Thursday, March 31, 2016

Digital Presence Solutions Teaches Local #Businesses How to Get Listed Prominently on #Google and #Bing

Digital Presence Solutions Teaches Local Businesses How to Get Listed Prominently on Google and Bing Sydney, New South Wales — (ReleaseWire) — 03/31/2016 — This week respected SEO consultants Digital Presence Solutions has released a series of recommendations effective for getting local businesses listed on major search engines Google and Bing. read moreHow to Curate Your Digital Identity as an Academic In a nutshell, if you do not have a clear online presence, you are allowing Google, Yahoo, and Bing ... half of digital traffic now comes from mobile devices and through mobile apps. Most of the site creators and social- media platforms I've listed ... read more

5 Trends In Local Search In 2015 A Bright Local study found that local search is the most effective digital marketing channel for local businesses. Here are my top five takeaways from a crazy year in local search. 1. From Seven To Three, The Google ... your local presence is strong ... read more30 Things to Get Right When Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency [Rookie Guide] The best time to hire a digital agency is ... when it becomes a necessity to get the company out of stagnation or fight heavy competition. A good campaign can grow with your company and change course depending on how the business evolves, while keeping ... read moreSubject of Google Robocall Lawsuit No Stranger to Complaints Some of the complaints allege the company misleads small businesses into thinking it represents Google to get ... allege Local Lighthouse promised customers guaranteed first page placement in Google search results. One company, Home Solutions NW ... read moreAmazon was huge at CES 2016, and they weren't even there LAS VEGAS — There was no Amazon booth or glitzy Amazon keynote at CES this year, but the e-commerce giant's presence was felt all over the ... showed off Alexa-enabled ceiling fans at the show. Big Ass Solutions Haiku L Series Fan HomeAdvisor, the ... read more50 Best Android Apps: GPS and Location Apps [#16 - 24] You can even get live updates from Twitter or Brightkite. Layar is an augmented reality app that adds a digital context to your world. Though Layar introduced itself as the first Augmented Reality app, it was actually Wikitude that introduced Android to ... read moreThis is my last post for the Patheos Atheist Portal Once you get the natural numbers, the rest of mathematics is in your ... or something else. Usually, these proposed solutions radically misunderstand a) evolution b) moral philosophy or c) both. I didn't think the answer was there. read moreWhy the world doesn't take Catholicism seriously When I travel, I always get asked by parents how they can get their adult children back to church. It's an epidemic. We know this. And we can talk about catechesis and community and leadership and orthodoxy and the sacraments and the fullness of truth. read moreNo, GM Mosquitoes Didn't Start The Zika Outbreak. But for the risk assessment to get the permits and approval of the local Brazilian government ... Alex Perkins, a biological science professor at Notre Dame, told Business Insider that rather than causing the outbreak, GM mosquitoes might be our ... read more

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Source: Digital Presence Solutions Teaches Local #Businesses How to Get Listed Prominently on #Google and #Bing

Veterinary #SEO Quiz: How Do You #Rank?

Veterinary SEO Quiz: How Do You Rank? According to a survey of more than 1,000 pet owners in the U.S. who regularly visit their veterinarian, 6 in 10 are researching their pet's health online in addition to going to the veterinarian. 2) True or false: When I perform a search for my practice ... read more12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring an SEO Expert Staying ahead of Google algorithm updates — especially when it comes to SEO practices that used to be par for the course, like link-building — isn't easy. So how do you vet an SEO expert ... best way to build your page rank is by writing quality ... read more

10 Reasons Your SEO Rankings Dropped And What To Do About It If you launch a new design for an existing website you can expect your rankings to drop, regardless of what you do to prepare for that launch, and regardless of how much better the new website is, in terms of SEO ... they should rank other websites ... read more5 SEO Trends You Need to Consider for 2015 This post was sponsored by Link Assistant – SEO Power Suite. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who make SitePoint possible ... The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few [key]words. read more6 Side Projects Turned Popular Tools for Designers, Part 1 The second challenge was distribution; building a product or website is one thing, but getting it in front of potential users is a totally different animal. What did you ... and expertise in design and SEO. Do you have any advice for other creatives ... read more10 Simple Things SMB Websites Need To Fix Before SEO When speaking with SMBs and companies that sell marketing services to SMBs, I hear over and over again how a business wants to rank ... SEO and SEM. So, if you are one of the lucky millions with a crappy Web presence, here are some things you can do ... read morePoisons Kill Pets Too! Pet poisoning is very serious so let's test how much we know: Try to rank ... You may also call the Pet Poison Hotline at 800.213.6680 (a $49 charge applies) or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center 888.426.4435 ($65 fee may apply). Answers to quiz ... read moreThe Definitive Guide to SEO Keyword Research Keyword research may be the most undervalued facet of SEO. While most ... for a top Google rank only to find your homepage collecting dust. Although single-word keywords like insurance will likely be far beyond your budget, you do need to find a niche ... read more19 Headline Writing Tips for More Clickable, Shareable Blog Posts Headline writing rules ... numbers and digits do. Think You Know SEO? Quiz Yourself and Find Out! Do You Want to Build a Snowman? Read This Guide First. Be sure to use topic keywords in your headline – it will help your blog post rank better on Google ... read moreApril 21 Is Your Last Chance for Mobile Optimization Before 'Mobilegeddon' Join us for a free, live webinar covering SEO strategies to grow your business ... Google wants its mobile users to be happy. It's on you to get the job done. Related: Do You Need an App for That? Take This Quiz to Find Out. read more

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Source: Veterinary #SEO Quiz: How Do You #Rank?

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Veterinary SEO Quiz: How Do You Rank?

Are you taking advantage of SEO for your practice's website? Take this quiz and find out.

By Jane Harrell, President, 'cause Digital Marketing

Published: 2016.03.30 03:19 PM

Vectoraart/istock/thinkstock

Are your clients finding what they need and want on your practice's website? Is your site following basic search­-engine best practices? How findable is your veterinary practice's website for new and prospective clients? Test your knowledge with this quick and fun quiz!

1) How many pet owners who regularly visit the veterinarian also go online for more pet­ health information, either before or after their visit?
  • 1 in 10
  • 3 in 10
  • 4 in 10
  • 6 in 10
  • Answer: D, 6 in 10.1

    According to a survey of more than 1,000 pet owners in the U.S. who regularly visit their veterinarian, 6 in 10 are researching their pet's health online in addition to going to the veterinarian.

    2) True or false: When I perform a search for my practice website or pet­-health issues in Google, I'm seeing the same results my clients are.

    Answer: False.

