Build Great Backlinks has posted a new item, '12 Ways to Increase Traffic From
Google Without Building Links'
Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
Link building is hard, but it's not the only way to make traffic gains in
Google's search results.
When I first started SEO, building links wasn't my strong suit. Writing
outreach emails terrified me, and I had little experience creating killer
content. Instead, I focused on the easy wins.
While off-page factors like links typically weigh more heavily than on-page
efforts in Google's search results, SEOs today have a number of levers to pull
in order to gain increased search traffic without ever building a link.
For experienced SEOs, many of these are established practices, but even the
most optimized sites can improve in at least one or more of these areas.
1. In-depth articles
According to the MozCast Feature Graph, 6% of Google search results contain
In-depth articles. While this doesn't seem like a huge numbers, the articles
that qualify can see a significant increase in traffic. Anecdotally, we've heard
reports of traffic increasing up to 10% after inclusion.
By adding a few signals to your HTML, your high quality content could qualify
to appear. The markup suggested by Google includes:
Schema.org Article markup â NewsArticle works too)
Google+ Authorship
Pagination and canonicalization best practices
Logo markup
First click free â for paywall content
While Google seems to favor authorities news sites for In-depth Article
inclusion, most sites that may qualify don't have the proper semantic markup
implemented.
2. Improving user satisfaction
Can you improve your Google rankings by improving the onsite experience of
your visitors?
In many ways the answer is "yes," and the experience of several SEOs hints
that the effect may be larger than we realize.
We know that Google's Panda algorithm punishes "low-quality" websites. We also
know that Google likely measures satisfaction as users click on search results.
"â Google could see how satisfied users were. â The best sign of
their happiness was the "long click" â this occurred when someone went to
a search result, ideally the top one, and did not return."
-Stephen Levy from his excellent book In the Plex
The idea is called pogosticking, or return-to-SERP, and if you can reduce it
by keeping satisfied visitors on your site (or at least not returning to Google
to look for the answer somewhere else) many SEOs believe Google will reward you
with higher positions in search results.
Tim Grice of Branded3 reports a saying they have at their SEO agency:
"If you have enough links to be in the top 5, you have enough links to be
position 1â³
While we have no direct evidence of pogosticking in Google's search results,
we've seen enough patents, interviews and analysis to believe it's possibly one
of the most underutilized techniques in SEO today.
3. Rich snippets from structured data
Google constantly expands the types of rich snippets it shows in search
results, including events, songs, videos and breadcrumbs.
The first time I heard about structured data was from a presentation by
Matthew Brown at MozCon in 2011. Matthew now works at Moz, and I'm happy to
glean from his expertise. His Schema 101 presentation below is well worth
studying.
Schema and Open Graph 101 - SMX Munich from Matthew Brown
If you're just getting started, check out this amazingly helpful Guide to
Generating Rich Snippets from the folks at SEOgadget.
Two of our favorite types of markup for increasing clicks are videos and
authorship, so we'll discuss each below.
4. Video optimization
Pixel for pixel, video snippets capture more search real estate than any other
type of rich snippet, even more than authorship photos. Studies show our eyes go
straight to them.
Eye-Tracking Google SERPs - 5 Tales of Pizza
Unlike author photos, video snippets are often easier to display and don't
require connecting a Google+ account.
Video snippets generally require creating a video XML sitemap and adding
schema.org video markup.
To simplify things, many third party services will take care of the technical
details for you. Here at Moz we use Wistia, which creates a sitemap and adds
schema.org markup automatically.
Pro tip: Both schema.org and XML sitemaps allow you to define the video
thumbnail that appears in search results. As the thumbnail highly influences
clicks, choose wisely.
Recommended reading: Getting Video Results in Google
5. Google authorship
Scoring the coveted author photo in Google search results doesn't guarantee
more clicks, but getting the right photo can help your click-through rate in
many results.
What makes a good author photo? While there are no rules, I've personally
tested and studied hundreds of photos and found certain factors help:
Use a real face, not a company logo, cartoon or icon
High contrast colors. Because the photo is small, you want it to stand out with
good separation between the background and foreground.
Audience targeted. For example, young Disney fans are probably less likely to
click on an old guy in a suit who looks like a financial adviser.
Google recently got more selective about the author photos it chooses to show,
but if you implement authorship correctly you may find yourself in the 20%
(according to MozCast) of all search results that include author photos.
6. Improving site speed
Improving site speed not only improves visitor satisfaction (see point #1) but
it may also have a direct influence on your search rankings. In fact, site speed
is one of the few ranking factors Google has confirmed.
One of the interesting things we learned this year, with help from the folks
at Zoompf, is that actual page load speed may be far less important than Time to
First Byte (TTFB). TTFB is the amount of time it takes a server to first respond
to a request.
As important as page speed is for desktop search Google considers it even more
important for mobile devices. Think about the last time you waited for a page to
load on your cell phone with a weak signal.
"Optimizing a page's loading time on smartphones is particularly important
given the characteristics of mobile data networks smartphones are connected to."
- Google Developers
Suggested tool: PageSpeed Insights
7. Smartphone SEO
Aside from speed, if your website isn't configured properly for smartphones,
it probably results in lower Google search results for mobile queries. Google
confirms that smartphone errors may result in lower mobile rankings.
What is a smartphone error? It could include:
Redirecting visitors to the wrong mobile URL
Embedding a video that doesn't play on a particular phone (Flash video on an
iPhone, for example)
Pop-ups that aren't easily closed on mobile
Buttons or fonts that are too small on a mobile device
Google recommends making your site responsive, but many of the top brands in
the world, including Apple.com, don't have responsive sites. Regardless, a good
mobile experience is imperative.
8. Expanding your international audience
Does your website have traffic potential outside your existing country and/or
language?
Our international experts like Aleyda Solis know this well, but folks inside
the United States have been slow to target specific languages and countries with
SEO.
Oftentimes, the opportunities for appearing in international search results
are greater than staying within your own borders, and the competition sometimes
less. To see if it's worth your while to make an investment, check out this
International SEO Checklist by Aleyda (who is also a mobile SEO
expertâit's so unfair!)
9. Social annotations with Google+
When you share content on Facebook and Twitter, your network basically sees it
only when they are looking at Facebook and Twitter.
On the other hand, when you share content on Google+, your network can see it
every time they search Google.
Google's own research shows that users fixate on social annotations, even when
presented with videos and other types of rich snippets.
The easiest way to take advantage of this is to expand your Google+ network
and share good content regularly and often. Rand Fishkin elegantly explains how
to use Google+ to appear in the top of Google results every time.
Additionally, content shared through Google+ often ranks in regular search
results, visible to everyone on the web, regardless of their social connections.
10. Snippet optimization
This goes back to basic meta tag and title tag optimization, but it's a good
practice to keep in mind.
In the past two years, Google changed the maximum length of title tags so that
it's no longer dependent on the number of characters, but on the number of
pixels used, generally around 500 pixels in length. This keeps changing as
Google tests new layouts.
Because 500 pixels is difficult to determine when writing most titles, best
advice is still to keep your titles between 60-80 characters, or use an online
snippet optimization tool to find your ideal title tag length.
Google also updated its advice on meta descriptions, further clarifying that
duplicate meta descriptions are not a good idea. Matt Cutts tells us that if you
can't make your descriptions unique for each page, it's better to have none at
all.
"You can either have a unique meta tag description, or you can choose to have
no meta tag description."Google's Matt Cutts
Given that duplicate meta descriptions are one of the few HTML recommendations
flags in Webmaster Tools, does this indicate Google treats repetitive meta
descriptions as a negative ranking factor? Hmmmâ.
11. Updating fresh content
Websites that stop earning new links often lose ground in Google search
results. At the same time, sites that never add new content or let their pages
go stale can also fall out of favor.
Freshening your content doesn't guarantee a rankings boost, but for certain
types of queries it definitely helps. Google scores freshness in different ways,
and may include:
Inception date
The amount (%) your content changes
How often you update your content
How many new pages you create over time
Changes to important content (homepage text) vs. unimportant content (footer
links)
Recommended reading: 10 Illustrations on How Fresh Content Can Influence
Rankings
12. Ongoing on-page SEO
The factors listed here only scratch the surface of earning more real estate
in search results. Issues such as indexing, crawling, canonicalization,
duplicate content, site architecture, keyword research, internal linking, image
optimization and 1,000 other things can move ranking mountains.
The job of the Technical SEO becomes more complex each year, but we also have
more opportunities now than ever.
It's easy to think nothing is new in SEO, or that SEO is easy, or that Google
will simply figure out our sites. Nothing is further from reality.
The truth is, we have work to do.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/kbycOLPlUsU/google-traffic-links
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Monday, 10 March 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] TITLE
Build Great Backlinks has posted a new item, 'How to Set Up Meaningful
(Non-Arbitrary) Custom Attribution in Google Analytics'
Posted by Tom.Capper
Attribution modeling in Google Analytics (GA) is potentially very powerful in
the results it can give us, yet few people use it, and those that do often get
misleading results. The built-in models are all fairly useless, and creating
your own custom model can easily dissolve into random guesswork. If youâre
lucky enough to have access to GA Premium, you can use Data-Driven Attribution,
and thatâs greatâbut if you haven't got the budget to take that
route, this post should show you how to get started with the data you already
have.
If you've read up on attribution modelling in the past, you probably already
know whatâs wrong with the default models. If you havenât, I
recommend you read this post by Avinash, which outlines the basics of how they
all work.
In short, theyâre all based on arbitrary, oversimplified assumptions
about how people use the internet.
The time decay model
The time decay model is probably the most sensible out of the box, and assumes
that after I visit your site, the effect of this first visit on the chance of me
visiting again halves every X days. The below graph shows this relationship with
the default seven-day half-life. It plots "days since visit" against "chance
this visit will cause additional visit." If it takes seven days for the repeat
visit to come around, the first visit's credit halves to 25%. If it takes 14
days for the repeat visit to come around, the first visit's credit halves again,
to 12.5%. Note that the graph is steppedâI'm assuming it uses GA's "days
since last visit" dimension, which rounds to a whole number of days. This would
mean that, for example, if both visits were on the day of conversion, neither
would be discounted and both would get equal credit.
There might be some site and userbase out there for which this is an accurate
model, but as a starting assumption itâs incredibly bold. As an entire
model, itâs incredibly simplisticâsurely we donât really
believe that there are no factors relevant in assigning credit to previous
visits besides how long ago they occurred? We might consider it relevant if the
previous visit bounced, for example. This is why custom models are the only
sensible approach to attribution modelling in Google Analyticsâthe simple
one-size-fits-all models are never going to be appropriate for your business or
client, precisely because theyâre simple, one-size-fits-all models.
Note that in describing the time decay model, Iâm talking about the
chance of one visit generating anotherâan important and often overlooked
aspect of attribution modelling is that itâs about probabilities. When
assigning partial credit for a conversion to a previous visit, we are not saying
that the conversion happened partly because of the previous visit, and partly
because of the converting visit. We simply donât know whether that was the
case. It could be that after their first visit, the user decided that whatever
happened they were going to come back at some point and make a purchase. If we
knew this, weâd want to assign that first visit 100% credit. Or it might
be that after their first visit, the user totally forgot that our website
existed, and then by pure coincidence found it in their natural search results a
few days later and decided to make a purchase. In this case, if we knew this,
weâd want to assign the previous visit 0% credit. But actually, we
donât know what happened. So we make a claim based on probabilities. For
example, if we have a conversion that takes place with one previous visit, what
weâre saying if we assign 40% credit to that previous visit is that we
think that there is a 40% chance that the conversion would not have happened
without the first visit.
If we did think that there was a 40% chance of a conversion being caused by an
initial visit, weâd want to assign 40% credit to âPosition in
Pathâ exactly matching âFirst interactionâ (meaning visits
that were the user's first visit). If you want to use âPosition in
Pathâ as your sole predictor of the chance that a visit generated the
conversion, you can. Provided you donât pull the percentages off the top
of your head, itâs better than nothing. If you want to be more accurate,
thereâs a veritable smorgasbord of additional custom credit rules to
choose from, with any default model as your starting point. All we have to do
now is figure out what numbers to put in, and realistically, this is where it
gets hard. At all costs, do not be tempted to guessâthat renders the
entire exercise pointless.
Tested assumptions
One tempting approach is simply to create a model based to a greater or lesser
extent on assumptions and guesswork, then test the conclusions of that model
against your existing marketing strategy and incrementally improve your strategy
in this manner. This approach is probably better than nothing for improving your
market strategy, and testing improvements to your strategy is always worthwhile,
but as a way of creating a realistic attribution model this starting point is
going to set you on a long, expensive journey.
The ideal solution is to do this process in reverseârun controlled
experiments to build your model in the first place. If you can split your users
into representative segments, then test, for example,
the effect of a previous visit on the chance of a second visit
the effect of a previous non-bounce visit on the chance of a second visit
the effect of a previous organic search visit on the chance of a second visit
and so on, you can start filling in your custom credit rules this way. If your
tests are done well, you can get really excellent results. But this is
expensive, difficult, and time consuming.
The next-best alternative is asking users. If users donât remember
having encountered your brand before, that previous visit they had probably
didnât contribute to their conversion. The most sensible way to do this
would be an (optional but incentivised) post-conversion questionnaire, where a
representative sample of users are asked questions like:
How did you find this site today?
Have you visited this site before?
If yes:
How many times?
How did you find it?
Did this previous visit impact your decision to visit today?
How long ago was your most recent visit?
The results from questions like these can start filling in those custom credit
rules in a non-arbitrary way. But this is still somewhat expensive, difficult
and time-consuming. What if you just want to get going right away?
Deconstructing the Data-Driven Attribution model
In this blog post, Google offers this explanation of the Data-Driven
Attribution model in GA Premium:
âThe Data-Driven Attribution model is enabled through comparing
conversion path structures and the associated likelihood of conversion given a
certain order of events. The difference in path structure, and the associated
difference in conversion probability, are the foundation for the algorithm which
computes the channel weights. The more impact the presence of a certain
marketing channel has on the conversion probability, the higher the weight of
this channel in the attribution model.The underlying probability model has been
shown to predict conversion significantly better than a last-click methodology.
Data-Driven Attribution seeks to best represent the actual behaviour of
customers in the real world, but is an estimate that should be validated as much
as possible using controlled experimentation.â (my emphasis)
Similarly, this paper recommends a combination of a conditional probability
approach and a bagged logistic regression model. Don't worry if this doesn't
mean much to youâIâm going to recommend here using a variant of the
much simpler conditional probability method.
