Giving Searchers a Reason to Prefer Your Brand – Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

It’s the season of giving, and that notion extends to search! Brand preferences have an almost tangible impact on several levels, from consumer affinity to a rankings boost on Google. In this holiday edition of our now-traditional Whitebeard Friday, Rand explains why it’s important to keep brand recognition at the forefront of your strategy, and offers up a framework on how to get started on giving searchers a reason to prefer your brand.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to the special Christmas edition of Whiteboard Friday. Now, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, my family is Jewish, at least ethnically, but we still love Christmas. We used to get a tree and presents and all that kind of stuff. But Merry Christmas to all those of you who celebrate religiously or non-religiously, and to all the rest of you, hopefully you’re having a lovely and wonderful December holiday break time, middle of wintertime. The sun’s going to start getting a little higher in the sky. The days get a little longer. I’m really looking forward to that, especially being here in Seattle.

I want to talk today about giving searchers something, a reason to prefer your brand. This is why it is so critical going forward into the next year, into 2016. We have seen that the last few years have been years where Google, where social media sites, where consumers and customers, web users of all kinds and platforms of all kinds have given brands — especially brands that have recognition, that people have an affinity for — they give them a lot of preference. I’ll show you what I mean.

Even small brand preferences can yield these sort of remarkable and amazing results because of the amplification that they receive all the way down the line in your marketing effort. Let’s say, for example, that you are able to get a slight lift in brand recognition, in brand affinity, in recall, and in positive associations. It’s going to do a few things for you.

Raise CTR in search results

First off, it’ll raise your average click-through rate in search results. As a searcher is performing whatever queries they are, the hopefully many thousands of queries that lead to your site, if you appear in position four, five, or six, you might see a slightly higher click-through rate than what you would normally see for an average website ranking in that position because of the brand preference. What this does, actually, is over time it results in higher rankings because Google is set up to reward a long-term click-through rate bump and all the other signals that come with that into higher ranking

So even if you are someone who says, “Ah, I’m not really sure whether Google’s using click-through rate models in my stuff,” they are in a lot of stuff now. Even if you don’t believe that, what’s happening is you’re getting a slightly higher share of visits, which means a slightly higher share of people who can amplify your brand, link to your brand, all those kinds of things. All of those signals over time slowly, positively increase your potential ranking.

Increase return visits to site

Next up, if you have that slight brand preference, you’re going to increase the rate at which visitors return to your site, come back to you through bookmark, through type-in, through branded search, all of those kinds of things. Those forms of returning visits, whether it is branded search or direct visit or a bookmark, that will lead to browser and search biasing. You can see this in all of your browsers.

If I’m on my iPhone or my Android device, if I’m in Google Chrome on a laptop or desktop, and I start typing something, all of those browsers and all of those systems will look for previous patterns that start to match what I’m typing in or voice searching, and they will be more likely to bias to show me those kinds of things. If I’ve been to Moz in the past and I type just “M” into my Chrome browser, I’m likely to see Moz in that dropdown list of things that it suggests to me, particularly if I visit with some real frequency. So you get that preferential treatment.

But this also goes back to helping your rankings up here because brand-based search queries, as Google has shown, can have an impact on non-branded, unbranded query ranking. If lots of people are searching for let’s say “Virgin America flights to San Francisco,” when Google sees the query of flights to San Francisco, they might say, “Hey, you know what, Virgin America should rank a little bit higher because we’ve seen lots of branded search volume for them.”

Improve conversion likelihood & likelihood for social, press, and WoM Aamplification

Obviously, brand lift can help conversion likelihood which leads to more sales. That’s one of the most direct and obvious ones. That’s one of the reasons that big brand marketers invest so much in it. But it’s also the case they will increase the likelihood, so let’s say that you are reaching out through social media or amplifying messages through social media, through press, obviously through word of mouth which may be somewhat under your control and a lot not in your control, all of that amplification will be slightly enhanced each time with additional brand preference, and that means that in the future you have a larger audience for future marketing, future targeting. It’s hugely helpful there.

Perception of value and quality improves

Also, you can see that perception of value and quality actually improves as brand affinity and recall and recognition goes up. You’ve seen this in lots of consumer tests. One of my favorite examples is the Bing study, where Bing looked at replacing Google’s results with Bing’s results, but they had the Google logo and the Google layout, and then they showed Google’s results in Bing. No matter whose results they showed, if they showed the Google logo next to it, people said those were the better results. So essentially, the brand is part of how we judge the quality of something. It is part of that.

