Tag Archives: numbers

Advanced SEO Requires Good Analytics Information

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Good quality analytics (such as Google Analytics or another paid analytics software packages) provides good and very useful information. If you pay attention to it you could very quickly increase the overall efficiency of your website. You just have to look at the numbers and list to what they tell you. The proof is in the pudding as they say and if you ignore your analytics information you could be missing out on a great deal of potential business and traffic. Here are some basic areas for you to review in order to find any holes in your website and to help you decipher data that you learn from your analytics: Conversions: In case you don’t know, a conversion is a completed action on your website, such as lead, sign up, sale, etc.  The most important factor (I think) to learn from your analytics software is the conversion data.  Understanding and learning about how and where you conversions come from can help you make much more educated and better SEO, PPC and Social Media marketing decisions.  I can’t tell you how many people I still speak to think that the best goal for an SEO campaign is rankings or positioning.  Sorry to break it to you, but it is not.  Increasing conversions (and visitor growth) should be the starting goal(s) of your SEO and search marketing efforts.  I won’t get too deep into that as that is not the main point of this post J Bounce Rate: Whether you are looking at this overall or down to a single page if your bounce rate is really high try to figure out what is turning people off from that web page. It could be a variety of things depending on your business so take a deep look at your page. Is it too much info? Or a lack of info? Do you have too many ads on that specific page? It could also be a combination of all these items. It might just be that your page needs to have a serious over haul.  Bounce rates vary for each client and industry but understanding what yours is and try to improve your bounce rate is very important. Visitors: When you start to really get into advanced SEO techniques you will need to understand even more so where all of your visitors are coming from. Visitor quality is just as important as visitor growth. You never want to rely on just one stream of traffic because if that stream dries up so does your business. You have to understand where your traffic is coming from because often times it might be from an area that you least expected it to come from. Analytics information allows you to find new locations along with locations of where you might be able to place yourself to find new traffic. Keywords: Analytics information will tell you what keywords your website traffic is using to find your website. This is a potential to really open things up for you as you grow your business online. As new keywords develop you can capitalize by finding new variations on those specific keywords and using them throughout your website. You have to look at your analytics information very closely otherwise you won’t find those windows of opportunity to help improve your SEO and overall search marketing efforts. Analytics keeps your approach to marketing your website efficient and smooth. It is all about finding opportunities that could already exist right in front of you. Data and information that you can get from your analytics allows you to find those areas where you can really maximize your efforts in the online world. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Advanced SEO Requires Good Analytics

What’s A Facebook Fan Worth? Definitely Not $3.60!

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Last week, Mashable published an article about the value of a Facebook fan.  This article has been shared thousands of times and reposted all over the marketingverse, and I’m terrified by the implications of how may people have read it (more on that later). Using a CPM model, Vitrue calculated that a Facebook fan is worth $3.60.  Here’s the math: from: Mashable There’s one problem: This is NOT how Facebook works. This statistic reinforces one of the most common misconceptions about social media.  A misconception near-and-dear to people who think in TRPs and GRPs that is so flawed that it threatens to destabilize your efforts on Facebook and potentially reward bad behavior by community managers. This statistic puts a value on 1-way communication and totally overlooks the core of a good Facebook campaign. Engagement When working in social spaces, engagement is key.  Lets say you have a million fans and you post daily.  By some miracle you get a 100% impression rate, but only 5 likes and 5 comments.  The bulk of those million impressions came from people scrolling through their newsfeed where your post is likely sandwiched between posts by friends, other brands and in the worst case scenario a note that a friend has engaged with your competitor.  Few intelligent media buyers would pay $5 CPM for this kind of cluttered and shared text-only inventory. In this case, you had 10 meaningful engagements and a boatload of mediocre impressions, especially since you probably got most of your fans through an engagement block that allowed people to become fans without ever visiting your page.  Your 1MM fans are hardly worth $3.60 a piece at a 0.001% engagement rate.  If you were buying banner inventory and had a 0.001% engagement or click-thru rate, you’d move your money elsewhere, but by Vitrue’s logic each of these fans is still worth $3.60 However, when someone comments on your wall or likes a post or uses an app, their activity is shared on their newsfeed.  All of their friends see someone they know, and hopefully trust, engaging with your brand, which is effectively an endorsement.  Most brand activity in social spaces is not instigated by brands.  It’s people asking their peers for advice, and a personal endorsement is the best you can hope for. So how do you measure

