Why Google’s SEO advice is NOT (always) in your best interest http://ift.tt/2ogEIPY Last month, Google released a video detailing best practices for hiring an SEO company, and it is positioned to become the go-to guide for hiring an SEO. After all, who better to tell companies what they should look for in an SEO than the operators of the world’s most popular search engine? VIDEO The advice in the video is useful, but it’s biased and incomplete — like so much of the information the company distributes. For example, Ohye states that valid recommendations from an SEO must be corroborated by official Google statements, but the search giant frequently declines to comment on algorithm updates, and they have also been known to advise what they want SEOs to do — not necessarily what works. Reputable SEO companies seriously consider all official statements that Google makes about its ranking factors. But if Google is an SEO company’s only source of data and best practice information, the results of the SEO’s work are likely to be suboptimal. Whether you’re trying to hire an SEO company or improve your own SEO strategy in general, remember a few things about Google: their word is not always their bond, their data is deliberately incomplete, and they are a for-profit company. 1. Google’s word is not gospelIn 2011, Google released an authorship feature in search. By using Schema.org markup, web content could be attributed to a specific author. Authors with multiple high-quality, published pieces would become their own positive ranking factor for content attributed to them. It was an exciting change for both SEOs and writers, and Google expressed a long-term commitment to the feature on multiple occasions. But in mid-2014, authorship was discontinued. Google cited low adoption rates and low value to searchers as its reasons for discontinuing the feature. It is a notable example of the problem with following Google’s advice to the letter, and it is only one of dozens of discontinued Google services. Is it wrong for Google to discontinue a feature that offers low value? Absolutely not. But it does demonstrate that just because Google recommends something, it doesn’t mean it’s a valuable task to invest time and money into. Another example is Google’s assertion late last year that a penalty was coming for sites with intrusive interstitials. They announced the change and forewarned SEOs and webmasters so that they’d have time to remove offending interstitials from their sites. In January, the change was rolled out, but sites who had ignored the warnings don’t seem to have been penalized. Google’s inconsistencies mean two things:
2. Google’s data is incompleteGoogle is also known for distilling limited information when it comes to the data provided in its tools. Google Analytics and Search Console are valuable sources of data for engagement SEO tasks and keyword and user intent research, but the data provided by these tools is incomplete. For example, in 2013, Google moved to SSL encrypted search for all users. This removed keyword data that was formerly accessible through Google Analytics, replacing it with instances of “not provided” data. SEOs were forced to turn to the only other viable source of discovering keywords a site is currently ranking for: Google Search Console. But in a study published by Moz early this year, researchers found that the numbers in Search Console do not match tests performed in search or Google Analytics data. The researchers ultimately concluded that webmasters should be skeptical of the data in Google Search Console and must validate the data retrieved to avoid reaching unreliable conclusions. Data provided by Google is rounded, estimated, sampled and incomplete. If you’re hiring an SEO company, be sure to ask what tools they use. Analytics and Search Console should be on the list, but they should be paired with third-party tools as well. And it’s not just numerical or keyword data. Google has a long history of getting SEOs to work for them by only distributing information that promotes its own agenda. Remember to take Google’s official advice — whether it’s about hiring an SEO or specific SEO strategies — with a grain of salt. 3. Google is a for-profit company, not a public serviceWhen an algorithm update is released or a change is made, the reasoning Google provides almost always points back to providing an excellent user experience. This makes it easy to imagine that their decisions are grounded in public service: provide excellent search results so people can find what they need quickly and easily. But Google is not a public service, it’s a for-profit company. A 2015 report, “Beyond the FTC Memorandum: Comparing Google’s Internal Discussions with Its Public Claims,” compared Google’s internal policies and practices to their public statements about those policies and practices and found several inconsistencies. The FTC found evidence to question whether Google’s search results:
Because Google’s empire is built on paid ads. In the first quarter of 2015 Google took in $17.3 billion in revenue, up 12% year over year. Nearly all of it — $15.5 billion — came from advertising sales. About $12 million of that came on the company’s own sites with the rest being derived from its network. The value of that digital real estate depends on users preferring their service and spending time on their SERPs, which is why paid ad space is growing. In 2016, Google added a fourth ad slot above organic search results and expanded the amount of text that can appear in ads. While these changes have driven increased ad growth, they’ve harmed organic search growth, which is arguably not in the user’s best interest. Further:
Between additional top-of-page and bottom-of-page ads, featured snippets, carousels, Google tools and “people also ask” boxes, organic search results on page one have been reduced from 10 links to an average of 8.5. For many queries, organic results do not appear until well below the fold. In some cases — particularly for content in featured snippets — these changes have helped sites grow incoming organic traffic. In other cases, these changes have served Google in overtaking its competitors:
These changes to SERPs result in users spending more time on Google and seeing more ads. A recent study by Moz and Jumpshot proved that on mobile search, which Google is favoring moving forward, more than half of all searches result in zero clicks. For an advertising-funded search engine, these changes are unsurprising, though seemingly counterproductive to the searcher-first policies the company enforces on other sites. Thus, when Google releases new information, it’s important to consider it in a larger context. For example, if you removed all of the newsletter signup interstitials from your site at Google’s command, you likely experienced a reduction in incoming leads and new subscribers. There’s also no reason to believe that Google’s recent advice about hiring an SEO agency is any more altruistic. If you’re going to start working with an SEO professional, be sure to ask how they approach challenges like shrinking organic results and the rise of mobile search. SEO is more complex — and competitive — than ever beforeSome have pointed to these changes as proof that SEO is dead, but that’s an over-dramatization of the facts. SEO is not dead, but it is more competitive than ever before. Google is a serious competitor to contend with in search results, but it’s not the only one: The amount of content online is massive, and there are a lot of companies vying for users’ attention. The growth in competition for search results isn’t surprising given than Google reports handling more than 2 trillion searches per year. Search represents a significant market for inbound traffic, and the bottom line is that Google is still the most popular search engine. It’s an extremely powerful, viable and required channel for marketers. The best thing to look for when hiring an SEO is someone who understands modern SEO strategies, and who teaches you how to utilize the power of search engines to grow your own audience. This is advice Google will never provide, but it is nonetheless crucial to successful digital marketing in a fiercely competitive field. It definitely won’t do digital publishers any good to try to fight the search giant, but — whether you’re hiring an SEO or improving your strategy in general — remember to keep Google’s advice in context. 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 AuthorNate provides results-oriented SEO leadership with an emphasis on B2B and technology brands. He is a speaker, columnist for Marketo and Search Engine Land, and leads client strategy at Propecta. SEO via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://ift.tt/fN1KYC March 29, 2017 at 02:34AM
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Google quietly expands rich cards worldwide http://ift.tt/2nAbk9a Google is expanding support for rich cards globally. Yesterday, Google updated the blog post that originally announced this feature back in May 2016. In this update, Google said rich cards are now available globally. Originally, rich cards launched in the US just for movie and recipe websites. That has expanded over the months, both in terms the types of websites that are supported and what geographic versions of Google search support it. Now, rich cards are fully supported globally. Google wrote:
Google has not written or announced this expansion on any of their channels yet. We found this thanks to a tip from @ShobhitSaxena22. SEO via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://ift.tt/fN1KYC March 29, 2017 at 02:34AM