    Google and other search engines provide individualized search results based on a number of factors, including location, personal search history, social connections and more  — even in private mode.2

    In other words, while you and your clients are probably seeing similar types of results when you perform a search, ranking and exact content can vary. This is why looking at average ranking for keywords is so important for your practice's website. ­No two searchers are exactly alike and your site may rank differently for each person. To get an idea of how your practice's website ranks for certain terms, check out Google Analytics' Acquisition > Search Engine Optimization > Queries report, or the SERPS rank checker tool.

    3) True or false: Ranking well on Google website results and Google maps is the same thing.

    Answer: False.

    You may have noticed a few years ago that Google started giving more prominence to certain types of results in search. An example of this is the appearance of Google Maps results above the regular search results when your search indicates that you're looking for something in a specific area. Google might even be taking this a step further and showing you local results when you haven't included a local term. (As I wrote this, Google shifted my search results for the term "animal hospital" from web­results first to map­ first.) However, ranking well in Google Maps and Google web results pages are not the same. You can learn more about the factors that contribute to high­-ranking map results here.

    4) True or false: Despite local map results, targeting keywords relevant to my customers and business on my practice website is a key part of my site's search optimization.

    Answer: True.

    This appears to be an underutilized advantage among veterinary practice websites. For example, according to Google's AdWords tools, the basic term "animal hospital" receives twice the search volume as other possible practice descriptors in the Portland, ME area. However, only one of the practices on the first page of web search results is using the term — and that practice is half an hour away. The websites are otherwise very similar, so by targeting the most­ searched term in a nearby area, this practice that is farther away has managed to surpass the ranking of 20-plus much closer practices.

    5) Which of the following can be effective ways to help enhance your veterinary practice's average rankings in search results pages?
  • Ask clients to leave your practice a review on Google Places.
  • Check out what pet­ health topics people in your area are searching for — then write a weekly blog about them.
  • Look at your site analytics and prioritize optimization of any pages with high bounce or exit rates.
  • Review your site's services descriptions and check to make sure they're using the same keywords as people use in your area.
  • All of the above.
  • Answer: E, all of the above.

    Remember, while many website platforms and services will promise "SEO for practices," none can replace a little local research and a lot of creativity. Good website structure and "bones" are only the beginning. All of the above are examples of creative, lower­ effort ways to help your practice show up more favorably in search rankings.

    References
  • IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. Pet Owner Bonds Research conducted January 2015; n=1,001. As presented at the AAHA 2015 State of the Industry Address 03/2015.
  • http://searchengineland.com/guide/seo/personalization­search­engine­rankings accessed 3/22/2016.
  • As the former Editor­in­Chief of IDEXX's Pet Health Network and Senior Producer for Petfinder.com, Jane Harrell's spent a lot o f time thinking about search engine optimization (SEO). By focusing on helping pet owners find the right pet­ health content at the right time via third parties like Google, Bing and Yahoo, Jane's helped pet­focused websites increase organic (unpaid!) search traffic by the hundreds of thousands per month — all by using some of the simplest SEO techniques. 

    Learn more about Jane Harrell and her digital consulting firm, 'cause Digital Marketing here.


    Source: Veterinary SEO Quiz: How Do You Rank?

    How to Get Your #Website Listed in #Google #News in 2016

    How to Get Your Website Listed in Google News in 2016 Many websites create fantastic news content on a regular basis, but the audience that it reaches is limited because it's not getting into Google's News search vertical. In this article, we explore the common pitfalls preventing businesses from ... read moreThe Beginner's Guide to Google+ But roughly two years later, Google+ has established itself as the second-largest social media site in the world and boasts a monthly active user base of 235 million. And some of the products that Google ... your posts. Tagged users or brands will get ... read more

    The Painful Truth About Hotel Website SEO You are a Director of Sales and Marketing overseeing all day-to-day activities for your property, maybe several properties, from meeting/group sales to Trip Advisor reviews and website ... have their rate listed alongside the OTAs on Google's Hotel ... read moreHow To Build A Large Following On Google Plus (And Why You Should) Google Plus is the Rodney Dangerfield of social networks: "it don't get ... refining your ideas, developing concepts, building an actual website or traditional blog that showcases your work in greater detail. In my case, I post frequent news updates ... read moreWJBF Investigates: Nude Beach in South Augusta They could be found in the personal encounters section of the website ... The number listed on the ads is a local number, however, it's a Google Voice number. News Channel 6 called the number to see if we could get any information, but nobody answered ... read moreGoogle Hosts Public Datasets for BigQuery Analytics So it turns out I have the seventh most popular first name in the U.S. but a terrible author ranking on Hacker News ... site. "This page lists a special group of public datasets that Google BigQuery hosts for you to access and integrate into your applications. read moreUsing Google to Promote Your Business But you might not have known that Google looks at the first block of text it encounters on your web page and uses that for the few lines displayed about your site on search result pages. So if you want to get listed ... The good news is, you can set ... read moreEverything You Can Do with Adblock Plus (That Isn't Just Blocking Ads) You can block annoyances from your news ... be used to get around paywalls or site logins if the web site in question is blocking content in a specific way. This is a pretty case by case basis, so you'll usually need to search around on Google for tips ... read moreHow to Remotely Disable Your Lost or Stolen Phone No matter which smartphone OS you or your employees use, you're bound to find something that can help put your mind at ease. The good news ... get it back. Which brings us to our last point: Though it varies by platform, the remote wipe solutions listed ... read moreHow To Use Google Plus How do you get started with Google Plus ... want to do is set up your circles. Click on the tab and it will bring you to a interface where all of your contacts in Gmail (not just Gmail addresses, but all of your contacts) are listed in a panel on top ... read more

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    Source: How to Get Your #Website Listed in #Google #News in 2016

    Tuesday, March 29, 2016

    The Painful Truth About Hotel Website SEO

    Close up of a man looking upward

    The Painful Truth About Hotel Website SEO

    Tambourine

    You are a Director of Sales and Marketing overseeing all day-to-day activities for your property, maybe several properties, from meeting/group sales to Trip Advisor reviews and website promos. It all falls on you.

    Then one day, your GM calls and says, "I just did a Google search for 'Miami Hotels' and we don't come up anywhere. What are we paying that hotel website company for?"

    You immediately go online to do more searches and panic ensues. You start to think, what ARE you paying them for? Aren't they supposed to be handling all of that Google stuff? Why isn't your hotel on the first results page for all of those non-branded keywords?  Why is everything so different on Mobile? 

    The answer is that everything you've expected or known about Search Engine Optimization for hotels up until the last year is now obsolete. Even if you've invested thousands of dollars into your SEO efforts to have your website successfully rank on Page one of Google for "Miami Hotels," you may never see your website show up on page one, let alone see a measurable ROI.

    So how do you answer your GM and hold your Hotel SEO firm accountable? It's time to redefine your KPIs when it comes to search and face some of the harsh realities of SEO for the hotel industry.

