Google's Value of Content over Optimization

Recently, a debate has emerged regarding Google’s potential forthcoming decision to place greater restrictions on its algorithm for websites that utilize less-compelling content coupled with so-called “over-optimization.” While the details aren’t exactly clear as of yet, at this year’s SXSW Conference in Austin, Google’s Webspam Team manager Matt Cutts made mention of “something that they’ve been working on in the last few months” that will make the search playing field “a little bit more level.” And even though multiple sources have taken this brief mention of change as something that won’t solve a much greater problem, or are criticizing Google for trying to level a playing field that inherently cannot be so, a single point remains—impactful and meaningful content has increased value for a website over SEO alone.

SEO Provides the Means to a Content End

The benefits of SEO for businesses and digital marketing teams have often been proven in the past. While the importance of SEO is beyond question, the real value of a website for searching users lies in the content they find once they arrive there. And while it’s one thing to fault Google for fighting a losing battle or “jumping the shark,” as many bloggers have touted, Google’s intention was made clear in that same conference—certain SEO techniques or “tricks” that can increase a site’s traffic in lieu of engaging, relevant content should not have a strangle hold over their (or any) search index. As it stands, whatever Google is working on, there is simply not enough information available yet to make any sweeping claims about their next update or improvement.

Marketable Sites have Meaningful Content

For any web developer or digital marketing team, a page’s content in relation to its search engine ranking is a powerful combination in terms of visibility and reach. These factors also provide a basic, yet effective foundation for additional, future internet marketing campaigns. Rather than bashing Google for over-regulating the over-optimizers and creating an unjustified fear of SEO, businesses should allocate time and resources toward the creation of content that is accessible, impactful, and informative in addition to approved, “white hat” optimization efforts. Many are anticipating further clarification on this issue when Cutts speaks again at the Search Marketing Expo Advanced in Seattle this June. Then we’ll see whether all the hype was warranted and who really “jumped the shark” on this issue.

SEO: Think You Can Do It Better?

Many business administrators believe their internal marketing and IT staff have the capability of running successful SEO campaigns. This common misconception originates from a theory that SEO is nothing more than a process of choosing keywords that relate to a business and implementing those keywords on the business’ website. However, much more is needed to run a profitable SEO campaign. The number one necessity for running a successful SEO campaign is utilizing a reputable SEO firm--that’s the easy part.

Internet marketing has become very competitive and complex within the past few years. For this reason, companies may no longer find success with a one-time implementation of basic SEO components. To be successful in today’s competitive Internet marketing environment, one must give constant attention to the campaign. For example, factors such as industry trends and changes to the major search engines’ algorithms occur regularly. Competition is fierce; a business may achieve top ranking for certain keywords one month and drop in rank the next if proper attention is not given to the campaign.

SEO firms are better suited than internal marketing staff for managing SEO campaigns because they have insights into Internet marketing strategies appropriate for various types of industries such as: financial services, pharmaceutical, and professional services.

The qualifications and certifications SEO firms acquire, such as SEMPO certification, illustrate the firms’ specific training, knowledge, and skills. SEO firms are subject matter experts--they know what to do and how to do it.

In-house marketing departments may not have the depth of knowledgeable, training, access to industry tools, and time necessary to run a successful SEO campaign. Therefore, it is best to hire an SEO firm to work in conjunction with an in-house marketing department in order for a company to achieve its goals.

By working with an SEO firm, businesses will create efficiencies, save time, and money--after all, that’s what it’s all about it.

SEO & Social Media to Capture ZMOT

We continuously receive questions about the position of SEO within the internet marketing space.  It is true that the waters between SEO and Social media have been merged to some degree, but the result is still relevant results within the search engines.  Also, the mentality of users is still roughly the same: a stimulus-like an email campaign and search for more information.  The recent eBook “Winning the Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT) by Jim Lecinski provides further insight into the new mental model. 

Shifting the focus to the mentality of the user has come full circle.  The ability to align SEO and Social Media within your marketing plan will help you attract customers at the ZMOT, but doing so takes a solid strategy and communication from your SEO & Social Media teams.  It’s not enough to implement SEO & Social Media into the plan; what’s more important is that these elements align to attract customers.

