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Q&A On Google Video Screenshots http://bit.ly/2GzyRPU We've covered the topic twice before but it still somewhat fascinating to me that Google is asking searchers to submit answers to questions (or ask questions) when Google doesn't think they have content in their index with the answer. You won't see this in the US but it is often seen in India and other regions where content isn't available to answer the query. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 April 26, 2019 at 06:56AM
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Google Ads script: How to automatically apply bid modifiers https://selnd.com/2XJFZQE This script which will save HOURS of your time. That’s not hyperbole, I promise. Remember the in-market audiences bid modifier script I released last year? This expanded version of the script automatically applies modifiers for device, location, in-market and remarketing audiences based on performance. You can set campaign filters, decide which types of modifiers you want to adjust, set minimum impressions, conversions and cost filters, and weight the modifiers it applies according to adjustable volume thresholds. Honestly, what’s not to love? What’s new?To recap, the old script looks at campaigns’ CPC over a given time range and sets bid modifiers to each of the campaign-level in-market audiences based on performance. If there are no campaign-level audiences, the tool will apply bid modifiers to all in-market audiences at ad group-level. This one does the same, but includes device, location and remarketing audiences! And where the old script only looked at minimum impressions as a threshold, this one has extra filters to choose from: minimum cost and minimum number of conversions. You can also weight the modifiers if the volume is low. Just like the old script, it does calculated modifiers based on the following formula: Modifier = Entity CPA / Audience CPA, where ‘Entity’ is the campaign or ad group. How to use itAs always, copy the script below and paste it in the scripts section of Google Ads. You’ll need to set all the following variables correctly to make sure the script does exactly what you want it to do. To start, use CAMPAIGN_NAME_DOES_NOT_CONTAIN and CAMPAIGN_NAME_CONTAINS to exclude or include specific campaigns. Next up, your targeting options! These are pretty self-explanatory, set them to true to enable them: DO_DEVICES, DO_LOCATIONS, DO_IN_MARKET_AUDIENCES, DO_OTHER_AUDIENCES. Use DATE_RANGE to determine the time frame for the script to look at, using one of these options. Set MINIMUM_IMPRESSIONS, MINIMUM_CONVERSIONS, and MINIMUM_COST to the minimum number of each you want a campaign of ad group to have to be considered. To be on the safe side, use MIN_BID_MODIFIER and MAX_BID_MODIFIER to define the upper and lower bounds for the bid modifiers to fall into. If you would like to weight the modifiers based on the number of conversions, use CAMPAIGN_BID_MODIFIER_WEIGHTS or ADGROUP_BID_MODIFIER_WEIGHTS Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here. About The AuthorDaniel Gilbert is the CEO at Brainlabs, the best paid media agency in the world (self-declared). He has started and invested in a number of big data and technology startups since leaving Google in 2010. SEO via Search Engine Land https://selnd.com/1BDlNnc April 25, 2019 at 12:27PM
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How to get brand URLs in Google AMP cache by extending TLS for Web Package https://selnd.com/2UVOWtf Google has successfully rushed a solution with an implementation scheme that will display your brand URLs in your page’s Google AMP cache search results. If your business depends on Google AMP search results, you may want to consult the following guide to implementing the Web Package bundle with new Signed Exchanges. This entails either a vendor making it easy for you, or changing your TLS cryptography to match. Be aware that Google’s announcement is somewhat misleading: “Instant-loading AMP pages from your own domain.” Instant loading AMP pages in this context are definitely not from your own domain but from Google’s, of course. The new feature enables you to cryptographically sign a Web Package so that recent mobile versions of Google’s Chrome browser will essentially trick users by swapping the true location from Google over to your domain name. Everyone wins, right? However, other browser makers are wary of this development, not without reason. Google has a “privacy preserving” policy that extends to “instant loading” AMP when they pre-render your AMP in search results. They “delay” network events to your origin server. They’ll serve assets from Google’s cache and you won’t receive the slightest signal your page rendered anywhere until the first click might fetch certain page resources from your server. We think that’s an unfortunate but necessary concession to be able to conduct business in an era of Google search dominance. ConsThrough the use of Signed Exchanges Google can mislead Chrome users into thinking they’re located on your website with that click from search results, when in fact they’re not. A second click is required before browsers perform the necessary HTTP verb “GET” to load a page from your origin server, and only then will you see a hit register in your own server logs. We’re confident Google will register your ranking impressions and cache-served clicks in Google Search Console. You just have to trust it… Security HazardFooling users into thinking they are at a location when they’re not is a hazardous practice with a lengthy history of abuse. From domain squatters owning slight misspellings of popular website destinations, to phishing scam sites that fool users into giving up sensitive information, fooling users into thinking they’re at a location when they’re not is dangerous. It is for this reason other browser makers are skeptical of Google, and Mozilla has labeled Signed Exchanges in its first incarnation a security hazard. ProsOn the plus side, it’s nice to see there’s a concept for decentralizing web content so that Web Packages can reside for up to 90 days served from cache server reserves outside areas where there is ample networking. This enables, for example, content that is up to 90 days fresh to be stored in places as far flung as high-altitude mountain ranges, across the tundra, in distant forests, and possibly even outer space where adventurers and scientists can consume it. Implementation in a NutshellThe best implementation details so far can be found from video taken at the stage at #AMPConf 2019. The footage demonstrates the ease of use of Google’s new product with Cloudflare, an early adopter vendor offering free Signed Exchange certs with a simple interface. Setting up Cloudflare requires you to edit DNS settings to point to Cloudflare’s Name Servers, which reverse proxy back to your origin host. If you’re able to do that, then you won’t need to meddle with TLS (Transport Layer Security). Implementing Signed Exchange YourselfTo implement the technology yourself, you’ll need to change your TLS Certificate and renew every 90 days. If