The fake information epidemic and how it will hurt local search in 2017

Fake news and its influence on the election dominated headlines for weeks as fabricated news reports went viral and the election results shocked the nation. But fake news is just one tentacle of a troubling and growing trend of fake media content. The headlines simply brought to light what is a much wider problem: the ease and prevalence with which false online information is used to manipulate behavior.

The manipulation can be of consumer behavior, business behavior or even the behavior of software triggered by false information fed into its system. Scam artists are strongly motivated to take advantage — recent reports cite Russian hackers who stole up to $5 million a day in advertising revenue by posing as fake users in a scheme tagged by the name “Methbot.”

The impact on marketers is particularly hard. As consumers search for information to help make purchase decisions, uncertainty about the veracity of the information they receive impacts the effectiveness of local search marketing. Online advertising already faces challenges gaining consumer trust, and the proliferation of fake content will only hurt it more. Worse, you may be spending money on advertising that no one ever sees, be competing in an unfair market, suffer from hits to your reputation or pay more than you should for marketing products or services.

Being aware of how false information is being used will help marketers avoid problems and identify when they may be affected, saving them from both headaches and wasted dollars. Below are eight ways that false information is being used that you need to know about:

1. Fake news

Fake news got a lot of headlines, and while its impact on marketing is indirect, the effect can still be significant.

The problem is that fake news often outperforms real news in traffic and engagement. Consumers love sensationalized news. Top fake stories received more engagement than top news stories, and some even went viral. Analysis by BuzzFeed found that the 20 top-performing fake election stories generated over 8.7 million shares, reactions and comments, compared to approximately 7.4 million of the 20 best-performing election stories from major news websites.

It may be tempting to follow the mantra that “all publicity is good publicity” and take advantage of the attention fake news gets you. At best, that is short-sighted — at worst, it’s self-destructive. Unlike the sources of fake news, advertisers need more than a click to make money. Online ads need to drive purchase decisions, but a recent study by Marketing Sherpa (registration required) demonstrated that it is still traditional advertising that influences purchase decisions most. The top five most trusted media formats were traditional media, led by print, TV, direct mail, radio and out-of-home ads, and consumers clearly expressed that they are highly influenced by ads in these media compared to online or digital media.

Fake news in digital media certainly doesn’t help. Being viewed as associated with fake news undermines trust in any related content, and that can hurt direct sales, as well as branding or online reputation. And continuing to allow ads to be placed together with fake news only perpetuates the problem by funding it.

The problem with fake news is defining it. While large publishers like Facebook and Google have promised to block fake news sites from receiving their ad products and services, writing algorithms that identify fake news is a harder task than blocking porn sites, hate speech or sites that sell illegal drugs. News as a category is much less black-and-white. There are opinions and editorials. Political positions and contradicting data. Satire and commentary.

There’s also frequency and degree — is a story that has 25 percent false facts or a site that contains five click-bait stories enough to get categorized as “fake news?” Complicating it all is the seeming lack of truth coming from news subjects themselves. I don’t believe I saw a single “fact-check” this past campaign season where any candidate came close to being always truthful.

Regardless, recognize that losing trust hurts us all. Demand accountability, and insist that your marketing not be displayed in a manner that would support or be associated with fake news. Look for options in programmatic advertising choices that help filter out controversial inventory. While the options may be limited now, more are sure to become available in 2017.

2. Fake listings

Real brick-and-mortar locations are battling call centers that create fake listings across the local search ecosystem, including on Google. These fake listings even have fake locations on Google maps, created to boost SEO and pretend the listing has a real location and local presence.

These scams not only steal customers away from true local businesses, they often bait and switch with lowball quotes over the phone, send unqualified service technicians to do the job and demand higher payment once the job is complete.

These fake listings are common in home repair business categories such as plumbing, HVAC and carpet cleaning, as well as emergency services such as locksmiths. While industry groups and Google have tried to address the scam, it’s often akin to playing “Whack-a-mole.” As soon as one location or fake listing is taken down, another pops up and takes its place.

Local businesses can fight back by making sure to clearly and prominently communicate genuinely local markers in their communications. Consumers prefer local businesses for their personalized service, reliability and quality work. Show pictures of your storefront, staff and signs. Use language that is local in nature, such as referring to specific neighborhoods, cross-streets and other local landmarks. Engage in multi-media marketing for local brand recognition.

Also, regularly perform searches for local competition as a consumer might, and report any fake listings or businesses that you know aren’t real.

3. Fake ads

Two kinds of fake ads are being used, especially on social media sites. The first is an ad that poses as a headline story by a major publisher like ESPN. The stories may report the fake death of a famous athlete or some fake scandal involving a celebrity. The ad looks like the major publisher’s content and displays its logo, URL and other identifying marks, but when clicked on, the ad directs to a sales site.

The other type of ad offers fake deals or free giveaways to lure buyers. Photos of a local business’s products, boxes or storefronts may be used in the ad, and the business’s name or URL may also be displayed. But the ads are really run by scammers who take credit card and payment information to run false charges before the payments can be stopped.

Both of these have great potential to affect local businesses. Ads that display fake headlines but lead to other sales sites may appear on your business’s Facebook page, on auto-populated display or banner ads on your website or other business pages that permit third-party ads. Visitors who click on these fake links lose trust not just in advertising generally, but also in those who display them on their websites or social media pages.

Ads that steal your business’s identity and use it to commit fraud clearly damage your reputation and brand. So be on the lookout for these types of scams, and report them immediately.

4. Bogus billing and invoices

Another trick that has been around for some time is fake invoices, but again, technology and the use of fake information is making these types of scams easier to sell. At its most basic, invoices for services never provided show up with the hopes that they will be paid, often for amounts small enough to avoid red flags and under the guise of familiar names or images like a generic Yellow Pages walking fingers logo.

Those schemes are becoming more sophisticated. For example, real agreements are made for sales of useless listings or digital products that are made to look legitimate but have no real audience. Fake agreements are generated through fabricated emails or spliced phone calls to capture voice authorizations that never occurred.

Local businesses are also billed for misleading charges such as expiring annual URL subscriptions or fake URL address subscriptions that get paid when business owners are too busy to pay close attention.

Scammers are also posing as clients, vendors, or even the government asking for payment. Emails appear legitimate, yet links to bank accounts or online payment portals redirect payment to criminals.

These scams can target local businesses or marketers alike. Make sure you educate your staff to watch for these false charges and bills. Thousands of advertisers pay these fake bills every month, costing businesses billions. Don’t be one of them!

5. Fake reviews

Most of the concern to date with fake reviews have been with negative reviews. Local businesses usually complain of losing customers and sales over one- and two-star ratings. Yet the power of reviews to affect purchase decisions is driving another trend: fabricating positive reviews.

With reviews impacting decisions for 92 percent of consumers, positive reviews boost sales dramatically. Yet an honest, hardworking 3.5-star rated company is going to find it hard to compete against a 4.5-star company that offers a similar product or service. False reviews artificially skew expectations and create an unlevel playing field. Sometimes, the false positive reviews even “compare” competitors’ products and state why the product being reviewed is superior — a double whammy for the competitor.

Amazon is aware of these problems in its marketplace and sued 1,000 people about a year ago for selling fake positive reviews of products. Yet the problem continues, often through promotional programs, including product giveaways. Product giveaways are usually accompanied by a voluntary request that the recipient honestly review the product. While not a fake review, the potential for misleading a customer exists when a review is indirectly paid for.

The FTC requires that reviewers who are compensated disclose that fact, but based on the complaints on Amazon, reviews that don’t comply abound on the site. And because many customers get the free products through coupon codes that discount the product substantially or completely, even filtering reviews from “verified purchasers” doesn’t solve the problem.

Combat the problem by getting legitimate reviews from real buyers of your product or service. Almost 90 percent of consumers would leave a review if asked, so you can increase the number of reviews simply by reaching out. Genuine reviews will stand out more, too, as reviews themselves are now getting reviewed: many sites direct users to the highest rated or most helpful reviews.

6. Phantom bids

Four of the largest ad agency holding companies are facing Department of Justice investigations into price fixing. Reports describe the alleged misconduct as soliciting bids for services such as video production that are rigged so that agency prices for similar services would appear to be comparatively competitive.

Stories like these are absolute killers to the reputation of the marketing industry at a time when local businesses already distrust marketing companies and question the return on investment of hiring a marketing provider.