This goes to some consumer-based tests around wine, the flavor that you get from wine or the enjoyment you get from wine. If you set something down and it is a recognized bottle known to be very high in price, known to be hard to get, you will actually see areas of the brain light up and perceive that wine to be better tasting and to provide more enjoyment, even if it’s actually filled with cheap $5.00 wine. This psychological preference is actually improving our perception of quality from the brand perspective, and because of that we get higher retention, more recidivism.

So brand can help you in a huge number of ways, both technical through algorithmic and social means, and also psychological means. Worth investing in absolutely, for the years to come, and certainly as the last few years have pushed more and more stuff in web marketing, it becomes essential for all of us.

But how do we do this? I’m not going to be able to get into all the tactical details today. I mean, we could spend a whole Whiteboard Friday on any one tactic in these groups, but I wanted to provide some framework around these groups for you to think about and add potentially to your strategy going into the new year.

Brand values

Things like brand values matching customer values or overlapping with them, or working against them, can impact how a brand is perceived. Most obviously, many consumers are very frustrated with brands like Volkswagen or Enron before that, who we feel like they’ve pulled the wool over our eyes and they’ve been dishonest. Cigarette marketing in the tobacco industry turned off many, many consumers in the western world to a lot of those brands. Then brands that have values that we recognize and respond to, we can see those getting brand lift.

Voice, tone, and visuals

Voice, tone and visuals, this is essentially the style of how you present yourself and whether that matches and has resonance with your audience’s preferences, with their own styles, and with existing cultural cues. So you can see that it’s like speaking the language of your customer, but we’re not talking about a verbal language like English versus Hindi versus Spanish versus German. We’re talking about the resonance on the cultural language level. Are we in the same cultural zeitgeist? Do we have the same cues and recognition? Do we have the same things around nostalgia and associations between concepts, all those kinds of things?

Content

Content, this is one that we talk about a lot, matching your content to your audience’s potential needs, their desires, things they enjoy, their influencers and what their influencers are going to amplify. This is really where content strategy comes into play, because if you take content down to the tactical level only, you are not thinking about the overlap. Well, many times when you’re doing tactical content creation and content amplification, you’re not thinking about the strategic overlap with what’s my audience’s needs, what do they desire, what do they have associations with, what do they enjoy, what do their influencers enjoy, all of that kind of stuff. When you do this, you get closer and closer to making that Venn diagram match, and your content is much more likely to have a strategic, positive impact on brand association.

Brand representatives

Brand representatives, the human beings that we associate with a brand are critically important. In fact, I would say, and many, many marketers have been talking about this for the last couple of years, but more important to a brand’s presence than ever before. We are getting to build brand associations through human associations. Oftentimes that’s founders and CEOs, but many times it is also brand representatives, which can include a large number of people. It can include people who are amplifiers of that brand, not necessarily people who work at the brand, but amplifiers. It can include the testimonials that are present in the marketing messages. It can include brand contributors, whether those are guest contributors or full-time, and of course team members. The big one is often founders and CEOs and sort of the leaders of an organization, but many of these others have influence as well. If those match well to who your customers’ influencers are or the zeitgeist of your customers’ world, that can create additional brand resonance as well.

Pricing and positioning

Pricing and positioning, this is sort of the classic, old-school four P’s of marketing, but the value perceived and the value that is quantifiable against the pricing and the cost associated with the service. Costs, I don’t just mean financial cost, but also setup cost and work-wise and process cost and customers’ own self-perception, meaning that if a customer believes that they are a medium-sized business but you’re selling them a package that’s called enterprise, they may perceive that they’re paying too much. They don’t think of themselves as an enterprise. Even though the enterprise package is right for them and it’s providing the right kind of value, you’re now sort of disconnecting the language of the positioning from what the customer actually thinks of themselves as. That can potentially harm brand affinity.

Psychological nudges

Then, of course, lots and lots of psychological nudges that build associations around a brand. So these are things like familiarity, liking, processing fluency, which we’ve had a whole Whiteboard Friday on processing fluency, I think last year in 2014. Those kinds of things, when I say “processing fluency,” what I’m talking about is the ease with which I recognize something and can make an association. For example, one of my favorite studies around this was the correlation between stock prices of companies that have easily pronounceable names versus hard-to-pronounce names, and you can see that the easier processing fluency of an easier-to-pronounce name over time tends to correlate with higher stock value. Weird. Seems like markets would be more sophisticated than that, but human beings are subject to this stuff. User experience flow, that also fits into the psychological nudges.