you’re familiar with how to do this beyond clicking a “Let’s Encrypt” automation service, this may be the option you opt for. DigiCert is currently the only CA (Certificate Authority) offering Signed Exchange certificates, though we imagine others will begin to appear. DigiCertIf you don’t already use Digicert, you’ll need to open an account and have the ability to run a shell terminal process on your host for crafting the ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptology) keypair and the server CSR (Certificate Signing Request). These steps are required for TLS to ensure your private key is valid for encrypting/decrypting communications associated with your domain name. DigiCert has instructions for both Apache and Microsoft. With Microsoft, you’re basically using Windows for the process so you can follow the DigiCert blog post instructions pretty easily. With Apache, on the other hand, understanding the work can be more difficult. Instructions for ApacheTo start, you’ll need to keep your DigiCert order form session handy, and generate both a private key and a certificate signing request (CSR). The output will be .key and .csr files respectively, and you’ll need to make sure you have sudo permissions for switching to root on the host for this process. Therefore, you’ll want to be familiar with the Unix/Linux shell environment before proceeding. Generate Private Key and CSR FilesIt will be necessary to operate as root. Use the “switch user” command (su) as above, with a hyphen, to switch to root before proceding. Find a private and secure working directory, such as your sudo user home equivalent: /home/username-with-sudo. As root, you should have the permissions to access it and work. Generate ECC private key with OpenSSL to output a .key file be sure to replace server with the name of your server:
$ openssl ecparam -out server.key -name prime256v1 -genkey
Next, you’ll need to generate an ECC certificate signing request (CSR). When you issue the command it will ask you questions through a prompt dialog about your location (Country, State or Province, City, Organization) which will end up being what browsers display in certificate detail views. The most important field is the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name). This will bind the certificate for use only with your website address. Next, you’ll need to generate a ECC certificate signing request (CSR). When you issue the command it will ask you questions through a prompt dialog about your location (Country, State or Province, City, Organization) which will end up being what browsers display in certificate detail views. The most important field is the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name). This will bind the certificate for use only with your website address. Generate your ECC CSR. Be sure to replace server with the name of your server: $ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr -sha256 The output should be a .csr file and you should now have a .key and .csr file for use with the next steps. Tuck these files away securely in your private folder after you’ve used them for the next steps. DigiCert Certificate FilesTo obtain the .crt files from DigiCert, you’ll need to copy the .csr file text and paste it into the correct DigiCert order form. Select Apache from among the options at DigiCert to signify the web server. You might then use the cat utility to copy the .csr text from your terminal to paste. You should get a download that you’ll need to transfer (using something like scp or ftp) to your host. $ cat server.csr Apache ConfigurationFinally, you’re going to need the location and name of your Apache configuration files. We can use grep for this: $ grep -i -r "SSLCertificateFile" /etc/httpd/ Your result may look different. This depiction shows hits on code comments to give you an idea of the location of an example Apache configuration file (/etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf), as well as where you might locate the .crt files from DigiCert (/etc/pki/tls/certs/). If you don’t see where to locate the certificate files, try repeating grep search for “tls” in /etc, or use another search term and location, if needed. The Apache configuration file is more important. File Location for your CertificatePlace and secure the .crt DigiCert files in a specified location where you’ll be pointing Apache using the Apache configuration file VirtualHost block. In the above case that location is: /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt (with another location for a localhost.crt as well). To secure the .crt files once they are in place, make them only readable by root: . Edit Apache Configuration FileThe Apache configuration file will need to point to this location in the VirtualHost block. Vim or Emacs is recommended for this, though you can also use nano if those are unfamiliar. The Apache configuration file is relatively long. You can use vim’s search with the forward slash key / in combination with VirtualHost to locate the block. Edit so that it matches what DigiCert describes in its instruction set, for example the following. Again, don’t forget to replace server with the name of your server, and make sure the IP address is correct for your server or set to something like _default_:443: <VirtualHost 192.168.0.1:443> DocumentRoot /var/www/html ServerName www.yourdomain.com SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.key SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/DigiCertCA.crt </VirtualHost> Save the new configuration, test then stop and restart Apache: $ apachectl configtest $ apachectl stop $ apachectl restart (You might need apache2ctl, depending). If these steps are compatible with your current setup, you should be in business. Your setup might be entirely different, however, requiring entirely different Apache configuration settings. For example, if you’re running a Ruby application with the Passenger module for Apache, you’re going to need very different specifications. About The AuthorDetlef Johnson is Editor at Large for Third Door Media. He writes a column for Search Engine Land entitled "Technical SEO for Developers.” Detlef is one of the original group of pioneering webmasters who established the professional SEO field more than 20 years ago. Since then he has worked for major search engine technology providers, managed programming and marketing teams for Chicago Tribune, and consulted for numerous entities including Fortune 500 companies. Detlef has a strong understanding of Technical SEO and a passion for Web programming. As a noted technology moderator at our SMX conference series, Detlef will continue to promote SEO excellence combined with marketing-programmer features and webmaster tips. SEO via Search Engine Land https://selnd.com/1BDlNnc April 25, 2019 at 11:49AM
