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

How to Use Plot Rows in Google Analytics to Quickly Trend Sources of Traffic or Keywords

Plot Rows in Google Analytics v5

Google Analytics v5 was released last month, which included several new and valuable features. For example, tracking events as conversions, custom dashboards, cross channel tracking, etc. That said, there is one new feature that hasn’t gotten much press, but is very handy. It’s called Plot Rows and enables you to easily trend rows of data with a click of a checkbox. If you use Google Analytics on a regular basis, you’ll find that plot rows can be an extremely helpful tool for viewing trending without having to drill further into your reporting. In this post, I’m going to cover what it is, how you can use it, while showing several examples of it in action. My hope is that you can start to use plot rows during your own analysis today.

What is Plot Rows?
When you access reports in GA, the trending graph at the top of the screen typically provides trending for a default metric in the report you are looking at. For example, while viewing search traffic, you’ll see trending for visits over the time period selected. But what if you wanted to quickly see Google versus Bing or Yahoo versus Bing? In order to get this trending, you would have to use advanced segments or drill into each traffic source. But, with the latest version of Google Analytics, you can now use plot rows to see trending for any two rows of data from nearly any report. Using our example from earlier, you could click the checkboxes for both Google and Bing to view trending over time. See the screenshot below. Awesome.

Note: The checkboxes are located to the left of each row, and the “Plot Rows” button is located at the bottom of the report.

Trend More Metrics
Again, if you are analyzing website traffic and performance on a regular basis, this can be a great tool for you to utilize. But, plot rows functionality doesn’t only apply to visits. You can trend any metric available in the graph using plot rows. For example, want to trend conversion rate, bounce rate, or ecommerce revenue for specific traffic source or keywords? You can. This will enable you to analyze specific rows of data on the fly. View the screenshot below of trending both visits and ecommerce conversion rate.

Using Plot Rows to trend additional metrics in Google Analytics v5

Once you use plot rows, you might find some interesting trending and choose to further analyze that data using more advanced techniques (like advanced segments). For me personally, plot rows has enabled me to quickly analyze various rows of data, which has helped me glean insights from that data, and then dig deeper. And that’s what analytics is all about.

Analyzing Keywords (both SEO and SEM)
If you are analyzing search traffic and want to trend various keywords that have driven traffic recently, then plot rows can also come in very handy. Without plot rows, you would have to drill into each keyword in GA to view trending. Now you can tick the boxes next to those keywords and click “Plot Rows” at the bottom of the report to immediately see trending in your reporting. And again, it doesn’t have to be just visits. It can be revenue, bounce rate, etc.

Grouping Your Keywords for Cleaner Analysis
Since you will be comparing each keyword to the total traffic level in GA (for now), scale can become a problem. For example if two keywords only drove a small percentage of traffic, then trending them using plot rows could lead to a graph that is tough to view and interpret. In this situation, it’s best to use advanced search to view a group of keywords and then plot rows against a subset of those keywords. For example, filter all keywords with the word “sneakers” in them and then plot rows for adidas sneakers and nike sneakers. The resulting trending graph will be much easier to decipher. See screenshot below where I am viewing the trending for visits and bounce rate for two keywords.

Using Plot Rows to trend keywords in Google Analytics v5

Using Plot Rows as a Stepping Stone to Deeper Analysis
Whether you are neck deep in analytics every day or quickly digging into a report for your next meeting, plot rows can help you quickly view trending for specific rows of data. Although there are some big changes in the latest version of Google Analytics, don’t overlook some of the smaller, but helpful ones. Plot Rows is one of the smaller changes, but it’s one that can help you quickly analyze your traffic at a more granular basis. It’s a great stepping stone to deeper analysis.