As we’re thinking about influencing all this stuff, a lot of times when people talk about brand and building brand, they talk exclusively about brand advertising. But as you can see from all of these categories there’s a lot of organic work that we can do in SEO, in social, in content, in email, in community, in all the channels that we talk about here at Moz that can have a big influence on your brand, and that can have a big influence over time on all of these things positively as well.

All right, everyone. Merry Christmas. If you are celebrating another holiday, may you have a great holiday, and we’ll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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'Twas the Night Before Christmas… Moz-Style

Posted by FeliciaCrawford

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all throughout Moz
Not a laptop was whirring, the office on pause.
The colorful Great Wheel spun slow on the pier,
Downtown Seattle alive with good cheer.

The Moz Dogs were nestled at home in their beds,
Dreams of dropped tacos alive in their heads.
And I, staying late to write on the blog,
Had just closed my MacBook, and downed my eggnog.

Whence from down the hall came a soft pitter-patter;
I arose from my desk to spy what was the matter.
Peering ‘round corners, obscured by the dark,
Though I couldn’t see who, something gave a small bark.

Then, lit by the glow of some USB lights,
To my eyes did appear a confusing sight.
With a fuzzy red cap and Muppet-like paws,
Lettie Pickles the Moz Dog looked like…Santa Claus?

Though smaller in stature, with pointier teeth,
Her red hat the colorful glow did enwreathe.
With a very stuffed sack and a beard mighty thick,
No way to deny, she looked just like St. Nick!

As I watched from the shadows, her night’s work begun,
St. Pickles took off with her bag at a run.
From desktop to desktop, from seat to seat,
All Mozzers were gifted with savory treats.

While the flavor of liver won’t everyone please,
To give with abandon, the spirit it frees.
As she sprinted around with a comical gait,
From her magical gift bag did drop some small freight.

Creeping forward to read the scribbled-upon note,
(No crying, I swear! In my eye, a dust-mote).
The night’s giving detailed, no naughty or nice,
Just a list of those needing some holiday spice.

All over the world, dogs old and dogs young,
St. Pickles some holiday cheer will have brung.
As I stood there agape, the note in my hand,
Silent beside me Lettie Claus did stand.

With a wag of the tail and a sparkle of tooth,
No words were required to feel out the truth.
From Moz to the streets, from my home to yours,
It’s all about helping folks win their hard wars.

With all treats delivered and message made clear,
Lettie Pickles leapt off, other homes to appear.
So take just a moment, and Google a cause
Whether for those with two feet, roots, or four paws.

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In-SERP Conversions: Dawn of the 100% Conversion Rate?

Posted by Alan_Coleman

By now, we’re all pretty used to Knowledge Graph results in the SERPs. But what could it mean when Google offers the ability to make a purchase, a call, book an appointment, or otherwise convert customers within those results? In this video blog, Alan Coleman speculates about a potential 100% conversion rate in the SERPs and raises the question of Google’s role in an increasingly app-centric world.

Video transcript

In this video blog, I’m going to talk to you about a key trend we’ve noticed with Google here at Wolfgang.

12 months ago, the key trend that we were talking about was Google had shifted its focus. From Google’s birth right up until last year, its objective was to get you to the website that was most relevant, most authoritative, most likely to answer your question — whereas what we saw 12 months ago was Google taking a lot more ownership of your journey from question to answer. And what we were seeing 12 months ago was a lot more questions literally being answered on the SERPs, pulling information from Wikipedia, from other websites and giving that to the user directly on Google.

A very recent update to this innovation is that Google is now actually using their own search data to give you further details. Last weekend I was searching for a restaurant and not only did it give me the reviews in the knowledge panel — the website, phone number, and opening hours — it also used its own data to give me the popular times: when I was most likely to get seated in the restaurant, and when it could be a problem.

So, armed with that information, we could go and have a lovely Italian lunch last weekend. But it doesn’t just stop at answering the question.

Conversions facilitated on the SERPs

Google’s methodology has always been to test things out in the organic list first and then, when they’ve learned the mechanics of it, they might try and commercialize it. What we’re beginning to see is not just questions being answered on the SERPs, but we’re beginning to see conversions being facilitated by the SERPs.