I'd like to look first at the kind of model that seems to be suggested by
Google's explanation above of their Data Driven Attribution feature. For
example, say we wanted to look at the most basic credit rule: How much credit
should be assigned to a single previous visit? The basic logic outlined in the
explanation from Google above would suggest an approach something like this:
Find conversion rate of new visitors (letâs say this is 4%)
Find conversion rate of returning visitors with one previous visit (letâs
say this is 7%)
Credit for previous visit = ((7-4)/7) = 43%
To me, this model is somewhat flawed (though Iâm fairly sure that this
flaw lies in my application of Googleâs explanation of their Data-Driven
Attribution rather than in the model itself). For example, say we had a large
group of repeat visitors who were only coming to the site because of a previous
visit, but that were converting poorly. Weâd want to assign credit for
these (few) conversions to the previous visits, but the model outlined above
might assign them low or negative credit; this is because even though
conversions among this group are caused by previous visits, their conversion
rate is lower than that of new visitors. This is just one example of why this
model can end up being misleading.
My best solution
Figuring out from our data whether a repeat visitor came because of a previous
visit or independently of a previous visit is hard. Iâll be honest: I
donât know how Google does it. My best solution is an approximation, but a
non-arbitrary one. The idea is using the percentage of traffic that is either
branded or direct as an indicator for brand familiarity. Going back again to how
much credit should be assigned to a single previous visit, my solution looks
like this:
Calculate the percentage of your new visitor traffic is direct, branded organic
or branded PPC (letâs say itâs 50%)
Note: Obviously most of your organic is (not provided), so I recommend
multiplying your total organic traffic by the % of your known keyword traffic
that is branded. As (not provided) approaches 100%, youâll have to use PPC
data to approximate your branded organic traffic levels.
Calculate the percentage of your 2nd-time-visitor traffic is direct, branded
organic or branded PPC (letâs say itâs 55%)
Based on the knowledge that only 50% (in this case) of people without previous
visits use branded/direct, approximate that without their first visit weâd
only have seen (100%-55%)*(100/50)=90% of these 2nd time visitors.
Given this, 10% of visitors came because of a previous visit, so we should
assign 10% credit for 2nd time visits to the first visit.
We can use similar logic applied to users with 3+ visits to calculate the
credit deserved by âmiddle interactionsâ.
This method is far from perfectâthatâs why I recommended two
others above it. But if you want to get started with your existing data in a
non-arbitrary way, I think this is a non-ridiculous way to get started. If
youâve made it this far and you have any ideas of your own, please post
them in the comments below.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/gz2p5cbO0LM/set-up-meaningful-custom-attribution
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
(Non-Arbitrary) Custom Attribution in Google Analytics'
Posted by Tom.Capper
Attribution modeling in Google Analytics (GA) is potentially very powerful in
the results it can give us, yet few people use it, and those that do often get
misleading results. The built-in models are all fairly useless, and creating
your own custom model can easily dissolve into random guesswork. If youâre
lucky enough to have access to GA Premium, you can use Data-Driven Attribution,
and thatâs greatâbut if you haven't got the budget to take that
route, this post should show you how to get started with the data you already
have.
If you've read up on attribution modelling in the past, you probably already
know whatâs wrong with the default models. If you havenât, I
recommend you read this post by Avinash, which outlines the basics of how they
all work.
In short, theyâre all based on arbitrary, oversimplified assumptions
about how people use the internet.
The time decay model
The time decay model is probably the most sensible out of the box, and assumes
that after I visit your site, the effect of this first visit on the chance of me
visiting again halves every X days. The below graph shows this relationship with
the default seven-day half-life. It plots "days since visit" against "chance
this visit will cause additional visit." If it takes seven days for the repeat
visit to come around, the first visit's credit halves to 25%. If it takes 14
days for the repeat visit to come around, the first visit's credit halves again,
to 12.5%. Note that the graph is steppedâI'm assuming it uses GA's "days
since last visit" dimension, which rounds to a whole number of days. This would
mean that, for example, if both visits were on the day of conversion, neither
would be discounted and both would get equal credit.
There might be some site and userbase out there for which this is an accurate
model, but as a starting assumption itâs incredibly bold. As an entire
model, itâs incredibly simplisticâsurely we donât really
believe that there are no factors relevant in assigning credit to previous
visits besides how long ago they occurred? We might consider it relevant if the
previous visit bounced, for example. This is why custom models are the only
sensible approach to attribution modelling in Google Analyticsâthe simple
one-size-fits-all models are never going to be appropriate for your business or
client, precisely because theyâre simple, one-size-fits-all models.
Note that in describing the time decay model, Iâm talking about the
chance of one visit generating anotherâan important and often overlooked
aspect of attribution modelling is that itâs about probabilities. When
assigning partial credit for a conversion to a previous visit, we are not saying
that the conversion happened partly because of the previous visit, and partly
because of the converting visit. We simply donât know whether that was the
case. It could be that after their first visit, the user decided that whatever
happened they were going to come back at some point and make a purchase. If we
knew this, weâd want to assign that first visit 100% credit. Or it might
be that after their first visit, the user totally forgot that our website
existed, and then by pure coincidence found it in their natural search results a
few days later and decided to make a purchase. In this case, if we knew this,
weâd want to assign the previous visit 0% credit. But actually, we
donât know what happened. So we make a claim based on probabilities. For
example, if we have a conversion that takes place with one previous visit, what
weâre saying if we assign 40% credit to that previous visit is that we
think that there is a 40% chance that the conversion would not have happened
without the first visit.
If we did think that there was a 40% chance of a conversion being caused by an
initial visit, weâd want to assign 40% credit to âPosition in
Pathâ exactly matching âFirst interactionâ (meaning visits
that were the user's first visit). If you want to use âPosition in
Pathâ as your sole predictor of the chance that a visit generated the
conversion, you can. Provided you donât pull the percentages off the top
of your head, itâs better than nothing. If you want to be more accurate,
thereâs a veritable smorgasbord of additional custom credit rules to
choose from, with any default model as your starting point. All we have to do
now is figure out what numbers to put in, and realistically, this is where it
gets hard. At all costs, do not be tempted to guessâthat renders the
entire exercise pointless.
Tested assumptions
One tempting approach is simply to create a model based to a greater or lesser
extent on assumptions and guesswork, then test the conclusions of that model
against your existing marketing strategy and incrementally improve your strategy
in this manner. This approach is probably better than nothing for improving your
market strategy, and testing improvements to your strategy is always worthwhile,
but as a way of creating a realistic attribution model this starting point is
going to set you on a long, expensive journey.
The ideal solution is to do this process in reverseârun controlled
experiments to build your model in the first place. If you can split your users
into representative segments, then test, for example,
the effect of a previous visit on the chance of a second visit
the effect of a previous non-bounce visit on the chance of a second visit
the effect of a previous organic search visit on the chance of a second visit
and so on, you can start filling in your custom credit rules this way. If your
tests are done well, you can get really excellent results. But this is
expensive, difficult, and time consuming.
The next-best alternative is asking users. If users donât remember
having encountered your brand before, that previous visit they had probably
didnât contribute to their conversion. The most sensible way to do this
would be an (optional but incentivised) post-conversion questionnaire, where a
representative sample of users are asked questions like:
How did you find this site today?
Have you visited this site before?
If yes:
How many times?
How did you find it?
Did this previous visit impact your decision to visit today?
How long ago was your most recent visit?
The results from questions like these can start filling in those custom credit
rules in a non-arbitrary way. But this is still somewhat expensive, difficult
and time-consuming. What if you just want to get going right away?
Deconstructing the Data-Driven Attribution model
In this blog post, Google offers this explanation of the Data-Driven
Attribution model in GA Premium:
âThe Data-Driven Attribution model is enabled through comparing
conversion path structures and the associated likelihood of conversion given a
certain order of events. The difference in path structure, and the associated
difference in conversion probability, are the foundation for the algorithm which
computes the channel weights. The more impact the presence of a certain
marketing channel has on the conversion probability, the higher the weight of
this channel in the attribution model.The underlying probability model has been
shown to predict conversion significantly better than a last-click methodology.
Data-Driven Attribution seeks to best represent the actual behaviour of
customers in the real world, but is an estimate that should be validated as much
as possible using controlled experimentation.â (my emphasis)
Similarly, this paper recommends a combination of a conditional probability
approach and a bagged logistic regression model. Don't worry if this doesn't
mean much to youâIâm going to recommend here using a variant of the
much simpler conditional probability method.
I'd like to look first at the kind of model that seems to be suggested by
Google's explanation above of their Data Driven Attribution feature. For
example, say we wanted to look at the most basic credit rule: How much credit
should be assigned to a single previous visit? The basic logic outlined in the
explanation from Google above would suggest an approach something like this:
Find conversion rate of new visitors (letâs say this is 4%)
Find conversion rate of returning visitors with one previous visit (letâs
say this is 7%)
Credit for previous visit = ((7-4)/7) = 43%
To me, this model is somewhat flawed (though Iâm fairly sure that this
flaw lies in my application of Googleâs explanation of their Data-Driven
Attribution rather than in the model itself). For example, say we had a large
group of repeat visitors who were only coming to the site because of a previous
visit, but that were converting poorly. Weâd want to assign credit for
these (few) conversions to the previous visits, but the model outlined above
might assign them low or negative credit; this is because even though
conversions among this group are caused by previous visits, their conversion
rate is lower than that of new visitors. This is just one example of why this
model can end up being misleading.
My best solution
Figuring out from our data whether a repeat visitor came because of a previous
visit or independently of a previous visit is hard. Iâll be honest: I
donât know how Google does it. My best solution is an approximation, but a
non-arbitrary one. The idea is using the percentage of traffic that is either
branded or direct as an indicator for brand familiarity. Going back again to how
much credit should be assigned to a single previous visit, my solution looks
like this:
Calculate the percentage of your new visitor traffic is direct, branded organic
or branded PPC (letâs say itâs 50%)
Note: Obviously most of your organic is (not provided), so I recommend
multiplying your total organic traffic by the % of your known keyword traffic
that is branded. As (not provided) approaches 100%, youâll have to use PPC
data to approximate your branded organic traffic levels.
Calculate the percentage of your 2nd-time-visitor traffic is direct, branded
organic or branded PPC (letâs say itâs 55%)
Based on the knowledge that only 50% (in this case) of people without previous
visits use branded/direct, approximate that without their first visit weâd
only have seen (100%-55%)*(100/50)=90% of these 2nd time visitors.
Given this, 10% of visitors came because of a previous visit, so we should
assign 10% credit for 2nd time visits to the first visit.
We can use similar logic applied to users with 3+ visits to calculate the
credit deserved by âmiddle interactionsâ.
This method is far from perfectâthatâs why I recommended two
others above it. But if you want to get started with your existing data in a
non-arbitrary way, I think this is a non-ridiculous way to get started. If
youâve made it this far and you have any ideas of your own, please post
them in the comments below.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/gz2p5cbO0LM/set-up-meaningful-custom-attribution
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Friday, 7 March 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] TITLE
Build Great Backlinks has posted a new item, '5 Things I Wish I Knew as an
Agency Marketer - Whiteboard Friday'
Posted by dohertyjf
Working as an agency marketer is tough. I did it for a bit over two years and
learned a lot of lessons. Along the way and since I have reflected about what
would make me more successful as an agency marketer, and now that I am in-house
at HotPads.com, I've come up with five things I wish I had known as an agency
marketer. Never fear though, as there are some tidbits in there for the in-house
crew as well!
5 Things I Wish I Knew as an Agency Marketer - John Doherty - Whiteboard
Friday
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Howdy Moz fans. Welcome to Whiteboard Friday. My name is John Doherty. I
currently lead Marketing at HotPads.com. Thank you Moz for having me back here
on Whiteboard Friday. It's been a while since I've been here. I'm super-excited
to be back in Seattle, able to get here on the camera and talk to you guys about
a few things that are near and dear to my heart.
I've been at HotPads for about four months now. I joined them in San
Francisco a few months ago, moving out from New York City to lead Marketing for
HotPads, working with some of the other rentals businesses as well under the
Zillow Inc. umbrella, both on the consumer side and the business-
to-business, B2B side.
But I worked for an agency for a couple of years. I worked for Distilled,
based in New York City, and obviously I worked with a lot of clients, small
clients, large clients, took a lot of pride in building relationships with my
clients and getting things done. Distilled is phenomenal at that, and I felt
like I learned a ton. I learned a ton about clients. But over the previous
couple of months, I've really been reflecting and trying to figure out: What is
really the difference between agency and in-house marketing?
I wrote a post about it on my own personal website, JohnFDoherty.com, which I
don't write on there often enough. But I published a post on there recently
about that difference. But today I want to take a little bit more focused
approach to that, and I want to talk to you from the in-house perspective about
five things that I wish I had known when I worked as an agency marketer working
for clients.
So I have five points for you. Let's run through them real quick. First one
is your client is the industry expert. What I mean by that is your client knows
their industry, their vertical better than you know their vertical. You may be
able to look at it from a domain authority perspective, who's ranking, who's
creating content, who has social media going, who has a full-
fledged marketing team built out, who's just playing around, and who's
spamming, who's building link networks. But you don't know their vertical, and
you don't know their business. You don't know their monetization model nearly as
well as they do.
So while you know the tactics, and one of the great things about agencies and
one of the super valuable things about agencies is that you know the tactics and
you can see across verticals. You know what's working in travel and what's
working in real estate and what's working in video. You know what's going on
across the broader spectrum. So that's where you can really add value to your
client. You can tell them tactics, and you can tell them tactics that work
across different verticals that they may not have thought about. But at the end
of the day, they're the ones that know their business, and they know their
vertical, from a business perspective, better than you do.
The second one is learn the whole marketing team. This is one that I
struggled with early on in my career at Distilled. I was very focused on SEO,
especially technical SEO, focused on site architecture and content and things
like that. So I made sure to get to know the SEO. I made sure to get to know the
SEO team, who does what, what's everyone's skills, all of that. For a long time,
though, I failed to get to know their bosses. I failed to get to know who runs
the marketing team. I failed to get to know the different sides of the marketing
team and who does what. For example, in a big company, the marketing team may
have five people in PR and three people in SEO and two people in email.
So talking tactics, such as email marketing strategies, with the SEO team
when the SEO team has no ability to change the email marketing tactics isn't
going to get you a long ways. However, this can be super valuable when you're
talking with the SEO team about how they are going to be able to get buy-in with
other teams to work together collaboratively with them to get more done on the
SEO side. It's the old you scratch my back, I'm going to scratch yours sort of
mentality.
The third is never forget that, as the agency, you are the outsource
solution. Whether you like it or not, no matter how closely you get to your
client, no matter how well you get to know them, no matter how often you go down
to visit them, you are still the outsourced solution. You are not working there
in-house with them all the time, part of the politics, seeing what's going on,
knowing what the roadblocks are, knowing why certain things aren't getting done,
or why certain things do get done. At the end of the day, you are still an
outsourced solution that you were brought in for a reason. That's not
necessarily a negative thing. Actually, from the in-house perspective now, I
don't believe that's a negative thing at all, because you were brought in
because you're the expert. You're the expert in SEO or technical SEO or link
building or content marketing or social media marketing. You were brought in
because that is what you own, and that's what you are known for, and so that is
exactly the reason why you are there, not to be part of their marketing team.