Cold Calling For Links: Advice from Door to Door Sales

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About 8 years ago, I was offered a job in door to door sales. I thought it would probably be the scariest, hardest job I could ever do. So I took it. I figured if I could spend a summer selling coupon cards to strangers on their doorsteps then I could probably do anything. I was right. I learned that selling anything door to door pretty much sucks. But I also learned that being positive and resilient is an asset in any line of work. Hell, my door to door sales pitch even helped me get hired to my first SEO job. Link builders can pull a lot out of a sales person’s bag of tricks; here are just a few of the ones that have proven true in my experience. Have a Great Opening, and a Killer

5 Ways to Make Back Links More Powerful

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Sometimes in link building, you’re only as good as your next link. We’re always on the hunt for new links, more links, better links. But when do we ever stop to think about the back links we have and whether or not we’re actually making the most of them? A link builder’s instinct is usually to plow forward, but every once in a while it’s a good idea to stop and smell the links. Take stock of what you have and see whether or not you can make that stronger. Here are 5 ways to increase the benefit of your existing back links. Switch Links to the New Domain In an interview with Eric Enge , Matt Cutts confirmed that there can be some loss of page rank when using a 301 Re-direct. This information got everyone a’twitter because disclosures like this can have ramifications across the SEO spectrum. Basically though, it means that 301 re-directs probably shouldn’t be considered a flawless panacea that will make everything ok again. With links, it means that yes, you can still 301 redirect one domain to another or one page to another, but you may lose some of the power of your links. Sure, the key words there are “May” and “Some”. But in link building, we prefer words like “Do” and “All” as in, “these links DO pass ALL of their power”. So this revelation also means an opportunity to augment the impact of your existing links.  By contacting the sites which link to your old domain and asking them to change the links to the new domain you can make certain you are getting all of the love from your links and that none is lost in translation. Re-Direct 404 Links This is a trick even Matt Cutts endorsed almost 2 years ago. Finding the links to your 404 pages and getting them re-directed to a live page. In the comments someone raises the issue of whether or not using the 301-re-direct was an equally effective method which eliminated the need to contact anyone. Matt responds that this is may be an acceptable recourse but it results in “a really weird user experience for your visitors.” The recent news regarding 301 re-directs offers us yet another incentive not to take the easy way out.  Suck it up, reach out and ask someone. Sure, it may take a bit longer but it’s also an opportunity for relationship building. Most webmasters will be happy, nay grateful you cared to help improve THEIR site.  Perhaps you can even get the link changed to a different, live, page that is actually better for you than the original page was; after all, you took that one down. Get Ideal Anchor Text Most of the time, a link builder will take a free link where and when we can get it. But that often means having to bite our tongues on the anchor text. That said if you can come up with a good way to re-phrase the given anchortext it’s worth pitching it to the site owner. This works especially well if you were planning to get in touch with someone anyway to inform them of a 404 error or a new domain name… see how it all goes together? Also, if a webmaster has placed your link near words that you wish were the anchor text, asking them to simply extend the link to include those words is usually inoffensive. Suggest Co-Citation One of the things that can effect the value of a link, are the links surrounding it. Simply put, having your link surrounded by crap is gonna make you look bad.  But having your site linked to alongside competitors, or trusted resources can have a positive effect on your rankings. Topical, co-citation can also help increase the relevance between your site and the site linking to you. So if you have back links that are like the lonely cheese standing alone, it might be worth contacting someone and suggesting an additional link. Not to your site of course, but to another site that you would love to be considered relevant or even authoritatively equal to. If you are contacting someone for any other link related reason, you can always casually suggest a co-citation, it’s just another line in an email right? This addition not only boosts the value of your links, but also improves your web karma and your Good Samaritan image. Add Internal Links This method actually doesn’t involve contacting anyone except your webmaster, and since that’s either you or someone you talk to on the regular this is a pretty sweet option. The first step is to find your strongest sub-pages. If you’ve been actively link building to one page, or are promoting one particular piece of link bait you can start there. Or you can use a strongest sub-page tool like this one from SEOMoz which only requires the basic free membership. You can pay for one, like this or you can download SEOQuake for firefox and run a site command.  Whatever method you choose, the point is to identify your pages with the most links. Once you’ve isolated your strongest pages, add internal links to those pages to help keep the power of their back links flowing to other parts of your site. Choose your anchor text wisely.  Oh, and don’t keyword-link-spam your own pages either, unless of course you took the hot tub time machine back to 2001. There’s no such thing as too many links and enough is never enough. But the relentless pursuit of links is only as useful as the value of the links you’re getting. It’s also harder and harder to score the really effective links, so if you can double your impact, double your fun, without having to double the numbers…it seems only logical to go for it. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . 5 Ways to Make Back Links More