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2016 State of Search report: Paid search dominates, but social ads are catching up http://ift.tt/2oaGFkc According to the latest State of Search report from SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), search ads dominate when it comes to digital marketing efforts performed by both agency and client-side marketers, but social advertising is the fastest-growing segment. Released on Tuesday, SEMPO’s survey includes responses from nearly 500 search marketing professionals, including agency professionals, consultants and client-side marketers. The survey includes a broad range of questions around the types of digital marketing efforts being formed, industry challenges and metrics. When asked about the type of digital marketing activities carried out, 95 percent of agency professionals and consultants listed search ads, as did 92 percent of client-side marketers. For agencies, this was a slight increase from last year, while marketers saw a 2 percent decrease. Seventy-six percent of agencies and consultants and 69 percent of client side marketers listed social ads — both sides doing more social advertising activities in 2016 compared to 2015. Social ads were the fastest-growing segment for digital marketing activities carried out by agencies and client-side marketers. Search ad spendingWhen asked if they were investing more ad dollars on Google, Bing and Yahoo in 2016 compared to 2015, the number of agencies and consultants investing on Google was up in 2016. Agencies and consultants and client-side marketers alike reported investing more on Bing in 2016 over 2015, but it was still far fewer than those who gave additional ad dollars to Google. Paid social spendingAmong its other findings, SEMPO’s report reveals that B2B marketers prefer LinkedIn and Twitter for paid social, while B2C marketers are more likely to turn to Instagram — with 53 percent of B2B marketers investing in LinkedIn ads compared to 13 percent of B2C marketers, and 54 percent of B2B marketers purchasing Promoted Tweets versus of 23 percent of B2C marketers. Fifty-three percent of B2C marketers are buying ads on Instragram, compared to of 25 percent of B2B marketers. The findings show agencies and consultants said “getting a budget” was their biggest social challenge, while client-side marketers said measuring their ROI was their biggest social challenge. SEMPO says it will be presenting the full report at its 2017 Search Industry Forum May 4–5 at the Hyatt Regency in Miami and that SEMPO members will have free access to the full report. More information about the report can be found at 2016 State of Search. About The AuthorAmy Gesenhues is Third Door Media's General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles. SEO via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://ift.tt/fN1KYC March 29, 2017 at 02:34AM
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Why Your Testing and Optimization Team Needs a Data Storyteller http://ift.tt/2nLLlMp
If a test happens on your website and nobody hears about it, does it make a sound?
Not to get too philosophical, but that's one of the big challenges of building a culture of growth and optimization: getting the word out. That's why a data storyteller is one of the key members of any testing team. In fact, “communication and data storytelling” was noted as a critical skill for a person who leads testing and optimization efforts, according to a survey of marketing leaders who conduct tests and online experiments.1 The must-have skills rounding out the top three were leadership and, the obvious, analytics. A data storyteller is part numbers-cruncher, part internal marketer, and part ace correspondent from the testing trenches. He or she is someone who can take the sheer data of testing — the stacks of numbers, the fractional wins and losses, the stream of daily choices — and turn it into a narrative that will excite the team, the office, and (especially) the C-suite. Storytelling doesn't just mean bragging about successes. It can also mean sharing failures and other less-than-optimal outcomes. The point is not just to highlight wins: it's to reinforce a culture of growth, to generate interest in experimentation, and to explain why testing is so good for the company. "Our test success rate is about 10%," says Jesse Nichols, Head of Growth for Nest. "We learn something from all our tests, but only one in 10 results in some kind of meaningful improvement." That means that a big part of the data storyteller's job is to keep people interested in testing and show them the value. Watch our on-demand webinar “Test with success — even when you fail” to hear more testing and optimization tips.If you're the data storyteller for your team, here are three points to remember:
Download our eBook How to Build a Culture of Growth to learn more best practices on testing and optimization.1Source: Google Surveys, U.S., "Marketing Growth and Optimization," Base: 251 marketing executives who conduct A/B tests or online experiments, Oct. 2016. Posted by Casey Carey, Director, Platforms & Publisher Marketing SEO via Google Analytics Blog http://ift.tt/1Yd8Id0 March 29, 2017 at 02:02AM