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The path to effective keyword targeting in Google Shopping https://selnd.com/2Psr5vf Search marketers know the value of search queries varies drastically from query to query. Metrics such as conversion rate or revenue per click (RPC) help uncover valuable search terms. However, even with this information it is difficult to optimize Google Shopping campaigns down to the query level without a strong, standardized process for evaluating performance. In this white paper, Omnitail shows you an easy yet extremely effective method for query segmentation across product listing ad channels. First, the white paper looks at the customer decision process and the importance of segmenting queries by query type. Then, it explores how to identify valuable queries in a performance-based way using an n-gram analysis. Finally, you will learn how to segment campaigns to bid according to the value of queries using negative keywords. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download “N-Grams: The Path to Effective Keyword Targeting in Google Shopping.” 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://digitalmarketingdepot.com. SEO via Search Engine Land https://selnd.com/1BDlNnc April 25, 2019 at 11:39AM
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The Importance of Diversification in SEO Strategy by @AndrewDennis33 http://bit.ly/2Zyzfqv Whether it’s the release of a new black and white animal, an introduction to a stranger named “Fred”, or the rare advice to E-A-T more, SEO changes and evolves quickly. Therefore, it’s important to diversify and not keep all your optimization eggs in one basket – there’s a good chance that basket is one algorithmic update away from being vaporized. Relying on a singular strategy is dangerous because that strategy can quickly become obsolete, but it’s also dicey because you run the risk of over-optimizing. Over-optimization of a specific tactic can signal manipulation to search engines, which can result in devaluations or even manual penalties. Overuse of a specific link anchor text is a prime example of how you can run into trouble with over-saturation; a natural anchor text distribution features a diverse range of anchor texts. However, the importance of diversification within SEO extends far beyond anchor text. Here are some ways you can diversify your SEO efforts to earn visibility and organic traffic. Diversifying Content StrategiesContent plays an integral role in SEO success, and it’s also an area where diversification is needed most. Diversity within content starts with the audience – you need to diversify your content to reach all of your audience. If you only focus on the people who are ready to buy from you, you’re going to miss a significant portion of your audience. You need to create content that serves all stages of your marketing funnel, not just the bottom. Your audience has different intents during different stages, and your content needs to match that specific intent to show up in relevant search results. For example, some of the different types of content you should create to address your entire funnel include: Top of the FunnelMiddle of the Funnel
Bottom of the Funnel
These are some examples of types of content that you can create to address every part of your funnel and all your audience. To address every stage of your marketing funnel you need to create a variety of content types, but this is not the only reason to diversify content format. Content formatting can play a large role in search visibility and rankings. When we think of “content,” we typically think of blog posts or written text. However, depending on the intent of a given query, text content may not rank well in the corresponding search results. Closely examine the SERPs of any keywords or themes you’re targeting to better understand which types of pages Google wants to rank and diversify your content – with video, images, audio, etc. – to match the content formats currently ranking. In fact, diversifying a single page to include multiple formats will give you the best chance to rank for a variety of queries while also giving readers options for digesting the information. Offering diverse content formats strengthens a page in terms of search and user experience. Finally, you need to diversify content topics to extend the topical authority of your website. Focusing solely on one topic will make a strong connection between your site and that topic, but it could also mean pigeonholing yourself and missing out on other potentially lucrative opportunities. For example, on our own Page One Power blog, we have discussed link building at length, which makes it easy to rank our pages for link building keywords. However, this narrow focus has made it difficult to gain visibility as we work to expand our topics into broader SEO practices and philosophies. It will take time to earn topical authority for these broader subjects, and perhaps a more diverse topic strategy would have served us better. We’ve adjusted course accordingly, and have plans to build authority on-site relating to more diverse topics. This is just one example that illustrates the importance of broader market research in informing marketing strategies. As your company evolves to serve a broader market, your strategies and applications of market research must also evolve. Diversification within your content will ensure you’re:
However, content and links are the driving forces in search rankings, and diversification in both of these areas is paramount to SEO success. Diversifying Link Acquisition StrategiesDiversification within link building is equally important to diversifying content strategies, and it starts with tactics. Diversifying your link acquisition tactics is especially important because leaning on a single tactic too heavily can quickly approach manipulation. Essentially, any link building technique can be leveraged appropriately or overused in a spammy way, so you want to diversify your approach to avoid overemphasizing a singular strategy. Take blog comments, for example. There are still certain settings where linking to your website within a blog comment is appropriate, and even valuable (mainly from potential click-throughs, as most blog comment links are rel=nofollow). However, these situations are few and far between. Simply blasting every blog with a comment section with your irrelevant, commercial link is not valuable, and certainly not a sustainable link strategy. There is likely some opportunity for you to leverage blog comments within your link building strategy. But to be effective, you need to sprinkle these links within a larger, more diverse strategy that employs multiple tactics such as: A diverse link acquisition plan is more sustainable and future-proof. You should also diversify the types of link prospects you target. You want to target relevant websites within your niche, but this doesn’t mean you should target only one specific type of site. There should still be a wide range of websites to target that are also relevant to your brand or product or service. For example, an infant care supplies company would be relevant to many mommy blogs, but there would hypothetically be opportunities to target other types of sites such as:
Links from a wide array of websites will signal a natural and authoritative backlink profile to Google. Finally, you should target a diverse set of pages on your website for links. Not every page on your site will be link-worthy – so you’ll be forced to diversify to an extent. That said, you need to make sure you’re securing links to a wide range of pages on your site to ensure you’re capturing as much of your available search opportunity as possible. Earning links to a diverse group of pages on your site will cultivate a natural link profile and increase the authority and trust of your domain. RecapDiversification plays a major role in SEO success. SEO changes and evolves quickly, meaning you’ll want to spread out your marketing eggs into multiple baskets. A well-rounded, diverse SEO strategy includes:
Furthermore, you should work to diversify your entire marketing strategy beyond SEO. Relying on one channel can quickly get you into hot water. In terms of SEO, this could be one ranking page that suddenly loses visibility due to an algorithmic update, but this issue extends into other marketing channels as well. It’s always best to diversify the ways you reach your audience and tap into as many channels as possible. More Resources: Image Credits Featured Image: Created by author, April 2019 SEO via Search Engine Journal http://bit.ly/1QNKwvh April 25, 2019 at 09:21AM
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15 advanced link building tactics & tips to boost your SEO http://bit.ly/2L20CpG Link building remains the SEO industry’s white elephant. Many proclaim that link building is spammy, dead, and even harmful to your SEO. But link building remains a primary part of an effective performance-based SEO strategy. And when executed properly contributes to higher organic search rankings. I recently gave a presentation at YoastCon 2019 outlining my white hat toolbox of advanced link building methods. Which I’ve used for nearly two decades. First as founder and CEO of affiliate juggernaut Pepperjam, later as Chairman of Internet Marketing Ninjas, and more recently as CEO of US-based Top 10 SEO company (and Yoast Preferred Partner) LSEO.com. Some of you have probably heard of some of these tactics and some are probably hearing about these for the first time. Regardless, my hope is to provide you with specific, actionable link building tactics to boost your SEO. What’s important to remember is that each link building tactic should be practiced strategically. This way you derive the greatest long-term benefit for your website. Stop looking at link building as a static tactic to manipulate search engines. Instead, focus on giving users value and building relationships within your industry. Your success will be dictated by your long-term investment in SEO, not short term thinking or tricks. Why link building remains importantIs backlinking really one of Google’s top factors in their algorithm? Yes, link building still remains at the top with content followed closely by RankBrain. Google’s algorithms remain incredibly dynamic, incorporating hundreds of vectors and considerations for each individual search. As sophisticated as search engines become, they’ll still rely on users and third parties to help them determine what content is considered useful to users. Links help search engines bridge that gap. Beyond algorithmic benefits, backlinks serve functional purposes for your website:
Really, link building should serve as an extension to an effective content marketing campaign. When you publish new content to your website you should also build links to the page. Much like paid media can help boost traffic to a landing page, so to can a link from a popular website. In the end, they both serve as an advertisement for that page, only one practice is free. Link Building ConsiderationsCompetitor research tools like SEMrush and Spyfu provide a treasure trove of important information about links. These tools, and others than focus specifically on backlinks, such as Majestic and Ahrefs, provide insights on the quality and quantity of links pointing to any website you’d like to analyze. It’s important to understand that not all links are equal. Just because a link points to a competitor website in and of itself doesn’t justify a strategy to acquire it. In fact, based on your link analysis you may conclude the link should be avoided. Disregarding the addition of a ‘nofollow’ attribute for a second, it’s pretty obvious when a backlink is from a source of authority or spam. Generally, SEOs search for backlinks that are authoritative and relevant. Determining authority can be based on Moz’s newly updated Domain Authority metric or you can dig deeper under the hood to examine specific metrics associated with a particular website, such as total traffic, traffic value, number of new unique visitors, the total number of referring domains to that website, etc. In terms of link building, the number of unique referring domains is generally more important from an algorithm standpoint, then the sheer number of backlinks pointing to your site. But both are valuable to consider when analyzing links. For the most part, a large portion of your backlinks will be generated naturally as your website ages and other websites link to your evergreen content. Keep in mind that effective SEO requires you to produce new quality content consistently over time. Producing high-quality content is worth your attention and investment. Keep these considerations in mind when building backlinks to your website:
With that said, let’s explore 15 advanced link building techniques that will help you improve your SEO performance over time. Advanced link building tacticsLink reclamationLink reclamation is the easiest and most straightforward link building tactic readily available for any website. The idea is to reclaim a backlink to your site that previously existed but is now broken or removed. You can use tools like Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer to type in your brand and find any unlinked mentions across the web. You can use specific search operators to find mentions of your brand and check whether or not the page provides a link back to your website. From there you can reach out to the publisher and request a link back. Furthermore, you can set up Google Alerts to your email address whenever your website or brand is mentioned across the web. Unfortunately, Moz’s tool only goes back four weeks, so this helps you stay consistently on top of your brand and continually finding new backlink opportunities. Tip: To find an editor conduct a site: search using the domain name followed by the keyword “contact us”, “about us”, “email”, etc. Broken link buildingBroken link building is essentially the same strategy as link reclamation, only it involves leveraging broken backlinks from pages all across the web. In the interim, you can use this Google Chrome extension to discover any broken links present on a page during your research. But to find the goldmine of broken links you’ll need to do some topic research using SEMrush or Ahrefs. For this example, we’ll use Ahrefs. Type in a keyword related to your industry and use search operators to find the most popular blogs or content publishers in that niche. For example, you can use sites like Quicksprout and Moz for the SEO industry.