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 9:23 am in google-analytics, SEM, SEO, web-analytics

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Friday, April 1st, 2011

Google +1, AdWords, and The Effect on Landing Page Strategy – Will Advertisers Be Penalized for Using Campaign Landing Pages

Google +1 and AdWords, Will Google +1 Impact Landing Page Strategy

As you’ve probably heard by now, Google released its +1 social recommendation engine on Wednesday. There are several reasons Google is doing this, including trying to make search results more relevant, enabling you to recommend pages (and ads) to your social connections, and combating the Facebook Like button. At this point, your social connections are your Google contacts, but this should realistically expand to other networks as well. As I just mentioned, the +1 button is a direct shot at the Facebook Like button, which is now plastered across the entire web. Both Google and Facebook want to gather as much information from you as possible, which can then help fuel their advertising programs (which is how they make most of their money). Many people outside of Search don’t know that Google makes almost all of its money from search advertising. It’s 96%+ of its revenue. Facebook also makes most of its money via advertising, although at this stage, it’s a much smaller piece of the pie (for now).

Organic and Paid +1’s
When you +1 a page in the Google search results, the button will activate and show to your social connections. It can also show to people who aren’t part of your social connections, but only as aggregated data. For example, you might see “95 other people +1’d this page”.

Here is a screenshot showing what a +1 looks like in the organic listings:
Google +1 showing up in the organic listings.

But, this isn’t just possible for organic listings. Paid Search ads in Google can also be +1’d. More on this below, but +1’s can show up in AdWords ads when someone clicks the +1 button next to the ad, or when that page has been +1’d in the organic results. There’s an important piece to what I just explained…

If someone +1’s a page in the organic listing, and that’s the page you are using as your SEM landing page, then +1’s can show up in the ad as well.

SEM and Landing Pages
If you work heavily in Paid Search, then you probably know how powerful landing pages can be. I’m not talking about the standard webpages on a website where some marketers drop visitors. I’m referring to strategically-crafted landing pages, based on visitor intent. Visitor intent is determined by the customer segments you are targeting. Your SEM landing pages might look much different than a typically webpage, even one holding similar content. For example, you might provide stronger calls to action, rearrange content, limit navigation, etc. Remember, your goal in SEM is to convert at the highest level, since you are paying for every visitor.

In addition, dedicated SEM landing pages enable you to use split testing or multivariate testing to increase conversion. You know the traffic source, the visitor segment, etc. and you can easily limit the variables impacting your test. This is part of the reason landing pages can be so powerful. But, since SEM landing pages can contain very similar content to your organic pages, many marketers block the search engines from crawling and indexing those pages. Note, they don’t block Adsbot-Google from crawling landing pages (due to the possible impact on Quality Score), but Googlebot is blocked from indexing and caching the landing pages.

The Problem for Paid Search Marketers
Jumping back to +1’s for a second, remember that +1’s can show up in your ads when someone +1’d the ad or the landing page in the organic results. If your SEM landing pages are not being crawled or indexed, then they won’t show up in the organic results. If they don’t show up in the organic results, they can’t be +1’d. If they can’t be +1’d, then those potential +1’s can’t show up in your ads. That’s right, you might be penalized by using an advanced SEM strategy… campaign landing pages.

What About the Canonical URL Tag?
Some marketers might be using the canonical URL tag in their SEM landing pages and point back to a page on their standard site that has similar content. Until this can be tested with +1, it’s hard to say how Google will apply +1′s in ads when the canonical URL tag is being used. In theory, Google should apply landing page +1′s to the canonical URL being specified in the tag. But will +1′s at the canonical URL apply back to the landing page you are using in SEM? It shouldn’t, which would still mean problems for +1′s in your ads.

But What About +1’ing Ads?
Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think many people are going to start +1’ing traditional ads in AdWords. The logistics don’t even make sense. How will you know that you like the content if you are just reading the ad? You won’t. So then you’ll probably click through to a landing page (which might not indexed by Google) and you can’t +1 it (at least yet). Google will be adding +1 buttons for pages, but it’s not available yet. In addition, I’m not sure how many people are going to legitimately +1 a marketing landing page… For example, many marketing landing pages are not equivalent to a thoroughly-written how-to piece (even though it could be). More on that below.