What you’re seeing here is someone searching for a medical practitioner. The searcher is actually able to book an appointment directly from the search engine results page.

Another recent innovation: call-only campaigns. Somebody’s searching for a courier, for example, and again, they can call the courier directly from the search engine results without even visiting the website. We’ve also seen click-to-call campaigns, another example of Google users being able to convert directly from the SERP. Very exciting! In theory, we’re talking about 100% conversion rates here: everyone who clicks on your ad becomes a lead or becomes a sale.

There’s also this beta which is currently out — with a very limited number of retailers in the States — whereby searchers are taken from search, to checkout, to placing their order in 3 clicks, all happening on a Google property.

Image courtesy of Google

Why I believe this is significant:

This is Google safeguarding its position as we move to an app ecosystem. World Wide Web usage is actually in decline of late, because people are moving so much of their web behavior to apps, and Google’s strength has been that it’s our gateway to the Web. Google went down for a period of 4 minutes two years ago, and World Wide Web traffic fell off a cliff — it declined by 40% for that period.

Google is our gateway to the Web. However, if we start moving our Internet usage to apps, Google needs to be relevant there as well. I see that answering questions within Google and on Google, allowing people to convert, again in Google and on Google, is a move for them to safeguard their position as the place where we get our questions answered and where we do our transactions on the Web.

***

Do you have any thoughts on in-SERP conversions? Join the discussion in the comments below!

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Actively Grow Your Twitter Followers In 4 Easy Steps

 

For seasoned marketers and newbies alike, building and maintaining a steady following on Twitter is often one of the most time-consuming and daunting tasks a person will face when expanding their web presence.

 

Unfortunately, no matter how frequently you post, your Twitter following just won’t grow to the astronomical amounts that you’re seeking. Most importantly, without a great following, your posts won’t be heard and you will find yourself wasting valuable time.

 

The most effective method to achieve huge growth is to proactively build your audience. You can’t just wait for Twitter followers to come to you. You need to actively go out there and find them.

 

Fortunately, there are a few tricks you can use to guarantee substantial growth and to find followers that actually want to hear what you have to say. And the best part? It can be done in as little as 30 minutes a day.  

Actively Grow Your Twitter Followers with this simple Technique of 4 Easy Steps

 

So what does it mean to actively build your audience? Look at it this way: are you building your audience by letting followers come to you, or are you actively engaging them? As an active brand, you need to immerse yourself in whichever niche you belong and insert yourself into conversations.

 

Throughout the article, we’re going to be examining examples from different marketing brands to show you real life practical ways to start using these steps! Let’s get started.

STEP ONE:  Optimize your Twitter Profile for the arrival of new followers

 

When you engage with someone on Twitter, they’re likely to view your profile first and see what you’re all about. To up the odds of getting those clicks, be sure to have a completed bio that explains your purpose and profile picture that can be easily identified on any platform.

 

Complete Your Bio:

 

Your bio is the first thing that people are going to read once they arrive to your account. That’s why it’s super important to make it sure it’s complete and gets your message across. Include a brief, informative, friendly description of your company of your proposal. Consider using keywords or a hashtag as well. You definitely want to include your company website as this will help you increase your CTR on Twitter. Take a look at the Beautiful Kitchens’ Twitter Bio below.

Use appropriate images:

 

If you like, you can use a picture of yourself (smile!) but just make sure it’s relevant to your niche. And even though you might have a cool looking logo, unless it’s globally recognized, skip it and use a more memorable, fun, and enticing image that shows the audience what exactly your company offers (for example, show us your products or services). The important thing is that we know exactly what you’re all about as soon as we get to your profile.

 

Like in the example above of Beautiful Kitchens, we see kitchen products in the cover image and a shot of their magazine as their profile picture. Right away, we know what the company’s proposal is and what they are offering.

 

Another example is  great example is NewCastle Brown Ale. Check out their use of the #NoBollocks hashtag as well.

 

 

 

Optimize Your Twitter Name:

 

Next, make sure your Twitter name is relevant to your store. If your brand name doesn’t automatically give away what niche you are in, consider including a reference to it in your name. For example, instead of your Twitter name just saying Snap!, it should be Snap! Cameras & Accessories.