    Problem 1: Google Has Commercialized Its Results Pages

    Screenshot - Google search result

    Summary: In 2015, Google reduced its maps or places results from displaying a "7-Pack" to a "3-Pack", only showing three Hotels with a thumbnail image and Google's own commercialized meta-tool. Hotel Price Ads (HPA) may lead a consumer to book via Google or with one of their OTA advertising partners.

    And recently, Google made further, MAJOR layout changes to its SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), especially for broad search queries like "Miami Hotels" or "Hotels in Times Square."  As a result, natural/organic search listings have now been pushed further down the pages and are seeing a reduction in organic click-throughs, and even less traffic on mobile devices.

    Solutions: While you cannot control the search engine's giant layout or where your listing is displayed in the SERPs, you do have some control on what information is being populated:

    • Claim your property's Name and Place (NAP) and make it consistent across all platforms from Google Plus to Yelp. Make sure your Google Plus page is verified and links directly back to your hotel's website. Services like Yext or Moz Local can help you manage all of these in one simple platform. Other services like Whitespark can assist with citation cleanup or updating any listing on the web that has your property's business name, physical address and phone number, in addition to helping build safe, credible backlinks.

    •  Control the images you display across the online universe with image parity software like ICE Portal or VFM Leonardo. This will help clean up images of your hotel across the web, including the OTAs.

    • Target answers not keywords. A recent study revealed that 15 percent of Google's 3.5 Billion daily searches were questions or queries that the search engine has never seen before! Hotel websites need to target "long tail" search queries by adding content that answers a traveler's questions and provides information about the destination or the experience guests will have. Don't be afraid to promote local businesses or restaurants; not everything on the site can be self-serving. A hotel site is more likely to rank for long tail queries that have less competition and will see a rise in user engagement.  Quality website traffic over quantity!

    • Utilize a content mapping and interlinking strategy. What page does your website user visit most before they book?  Is there a pattern in the sequence of the pages they visit before entering the booking engine? Once you identify the most relevant pages on your hotel's website, analyze the typical user's journey to complete a booking. This "path" report can be pulled from Google Analytics.  Content mapping ensures that the content on those pages, and the text links within the site copy, are interlinked properly, making it easier for the user to find the information they are looking for in addition to passing signals to Google about what content is most related and important.

    Problem 2: Increased Competition for Your Own Hotel Name

    Summary: Google's Hotel Price Ads and Instant Booking products have made it harder than ever for hotels to get traffic from their own brand name. TripAdvisor, big brands and the OTAs have always out-muscled individual hotel websites for popular non-branded keyword searches (ie: "Miami hotels"). But in 2015, new paid advertising products emerged, making the search engine marketing space even more competitive for individual properties.

    Last year, Google introduced its Instant Booking model alongside its Hotel Price Ads module. Online users now have the option to view rates from all OTAs or book with Google directly from the SERP page, without ever having to actually visit a hotel or OTA website! Properties are paying approximately 10-12 percent commission to Google for the instant booking feature and anywhere from $1.00-$4.00 cost per click (CPC) to have their rate listed alongside the OTAs on Google's Hotel Price Ads module.

    You can read more about how Google's products work on their official websearch blog. But here is a simple visual breakdown of Google's new page structure:

    Screenshot - Google search result

    Solutions:

    •  Dominate the SERP by combining PAID and Organic Search Efforts. Consider having your PPC and SEO teams working side by side to implement tactics like Review or Ad Extensions and Event Schemas to take up as much real estate as possible on a page for brand related search queries.

    •   If budget permits, participate in Meta Search Advertising or Hotel Price Ads, but be sure that the hotel rates are in parity!

    •    Add alternative tags to all of the property's images and with the hotel's name to influence branded image results.

    •    Invest in having unique content in other places that have direct links back to your website from authoritative places like Wikipedia, Youtube, etc.

    • Refresh the website's title tags and header tags if you notice click-through rates on your organic results are decreasing. Use strong language in your site's title tags and meta descriptions like "Book Direct" or "Official Hotel Website."

    Check back next week for Part 2 of Painful Truths about Hotel SEO

    About Tambourine

    Tambourine uses technology and creativity to increase revenue for hotels and destinations worldwide. The firm, now in its 30th year, is located in New York City and Fort Lauderdale. Please visit: www.Tambourine.com

    Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

    © 2016 Hotel News Resource

    Request Information from this organization Please click the link below to request more information from the organization or company featured in this article.

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    Source: The Painful Truth About Hotel Website SEO

    How to prepare your #Website for #Google algorithm updates

    How to prepare your website for Google algorithm updates During the past few years, Google released major updates to its search engine algorithm, including the "Panda," "Penguin," "Pigeon," "Payday," "Pirate," and "Mobile Friendly" upgrades. These algorithm changes often leave digital marketers and search engine ... read more3 Recent Google Updates: What You Should Know This could also have increased your average CPC since it's more competitive, more ad inventory and no sidebar ads. There are a ton of posts coming out right now for how to initiate and get your site prepared ... of the large updates Google has been ... read more

    Google Just Upped the Penalty for Not Having a Mobile-Friendly Hotel Website. Audit your website's download speeds, especially on mobile devices. Slow mobile download speed is "killer" of mobile usability and a big no-no, according to Google's latest Mobile- Friendliness Algorithm Update. Make sure your website is hosted in ... read moreMobilegeddon Checklist: How To Prepare For This Week's Google Mobile Friendly Update The Google Mobile Friendly Update ... algorithm is on a page by page basis. So even if only some of your web pages are not mobile friendly, some come benefit from this algorithm. Q: Is this a real-time or delayed algorithm? Q: If I make my site mobile ... read moreOutbrain Or Outbane: How To Distribute Your Content For Free You have a website, I assume it's search engine optimized. Use it. Post your content. Research the proper keywords where you can own some open space, and get it out there. But then, don't forget about it. Make sure you update your content, and put an ... read moreSEO in 2014: How to Prepare for Google's 2014 Algorithm Updates ... that your site is alive and growing. Increasing authority connected to your body of work. Sound familiar? It's the very approach to SEO that all of Google's recent updates have been designed to shape. What changes you need to make in 2014 depends ... read moreIs your website ready for Google's algorithm update? The biggest update in years. Call it what you want: On April 21 Google will be releasing an update to its algorithm that could ... Once you've gone through a site redesign, or any time you make tweaks to your site, it's important to run through ... read moreHow Google AMP Will Impact Publishers Google announced nearly six years ago that site speed would be an important factor in determining placement in organic search rankings, and it has continued to emphasize speed in its algorithm updates. The AMP platform improves your site speed in mobile. read moreGoogle's 'phantom' algorithm update hits websites "When you have a domain-level algorithm update or ranking change, it can impact the whole site ... sites relative to Google's expectations and pinpoint problems before it's too late. "They make a change, it has a dramatic impact on your business, good ... read more4 Ways to Boost Ranking For Your Own Branded Terms Considering the entire right-hand site of the SERPs is often dominated by Google maps and business listings, you'll definitely want to make sure your business name is listed here. You can enter or update your Google My Business listing here. When adding or ... read more