Will Advertisers Run Ads for Organic Content?
My previous point brings up a good question. If +1’s are going to impact organic rankings (which Google said they very well could), then will advertisers try and gain more +1’s by running ads to that content. They might not be interested in the immediate conversion from that content, but the additional +1’s could possibly help the rankings of those pages. I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that this will happen if +1’s impact organic rankings. That’s unless Google adapts and flags +1’s via paid advertising versus +1’s via organic search (or other sources). Yes, this gets complex, like many other things in organic search. :)

Will Advertisers Be Punished for Using Landing Pages?
I’m confident some very smart people at Google are thinking about the paid search impact, and if advertisers will be penalized for using campaign landing pages. Most people in SEM understand that landing page testing is important. Google even has its own product to help you with multivariate and split testing (Google Website Optimizer). You would hope that Google will ensure that +1’s can help your ads, even if you are using SEM landing pages. If not, you might see some paid search marketers revert to just dropping SEM visitors on their homepage or major category pages. Then +1’s can help both organic results and paid search ads (I guess). It seems click-through rate (CTR) might be higher due to +1’s showing up in the ads, but conversion could be lower (since it’s not the most targeted content for the visitor).

In closing, this important step forward for Google Social could end up being a step backwards for AdWords advertisers. That just doesn’t seem right. Let’s hope it gets addressed soon.

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 10:07 am in adwords, google, SEM, SEO

2 Comments »

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Successfully Revealing the Iceberg – Avoid These Common Pitfalls When Opening Up New Content for SEO

How to open up new content for SEO.

When I’m helping clients with SEO, I often look for opportunities to expand the amount of optimized content they provide on their sites by leveraging information they already own (or that they already have developed). I see opportunities to do this often, since it’s easy to overlook data that’s right under your nose (if you aren’t looking at the situation from an SEO standpoint). This can sometimes be low hanging fruit for companies SEO-wise, and can greatly expand the amount of content indexed by the search engines.

For example, if you had a database full of information relevant to a specific topic, category, or industry vertical, but it’s only used as part of an application (and isn’t accessible to the search engine bots). Or maybe you find content that’s only used for print material or for training purposes. SEO-wise, I consider this “low hanging fruit” because the content is already there, but you might just have it in a form that’s not crawlable or search engine friendly. Once this data is revealed and a plan developed, it might only take a short amount of time to open up that content and have indexation boom on the site. And if mapped out the right way, all of that content can be optimized based on keyword research. I’ve seen this approach work extremely well for my clients.

They Beat Us To The Punch, Or Did They?
Beating competitors to the punch in SEO.
I’ve been helping a client develop a plan to open up thousands of pages of content on their site, based on data that’s currently only used in applications. Based on my estimates, the new content can increase indexation by a factor of 20, which is a huge jump in the amount of content on the site. The plan is to roll out the new content over time, and ensure each page is optimized based on keyword research (and SEM intelligence). This could be a huge win for them, to say the least.

As the project was being developed and nearing completion, I received an email from my client that read, “They beat us to the punch!” with a link to a competitor that made a similar move. It looked like they opened up a lot of content for Search (ahead of my client), which put a damper on things. So I decided to check out their solution in detail. About an hour later, I sent an email back to my client that read, “Don’t worry. None of their new content can be crawled, and to add insult to injury, even if it could, it’s not optimized. Full steam ahead.”

When analyzing the new content on the competitor’s site, it didn’t take me long to realize that they structured a solution that simply couldn’t be crawled easily. All of the links to their new content were in JavaScript, the implementation included some AJAX that wasn’t crawlable, the content wasn’t optimized, and there was a serious lack of drilldown into the content (even if they used straight text links). Needless to say, I was happy for my client. The competitor obviously didn’t have an SEO involved when mapping out the project, which is unfortunately a common occurrence when developing websites or web applications.