Blogging in 2010: What You Need To Know

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In spite of all the claims that Blogging is dead, the numbers show Blogs are still a great way to get your message out there and to gain exposure and credibility in your industry. We’ll get started with some interesting stats on “The State of the Blogosphere” and then I’ll share some tips and advice for Blogging your way to more traffic, exposure and revenue. All of the stats are courtesy of “ 2009 State of the Blogosphere by Technorati ” More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002 77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCann Two-thirds of Bloggers are male  (c’mon ladies, start Blogging!) More than half are married and more than half are parents 60% are 18-44 75% have college degrees and 40% have graduate degrees One in four has an annual household income of $100K+ Around half of Bloggers are working on at least their second blog 68% have been blogging for two years or more 86% have been blogging for at least a year 70% of all respondents say that personal satisfaction is a way they measure the success of their blog 72% say they blog in order to share their expertise. 61% say they blog in order to supplement their income. 53% of professional Bloggers are interested in attracting new clients from blogging. 72% of those who are self-employed and blogging are interested in attracting new clients. 57% say that their future plans include blogging even more (including 74% of 18-24 year olds). Part-Timers, Pros, and Self-Employed Bloggers are blogging as much as or more than ever (73%, 76% and 80%, respectively), while Hobbyists are blogging somewhat less. 15% of Bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging. One in five Bloggers report updating on a daily basis. The most common rate of updating is 2-3 times per week. The majority of blogs use tags (85%). 82% of respondents say that they post photos to their blog, making images the most popular form of multimedia. Bloggers participate in an average of 5 activities to drive traffic to their blogs. 72% of respondents are classified as Hobbyists, meaning that they report no income related to blogging Of those who have monetized their blogging to at least some extent: • 54% are Part-Timers • 32% are Self-Employed Bloggers • 14% are Corporate Bloggers 51% of Corporate Bloggers – 58 respondents – report receiving a salary for blogging. 56% say that their blog has helped their company establish a positioning as a thought leader within the industry. 58% say that they are better-known in their industry because of their blog Take some time to read and absorb the stats and draw whatever conclusions you will.  Please share your comments and feedback below.  I would love to hear what you think. If you haven’t read one of my previous posts on how to write a killer Blog post , check it out. I’ve compiled a collection of tips and advice that I have found useful when Blogging.  Feel free to add your tips and advice in the Comments section below. The very step is to ask yourself:   Why are you Blogging and what do you hope to accomplish? Here are some of the common reasons to Blog: To build brand awareness To boost search engine rankings To improve customer relations To show knowledge & earn credibility To get new clients/make sales Once you have determined why you are Blogging, you need look at it from the other side… Why would people want you to Blog? If you aren’t meeting a need of theirs, they aren’t likely to read your Blog – at least not more than once. You  need to marry your goals with your customers wants and needs and come up with a Blogging plan that will help you reach your goals and will give your Blog visitors what they are after, so they will return, buy, spread the word about your Blog etc. Let’s look at a scenario here: You sell kitchen ware – all the cool gadgets and tools that every kitchen must have.  Your goal is to sell more gadgets. I’m online frantically googling recipes for crab dip because my mother-in-law just informed me she loves crab dip and I really need to impress her with my domestic skills. I come across your Blog and find the most adorable dishes to serve dip in – but that doesn’t help me now.  So I leave your Blog and go to another one that has a crab dip recipe that will blow my mother-in-law’s mind. If you had just added a couple recipes to put in those cute little dip bowls, I would have found your site helpful and would have likely returned to buy those dip bowls. I’d also tell my friends about it.  So, you will likely still accomplish your goal of selling your gadgets and cool kitchen wares, but you also created someone out there in the world that is happy with your Blog and sees you as a helpful resource.  