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    Source: How to prepare your #Website for #Google algorithm updates

    The Differences Between #Google #Blogger and #WordPress

    The Differences Between Google Blogger and WordPress Trying to find the right CMS system can be overwhelming. You've likely heard of WordPress, and if you're new to blogging you've probably ruled out Joomla or Drupal (as you should), but Google Blogger is another option that has made its way onto the ... read moreWhat Is The Difference Between Elders and Deacons? There are both differences and similarities between elders and deacons ... about the believer's daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon. read more

    The differences between Google Earth and Google Maps such as support for 3D Imagery and other features that used to only be available in Google Earth. The folks at Social Bubble recently wrote a post that discusses some of the difference between Earth and Maps. That inspired us to take it a bit further and ... read moreGenius Web Annotator vs. One Young Woman With a Blog 'Don't color in the dark with a yellow crayon and call it criticism' As the writer Alana Massey said of the Web Annotator in a phone call with the Observer, "The difference between whether ... on the personal WordPress blog of a young woman ... read moreGoogle Search US English voice updated to sound less robotic Google ... gaps between words. The change appears to be in the server-side part of the Google Text-to-Speech engine, since there aren't any updates for the Google TTS and Google app in the Play Store. Check out the video below to hear the difference ... read moreDifference between WordPress and Blogger So, you can decide the one that actually fulfils your requirements. The most basic differences between WordPress and Blogger are given below: WordPress: Its dashboard speeds up for the communication of the users, which help in easy posting without making ... read moreEverything We Know About the New Starbucks Prepaid Card There's no news yet on how many stars you would earn when using the card for in- or out-of-store purchases, though earlier reports on comments from Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Kevin Johnson indicate there will likely be a difference between the two. read moreWhat's The Difference Between Running Your Blog On WordPress.com & WordPress.org? Explaining the difference between the two is actually quite easy, but choosing between them may prove more difficult. A hosted WordPress.com blog will handle all the ... If you're not willing to do a few Google searches to figure out why your site ... read moreThe difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com If you have a blog or would like a blog it is essential that you know the difference between WordPress, wordpress.com and wordpress.org. The difference is not communicated at all, especially on wordpress.com and I really hate them for this. First of all ... read moreDC teen's artwork featured on Google's home page Google announced today the victor of its 8th Doodle 4 Google competition. Akilah explains in her blog post that the most meaningful ... This year Google asked would-be doodlers, all between kindergarten and 12th grade, to explore the theme "What makes ... read more

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    Source: The Differences Between #Google #Blogger and #WordPress

    The real impact of Google’s new paid search ad layout on organic search

    Everything you need to know about SEO, delivered every Thursday.

    Over the years, the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) have changed a lot. Features like news, images, videos and the Knowledge Graph have impacted the display, sorting and order of SERPs, dramatically impacting organic listings.

    Recently, Google decided that paid search ads will no longer appear on the right-hand side of search results for desktop users globally, and up to four paid search results will appear at the top of the page (up from a maximum of three previously).

    Paid search ads that fall below the fourth rank will appear at the bottom of the page, which has limited visibility to end users, for a total of seven ads per page max.

    This is a big change, but how does it really impact organic search?

    The answer is a number of different ways, which I will explore shortly. But before I do, let's examine why Google is doing this.

    Like many companies, Google has seen mobile traffic grow at an accelerated pace over the past two years. This new layout makes the desktop experience very similar to the current mobile SERP. It will allow Google to provide more relevant results for end users and also provide better performance for advertisers.

    The key here is the fact that Google is very good at understanding intent. Google can distinguish a transactional query from an informational query. So, if I did a search to buy a camera and got an organic listing first to download the manual, I would see that as bad user experience.

    Alternatively, if I received a bunch of paid ads selling cameras and didn't even see any organic listings, that would be a better user experience. If four paid ads suit the intent, even if they push everything else down below the fold, it's still a good experience.

    How does this impact organic search?

    Now that paid search ads are taking up more organic real estate, click-through rates for organic search listings — especially in the first two positions — will probably decrease because the organic results have been pushed farther down the page. Indeed, on mobile, we were already seeing SERPs where no organic listings appeared above the fold.

    Since the organic search results will be relegated to further down the list, this will cause more advertisers to get more visibility from the top paid search ads, but it comes at a high cost.

    If brands really want to get the most out of search, they'll need to create an integrated organic and paid search strategy with focus on top rankings and paid ads to maintain visibility and be in front of their target audiences.

    This change will also make local search more important if you have a brick-and-mortar business, because end users will see paid ads, then the local pack, before even getting to organic results. This makes appearing in that local pack more critical than ever before.

    This latest SERP change is going to impact the content that brands produce at all stages of the buyer journey, too. Modern consumer behavior has been characterized by Google as a series of intent-based moments ("micro-moments") enabled by the high usage of mobile, which can be described as "I want to know, I want to go, I want to do and I want to buy."

    This is where the consumer comes into the fragmented path to purchase; the "funnel" that marketers often refer to doesn't exist. The path to purchase is no longer linear.

    Therefore, you must have content to reach the user at different stages of the user journey to turn these people into customers. That means differentiating your paid and organic landing pages and creating content that suits each.

    With more paid listings appearing for "highly commercial queries," you'll need to focus paid landing pages towards searchers in the buying/decision-making stages, whereas your organic landing pages should be better positioned (and possibly expanded) to capture visitors in the research/consideration stages.

    In summary, it will be more important to rank in the first two organic positions to capture the most clicks and visibility from organic search.

    Since the organic results are getting pushed farther down the page now, both paid and SEO must work together to make 1+1=3. Don't be afraid to compete with yourself and show the holistic value of integration.

    Final Thoughts

    The SERPs will continue to evolve as Google looks for new and innovative ways to make the desktop experience similar to the current mobile SERP and provide the most relevant results for end users.

    Agencies and brands must adapt to the dynamic landscape of the SERPs and put together results-driven strategies and tactics using both paid and organic search together to maximize ROI, capture more conversions and provide end users with relevant content in their moment of need.

    Also, perhaps this is a good way to "train" end users into accepting paid-only results at times on mobile phones, especially because of the limited real estate on mobile devices.

    Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

    About The Author Winston Burton joined Acronym in 2014 with over ten years in search marketing. Prior to joining Acronym, Winston was the VP of SEO at Havas Media, one of the world's top ten global ad agencies. He started the SEO practice for Havas and built the practice to include clients such as Choice Hotels, Fidelity, Exxon, Volvo and Marc Jacobs. Winston spearheaded SEO strategy including content marketing, mobile, link building, and all technical areas of SEO. Winston's career also included the SEO Manager role at Rosetta and time at Zeta Interactive. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)
    Source: The real impact of Google's new paid search ad layout on organic search

    Monday, March 28, 2016

    3 practical local link building ideas that will cure your Penguinitis

    Get the latest news in local marketing each week.

    penguin-strutting-ss-1920

    I have a confession to make: Penguin scared the daylights out of me. I hope those of you who have been around the industry for as many years as I have will join me in taking the first step to recovery: admitting our problem.

    In 2012, Penguin made once-easy and inexpensive link-building tactics for small businesses worthless — and in some cases, harmful. For a small handful of long-time clients, we had to undo years of work that had once supported their achievement of position one organic rankings (and more importantly, their acquisition of many, many leads).

    Sadly, getting scared wasn't the only consequence of seeing businesses that had been fully compliant with SEO best practices (of the time) get burned overnight — because those best practices had suddenly changed.

    It also made us overly cautious about link building for SEO, and that caution kept us from seeing what continues to be a reality: that backlink profiles are still key factors in organic search rankings, including for searches with local intent.

    Mike Ramsey, my fellow Local University faculty member and owner of Nifty Marketing in Burley, Idaho, recently presented at MozCon Local 2016. His presentation and subsequent blog post featuring tons of local link-building ideas illustrated the gravity of my confessions above. (You can check out Ramsey's presentation slides here.)

    As Ramsey rightly asserts, the Google Maps algorithm for determining relevance of businesses in the maps pack is closely tied to the Google organic algorithm. Google's Pigeon algorithm update sought to make locally relevant results more prominent in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and affected both Google Maps results and Google organic results.

    This means that quantity, quality and diversity of backlinks are among the few SEO elements that, if done well, can support both types of ranking results.

    So why have we been so hesitant to focus on link building for local businesses?

    [Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]

    Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

    About The Author Will Scott is CEO of Search Influence, a national online marketing firm focused on small and medium-sized businesses, and white label online marketing products for publishers and media partners who serve them. Search Influence is the largest online marketing company on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans' only Inc. 500 honoree in 2011. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)
    Source: 3 practical local link building ideas that will cure your Penguinitis

    #Google Discontinues Right Column Ads: What it Means for You

    Google Discontinues Right Column Ads: What it Means for You Google's search engine has been a maker & breaker of businesses, it's no wonder why most companies take SEO & SEM strategies seriously. The company is now in process of rolling out a change that affects both advertisers and users. Google has now taken ... read moreWhat Google Changes to the Right Rail Mean for Retailers Many online merchants were concerned when Google confirmed it was making a major change to the ads that appear on its search results pages, getting rid of AdWords ads that appeared along the right side of ... In today's guest column, Costello explains ... read more

    "Search disruption is coming!" and 9 other expert insights From LSA16 MapQuest incorporated both of these means in ... such as ad agencies, selling for them, which is only possible because it has always been user-focused. As part of that mindset, Google recently eliminated ads in the right rail/column of its search engine. read moreSpring Cleaning! 4 PPC Account Audit Tips To Save You Money Start this next quarter off right ... ad feature should be used by every advertiser. You'll want to pick the add-ons that are most applicable to your goals and that realistically will help drive performance. With updates in the last few years to how ... read moreInstagram May Change Your Feed, Personalizing It With an Algorithm Refresh the top of your various "feeds" — the running column ... means it would shift away from the strictly reverse chronological order that the service has used since it began in 2010. Instead, Instagram will place the photos and videos it thinks ... read moreControl who posts on your Facebook timeline To use the Facebook setting, click the downward arrow in the upper-right corner of the page, select "Settings," go to "Timeline and Tagging" in the left column ... means that your browser won't store history or cookies from the sites you visit. read moreHow to Use Mobile Apps to Spot the Space Station and Iridium Flares Satellite apps will tell you where to find them in the sky, when they'll pass overhead and where they are orbiting over the Earth right now. Credit ... Landsat (used for Google Maps), Iridium satellites and Europe's Envisat. The American Atlas-Centaur ... read moreWhen Not to Google: Searches You're Better Off Making Elsewhere For the searching you do every day, go ahead and use the powerful, convenient, ever-improving Google. But for certain queries, other search engines are significantly better. Let's dig into the searches you're better off making ... of the ad-filled results ... read moreGoogle is getting rid of some ads in desktop search results pages ... results from paid ads The removal of ads in the right sidebar of results means Google's desktop search results pages will look a lot more like mobile search results pages, which are displayed in a single column for obvious reasons. It also means ... read moreHow to Make the Most of Google AdWords More search terms, bid at a lower cost, mean more traffic to your site for fewer advertising dollars. At this point in the process, you should ... of your ad impressions to only those prospects who are most targeted. According to the Google AdWords Website ... read more

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    Source: #Google Discontinues Right Column Ads: What it Means for You

    How to prepare your #Website for #Google algorithm updates

    How to prepare your website for Google algorithm updates During the past few years, Google released major updates to its search engine algorithm, including the "Panda," "Penguin," "Pigeon," "Payday," "Pirate," and "Mobile Friendly" upgrades. These algorithm changes often leave digital marketers and search engine ... read more3 Recent Google Updates: What You Should Know This could also have increased your average CPC since it's more competitive, more ad inventory and no sidebar ads. There are a ton of posts coming out right now for how to initiate and get your site prepared ... of the large updates Google has been ... read more

    Google Just Upped the Penalty for Not Having a Mobile-Friendly Hotel Website. Audit your website's download speeds, especially on mobile devices. Slow mobile download speed is "killer" of mobile usability and a big no-no, according to Google's latest Mobile- Friendliness Algorithm Update. Make sure your website is hosted in ... read moreMobilegeddon Checklist: How To Prepare For This Week's Google Mobile Friendly Update The Google Mobile Friendly Update ... algorithm is on a page by page basis. So even if only some of your web pages are not mobile friendly, some come benefit from this algorithm. Q: Is this a real-time or delayed algorithm? Q: If I make my site mobile ... read moreOutbrain Or Outbane: How To Distribute Your Content For Free You have a website, I assume it's search engine optimized. Use it. Post your content. Research the proper keywords where you can own some open space, and get it out there. But then, don't forget about it. Make sure you update your content, and put an ... read moreSEO in 2014: How to Prepare for Google's 2014 Algorithm Updates ... that your site is alive and growing. Increasing authority connected to your body of work. Sound familiar? It's the very approach to SEO that all of Google's recent updates have been designed to shape. What changes you need to make in 2014 depends ... read moreIs your website ready for Google's algorithm update? The biggest update in years. Call it what you want: On April 21 Google will be releasing an update to its algorithm that could ... Once you've gone through a site redesign, or any time you make tweaks to your site, it's important to run through ... read moreOne free step to make an aging computer run like new But it's now easier to give your ... update to an operating system that isn't Windows. While these are powerful Windows replacements, there is a simpler option. Over the last few years, you've probably heard about Chromebooks, the sub-$250 laptops that run ... read more4 Ways to Boost Ranking For Your Own Branded Terms Considering the entire right-hand site of the SERPs is often dominated by Google maps and business listings, you'll definitely want to make sure your business name is listed here. You can enter or update your Google My Business listing here. When adding or ... read moreGoogle's 'phantom' algorithm update hits websites "When you have a domain-level algorithm update or ranking change, it can impact the whole site ... sites relative to Google's expectations and pinpoint problems before it's too late. "They make a change, it has a dramatic impact on your business, good ... read more