How To Open Content Up The Right Way, and Avoid The Madness
So, if you’re ready to leverage content you already own and have stored away, how do you ensure that new content benefits your SEO efforts? You definitely don’t want to waste time, resources, budget, etc. on a solution that does nothing for you in organic search (especially if SEO is an important reason for opening that content in the first place). Below, I’ve listed some key points to consider while opening up your content for Search. By no means is this the full list, but the following points can definitely help you have a greater chance of success, and avoid the potential madness of what I saw in the example above.

1. Make It Clean and Crawlable
If you’ve read previous posts of mine about SEO technical audits, then you know how important I believe a clean and crawlable structure is. When you look to open up a lot of content on your site that’s currently databased, you need to make sure the bots can easily crawl and index that content. This sounds simple, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen solutions that throw serious barriers up to the search engine bots. The result is a lot of new content that never finds its way into Google’s index. The worst part is that the companies implementing the new content don’t know that it’s not crawlable until nothing changes SEO-wise. The answer usually comes out during an audit, months down the line (or longer).

In order to accomplish what you need with the new content, you should develop a strong information architecture to ensure that new content is organized logically. For example, depending on the content, you might organize it by category, subcategory, location, vertical, or other dimensions that make sense. Then you can use a robust internal linking structure to ensure the bots get to your content using descriptive text links. Then depending on the content at hand, you can provide relevant links from deeper pages to other pages you are opening up. The goal is to ensure both your users and the search engine bots can find all of the new content, while also influencing that new content via other pages on your site (more on that below).

2. XML Sitemaps Will Help, But They Won’t Save You
If you think that simply providing all the new URL’s in an xml sitemap will instantly give you SEO power, think again. XML sitemaps are important, but they are a supplement to a traditional web crawl. You should definitely use them, but you shouldn’t rely on them in the same way you rely on traditional links from other pages on your site. You can’t influence your new pages via an xml sitemap. For example, you won’t be passing any PageRank to the new pages by simply adding them to an xml sitemap. But you can pass PageRank by linking to your pages via a strong internal linking structure. I find a lot of people don’t realize how you can influence other pages on your site via smart linking. And by the way, this typically helps both users and SEO. I’m definitely not saying to add a bunch of links to the new content just for SEO. A smart internal linking structure is good for usability and natural search performance.

3. Avoid JavaScript-based Links, and Make Sure Your AJAX is Crawlable
If you take my advice and map out a robust internal linking structure for your new content, do not use JavaScript-based links to drill into that content. Use direct text links whenever possible. The reason is because you cannot guarantee that those JavaScript-based links will be crawled effectively. Worst case scenario, all of the links to your new content won’t be crawled at all. And that could leave most of that new content with no way of ranking. To clarify, if it can’t be crawled, it won’t be indexed. If it can’t be indexed, you have no way of ranking. If it can’t rank, you can’t drive targeted traffic via SEO.

Also, in order to create powerful ways to access new content, some companies utilize AJAX in their implementation. That’s fine, but you need to ensure your AJAX is crawlable. If not, you can run into a similar situation like what I listed above with JavaScript-based links. Your content simply won’t be crawled. To overcome situations like this, Google developed a method for ensuring your AJAX gets crawled. The problem is that many companies don’t know that it’s possible, how to implement it, etc. If you choose to use AJAX for usability purposes when opening up new content, make sure you follow Google’s guidelines. If not, you might end up with a lot of new content in theory, when in reality, none of it gets crawled, which of course means it can’t rank.

4. Dynamic Optimization – Optimize Your New Content Programmatically
If you are taking the time to open up thousands of pages (or more) of new content, make sure you take the time to optimize that content. The solution I mentioned earlier (my client’s competitor) implemented the same exact metadata for each new page (across thousands of pages). Needless to say, that isn’t going to help them at all. When you open up a lot of content, you can work with your development team to create a formula for dynamic optimization. You can analyze the database structure and utilize those fields to help optimize the title tag, meta description, heading tags, internal links, etc. If you come up the right formula, then you can optimize all of your new content programmatically. That’s an awesome way to go for database-driven content. Think about it, are you ready to optimize 12K new pages of content manually? Instead, have a developer write code that can leverage the information you have already databased to uniquely optimize each piece of content. Awesome.