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What Most Companies Get Wrong With Content Audits by @IAmAaronAgius http://ift.tt/2ogaw7I Content marketing is one of the most effective methods for improving authority within your niche, establishing a loyal following, boosting website traffic, and acquiring new customers. While it requires a consistent upload of new content over a period of months (or even years) in order to be successful, the reward of content marketing is so great that business owners and marketers are prepared to make this commitment. In a 2016 study, 60% of marketers stated that publishing blog posts was a priority for them. Content marketing is particularly useful for attracting new visitors to your site, without the need for paid advertising. In a 2015 study about blogging frequency, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got nearly 3.5X more traffic than companies that published 0-4 posts per month. While inexperienced marketers use the ineffective ‘Publish and Pray’ approach to content creation, those with more experience create content in accordance with a predesigned strategy and evaluate their results meticulously. If you aren’t auditing your content marketing efforts, then you will never fully understand what is working and what isn’t. As the age-old business adage states: “What gets measured gets managed.” By successfully auditing your content, you can stop wasting your efforts on things that don’t produce results and put your energy into avenues that will drive your business forward, as verified by the data. A data-driven approach (both quantitative and qualitative) is essential if you’re serious about taking your content marketing to the next level. If you’re going to perform a content audit, it’s important that you do things correctly. Many companies make vital mistakes during their auditing process which ultimately results in lessons not being learned and ineffective practices being carried on in the future. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid when performing a content audit. Poorly Defined Content StrategyBefore moving onto the audit itself, a content strategy should be in place. If you don’t have a content strategy with clearly defined goals, then auditing your content will be an exercise in futility. In a 2014 study, only 44% of B2B content marketers stated they had a documented content strategy. Ultimately, a content strategy should be designed to improve the long-term profitability of the company. This is achieved by delivering high-quality content to a targeted audience on a regular basis, which improves niche authority, brand awareness, website SEO, and eventually turns returning readers into paying customers. If you have a clear vision of what a successfully executed content strategy will look like (with definitive metrics to back it up), planning your blog posts becomes a lot easier — as does auditing them. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a strategy, typically you will want to define your core goals, messaging (market differentiation), methods of content production, methods of distribution, and perhaps most importantly, your consumer profiles. Consumer Profile CreationA consumer profile contains the key attributes of the ideal person who will be consuming your content. It’s best to separate this into demographic and psychographic attributes. Demographic attributes include age, income level, gender, and marital status. Psychographic attributes include values, desires, pain points, and interests. You may even wish to give your ideal consumer a name and find a photo of him or her to accompany it. If you have a specific person in mind every time you go to create a blog post, it becomes a lot easier to deliver high-value content. With a clearly defined consumer profile, your auditing process also becomes easier. Instead of simply looking at the metrics available, you can ask yourself whether Bob or Suzanne would have resonated with the content and gained actionable insights from it. Ultimately, content isn’t there just to generate SEO juice for your website, it’s there to connect with people and generate long-term trust for your brand. Choosing the Wrong MetricsThe first step of a content audit is to create a content inventory, with every piece of content on your site included. Alternatively, you may wish to perform an audit just for your blog posts. However, a content audit can quickly become dysfunctional if you’re making assessments based on inferior metrics — or even worse, inconsistent metrics. The metrics you choose should depend on the goals stated in your content strategy, but here are some of the things you definitely should keep track of.