Mix Online Marketing Strategies for Optimal Results

To reach the greatest number of customers, it is important to utilize a mix of online marketing strategies. These strategies include: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC), Local Listings, Social Media Marketing (SMM), and Email Marketing. A brief description of each of these strategies follows.

The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to improve the ranking of a website’s position in search engine results pages. This strategy enables your website to be seen by your target audience before the competitions’ websites.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) provides more control over placement of your ads and website on search engine results pages. Businesses may control when, where, and how often their ads show up when related searches occur on search engines.

Local Listings are especially useful for companies providing a product or service in a specific location. They are displayed in search results and may include information such as a phone number, address, map, hours of operation, and specials. This is a great way to connect with the local community.

With the rapid rise in the use of social media, the importance of Social Media Marketing (SMM) has never been more important. SMM offers a way to keep in constant touch and get feedback from your target audience.

Email Marketing is best used to encourage current customers to return to your business. This may be achieved by promoting specials, informing of upcoming events, and thanking customers for their business.

Each company should take the opportunity to customize their online marketing mix to best suit their needs.

The Latest and Greatest in SEO

Here is some of the latest and greatest we’ve found going on in the Search Engine Optimization world:

1.     Google introduced new and improved site links which means visibility to sub-navigation pages, link selection changes from query to query, and delivery of relevant links. 

2.     Yahoo's new image presentation also allows for easy searching of galleries, a connection to your friends' Facebook images, and easy navigation of full-sized images.

3.     Content is still king.  Don’t use redundant articles, duplicate content, limit the automatically generated content, and reduce the high ad-to-content ratio on your web pages.

4.     Google + and other social media metrics will be part of the evolution of search engine optimization and link building.

5.     Link Building isn’t going away but it may not weigh as heavily as it once did in the overall search algorithm. 

Google Analytics: New Site Speed Report Measures Page Load Time

We all know that using web analytics is key to running successful internet marketing and search engine optimization campaigns. It is always good to know what content on the website is driving conversions and where those visitors are coming from. The quest to improve your visitors’ website experiences doesn’t end there, however. With the latest version of Google Analytics, you can now monitor the average page load time via the new Site Speed Report. This new report comes along with the latest version of Google Analytics.

So why bother monitoring your website’s load times? Here are a few reasons:

• Browser Compatibility: Ensure that your website performance is top-notch for all of the most widely-used browsers.
• Search Engine Optimization: Make sure your landing pages not only have optimized content, but are also performing to the best of their ability.
• Goal Conversions: Increase goal conversions by ensuring your visitors are receiving the best possible performance and load times from your website.

Search engine optimization and internet marketing efforts don’t stop at optimizing content and online advertising. Monitoring website performance through the Site Speed Report of Google Analytics benefits both you and your visitors, and results in higher conversion rates.

From SEM to Results

It seems like businesses are trying to justify SEO, whether it’s the tactics itself or the assumptions that Social Media has made SEO irrelevant. In order to effectively justify SEO for the business, you need to understand their purpose for hiring an SEO agency or an SEO consultant. In most cases, you want more relevant traffic that should generate leads or sales. There’s a process as to how agencies go about implementing a campaign. In addition to improved site traffic, a good consultant or agency should be able to provide you with the following items:
1. SEO Audit – this should identify strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat for competitor in relation to your business goals and objectives.
2. Competitive Data – this information should be used to identify or create a competitive advantage.
3. Web Design issues – they should be able to identify indexing, crawling, load time issues, etc.
4. Improvement!

New Version of Google Analytics: Improved Interface Means Improved Reporting

On March 17, 2011, Google announced that their new and improved version of Google Analytics has been released to beta. They have started rolling out the beta version of the new interface to a small group of users, and have also provided an option for people to sign up for the free beta.

Google Analytics Version 5 brings quite a few improvements and additions to the table, including:

• Streamlined, easier to use interface.
• Customizable widgets.
• Ability to create multiple totally customizable dashboards for each profile.
• New, customizable visualizations, including pie charts and term clouds.

The smoother, more efficient design and added functionality should allow for improved reporting and better insights into the performance of your website. Internet trends are changing day-to-day. Luckily, the tools to monitor these changes are evolving at the same pace.