 

Pin a Tweet to the top of your page to attract followers:

 

Finally, consider using an attractive pinned Tweet that lets visitors know more about you. This could be something that describes your business’s personality, or maybe a redirect to your website. Check out Deschutes Brewery: They pinned a tweet to the top of their profile that also transmits one of their values as a company, which is a fun and active environment to work in.

Remember you can also include GIFs to show perpetual movement at the top of your page:

Check out this article on how to use GIF’s effectively to reach your audience and to find out how to create your own!

 

STEP TWO:  Seek Potential Followers And Engage

 

This is the most important step. Again, say you have a camera store. You need to actively seek out Twitter followers that express an interest in cameras. Maybe they are asking for technical advice, or maybe they are looking to upgrade their camera and can’t decide which one to buy. Chime in on the conversation. Offer something valuable. Find a way to engage them and then let them come to you. Don’t try to sell them anything. Don’t advertise your website. And don’t ask for a follow.

 

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the purpose here is to build your following and reputation. The trick is that you need to do it in a subtle way that adds value to the conversation without trying to spam them. This way, you spark their interest and let them come to you. If you’ve created a clear and attractive bio, this should be no problem.

 

For this part, I’m going to introduce a few Twitter search tips that you’ll find invaluable. They’re called operators, and they’re going to help you filter out the noise and find the results you’re looking for. Head over to search.twitter.com to get started.

 

-filter:links

 

This allows you to get rid of all of the Tweets with links. Often times, when someone shares a link, they’re promoting their own product or website. What you’re left with are Tweets from real users having real conversations, which is exactly what you’re searching for.

 

” “

 

This allows you to search for specific phrases or spellings, and yields more accurate results.

 

?

 

This is a cool one. Simply adding a question mark to the end of your search will show only Tweets that are phrased as questions. This is a great way to provide helpful input to questions that will likely result in sales.

 

-to:

 

Shows only posts that are directed to a certain person or company.

 

near:

 

Shows users that are located near a certain area. For example, NYC for New York City, or LA for Los Angeles.

 

Here are some operators in action:

 

Pretty cool, right?!

 

Get creative and combine operators. For example, if you search to:nikonusa ? near:SEA you will yield questions asked to the official Nikon page by people living in Seattle, Washington. This can be a valuable tool if you have a physical store that people can stop by.

 

Now ENGAGE:

As you can see, this will yield users who are interested in a Nikon camera and who aren’t sharing links. From here, just talk to them and lend your advice. If you don’t have anything to contribute to the conversation, just favorite their Tweet and they’ll notice you.

STEP THREE:  Follow Other Users

 

This is the final step to becoming an active Twitter brand. Now that you know how to search more effectively, you’ll want to follow other people within your niche. For our photography example, following and engaging with world-famous photographers or even just enthusiasts is a good way to get your name out to potential followers and customers.

 

Find out who your competitors are and head over to their Twitter page. From here, you can set a goal of how many followers you want and of how many people you want to be following.

If you try to follow around 40 people per day, this step can be done in as little as five minutes, and if you have a smartphone, it can be done from anywhere.

We recommend that you don’t exceed 40 new users per day, that way Twitter won’t think you’re spam!

Don’t forget to Maintain Your Follower Ratio!

 

Finally, keep your follower-following ratio in check. As you already know, following someone else is a good way to get a follow-back, but if you don’t get one within a few days, don’t bother with them. After you get rolling, you’ll want to unfollow people that haven’t followed you back in order to keep a good-looking ratio. Again, aim for people that are already popular within your niche and your numbers should grow very quickly. Once you get big enough, people will begin to actively seek you out.

Once a week, head over to TweepDash and sign in using your business’s Twitter account. Here you can instantly find out who’s following you and who’s just damaging your ratio. Sometimes you’ll want to be selective. If you follow people (not businesses!) that are already influential, it could be a great lead to other potential followers.  

 

Be careful with the amount of people you unfollow. Too many at a time and Twitter will think you’re a spammer. Aim for just 20 unfollows a day if necessary and you should fly under the radar while building your following.

STEP FOUR: Create Quality Content

Now that you’ve updated your bio, photos, pinned an awesome tweet to the top of your page, know how seek out potential followers, and interact with them your final goal is to KEEP them….and you KEEP them by sharing relevant content.

 

This is something you should already be doing. No one is going to want to follow you if you can’t provide interesting and quality content. This comes back to providing value.