In this culture, transparency with your client is critical, and pricing must be clear and in writing. Cost of the service, knowing what they are getting and realistic expectations of results are the most important decision factors for advertisers who are shopping for marketing services. Make sure that there is no question about the reliability of that information provided to prospective clients.

7. Fake websites and audiences

The Russian Methbot scam epitomizes why so many local businesses express concern over digital advertising. Methbot created fake web pages that attracted ad algorithms into placing video ads on these sites. They then used manufactured consumer profiles to “watch” the ads that paid the sites for the fake human traffic and views. The scam was unprecedented in its ability to create fake consumers that mimicked real ones in the way they surfed the web, clicked on content, moved the mouse and possessed unique IP addresses, all of which increased the value of ads placed on those sites and made detection of the fraud difficult.

Yet even less sophisticated campaigns that generate false impressions in response to search ads or that hire real people to click on ads can be costly.

Local businesses can ill afford to absorb the cost of advertising that isn’t viewed by real customers. Concerns about paying for fake impressions, views or even clicks are real. Yet avoiding digital advertising doesn’t seem to be the answer.

Be alert to the issue and look over your bills carefully. Watch out for unusual spikes in traffic and clicks that are clustered together in short time spans. Identifying problems early will help avoid costs from running up and result in faster resolution with media sellers.

8. False URLs

The Methbot scheme duped programmatic advertising platforms into placing ads on false websites. False URLs are intended to capture real consumers who mistype URLs of websites that they are in fact trying to visit. Also referred to as typo-squatting or URL hijacking, some examples of addresses that have used this ploy include usatodaycom.com and abcnews.com.co.

While not a new tactic, “fat finger” mistakes are more prevalent today with touch screens and small keyboards on mobile devices. The expansion of gTLDs also provides more opportunities for capturing typos with domains such as .om, .cm and mimicking popular web addresses with different domains.

USA Today cites Intel Security’s chief technology officer explaining,

“They create a site that looks essentially like the real one, at least on the surface. It’s fairly straightforward to do, and then you’re simply relying on human nature to not notice.”

Most of the time, these sites serve advertising that generates revenue for the URL owner and are relatively harmless. Other times, though, malware infections or phishing attempts to collect personal information are the goals.

While high-traffic sites tend to be the targets of typo-squatting, small business is not immune. A marketer for a local wine bar found that another local business used a variation on his client’s URL to direct online traffic its way.

You also want to be cautious of having your ads appear on typo-squatting pages, sites that are unlikely to provide any positive return for those ads. And beware of your own typos when providing links from your site to social media or other high-profile domains. Studies showed that up to 80 percent or more of single character typos for names like Twitter, Facebook and Google landed on typo-squatting sites. Sending customers to one of these fake URLs is one sure way to lose them.

Closing thoughts

While many of the scams themselves are not new, the way that false content and information are being used to disguise the scam or improve the success rate are. It is critical to be aware of and guard against these attempts both for yourself and on behalf of your clients. Demand accountability, and refuse to support fake news or other false information by funding it through advertising. Our future depends on it.

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Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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About The Author

Wesley Young is the Local Search Association’s Vice President of Public Affairs. He blogs about the industry on the

Local Search Insider blog

.

17 link resolutions for 2017

Back in 2014, I had 14 link resolutions. For 2017, I have 17 for you.

Maybe you’re doing some or all of the following already; congratulations if that’s true, as you’re much more proactive than most. If you aren’t doing any, start with just a couple — but please, please, please make sure you do the first one. That’s the biggest first step you can take if you’re not clued in to what’s involved with your link development.

1. Check out your backlink profile

This one is really never going to change, as far as I’m concerned. It’s definitely not earth-shatteringly new advice, but you would be utterly amazed at the number of people who have no clue about their link profile. I’ve dealt with people who don’t even know where they’d go to look for their backlinks. I’ve dealt with people who are confused about how to analyze what’s there and have never bothered, and people who are too terrified to even dig in.

Whether you want to pay for a tool or just rely on what Google shows you in their Search Console, just make sure you’re looking. Be aware that different tools show you different data, though, so if you’re going to keep track (and of course you are) then pick one and use it for trending purposes, too.

2. Look at what your competitors are doing

I don’t like the idea of mimicking anyone else’s efforts, but I know a lot of link builders who disagree with me there. What I do like to get out of competitor research is a better idea of what is NOT there. That way I have a good idea of what to do to fill a void with something useful and not just copy something else.

I love BuzzSumo for this task. Many clients ask questions like, “Why is competitor X doing so well with half the number of links that I have?” or “How is it that so-and-so just started to rank way above me and they’re brand-new?” I can’t think of any big downsides of seeing what your competitors are doing and figuring out how to use that to your advantage somehow.

3. Don’t assume that you need to churn out excessive content in order to do well

Putting out 10 pieces of content a week is not sustainable for many sites. I mean, if you’re one of those lucky brands that can make this happen, go for it. But if you’re like most brands, where this would be next to impossible to do well, accept it — don’t just vomit out watered-down, useless content. It’s hard to get links to great content sometimes. Poor content doesn’t stand much of a chance.

4. Don’t be surprised when you stop your marketing efforts and you stop doing so well

Everyone else is continuing to move forward, so when you halt your work, you’re likely going to get left behind by your competitors. We’ve had so many clients get to where they want to be in the rankings and then pause our link development work — and over half of them have come back within a couple of months.

5. Don’t discount the power of paid media

Paid media can be effectively utilized in conjunction with your link-building efforts. If you can’t rank organically for some key terms, I see nothing wrong with using paid ads to capture the traffic from those phrases.

Alternatively, if you need to watch your budget and you’re ranking number one for certain keywords that are costing you a fortune in PPC, consider slacking off on the paid stuff just a bit if you can (unless your conversions are much stronger in PPC).

6. Spend more time on research before you create content

You can write something amazing, but if it’s not the right fit for your audience, it’s not going to be as effective. About a year ago, I wrote about this exact issue, explaining how poor preparation caused me to do a really poor job on a content marketing workshop. I didn’t research my audience enough.

7. Build genuine relationships

Don’t only interact with someone in order to get a link or a mention on Twitter. If the only time you are reaching out to an “influencer” is when you want them to comment on a post of yours or upvote it somewhere, they’re going to stop caring about you. I speak from experience here.

8. Be more selective about promoting your own content.

Don’t badger people with your content. I do really love it when someone writes a piece that they feel might interest me and they let me know, because I miss a lot when I’m not focusing on what’s being published. I hate it when the same people direct message me on Twitter every single time they write an article when they write five a week.

9. Figure out how and where to promote your content

Don’t expect that you’re going to get eyes on your work without some form of promotion. Years ago, that might have been true; today, it’s not. There’s just too much to wade through, too much noise.

I want to mention BuzzSumo again here, as it’s fantastic for showing you where different content performs the best in terms of social media platforms.

 

10. Promote something other than only that which benefits you directly

You know those Twitter users who only tweet their own articles? And then retweet them in case you missed them the first 10 times? Don’t be like that.

I’ve made a lot of really good contacts from sharing other people’s work. It’s a great way to start building a relationship. Note the example below, where my fellow link builder Debra Mastaler is tweeting other people’s content, not her own. She’s not mentioned in these pieces either, so there’s no major benefit to her doing this. I like her style.

11. Take the time to carefully and thoroughly get an idea of your risk tolerance

I feel that this is such a big problem right now. Only you can make the decision about how much you’re willing to risk and which methods you’re okay with using. If you want to build some links, and you’re thinking of doing so in a way that violates Google’s webmaster guidelines, don’t pursue it without getting a full understanding of what’s involved.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that a tactic which violates the guidelines “won’t be an issue,” either. It may not be, but you can’t assume anything when it comes to marketing. Don’t engage in questionable link-building methods if you aren’t prepared to deal with the potential fallout.

12. Ask questions, always

Ask your link team why they recommend a certain method. Ask about the downsides of everything. Ask about the benefits of investing in content. Ask yourself what you expect to get out of this. Ask anything that pops into your head. Use Casie Gillette’s piece as a starting point if you need help with what questions you should be asking. I certainly would if someone were building links for my site.