5. Avoid (Creating) Duplicate Content
If you don’t map out a sound structure and navigation for your new content, you can run into duplicate content problems. I won’t go into great detail about duplicate content in this post, but it’s not a good thing for SEO. Duplicate content is when you have the same content resolve at more than one URL. As you can guess, this usually isn’t intended. For example, imagine you had one product that’s part of six different categories. When opening up this content, you could very easily have six different product pages versus one canonical product page. Each page holds the same exact content, but resolves at six different URL’s. That’s a good example of duplicate content. If possible, you definitely want to ensure each piece of content resolves at one canonical URL. Using the example from above, it would be smart to have each of the category pages link to one product page.

Bonus: Watch Out For Session ID’s
One issue I’ve seen pop up in projects involving application-driven content is the dreaded session ID. Make sure you are not appending session ID’s to your URL’s when implementing new content. If you do, then you will certainly be creating a lot of duplicate content on your site, which based on what I explained earlier, can be a bad thing SEO-wise. You should never have session ID’s resolve in the URL, and instead, you should use a cookie-based approach to maintaining state. If session ID’s end up in your URL’s, you can end up with thousands of pages of duplicate content (since you might have many URL’s for each piece of content.) In a nutshell, the planning stage is critically important to ensuring you don’t run into a canonicalization problem.

Open New Content, Don’t Bottle It
I hope this post provided some guidelines for ensuring you don’t waste your time when opening up new content on your site. If you find data that’s not being utilized, and choose to implement new content based on that data, then make sure it can help you SEO-wise. Don’t make what could be a boom of new content turn into a squeak of SEO technical issues. Make it crawlable, avoid duplicate content, map out a robust internal linking structure, and make sure your AJAX is crawlable. If you do, you can reap great rewards SEO-wise. If you don’t, you’ll keep the iceberg of great content underneath the water, where nobody can find it.

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 10:13 am in google, SEO

2 Comments »

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

How To Use Param1 and Param2 in AdCenter to Customize Your Paid Search Ads [Tutorial]

Using param1 and param2 in AdCenter.

With the transition to the Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance complete (and Bing now powering Yahoo), more and more marketers have been migrating campaigns to AdCenter. It makes sense, especially since the latest Search share numbers show Bing-Powered Search at ~29% (combining both Bing and Yahoo!). Although there are many similarities between Microsoft AdCenter and Google AdWords, there definitely are some important differences. One feature that I know can be confusing for search marketers making the transition to AdCenter is the usage of param1, param2, and param3 to customize ad creative and tailor destination URL’s. Using params in AdCenter can be extremely powerful in certain situations and I’ll walk you through a tutorial in the post below.

What are Params in AdCenter?
When mapping out campaigns and ad groups in AdCenter, you will probably be targeting very similar themes of keywords per ad group (which you should be doing). But, you might find that specific keywords within the same ad group show different user intent than others. So, based on user intent, you might choose to display slightly different ad text, while also driving visitors to different landing pages (even within the same ad group).

For example, imagine you created an ad group for a brand of chocolate you were selling. But, what if you had keywords that represented specific flavors of chocolate as part of the ad group? Maybe those keywords included the brand of chocolate plus the flavor like hazelnut or almond. In this case, you might choose to tailor your ad creative to display the flavor, and you might choose to send visitors directly to the category or product landing page (versus to the brand landing page). This is where params in AdCenter can be extremely helpful.