 

Remember to do some research on your audience and find out when the best times to share your awesome content are. Once you find out I suggest you add Postcron for Chrome, one of the extensions for Social Media you’ll find most useful. With its help you can schedule tweets while surfing the web, to automatically publish at the times you indicate. That way you save time and you make sure that your new followers always find your content interesting and stay by your side!

 

Remember that Twitter Cards help your content stand out and be more attractive to your Followers. To find out how to use them check out our article How to Take Advantage of Twitter Cards.

Try It Out

 

Set realistic goals and then take the steps needed to achieve them and you’ll reach rock star Twitter status in no time.

 

The 4 steps we’ve shared with you today are a sure way to grow your Twitter followers. The best part about it is, once you have your profile updates, the rest can be accomplished on daily basis in about 30 minutes. Don’t believe me, try it out!

 

Remember:

 

1. Update your profile: Bio, Photos, Pinned Tweets
2. Use Operators to find new users and ENGAGE in a friendly manner
3. Follow Influencers (Check your unfollowers too!)
4. Share and Schedule Quality Content

 

For more Twitter info, check out our articles Just the Tips! How to manage your Twitter account more effectively or if you’re new to Twitter: Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners.

 

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any other ways you use to gain more followers on Twitter? What did you think about the operators to make searching easier? Tell us about your Twitter Experience!

 

The post Actively Grow Your Twitter Followers In 4 Easy Steps appeared first on Postcron Blog.

Brands That Won (and Lost) Google in 2015

Posted by Dr-Pete

As part of the MozCast 10K (a 10,000-keyword daily Google tracker), we keep a close eye on the domains with the most page-one Google real-estate. As of December 1st, these were the “Big 10”:

“Share” represents the percentage of total results each domain has across the entire data set. Of course, absolute rankings can vary a lot depending on the data set, but what’s more interesting is how any given brand moves over time.

We watch day-to-day movements closely as search marketers, and often track winners and losers when Google announces a big update, but I thought it would be interesting to take the long-term view. Who are the brands who won and lost the most Google real estate in the past year? All of the data from this post is from the MozCast 10K and spans December 1, 2014–December 1, 2015.

Biggest winners in 2015

If we look at absolute gains in total page-one Google real estate, the winners are in the table below. The “Rank” columns shows their current position in the Top 100:

Online retail giant Amazon.com held tight to the #2 position in our data set, making the biggest overall gain. Etsy made impressive gains, jumping from the #81 spot at the end of 2014 to the #31 spot on December 1st, 2015. Even with its financial woes, Groupon performed solidly on Google, moving from the #87 spot to #40. Instagram jumped from outside of the Top 100 entirely (#141) to #57.

It’s interesting to note that two of the biggest gains in 2015 were for Google properties, YouTube and Google Play. YouTube moved from #5 to #4, and Google Play came in just shy of the Top 10 at #12. YouTube gains don’t count growth in Video Cards, large video links which dominate some Google results. Here’s an example Video Card from a search for “chandelier”:

The numbers in the chart above may seem small, but keep in mind that there’s only a 0.01% difference in total Google real-estate between #9 and #10 in the overall “Big 10.” A tenth-of-a-percent represents massive land holdings in the world of page-one results.

Most improved in 2015

Another way to slice-and-dice winners in 2015 is to look at sites with the biggest relative gains. In other words, who improved the most relative to their position in 2014? Here are the Top 10 Most Improved:

Six of these are repeats from the overall winners list, but looking at relative changes, Etsy’s and Instagram’s gains are even more impressive. Both sites more than doubled their page-one Google real estate in our data set, with Etsy seeing gains of over 150%.

Biggest losers in 2015

Google real estate is limited, and for every winner there ultimately has to be one or more losers. These are the sites that took the heaviest absolute losses in our data set:

Social media giant Twitter was the big loser in 2015, falling out of the Top 10, from #6 in 2014 to #15 at the end of 2015. This “loss” may be deceptive, however, as Google and Twitter struck a deal in August of this year to display Tweets directly in search results. Here’s an example, from a branded search for “Etsy”:

Tweets are now a true Google vertical result, occupying an organic position and appearing in almost 6% of the searches that we track. Fellow social media site, Pinterest, also lost ground in 2015, after nearly breaking into the Top 10 (they were #11 in 2014). Unfortunately for Pinterest, their losses weren’t offset by a sweetheart deal with Google.