However, what I learned in my time at Distilled is the closer you can get to
the team, to the in-house team, the better you can get to know them, the more
successful you are going to be.
This brings me to my fourth point. As an agency marketer, you're actually
less responsible for results than you may think that you are. What I mean by
this is ultimately the in-house team is the one that is responsible for the
results. Myself, at HotPads, I am responsible for driving traffic, which drives
leads which drives the business. If I hire an agency, you are not going to be
responsible for driving traffic. You're going to be responsible for giving me
deliverables that I can then use to go and turn into actionable things for my
development team to do or for my marketing team to execute on.
To be successful as an agency marketer, what you need to do is you need to
make sure that you are communicating with your client. That is the first and
foremost, that you are communicating with your client, telling them when things
are going to be in their inbox, what you're going to be delivering, why you are
delivering it, what you're going to deliver next based off of the deliverable
that you are currently working on, or spending a lot of time reporting.
Honestly, I was really bad at this when I was at Distilled, reporting to my
clients and telling them, "This is what we've done over the previous month, and
this is what we're going to do over the next month."
That alone is invaluable to an in-house marketer, because then, as in-house
marketer, if I'm given that from my agency that I'm working with, I can then go
and set expectations with my bosses and tell them, "This is coming down from
this agency. I expect it on this date. These are the things that they've done,
and this is what we're doing with them."
Finally, this brings me to my fifth point, which is deadlines actually matter
less than you think. Deadlines for deliverables actually matter a lot less than
you might think. The reason for this is in-house marketers are very, very, very
busy. Leading marketing at HotPads, I'm doing SEO. I'm helping out with the
content strategy, helping my content manager with the content strategy, helping
her meet the right people and get buy-in from the right people and figure out
when to publish things and where do we publish things, and how do we push it on
social media. I'm helping me email marketer get to know our developers and talk
with people up here in our Seattle office, the email marketing team up here to
find out what they're doing. We're strategizing about emails. I'm helping my
link builder find new places to get links. We're strategizing about link
building and measuring that and measuring the ROI on that.
So I'm very, very busy. Everyone on my team is very, very busy. All in-house
marketers are very, very busy. We're all over the place. We're touching all
sorts of different parts of marketing at some point and working very, very
collaboratively, and I would suggest that any very successful in-house marketing
team is all working collaboratively and not siloed away from other teams.
So all of this is to say that I really don't care about deadlines, and most
in-house people aren't really going to care about deadlines. What's important
for you as an agency marketer is going to be communicating with your client when
something is going to be delivered. If you're going to be late, communicate that
with them as soon as you're able to. If it's going to be a week late, let them
know why. Things come up. Everyone understands that things come up. Maybe
another client had an emergency. Maybe there was an algorithm change that they
were hurt by, that their CEO is about to fire the whole marketing team if you
don't jump in. Clients understand this. So what you need to do is you really
need to communicate with them as soon as possible, as often as possible.
As an in-house marketer, speaking to the in-house guys for a second, you need
to tell the agency exactly what you're dealing with, exactly what your
responsibilities are. What keeps you busy day-to-day? There's nothing more
frustrating as an agency marketer than being like, "Why can't I get a hold of my
client? I know they're around. I know they're in there. Aren't they just like
sitting there building links?" The answer is no. They're not just sitting there
building links. They have a lot going on. So to be successful as an agency
marketer, you need to find out from your clients exactly what keeps them busy
day in, day out. So then you are able to not be a pain to them, but rather to
help them do their job even better.
So these are five things that I wish I knew as an agency marketer now that I
am in-house. Once again, my name is John Doherty. You can find me on Twitter,
DohertyJF, and I'm happy to be back here. Please leave any comments you have
below in the comments section. Thanks a lot. Have a great weekend.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/-YB-EQIMwzA/5-things-i-wish-i-knew-as-an-agency-marketer-whiteboard-friday
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Agency Marketer - Whiteboard Friday'
Posted by dohertyjf
Working as an agency marketer is tough. I did it for a bit over two years and
learned a lot of lessons. Along the way and since I have reflected about what
would make me more successful as an agency marketer, and now that I am in-house
at HotPads.com, I've come up with five things I wish I had known as an agency
marketer. Never fear though, as there are some tidbits in there for the in-house
crew as well!
5 Things I Wish I Knew as an Agency Marketer - John Doherty - Whiteboard
Friday
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Howdy Moz fans. Welcome to Whiteboard Friday. My name is John Doherty. I
currently lead Marketing at HotPads.com. Thank you Moz for having me back here
on Whiteboard Friday. It's been a while since I've been here. I'm super-excited
to be back in Seattle, able to get here on the camera and talk to you guys about
a few things that are near and dear to my heart.
I've been at HotPads for about four months now. I joined them in San
Francisco a few months ago, moving out from New York City to lead Marketing for
HotPads, working with some of the other rentals businesses as well under the
Zillow Inc. umbrella, both on the consumer side and the business-
to-business, B2B side.
But I worked for an agency for a couple of years. I worked for Distilled,
based in New York City, and obviously I worked with a lot of clients, small
clients, large clients, took a lot of pride in building relationships with my
clients and getting things done. Distilled is phenomenal at that, and I felt
like I learned a ton. I learned a ton about clients. But over the previous
couple of months, I've really been reflecting and trying to figure out: What is
really the difference between agency and in-house marketing?
I wrote a post about it on my own personal website, JohnFDoherty.com, which I
don't write on there often enough. But I published a post on there recently
about that difference. But today I want to take a little bit more focused
approach to that, and I want to talk to you from the in-house perspective about
five things that I wish I had known when I worked as an agency marketer working
for clients.
So I have five points for you. Let's run through them real quick. First one
is your client is the industry expert. What I mean by that is your client knows
their industry, their vertical better than you know their vertical. You may be
able to look at it from a domain authority perspective, who's ranking, who's
creating content, who has social media going, who has a full-
fledged marketing team built out, who's just playing around, and who's
spamming, who's building link networks. But you don't know their vertical, and
you don't know their business. You don't know their monetization model nearly as
well as they do.
So while you know the tactics, and one of the great things about agencies and
one of the super valuable things about agencies is that you know the tactics and
you can see across verticals. You know what's working in travel and what's
working in real estate and what's working in video. You know what's going on
across the broader spectrum. So that's where you can really add value to your
client. You can tell them tactics, and you can tell them tactics that work
across different verticals that they may not have thought about. But at the end
of the day, they're the ones that know their business, and they know their
vertical, from a business perspective, better than you do.
The second one is learn the whole marketing team. This is one that I
struggled with early on in my career at Distilled. I was very focused on SEO,
especially technical SEO, focused on site architecture and content and things
like that. So I made sure to get to know the SEO. I made sure to get to know the
SEO team, who does what, what's everyone's skills, all of that. For a long time,
though, I failed to get to know their bosses. I failed to get to know who runs
the marketing team. I failed to get to know the different sides of the marketing
team and who does what. For example, in a big company, the marketing team may
have five people in PR and three people in SEO and two people in email.
So talking tactics, such as email marketing strategies, with the SEO team
when the SEO team has no ability to change the email marketing tactics isn't
going to get you a long ways. However, this can be super valuable when you're
talking with the SEO team about how they are going to be able to get buy-in with
other teams to work together collaboratively with them to get more done on the
SEO side. It's the old you scratch my back, I'm going to scratch yours sort of
mentality.
The third is never forget that, as the agency, you are the outsource
solution. Whether you like it or not, no matter how closely you get to your
client, no matter how well you get to know them, no matter how often you go down
to visit them, you are still the outsourced solution. You are not working there
in-house with them all the time, part of the politics, seeing what's going on,
knowing what the roadblocks are, knowing why certain things aren't getting done,
or why certain things do get done. At the end of the day, you are still an
outsourced solution that you were brought in for a reason. That's not
necessarily a negative thing. Actually, from the in-house perspective now, I
don't believe that's a negative thing at all, because you were brought in
because you're the expert. You're the expert in SEO or technical SEO or link
building or content marketing or social media marketing. You were brought in
because that is what you own, and that's what you are known for, and so that is
exactly the reason why you are there, not to be part of their marketing team.
However, what I learned in my time at Distilled is the closer you can get to
the team, to the in-house team, the better you can get to know them, the more
successful you are going to be.
This brings me to my fourth point. As an agency marketer, you're actually
less responsible for results than you may think that you are. What I mean by
this is ultimately the in-house team is the one that is responsible for the
results. Myself, at HotPads, I am responsible for driving traffic, which drives
leads which drives the business. If I hire an agency, you are not going to be
responsible for driving traffic. You're going to be responsible for giving me
deliverables that I can then use to go and turn into actionable things for my
development team to do or for my marketing team to execute on.
To be successful as an agency marketer, what you need to do is you need to
make sure that you are communicating with your client. That is the first and
foremost, that you are communicating with your client, telling them when things
are going to be in their inbox, what you're going to be delivering, why you are
delivering it, what you're going to deliver next based off of the deliverable
that you are currently working on, or spending a lot of time reporting.
Honestly, I was really bad at this when I was at Distilled, reporting to my
clients and telling them, "This is what we've done over the previous month, and
this is what we're going to do over the next month."
That alone is invaluable to an in-house marketer, because then, as in-house
marketer, if I'm given that from my agency that I'm working with, I can then go
and set expectations with my bosses and tell them, "This is coming down from
this agency. I expect it on this date. These are the things that they've done,
and this is what we're doing with them."
Finally, this brings me to my fifth point, which is deadlines actually matter
less than you think. Deadlines for deliverables actually matter a lot less than
you might think. The reason for this is in-house marketers are very, very, very
busy. Leading marketing at HotPads, I'm doing SEO. I'm helping out with the
content strategy, helping my content manager with the content strategy, helping
her meet the right people and get buy-in from the right people and figure out
when to publish things and where do we publish things, and how do we push it on
social media. I'm helping me email marketer get to know our developers and talk
with people up here in our Seattle office, the email marketing team up here to
find out what they're doing. We're strategizing about emails. I'm helping my
link builder find new places to get links. We're strategizing about link
building and measuring that and measuring the ROI on that.
So I'm very, very busy. Everyone on my team is very, very busy. All in-house
marketers are very, very busy. We're all over the place. We're touching all
sorts of different parts of marketing at some point and working very, very
collaboratively, and I would suggest that any very successful in-house marketing
team is all working collaboratively and not siloed away from other teams.
So all of this is to say that I really don't care about deadlines, and most
in-house people aren't really going to care about deadlines. What's important
for you as an agency marketer is going to be communicating with your client when
something is going to be delivered. If you're going to be late, communicate that
with them as soon as you're able to. If it's going to be a week late, let them
know why. Things come up. Everyone understands that things come up. Maybe
another client had an emergency. Maybe there was an algorithm change that they
were hurt by, that their CEO is about to fire the whole marketing team if you
don't jump in. Clients understand this. So what you need to do is you really
need to communicate with them as soon as possible, as often as possible.
As an in-house marketer, speaking to the in-house guys for a second, you need
to tell the agency exactly what you're dealing with, exactly what your
responsibilities are. What keeps you busy day-to-day? There's nothing more
frustrating as an agency marketer than being like, "Why can't I get a hold of my
client? I know they're around. I know they're in there. Aren't they just like
sitting there building links?" The answer is no. They're not just sitting there
building links. They have a lot going on. So to be successful as an agency
marketer, you need to find out from your clients exactly what keeps them busy
day in, day out. So then you are able to not be a pain to them, but rather to
help them do their job even better.
So these are five things that I wish I knew as an agency marketer now that I
am in-house. Once again, my name is John Doherty. You can find me on Twitter,
DohertyJF, and I'm happy to be back here. Please leave any comments you have
below in the comments section. Thanks a lot. Have a great weekend.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/-YB-EQIMwzA/5-things-i-wish-i-knew-as-an-agency-marketer-whiteboard-friday
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] TITLE
Build Great Backlinks has posted a new item, 'An Introduction to PR Strategy for
SEOs'
Posted by SamuelScottThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the
main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The
author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz,
Inc.
In case you missed it, Googleâs head of web spam, Matt Cutts, wrote this
on January 20: âOkay, Iâm calling it: if youâre using guest
blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.â
Three days later, Jen Lopez of Moz responded with this excellent post on
âguest blogging with a purposeâ:
As with anything, you don't want to be out there trying willy-nilly to get
your posts on every blog for the sole purpose of building (probably bad) links.
It's important to have this tied to your business and marketing goals, as you
would with any other tactic. SEO is only one piece of the larger strategy, and
if you focus solely on writing posts for link building purposes, you're missing
out on a ton of other possibilities.
In Lopezâs post, I commented in some detail that âguest
postsâ are really just another name for what the public relations industry
calls âby-lined articlesâ and that the goals of the two should be
identical. In response later in that thread, Lopez and Everett Sizemore invited
me to elaborate on the âPR side of SEOâ in a detailed Moz post.
Well, letâs get to it!
Marketers, Assemble!
(photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)
First, letâs set the record straight.
As Iâve written elsewhere while using âThe Avengersâ as an
example (Joss Whedon fans, unite!), "SEO" is actually just a slang term for a
collection of best practices -- it is doing web development well, content
creation well, social media well, PR well, and so on. This is why successful
SEO, and digital marketing in general, necessitates that companies
âassembleâ a holistic, integrated team with expertise in numerous
disciplines. And that includes public relations.
Rand Fishkin once tweeted a similar sentiment:
Here, Iâll cover how PR relates to content and linkbuilding.
PR By Any Other Nameâ
I can already hear the groans: âBut, wait! Iâm not a PR flak!
Iâm an inbound marketer!â I completely understand â as a
former journalist, who only later went into SEO, I specifically had been looking
for something in marketing that was not PR. But the fact remains that much of
inbound marketing is just PR by another name:
Are you interacting with influencers, journalists, and bloggers on Twitter?
Sure, you can call yourself a âsocial-media marketerâ â but
you are really doing PR
Are you pitching guest posts by-lined articles to news outlets and other
online publications? It is not âguest post marketingâ â it is
PR.
Are you e-mailing people in the hopes of getting links, mentions, or anything
similar? Itâs often called âe-mail outreachâ today, but it is
just doing PR via a specific communications channel
It took me a long time to accept the fact that a lot of what we do as
âSEOsâ is actually, well, PR. But the sooner that we accept that
fact and throw away our preconceived notions about PR, the sooner that we can
start to learn, adopt and benefit from its best practices.
Hereâs the kicker: Technologies and communications channels change, but
people do not. Publicists, for example, may contact reporters with Twitter more
than the telephone today â but it is still one human being talking with
another human being. And PR experts know how to work with people. Social media
is often just a communications channel â and not a discipline unto itself
â that can be used by PR professionals, customer-service representatives,
lead generators, and more.