Introducing Params 1, 2, and 3:
Param1 enables you to identify custom destination URL’s by keyword, while Param2 and Param3 enable you identify specific text to insert into the ad. You can think of params as variables that can hold whatever values you want for the specific keyword at hand. Note, using Param2 and Param3 is different than simply adding the raw query that someone entered in Bing or Yahoo. You can still do that by using the {Keyword} placeholder like in AdWords, but there are situations you might want more control of the dynamic text. Specifically, using params in AdCenter can help you present a cleaner ad than using a raw query.

Example – How To Use Param1 and Param2 in AdCenter to Customize Your Ad
To keep this tutorial simple, we’ll focus on using param1 and param2 (since using param3 is just like using param2.) There is a three-part approach to using param1 and param2 in AdCenter. First, you will create a new ad group in a campaign. Then you will create a new text ad that uses both param1 and param2 placeholders. Third, you will create keywords that hold values for params 1 and 2 (so your ad can pull the right information to display for users). To clarify, you will create a text ad and insert the variables into your ad (to provide both dynamic ad text and a dynamic destination URL per keyword).

Let’s walk through a quick example by creating a new ad group. The new ad group will focus on your own brand of gourmet chocolates. We’ll use the AdCenter UI for this example:

1. Create a New Ad Group
Access one of your current campaigns and create a new ad group. I’m assuming you already know how to do this, so I won’t spend much time on the step. Name it whatever you like, such as “Chocolates”. To keep the example simple, this ad group will hold just three keywords and one text ad. The three keywords will be “glenn’s chocolate”, “glenn’s almond chocolate”, and “glenn’s hazelnut chocolate”. The ad will present custom ad text and a custom destination URL, based on the keyword at hand.

Specifically, we want to make sure that we add the words “hazelnut” or “almond” when people are searching for those keywords (along with the brand.) In paid search, it’s optimal to make sure your ads are as relevant to the query as possible. This can increase click-through, which in turn can lead to more conversions. To tailor our ad text, we will include the words we want to insert into the ad using the param2 placeholder. To tailor our destination URL, we will use the param1 placeholder.

Creating a new ad group in AdCenter.

2. Customize Your Ad Using Params
Once you create your new ad group, you will create a new text ad for the group. Click “Create an Ad” and then select “Text Ad”. This will bring up a number of text fields, including Ad Title, Ad Text, Display URL, and Destination URL.

Creating a new text ad in AdCenter.

3. Set Keyword-Level Destination URL’s
First, you’ll need to tell AdCenter that this text ad should use keyword-level destination URL’s. To do this, you should click the radio button that says “keyword destination URL”. You’ll notice that AdCenter automatically changed the destination URL to “param1”. This means that AdCenter will use the values you provide in the param1 placeholder for each keyword (I’ll cover param1 values soon).

Setting keyword-level destination URL's.

4. Insert Params in Text Ads
Now we are going to make sure that our dynamic text shows up in our ad. When using params, you can include the value for param2 in the title, ad text (description), display URL, and destination URL for the ad. For this example, we’ll add the param2 placeholder to our ad text (which is the line following the ad title.) Note, you have 70 characters to play with for ad text. Keep this in mind when creating dynamic text using params 2 or 3. To clarify, you have 70 characters for the final ad text (the ad that users will see and not the entire text using the words “param2” or “param3”). You want to make sure that the value in param2 can fit in your final ad without going over 70 characters.

Let’s start by including a simple ad title like “Glenn’s Chocolates”. Then include the following copy for your ad text (line 2 of your ad), “Buy Glenn’s Chocolate Today. Founded in 1958.” Using param2, you can insert the flavor right before “Chocolate” in the ad text by using the param2 placeholder. If we do this, then people searching for “Glenn’s hazelnut chocolate” will see an ad that says “Buy Glenn’s Hazelnut Chocolate…”, when people search for “Glenn’s almond chocolate” they will see an ad that says “Buy Glenn’s Almond Chocolate…”, and when they don’t specify a flavor the ad will read “Buy Glenn’s Gourmet Chocolate…” I’ll explain how to set this up for your keywords soon. I just wanted to clarify this point before moving forward.