You can also scrape educational resources and blogs related to your industry and filter URLs by 404 using ScreamingFrog. From there, you could recreate or even improve upon the previous page (called a skyscraper technique – see below) and reach out to publishers letting them know they have a broken outbound link and that you can easily replace it with high-quality relevant content. Tip: Use this tool to look at what the broken page was and why it was linked to in the first place. Reverse engineered competitor link buildingLeverage SEMrush or Ahrefs to download a CSV of 3-5 of your top competitor backlinks. Filter your spreadsheet and tag by gTLD (.com, .org, .de, etc), industry, geography, DA / PA, traffic, total unique referral domains, and other metrics deemed valuable to your campaign. The key here is to nerd out on all the data and think through how and why your competitor earned each link and simply do it better. Have fun with disqualifying links you’d never want and celebrate when you know you’ve got existing content (or have a plan to write new content) that will undoubtedly earn a link from the target site. This is a good time to define the Skyscraper technique. In short, the Skyscraper Technique is when you identify content that ranks for a keyword you’d like to rank for (or in this case – a link that exists within content you’d like a link) and then you write something that’s even better. More on this in a bit, but let’s stay focused on reverse engineering competitor backlinks. Using filters you can look for opportunities related to:
Look for opportunities to join existing conversations with value-added content (i.e. provide a quote, offer a link to research or an infographic) and even go as far as replacing broken or dead links with better content. This strategy is entirely white hat and offers the best potential to find new relationships in your field. It’s not easy. Instead, it’s terribly time consuming, but if you want to dominate SEO it’s absolutely worth your time and energy. Resource link buildingResource link building requires manual outreach and has a low success rate. But links acquired through resource link building tend to generate quality website traffic in addition to passing authority to your website. If you’ve ever searched for a discount on a particular type of clothing or top clothing store you’ve typed in something like, “best cheap hats” or even “best men’s clothing stores”. Look at the results, they’re all great listicles and resources. But there are also more sophisticated methods to derive resource pages for both B2B and B2C companies. This is a good example of a resource page from a major publication in the SEO industry: Using this operator string ‘Intitle:keyword AND intitle:resources AND inurl:resources’ you can find existing resources for business and services in your industry with ultra specific listings. To find this page, I used the following query: After you find resource pages that are suitable for your company and industry, you can contact the author and ask for a mention. When crafting an email, be sure to stress the value that your business offers its customers and ask what you can do to qualify for that list. Skyscraper and modified skyscraperWe’ve mentioned the Skyscraper Technique above as a key way to think about how to build great content that is worthy of a back link. The idea is to find a piece of content ranking highly on Google for a keyword you’d like to rank for and create a better version of the content. “Better” may mean adding a video, writing longer form content, adding useful images and / or infographics, or otherwise extending the quality of the contact that ranks highly for your target keywords. In truth, the Skyscraper technique requires a considerable allocation of time and resources and there is no guarantee it will work. While it many cases the Skyscraper does indeed work (when coupled with an aggressive link outreach strategy) it’s more of a core philosophy around content marketing and link building than a specific SEO tactic. However, don’t discredit the approach. After two decades of experience, I can tell you confidently that building great content is the most effective way to acquire new backlinks to your website over time. Using the Skyscraper technique is absolutely worth the effort since the concept is all about making the necessary investment required to compete at the highest levels of search engine marketing. Note that you should always strive for your content to be over the top amazing sauce; don’t just attempt to be “a little better.” 10x contentIf you think the Skyscraper technique sets a high bar for content marketing Rand Fishkin’s 10x content takes things to the next level. 10x simply means ten times better than all existing content on the web. So how do we do this when we’re competing against major brands and publications? Try doing something entirely unique. Fishkin provides an example of creating a chart of the most trusted movie review sites. From here, you can use the same follow-up as the skyscraper method to earn backlinks. Just keep these concepts in mind when crafting a piece of 10x content:
Keep this in mind – both the Skyscraper technique and 10x content Technique make clear the importance of going over the top when building content. Writing thin content or using dated SEO strategies are highly unlikely to yield long term results. GuestographicsPiggybacking off of the idea of experimenting with new mediums, I strongly encourage you to experiment with a new form of guest posting using infographics as content. This strategy is called “guestographics.” Remember this little formula: ‘Great Content + Targeted Outreach + Added Value = Links’ Use tools like Buzzsumo and Ahrefs Content Explorer to find trending content in your industry. Think through how you can take a trending topic or evergreen content and turn it into an infographic. Instead of submitting a guest post around the topic – you guessed it – submit a high-quality infographic that links back to your site (preferably to Skyscraper or 10x content that you wrote to rank for a target keyword). You get what you pay for so think big on both sides (e.g. creative + placement). This will likely require that you hire a graphic designer. Consider hiring someone on Upwork or Freelancer to hire an affordable design expert. Ego baitEgo bait is a proven performer in performance-based SEO link building and can be used in a variety of ways. The idea is to appeal to an influencer’s “ego” by tagging them in a piece of content or the snippet of a post to encourage them to read the post and link back to it in the future. Targeted sharing serves as a very popular form of ego bait. Other ideas and strategies include:
The idea is to encourage interaction between you and an influencer to start a conversation and build a relationship. Being controversial or humorous will increase your chances of getting a response. While the goal is to earn a link to your website you must first give something of value (a compliment, a ranking, a shoutout) in return. Thought leadershipOne of the most effective ways to build links (and recognition) is to become a thought leader. Becoming a thought leader means contributing your thoughts on topics that you are an expert and that you care deeply about. Most people would agree that thought leadership means having your finger on the pulse of your industry and continuing to inspire and educate readers in your industry. Naturally, people will link back to you as a resource because it will naturally help them strengthen their own content. Here’s some ideas to help cultivate your own form of thought leadership:
I’ve personally contributed to nearly 400 publications, written 3 books (new one coming out in May), and publicly spoke over 100 times, which have created tremendous backlinking opportunities for me. While I don’t only do it for the backlink, I always ask for a backlink. Every time. Create original researchConducting research is one of my favorite advanced link building strategies because of the positive impact it can have on your brand, the value that it can add to your industry, and because if done correctly can result in a lot of high-quality links to your website. The idea is to conduct research via surveys or other means to collect data that answers industry questions or otherwise helps your target audience better understand questions they find curious. For instance, if you are in the coffee industry you can poll customers to discover the most popular times of the day people drink their second cup of coffee. But also how many cups of coffee people drink on average per day/week/month, preferences around coffee brands (i.e. K-Cup, Nespresso, Starbucks, Pete’s, etc) and coffee type (medium roast, dark roast, etc), most popular caffeine alternatives to coffee (i.e., Red Bull, 5 Hour Energy, Tea, etc), and public opinion around whether or not coffee is healthy for you or not. Once you have enough interesting research data you can write content and publish it on your website (i.e. Top Five Caffeine Alternatives to Coffee). You can do this in one or multiple forms. It is also possible to use the data to contribute content to high authority third party websites. You can also put together a press release announcing the findings. With the goal of the data being used by news agencies or getting picked up by industry websites. Another way is to write a white paper, ebook, or brand your research around an annual industry survey (i.e. Annual Moz Local SEO Ranking Factors). Research should follow proper protocol call for statistical significance; consider partnering with an academic institution or professor to add authority to your research. Email other industry veterans who would be interested in providing feedback on this research and create a roundup post for additional backlinking opportunities. Create tools and widgetsIf you build a tool or widget that becomes a resource for your industry, the number of organic backlinks you can earn may catapult you to the top of search results for hard to rank for target keywords. There are two different ways to think about earning links through tools and widgets. One option is to build a tool and host it on your website. For instance, you are a mortgage company hosting a mortgage calculator on your website. It can in and of itself become a valuable reason for people to visit your website. If you are in the digital marketing space creating tools to help people measure keyword density, analyze backlinks, or evaluate keyword rankings, it can make your website a destination for fellow Internet marketers. This can result in free web traffic and links. A second option is to build a widget that others host on their websites. Make sure it contains a link back to your website. For instance, let’s say you own an eCommerce store that allows others to post products for sale. You can create a widget that displays the specific products of each seller. This allows the sellers to post those products via a widget on their websites. Of course, the products will link back to your eCommerce store. Ensure the tool or widget is functional and creatively leverages your own data or API data from third parties to display info in an easily digestible manner for users. Be creative and prepared to spend considerable resources to get it right. But the upside potential of building a tool or widget that becomes an industry standard can deliver greater ROI than any other advanced link building strategy. Influencer link buildingInfluencer link building is especially helpful because it connects you to a pre-established audience of like-minded people. Identify influencer networks like Intellifluence or Upfluence to find influencers that have websites; there are literally tens of millions of influencers globally. Once you find influencers related to your brand, reach out to them to discuss potential opportunities for promotion. The key is to offer influencers value before they laugh you off. Consider offering BETA access to software, free high-quality content, a groovy product you’d like reviewed, etc. Follow guidelines for disclosure in your specific geography. Remember that the FTC in the US requires influencers to disclose promotional partnerships with brands, especially when money is exchanged for promotion. The moving man methodThis next link building tactic is vastly more complex. It also doesn’t always yield the highest success rates, but it’s something to think about. Essentially, the idea is to secure a link from a page that is tied up in a redirect chain. It operates on the principle that companies, websites or services constantly undergo rebranding or discontinue their services altogether. This leads to URLs being redirected without the knowledge of site owners who linked to the original URL. To find these links, you’ll need to find an URL that is being redirected on a competitor’s site. You can do this by using backlink data you retrieved during competitor research. Enter the URL of the outdated page/resource in any tool that’s capable of extracting backlinks for a specific URL (not just the whole domain). Extract these redirected links to a spreadsheet and begin reaching out to publishers. Let them know of the issue and offering to replace the link with a relevant piece of content. Building a promotional databaseKeep the steam of your link building campaign going with the following tactic. You should build a database of partnerships and relationships you’ve built for future content opportunities. Each time you have a new piece of content that you want to be promoted or engaged with, follow up with influencers and thought leaders you’ve connected with in the past. This can serve as an instant traffic boost to your content, especially if you syndicate some of it. Promote content you want linked!Finally, the easiest way to get links to content is to get eyeballs on it. Use traditional outreach strategies from email campaigns to paid promotion to drive traffic to a page and see if anyone links back to it. It’s perhaps the most organic link building tactic out there and it provides real value in the interim. ConclusionThe rules of link building may change every few years or so, but its utility remains the same. If you don’t think link building is important, you are wrong. If you don’t think there are still white hat tactics to link building, you are also wrong. As a Yoast Certified Partner, my agency LSEO has helped numerous Yelp users scale their brand using these advanced link building techniques. Take your brand to the next level by adopting some of these link building tactics or find an agency partner that can help! Read more: 5 link building DON’TS you didn’t know about » The post 15 advanced link building tactics & tips to boost your SEO appeared first on Yoast. SEO via Yoast https://yoast.com April 25, 2019 at 08:53AM