The Basics of PR Strategy
There are many types of PR. But since the idea for this post was born out of a
discussion on guest posts, I will discuss PR strategy here specifically on
pitching content and story ideas to journalists and bloggers. This is a brief
summary of some of the ways that The Cline Group works with our PR clients
â and the resulting âhitsâ (in PR-speak) give them the added
bonus of gaining quality, natural links and social media exposure as well!
The first thing to understand is that public relations is an art, not a
science. There are specific, defined ways to create XML sitemaps, ensure that
Google can crawl and index a website, avoid duplicate-content issues, reduce
page-load time, and more. PR methods, however, can vary as drastically as the
number of people using them.
Here, I will present the overall strategy that The Cline Group uses in our
public-relations work. This strategic, step-by-step process delivers the best
results.
1. Goal Identification
PR is not an end. It is a means to an end. The goal is not to âget
coverageâ â the goal is to get coverage that supports a
companyâs overall business and marketing goals. Here are some examples of
our PR clientsâ goals:
We want to gain VC funding or to exit by selling
We want to maximize downloads of our mobile application
We want to gain more leads who will become users of our B2B software
We want to build our brand through authoritative content
It is useless to create a PR strategy without first having a clear sense of
the objective.
2. Target Market Identification
The PR team must then research and compile a list of the general targeted
audiences based on the goals that the client established. Here are some for the
above examples:
Investment: Angel investors, start-up founders, corporate VC funds
Mobile Downloads: People who would be interested in a mobile app (of the given
type)
B2B Leads: The business owners, executives, and managers who would be
interested in the solutions that the B2B software provides
Content: The people who would be interested in the information that the
content communicates
3. Messaging and Positioning
Once the goals are determined and the target markets are identified, then the
PR team can determine the positioning (how will you brand the
company/individual/product/content to the target markets) and messaging (what
text, images, and more will you use to communicate the positioning).
Take one of our mobile-app clients, MediSafe Project. Which of the following
pitches do you think would be more likely to interest reporters, and, in the
end, their readers?
âMediSafe reminds people to take their medication.â
âA year and a half ago, Bob Shorâs diabetic dad asked him if he
had seen his dad take his insulin. Bobâs answer, âNo, I didnât
see you take your medsâ was interpreted by his father as âNo, you
havenât taken them.â His dad overdosed that day, which Bob says was
the reason he and his brother Rotem created MediSafe, a collaborative app that
helps keep track of long-term medication.â
The second example is the opening paragraph of a Cult of Mac article. That
coverage came from positioning MediSafe as a personal story rather than as just
another random app.
4. Media List Creation
The next step is to compile a list of the outlets â and the
most-appropriate writers at those outlets â that are read by the
identified target audiences. The importance of this phase of the process cannot
be emphasized enough.
An ideal media list should usually be comprised of publications that have all
of the following (in both PR and digital contexts):
The publications that are read by the target audience
The specific writers at those outlets that will likely be most interested in
what you are pitching
Publications with large readerships
Outlets (and writers) with large social-media followings
Publications whose online sites have high Domain Authority
When compiling media lists, remember that time is a limited resource. There
are only so many hours that a PR team can devote to a campaign. At one extreme,
they could send the same, generic press release to thousands of outlets via a
wire service and just hope for the best. At the other extreme, they could focus
all of their efforts on a single reporter at a single outlet that is highly
desired. A simplistic example: Say a PR executive has one hour of pitching time
â should he or she spend one hour on one outlet or five minutes each on
twelve outlets? Usually, you want to be somewhere in the middle.
5. Press Release Development and Pitching
The final stage is to craft the actual pitches and press releases. Sometimes
the same press release can be used. Other times, it is best to create
individualized, tailored releases for each type of outlet or each specific
reporter. It just depends on the context.
One example of online pitching will be discussed in the next section.
A good PR strategy can lead to great SEO results such as this outcome from one
single campaign for iOnRoad, a mobile app that was later bought by Harman
International following our work (the PowerPoint slide originally contained an
animated GIF of Hugh Laurie â a.k.a. Dr. House â from back in his
British comedy TV days):
This one campaign netted 591 quality links from 253 authoritative domains
â and a lot more.
Whether digital marketers are promoting a company, a product, or a piece of
content, those who use this general strategy will be many steps ahead of the
competition. Sizemore once summarized the importance with the following
statement in this essay of his:
If I had to choose between your average link builder and an expert PR
professional who knew how to approach and interact with media outlets and
presented well on camera, Iâd go for the public relations person any day
of the week.
Twitter's a PR Gold Mine
Twitter specifically is an invaluable tool for PR pitching â but it must
be used strategically and wisely in this context.
My colleague Scott Piro, our EMEA Managing Director and Chief Strategy
Officer, has written a guide to using Twitter for media relations. I highly
suggest that Mozzers read his essay for more details (not that Iâm
biased!), but I will summarize some of his points here:
Many busy reporters do not answer their phones and receive countless e-mails,
but they do pay attention to Twitter
Writers will often say in their Twitter bios whether they want (or do not
want) to be tweeted with pitches
Twitter is public, so do not give away too many details of an exclusive story
â switch to e-mail or the phone as soon as possible
Link to a press release somewhere online (on a company website or on a wire
service)
Know your audience and when to be more formal and when to be more friendly
Piro also gives two general examples of Twitter pitches:
The Benign Intro: @journalist Do you accept story pitches? If yes, whatâs
the best way to send you one? THX
The FYI: @journalist I emailed a story idea to your [media outlet name]
address. Hope u can take a look; I think itâs rly a good fit
PR: The Old and New Off-Page SEO
Iâd like to close this post with the rest of my comment on Lopezâs
earlier Moz essay:
When I was a journalist, the point of submitting freelance articles or op-ed
articles was to publish a piece of quality content to build your "brand" (as a
writer or pundit). It was not primarily to get links (especially when links did
not exist before the public Internet). In PR, companies submit what are called
"by-lined articles" to build a brand and raise awareness of your company among
the readers of a certain publication. (If you sell widgets, then you want
exposure in a media outlet that is read by people who buy widgets.) It is not
primarily to get links. Today, it's called "guest posts."
The same is true today. When my company gets articles in specific, targeted
media outlets for clients, the point is first to build a brand and second to get
referral traffic (and hopefully leads or sales) via a link in the author's
biography or elsewhere. No-follow or not, it didn't matterâ
I now advocate that no one do anything with the primary purpose of "getting
links." Do the great content, promote it on social media, and the links will
come naturally, indirectly, and organically. You are earning them and not
building them. One of these links are worth ten of the others.
Example: My agency gets a client a great by-line article in a great outlet.
The article may contain a (do-follow or not) backlink or not. But it doesn't
matter -- the exposure is what matters. Then, the readers will see the content
and perhaps write about the company on their own blogs with links. It snowballs
from there. But in the end, it's not directly about the links. As long as a
company does all of the "SEO" best-practices, the good links will come
themselves over time.
I would submit that this is what Google still likes. It is "guest posting" for
reasons other than links. The same is true for press releases -- you distribute
news releases to get coverage, not links. The links will then come later.
It all comes down to what Iâve called the âPR-based SEO
processâ:
The idea can be summarized as such:
Do something newsworthy
Create newsworthy content based on what has been done
Promote the company and content
Repeat as often as possible
Linkbuilders often ask themselves: âWhy would this website want to link
to us?â Reporters ask a related question (at least to themselves):
âI get dozens of pitches a day â why should I write about
you?â
If you can answer this question, youâve got a great head start. As I
wrote in the linked post above:
What can a company do that would interest journalists? The possibilities are
limited only by the imagination â release a new product, hire a big-name
executive, conduct an authoritative analysis of the state of the industry, and
so on. Then, create quality, engaging content in the context of the action
â a blog post, an infographic, a press release, a video, a podcast, and so
on.
The next step is crucial: use traditional public relations to promote the
companyâs news â and use online PR and social media to promote the
content created for the news to obtain backlinks, citations, and social-media
mentions. This practice will yield far better online PR results than just
stuffing backlinks into meaningless press releases.
Hereâs the secret: Reporters want to write about you. Years ago, space
in a newspaper and minutes in a broadcast were limited. Journalists could be
picky. Today, however, they know as well as we do that âcontent is
kingâ and the way to maximize traffic and (for their purposes) advertising
revenue. Writers are under constant pressure to write and write and write since
websites can support an almost-infinite amount of content.
So, it can be easier to convince them. Just give them a nudge through the
strategies that weâve presented here.
For more details on SEO and public relations, I invite you to see my SMX Milan
2013 presentation and notes. I will also speak on a similar subject at SMX West
in March 2014. I hope to see you there!
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/PrnbM-I1Fjg/an-introduction-to-pr-strategy-for-seos
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
SEOs'
Posted by SamuelScottThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the
main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The
author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz,
Inc.
In case you missed it, Googleâs head of web spam, Matt Cutts, wrote this
on January 20: âOkay, Iâm calling it: if youâre using guest
blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.â
Three days later, Jen Lopez of Moz responded with this excellent post on
âguest blogging with a purposeâ:
As with anything, you don't want to be out there trying willy-nilly to get
your posts on every blog for the sole purpose of building (probably bad) links.
It's important to have this tied to your business and marketing goals, as you
would with any other tactic. SEO is only one piece of the larger strategy, and
if you focus solely on writing posts for link building purposes, you're missing
out on a ton of other possibilities.
In Lopezâs post, I commented in some detail that âguest
postsâ are really just another name for what the public relations industry
calls âby-lined articlesâ and that the goals of the two should be
identical. In response later in that thread, Lopez and Everett Sizemore invited
me to elaborate on the âPR side of SEOâ in a detailed Moz post.
Well, letâs get to it!
Marketers, Assemble!
(photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)
First, letâs set the record straight.
As Iâve written elsewhere while using âThe Avengersâ as an
example (Joss Whedon fans, unite!), "SEO" is actually just a slang term for a
collection of best practices -- it is doing web development well, content
creation well, social media well, PR well, and so on. This is why successful
SEO, and digital marketing in general, necessitates that companies
âassembleâ a holistic, integrated team with expertise in numerous
disciplines. And that includes public relations.
Rand Fishkin once tweeted a similar sentiment:
Here, Iâll cover how PR relates to content and linkbuilding.
PR By Any Other Nameâ
I can already hear the groans: âBut, wait! Iâm not a PR flak!
Iâm an inbound marketer!â I completely understand â as a
former journalist, who only later went into SEO, I specifically had been looking
for something in marketing that was not PR. But the fact remains that much of
inbound marketing is just PR by another name:
Are you interacting with influencers, journalists, and bloggers on Twitter?
Sure, you can call yourself a âsocial-media marketerâ â but
you are really doing PR
Are you pitching guest posts by-lined articles to news outlets and other
online publications? It is not âguest post marketingâ â it is
PR.
Are you e-mailing people in the hopes of getting links, mentions, or anything
similar? Itâs often called âe-mail outreachâ today, but it is
just doing PR via a specific communications channel
It took me a long time to accept the fact that a lot of what we do as
âSEOsâ is actually, well, PR. But the sooner that we accept that
fact and throw away our preconceived notions about PR, the sooner that we can
start to learn, adopt and benefit from its best practices.
Hereâs the kicker: Technologies and communications channels change, but
people do not. Publicists, for example, may contact reporters with Twitter more
than the telephone today â but it is still one human being talking with
another human being. And PR experts know how to work with people. Social media
is often just a communications channel â and not a discipline unto itself
â that can be used by PR professionals, customer-service representatives,
lead generators, and more.
The Basics of PR Strategy
There are many types of PR. But since the idea for this post was born out of a
discussion on guest posts, I will discuss PR strategy here specifically on
pitching content and story ideas to journalists and bloggers. This is a brief
summary of some of the ways that The Cline Group works with our PR clients
â and the resulting âhitsâ (in PR-speak) give them the added
bonus of gaining quality, natural links and social media exposure as well!
The first thing to understand is that public relations is an art, not a
science. There are specific, defined ways to create XML sitemaps, ensure that
Google can crawl and index a website, avoid duplicate-content issues, reduce
page-load time, and more. PR methods, however, can vary as drastically as the
number of people using them.
Here, I will present the overall strategy that The Cline Group uses in our
public-relations work. This strategic, step-by-step process delivers the best
results.
1. Goal Identification
PR is not an end. It is a means to an end. The goal is not to âget
coverageâ â the goal is to get coverage that supports a
companyâs overall business and marketing goals. Here are some examples of
our PR clientsâ goals:
We want to gain VC funding or to exit by selling
We want to maximize downloads of our mobile application
We want to gain more leads who will become users of our B2B software
We want to build our brand through authoritative content
It is useless to create a PR strategy without first having a clear sense of
the objective.
2. Target Market Identification
The PR team must then research and compile a list of the general targeted
audiences based on the goals that the client established. Here are some for the
above examples:
Investment: Angel investors, start-up founders, corporate VC funds
Mobile Downloads: People who would be interested in a mobile app (of the given
type)
B2B Leads: The business owners, executives, and managers who would be
interested in the solutions that the B2B software provides
Content: The people who would be interested in the information that the
content communicates
3. Messaging and Positioning
Once the goals are determined and the target markets are identified, then the
PR team can determine the positioning (how will you brand the
company/individual/product/content to the target markets) and messaging (what
text, images, and more will you use to communicate the positioning).
Take one of our mobile-app clients, MediSafe Project. Which of the following
pitches do you think would be more likely to interest reporters, and, in the
end, their readers?
âMediSafe reminds people to take their medication.â
âA year and a half ago, Bob Shorâs diabetic dad asked him if he
had seen his dad take his insulin. Bobâs answer, âNo, I didnât
see you take your medsâ was interpreted by his father as âNo, you
havenât taken them.â His dad overdosed that day, which Bob says was
the reason he and his brother Rotem created MediSafe, a collaborative app that
helps keep track of long-term medication.â
The second example is the opening paragraph of a Cult of Mac article. That
coverage came from positioning MediSafe as a personal story rather than as just
another random app.
4. Media List Creation
The next step is to compile a list of the outlets â and the
most-appropriate writers at those outlets â that are read by the
identified target audiences. The importance of this phase of the process cannot
be emphasized enough.
An ideal media list should usually be comprised of publications that have all
of the following (in both PR and digital contexts):
The publications that are read by the target audience
The specific writers at those outlets that will likely be most interested in
what you are pitching
Publications with large readerships
Outlets (and writers) with large social-media followings
Publications whose online sites have high Domain Authority
When compiling media lists, remember that time is a limited resource. There
are only so many hours that a PR team can devote to a campaign. At one extreme,
they could send the same, generic press release to thousands of outlets via a
wire service and just hope for the best. At the other extreme, they could focus
all of their efforts on a single reporter at a single outlet that is highly
desired. A simplistic example: Say a PR executive has one hour of pitching time
â should he or she spend one hour on one outlet or five minutes each on
twelve outlets? Usually, you want to be somewhere in the middle.
5. Press Release Development and Pitching
The final stage is to craft the actual pitches and press releases. Sometimes
the same press release can be used. Other times, it is best to create
individualized, tailored releases for each type of outlet or each specific
reporter. It just depends on the context.