Your Trademark = My Keyword

Recently, a California Appeals Court ruled that it is legal (as least for now) to use competitors’ trademarks as keywords. Although it is legal, that does not mean you should run out add your competitors’ names, or other trademark terms, to your keyword list. Google Adwords and others give keywords a quality score based on how relevant the term is to your products/services and the landing page of your ads. Assuming that your site is tightly optimized for your specific products/services, then adding competitors’ trademark as a keyword will generate low quality score. This low quality score will result in your ads not being shown, average Cost-Per-Click increasing, and/or ad rank dropping. Although adding competitors’ trademark terms to your keyword list will get more impressions for your ads, specifically when someone is searching for a competitor, is it worth it? This answer may vary depending on the industry, the competitor, and even the location. Before, you start having your ads appear for your competitor’s trademarks, make sure that it is worth the time and effort. My point being, trademark or not, do research and test keywords and make sure that it is worth the time and effort to implement them it into your keyword list, and continue to monitor and measure performance to ensure results.

Marketing. Measuring. Testing. Results!

DaBrian Marketing Group LLC.

Tracking Other Search Engines In A Google-centric World

When you mention the term “search engine” to any internet user, the first name that comes to their mind is usually Google. It is obvious why; Google has held the top spot for search engine usage. Their name has even become a term in itself. Don’t know which companies in your area sell the type of widget you’re looking for? Google it.

When it comes to tracking, Google Analytics tracks a comprehensive list of the most widely used search engines on the internet. This of course includes the three titans Google, Yahoo, and Bing, however it also includes over 40 other organic search engines. But what about the other thousands of organic sources that are out there? Google Analytics does not recognize these sources as search engine traffic by default, and as such, your Traffic Sources report will be somewhat inaccurate and skewed. Even though the “Big 3” search engines drive a great deal of traffic to your website, ignoring the other search engine traffic is statistically irresponsible.

In order to track the search engines not found in Google’s list of recognized ones, you can use the _addOrganic() method. This allows Google Analytics to identify the unrecognized search engines and classify them properly in your reports. By doing this, you can make better-informed decisions and recommendations for with your website’s Web Analytics and determine whether your Search Engine Optimization is working, and not just on the titans.

Back to the Basics with Testing for Internet Marketers

It seems like business owners have forgotten the fundamentals of marketing and that it includes testing. “Almost any question can be answered cheaply, quickly, and finally by a test campaign, said Claude Hopkins the author of Scientific Advertising (1923). Although the book is dated, scientific advertising is critical to SEO, Pay per Click, Website Design, and Email Marketing. It is not just important to determine what works but also learning what doesn’t work to helped the business get to the point of generating leads and converting them into sales. In today’s environment, web analytics and conversion optimization are linked to scientific advertising or marketing. Continue to test your landing pages, ad copy, and call to action.

For more information, read “Always Be Testing” for tips, guidance, and tools.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Myths & Misconceptions that the Best SEOs Rank at the Top of a Google Search for SEO

While it's very hard to convince some people otherwise, with the exception of top level SEO consultants, the results for "SEO" at Google are substandard. Even SEOToday was ironically not listed on the first page of Google on October 16, 2010, and several of the United States Top SEOs were not listed within the first 3 pages of Google. Why not? SEO considers the company, branding, messaging, and positioning statements. SEO consultants look to identify keywords and phrases that not only increase visibility, but also increase the probability of conversions (leads or sales). This request intensive keyword researches both quantitative and qualitative data usually in the form of web analytics, keyword tools and customer feedback. SEO starts with keyword research, which leads to an understanding of your client’s goals, objectives, strategies, and target audience.

This is a job for an SEO or SEM agency, not for a web design firm. In some cases, web design firms can provide most businesses with a title, keywords, and descriptions; however, the lack of expertise or human resources to allocate time and applied knowledge to keyword research, conversion optimization, keyword ranking monitoring, crawling issues, continuous on-page optimization and link building for a campaign can be detrimental. In general, their area of expertise is in creativity, user experience, and developing great user interfaces, not developing or enhancing a site for search engines. There is an evident difference, one is more creative and one is more research-oriented or analytical. You would not ask an artist to analyze and diagnose your businesses financial statements, would you?