That’s pretty valuable! Remember, you need to satisfy your visitors needs first, or you will never reach your goals.  It also helps to remember that although you have a goal with your Blogging, you are ultimately Blogging for the site visitor and not for yourself. Now that you’ve established your goals and you’ve made sure you are delivering information that will interest and compel your site visitors, you are good to get started!  Some more tips: You should be reading the top Blogs in your industry to see what your competitors are doing, stay on top of industry news and track the Comments to see what your customers and potential customers are interested in and talking about. Creating an open dialogue is the best way to be sure visitors will respond to your content.  Always invite people to comment. Set up a Feedburner account. Do RSS Submissions to increase your Blog’s exposure. Write “How to” articles, they are very popular and tend to draw a lot of attention. Include an RSS Subscription option on the sidebar. Make it easy for visitors to contact you. Always answer comments and questions. Add podcasts.  Add video.  Add photos and images. Consider the types of things that spread virally across the internet.  They are usually funny, outrageous, shocking, and unique. After you’ve written a post, look at it with different eyes.  Ask yourself, if I came across this post on someone else’s site would I care about it?  Does it have some kind of impact on me? Optimize for the RSS feed – use keywords in title tag, less than 100 characters.  Most readers display feeds alphabetically – it helps to be an A or B. Add a poll to your Blog.  This is a great way to get your readers involved and it can help you tailor your Blog’s content, based on the feedback you get from your readers!  (Resource: Vizu is a site that lets you add free polls to your Blog). One study found that only 16% of people read word for word online.  This stat reminds us that we need to write our Blogs (and web pages) so they are scan-friendly.  Someone should be able to scan and at a glance get the main points and also feel compelled to read further. Be controversial.  Be bold.  Have an opinion.  Have personality. So many Blogs are devoid of any real personality – especially corporate Blogs.  Blogs are meant to be informal (they must be professional and respectful) but that doesn’t mean that you can’t show some personality.  Write your Blog as if you were talking to people – not as if you were creating a corporate brochure.  Don’t just report news, share your opinion and insights.  Don’t be afraid to make a controversial statement.   People can get news from a zillion places online – make sure your Blog shares insights that they can’t get anywhere else. Invite Guest Authors . Getting a different voice – especially one that is well known is a great way to draw some attention to your Blog and give your readers some variety. Idea: Develop a Glossary for your industry (make sure you use keywords in the Glossary).  The post will rank well and will become a resource for people. If your Blog’s goal is to promote you as an authority, interview other prominent Bloggers in your industry. Your own credibility will improve by association. Build your online networks through services such as MyBlogLog, Twitter and Facebook.  Drive traffic to your Blog from these social sites. Look at stats - determine which posts are most popular and get a feel for the topics and length of your most popular posts and then use that as a guideline going forward. I kinda broke my own rules on this post, it’s pretty dense with text and there are no images to pretty it up.  I just had so much I wanted to share with you.  So, do as I say and not as I do, kids! To sum it all, up I’ll say the same thing I said on my last post – pretty much any Blogging is better than no Blogging, so start writing!  Just keep these tips in mind and you’ll do fine! I didn’t talk at all about optimizing your Blog for the engines, I’m saving that one up for my next article.  Stay tuned! Happy Blogging! Jennifer Horowitz, Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for www.EcomBuffet.com. Since 1998 Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer Horowitz is the author of Twitter Quickstart Success Training System, Blogging For Dollars, Optimization Step By Step: 2010 and more. For the whole scoop, visit http://www.ecombuffet.com . You can follow Jennifer on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ecombuffet Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Blogging in 2010: What You Need To