One example of online pitching will be discussed in the next section.
A good PR strategy can lead to great SEO results such as this outcome from one
single campaign for iOnRoad, a mobile app that was later bought by Harman
International following our work (the PowerPoint slide originally contained an
animated GIF of Hugh Laurie â a.k.a. Dr. House â from back in his
British comedy TV days):
This one campaign netted 591 quality links from 253 authoritative domains
â and a lot more.
Whether digital marketers are promoting a company, a product, or a piece of
content, those who use this general strategy will be many steps ahead of the
competition. Sizemore once summarized the importance with the following
statement in this essay of his:
If I had to choose between your average link builder and an expert PR
professional who knew how to approach and interact with media outlets and
presented well on camera, Iâd go for the public relations person any day
of the week.
Twitter's a PR Gold Mine
Twitter specifically is an invaluable tool for PR pitching â but it must
be used strategically and wisely in this context.
My colleague Scott Piro, our EMEA Managing Director and Chief Strategy
Officer, has written a guide to using Twitter for media relations. I highly
suggest that Mozzers read his essay for more details (not that Iâm
biased!), but I will summarize some of his points here:
Many busy reporters do not answer their phones and receive countless e-mails,
but they do pay attention to Twitter
Writers will often say in their Twitter bios whether they want (or do not
want) to be tweeted with pitches
Twitter is public, so do not give away too many details of an exclusive story
â switch to e-mail or the phone as soon as possible
Link to a press release somewhere online (on a company website or on a wire
service)
Know your audience and when to be more formal and when to be more friendly
Piro also gives two general examples of Twitter pitches:
The Benign Intro: @journalist Do you accept story pitches? If yes, whatâs
the best way to send you one? THX
The FYI: @journalist I emailed a story idea to your [media outlet name]
address. Hope u can take a look; I think itâs rly a good fit
PR: The Old and New Off-Page SEO
Iâd like to close this post with the rest of my comment on Lopezâs
earlier Moz essay:
When I was a journalist, the point of submitting freelance articles or op-ed
articles was to publish a piece of quality content to build your "brand" (as a
writer or pundit). It was not primarily to get links (especially when links did
not exist before the public Internet). In PR, companies submit what are called
"by-lined articles" to build a brand and raise awareness of your company among
the readers of a certain publication. (If you sell widgets, then you want
exposure in a media outlet that is read by people who buy widgets.) It is not
primarily to get links. Today, it's called "guest posts."
The same is true today. When my company gets articles in specific, targeted
media outlets for clients, the point is first to build a brand and second to get
referral traffic (and hopefully leads or sales) via a link in the author's
biography or elsewhere. No-follow or not, it didn't matterâ
I now advocate that no one do anything with the primary purpose of "getting
links." Do the great content, promote it on social media, and the links will
come naturally, indirectly, and organically. You are earning them and not
building them. One of these links are worth ten of the others.
Example: My agency gets a client a great by-line article in a great outlet.
The article may contain a (do-follow or not) backlink or not. But it doesn't
matter -- the exposure is what matters. Then, the readers will see the content
and perhaps write about the company on their own blogs with links. It snowballs
from there. But in the end, it's not directly about the links. As long as a
company does all of the "SEO" best-practices, the good links will come
themselves over time.
I would submit that this is what Google still likes. It is "guest posting" for
reasons other than links. The same is true for press releases -- you distribute
news releases to get coverage, not links. The links will then come later.
It all comes down to what Iâve called the âPR-based SEO
processâ:
The idea can be summarized as such:
Do something newsworthy
Create newsworthy content based on what has been done
Promote the company and content
Repeat as often as possible
Linkbuilders often ask themselves: âWhy would this website want to link
to us?â Reporters ask a related question (at least to themselves):
âI get dozens of pitches a day â why should I write about
you?â
If you can answer this question, youâve got a great head start. As I
wrote in the linked post above:
What can a company do that would interest journalists? The possibilities are
limited only by the imagination â release a new product, hire a big-name
executive, conduct an authoritative analysis of the state of the industry, and
so on. Then, create quality, engaging content in the context of the action
â a blog post, an infographic, a press release, a video, a podcast, and so
on.
The next step is crucial: use traditional public relations to promote the
companyâs news â and use online PR and social media to promote the
content created for the news to obtain backlinks, citations, and social-media
mentions. This practice will yield far better online PR results than just
stuffing backlinks into meaningless press releases.
Hereâs the secret: Reporters want to write about you. Years ago, space
in a newspaper and minutes in a broadcast were limited. Journalists could be
picky. Today, however, they know as well as we do that âcontent is
kingâ and the way to maximize traffic and (for their purposes) advertising
revenue. Writers are under constant pressure to write and write and write since
websites can support an almost-infinite amount of content.
So, it can be easier to convince them. Just give them a nudge through the
strategies that weâve presented here.
For more details on SEO and public relations, I invite you to see my SMX Milan
2013 presentation and notes. I will also speak on a similar subject at SMX West
in March 2014. I hope to see you there!
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/PrnbM-I1Fjg/an-introduction-to-pr-strategy-for-seos
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Great Backlinks] TITLE
Build Great Backlinks has posted a new item, 'A Deep Dive into Google MyAnswers'
Posted by gfiorelli1
A few months ago I published here on Moz SEO in the Personalization Age, where
I explained why, once and for all, SEOs need to be aware of the personalization
of SERPs and the mechanisms by which Google customizes our search results. I
also suggested some ways to convert what at first sight is just a complication
into a competitive advantage.
This post is the ideal continuation of that one.
Here, however, I won't dig into SEO theories and patents, but I will try to
put order in all of the existing information about the elements that compose
MyAnswers, highlighting some clarification that many - wrongly - absent-mindedly
forget, and suggesting actions that can mean the difference between winning or
not the personalized SERPs.
You can call this post "Guide to MyAnswers" if you want, although I do not
pretend to have written a real guide.
Finally, this post is also the result of conversations I had with Giorgio
Taverniti, one of the leading experts on this topic and the creator of the most
important Italian SEO Forum.
Personalized private search
When we speak about personalized search results, it would be more correct to
use the term private search results.
It is not just semantics but how Google refers to them, and is also a result
of the confrontation with the European Community.
Private is slightly different from Personalized, since it implies that a SERP
is personalized only by our web history and only by the direct contacts on
Google Plus and Gmail.
Keep in mind this detail, because it will explain a point I will affirm later
in the post.
A classic example of Private Search is this:
Private Search consists of two elements:
Google Now, or our offline activities moved into our own online life;
Google Plus, or anything that I or people in my Circles share by G+.
Google Now
Right now you should be quite used to this feature offered by Google also in
the desktop search.
Usually we refer to it for things like flight reminders, hotel and restaurant
reservations, packages' deliveries, and for geo-targeted contextual suggestions.
Google Now generally operates in two eco-systems:
Mobile (and for that reason every example Google offers is mobile);
Vocal (you can create Google Now reminders with a voice command).
The fact that it is now also present in the classic desktop search is just a
sign of the times (and of the shift from desktop search to "everywhere" search,
thanks also to the instant synchronization of the Google account information in
different devices).
As I wrote in SEO in the Personalization Age, everybody can ask to be
integrated into Google Now. Be advised that it is not an immediate inclusion, as
a nine-step process is needed to obtain the approval from Google).
The integration is possible using one of these Schema for Gmail:
RSVP actions for events;
Review action;
One-click action;
Go-to action;
Flight interactive cards.
This video from the last Google I/O explains well all these options:
Every Schema for Gmail is interesting, but the most immediately useful ones
are:
Review action, which offers us the opportunity to ask and let our clients to
write reviews of our product, hotel, or service (or simply to evaluate them with
the classic starred system) directly from their inbox. As you can see, it can be
a big help in obtaining more reviews, as it responds to the old classic "Don't
make me think" principle;
One-click action, which can be especially useful for eCommerce sites. Imagine
you have users subscribed to your coupon/offers newsletter. When they will
receive the newsletter with the One-click action SaveAction Schema implemented,
they will be able to save the coupon in their Google Offers account.
If you want to dig more into the integration with Google Now, you can check
out these two great posts:
How Gmailâs Schema.org Support Changes the Game for Email Marketers;
Email Schema: 6 Things You Need To Know Plus Some Conspiracy Theory.
Google Plus
I must admit that I still see many SEOs confused about how Google Plus
influences Private Search.
To be honest, the fact that Google presents both Google Plus and Knowledge
Graph (and sometimes Answers cards) in the same positions, or even mixed (i.e.:
Google Plus Profiles enriched with Knowledge Graph information) is not helping
to dispell this confusion. This, among other things, reflects something that
still not everybody understands: Google Plus is a multi-platform product, and
not only a Social Network.
Google Plus directly influences Private Search in three different ways, each
one depending on the visibility we give to the message we share on G+:
1. Only You (or "shared privately")
As you can see, the visibility in SERPs is practically immediate (10 seconds
is the time I needed to switch accounts).
Privately shared Google Plus posts can be also images, as Giorgio pointed out
to me:
Opportunities in sharing privately
Imagine you did a good job building an authoritative profile on Google Plus,
so that you have been circled by influencers.
When you don't have a close relationship with those influencers and your
outreach emails may very well bounce back or be ignored, then sharing a private
post with a link to content you think they may may like and share is a great
alternative.
Thanks to this sort of inception marketing, the influencers will quite surely
find that post in the first page for those keywords you are targeting them for
and about which you have created the content you want them to promote.
If you have wisely crafted the post in order to have a catchy tagline (the
first words, which will compose the title of the search snippet) and a
convincing description with a strong call to action just after, then your post
has a strong opportunity for being clicked, discovered, and shared by that
influencer.
2. Limited
There are two kinds of limited Google Plus posts in SERPs.
Posts that are shared with us because we are part of a Circle (not publicly
shared), and we have the person/business page sharing it circled too;
Posts that are posted publicly by people/brands, who are not in the Knowledge
Graph but whom we have circled
For instance, Rand is not a node in the Knowledge Graph (yet), so what I see in
the right sidebar of the SERPs is his information taken from his Google Plus
profile and his latest post there in a limited-labeled box.
Opportunities in limited sharing
Usually people tend to share posts only using the Public option. By doing so,
they lose the opportunity to obtain more SERP real estate for branded searches.
3. Public
A posts is public when a user or a brand shares it with all the Google Plus
users. These posts are presented as organic search results, and they can rank as
if they were a normal web page and even reach the first positions and remain in
the SERPs if they earn links.
They aren't tagged with Public as it was once, but they present authorship
data, and we always see them in the first page if we have circled that
user/brand.
Opportunities in sharing publicly
The opportunities are obvious in this case.
The more people who have circled your profile or your business page, the more
they will see your publicly shared posts in a outstanding position in the SERPs,
including for very competitive head tail keywords.
Follow those simple rules about Google Plus posts' search snippets, and you
will be able to obtain important volumes of organic traffic to your G+ profile
and, from there, to your site.
Be aware, though, that Public shares tend to suffer when the Freshness effect
decays and, if the post is not reinforced with backlinks, it will tend to slip
out of the first page and, ultimately, from the SERPs.
The difference between Search Plus Your World (SPYW) and MyAnswers
This snapshot above is an example of how SPYW was working.
As you can see, Google was declaring how many personalized results were pulled
in, enhancing them with the styled person icon, and showing the photo and name
of the person who socially shared the content. It even offered us a list of
people and pages on Google+ related to the search we did.
Now, with MyAnswers, this is not so anymore:
No indication of how many search snippets are personalizing the SERP. No
person icon.
Of note, there is also no sign of the name of the person who socially shared
the content if he is not in our Circles. The SERP, then, is personalized just
with those Google Plus posts that were shared by people we have in our Circles.
Finally, there's no sign of "Suggested people and pages" in the right column.
These differences show one extremely important difference between SPYW and
MyAnswers:
In SPYW, if we shared something with a friend, it was seen in a preferred
position in SERPs by his friends, as well. In MyAnswers it is not.
Giorgio and I did a very simple experiment, with me sharing a post with him
and "Extended Circles." The result was that Giorgio could see my post in a SERP
when logged in with his personal account, but not when logged in with a test G+
profile that didn't have me circled but did have his personal account circled.
What does this mean? That sharing something with "Extended Circles," as Google
itself explains in a somewhat involute way, offers an opportunity to make the
post visible to un-circled profiles only in Google Plus, but not in SERPs.
As I was saying in the very beginning of this post, this is why we should
speak of Private Search and not of Personalized Search.
And, as we will see, there's just one way to show something shared on Plus to
friends of friends: the Google +Post Ads.
The MyAnswers catalogue
The version of the catalogue I outline here must be considered just a snapshot
in time of the actual situation. As Dr. Pete taught us with his #MozCast
updates, Google is continuously experimenting with new formats and layouts.
MyAnswers elements are present in the SERPs both in the right-hand column and
in the main body of the SERPs.
On the right we can find:
Personal profiles of users we have circled
Personal Gmail contact information
This is "Only You" information pushed into the SERP from our Gmail, and Google
shows it if the contact we have in Gmail doesn't have a Google Plus profile.
Note that if he/she has a Google Plus profile, this one with an "Add to circles"
button will be shown instead:
Business pages
If the brand is not a node in the Knowledge Graph, the business page will be
shown only if we have circled it.
If we haven't, that space on the right will be empty:
Please note that this particular example is quite strange, because Moz is
present with a page in Wikipedia, so the absence of a Moz Knowledge Graph box,
or of Knowledge Graph information in the Google Plus business box seems quite
odd and is something we should investigate further.
Google Plus local pages
There are three cases, and in all of them the box is visible whether or not
you're signed in. The biggest difference is that we won't see whether our
circled friends have reviewed a local business if we are signed out.
1) A non-verified G+ local page, as in the case of the Osteria Satyricon in
Bolonia (click and you will see how the "verified business" icon is absent).
2) A verified but not circled page, as in the case of the restaurant of a
friend of mine in Valencia:
3) A verified and circled page:
Another possibility: A Knowledge Graph and Google Plus page/business page:
The box, as can be easily seen, is a composition of Knowledge Graph
information (extract from Wikipedia and "People also search for") and Google
Plus (number of followers and recent posts).
This box is also visible if you're not logged in.
Pay attention, though, that it doesn't seem working in international Google
searches, such as the Spanish or Italian ones. At least, though, in the majority
of cases on Google.com it does.
Knowledge Graph, Google Plus, and Google Now
Substantially similar to the previous case, but with the "Keep me updated"
button, which functions to push posts by the followed profile in our Google Now
Cards.
It seems it is only shown if the person is a node in the Knowledge Graph and
it is not available for Business Pages (at least I wasn't able to find any).
Google Plus Hashtags Search
Since last September it has been possible to search for hashtags in Google.
That means that if you tag a post on Plus with a hashtag, your content may
have the opportunity to be shown in Google searches to people who have not
circled you and are not signed in.