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An Approach to Achieve Link Building Scalability by @AdamHeitzman http://bit.ly/2L1UcqA Link building can be an extremely arduous task. But it’s a necessary one. It’s one of the most effective ways to improve the authority of your website and ultimately keyword positioning, but it’s also a lot of work. Link building involves:
The underlying theme of link building is that it requires human effort. While you can, and many businesses do, automate their link building efforts by sending out robotic scripts via email or hiring offshore link building companies, this is not the best way to improve your online credibility. People don’t respond well to robots; they respond to other people. If your link building is struggling but you’re unsure how to scale a process that requires individual human effort, check out the following tips. 1. Consider Your WorkflowThe first thing you should do is write down your link building process. Which element takes up the most time? Which feels the most tedious? That’s where you want to start streamlining. Link building shouldn’t feel like a chore; if it does, you probably need to cut out a few steps whenever possible. Consider your workflow. How do you get from point A, to point B, to point C? Are there any steps that can be cut out? Using an efficient workflow program could be a good way to save time and scale your link building efforts. This article by Search Engine Journal lists five different kinds of email automation workflows you can use to help save time. 2. NetworkThinking back to what we said earlier about human effort being a key asset to link building, one thing you can do to scale the process is to work hard at building relationships with other professionals in the business. Seek out:
Establish a valuable relationship based on trust, respect, and mutual need. It’s much easier to ask someone for a favor when you already have a relationship with them as opposed to reaching out to a stranger. Offer to guest post on their websites and let them do the same on yours. The more networking opportunities you make for yourself, the quicker and easier it will be to gain backlinks in the future when you need them. 3. Focus on Producing Quality ContentSomething else you can do is focus less on link building and more on quality content creation. Content is the foundation of link building. If you aren’t producing valuable content, it will be much harder to get backlinks, no matter how much time you spend trying. It may sound basic, but building a repertoire of quality content is the first step you should take before investing in link building, and many businesses make the mistake of glossing over this. Check out this article by Search Engine Journal on how to combine content and social media to aid your link building efforts. 4. Redesign the Presentation of Your ContentCreate titles that are clear and engaging. Include eye-catching photographs, especially for your thumbnail. Never skip the description! This is your first chance to catch the eye of your audience – you don’t want Google pulling random sentences from your post that won’t make sense to a reader. The better your content looks, the more passive links you’ll receive. And embracing passive link building is a major way to scale your strategy that business owners often overlook. 5. Use TemplatesThis isn’t the same as sending out robotic emails; your templates should be well thought-out, creative, and personable. But they’re still a template, and can be adapted to various requests and businesses. The “meat” of the template can be the same, but add in some personal details like a blog post the person has written that you like, or ask them questions about a topic you plan on writing about for your own website. There are various types of link building strategy templates you can create: “mention” templates, “broken link” templates, and guest blogging templates, among others. See the examples below: ‘Broken Link’ TemplateThis type of template has a high rate of success. All you have to do is go on the website where you want to receive a backlink and identify a broken link. Then, create a resource that can be used to replace the broken link, and email the user with it. Your email could look something like this:
‘Mention’ TemplateYou can use this template if you’ve recently featured someone’s work on your website and want to let them know in hopes that they’ll share your post. It can look a little something like this: Guest Blogging TemplateOne way to streamline the process of creating and adapting templates is to utilize this next suggestion… 6. Build a TeamBuild a link building team isn’t possible for everyone. But if it is possible for your business, you should definitely take advantage of it. Train your employees to write quality content and then seek out backlinks. They should know how to monitor your site’s SEO progress and be creative about coming up with new linking strategies. Even spending 20 minutes a week on technical SEO can put you leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Think about how much more you can accomplish with 2 or 3 people working on link building as opposed to one. Even if your budget is tight, consider allocating some money from another area to build a team; it will pay dividends in the end if you select the right people and train them properly. 7. Broaden Your MarketThe more people your content appeals to, the more shares and backlinks you’ll receive. It’s a simple game of numbers. If your content isn’t being shared the way you want now, think about widening your audience. You can do this by searching social media to see what topics are trending in specific groups, and then adapt your target to appeal to those people. Make the effort to join the conversation, and reap the benefits in SEO. SummaryLink building is hard. It takes a lot of time, energy, and patience. You have to try new things, fail, and then try again. But if you stick with it ultimately you’ll get to a point where it’s possible to scale your link building strategies and spend more time on other aspects of your website’s SEO. If you’re just getting started with a link building campaign, learn the fundamentals of link building and how to create a sustainable link building campaign. Now get out there and start networking! More Resources: Image Credits Featured Image: DepositPhotos.com SEO via Search Engine Journal http://bit.ly/1QNKwvh April 25, 2019 at 08:28AM