13. Stop chasing algorithms

Remember when we used to do all that exact match anchor text? And then we did a lot of “click here” anchors? We figured out what worked and abused it until it messed us up, and then we went with the latest and greatest trend. I’ve stopped doing that and have had much more success with link building since we started to just build links that looked like good links. It’s very simple!

14. Stop changing direction every time you read something new

I’m sure most of you have a client who emails you the second they learn about a new trend or read an article that seemingly contradicts your current link-building strategy.

Many people write controversial pieces just for attention. Some have done testing and have valid points, but maybe what they’re talking about doesn’t apply to you. Nothing is worse than a client who constantly wants you to stop what you’re doing and do something different because they read some article on another industry site. If it’s working for you and you’re happy, keep it up.

15. Remember that rankings aren’t everything

Move your focus away from simply rising up in the rankings. I have a few clients who really, really hate a nofollowed link, even when it’s on a good site and has the potential to send them relevant traffic. I would never turn that down, personally. If I get a conversion out of it, I’m good to go.

16. Replicate your best links

Analyze the links that send you the most relevant traffic, and figure out how to get more like them. These are your key links. Maybe you have a great link in an older article on a particular site, and every month you get some conversions from it. Wouldn’t it be smart to try and get another link in a newer article on that same site and see if that brings you more conversions?

To give you an example, one of my best sources for new clients is this site. I write a monthly column, and every month I get some really great contacts from it. I take it seriously and keep writing. I don’t just hope that I’ll get continued referrals from my old work.

If you write a post for another site and it goes crazy and everything’s amazing, why not ask for a column? You have nothing to lose from trying.

17. Don’t take every single opportunity to get a link

I feel bad about saying no to people who ask me to contribute to a roundup post, for example, but I don’t have the time or the desire to contribute to 10 a week. In some cases, the sites are brand-new and make me a bit nervous — and if I don’t want my link there, I’m not going to bother. Be picky. Just because you can get a link somewhere does not mean that you should get a link there.

Here’s to a great 2017!

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Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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About The Author

Julie Joyce owns the link development firm

Link Fish Media

and is one of the founding members of the

SEO Chicks

blog. Julie began working in search marketing in 2002 and soon became head of search for a small IT firm. Eventually, she started Link Fish Media, where she now serves as Director Of Operations, focusing on working with clients in ultra-competitive niches all over the world.

10 Reasons Your Website Can Have a High Bounce Rate by @amelioratethis

The dreaded high bounce rate.

It makes the shoulders of online marketers tense up, and causes their foreheads to wrinkle up with concern.

Wait, What’s Bounce Rate Again?

As a refresher, bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors that leave your website (or “bounce” back to the search results or referring website) after viewing only one page on your site.

Before you start worrying, consider that “high” is a relative term. According to a RocketFuel study, most websites will see bounce rates between 26% to 70%.

Based on the data they gathered, they provided a bounce rate grading system of sorts:

• 25% or lower: Something is probably broken
• 26-40%: Excellent
• 41-55%: Average
• 56-70%: Higher than normal, but could make sense depending on the website
• 70% or higher: Bad and/or something is probably broken

The overall bounce rate for your site will live in the Audience Overview tab of Google Analytics.

You can find your bounce rate for individual channels and pages in the behavior column of most views in Google Analytics.

There are a number of reasons your website can have a high bounce rate. Let’s review ten common ones and how to fix them.

1. Slow-to-Load Page

Google has long indicated that site speed is included in their ranking algorithm, so as a good SEO you should be focused on it anyway. Google wants to promote content that provides a positive experience for users, and they recognize that a slow site provides a poor experience. If your page takes longer than a few seconds to load, your visitors may get fed up and leave.

Fixing site speed is a lifelong journey for most SEOs and webmasters, but the upside is that with each incremental fix, you should see an incremental boost in speed. Review your page speed (overall and for individual pages) using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, and GTMetrix. They’ll offer you recommendations specific to your site, such as compressing your images, reducing third-party scripts, and leveraging browser caching.

2. Self-Sufficient Content

In some cases, the user will get everything they were looking for from the page on your site. This can be a wonderful thing—perhaps you’ve achieved the content marketer’s dream and created the kind of 10X content that wholly consumed them for a handful of minutes in their lives! Or perhaps you have a landing page that only requires the user to complete a short lead form.

To determine whether bounce rate is nothing to worry about, you’ll want to look at the Time Spent on Page and Average Session Duration metrics in Google Analytics. If the user is spending a couple of minutes or more on the page, that sends a positive signal to Google that they found your page highly relevant to their search query. If you want to rank for that particular search query, that kind of user intent is gold.

If the user is spending less than a minute on the page (which may be the case of a properly optimized landing page with a quick-hit CTA form), consider enticing the reader to read some of your related blog posts after filling out the form.

3. Disproportional Contribution by a Few Pages

If we expand on the example from the previous section, you may have a few pages on your site that are contributing disproportionally to the overall bounce rate for your site. Google is savvy at recognizing the difference between these. So if your single CTA landing pages reasonably satisfy user intent and cause them to bounce quickly after taking action, but your longer-form content pages have a lower bounce rate, you’re probably good to go.

However, you will want to dig in and confirm that this is the case or discover if some of these pages with a higher bounce rate shouldn’t be causing users to leave en masse. Open up Google Analytics, go to Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages, and sort by Bounce Rate.

Consider adding an advanced filter to remove pages that might skew the results. For example, it’s not necessarily helpful to agonize over the one Twitter share with 5 visits that has all your social UTM parameters tacked onto the end of the URL. My rule of thumb is to determine a minimum threshold of volume that is significant for the page. Choose what makes sense for your site, whether it’s 100 visits or 1,000 visits, then click on Advanced and filter for Sessions greater than that.

4. Misleading Title Tag and/or Meta Description

Ask yourself: Is the content of your page accurately summarized by your title tag and meta description?

If not, visitors may enter your site thinking your content is about one thing, only to find that it isn’t, and then bounce back to whence they came. Whether it was an innocent mistake or you were trying to game the system by optimizing for keyword clickbait (shame on you!), this is, fortunately, simple enough to fix. Either review the content of your page and adjust the title tag and meta description accordingly or rewrite the content to address the search queries you really want to attract visitors for.

5. Blank Page or Technical Error

If your bounce rate is exceptionally high and you see that people are spending less than a few seconds on the page, it’s likely your page is blank, returning a 404, or otherwise not loading properly.

Take a look at the page from your audience’s most popular browser and device configurations (e.g. Safari on desktop and mobile, Chrome on mobile, etc.) to replicate their experience. You can also check in Search Console under Crawl > Crawl Errors to discover the issue from Google’s perspective. Correct the issue yourself or talk to someone who can—an issue like this can cause Google to drop your page from the search results in a hurry.

6. Bad Backlink from Another Website

It’s possible you could be doing everything perfect on your end to achieve a normal or low bounce rate from organic search results, and still have a high bounce rate from your referral traffic. The referring site could be sending you unqualified visitors or the anchor text and context for the link could be misleading.

Sometimes this is a result of sloppy copywriting. The writer or publisher linked to your site in the wrong part of the copy, or didn’t mean to link to your site at all. Start by reaching out to the author of the article, then the editor or webmaster if the author doesn’t have the ability to update post-publish. Plead your case and politely ask them to remove the link to your site or update the context, whichever makes sense. Pro tip: you can easily find their contact information with this awesome guide by Joshua Daniels.

Unfortunately, the referring website may be trying to sabotage you with some blackhat SEO tactics, out of spite or just for fun. For example, they may have linked to your Guide to Adopting a Puppy with the anchor text of FREE GET RICH QUICK SCHEME. You should still reach out and politely ask them to remove the link, but if needed, you’ll want to update your disavow file in Search Console. Disavowing the link won’t reduce your bounce rate, but it will tell Google not to take that site’s backlink into account when it comes to determining the quality and relevance of your site.

7. Affiliate Landing Page or Single-Page Site

If you’re an affiliate, the whole point of your page may be to deliberately send people away from your website to the merchant’s site. In these instances, you’re doing the job right if the page has a higher bounce rate.

A similar scenario would be if you have a single page website, such as a landing page for your ebook or a simple portfolio site. It’s common for sites like these to have a very high bounce rate since there’s nowhere else to go. Remember that Google can usually tell when a website is doing a good job satisfying user intent even if the user’s query is answered super quickly (sites like WhatIsMyScreenResolution.com come to mind).