It would be worth an independent analysis of how Google chooses which public
posts to show for a given hashtag, but what it is quite clear is that freshness
is an important factor, as the posts shown tend to be the ones most recently
shared.
Also pay attention to the hashtags you decide to use, as it seems that the
hashtag must have at least a minimum of usage in order to be shown in Google
search. For instance, I tried to search #MozCast and this was the result:
Opportunities
The only way to be always visible with a box in the right-hand column of the
SERPs when people are not logged in and/or have not circled us is being present
in the Knowledge Graph and having a Profile/Business Page on Plus, or having a
verified Google Plus Local Page.
In the first case:
If we already are a node in the Knowledge Graph, then we must have an active
page on Google Plus. There are tons of Brands that doesn't know this and are
missing a wonderful opportunity to lend visibility to their content.
If we are not present in the Knowledge Graph but have an active Google Plus
profile/business page, we can try to earn/force inclusion in the sources that
the Knowledge Graph uses: Wikipedia and Freebase.
If you have a Google Plus Local Page, then you simply should start posting
updates.
In the main body of a SERP we can find:
Shared Google Plus posts
As I mentioned previously, the Google Plus posts are visible both to people
who are signed in and to those who are signed out if the posts are public, but
they only easily rank in a top position for head-tail keywords for people who
have circled us.
And, keep in mind that freshness has a key role.
URLs shared on Google Plus
If someone we have circled shares a URL in Google Plus, the web document
shared will be shown on the first page in our private searches even if it isn't
in a neutral search or in a more prominent position that actually is ranking:
Note that only one person needs to share the URL, which obviously means that
if we were able to earn followers on Google Plus, the simple act of sharing the
URL with them will make that page stand out in their SERPs, even for very
competitive keywords.
URLs that have earned +1s
If someone we have circled +1s a web document, we will see that same page
excel in the SERPs for all the keywords that page may rank for:
Google Plus local reviews
This represents a great opportunity for local businesses. If a business has
been circled by an influencer, it should have to try being reviewed by him on
Google Plus Local (Remember: You can do it using the Schema for Gmail, too).
If he agrees, all his followers will see your search snippet enhanced by his
annotation, and if that is 4 or 5 stars...
YouTube
We should not forget that Google Plus and private search are also influencing
our YouTube experience when signed in.
If we click on the Social link in the left menu, we will see all the YouTube
videos people we have circled have shared on Google Plus:
Also remember that if someone we have circled not only shares a YouTube video
but also comments about it on Google Plus, then we will see his comment in the
YouTube page of that video too. Just check the latest Matt Cutts video about
Paid Links, and you will see a good example of this. Note, though, that that
same Matt Cutts video doesn't show any "Google Plus activity" in the SERPs.
+Post ads
Last December Google launched the Beta of +Post Ads.
+Post Ads may be defined as the Google version of the old (and now dismissed)
Facebook Promoted Posts.
For Google they also are:
A way of selling ads on Plus without publishing them on Plus;
A brilliant idea, because it is a way to bring more people into Google Plus
but making them pay to advertise.
The +Post Ads are included in the Google GDN, therefore we can easily target
the right audience and do really targeted inbound marketing with practically
every kind of content we can create on Google Plus:
Images+text
Videos
Hangouts on air (pre, during, and post-HOA)
Users can interact with the +Post Ad directly in the site where it is
published without the need to visit our Google Plus page. Obviously, they need
to have a Google Profile.
From an SEO point of view, +Post Ads are a great opportunity. In fact, the
more people who share and +1 the ad (and comment on it if it is a video), the
more all the people in their Circles will start seeing our post standing out in
SERPs (and YouTube) even for the most competitive keywords.
Conclusion
Private Search, with its combination of Google Now and Social Search (aka:
Google Plus) represent a big percentage of the SERPs users see, and its majority
in case of mobile search users on Android devices.
Google Plus, then, due to its cross-product platform nature, influences the
search experience also of the users not using it as a Social Network.
For these reasons we must understand how Private Search works, recognize its
elements in the SERPs and take advantage of the opportunities it offers to us..
Maybe it's time to start optimizing our Google Plus content, don't you think?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/xz-WqVpSsK0/a-deep-dive-into-google-myanswers
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Posted by gfiorelli1
A few months ago I published here on Moz SEO in the Personalization Age, where
I explained why, once and for all, SEOs need to be aware of the personalization
of SERPs and the mechanisms by which Google customizes our search results. I
also suggested some ways to convert what at first sight is just a complication
into a competitive advantage.
This post is the ideal continuation of that one.
Here, however, I won't dig into SEO theories and patents, but I will try to
put order in all of the existing information about the elements that compose
MyAnswers, highlighting some clarification that many - wrongly - absent-mindedly
forget, and suggesting actions that can mean the difference between winning or
not the personalized SERPs.
You can call this post "Guide to MyAnswers" if you want, although I do not
pretend to have written a real guide.
Finally, this post is also the result of conversations I had with Giorgio
Taverniti, one of the leading experts on this topic and the creator of the most
important Italian SEO Forum.
Personalized private search
When we speak about personalized search results, it would be more correct to
use the term private search results.
It is not just semantics but how Google refers to them, and is also a result
of the confrontation with the European Community.
Private is slightly different from Personalized, since it implies that a SERP
is personalized only by our web history and only by the direct contacts on
Google Plus and Gmail.
Keep in mind this detail, because it will explain a point I will affirm later
in the post.
A classic example of Private Search is this:
Private Search consists of two elements:
Google Now, or our offline activities moved into our own online life;
Google Plus, or anything that I or people in my Circles share by G+.
Google Now
Right now you should be quite used to this feature offered by Google also in
the desktop search.
Usually we refer to it for things like flight reminders, hotel and restaurant
reservations, packages' deliveries, and for geo-targeted contextual suggestions.
Google Now generally operates in two eco-systems:
Mobile (and for that reason every example Google offers is mobile);
Vocal (you can create Google Now reminders with a voice command).
The fact that it is now also present in the classic desktop search is just a
sign of the times (and of the shift from desktop search to "everywhere" search,
thanks also to the instant synchronization of the Google account information in
different devices).
As I wrote in SEO in the Personalization Age, everybody can ask to be
integrated into Google Now. Be advised that it is not an immediate inclusion, as
a nine-step process is needed to obtain the approval from Google).
The integration is possible using one of these Schema for Gmail:
RSVP actions for events;
Review action;
One-click action;
Go-to action;
Flight interactive cards.
This video from the last Google I/O explains well all these options:
Every Schema for Gmail is interesting, but the most immediately useful ones
are:
Review action, which offers us the opportunity to ask and let our clients to
write reviews of our product, hotel, or service (or simply to evaluate them with
the classic starred system) directly from their inbox. As you can see, it can be
a big help in obtaining more reviews, as it responds to the old classic "Don't
make me think" principle;
One-click action, which can be especially useful for eCommerce sites. Imagine
you have users subscribed to your coupon/offers newsletter. When they will
receive the newsletter with the One-click action SaveAction Schema implemented,
they will be able to save the coupon in their Google Offers account.
If you want to dig more into the integration with Google Now, you can check
out these two great posts:
How Gmailâs Schema.org Support Changes the Game for Email Marketers;
Email Schema: 6 Things You Need To Know Plus Some Conspiracy Theory.
Google Plus
I must admit that I still see many SEOs confused about how Google Plus
influences Private Search.
To be honest, the fact that Google presents both Google Plus and Knowledge
Graph (and sometimes Answers cards) in the same positions, or even mixed (i.e.:
Google Plus Profiles enriched with Knowledge Graph information) is not helping
to dispell this confusion. This, among other things, reflects something that
still not everybody understands: Google Plus is a multi-platform product, and
not only a Social Network.
Google Plus directly influences Private Search in three different ways, each
one depending on the visibility we give to the message we share on G+:
1. Only You (or "shared privately")
As you can see, the visibility in SERPs is practically immediate (10 seconds
is the time I needed to switch accounts).
Privately shared Google Plus posts can be also images, as Giorgio pointed out
to me:
Opportunities in sharing privately
Imagine you did a good job building an authoritative profile on Google Plus,
so that you have been circled by influencers.
When you don't have a close relationship with those influencers and your
outreach emails may very well bounce back or be ignored, then sharing a private
post with a link to content you think they may may like and share is a great
alternative.
Thanks to this sort of inception marketing, the influencers will quite surely
find that post in the first page for those keywords you are targeting them for
and about which you have created the content you want them to promote.
If you have wisely crafted the post in order to have a catchy tagline (the
first words, which will compose the title of the search snippet) and a
convincing description with a strong call to action just after, then your post
has a strong opportunity for being clicked, discovered, and shared by that
influencer.
2. Limited
There are two kinds of limited Google Plus posts in SERPs.
Posts that are shared with us because we are part of a Circle (not publicly
shared), and we have the person/business page sharing it circled too;
Posts that are posted publicly by people/brands, who are not in the Knowledge
Graph but whom we have circled
For instance, Rand is not a node in the Knowledge Graph (yet), so what I see in
the right sidebar of the SERPs is his information taken from his Google Plus
profile and his latest post there in a limited-labeled box.
Opportunities in limited sharing
Usually people tend to share posts only using the Public option. By doing so,
they lose the opportunity to obtain more SERP real estate for branded searches.
3. Public
A posts is public when a user or a brand shares it with all the Google Plus
users. These posts are presented as organic search results, and they can rank as
if they were a normal web page and even reach the first positions and remain in
the SERPs if they earn links.
They aren't tagged with Public as it was once, but they present authorship
data, and we always see them in the first page if we have circled that
user/brand.
Opportunities in sharing publicly
The opportunities are obvious in this case.
The more people who have circled your profile or your business page, the more
they will see your publicly shared posts in a outstanding position in the SERPs,
including for very competitive head tail keywords.
Follow those simple rules about Google Plus posts' search snippets, and you
will be able to obtain important volumes of organic traffic to your G+ profile
and, from there, to your site.
Be aware, though, that Public shares tend to suffer when the Freshness effect
decays and, if the post is not reinforced with backlinks, it will tend to slip
out of the first page and, ultimately, from the SERPs.
The difference between Search Plus Your World (SPYW) and MyAnswers
This snapshot above is an example of how SPYW was working.
As you can see, Google was declaring how many personalized results were pulled
in, enhancing them with the styled person icon, and showing the photo and name
of the person who socially shared the content. It even offered us a list of
people and pages on Google+ related to the search we did.
Now, with MyAnswers, this is not so anymore:
No indication of how many search snippets are personalizing the SERP. No
person icon.
Of note, there is also no sign of the name of the person who socially shared
the content if he is not in our Circles. The SERP, then, is personalized just
with those Google Plus posts that were shared by people we have in our Circles.
Finally, there's no sign of "Suggested people and pages" in the right column.
These differences show one extremely important difference between SPYW and
MyAnswers:
In SPYW, if we shared something with a friend, it was seen in a preferred
position in SERPs by his friends, as well. In MyAnswers it is not.
Giorgio and I did a very simple experiment, with me sharing a post with him
and "Extended Circles." The result was that Giorgio could see my post in a SERP
when logged in with his personal account, but not when logged in with a test G+
profile that didn't have me circled but did have his personal account circled.
What does this mean? That sharing something with "Extended Circles," as Google
itself explains in a somewhat involute way, offers an opportunity to make the
post visible to un-circled profiles only in Google Plus, but not in SERPs.
As I was saying in the very beginning of this post, this is why we should
speak of Private Search and not of Personalized Search.
And, as we will see, there's just one way to show something shared on Plus to
friends of friends: the Google +Post Ads.
The MyAnswers catalogue
The version of the catalogue I outline here must be considered just a snapshot
in time of the actual situation. As Dr. Pete taught us with his #MozCast
updates, Google is continuously experimenting with new formats and layouts.
MyAnswers elements are present in the SERPs both in the right-hand column and
in the main body of the SERPs.
On the right we can find:
Personal profiles of users we have circled
Personal Gmail contact information
This is "Only You" information pushed into the SERP from our Gmail, and Google
shows it if the contact we have in Gmail doesn't have a Google Plus profile.
Note that if he/she has a Google Plus profile, this one with an "Add to circles"
button will be shown instead:
Business pages
If the brand is not a node in the Knowledge Graph, the business page will be
shown only if we have circled it.
If we haven't, that space on the right will be empty:
Please note that this particular example is quite strange, because Moz is
present with a page in Wikipedia, so the absence of a Moz Knowledge Graph box,
or of Knowledge Graph information in the Google Plus business box seems quite
odd and is something we should investigate further.
Google Plus local pages
There are three cases, and in all of them the box is visible whether or not
you're signed in. The biggest difference is that we won't see whether our
circled friends have reviewed a local business if we are signed out.
1) A non-verified G+ local page, as in the case of the Osteria Satyricon in
Bolonia (click and you will see how the "verified business" icon is absent).
2) A verified but not circled page, as in the case of the restaurant of a
friend of mine in Valencia:
3) A verified and circled page:
Another possibility: A Knowledge Graph and Google Plus page/business page:
The box, as can be easily seen, is a composition of Knowledge Graph
information (extract from Wikipedia and "People also search for") and Google
Plus (number of followers and recent posts).
This box is also visible if you're not logged in.
Pay attention, though, that it doesn't seem working in international Google
searches, such as the Spanish or Italian ones. At least, though, in the majority
of cases on Google.com it does.
Knowledge Graph, Google Plus, and Google Now
Substantially similar to the previous case, but with the "Keep me updated"
button, which functions to push posts by the followed profile in our Google Now
Cards.
It seems it is only shown if the person is a node in the Knowledge Graph and
it is not available for Business Pages (at least I wasn't able to find any).
Google Plus Hashtags Search
Since last September it has been possible to search for hashtags in Google.
That means that if you tag a post on Plus with a hashtag, your content may
have the opportunity to be shown in Google searches to people who have not
circled you and are not signed in.
It would be worth an independent analysis of how Google chooses which public
posts to show for a given hashtag, but what it is quite clear is that freshness
is an important factor, as the posts shown tend to be the ones most recently
shared.
Also pay attention to the hashtags you decide to use, as it seems that the
hashtag must have at least a minimum of usage in order to be shown in Google
search. For instance, I tried to search #MozCast and this was the result:
Opportunities
The only way to be always visible with a box in the right-hand column of the
SERPs when people are not logged in and/or have not circled us is being present
in the Knowledge Graph and having a Profile/Business Page on Plus, or having a
verified Google Plus Local Page.
In the first case:
If we already are a node in the Knowledge Graph, then we must have an active
page on Google Plus. There are tons of Brands that doesn't know this and are
missing a wonderful opportunity to lend visibility to their content.
If we are not present in the Knowledge Graph but have an active Google Plus
profile/business page, we can try to earn/force inclusion in the sources that
the Knowledge Graph uses: Wikipedia and Freebase.
If you have a Google Plus Local Page, then you simply should start posting
updates.