Some of the other things you might want to record are the number of images per article, the length of each article, the most popular times of the week for publishing new content, the quality of your writing (give yourself an honest 1-5 grade), and the amount of comments generated. I know it’s tedious, but try to record as much as possible before you start your analysis. Missing data can have dire consequences when you try to determine trends relating to your content’s performance. Ineffective Trend AnalysisGathering the data is the first hurdle in performing a content audit, but if you aren’t able to analyze it once it’s collected, then your efforts will be wasted. Oftentimes, you can find yourself staring at a spreadsheet for hours trying to observe trends with no success. This is why it’s best to get a fresh set of eyes to look at the data with you — particularly someone who isn’t involved in your niche so they have no preconceptions. If you spend your entire working life involved in a particular subject area, it’s easy to miss obvious things that other people will see straight away. Don’t make any immediate strategy innovations based solely on your own analysis — run through the data with your associates to make sure your deductions make sense. While it’s highly recommended that you gather data for all your content, some of the most blatant trends emerge when you compare the top five and bottom five performing blog posts within a time period. Scan the two groups for commonalities, such as image quality and count, influencer quotes, post structure, headline length, and article length. You might find that list posts perform better than all other types of articles, or that posts with influencer quotes generate more shares on social media. The more information you have at your disposal, the more obvious the trends will be — so remember to record everything relevant to your content strategy. Not Soliciting Customer FeedbackA content audit can be augmented with customer feedback. By surveying your customers (or readers), you can get some excellent qualitative data to complement the statistics in your spreadsheet. Try sending a survey to your mailing list and see how they respond. You can cross reference their responses with your data to see if your analysis is correct. Here are some great questions which can be verified with audit data:
Surveys also give you the opportunity to understand your audience better, which will help you define your consumer profile. With the right questioning, you can get better insights into your audience’s pain points, desires, and aspirations. These answers will help you improve the content you publish in the future, which you can subsequently audit to see if the numbers add up. Neglecting Online Tools and ResourcesSure, you can perform a content audit armed only with an Excel spreadsheet, but you’ll be making things much harder than they need to be. Fortunately, there are numerous tools and resources online that can rapidly expedite your content auditing process. Screaming Frog SEO SpiderThis is a great tool for scanning through your pages to check if there are any duplicates or broken links. You can identify titles that are too long or too short, as well as analyze the metadata of your pages. Although the free version of the tool has a crawl limit of 500 URLs, the paid version is unlimited and features full Google Analytics integration. Open Site ExplorerOne of the best ways to determine the efficacy of a piece of content is by the backlinks it generates. With Open Site Explorer, created by Moz, you can quickly determine which pieces of content are generating the most engagement with your readers. The tool features an easy-to-use interface and should be a part of any content auditing arsenal. Free TemplatesWhy go to the trouble of painstakingly creating your own audit template when you can download one for free? Check out the Content Quality Audit Template by Content Strategy Inc. or the Content Inventory Spreadsheet by MaadMob. Online XML Sitemap GeneratorThis tool is excellent for large companies that want to detect broken links. Simply run the tool and create a sitemap of up to 5,000 URLs. All the pages that are generated can be added to your content inventory for further analysis. Neglecting the Impact of Post LengthEnormous amounts of content have been written about the most desirable length of blog posts. While marketers used to advocate for shorter, snappier blog posts, we’re now seeing a move to long-form content. Neil Patel, entrepreneur and co-founder of Quick Sprout, found that his posts of 1,500 words or longer received 68% more tweets and 22% more Facebook likes than his shorter posts. To see if a similar trend applies for your niche, I recommend comparing the statistics surrounding your shorter and longer posts. If you have a large selection of content to draw from, you could categorize your posts in the following way:
By looking at the traffic, number of comments, backlinks generated, and social shares relating to each length category, you should have a better idea of what articles will resonate with your audience in the future. That being said, if you find that longer content generates more engagement, you shouldn’t be tempted to create low-value, underwhelming content just to hit the 1,500-word mark. Ultimately, quality trumps quantity — Google are constantly updating their algorithm to prevent bad content from ranking. Not Optimizing Highly Performing ArticlesOnce you know which of your articles are receiving high amounts of traffic, social shares, and backlinks, it’s a good idea to optimize them. Try adding some high resolution, shareable images to encourage engagement. Keeping the content up to date (and openly stating that it is in the meta description and opening paragraph) is also