If you’re interested, you can adjust your bounce rate so it makes more sense for the goals of your website.

8. Low-Quality or Under Optimized Content

To be frank, visitors may be bouncing from your website because your content is just plain bad. Take a long, hard look at your page and have your most judgmental and honest colleague or friend review it (ideally, this person either has a background in content marketing or copywriting, or they fall into your target audience).

One possibility is that your content is great, but you just haven’t optimized it for online reading.

• Are you writing in simple sentences (think high school students vs PhDs)?
• Is it easily scannable with lots of headers?
• Have you included images to break up the copy and make it easy on the eyes?

Writing for the web is different than writing for written publications. Brush up your online copywriting skills with these formatting tips from Neil Patel.

The other possibility is that your content is poorly written overall or simply isn’t something your audience cares about. Consider hiring a freelance copywriter or content strategist who can help you revamp your ideas into powerful content that converts.

9. Bad or Obnoxious UX

Are you bombarding people with ads, pop-up surveys, and email subscribe buttons? CTA-heavy features like these may be irresistible to the marketing and sales team, but using too many of them can make a visitor run for the hills.

Is your site confusing to navigate? Perhaps your visitors are looking to explore more, but your blog is missing a search box or the menu items are difficult to click on a smartphone.

As online marketers, we know our websites in and out. It’s easy to forget that what seems intuitive to us is anything but to our audience. Make sure you’re avoiding these common design mistakes, and have a web or UX designer review the site and let you know if anything pops out to them as problematic.

10. Wonky Google Analytics Setup

Finally, it’s possible that you haven’t properly implemented Google Analytics and added the tracking codes to all the pages on your site. Google explains how to fix that here.

Hopefully, this article has helped you diagnose what’s causing your high bounce rate, and you have a good idea how to fix it. Now get to it!

 

Image Credits

Featured Image: Peggy_Marco/Pixabay
In-post Image: RocketFuel
Screenshots by Amelia Willson. Taken December 2016.

Forecasting for the Future: How to Track Google Algorithm Updates by @ADiSilvestro

Google changes its search algorithm about 500 to 600 times a year with about nine major updates in the past two years. Those in the SEO world are probably familiar with two of the most recent algorithm updates: Possum and Penguin 4.0, both of which were rolled out in September. As Ryan Shelly from our own Search Engine Journal stated earlier this year, there are three things to remember when an update happens: (1) don’t panic, (2) wait to react, and (3) read credible sources and make adjustments where necessary.

The important thing to remember is while staying on top of algorithm updates is important, there are always other best practices to consider alongside these new updates.

Why You Should Care

Google algorithm updates are increasingly important to consider in the SEO world. While you do not need to pay attention to every little update that Google has (which quite frankly would be overwhelming and verging on impossible, especially for small business marketers), it is important to keep tabs on the top sites and most important updates. In reality, the most important updates are what impact businesses the most. Keeping on top of algorithm updates can help you address flaws and discover adjustments you might need to make to your digital marketing strategy. Many digital marketers start out by reading every little update and trying to recognize the impact, but the key is really knowing what is most important and seeking out guidance for how it might impact your business in consideration of the whole of Google Search engine impact.

BUT…Algorithm Updates Aren’t Everything

That being said, algorithm updates are not the end-all, be-all of SEO for company websites. It is important to remember that when you see a significant change in traffic, you need to consider all possibilities. Have you changed your normal behavior with content in some way (frequency of blogging, etc.)? Are you having issues with your mobile site or load times on your site because of new content you have added? While you absolutely want to consider how new algorithm updates might impact your business, you also want to make sure you don’t use them as a scapegoat for other flaws in your digital marketing strategy.

How to Track Google Algorithm Updates

With all things considered, below I’ll explain not only how to track algorithm updates, but also how to recognize what is most important in a constant feed of changes, adjustments, and new material. There are a few different sites that you can go to to see Google Algorithm updates:

MozCast takes a unique approach to reporting the general “climate” of Google algorithm updates. With an overview page that looks much like a weather forecast, Moz has taken the approach of climate to tell marketers what is on the horizon. On a stormy day or a day with extreme temperatures, marketers know that there is a lot being stirred up in the Google algorithm. This is great because it is something that marketers can check daily, in a general sense, without getting hung up on small details. When you do see a stormy day on the horizon, that is when you know you should keep your eyes peeled on Google’s blog and on some of the other tools listed below.

Moz Pro: Google Algorithm Change History

As mentioned, changes in the algorithm can be major or minor. Marketers like to know the dates and information about algorithm changes so they can best plan for how this might impact their organic traffic and other aspects of search. Moz Pro has an entire page dedicated to Google Algorithm updates, along with links to Google articles on the updates, articles their writers have written, and articles by other sites that can be helpful in considering the change. As mentioned in the beginning, it is important to read from credible sources, and Moz has really taken this to heart in designing their stream of information.

If you are looking to get an overview of the history of Google algorithm updates from 2013 to present (and even for forecasting the future), then SEO Book is a great place to start. They highlight all the major algorithm update changes by year, and include the month and day of each change. As of now, they even have a forecast for January 2017. One of the things that is really nice about SEO Book is that they also include a concise explanation of each update.

Do you want to see how these Google algorithm updates directly impact your own organic traffic? The Panguin tool is free and allows you to look at these updates in relation to your own traffic through Google Analytics. If there have been any penalties to your traffic because of conflicts with new updates, you will easily be able to see them here! This tool is very user-friendly and gets you a report within seconds as well, so it has always been a personal favorite.

Rank Ranger is similar to the Moz page, with the exception that rather than having links to long-form content regarding the updates, a summary of each update is on the main page. This makes it easy to scroll through, read about the updates, and look at visual aids to help understand the information. A sidebar allows you to look at past updates dating back to 2000. So if you are into digital history, as well as getting a summary of the updates most recent and relevant to your work today, then Rank Ranger may be your new go-to for updates.

Bonus: Follow Search Engine Journal on Twitter @sejournal. We cover every major update in real-time.

The Takeaway

There are many tools to monitor Google’s constantly changing algorithm updates, and most of them make it fairly easy to understand what the relationship to your organic traffic really is. While it is not necessary to monitor every update that Google puts out (especially since there are hundreds every year), it is important to understand the big changes and change your strategy accordingly as they happen.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Rawpixel/DepositPhotos
All screenshots taken by author, December 2016

Take the Guesswork out of Google Shopping with Criteo by @sejournal

This post was sponsored by Criteo. 

Google Shopping has become one of the most important search channels for retailers. But over time, it has also become one of the most challenging to manage – with extensive manual effort involved and extremely complex campaign optimization. With increasing competition in the channel, retailers are losing out on significant opportunities as a result of the extensive time it takes to realize gains from manual, reactive optimization approaches.

Performance marketing leader Criteo has tackled this problem head-on – launching a new automated solution in the US that eliminates guesswork and dramatically improves results from Google Shopping campaigns.

Criteo Predictive Search is an automated solution based on powerful machine learning that systematically improves results from Google Shopping by using precise, predictive optimization across every aspect of the campaign. Developed specifically for Google Shopping, it delivers a fully automated, end-to-end solution for marketers faced with soaring complexities.

Early adopters of the new solution, who have taken part in beta tests, have seen as much as a 22-49 percent lift in revenue at constant cost. These clients include 30 of the leading U.S. retailers, including Revolve Clothing, Teleflora, and Camping World.

How It Works

With Predictive Search, every bid is based on a comprehensive picture of the user, product, device, and user intent.

Predictive Search continuously optimizes across all campaign elements to ensure efficient bidding. And through a deep understanding of each consumer’s purchase intent and engagement, Predictive Search creates, adapts, and bids on granular user lists. It simultaneously integrates knowledge of user, product, device and intent to generate the ideal bid and increase the likelihood of a purchase, every time.

By continually optimizing remarketing lists, campaign structure, campaign settings, and bidding, Predictive Search enables Paid Search Marketers to:

• Re-engage high-value users via behavioral targeting technology that programmatically sets bids based on each user’s propensity to make a purchase.
• Increase ROI with multi-dimensional bidding that reflects a granular understanding of product characteristics, performance history, user intent, device, and user behavior.
• Consistently meet targets, even during seasonal and promotional peaks, with campaigns that automatically and accurately adapt.
• Eliminate time spent maintaining campaign structure, settings, negatives, bid modifiers, and budget caps.