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    Source: How to prepare your #Website for #Google algorithm updates

    RankBrain Judgment Day: four SEO tactics you’ll need to survive

    The way 30 trillion web pages are ranked changed forever on October 26, 2015. That's when the world became aware of RankBrain, Google's machine-learning artificial intelligence system.

    Google calls RankBrain, when it's in use, "the third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query."

    Google's mission: to terminate any web pages from its results that don't provide the highest-quality content and to find the most relevant answers for users.

    Now marketers who want to gain precious visibility on always-shrinking organic SERPs must prepare to fight a new war: the war against the machines.

    The pre-RankBrain machines

    Google has sent two other major algorithms to strike at websites.

    In the year 2010, Google sent a G-800, codename Panda, to hunt and kill the rankings of websites producing low-quality content.

    penguinator

    Image from Grindstore

    The second algorithm – a G-1000 known as Penguin – was sent in 2012 to find websites with unnatural link profiles and terminate them from the search results.

    While neither algorithmic update was perfect, both succeeded in their overall mission. Now Google is sending a third.

    RankBrain: analyzing page relevance on a 1-10 scale

    Now, as before, Google has sent a G-X, a new machine learning system that will change SEO and the organic search results as we've known them.

    RankBrain will analyze web pages for relevance. Every page will get a score between 1 and 10, with 1 being a dubious result and 10 being extremely strong.

    But wait! This RankBrain technology is eerily derived from earlier G-350 technology. You may know it better as Google AdWords' Quality Score. This intelligent AdWords technology never needed external signals (e.g. links) to rank paid search ads for relevance. Soon it will be the same for organic search.

    Is this it? The SEO apocalypse? Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh.

    No, it isn't. I've come from the future to share the secret solutions used in the past to help you today as your prepare for the rise of the machines.

    A group of resistance fighters have already fought, and won, great Quality Score wars. Resistance fighters like myself, Frederick Vallaeys, and a squad of highly-trained AdWords Quality Score experts have learned to fight back and win. Now it's time to share our intel on how to defeat RankBrain.

    There's no fate but what we make. Today I'm sharing four key strategies to prepare for RankBrain in order to prevent your website from facing Judgment Day.

    Hang on… Judgment Day? Overdramatic much?

    rankbrain-seo-t-1000-have-you-seen-this-boy

    Imagine one day you wake up to find your website gone. Just gone. The fate of your site decided by a new order of machine intelligence in just a microsecond.

    In the future RankBrain will take over the search results. All of them. In one possible future, Judgment Day happens on September 27, 2018* – Google's 18th birthday. (*Standard Time Travel Causal Loop Disclaimer: igve or take a few months – time travel and navigating these time lines is quite tricky!)

    For now, RankBrain is mainly used on complex long-tail search queries. But assuming RankBrain will only ever be used on long-tail queries would be dramatically underestimating its potential.

    Google has pointed out that 15% of the millions of queries it handles have never been searched before. Additionally, for upwards of 99% of content across the web, Google simply doesn't have enough signals (insufficient link and historical page data) to determine the most relevant search result for users. There are also whole niches that lack reliable natural link data (authoritative sites rarely link to porn, for example).

    So now, with RankBrain, Google is learning in a very advanced way exactly what people click on and whether or not they are satisfied with the result when they click through.

    Yes, Google is only using it on some queries for now. But when you create a new system like RankBrain, you wouldn't initially test it on your big-money head terms – just as you wouldn't replace a wildly successful paid search ad with an experimental one. You test on the things you're least confident in.

    There's less downside and risk if Google's RankBrain results aren't as good in the early days. They will learn and come up with better answers based on analysis of user success metrics. Over time, Google's confidence in RankBrain will grow and the signal will get more and more weighty.

    Judgment Day is when RankBrain becomes the #1 ranking factor.

    The link and on-page SEO signals won't go away completely (they can always be used to corroborate other factors). But one day, they won't be the most important factor in rankings. RankBrain will.

    Rand Fishkin has warned SEOs of the possibility of a future where Google leverages algorithmic inputs for search rankings without requiring human intervention – an idea which was predictably dismissed by Google (what would you expect them to say…)

    A relevance score. That sure sounds a lot like Quality Score, doesn't it? Google already uses a relevance score with AdWords, the Display Network, YouTube Ads, and Gmail Ads. They just call it Quality Score. It's been so wildly successful that Twitter Quality Adjusted Bids and Facebook Relevance Score are largely the same concept.

    Organic search will be next.

    google-rankbrain-terminator-come-with-me

    Now, on to those four RankBrain strategies you'll need to survive in the new world.

    1. High organic CTRs: your highest probability for SEO success

    Google uses its Quality Score algorithm to rate the quality and relevance of your keywords and AdWords ads. Click-through rate, the relevance of each keyword to its ad group, landing page quality and relevance, ad text relevance, your historic AdWords performance – all of this ultimately determines your cost per click and your ad rank in the ad auction process.

    The key to beating the Quality Score algorithm is just a matter of beating the expected click-through rate for a given ad spot. Important: There is no one expected CTR – CTRs will vary by time of day, device, location, and other factors.

    This graph (based on WordStream client data*) maps Quality Score against the ratio of actual click-through rate to expected click-through rate by position. As you can see,  the AdWords Quality Score algorithm is largely just a matter of beating the expected click-through rate for a given ad position.

    rankbrain-expected-ctr-graph

    The better your ad does compared to the expected CTR, the higher your Quality Score.

    By looking at millions of ads (from WordStream client accounts*) and averaging their click-through rates by ad position, we were able to reverse-engineer the expected CTR of an ad, and this is what we found:

    rankbrain-seo-expected-ctr-vs-ad-position-graph

    If your ad is in position 1, you don't have extra points for having a 5% CTR – Google expects your CTR to be that high when you're in that position. You need to do even better than expected to prove to Google that your ad is especially high-quality and relevant to users.