recommended for high performing articles. Social Sharing ButtonsResearch suggests that social sharing buttons can improve a blog post’s shareability by up to 700%. If your blog posts do not have easy-to-use social sharing buttons in an obvious placement (such as at the end of the post or in the sidebar), this is an easy improvement to make. As a general rule of thumb, visibility is more important than placement when it comes to social sharing buttons. Feel free to include sharing buttons in several placements on your blog, but don’t risk cluttering your site and slowing it down. Additionally, featuring social sharing buttons that have a low amount of shares can act as negative social proof. While you shouldn’t artificially enhance your social shares, you may wish to consider turning off the amount of shares until your articles are getting shared frequently. Email Opt-in Forms and GiveawaysYour email opt-in forms should be optimized on all articles, particularly the ones that receive the most traffic. Oftentimes, you can dramatically improve your newsletter opt-in rate by including a compelling headline for your form, making it look more pleasing to the eye, and split testing the form’s placement on your page. You may also want to create a free giveaway that specifically pertains to the topic of the article, such as a free report or step-by-step checklist, deliverable by email in exchange for signing up to your mailing list. Specifically targeted, high-value gifts like these are excellent at improving on-site conversions. Not Repurposing Old ContentIf some of your articles performed poorly according to audit data, this doesn’t necessarily mean the subject matter was wrong for the audience. It could be that the way you presented the information was incorrect. Presenting your customer survey findings as a wall of statistics might not be ideal. Instead, try taking the same data and conveying it as a vibrant, emotionally engaging infographic. As a word of warning, bad infographics can damage your brand reputation, so if you’re going down this route, it’s important to take the time to create something high quality and shareable. In a world where it’s increasingly difficult to get your message across, visual content is highly effective at cutting through the noise. In a 2016 study, 51% of B2B marketers stated they were prioritizing the creation of visual content. One of the hardest parts of creating an infographic is researching all the information and ensuring your facts are air tight. If you already have some great facts and statistics but you aren’t able to get people to pay attention, try presenting them in a visual context. Repurposing isn’t only for underperforming content. You might find you can repackage high-performing content and receive even better results by presenting it as a Slideshare presentation, animated explainer video, or infographic. Ignoring Post Publication TimesWhile content audits are typically focused on the content itself, you will get an edge over your competition if you also analyze the effectiveness of your content promotion. Most companies track sharing numbers but completely neglect post publication times. Much has been written about the best times to publish content — unfortunately, the advice is usually anecdotal and contradictory. While I thoroughly recommend recording the necessary data and tailoring your publishing strategy according to your audience’s behavior, data found by Dan Zarrella and Search Engine Land indicates:
Disregarding Bad Inbound LinksFinding broken links in your content and replacing them is highly recommended. It’s also essential to see how many inbound links are generated for each individual article. However, many companies forget that not all inbound links are created equal. Bad inbound links to your content, such as those from casinos or pornographic websites, will be detrimental to your SEO efforts. Likewise, links from websites set up solely for SEO links will hurt you. To get rid of an unnatural or bad inbound link, send an email to the site’s webmaster and politely ask for its removal. For more advice on this topic, please check out this informative guide by Alan Bleiweiss. Deleting Old Content That Shows Low EngagementIf you have older content that is underperforming, it’s important to be honest regarding how much value it truly provides. If the writing is inferior compared to your new content and it doesn’t provide any actionable advice or unique insights, then you may wish to dispose of it as it will do more damage than good. Sometimes, you can give old content a new lease in life by optimizing its long-tail keywords, upgrading its title, and adding higher resolution images to the post. If the article itself is good but it doesn’t add up according to the metrics, don’t delete it right away. As you continue to grow your reputation within your niche and accumulate more SEO juice for your site by regularly publishing high-quality content, you might find that your underperforming articles start to receive more attention due to the influx of new visitors to your site. Just because an article isn’t performing well at the time of publication doesn’t mean you need to obliterate it from existence — particularly if the topic is evergreen and has significant relevance to future viewers. Try optimizing it and audit it again at a later date when your site is more popular. In a 2012 survey, 68% of marketers stated that creating engaging content was a challenge for them. The best way to improve your chances of creating content that will resonate with your audience is by performing a content audit and innovating your content strategy based on the results. I hope you’re able to avoid these common mistakes when conducting your content audit. Are there any mistakes I’ve missed? Please let me know.