For more information on Criteo Predictive Search, visit Criteo.com.

 

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Criteo. Used with permission. 
In-post Photo: Image by Criteo. Used with permission. 

15 Must-Have Features for E-commerce Sites by @HollystarPR

All websites are unique in their own way. We’ve seen trends in e-commerce website design like animation, 360-degree product previews, advanced filtering, and dynamic product search. However, trends don’t guarantee conversion rates or robust user experiences. There are certain elements that every e-commerce site should have to stay relevant and competitive. Here is a list of 15 must-have features that attract online shoppers.

Ease of Use

This comes from the old K.I.S.S. adage about keeping it simple. Simplicity should be a goal in good design and you don’t have to sacrifice elegance to achieve it. As a matter of fact, studies show that 76% of consumers say the most important characteristic of a website is ease of use.

The objective is to help shoppers get to what they want, faster and without running into unnecessary complexity that can clog up the path to purchase.

Online sellers have minutes, if not seconds, to make a sale. Focus on the user experience by providing shopping categories, filters, and comparison capabilities. Consider easy-to-find customer reviews and FAQ information to help buyers make decisions more quickly.

E-commerce sites should be a competitive advantage instead of a troublesome experience.

High-Resolution Photos and Video

Gone are the days of posting one photo with a few bullet points and a price tag. Shoppers want to see multiple angles and people using the product in different environments. They want to be able to zoom in and get a feel for the product.

Technical considerations for images are crucial. Images that don’t load or take too long to load will see a consumer drop-off rate of 39%, according to Adobe.

Images sell, not text. E-commerce websites should display multiple photos per product. The photos need to be high-resolution and optimized for page load.

Mobile-Friendly Website

Google declared it, so it must be done. All websites are required to have a mobile-friendly version by 2017 or suffer the SEO consequences. If this isn’t reason enough, one in three online purchases is completed on a smartphone.

With a responsive website, content intuitively adapts to whatever device is accessing it to provide the most user-friendly experience. Shockingly, many sites still have not adopted a responsive or mobile version.

User-Generated Reviews

Shoppers read reviews. About 92% of them, in fact. The star rating on a product is the number one factor used by consumers.

You might think that having negative reviews is a sale killer. The opposite is actually true. Having negative reviews can often be a positive. It’s shown that products without negative reviews are seen as censored and, in turn, shoppers will assume the positive reviews are fake.

Depending on website functionality, e-commerce sites can use plugins from the most popular review platforms including Yelp, Foursquare, and Facebook.

Forward-thinking e-commerce sites, like Paiwen paddleboards, are using reviews as user-generated content to drive social proof and build raving fans.

Special Offers

Most e-commerce sites are using special offers in their standard marketing practices via email, social, text, etc. Next-level e-commerce sites take advantage of the prime real estate in the header section to promote special offers.

When shoppers realize they’re getting a special deal, it motivates them to buy more and spend more time searching the site.

If e-commerce sites are using ongoing promotions, providing a unique webpage that lists the offers will not only drive more sales but also improve SEO. Consider the shopper searching “zip code + toyota special offers” and the value of that organic search result.

Wish Lists

Oh, how I love wish lists. One for fashion, one for books to read, one for holiday gift ideas. Shop, save, and share!

E-commerce sites that aren’t using wish lists are leaving revenue on the virtual desktop table. What’s better than having customers bookmark items they want and will most likely buy in the future? That’s just gold in the pocket. And a remarketing campaign dream.

It’s also an opportunity to share a brand with new buyers. When shoppers share their wish lists with family and friends, it sends FREE traffic with built-in social proof to a website.

Find-in-Store

Not all e-commerce sites have brick and mortar stores. However, those that do must have a find-in-store feature. Sometimes you don’t want to wait for an item to ship. Instant gratification.

Shoppers are going online just to research and then complete the purchase in person. This is especially true for millennials, as 72% of young shoppers research online before purchasing in a store.

This makes it incredibly helpful to see which local stores have products in stock.

Related Items

Simply seeing the phrase, “you might like this” causes a serotonin release signaling curiosity and excitement. A related items feature on an e-commerce site creates the desirable stickiness effect that so many marketers strive to achieve.

It happens like this. You saved the AeroPress coffee maker to your shopping cart. A section emerges that says, “you might like this”. Would you like some freshly roasted, fair trade whole coffee beans? Maybe a digital scale to measure the exact amount of coffee grounds to achieve the perfect cup of coffee? You get the picture.

When an online seller uses a related items feature to sell more, it’s actually signaling to the buyer that “they get me”.

Related items can also include similar product categories to comparison shop, “people who bought this item also searched for”, and so on.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Complex purchases require confidence with a seller and detailed information when buying products online versus face-to-face.

At Forthea Interactive, our client, Fine Watch Bank, sells expertly crafted high-end watches. The company’s buyers need confirmation of watch authenticity and detailed product information to feel comfortable when making a purchase. An additional information section details frequently asked information, which establishes credibility and builds confidence with the buyer.

FAQ sections also provide a self-help area to address common customer problems. Buyers often ask about product support, returns, lost account passwords, etc.

Social Proof

Brands and online sellers that connect with their buyers on an emotional level create brand trust and advocacy. Social connection is undeniable and the opportunity to bond with an audience is easier now than ever. Linking social profiles and user-generated content with an e-commerce site are must-have features that will give online sellers brand character.

Shoppers are inundated with a constant flow of “buy now” and “get this”. It’s those brands that engage with customers socially that create customers for life. They are offering products that help others and that people care about.

Social media allows e-commerce brands to show authenticity and associate an emotional connection with their products. Look at Nike’s Pinterest account to see how incorporating products with motivational images makes a huge impact. See how Ikea uses user-generated content to share design ideas and inspiration for how to use its products. Check out how Lowe’s produces how-to videos that teach people how to use its products.

Security Features

Online transactions are an integral part of our lives. As such, e-commerce websites can be a lucrative target for cybercriminals. It’s crucial that online sellers protect customer information and take steps to ensure privacy.

It all starts with a secure e-commerce platform. With their sophisticated security features, it’s no wonder that Magento and WordPress paired with Woo Commerce are the top two platforms for online sellers.

Other must-have e-commerce security features to consider are:

• SSL certificate: establishes secure connectivity between a user and the website. Look for HTTPS and a green lock in the address bar before trusting an online store with your information. Select an SSL certificate vendor with name recognition. The enterprise e-commerce giants almost always use Symantec.
• Two-factor authentication: adds an extra layer of security by requiring username/password and a system-generated code sent via email or text.
• Use a firewall: provides a gateway or wall between two networks and permits authorized traffic and blocking malicious traffic.
• Privacy policy link in footer: addresses the website’s privacy policies and promises customer data is not shared with third parties.

Advanced Payment Options

In the world of Apple Pay and PayPal, advanced payment options are a must-have feature for an e-commerce site. Just consider the ease of use associated with Amazon one-click shopping. Shoppers with registered accounts can literally buy with the click of a button.

There are many popular online payment options. The key is understanding who the buyer is and implementing the most effective solutions. If a website is limiting payment options, make sure to explain why.

For example, an e-commerce site may not offer Bitcoin as a payment option after determining its value isn’t reliable. If buyers are technology-savvy individuals who tend toward this payment method, it’s important to be transparent as to why it isn’t an option. This transparency establishes that the brand understands its buyers and builds trust.

Detailed Shipping Information

Alarmingly, unexpected shipping costs are the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment. It’s critical that e-commerce websites include shipping information early in the checkout process, including a zip code calculator showing cost. It’s also helpful to include delivery time and options for faster delivery. Sites should list countries that are outside normal shipping zones.

Interestingly, shoppers spend 30% more per order when free shipping is included. Be sure to present codes for free shipping on all pages of the site through the header navigation, if applicable.

Multi-Touchpoint Contact Page

When it comes to running an e-commerce site where most business takes place online, nothing builds trust more than an overly obvious and well-presented “contact us” feature. This is especially true when selling high-end merchandise or technical products.

Never make it hard for a buyer to get in touch or request support. Consider the contact page a feature of the website. Include multiple ways to reach out, including phone, email, and an online form. Some companies with brick and mortar stores offer online appointment setting via their contact page. Be sure to add customer service social links and Google maps for locations.