In the main body of a SERP we can find:
Shared Google Plus posts
As I mentioned previously, the Google Plus posts are visible both to people
who are signed in and to those who are signed out if the posts are public, but
they only easily rank in a top position for head-tail keywords for people who
have circled us.
And, keep in mind that freshness has a key role.
URLs shared on Google Plus
If someone we have circled shares a URL in Google Plus, the web document
shared will be shown on the first page in our private searches even if it isn't
in a neutral search or in a more prominent position that actually is ranking:
Note that only one person needs to share the URL, which obviously means that
if we were able to earn followers on Google Plus, the simple act of sharing the
URL with them will make that page stand out in their SERPs, even for very
competitive keywords.
URLs that have earned +1s
If someone we have circled +1s a web document, we will see that same page
excel in the SERPs for all the keywords that page may rank for:
Google Plus local reviews
This represents a great opportunity for local businesses. If a business has
been circled by an influencer, it should have to try being reviewed by him on
Google Plus Local (Remember: You can do it using the Schema for Gmail, too).
If he agrees, all his followers will see your search snippet enhanced by his
annotation, and if that is 4 or 5 stars...
YouTube
We should not forget that Google Plus and private search are also influencing
our YouTube experience when signed in.
If we click on the Social link in the left menu, we will see all the YouTube
videos people we have circled have shared on Google Plus:
Also remember that if someone we have circled not only shares a YouTube video
but also comments about it on Google Plus, then we will see his comment in the
YouTube page of that video too. Just check the latest Matt Cutts video about
Paid Links, and you will see a good example of this. Note, though, that that
same Matt Cutts video doesn't show any "Google Plus activity" in the SERPs.
+Post ads
Last December Google launched the Beta of +Post Ads.
+Post Ads may be defined as the Google version of the old (and now dismissed)
Facebook Promoted Posts.
For Google they also are:
A way of selling ads on Plus without publishing them on Plus;
A brilliant idea, because it is a way to bring more people into Google Plus
but making them pay to advertise.
The +Post Ads are included in the Google GDN, therefore we can easily target
the right audience and do really targeted inbound marketing with practically
every kind of content we can create on Google Plus:
Images+text
Videos
Hangouts on air (pre, during, and post-HOA)
Users can interact with the +Post Ad directly in the site where it is
published without the need to visit our Google Plus page. Obviously, they need
to have a Google Profile.
From an SEO point of view, +Post Ads are a great opportunity. In fact, the
more people who share and +1 the ad (and comment on it if it is a video), the
more all the people in their Circles will start seeing our post standing out in
SERPs (and YouTube) even for the most competitive keywords.
Conclusion
Private Search, with its combination of Google Now and Social Search (aka:
Google Plus) represent a big percentage of the SERPs users see, and its majority
in case of mobile search users on Android devices.
Google Plus, then, due to its cross-product platform nature, influences the
search experience also of the users not using it as a Social Network.
For these reasons we must understand how Private Search works, recognize its
elements in the SERPs and take advantage of the opportunities it offers to us..
Maybe it's time to start optimizing our Google Plus content, don't you think?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/xz-WqVpSsK0/a-deep-dive-into-google-myanswers
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] TITLE
Build Great Backlinks has posted a new item, 'Scaling Up the Effort: The Process
Behind Great (Contracted) Content'
Posted by MackenzieFogelson
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that it's hard work to build great
content that:
a) people want to read
b) people remember and will be motivated to share
c) helps you further increase the reach of your brand
This becomes especially true when you're building content for a company that's
not your own.
This post isn't about Lesson #12,753 we've so valiantly learned here at Mack
Web as we grow our small (but mighty) integrated web marketing team.
It's about you and the exceptional content you need to be building on behalf
of the clients you work for.
That said, if you're like us, you find solace in, and learn a great deal from,
the trials and tribulations other companies face. I've broken this post into
three parts, each of which tackles a big question you might be wondering about:
1. How do you build great content when you're not the expert? 2. How do you
make content generation more efficient and scalable? 3. How do you build great
content with contract writers?
Sit tight. I've got some ideas.
How do you build great content when you're not the expert?
We've got a content generation process that has been working pretty well for
us now, but it took a ton of failing to develop it.
For a while, we were treating content generation like a factory. We had
clients. They needed a strategy. That strategy called for content. We gave the
specs and details for the content to our writer. She generated the content. We
optimized it. It went live. We did outreach. Rinse. Repeat.
It's not that the content we were producing in our "factory" was bad. It
wasn't thin. It just didn't serve a purpose beyond meeting preconceived
frequency expectations for their blog. Although it was intended to add value to
the conversation, it wasn't going to rise above the ever-growing noise and help
them build their business and further their brand.
Our factory approach was fine for a short while, but as we started to grow,
level-up, and recognize that the lack of effectively executed, fully integrated
content marketing strategies would make it increasingly difficult for us to earn
audience engagement, we realized our content had to be better. It had to serve a
higher purpose for the brand and it needed to integrate all the appropriate
channels.
Which meant, of course, that we couldn't create it in a silo anymore.
General brand stuff vs. expert content
We've found that, for the most part, our clients have needed our help with two
distinct types of content in order to build their audience: general brand stuff
and expert content.
General brand stuff is the content thatâif you've really done your
diligence to fully understand the company, their industry, their persona, and
the story they're trying to tellâyou can essentially create content
without putting too much extra work on their plate.
You still work together throughout the process (which I'll get into more in
just a bit), but really you're taking the lead, doing the majority of the work,
and ensuring you have approval as you move through the different stages in the
content generation process.
Expert content is content that requires the knowledge of a subject matter
expert (which hopefully you will find inside the company) to produce. The expert
stuff places a great deal of the content generation responsibility on the
client. Your job is to act as a guide, facilitator, and editor so that you're
ensuring strategic alignment, brand integrity, and that the content actually
gets created and connected to its intended audience.
When you're working with a subject matter expert to develop content, it's
really important that you're taking as much weight off the expert as possible,
and you're also earning their trust. You can do this in a few ways:
Allow the expert to drive
You may suggest trending topics and direction based on strategy and goals but,
depending on your expert's writing prowess, you don't want to get in the way by
controlling the process too much. Their time is extremely limited so you want to
make the process as enjoyable and efficient as possible.
If the expert is driving, your goal is to cater to their needs and aid them in
any way possible. Take the time to listen, observe, understand their writing
process, and how you can fit into that. As facilitator and editor you'll be
providing feedback on basic grammar, transitions, focus, and depth, but you're
also working to keep them on task and accountable for deadlines.
Provide the expert with the structure
Maybe the expert doesn't necessarily want the freedom to drive, but they could
use your help getting the structure together. It really depends on the expert,
what they're comfortable with, and what their schedule will allow.
If they need your help getting the ball rolling, you can interview them for
the key takeaways, write the outline for them, and provide them with anything
else they need to get that first draft going.
We've also had great success writing the first draft for the expert so that
they have something to take apart, integrate their expertise, personal anecdotes
and voice, and then we help them put it back together.
In general, expert content will take longer to come together. You're usually
talking about people with extremely busy schedules, and unless they find value
in what content marketing is doing for their brand and company, it could take
months to get content out of them.
What we've found is if you're properly balancing the creation of both expert
and general brand stuff, you can fill any production gaps with minimal
involvement on the client's part. That way you're still getting content out and
you won't have lengthy time lapses in the execution of deliverables from your
content strategy.
How do you make content generation more efficient and scalable?
As we've been growing our team and our content department, we've been working
to get more out of less. We have found that investing in processes that document
the stages of our everyday operations (like our client on-boarding process and
the base ongoing monthly stuff we do for nearly every client) has really helped
us to be more efficient, but that hasn't always been the case.
Don't get me wrong; I am a very systems- and process-oriented person. I like
things to be neat, organized, and, well, systematic. As much as I believe in
investing in them, I've come to learn that you can waste a lot of time and
precious resources on processes that don't work, don't get used, and don't help
you become more efficient.
With processes, it's not about developing something that stands the test of
time (because they never do). It's more about providing guidance and suggestions
for a more efficient workflow. That tends to come in the form of checklists that
you're continually iterating as living, breathing, dynamic entities inside your
organization.
As such, this is what we've discovered to be incredibly helpful when
developing our processes:
1) Determine the problem the process is going to solve
Clearly you're taking the time to develop a process so that you can make
something you do every day (or something you repeat quite often) a whole lot
easier. For us, we knew we needed to create better content and work more
collaboratively with our clients in order to do that. We thought a process for
managing content generation might help us make those improvements.
2) Identify the people who are going to use the process
This is key. If you yourself will not actually be facilitating a process you
develop, it will almost certainly die. You need the specific, relevant
individuals on your team to not only believe in it, but own it, or it will go
unused.
I no longer develop processes for the company and simply present them to the
team to be used. I now work with the team to develop processes and the team
figures out what checklists and supporting documents they need to make the
process work.
3) Find the tools that will allow you to run the process
These tools don't have to be expensive. We use a lot of free software like
Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Trello. Your tools don't have to be fancy; they
just need to be accessible so that the people on the team who are using them can
get to them easily.
4) Use the process
We've realized that every time we use a process it's going to change. That's
just how it goes. There will be specific parts of your processes that won't get
altered for long periods of time, but in general, as you use them, be attentive
to contrast, taking note of the stuff you'll want to take some time to analyze
and eventually change.
5) Modify the process
At some point, you'll need to dedicate the time to analyze your processes,
make the adjustments, and then test those modifications. This is a continuous
cycle if you want your processes to really work for you and provide a return on
spending the time and resources to create them in the first place. Make sure
it's your team who's taking ownership of this, not management.
Some pieces to facilitate the process
As we've developed a content generation process to produce better content,
we've discovered that engaging the client and using these pieces have really
made a big difference:
1) Use Strategy & 2) Pitch Content
We're trying to remove as much content responsibility and workload from the
client as possible. We definitely need them invested and involved, but they've
hired us as an extension of their team with the hopes that we'll free up their
internal resources.To that end, we use the "unless we hear differently" model as
often as we can throughout the content generation process.
Whether we're developing general brand or expert content stuff, we always take
the initiative and pitch the intended direction of the content to the client. We
use the goals we've set and the strategy we're working from, as well as trending
topics, in order to determine the content we'll be writing.
3) Collect Data
When we're ready to collect data for the content, the client is familiar with
the strategy that has been developed and what we're working toward. We've
already done a great deal of listening so that we can come to the client and say
(with confidence), "Hey, here's how we'd like this to go. Can we have your
feedback?"
Once we've worked through some of these initial conversations, we send over a
data collection (a template, if you will) that looks like this:
This data collection doc communicates our intent and requests the information
we need. The "unless I hear differently" part comes into play in the suggested
key takeaways and then asking the client to help us come up with additional
details, photos, and anecdotes to support them.
This requires less work from the client, but involves them in the process.
We've found that this also puts more meaning into the content because the client
is participating by contributing the stories and first-hand experiences that we
don't necessarily know (and that they sometimes forget to tell us during
interviews and conversations about content).
4) Develop an outline with key takeaways
Once we get all of the information we need from data collection, we create a
more thorough outline of the post to get another level of approval from the
client before we proceed to first draft state. This saves a ton of time. From
data collection to outline, things shift from the initial, proposed direction,
so providing an official outline gives us the opportunity to once again
communicate exactly what the client can expect and earn their feedback and
approval.
In the official outline, if we have them available at that time, we will
integrate all resources and media so that we're clearly communicating what we'll
be writing about and what we'll be referencing. This provides the client with an
opportunity to investigate the proposed resources and provide any direction
change before we fully draft the content.
5) Provide a first draft with diagramming
Once we're ready to present the first draft of the content, there's a couple
really important things we do before sending it across:
Indicate key takeaways (and feedback)
This part takes me back to my English teaching days. When we turn in the first
draft, we actually diagram the post to illustrate the pieces of the original
outline and where the key takeaways ended up. And, if the client provided some
very specific direction or feedback to us, we make sure to indicate that they
were heard by pointing those out in the diagramming.
This has really helped to reduce revisions because it's a subtle way to remind
the client that what we are presenting in this content is what we've all agreed
to throughout the process. And, as we're drafting the content, if we feel the
need to go in a different direction, we use the diagramming as an opportunity to
justify the change.
Provide the entire experience
When we provide the first draft of the content to the client, we sell it. We
provide it in ready-to-publish form complete with links, videos, and photos
embedded so that the client gets the full experience of what it would look like
live.
Writing is a very personal thing and it's very easy to get emotionally
invested in the content. Using data collection, outlines, and diagramming first
drafts removes the emotion and keeps everyone accountable and focused on the
content. If we're reminding the client why things are the way they are
throughout our interactions, they're less likely to be distracted by new ideas
or different approaches. We can rely on the process to keep the client (and,
honestly, sometimes the writer) focused on the intent of this piece of content.
And ultimately, this helps us create better content.
These deliverables have also streamlined the way we produce content and they
really show the client that we get them and are trying to make life easier for
them. Even though they are more involved in the process, we're displaying more
initiative and skill which further reduces the burden on their end.
Working with the client in this way has earned more trust and flexibility.
We're able to demonstrate better leadership, confidence, and how much we know
(and care) about their business.
The more trust we earn and the more efficient the process becomes, the more we
accomplish for our clients. But even with improved efficiency, there's only so
much a small team can do in-house. In order to scale, we've got to recruit
outside help.
How do you build great content with contract writers?
Like I mentioned, a team like ours is too small to effectively write all of
the content for our clients in-house. Using contract writers has allowed us to
conveniently scale our content department and provide better content for our
clients.
There are three really important things we've discovered as we've been
building our base of trusted writers:
1) Find writers who are a value match
You've got to be willing to do your due diligence and hold out for writers who
are a match for your values and expectations as a company.
2) Set them up for success
You need to spend time getting the writers invested in the client they are
going to write for. Set them up for success by providing them with as much
information about the client that you would expect your in-house, full-time team
members to know.
3) Invest in their growth
Just like an employee, you need to be willing to help your writers grow.
Writing is hard and even the best writers struggle. If you want to develop
lasting relationships and continue to get great content from your contract
writers, you've got to be willing to invest time in their growth and
development.
As we're looking for great writers, we use a Google spreadsheet to keep track
of the writers that we're interested in working with.
We review writing samples, check their references, and interview them in
person or via video so that we can get a feel for whether they're a value match
for us and that their writing style and voice will match up with one of our
clients.
Once we've selected a writer, as they write for our clients, we assess their
work. After they complete a few pieces of content for us, we can get a feel for
their strengths. We can also identify trends. Do they honor their commitments
with us? Do they communicate well? Are they responsive? Are they willing to
learn? Maybe they're not a match for the client we have them paired with but
they'd be great with another. We use the same Google spreadsheet to keep track
of this stuff and also include any patterns we're noticing or feedback we're
getting from clients about the content.
Helping your writers grow
No matter how well you qualify your writers, there will be a trial-and-error
period with every single one. If you want long-term relationships with them,
you've really got to invest the time (beyond this trial period) and continue to
help them grow.