Image Credits Featured Image: Pixabay In-post Photo 1 (keywords): Pixabay Screenshot by Aaron Agius. Taken March 2017 SEO via Search Engine Journal http://ift.tt/1QNKwvh March 29, 2017 at 12:25AM 64% of Marketers Attend at Least One Marketing Conference Each Year [POLL] by @rinadianewrites3/29/2017 64% of Marketers Attend at Least One Marketing Conference Each Year [POLL] by @rinadianewrites http://ift.tt/2o6I62P Conferences are a great way to learn about new and interesting trends in your industry. These events are also an opportunity to further improve your skills and up your game. Best of all, you get to rub elbows with well-known experts and meet others within your industry — perfect for networking! So how many marketing conferences do you attend each year? Here’s what our Search Engine Journal Twitter community said for this #SEJSurveySays poll question. According to a survey sent out to Search Engine Journal’s Twitter audience, 36% do not attend any marketing conference, 45% attend 1-2 per year, 14% attend 3-4 marketing conferences, and 5% attend 5 or more. The poll results show that majority of marketers attend at least one marketing conference in a year. If you’re a conference organizer, how do you create an unforgettable experience for your attendees? If you’re attending a conference, how do you make the most of your experience? We’ve got a short roundup of tips for you! Tips for Conference Organizers and AttendeesThe following tips can help both marketing conference organizers and attendees get the best experience: Still thinking of what conference to attend this year? Here are 37 digital marketing conferences you won’t want to miss in 2017. And if you want to attend only one, then in our humble opinion, SEJ Summit should be it. Our namesake conference is “For SEOs, By SEOs”. And we’ve just announced Ann Handley is our opening keynote— because content and SEO go hand in hand. Early Bird pricing ends March 31. Have Your SayHow many marketing conferences do you attend each year? What is your favorite among the marketing conferences you attend? Tag us on social media and have your say in the next survey by checking out the hashtag #SEJSurveySays on Twitter for future polls and data. Image Credits Featured Image: kasto/DepositPhotos SEO via Search Engine Journal http://ift.tt/1QNKwvh March 29, 2017 at 12:25AM Attend SMX Advanced for SEO & SEM tactics that work. Rates increase next week! http://ift.tt/2nrQ8Ai For the past 10 years, search marketers have purchased every available seat for Search Engine Land’s SMX Advanced. This year will be no different. Don’t miss this once-a-year opportunity to attend the only advanced search marketing conference, June 13-14 in Seattle! SMX Advanced is designed and programmed for advanced search marketers like you. Sessions are fast-paced, interactive and don’t slow down to cover the basics. You’ll learn how experienced SEOs and SEMs like you stay on top of new challenges, and help you overcome them! You’ll leave SMX Advanced with actionable takeaways. Keep reading to see SEO & SEM session and keynote highlights:
SMX Advanced kicks off for SEOs with Google taking on all questions, covering the most-discussed SEO issues including Fred, how to optimize for the voice search revolution and much more. The keynote will leave plenty of time for open Q&A as well!
Be sure to attend the SEM keynote presentations featuring Bing and Google for insights into future developments and opportunities you’ll have with your paid campaigns. Want to see all the sessions in one place? Check out the agenda at a glance! Lowest rates expire next weekSMX Advanced rates will never be lower than they are right now! Register for an All Access Pass through April 8 and pay the super early bird rate of $1,795. That’s right — a $500 (nearly 22% off!) savings compared to on-site rates! Upgrade to an All Access + Workshop combo pass and pay $2,595, an $800 savings (almost 24% off!). Check out our complete pre-conference workshop schedule for more details. P.S. SMX Advanced is even better when you learn as team! Save with group rates. About The AuthorSearch Engine Land is a daily publication and information site covering search engine industry news, plus SEO, PPC and search engine marketing tips, tactics and strategies. Special content features, site announcements and occasional sponsor messages are posted by Search Engine Land. SEO via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://ift.tt/fN1KYC March 28, 2017 at 06:24AM
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Compare 13 leading SEO software platform vendors http://ift.tt/2nrMuqh With hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and even millions of pages, sites, and keywords to manage and optimize, enterprise SEO has become increasingly complicated and time-consuming. Using an enterprise SEO software platform can increase efficiency and productivity while reducing the time and errors involved in managing organic search campaigns. If you are to looking to adopt an SEO software platform, this MarTech Today guide will help you through the decision-making process. Included are profiles of 13 leading SEO tools vendors, pricing charts, capabilities comparisons and recommended steps for evaluating and purchasing. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download your copy. About The Author