Return Policy

Return policies are an essential feature of any e-commerce website. The stats below really speak for themselves, but a return policy should be clearly visible and well-written or illustrated. This is another trust-building feature of online selling. It reassures buyers that if they are unhappy or just need a different size, the brand is there for them.

A 2016 infographic and survey by Invesp shows:

• At least 30% of all products ordered online are returned.
• 92% of consumers will buy again if product return process is easy.
• 67% of shoppers check the returns page before making a purchase.

These must-have e-commerce site features could be grouped into categories like Duh, DOH! and Ahhh. Marketers and web designers might say “duh” when it comes to incorporating ease of use, high-resolution photos, security features, and contact information. As they are best practices and trademarks of good design.

There are others who would say “DOH!” when considering elements like special offers, user-generated reviews, and social sharing. They know they should be using these features but just haven’t gotten around to implementing them. It’s never too late!

Finally, the “ahhh” moment when you get excited about planning for robust related items, shareable wish lists, and find-in-store features.

No matter what category you’re in, e-commerce sites have an incredible opportunity to use tried-and-true features blended with innovative new elements to create fantastic shopping experiences.

Image Credits

Featured Image: beachboyx10/DepositPhotos
Screenshots by Holly Gary. Taken December 2016

Will Facebook 360 Change Brand Storytelling Forever? by @chris_hart

Facebook 360 launched in 2015, but we have yet to see advertisers and marketers embrace it on a wider scale. In this article, we’ll look at how brands are using 360 content, and answer burning questions about the medium—including hearing from industry experts on how it’s changing the storytelling game.

Facebook 360 launched in 2015, first with video capability, and then photo functionality in 2016. The goal? Allow users to immerse themselves in the landscapes and experiences of those who’ve captured them and to elevate the storytelling experience.

Some brands have been quick to jump on the feature, producing visually stunning examples, while others still feel timid about Facebook 360, its potential and the effort involved.

We have yet to see advertisers and marketers really embrace it on a wider scale, but some are getting it right. Let’s look closer at what Facebook 360 is, examples of 360-degree content, where it’s headed, and tips to get started.

What Are Some Examples of 360-Degree Content?

Brands are using 360-degree videos for everything from marketing to education and simply connecting with their audience in new ways.

National Geographic is allowing people to explore geography like never before in their Facebook 360 videos. Here’s an example you can check out in a video on Victoria Falls.

YouTube offers the ability to upload 360-degree videos as well, and here’s a Sports Illustrated documentary on Everest using 360-degree capability that you can access via desktop or mobile:

How Is Facebook 360 Advancing Storytelling for Brands?

Breathtaking imagery aside, 360 content has major potential for brands to rethink their storytelling.

“This medium has had an immense impact on how we think about stories moving forward,” says Mars Sandoval, founder and creative director at Syndrome Studio. “The interactive, non-linear format is a big departure from how content has been both imagined and consumed in the past, and the medium demands an entirely new and different approach to storytelling.

“Unlike the tightly controlled ‘one-way’ narratives of traditional video, the user experience aspect presents an ‘open world’ of discovery for the user and an exciting set of challenges and opportunities for content creators and marketers to consider.”

Facebook 360 does indeed put users into an immersive environment to experience moments in a way that’s a big departure from the traditional screen experience.

While this may seem foreign to many content creators now, it could be second nature in the future. Think back to when magazine publications had to transition to the online experience, and how that redefined the way content was consumed. The end result was much more interactive, where the user chose the path.

With 360 content, the user is again in the driver’s seat so long as the format is available by content publishers.

“Facebook 360 has changed content storytelling for the better,” says Kendall Bird, social media manager for Collegis Education. “It has become a way for the common photo or video to come to life and make an experience for the user … building excitement and motivating audiences more than ever to engage with content.”

Is Facebook 360 Considered Virtual Reality?

Facebook 360 allows users on certain devices to interact with video and content in new ways. On desktop and mobile, a person can scroll left, right, up or down using their mouse or a finger to view the scene almost as if they were there.

Facebook 360 content is indeed compatible with VR technology like Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR, though some doubt its place in the world of virtual reality proper, citing that just because it’s a 360 video, doesn’t truly make it VR.

As this article points out  on Quartz:

Both Facebook and YouTube now allow anyone to upload 360-degree videos to their platforms. That means if you have a Cardboard, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, or anything else that could be construed as a virtual reality headset, you can watch immersive videos on your device. But that doesn’t make them virtual reality, seeing as a video of someone surfing or playing soccer in 360-degree video isn’t virtual—it really happened!—so that’s really just reality.

Semantics aside, many of us see it as a form of VR because it’s taking our experiences with content to a new, more realistic level.

“The user can experience another place, from another time, through their own technology – and they don’t have to purchase anything extra,” says Kendall. “No plane tickets, rental cars, or trains, just you and your computer or mobile phone, and you’re experiencing a place and time as if you were really there.”

Mars has his own take on Facebook 360 as VR: “At the present, we would consider Facebook 360 as one of the many ‘flavors’ of VR. From a creator standpoint, the design and production methods are quite similar, although ‘pure’ VR is more layered, complex and usually makes use of VR goggles.”

He adds, “What makes Facebook 360 so exciting is how it democratizes the medium, opening virtual reality up to anyone with a smartphone/web browser and a Facebook account. It really is the Wild West right now—platforms, workflows, and people’s tastes are evolving so quickly. The medium is being redefined constantly, making it an exciting time for the entire field of VR.”

Isn’t 360 Content Just a Fad?

While there could be a slow adoption process with 360 video and imagery, market motivators may push its usage along. For example, this type of content couples well with the mobile experience, and research time and time again points to video as an effective medium for mobile users.

As brands start to think more about how to create mobile experiences for their audiences, visually appealing content—and particularly 360-degree video and photography—will take those mobile experiences to the next level.

“Like any new and exciting innovation, especially when tied to advertising, there is a high novelty factor early on,” says Mars. “Everyone jumps on the bandwagon at the onset, but over time, a few really grasp the medium and master how to use it in an effective way.”

“For example, think about how many companies rushed to release an app in the early days of the iPhone. Many of these first generation apps were simply a copy of a website, offering little else in terms of content, function, and user experience … As the medium matures, we are beginning to see some really great examples of VR being used in interesting ways … Many avenues for advertising are opening up, and as the medium is embraced by more consumers and the user base grows, there will be more opportunities to redefine marketing in the VR space.”

We can indeed imagine how this new medium might in the future merge online and offline experiences in real-time, or facilitate key initiatives for all sorts of sectors like education, sports, law enforcement and beyond.

As the glossiness of all new technology wears off after a while, what’s left is the substantive stories that are being told through the medium. Leading with the story and not the technology is going to be important for this new content medium to be effective and to have staying power in the marketing and advertising world.

Getting Started With Facebook 360

With the right equipment and a little imagination, brands can get in on the 360 action quite easily, and the possibilities are exciting.

If the popularity of the GoPro cams is any indicator, the perspective will greatly open up for the content consumer from a place of being more linear and prescribed to multi-directional and personalized.

You can learn more about getting started with Facebook 360 here.

Image credits:
Featured Image: Pexels / Hands Coffee Smartphone Technology
Video: Sports Illustrated / Capturing Everest Teaser | 360 Video | Sports Illustrated

59 Marketing Posts You Probably Missed in 2016 (and Need to Read) by @seo_travel

In 2016, I consumed more marketing material than I ever have. While the internet is packed with some truly awful content, it’s home to some real beauties as well.

This post is intended to highlight some of the best things I read over the last year which, if you haven’t seen already, definitely need to be added to your reading list.

My favorite posts are always those that inspire action and provide suggestions that you can take away and use yourself, and I guarantee that if you consume everything here and act on just a few of the tips, you’ll be a better marketer for it.

So, without further ado…

Starting with a recent post, this study from Matthew Barby is an incredibly useful insight into what’s required to rank well. It’s always nice to have some recent data that looks into ranking factors, and this post provides just that in incredible depth.

An extremely comprehensive guide to keyword research that breaks down the best tools and how to use them. With the recent changes in Keyword Planner, this is a really useful read.

A fantastic insight into dwell time, an often misunderstood phenomenon, and its impact on search results. If nothing else, the definitions for dwell time, time on site, and bounce rate are worth bookmarking this.