When we receive a piece of content from a writer, our in-house content
strategist reviews it before it's handed off to the client for feedback. She
reviews for quality, alignment of purpose, and also basic editing stuff. She
diagrams the key takeaways to ensure that the content is on track with what the
client approved in the outline/key takeaway part of the process.
If the post needs a little bit of work, our content strategist determines
whether the edits are minor enough just to make them as she's diagramming, or if
she needs to schedule time with the writer to have them adjust the post.
We are diligent about communicating with our writers. If they're learning and
improving along the way, we're spending less time on revisions and providing our
clients with the content they need to build their brand.
An ongoing challenge
Content plays such a huge role when building a brand and a business. Trying
some of these things in our content generation process has really helped us to
create better partnerships with our clients, and certainly, better content.
This stuff may be working for us now, but we realize that building great
content is always going to be hard (especially as the saturation problem gets
worse). It's our job to continue pushing beyond what could just get us by and
discover what's really going to make a difference in our clients' businesses.
Of course, this addresses just one small part of that challenge. I certainly
have not covered everything that would help you build great contracted content
for your clients. Share your secrets with me below.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/oVoKz-af9KA/the-process-behind-great-contracted-content
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Behind Great (Contracted) Content'
Posted by MackenzieFogelson
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that it's hard work to build great
content that:
a) people want to read
b) people remember and will be motivated to share
c) helps you further increase the reach of your brand
This becomes especially true when you're building content for a company that's
not your own.
This post isn't about Lesson #12,753 we've so valiantly learned here at Mack
Web as we grow our small (but mighty) integrated web marketing team.
It's about you and the exceptional content you need to be building on behalf
of the clients you work for.
That said, if you're like us, you find solace in, and learn a great deal from,
the trials and tribulations other companies face. I've broken this post into
three parts, each of which tackles a big question you might be wondering about:
1. How do you build great content when you're not the expert? 2. How do you
make content generation more efficient and scalable? 3. How do you build great
content with contract writers?
Sit tight. I've got some ideas.
How do you build great content when you're not the expert?
We've got a content generation process that has been working pretty well for
us now, but it took a ton of failing to develop it.
For a while, we were treating content generation like a factory. We had
clients. They needed a strategy. That strategy called for content. We gave the
specs and details for the content to our writer. She generated the content. We
optimized it. It went live. We did outreach. Rinse. Repeat.
It's not that the content we were producing in our "factory" was bad. It
wasn't thin. It just didn't serve a purpose beyond meeting preconceived
frequency expectations for their blog. Although it was intended to add value to
the conversation, it wasn't going to rise above the ever-growing noise and help
them build their business and further their brand.
Our factory approach was fine for a short while, but as we started to grow,
level-up, and recognize that the lack of effectively executed, fully integrated
content marketing strategies would make it increasingly difficult for us to earn
audience engagement, we realized our content had to be better. It had to serve a
higher purpose for the brand and it needed to integrate all the appropriate
channels.
Which meant, of course, that we couldn't create it in a silo anymore.
General brand stuff vs. expert content
We've found that, for the most part, our clients have needed our help with two
distinct types of content in order to build their audience: general brand stuff
and expert content.
General brand stuff is the content thatâif you've really done your
diligence to fully understand the company, their industry, their persona, and
the story they're trying to tellâyou can essentially create content
without putting too much extra work on their plate.
You still work together throughout the process (which I'll get into more in
just a bit), but really you're taking the lead, doing the majority of the work,
and ensuring you have approval as you move through the different stages in the
content generation process.
Expert content is content that requires the knowledge of a subject matter
expert (which hopefully you will find inside the company) to produce. The expert
stuff places a great deal of the content generation responsibility on the
client. Your job is to act as a guide, facilitator, and editor so that you're
ensuring strategic alignment, brand integrity, and that the content actually
gets created and connected to its intended audience.
When you're working with a subject matter expert to develop content, it's
really important that you're taking as much weight off the expert as possible,
and you're also earning their trust. You can do this in a few ways:
Allow the expert to drive
You may suggest trending topics and direction based on strategy and goals but,
depending on your expert's writing prowess, you don't want to get in the way by
controlling the process too much. Their time is extremely limited so you want to
make the process as enjoyable and efficient as possible.
If the expert is driving, your goal is to cater to their needs and aid them in
any way possible. Take the time to listen, observe, understand their writing
process, and how you can fit into that. As facilitator and editor you'll be
providing feedback on basic grammar, transitions, focus, and depth, but you're
also working to keep them on task and accountable for deadlines.
Provide the expert with the structure
Maybe the expert doesn't necessarily want the freedom to drive, but they could
use your help getting the structure together. It really depends on the expert,
what they're comfortable with, and what their schedule will allow.
If they need your help getting the ball rolling, you can interview them for
the key takeaways, write the outline for them, and provide them with anything
else they need to get that first draft going.
We've also had great success writing the first draft for the expert so that
they have something to take apart, integrate their expertise, personal anecdotes
and voice, and then we help them put it back together.
In general, expert content will take longer to come together. You're usually
talking about people with extremely busy schedules, and unless they find value
in what content marketing is doing for their brand and company, it could take
months to get content out of them.
What we've found is if you're properly balancing the creation of both expert
and general brand stuff, you can fill any production gaps with minimal
involvement on the client's part. That way you're still getting content out and
you won't have lengthy time lapses in the execution of deliverables from your
content strategy.
How do you make content generation more efficient and scalable?
As we've been growing our team and our content department, we've been working
to get more out of less. We have found that investing in processes that document
the stages of our everyday operations (like our client on-boarding process and
the base ongoing monthly stuff we do for nearly every client) has really helped
us to be more efficient, but that hasn't always been the case.
Don't get me wrong; I am a very systems- and process-oriented person. I like
things to be neat, organized, and, well, systematic. As much as I believe in
investing in them, I've come to learn that you can waste a lot of time and
precious resources on processes that don't work, don't get used, and don't help
you become more efficient.
With processes, it's not about developing something that stands the test of
time (because they never do). It's more about providing guidance and suggestions
for a more efficient workflow. That tends to come in the form of checklists that
you're continually iterating as living, breathing, dynamic entities inside your
organization.
As such, this is what we've discovered to be incredibly helpful when
developing our processes:
1) Determine the problem the process is going to solve
Clearly you're taking the time to develop a process so that you can make
something you do every day (or something you repeat quite often) a whole lot
easier. For us, we knew we needed to create better content and work more
collaboratively with our clients in order to do that. We thought a process for
managing content generation might help us make those improvements.
2) Identify the people who are going to use the process
This is key. If you yourself will not actually be facilitating a process you
develop, it will almost certainly die. You need the specific, relevant
individuals on your team to not only believe in it, but own it, or it will go
unused.
I no longer develop processes for the company and simply present them to the
team to be used. I now work with the team to develop processes and the team
figures out what checklists and supporting documents they need to make the
process work.
3) Find the tools that will allow you to run the process
These tools don't have to be expensive. We use a lot of free software like
Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Trello. Your tools don't have to be fancy; they
just need to be accessible so that the people on the team who are using them can
get to them easily.
4) Use the process
We've realized that every time we use a process it's going to change. That's
just how it goes. There will be specific parts of your processes that won't get
altered for long periods of time, but in general, as you use them, be attentive
to contrast, taking note of the stuff you'll want to take some time to analyze
and eventually change.
5) Modify the process
At some point, you'll need to dedicate the time to analyze your processes,
make the adjustments, and then test those modifications. This is a continuous
cycle if you want your processes to really work for you and provide a return on
spending the time and resources to create them in the first place. Make sure
it's your team who's taking ownership of this, not management.
Some pieces to facilitate the process
As we've developed a content generation process to produce better content,
we've discovered that engaging the client and using these pieces have really
made a big difference:
1) Use Strategy & 2) Pitch Content
We're trying to remove as much content responsibility and workload from the
client as possible. We definitely need them invested and involved, but they've
hired us as an extension of their team with the hopes that we'll free up their
internal resources.To that end, we use the "unless we hear differently" model as
often as we can throughout the content generation process.
Whether we're developing general brand or expert content stuff, we always take
the initiative and pitch the intended direction of the content to the client. We
use the goals we've set and the strategy we're working from, as well as trending
topics, in order to determine the content we'll be writing.
3) Collect Data
When we're ready to collect data for the content, the client is familiar with
the strategy that has been developed and what we're working toward. We've
already done a great deal of listening so that we can come to the client and say
(with confidence), "Hey, here's how we'd like this to go. Can we have your
feedback?"
Once we've worked through some of these initial conversations, we send over a
data collection (a template, if you will) that looks like this:
This data collection doc communicates our intent and requests the information
we need. The "unless I hear differently" part comes into play in the suggested
key takeaways and then asking the client to help us come up with additional
details, photos, and anecdotes to support them.
This requires less work from the client, but involves them in the process.
We've found that this also puts more meaning into the content because the client
is participating by contributing the stories and first-hand experiences that we
don't necessarily know (and that they sometimes forget to tell us during
interviews and conversations about content).
4) Develop an outline with key takeaways
Once we get all of the information we need from data collection, we create a
more thorough outline of the post to get another level of approval from the
client before we proceed to first draft state. This saves a ton of time. From
data collection to outline, things shift from the initial, proposed direction,
so providing an official outline gives us the opportunity to once again
communicate exactly what the client can expect and earn their feedback and
approval.
In the official outline, if we have them available at that time, we will
integrate all resources and media so that we're clearly communicating what we'll
be writing about and what we'll be referencing. This provides the client with an
opportunity to investigate the proposed resources and provide any direction
change before we fully draft the content.
5) Provide a first draft with diagramming
Once we're ready to present the first draft of the content, there's a couple
really important things we do before sending it across:
Indicate key takeaways (and feedback)
This part takes me back to my English teaching days. When we turn in the first
draft, we actually diagram the post to illustrate the pieces of the original
outline and where the key takeaways ended up. And, if the client provided some
very specific direction or feedback to us, we make sure to indicate that they
were heard by pointing those out in the diagramming.
This has really helped to reduce revisions because it's a subtle way to remind
the client that what we are presenting in this content is what we've all agreed
to throughout the process. And, as we're drafting the content, if we feel the
need to go in a different direction, we use the diagramming as an opportunity to
justify the change.
Provide the entire experience
When we provide the first draft of the content to the client, we sell it. We
provide it in ready-to-publish form complete with links, videos, and photos
embedded so that the client gets the full experience of what it would look like
live.
Writing is a very personal thing and it's very easy to get emotionally
invested in the content. Using data collection, outlines, and diagramming first
drafts removes the emotion and keeps everyone accountable and focused on the
content. If we're reminding the client why things are the way they are
throughout our interactions, they're less likely to be distracted by new ideas
or different approaches. We can rely on the process to keep the client (and,
honestly, sometimes the writer) focused on the intent of this piece of content.
And ultimately, this helps us create better content.
These deliverables have also streamlined the way we produce content and they
really show the client that we get them and are trying to make life easier for
them. Even though they are more involved in the process, we're displaying more
initiative and skill which further reduces the burden on their end.
Working with the client in this way has earned more trust and flexibility.
We're able to demonstrate better leadership, confidence, and how much we know
(and care) about their business.
The more trust we earn and the more efficient the process becomes, the more we
accomplish for our clients. But even with improved efficiency, there's only so
much a small team can do in-house. In order to scale, we've got to recruit
outside help.
How do you build great content with contract writers?
Like I mentioned, a team like ours is too small to effectively write all of
the content for our clients in-house. Using contract writers has allowed us to
conveniently scale our content department and provide better content for our
clients.
There are three really important things we've discovered as we've been
building our base of trusted writers:
1) Find writers who are a value match
You've got to be willing to do your due diligence and hold out for writers who
are a match for your values and expectations as a company.
2) Set them up for success
You need to spend time getting the writers invested in the client they are
going to write for. Set them up for success by providing them with as much
information about the client that you would expect your in-house, full-time team
members to know.
3) Invest in their growth
Just like an employee, you need to be willing to help your writers grow.
Writing is hard and even the best writers struggle. If you want to develop
lasting relationships and continue to get great content from your contract
writers, you've got to be willing to invest time in their growth and
development.
As we're looking for great writers, we use a Google spreadsheet to keep track
of the writers that we're interested in working with.
We review writing samples, check their references, and interview them in
person or via video so that we can get a feel for whether they're a value match
for us and that their writing style and voice will match up with one of our
clients.
Once we've selected a writer, as they write for our clients, we assess their
work. After they complete a few pieces of content for us, we can get a feel for
their strengths. We can also identify trends. Do they honor their commitments
with us? Do they communicate well? Are they responsive? Are they willing to
learn? Maybe they're not a match for the client we have them paired with but
they'd be great with another. We use the same Google spreadsheet to keep track
of this stuff and also include any patterns we're noticing or feedback we're
getting from clients about the content.
Helping your writers grow
No matter how well you qualify your writers, there will be a trial-and-error
period with every single one. If you want long-term relationships with them,
you've really got to invest the time (beyond this trial period) and continue to
help them grow.
When we receive a piece of content from a writer, our in-house content
strategist reviews it before it's handed off to the client for feedback. She
reviews for quality, alignment of purpose, and also basic editing stuff. She
diagrams the key takeaways to ensure that the content is on track with what the
client approved in the outline/key takeaway part of the process.
If the post needs a little bit of work, our content strategist determines
whether the edits are minor enough just to make them as she's diagramming, or if
she needs to schedule time with the writer to have them adjust the post.
We are diligent about communicating with our writers. If they're learning and
improving along the way, we're spending less time on revisions and providing our
clients with the content they need to build their brand.
An ongoing challenge
Content plays such a huge role when building a brand and a business. Trying
some of these things in our content generation process has really helped us to
create better partnerships with our clients, and certainly, better content.
This stuff may be working for us now, but we realize that building great
content is always going to be hard (especially as the saturation problem gets
worse). It's our job to continue pushing beyond what could just get us by and
discover what's really going to make a difference in our clients' businesses.
Of course, this addresses just one small part of that challenge. I certainly
have not covered everything that would help you build great contracted content
for your clients. Share your secrets with me below.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/oVoKz-af9KA/the-process-behind-great-contracted-content
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Monday, 3 March 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] TITLE
Build Great Backlinks has posted a new item, 'Mobile Site Audit Checklist'
Posted by Kristina Kledzik
Now that it's 2014, the question isn't "should I build a mobile site?" It's
"how do I build a good mobile site?" Mobile sites are, at their core, just
sites; but redesigning your site for very small screens and link...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/cbPC0lrZkB4/mobile-site-audit-checklist
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Posted by Kristina Kledzik
Now that it's 2014, the question isn't "should I build a mobile site?" It's
"how do I build a good mobile site?" Mobile sites are, at their core, just
sites; but redesigning your site for very small screens and link...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/cbPC0lrZkB4/mobile-site-audit-checklist
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Great Backlinks
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
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