Digital Marketing Depot
is a resource center for digital marketing strategies and tactics. We feature hosted white papers and E-Books, original research, and webcasts on digital marketing topics -- from advertising to analytics, SEO and PPC campaign management tools to social media management software, e-commerce to e-mail marketing, and much more about internet marketing. Digital Marketing Depot is a division of Third Door Media, publisher of Search Engine Land and Marketing Land, and producer of the conference series Search Marketing Expo and MarTech. Visit us at http://ift.tt/XKa9gM. SEO via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://ift.tt/fN1KYC March 28, 2017 at 05:57AM YouTube Videos Losing to Facebook Native Videos by @MrDannyGoodwin http://ift.tt/2mMBGWC Facebook native videos get more shares and interactions than YouTube videos and other video formats, according to a new study. Social analytics provider Quintly analyzed 167,000 Facebook profiles and 6.2 million posts from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2016. Quintly looked at pages with less than 1,000 followers to more than 10 million. Here are a few of their findings. Facebook Native Video DominatesFacebook videos dominate on Facebook. Not too surprising. But what is a bit surprising is how much Facebook dominates. Native videos, including Facebook Live videos, were used by 90 percent of the profiles Quintly looked at. However, only 30 percent used YouTube videos. That means Facebook native videos beat YouTube videos by 3x. Facebook vs. YouTube VideoYouTube is losing ground on Facebook to Facebook’s native video format. The number of YouTube videos shared on Facebook declined by 5.83 percent, compared to the first half of 2016. Looking at overall figures, Facebook native videos accounted for 84.47 percent of all videos on Facebook (more than 5 million posts) while YouTube accounted for 10.22 percent (more than 600,000 posts). Facebook Native Videos Have Highest EngagementQuintly also compared Facebook native videos against YouTube videos to see which format attracted the most engagement. Facebook was the clear winner. Engagement (i.e., reactions, shares, comments) for Facebook videos was 109 percent higher than YouTube videos. In addition, Facebook native videos were shared 4.5x more often than YouTube videos. Nearly Half of Profiles Used VideosIt’s pretty rare to not see a video when you scroll through your news feed. That’s why many experts predicted video would be a key social media trend this year. Nearly half of marketers have added video to their strategy. According to Quintly, 46.9 percent of the profiles were using videos as part of their Facebook marketing strategy. Image Credits: SEO via Search Engine Journal http://ift.tt/1QNKwvh March 28, 2017 at 05:40AM
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Google Search App for iOS gains Gboard, trending widget & 3D Touch http://ift.tt/2ndVWf2 Google announced that the Google Search app for iOS devices has added GBoard, trending widgets and new 3D Touch functionality. GboardGboard, the popular Google search keyboard, which Google enabled for iOS as an add-on keyboard back in May 2016, is now available directly within the Google app. Launch the Google search app on your iPhone or iPad to try it out. To access this keyboard, go to your Google app settings to set up Gboard on your device. Gboard is a really excellent alternative to the iOS default keyboard that lets you type normally but also search for emojis, GIFs, search results and much more, directly in your keyboard. TrendsA new iOS dashboard widget is now available for those who installed the Google Search App. It is named “Trending on Google,” and it will show you the current Google Trends when you swipe right on your home screen. To access the widget, use 3D Touch on the app icon or swipe right on your home screen. To install it, swipe right on your home screen, scroll to the bottom, tap “Edit,” then add “Trending on Google.” 3D TouchNot only can you hard-press, aka 3D Touch, to access Google Trends, you can also hard-press on a web page within the app or search results to find out more. Press on the “G” button at the bottom of the page to instantly start a new search. Or you can hard-press on Search results, Map results and cards in your feed to see a preview of the content before opening it all the way. You can try these features out using the iOS Google app. SEO via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://ift.tt/fN1KYC March 28, 2017 at 04:27AM |
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