Google-dominating Wikipedia showed a weak spot in their armor this year, losing twice the ground that #2 Amazon gained. Wikipedia took some losses early in 2015, and then ran into more trouble with their mid-year switch to a secure (https:) site.

Online auction site and aspiring retailer eBay added to their troubles in 2015, dropping out of the Top 10 from #9 to #17. eBay took heavy losses in May of 2014, but then partially recovered going into the beginning of 2015. As of December 1st, all of those short-term gains have disappeared in our data set.

Yelp gave up its #4 position in 2015 to YouTube, and seemed to suffer from some of Google’s local changes this year. Retailers Walmart and Overstock also saw year-over-year losses, as did online answer site wikiHow.

An oddly dominant site in 2014, the NIH’s National Library of Medicine site dropped from #17 to #20. Their presence may be the result of a high number of medical queries in our data set, and was probably impacted by a handful of niche Google updates, including the launch of the Medical Knowledge Panel, such as this one for “type 2 diabetes”:

On the bright side, it looks like the Tax Man took a hit in 2015, with the IRS dropping from #19 to #27. While it seems odd that two government (.gov) sites hit our list of losers, I suspect this was coincidental.

The envelope, please…

While Amazon’s continued dominance is impressive, and Wikipedia’s tumble from grace is certainly worth noting, I think the big story this year is Etsy. In addition to taking the #2 spot in total gains, they more than doubled their 2014 Google page-one real estate and rocketed from the #81 overall position in our data set to #31. Etsy and other niche online retailers will be the ones to watch in 2016.

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Get Ready for the Evolution of Long Tail Keywords, Coming Soon to Mobile Apps

Posted by Royh

Last month Google made a big announcement, potentially signaling a game changer for search. Google is quietly rolling out app-only content indexing, even if that content isn’t actually hosted on the indexed app.

So, what does that actually mean?

The game-changing implication is that when you search Google from your phone or tablet, app-only content will “stream” directly to your mobile device — even if you don’t have the app installed.

Thus, if I search for the key phrase “hotel tonight in Chicago,” I’ll see results from mobile apps that aren’t installed on my device, sending me directly to app-only content “streamed” from a virtual app hosted on the Google cloud.

(Image credit: TechCrunch)

How is app content indexed differently?

Before this announcement, direct deep links to app content were displayed only if the matching app was already installed on your mobile device, as in the example below:

(Image credit: Google)

With this change, web content no longer needs to match app content.

According to Google’s Rajan Patel leading the new initiative:

“We want users to be able to have access to this content, regardless of whether it’s available on the web or in an app.”

How will this announcement change the way applications are discovered?

Well, Google is effectively lowering the bar for app indexing, and app owners can score a quick win if they act in a timely manner — a few tips on this below.

The new long tail landing page for mobile

The new app content streams are essentially equivalent to landing pages for a desktop website. Both share the same principal: promoting select content from the website or app.

That means focusing on long tail keywords. Simply changing the title and description of the home page of the app is no longer enough — targeting those long tail keywords is going to be essential.

To find the keywords that send traffic to competitors, I’ll use the SimilarWeb app analysis feature as an example. In this case, you can see how the search engine keywords that sent traffic to Snapchat’s competitors — keywords searched in the Google app — drove traffic to Snapchat after the search, and were basically all keywords from app indexing.

What’s the key here?

Say hello to the app indexing API!

In order to make this whole process possible, app developers need to implement the app indexing API. It’s not new, but now that you don’t need to match app content to web content, it can be your secret weapon to torrents of mobile traffic.

The indexing API doubles as a ranking signal to Google, so all the mobile apps that implement and complete the app indexing API will gain a ranking edge.

Measure mobile engagement stats

Once you implement the indexing API, you’ll show Google how much time users spend inside your app, and what they do there.

If you need a benchmark to go by, you can measure how your competitors’ apps are doing in terms of time on the app and session per user. Here’s an example from SimilarWeb’s app engagement function:

Again, the first thing you need to do in order to get started is implement the app indexing API, as I said earlier — since Google factors it as one of the ranking signals, it will favor the app owners that complete the process.

If you want some more instruction and technical walkthroughs for getting your app indexed, you can check out this piece by Bridget Randolph on the subject. Just keep in mind that this is still in beta.

Google is testing the process on a few apps that agreed to participate in this experiment. It’s still unclear when the update will be released out of beta, but I’m sure several clear winners (and losers) will emerge when this fully rolls out.