    What does this have to do with SEO, in a world where 'content is king' and backlinks are critical to better rankings? Well, that's where you need to start adjusting your thinking.

    The future of SEO isn't about beating another page based on content length, social metrics, keyword usage, or your number of backlinks. Better organic search visibility will come from beating your competitors with a higher than expected click-through rate.

    Put simply: people are both the problem and the solution. RankBrain is learning from human decisions – specifically what they click on. Attracting higher click-through rates will be critical to your SEO success, just as it is the most important component of PPC success.

    To figure this out, go into Search Console in Google Webmaster Tools. This will show you average position and click-through rates for the queries you rank for.

    rankbrain-google-webmaster-tools

    Figuring out what's a good click-through rate for organic search is beyond complicated. There are a lot of factors, like query type, number of ads, personalization, location, and the presence of Knowledge Graph, a featured snippet or other Google SERP elements (plus this data comes from the future and is not set in stone). But you'll notice right away that the CTR for your #1 rankings is super-high (over 32% for 'marketing ideas', above) compared to lower rankings, even relatively high average positions like 3 (under 3% for 'ppc', which Google interprets as a commercial query).\

    In Google Organic Click-Through Rates on Moz, Philip Petrescu shared the following CTR data:

    rankbrain-google-organic-search-position

    So, as a very basic example using the chart above, if you're in Position 1, and you have a CTR lower than 30%, you're in danger of losing your spot once RankBrain finds a relevant page with a better-than-expected CTR for its current position. If you have a much higher than expected CTR in a lower position (e.g., if you have a 15% CTR in Position 3), you should expect a bump up to at least the #2 position.

    But again, CTR varies greatly based on so many different factors that simply using these static benchmarks isn't a perfect approach. What's an SEO to do?

    Thankfully the notion of trying to achieve an above average click-through rate is not a new concept, at least from a PPC marketer's perspective, and there are ridiculously smart PPC tactics that SEOs can borrow from.

    Keep in mind: PPC marketers obsess about getting high Quality Scores (which is essentially above average CTRs for your query type and average position). It's among the most important AdWords success KPIs. Below average CTR results in terrible things.

    Figuring out your "organic Quality Score"

    The challenge is that in SEO, Google doesn't provide you with a Quality Score number to tell you if your content is above or below the expected click-through rate. But I've developed a hack to determine which of your keywords are most likely underperforming compared to the expected click-through rate: The Larry RankBrain Risk Detection Algorithm.

    Just download all of your query data from Webmaster Tools and plot CTR vs. Average Position for the queries you rank for organically, like this:

    rankbrain-seo-average-ctr-vs-position (1)

    Next, plot an exponential trend line. The queries that fall below your average CTR are your queries that are likely most at risk for future RankBrain updates. Conversely, the queries that score above the trend line are most likely to get a boost from future RankBrain updates.

    If you then do a secondary sort on your most 'at risk' pages using a metric like pageviews or conversions generated by those keywords, you can prioritize your optimization efforts on the most important, most at-risk pages on your site. The Larry RankBrain Risk Detection Algorithm is very similar to what PPC marketers do on a regular basis – which is to prioritize the optimization of low Quality Score keywords and ads first, because that is where you have the least risk (it's less risky to fix your losers) and most potential upside.

    Bottom line: you must beat the expected CTR for a given organic search position. Optimize for relevance or die.

    2. How to optimize your SEO headlines and descriptions for above average CTR

    'SEO' headlines (title tags) and meta descriptions do okay. But keyword-optimized titles are the equivalent of 'Dynamic Keyword Insertion' for PPC ads. Take a look at the WordStream client data* below for ads with DKI. They generate above-average returns:

    rankbrain-seo-rankbrain-relative-ctr-dki

    However ads using DKI are actually less likely to produce ads that are among the top 5% or top 1% of ads with highest click-through rates, normalized by ad position (AKA unicorn status).

    Just look at these ads for [big data solutions].

    rankbrain-big-data-solutions-ads

    These ads are OK, I guess. They probably perform well enough. But, like many search-optimized titles, they're also pretty boring, generic, and average. I don't want to click on them. Do you?

    To beat RankBrain, 'Okay' isn't enough. Your organic listings must have REMARKABLE click-through rates.

    Our research into millions of PPC ads has shown that the single most powerful way to increase CTR in ads is to use emotional triggers. Like this PPC ad:

    rankbrain-emotional-ads

    Tapping into emotions will get your target customer/audience clicking! Anger. Disgust. Affirmation. Fear. These are some of the most powerful triggers not only drive click through rate, but also increase conversion rates.

    rankbrain-terminator-i-know-now-why-you-cry

    Don't make changes willy-nilly. Test out headlines as paid search ads or as social media updates linking to your content using different headlines – look at click through rates. Audition your headlines, eliminate the losers and use your winners as your SEO titles.

    By no means should you forget about keywords and focus just on the emotion. Focusing on just keyword optimization or just emotion is a recipe for average titles and descriptions. Plus, without keywords, how will Google even know to try out your content on the SERP and see what kind of CTR it gets? (Google does this regularly with ads; that's how it knows if your ad beats the expected CTR for its position or not.)

    No, you need to combine keywords and emotional triggers to create SEO superstorms that result in ridiculous CTRs and leave your competition devastated.

    Bottom line: use emotional triggers + keywords in your titles and descriptions if you want your CTR to go from okay to great.

    3. Optimize for task completion

    One of the hidden things that Quality Score measures is task completion rates (i.e. conversion rates). Google definitely knows what your conversion rates are.

    adwords-industry-benchmarks-average-conversion-rate

    How the heck does Google know your conversion rates? Well, the machines have learned to tell whether traffic to your site converts.

    Now in organic search, a conversion may not equate to completing a form. If you're pushing a piece of content, Google can look at engagement metrics like time on site and bounce rate, because higher engagement correlates with higher interest/relevance.

    Google has seven products that boast more than a billion users – Android, Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Play, Search, and YouTube. So Google can tell in a lot of different ways when signed-in users are successful or unsuccessful at their tasks.

    Plus, Google Analytics tracks millions of sites. And Google gets tons of insanely valuable data from AdWords – task completion technology was rolled out to advertisers as smart goals, a way to track conversions on advertiser websites without having to install additional conversion code.

    Basically, you need to strive to have higher than anticipated or expected engagement metrics, based on a variety of criteria, including query and device type, location, and time of day. Your task completion must also be better than other similar sites.

    Let's say you work for a tech company. Your visitors, on average, are bouncing away at 80% for the typical session, but users on a competing website are viewing more pages per session and have a bounce rate of just 50%. RankBrain views them as better than you – and they appear above you in the SERPs. In this case, the task completion rate is engagement.