Reading PA SEO

Yahoo/Microsoft Search Alliance Update

In late August, Yahoo! completed the transition of the back-end technology for English-language Yahoo! organic search results in the U.S. and Canada. There is now consistency of the organic search results between Yahoo! and Bing. In our opinion, there is still a gap in relevant search results when compared to Google. It’s our assumption that Yahoo! and Bing will make additional modifications to the search algorithm after the holiday season. As for the paid search results, advertisers can start transitioning their paid Yahoo! Search Marketing account to Bing now. The Yahoo! ad serving transition is expected to start mid-October. For additional tips on how to prepare for the search alliance, check out our recent search engine marketing article.

Internet Marketing Lead Generation to Maximize ROI

In a recent article from eMarketer.com, companies worldwide stated that email was the best lead generation program based on quantity and the quality of the leads. Email blasts were followed by live events, webinars, and website registrations. “The effectiveness of online channels, coupled with the fact that prospects indicate the web is the first place they look for more information, makes it natural for companies to be increasing their investments in web design, email marketing and search engine optimization.”

“As more lead generation efforts shift to the Internet, tools to help develop, execute, and track campaign effectiveness will become a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have,’” said the report.

This is a clear sign that email marketing will continue to be a powerful marketing method. With that being said, the integration of social media marketing into email blasts will increase the possibility for your information to evolve within the social networks. Leveraging email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and Pay-Per-Click will help with lead generation and brand awareness. Not all customers are in a position to purchase today, so brand awareness and a diversified campaign will pay off in the long-run. The ability to integrate internet marketing with traditional marketing methods will continue to be important as well.

Local Search Advantage with Google AdWords

Google AdWords has continued to roll-out enhancement features for advertisers. The latest feature is called Ad Sitelinks. This new one-line format will allow advertisers to add additional links into the ad copy of AdWords campaigns. Google will automatically determine if your ad qualifies to show Ad Sitelinks and whether to show two lines or the one-line format based on the quality of the ads.

Keep in mind that there are several other Ad Extensions that local businesses may find useful to improve search results. These extensions are locations, products, and phone extensions.

Quality Search Engine Marketing Agency?

As a Search Engine Marketing & Web Analytics agency, we receive numerous questions regarding the difference between us and the local advertising agencies. Our focus is concentrated specifically on marketing tactics and strategies that will impact a business or brand in the search engine ranking via paid or organic methods. We specialize in Search Engine Marketing & Web Analytics and do not attempt to be all things to all businesses!

6 Ways to Identify a Quality Search Engine Marketing Agency:

1. Has more than 1 person on staff with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and/or Web Analytics certifications. This shows that the agency has the capacity to handle more than one large search engine marketing campaign.
2. Attends industry conferences or seminars such as SES, SMX, eMetric Summit, etc. This demonstrates an effort to continue to improve the agency's overall knowledge base.
3. Can utilize more than one Web Analytics and more than one Search Engine Marketing tool. If they are "experts" in the field, they should be able to handle different tools.
4. Reads industry blogs such as Google, WAA, etc. to stay updated on trends and changes to popular industry tools such as Google AdWords, Google Analytics, MS Advertising, etc.
5. Is a member of Industry Associations. This reinforces the agency's commitment to their field, and most associations have best practices to which members must adhere.
6. Has a client base willing to provide references.

If you have a medical condition such as heart disease, you go to see a cardiologist, not a general practitioner. So, if you have a search engine marketing problem, go see a search engine marketing agency.

Google Analytics Column Hack-Pivot Tables

One of our clients requested a method to export more data from the Google Analytics pivot tables. The purpose of the export was to tie together Google Analytics with specific URL variables; however, Google Analytics displays a limited number of items on the pivot table. We did some research and we came across this Google Analytics Hack.

What You Will Need:
- Firefox
- Live HTTP header (http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/)

What are we hacking?
We’ll make possible for the analyst in you to download more than 5 columns from Google Analytics’ Pivot Table reports.