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How can I increase traffic to my blog? 5 Foolproof Tips!

There are more than just a few people around the world who create their blogs with lots of enthusiasm, only to realize after a few days or weeks that nobody has visited them or read their contents. And it is then that we ask ourselves the decisive question: “how can I increase traffic to my blog?” You’re in luck because that’s precisely what this blog post is about! Today I will share with you 5 foolproof tips to multiply the number of visits to your blog and improve the reach of your content. Here we go!

How can I increase traffic to my blog? 5 foolproof tips for bloggers

1- Define the type of traffic that you want to reach your blog

When people ask “How can I increase traffic to my blog?” they rarely stop to consider the fact that not all traffic is good traffic.  What I mean is, the quality of your audience will largely depend on the goals of your blog, and to whom your content is directed to. Which means that defining these points will allow you to determine which channels are more promising for circulating your articles.

Consequently, I suggest that you establish the characteristics of the traffic you need, from the goal set you have defined for your blog. This is the first step you need complete so that you can later guide your decisions for the diffusion on social networks and digital marketing. What’s more: you need to establish a schedule of the content that your blog posts will be about.

Remember that knowing your audience is the only way to provide articles relevant to their interests.

2- Make sure your blog is present on Social Networks

Once you have defined who your public is, the time comes to go look for them. Yep! It’s not enough to publish a bunch of awesome articles if you’re trying increase traffic to your blog, you also have to actively promote it. So ask yourself, where is the ideal place to find your audience? I bet you already know the answer: Social Networks.

There are some very effective techniques to help your articles reach online audiences and be promoted on social media. One of them is to add Social Buttons to your blog. For example, if your site is hosted on WordPress, I suggest using this plugin for users to share content with your contacts.

We also recommend scheduling posts with links to your articles to appear on social networks at all times of the day.

In addition, I suggest adding links to your blog on all your social profiles.

 

Click on the image to get the PlugIn

3- Take Advantage of the Power of Keywords

As we’ve explained in previous posts about improving your SEO ranking, keywords are critical when it comes to reaching your audience. Why? Because they help you position your content on search engines like Google. The idea is that the keywords used in your articles correspond to the most commonly used search terms by users, so that your articles are the first thing they see after entering them in the search engine.

To help you with keywords, I suggest checking out Google Keyword Planner. It is a search engine for keywords, through which you can enter a number of alternatives, such as “clothing stores in Madrid” or “Madrid clothing” to see which has more search volume. After conducting the search you can include the most popular keyword in your article (especially in the title, headings and “Alt Text” of the images you use). This will help improve your positioning and thus increase your number of visits to your blog.

4- Make sure you’re posting high quality content

One of the most effective responses to the question “how can I increase traffic to my blog?” has to do with the quality control of your content. In other words, maybe your blog is not getting more traffic because your articles do not really offer added value to your audience. To orient yourself about this point, try to answer the following questions:

Is my blog entertaining?

Are my articles useful, or fun?

Do I speak about topics of interest to my users?

The last question is especially advisable for people whose blogs promote products or services. In this regard, it is important to remember that no one likes to hear about the same thing ALL the time, so expand your repertoire! You can find the topics that interest your audience through tools like Buzzsumo. Also, you can add other very effective elements to your articles to grab the attention of the public, such as computer graphics and animated GIFs.

5- Make sure that your blog’s design is attractive and intuitive

Finally, I recommend reviewing the design of your blog, to make sure it is easy to navigate. To achieve this goal, try ordering your content into clear categories and offer easy-to-understand menus. In addition, at this point it is important that you consider optimizing your blog for mobile readers, since not only more and more people are connecting from these devices, but it’s also the only way to show your blog on Google search results done on phones and tablets.

Also, be sure to include links to your social accounts on your blog, so that users can easily follow you on Social Media. Alongside this, you must not forget to place a subscription box for visitors to be able to enter their email and be notified of your publications. This will also help you generate a database for future campaigns. Finally, remember to use attractive images throughout your site.

In conclusion, if you’re one of the many people who wonder daily “how can I increase traffic to my blog?“, I recommend that you apply the 5 tips I’ve shared with you in this post. That way, you can optimize SEO, diffusion, content and the design of your site, all of which help you multiply your number of visitors.

 

Did you like this post? Which of the tips have you gotten the best results from? Would you add anything else to the list? We want to hear your opinion! And remember to share this article with your colleagues. See you soon!

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