    Bottom line: if you have high task completion rates, Google will assume your content is relevant. If you have crappy task completion rates, RankBrain will penalize you.

    4. Increase search volume & CTR using social ads and display remarketing

    People who are familiar with your brand are 2x more likely to click on your ads and 2x more likely to convert. We know this because targeting a user who has already visited your website (or app) via RLSA (remarketing lists for search ads) always produces higher CTRs than generically targeting the same keywords to users who are unfamiliar with your brand.

    So, one ingenious method to increase your organic CTRs and beat RankBrain is to bombard your specific target market with Facebook and Twitter ads. Facebook ads are proven to lift mobile search referral traffic volume to advertiser websites (by 6% on average, up to 12.8%) (here's the research).

    With more than a billion daily users, your audience is definitely using the Social Network. Facebook ads are inexpensive – even spending just $50 dollars on social ads can generate tremendous exposure and awareness of your brand.

    Another relatively inexpensive way to dramatically build up brand recognition is to use the power of Display Ad remarketing on the Google Display Network. This will ensure the visitors you drive from social media ads remember who you are and what it is you do. In various tests, we found that implementing a display ad remarketing strategy has a dramatic impact on bounce rates and other engagement metrics.

    Bottom line: If you want to increase organic CTRs for your brand or business, make sure people are familiar with your offering.

    People who are more aware of your brand and become familiar with what you do will be predisposed to click on your result in SERP when it matters most, and will have much higher task completion rates after having clicked through to your site.

    rankbrain-terminator-2-thumbs-up

    A note of caution

    Aspiring RankBrain spammers, take note:

    Marketers are famous for taking any technique that works and beating it to death. We've seen dozens of once-effective link-building methods get crushed (Wikipedia and forum spamming, comment spamming, embeddable widgets and infographics, guest posting exchanges, etc.) because of this sequence of events:

  • Marketers realized it was effective
  • They started doing it excessively, manipulatively or even abusively
  • Google caught on that the link type was no longer a signal of quality and shut it down via manual penalties or algorithm changes, OR
  • Our audiences just got sick of it and it stopped working
  • I know some of you are reading this article and thinking, "If CTR affects ranking, I can game the system!"

    A word to the wise: Don't go down this road. DO NOT try to outsmart RankBrain using bots. RankBrain is very strong. Google has been building PPC ad click-fraud detection systems for over 15 years now. You cannot beat a bot at their own game.

    RankBrain: rise of the learning machines

    An unknown SEO future rolls toward us. But now you can approach it with a sense of hope.

    You must take the necessary precautions. Ensure above average click-through and task completion rates for your main organic keywords before Judgment Day, at which time the computers will take over the ranking, much like how it is done in AdWords using no external inputs (e.g. links).

    The future of SEO isn't set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves. It is our destiny to survive Judgment Day, together.

    Never stop fighting. The battle against RankBrain has just begun. You are our only hope. Join the SEO resistance!

    *Data sources:

    Conversion rate data is based on a sample of 2,367 US-based WordStream client accounts in all verticals (representing $34.4 million in aggregate AdWords spend) who were advertising on Google AdWords' Search and Display networks in Q2 2015. "Averages" are technically median figures to account for outliers. All currency values are posted in USD.

    Click-through rate data is based on a sample of approximately 2,000 US-based WordStream client accounts in all verticals who were advertising on the Google AdWords search network in Q3 and Q4 of 2013.

    Graham Charlton is Editor in Chief at ClickZ Global.

    Related reading

    The importance of headlines should never be overlooked, a little time spent finding the right headline can make a lot of difference.  ... read more

    Google had already revealed that RankBrain, its artificial intelligence system, was the "third most important signal contributing to the result of a search query". ... read more

    How much SEO knowledge does a journalist need? Is it a key part of the job in the modern world, or should ... read more

    The practice of brands engaging with popular bloggers seems to have caught Google's attention, with the search engine offering some advice on ... read more


    Source: RankBrain Judgment Day: four SEO tactics you'll need to survive

    Sunday, March 27, 2016

    #SEO #News Roundup: Is a #Google Update Underway?

    SEO News Roundup: Is a Google Update Underway? Tom Williams looks at the latest search engine optimisation news, including rumours of a Google update, Google's further push for mobile friendly sites, blogger best practice tips for product reviews, and the latest Whiteboard Friday discussion. read moreCurrent Events Are A Goldmine of Data: Here's How to Get Ahead It could be a new major social network, a new automation app, a Google algorithm update, or a cultural movement that affects ... Staying ahead of all reliable data sources such as social media, news, and stock trends will enable you to spot more events ... read more

    May 2014 Google Panda 4.0 update is underway If you were a little too busy to catch the news yesterday, Google's Matt Cutts released a Tweet indicating that Google is rolling out their Panda 4.0 update - see the Tweet by Matt Cutts here. As most people in the SEO world know, the Panda update ... read moreGoogle updates search algorithms to be mobile-friendly, app relevant The search shift from mostly desktop to mainly mobile is underway. Now, Google is adding fuel to the fire – and putting additional pressure on marketers – with two algorithm updates that mean significant SEO changes ... 2015 to update their pages ... read moreWebsite Visibility (SEO) – Don't Stop Once your website visibility plan is underway and a few ... We discern the importance of each Google update and release. We know why a title tag is important and why reciprocal linking is not. We live, breath, and sleep SEO. That is what you pay us for ... read moreGoogle's April Fools' Day 2013 Joke-A-Thon: YouTube Shutdown, Google Nose & More Google Analytics has another one with today's "news" that there are several new export and ... Pretty good. We'll continue to update this roundup as the day goes along. Feel free to check back. read moreGoogle Update Underway? Chinese Spam Impacting Google.com It appears many people are complaining about Chinese Spam sites coming into the Google web search results. One member described what he saw: This isn't even news but I noticed ... feel free to share via comments. Update: Donna at SEO Scoop sent me an ... read moreP1 Targeting App Bonus Roundup You end up paying a lot of money for that "secret" SEO method or video software that is supposed ... That 1 keyword can be hit by a feared Google update and your rankings could disappear in the blink of an eye. If 1 out of 10 gets hit, you're only ... read moreHow Social Media Helps Your Small Business In the first post of this small business roundup, we look at what a recent survey says about the ability of social media to drive your business. Be sure to check out this and other small business resources and info in our latest small business news update. read more15 Samsung Galaxy Lollipop Details You Need to Know Samsung's Android 5.0 Lollipop release is underway for a number of Galaxy smartphones ... will want to keep an eye out moving forward. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop update may have lagged behind the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 Lollipop updates ... read more

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    Source: #SEO #News Roundup: Is a #Google Update Underway?