Cyrus Shepard’s post from early in the year is a beautifully simplified way to look at optimizing pages on your site, and people would do well to take a step back and reassess their sites with this in mind. The tip? “Optimize for how users are actually using the page — as opposed to how you optimized the page ahead of time.” 

I’m a big fan of Nick’s writing, and this post is a real eye-opener. For those who talk about technical SEO being dead, read this and weep. It’s an incredibly interesting case study, as well as being home to some really useful technical suggestions we should all heed, especially when dealing with huge sites.

Quality vs. quantity has been a hot topic through 2016. This case study from SimilarWeb provided more proof of the importance of monitoring the pages you have indexed and only keeping those that offer a good user experience and provide real value.

With the impending labeling of insecure sites in Google’s search results, moving to HTTPS is a more prominent issue than ever. Fortunately, Aleyda has broken down everything we need to know.

I’ve never seen such a thorough guide to using excel for SEO and have already picked up a number of great, time-saving tips from this post. I’m sure you will, too.

A start-to-finish breakdown of what you need to do to improve your traffic. It’s packed with information and actionable tips, which is always the key things I look for in content I love. Don’t miss this one.

You might well have seen this one unless you’ve been living under a rock for the year. But for the few who haven’t, it’s a must. Again, these are actionable tips that you can take and use straight-away, which is something Brian Dean delivers time and time again.

People often struggle at the first hurdle with content by not knowing what to target and how to structure the content they do create. This post shows you how to use Analytics to make that process easier – I’d recommend watching the webinar in it, too.

A lack of ideas is often the reason that people stop blogging (or don’t start in the first place). That’s no longer an excuse with Griffin’s help here – you’ll end up with more ideas for 2017 than you can shake a stick at.

More ideas! Now there’s really no excuse!

47 more options! If you’re still staring at a blank page then there’s no saving you…

You’ve got your topic ideas, time for the headline. Don’t worry, read this and you’re all set there, too.

Unsurprisingly, Jason goes into incredible depth and gives a ton of actionable suggestions in this post and it will leave you with a nice to-do list that will keep you going until the end of 2017.

A nice summary of the year from Buzzsumo which should give you plenty of food for thought on the types of content you could create in 2017, with some nice examples to inspire you as well.

A really useful lesson for writers in how to approach their articles based on the kind of readers who will be consuming it. There are examples of the kind of content you should create for each personality type that you can take away and create for yourself.

For those still unsure of whether content marketing is for them, this step-by-step breakdown on Problogger should make it an easy decision to give it a go. Tactics, tools, ideas — it’s all in here.

Those people who are unsure would do well to read this one, too. It discusses realistic expectation setting and important lessons on what’s required to be successful. But also proof that when done well it can bring a valuable return.

I’m a big fan of Ross Hudgens’ work and this is a stand-out piece from him. If you’re looking for a process to follow with your content marketing, this is it.

Another fantastic how-to that should inspire you to follow in Devesh’s footsteps. Plus, he tells you exactly what you need to do it.

If you’re not satisfied with the tools Devesh suggests then here’s a ton more for you to check out. Pick and choose the ones that will be the best fit for you.

Here are the pitfalls to avoid. Take this insight and make sure you don’t waste your time going about things the wrong way.

One of the biggest problems in most people’s content marketing strategy? They don’t spend enough time promoting the content they create. Here’s a raft of ways you can put that right.

So you’ve recognized the importance of promotion, here’s how to do it right. Spammy emails won’t cut it, you need to be more tactical and thoughtful about your approach, as Darmawan tells you here.

Sujan is my go-to guy on the web for outreach tips. You should read this post closely and then go and read a load of his other ones, too.

Measuring the value of your content marketing activity is crucial to ensure you identify what’s working, what isn’t, and whether your overriding strategy is the right one. The title of this one is bang on – it is extremely comprehensive.

Some inspiring examples from HubSpot to get your creative juices flowing. I always find real-life examples (that I can take and put my own spin on) really helpful, so if you’re the same I’ve no doubt you’ll like it, too.

Glen never fails to disappoint, and many of his blog posts this year have gained a lot of attention (you may have seen his post about 16 companies dominating Google). But this is the one that stood out for me and went slightly more under-the-radar. If you’re in need of advanced link building inspiration, look no further.

Jon Cooper’s resource from 2012 has always been my go-to when I need new link building ideas, and this resource from Joshua Hardwick has taken that and gone a step further with great design, a handy filtering system, and bucketloads of actionable tips. Bookmark it.

Gael Breton preaches great content and authority building, and this post does a great job of practicing what he preaches. For the guest posters out there, this is invaluable.

There are a lot of posts about image link building out there, but I’ve never seen a better step-by-step guide than this. All the resources you need, all the actions, and great examples. If you haven’t tried image link building before, start here.

If you’re a marketer and you’re not on Reddit, you need to drop everything and sign up now. But whatever you do, don’t go and be a marketer there. The insight you get into what works and what’s popular is amazing and you can learn a lot from that, which is benefit enough. But if you participate naturally and occasionally drop in some content you’ve created that’s exceptional, you might just hit a big win, too. Learn how with this breakdown from Eddy Azar.

Test, test, test. You should always be playing with different types of content and measuring what works best, especially on social. These 10 ideas will get you started nicely.

Short of inspiration for your social updates. Here you go. Thank you Buffer.

A great post on the importance of being the first to comment on a post if you want to be seen and heard. The data is from Reddit, but the conclusion can be taken and applied to any popular forum or blog where there is a lot of community participation.

If you’re interested in using Facebook advertising then you’ll like this. A simple but in-depth guide on the best way to build your email list with ads, without spending mountains of cash. It’s written for bloggers, but could easily be employed by businesses, too.

If you’ve already got a handle on Facebook ads then this post will take you to the next level. More complex tactics that need a bit more knowledge of how the platform works, but some mega tips for those who want to take their advertising to the next level.

Snapchat is the current trendy marketing platform and the majority of businesses still don’t know how to use it. This list gives you 50 people to follow where you can watch and learn.

More people to follow, this time on Twitter. If you aren’t following these 20 people, then go and get adding!

With the impending importance of moving to HTTPS, social share counts are at a big risk of being lost, along with all the social proof and ego boost that goes with it. Fortunately, if you’re on WordPress, there is a solution. You need to pay for it, but if you’ve accumulated a lot of social love for the content you’ve been creating, it’s worth it, right?

The first challenge of email marketing is getting people on your list. This post gives you 21 ways to do just that, and they’re all valuable ones (no fluff here).

A collection of tips from the very best. From what to include in emails to how to get better open rates, each one provides great value.

More tips from more experts. More great value.

Fantastic insight into how to send an email to your list and get a good open rate, even if you haven’t contacted them in a while. If you’re struggling for an email format to use with your list then this should get the juices flowing.

It’s a beautiful day when you set up a successful email automation process, but it isn’t easy. This guide from Razor social will help you do just that and take your email game to the next level.

Unsubscribers. The soul destroyers of the email world. But what if you could stop them leaving, rescue them from the jaws of defeat? Kaitlyn gives some great examples of brands we can all learn from.

I love examples, they give you something very tangible to aim for. HubSpot brings together some fantastic email marketing ones here to inspire your email exploits.

A top-to-bottom analysis of Expedia’s conversion rate optimization techniques. It struck a particular chord with me as someone who specializes in travel, but it offers insight for people in any industry. It’s a two-parter; you can read the second one here.

No 2016 rundown would be complete without a nod to the election and this post on Unbounce is a fitting way to do it. The impact of marketing on this year’s result has been well documented and how better to learn from it than getting the experts to tear each campaign apart?

The perfect landing page. Fairly straightforward, right? Wrong. Here are more than 7,000 words and 93 examples telling you what’s needed. It’s a long one, but if you want to convert better it’s definitely worth your time.

There were some other gems out there that didn’t fall into any of the categories above but that are still well worth a read:

An excellent commentary on the power of controversy in gaining coverage, and how marketing teams exploit it.

Want to convince more people to buy your product or service? Pricing strategy is a key place you can do that, and Nick Kolenda’s given you 42 ways to make yours better. With science and everything.

If you have a great product then referral marketing is a fantastic way to build awareness of your brand quickly. This guide will show you how to do it, with examples from the best in the business like Uber, BackCountry, and AirBnB.