Place your cursor right before “Chocolate” in your ad text and click the link for “Insert Dynamic Keyword”. When you do, you can choose the params available. Select param2 to make sure we pull from the values we are going to set up for each keyword. You will now see {param2} show up before the word “Chocolate” in your ad. Stick with me, this will all come together soon. :)

Inserting param2 in a text ad in AdCenter.

5. Save Your Ad
Click “Save” at the bottom of the window and your text ad should be all set. Then click “Next” to enter the Keywords screen.

6. Add Your Keywords
As explained earlier, we will add three keywords to this ad group (to keep the example simple). You should enter “Glenn’s chocolate”, “Glenn’s hazelnut chocolate”, and “Glenn’s almond chocolate” in the text field for keywords and then click the button “Add to keyword list”. You will then see your three keywords listed at the bottom of the page, along with text fields for your params.

Adding new keywords to an ad group in AdCenter.

7. Add Param Values Per Keyword
Remember, the text ad we created included the param2 placeholder in the ad text and uses the param1 placeholder for the destination URL. We are now going to enter those values per keyword. First, we will add specific destination URL’s for each of the three keywords in this sample ad group. Remember, we want to drive prospective customers to the most relevant landing page, based on their query. Second, we will tailor the ad text based on the keyword being triggered (by using the param2 placeholder).

Let’s start by adding specific destination URL’s in the param1 field for each keyword. For our example, we’ll send people searching for “Glenn’s chocolate” to the brand landing page, we’ll send people searching for “Glenn’s hazelnut chocolate” to the hazelnut landing page, and we’ll send people searching for “Glenn’s almond chocolate” to the almond landing page. Important Note: If you are going to use keyword-level destination URL’s via param1, then you must enter a value for param1 for each keyword. If you don’t, then your keyword will be disapproved and your ads will not trigger for that keyword.

Adding param1 values for destination URL's in AdCenter.

8. Add Param2 Values for Custom Ad Text
Now that we have custom destination URL’s, let’s add text to our param2 placeholders. To accomplish this, we’ll add “Hazelnut” in the param2 field for Glenn’s hazelnut chocolate, we’ll add “Almond” for Glenn’s almond chocolate, and then add “Gourmet” for Glenn’s chocolate. We are adding “Gourmet” to make sure we still have a solid ad for people not searching for a specific flavor. You’ll see how this works when we test the ad.

Adding values for param2 in AdCenter.

9. Save Your Work
Click “Next” to save your edits. Then click “Finish” to save your settings and to return to the main screen for your campaign (which lists your new ad group).

10. Test Your New Ads
Wait a few minutes and then test your ads using the Ad Preview Tool (which can be found in the Tools menu in AdCenter). Search for your keywords and view the ad text being triggered. You should see the ad being tailored based on the keyword at hand.

Using the ad preview tool in AdCenter to test params.

Congratulations! You just set up a system for providing the most relevant ad copy and destination URL’s for your ad group. Get ready, because here come the sales. ;)

Param Bonus: Using Param2 in the Display URL
I explained earlier that you can tailor the title, ad text, or display URL using params 2 and 3. If you want to test your new skillset, go ahead and add param2 in the display URL for your ad. Including something like http://www.yourdomain.com/{param2}-chocolate will provide a descriptive display URL matching the product being searched for. See the screenshot below.

Using param2 in the display URL.

Don’t Be Afraid of Params, They Are Your Friends
Params can be a bit confusing when you are getting started with AdCenter, but don’t run away from them screaming in fear. As you can see, they can help you provide the most relevant ad copy for your prospective customers, while also sending them to the most targeted landing page. Both of which are good things to do in paid search. Remember, your goal is to convert prospective customers, and using params in AdCenter can help you accomplish that.

Posted by Glenn Gabe @ 9:20 am in SEO

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