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R.I.P. to the Top 10 Failed Social Media Sites by @searchmastergen http://bit.ly/2GzhOxm There’s no doubt social media has changed so many lives – not just in America, but throughout the entire world. Communication, no matter how far away someone else may be (as long as they have a decent internet connection ?), has become easier than ever. Marketing has evolved in ways few people expected it to, too. And yet, social media platforms continue to come and go. Here is a list of the 10 most legendary social media sites to go by the wayside since the web began. 10. DailyBoothDailyBooth was a photoblogging site that encouraged users to take a daily picture with a caption. Similar to modern-day Instagram, the now-defunct photo-oriented social platform launched about a year and half prior to Instagram’s launch, then officially shut down at the end of 2012. Following its launch in February of 2009, DailyBooth gained popularity when celebrities and influencers began joining the social network, which hit its 1 millionth photo in September 2009. Less than six months later, it reached 3 million photos uploads and 10 million comments. In April 2012, Airbnb took over the DailyBooth team to aid in the travel website’s overall mission and at the end of that year, DailyBooth was nothing more than a memory. 9. FriendFeedFriendFeed was a social-aggregating website that launched in 2007. Founded by a group of former Google employees, FriendFeed essentially used other social networks to build its own network, focusing on relevancy and usefulness on those sites then consolidating updates on its platform. Facebook bought FriendFeed in 2009 for $15 million cash and $32.5 million in stock. The social networking giant closed FriendFeed down for good in April 2015. 8. iTunes PingThis Apple-owned social networking site had an obvious emphasis on music and was lucky enough to launch with more than 1 million users in 2010. But even that couldn’t save it. Launched as a built-in component to iTunes in its 10th edition, the service allowed users to follow artists and get updates from friends and artists about music. Ping was eventually closed down in 2012 and replaced with social media integration for Facebook and Twitter. 7. Google Wave & Google BuzzGoogle Buzz launched in 2010, replacing Google Wave, which launched one year prior in 2009. Each was an attempt by Google to develop a global social media site that could rival Facebook. Both platforms were designed to allow users to share posts with friends privately or publicly with an extensive list of integration partners that included Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, the aforementioned FriendFeed, and more. Ultimately, Buzz was a giant privacy nightmare and Wave was a complicated mess, so both platforms were doomed to be added to Google’s project graveyard. 6. MeerkatAn innovative video platform that eventually helped propel livestreaming to the top of all of our social feeds, Meerkat ended up being doomed by the big-name social media giants (Facebook and Twitter, namely) after they recreated the idea on their already-established – and multi-faceted – social media channels. It was only a few weeks after Meerkat’s release that Twitter halted its access to Twitter’s social graph, then acquired rivaling live-video app Periscope and launched it in late March 2015. Both Facebook and Instagram offer similar features in their apps, with Facebook launching Facebook Live in April 2016 5. FriendsterOne of the original social networks to make noise before Facebook, Friendster dominated the Asian market since it launched (in 2002). It was available and used globally, but 90% of its traffic came from Asia. The platform had more unique visitors than any other social network in Asia in 2008. Friendster ended up evolving into a social gaming site in 2011, touting more than 115 million users mostly from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. It officially closed down in 2018 after a three-year hiatus. 4. Yik YakAt its peak, Yik Yak was valued at $400 million. After launching in 2014, the anonymous messaging mobile app gained momentum quickly among young adults, raising more than $70 million in venture capital funding but also a hefty load of problems. Its biggest, one of its main features: its anonymity. Users – typically high school and college students – could publicly post anything they wanted for other anonymous users in their geographic vicinity to see and interact with. This caused problems for obvious reasons, including bomb threats and hate-fueled acts of violence. The world of social media was/is already littered with internet bullies and is what oftentimes seems like a cesspool of human interaction – and Yik Yak was only contributing to the strife. It didn’t take long for the tables to turn. By the end of 2014, Yik Yak was already declining in popularity and usage. It eventually closed down for good in early 2017. 3. VineA social media legend (and my personal favorite) that helped propel video into the limelight, Vine was another ahead-of-its-time mobile app that helped set the bar for how social media and video could use one another to thrive. The short-form video app was acquired by Twitter prior to its official launch and ended up becoming the most downloaded free app in the U.S. iOS App Store at its peak in 2013. Up to that point, it was the most popular video app ever to come out. But it didn’t last long. Vine was unable to adapt as other rivals (e.g., Snapchat) emerged and adapted. Plus, Twitter’s own business fluttered, which forced Twitter to close Vine in late 2016. 2. Google PlusAnother “test” of Google’s, the fate of Google Plus turned out just like so many of Google’s other attempts at building a social network – failure. A revolutionary platform in the way it helped evolve search while further educating the world of web marketing about authority and entities across the globe, Google Plus turned out to be another failed attempt at dethroning Facebook by a rival social network. But it wasn’t even a social network at all. And maybe that’s where a lot of its problems arose. Google was actually focused on its “identity network” because of plans to be identity service providers for a program run by the federal government. It offered nothing worthy to its users, and, for that, it is now where it belongs: extinct. 1. MySpaceYes, MySpace still exists. It has a working URL, an office with employees, and, most importantly, you can sign up for a new account right now. But this isn’t the same pioneering MySpace that helped spawn social media from what seemed like a few dark basements (it wasn’t) to what ended up being billions of households (and smartphones) across the world. This is the MySpace that helped shape the digital marketing age of today, catalyzing the success of Facebook even more when it relinquished its title as the most popular social media network to it. MySpace went from the most visited website in the world in 2006 to losing 10 million unique users in just one month in 2011. It pivoted itself as the leading social network before reinventing itself as a music-focused network for new artists and less “personal business.” It hasn’t seemed to work since then. What’s worse? MySpace keeps shooting itself in the foot. And the latest blunder isn’t one to scoff at. Especially since it tells the same story I tell here: MySpace is dead. More Resources: SEO via Search Engine Journal http://bit.ly/1QNKwvh April 25, 2019 at 08:28AM Google: Sitemap Dates vs Web Page Dates http://bit.ly/2VtGGjm John Mueller from Google explained on Twitter the difference between the timestamp date in an XML Sitemaps lasmod date and the date on a web page. John said the sitemaps lastmod is when the page as a whole was last changed for crawling/indexing. The date on page is the date to be associated with the primary content on the page. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 April 25, 2019 at 07:28AM Google: You Cannot Isolate Specific Ranking Factor Successes http://bit.ly/2GERZNs I am going to do it, I am going to read between the lines here on a John Mueller tweet. In short, he said that you really cannot say that one specific ranking factor is the reason why a site might be doing well or poorly in search, even if that site focused on that exclusively over the last time period. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 April 25, 2019 at 07:14AM |
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