Who wouldn’t want the ego boost of being interviewed by a popular blog and feeling like you’ve made it? It doesn’t have to just be the marketing celebrities that get interviewed; Ann Smarty breaks down how you can get yourself (and your brand) in the limelight.

Virtual Reality has been mooted as the next big thing for a while, but is it something you should be paying attention to? Yes. Here’s why.

Now that you’re on board, here are some ideas on how you can use it.

We’ll finish with an epic post from Kevin Ho. He knows how to grow a business from nothing, and he’s been kind enough to put together 100 very specific tips that you can use for yourself. I challenge you to go and implement ten of them in the next seven days.

Summary

The last sentence there is the most important one in this post. There is a lot of reading to be done to get through these articles, and I would recommend doing it because you’ll learn some incredibly useful things to put into action for your own business or personal brand. But that’s the key – putting them into action.

There’s no point reading tens of thousands of words of material if you don’t do anything with it. So make that your target for 2017 – try to implement one tip from each of these suggestions before the end of the year. If you do, I have no doubt you’ll make some great progress. Good luck!

Image Credits

Featured Image: Pexels/Pixabay.com
Screenshots by Tom Mcloughlin. Taken December 2016.

New Year’s Day 2017 Google doodle features balloon drop to mark 1st day of the year

Google is welcoming in 2017 by letting loose its celebratory balloon drop from yesterday’s doodle.

The New Year’s Day 2017 doodle is a follow up to the New Year’s Eve doodle Google posted yesterday – an image of balloons waiting to be dropped.

Today’s doodle leads to a search for “New Year’s Day 2017,” and includes the usual sharing icon to post the image in social feeds or send via email.

From the Google Doodle Blog:

Cheers to a new year! As 2017 makes its debut, we celebrate new beginnings and set our resolutions. Here’s to another year of exploring, learning, and growing!

Here are both doodles as they appeared over the past two days:

New Year’s Eve 2017 Google Doodle

New Year’s Day 2017 Google Doodle

Search Engine Land wishes all its readers a Happy New Year!

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About The Author

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media's General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including

MarketingProfs.com

,

SoftwareCEO.com

, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

7 White Hat SEO Techniques to Double Traffic in 2017 by @ChuckPrice518

The Google algorithm incorporates hundreds, if not thousands, of signals when determining where pages rank for a search. Knowing which factors carry the most weight and optimizing accordingly can be the difference between success and failure. This post will concentrate on areas that, in my experience, deliver positive results and a big return on investment.

Mobile First

I first started promoting a “mobile first” approach to SEO back in March of 2015, when I dubbed Google’s pending mobile update “Mobilegeddon”. The name caught on, but the April 21, 2015, update didn’t create as big an upheaval as expected. It did, however, put everyone on notice, that mobile was here and no longer “the future”. Those who did not heed the warning to go mobile will soon be paying the price.

Google is now doubling down on mobile, giving notice that “after January 10, 2017, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results may not rank as highly.” In other words, the Google index is going mobile first and if you don’t have a mobile-friendly page, then you will likely take a hit in the SERPs. That’s especially true for websites using intrusive interstitial ads. If you aren’t certain as to whether your website meets the criteria for being mobile friendly, log in to your Search Console account and view the Mobile Usability Report. Google will report mobile issues there, so you can take the appropriate action.

On a related note, keep close tabs on Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). This open source initiative relies on AMP HTML, which promises “instant” loading—a real benefit on mobile devices. Google has been pushing this hard, but early reviews are mixed.  Unless you have a news site, I’m not ready to recommend jumping on the AMP bandwagon just yet.

Mobile is Local – Claim Your Business Listing

Mobile search and local search are inextricably intertwined. Per The Mobile Playbook, 20% of ALL searches have local intent. Of smartphone users:

• 94% search for location information
• 51% visited a store
• 48% called a store
• 29% made a purchase

As Google continues to improve its ability to deliver hyper-local results, it is critically important to have complete and accurate data in one’s Google My Business profile. This continues to be an easy win, as less than half of all businesses have claimed their business listing.

Focus on User Experience (UX)

Google has always encouraged webmasters to make their primary focus one of providing a good user experience. As the algorithm gets “smarter”, websites that do so are positioned to benefit the most. A good user experience goes much deeper than writing clean code.

According to this study from the Oxford Journal, “The goal of UX design in business is to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product.” For our purposes, your website is the product. The objective is to first determine a user’s intent, then develop a methodology for smooth navigation—a methodology that evokes a positive emotion and leads to an overall good experience.

Incorporating UX best practices is easy. The web is filled with templates and advice. What separates the pros from the amateurs is A/B testing. Each one of us has our own biases that will influence how a web page is constructed. By running a series of  experiments, you will be able to quantify what is working, what isn’t, and continue testing until you get it right.

Keyword Research

That’s right—keyword research is still important in 2017. With Google providing less KW data all the time, two of the largest SEO tool providers, Moz and Ahrefs, have developed and improved KW tools hoping to fill the void. However, the way one goes about performing and using the results from KW research in 2017 has changed, thanks to RankBrain.

At its core, RankBrain is machine learning. This allows Google to put things in context rather than rely solely on strings of metadata. Google now understands language nuances like stemming, synonyms, and answers.

The new generation of keyword tools takes this into consideration by creating things like Parent Topics and Keyword Groups. Armed with this information, users can develop content that incorporates a series of contextually relevant phrases. Just be smart about it and avoid the temptation to stuff every variation of a phrase found in a KW batch onto a page.

Have a Content Marketing Plan That’s Better Than Your Competitors

According to The Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 B2C study, only 37% of respondents believe they are effective at content marketing. Since content is one of the top two Google ranking factors, it’s pretty important to get it right. Once again, this presents a huge opportunity for those willing to invest the time to make that happen.

Everyone talks about creating “great content”, but what does that even mean? It really comes down to having useful content, finding the right audience, and then reaching that audience. This doesn’t have to be a difficult exercise. It boils down to having empathy with your prospects and customers. Ann Handley created the following formula to sum it up:

Useful x Enjoyable x Inspired = Innovative Content

Keep in mind “conversational” search queries. As of July 2015, over 30% of all searches returned rich answers. Many of these answers were in response to “who, what, when, where, why, and how” queries. While it’s great to appear in position 0 and garner the traffic associated with it, the benefit is usually short lived. The churn rate for rich answers exceeds 55%.

More importantly, I suspect the conversational search/rich answers technology is being applied to voice search. Voice is the fastest growing type of search; 55% of teens and 41% of adults already use voice search daily. As devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home gain market share, I would expect the pace of voice search to grow exponentially.

Editor Note: Here are 10 FREE content marketing tools that you may find useful in developing your own epic content plan.

Use Schema for a Competitive Edge

In 2014 (the most recent data available), Searchmetrics reported that over a third of Google search results incorporated Rich Snippets supported by Schema, but only 0.3% of websites were making use of the Google-approved Schema tool. I suspect that percentage has improved over that past couple of years, but the opportunity to use Schema as a competitive edge is still huge.

Schema, found at Schema.org, is a collection of different HTML tags that can be added to a Web page. These tags create an enhanced description that appears in search results (commonly known as rich snippets). Schema is commonly used to create Rich Snippets for Organizations, Events, Music, People, Products, Recipes, Review Ratings, and Videos.

Primary Benefits Derived from Using Schema

• Rich snippets can be helpful to users and make search results stand out.
• Schema makes it easier for search engines to understand a page.
• Microdata can improve click-through rates.

Link Building

The day may come when links are less important to rankings, but that day hasn’t arrived yet. If you ignore one of the top two ranking factors, you’re really doing yourself a disservice. The key is to get the right kinds of links. Links that have relevance to your site. Links that require a human editorial review. The kinds of links that are earned.

My favorite approach to earning relevant links is to build a resource center. A resource center can work on just about any kind of website. In addition to attracting links, a good resource center helps to build trust and authority. Read my step by step plan for developing a resource center that attracts links and boosts rankings here on SEJ.

The bottom line is you don’t have to manage thousands or even 200 ranking signals in order to significantly increase organic traffic. Just focus on the areas mentioned above. If you do, it’s entirely possible to double, triple, or even 10X the traffic coming to your website in 2017.

Have some thoughts or questions? Hit me up on Twitter or Facebook & let’s talk about it!

Image Credits

Featured Image: RyanMcGuire / Pixabay
In-post Image: FirmBee / Pixabay