Below are the steps to the hack:
1. Go to any report that has the pivot table option and segment the data the way you want to analyze it (for testing purposes you can use the example above: go on Traffic Sources report à then Referring Sites and then pivot by Landing Page and choose Showing Visits)
2. Start Live HTTP header (in Firefox, under Tools) – do not load any other pages between step 2 and 3
3. Make sure you checked the Capture box on live HTTP header
4. Go back to your Google Analytics window and select a new number of page rows on, under Show rows (the footer of the pivot table). At this moment, the table should reload.
5. Open the Live HTTP header window
6. The first line there should be the request sent to Google Analytics in order to reload the pivot table. You should see something similar to Live HTTP Header
7. Copy the link (should be the first if you didn’t load any other page or made other HTTP request – music or video streams) and load it in another tab. You should have something similar to: Pure html table
8. Now look for the &tcols=5 parameter. Change it to &tcols=50 and load the new URL

Here’s a bonus hack for Google Analytics
The URL that exports Google Analytics reports in CSV for Excel (&fmt=5) is:
https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/export?fmt=5 and some parameters after.
You will have to copy everything starting and including &id=…. from the URL you previously modified (the one with &tcols=50) and append it to Google’s export URL. The export URL will look like:
https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/export?fmt=5&id=1234567&esig=4&seg0=-8&pdr=20091016-20091115&cmp=visit_segments&trows=25&rpt=ReferringSourcesReport&seg=1&view=4&tchcol=0&tst=0

We have used this several times to export additional pivot table information. A word of caution when using a hack, do it at your own risk. We highly recommend that you use this on a duplicate profile and on a secure network.

Source: You Should Test That!

DaBrian Marketing Group Update

DaBrian Marketing Group has officially changed its name to DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC. In addition to this change, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC will be opening a new office in Reading, PA. We are also expanding our team of search engine marketing professionals. As we move forward, we will continue to provide our followers and friends with information to help them achieve a greater impact on their internet marketing campaigns. Furthermore, we will begin to provide bi-monthly blogs, quarterly articles, and regular YouTube submissions. We will inform all of friends, followers, and colleagues via Twitter, Facebook, and the monthly newsletter. If you are not already “connected”, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.dabrianmarketing.com or follow us on twitter (DaBrianMarket).

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to send us a note or make suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you and answering your search engine marketing & web analytics questions.

The Changing Search Engine Environment

The world of search engine marketing is continuously changing and most businesses fail to keep up with these changes. Over the past year, we have seen changes to Microsoft Live (now Bing). This year, we have already seen changes in Google. Google’s latest changes come with the implementation of Google Caffeine. This update will have a dramatic impact on search engine optimization and search engine marketing for businesses in 2010.

Google Caffeine is the latest change to the Google search engine algorithm. According to Matt Cutts (Google Software Engineer Extraordinaire), said that Caffeine is the new technology that improves indexing infrastructure. It deliveries faster results, more accurate search results, larger index size, and better at capturing news. This improvement means a better user search experience. Hopefully, this will translate into more searcher using Google and more advertiser using Google AdWords to attract customers.

Remember that not everything has changed with Google. The content is still key to search results and meta titles/tags are still very important. You will need to update your content more frequently and improve the quality of links to relevant content.

Our Search Engine Optimization Trends & Vision for Businesses

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will continue to increase in awareness throughout 2009-2010. According to Small Business Trends, businesses will begin to move SEO in-house; however, Search Engine Optimization agencies will also continue to be busier than ever. Let’s not exclude the increasing volume of SEO scams that will continue to frustrate our customers.

The most critical information still reaffirms that relevant content is key. The trend should also include videos, blogs, images, and tweets. The search functionality will evolve due to additional role-over functionality on Bing. Local search and mobile search engine optimization will generate additional changes in the search engine landscape. The evolution of mobile device will have marketers focusing on mobile search and mobile search functionality.

The bottom line is that businesses should start to incorporate search engine optimization into their marketing plans. We don’t recommend that every businesses jump into SEO and hire an agency but we do recommend that every business have the basics covered. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing will continue to become more challenging for organizations that don’t understand the basics. New wrinkles will continue to appear in mobile search, search engine, and local search. Once you have the basics covered, you can start to tackle the larger challenges!