Weekly Marketing Update: Google’s New Ranking Signal and Winning in Organic Search
In this week’s digital marketing news, Google announces its intention to favor secure sites in its rankings, while top global brand leaders discuss how to win in organic search.
Other notable content comes from BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu, as he discusses the imperative of content marketing performance for his Huffington Post column, and from the Bright Ideas blog, how to avoid the “Penguin slap” and how to “onboard” customers to new products and services.
Also, be sure to check out Jim Yu’s fantastic interview with “Think Like a Freak” co-author (and Share 14 speaker) Stephen Dubner under the Share 14 “Events” section! Enjoy!
Content from the CEO
”Content Performance Marketing: The Power of Measurement & Optimization” by Jim Yu
“Marketing is undergoing a massive transformation that has been fueled by content, social and mobile technologies,” writes Jim Yu in his column for the Huffington Post. While content marketing “has progressed significantly over the last several months,” Jim notes that according to Altimeter, “70 percent of marketers say they lack a cohesive, strategic approach to content.”
Jim focuses on content performance in his column, “and how keen attention to measurement and optimization is what marketers need to get them to the next phase of content marketing success.” He first addresses “data-driven content creation,” followed by “closing the loop with measurement and optimization.”
Jim says now more than ever, “marketers are better equipped to decide which content opportunities to pursue.” He also stresses the importance of leveraging data during distribution to the maximize the lifetime value of content.
He also advises that marketers tap into “predictive analytics to identify which channels would be the best fit for distributing that content.” After publication, measuring content performance allows marketers to learn “what worked, what didn’t, and why, you can optimize for premium performance during each subsequent content cycle.”
”How to Win in Organic Search: Tips from Google, Bing and Brands” by Jim Yu
Recounting the major changes in organic search over the past year, BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu observes , “Even with all the changes to the landscape, many of us realize that some things never change – like the tried and true approach of SEO and content – we’re just dealing with new ways of delivering,” in his article for Search Engine Watch.
Jim draws on BrightEdge’s recent series of interviews with leading global brand marketers leading up to the Share 14 conference , including Adobe’s David Lloyd , Majestic’s Dixon Jones , Macys.com’s Lauren MacPhail and Seagate Technologies’ Alison MacDonald , as well as Bing’s Duane Forrester and Google’s Darren Pleasance , in discussing the changes to the “SEO-content landscape” and “their aftermath.”
Jim quotes David Lloyd, senior manager of global search marketing at Adobe Systems, as saying: “This is my 14th year in the industry and the pace of change has never been greater,” but even so, he adds, “SEO performance relies on a business solid foundation and adapting regularly to changes in the industry.”
From Bing’s Duane Forrester, head of its webmaster program, comes this observation: “This past year will be remembered as the ‘Year of Content.’ [There has been] so much conversation around how important content is, people moving budgets towards content efforts and so on. And yet, for all that talk and action, content has always been important. Finally, though, businesses are starting to understand the downside to implicit or explicit shortcuts in this area.”
Majestic’s marketing director, Dixon Jones, is quoted as saying: “Every year, the changes in SEO seem to be designed in part to surprise and upset, but I think companies with good business models and a healthy understanding of digital marketing are handling change better and better, whilst those that treat SEO as an afterthought, or, potentially worse, in isolation, are suffering more and more with every iteration in the industry.”
Jim concludes in his article:
As we swiftly move into the second half of 2014, we have new tools, tactics and ways of looking at things, but we also can’t forget about the basics of SEO that have always been centered on creating a great online experience for our customer … And it’s the customer who ultimately tells us how we’re doing with our SEO efforts.
Content from the Bright Ideas Blog
”How to Benchmark SEO Performance with BrightEdge” by Sudhir Sharma
Reporting for the Bright Ideas blog, Sudhir Sharma outlines six essential SEO KPIs (key performance indicators) to benchmark, saying:
Perhaps the most obvious reason to benchmark your SEO’s current performance is so that you can see exactly where you stand at the present time, and can track how and if you are improving month-to-month.
Benchmarking also provides crucial information about which SEO strategies and campaigns are working, and which are ineffective. For example, if you find that 20 percent of your website’s pages are generating the majority of your traffic, you can focus on the specific elements that make that 20 percent successful, while changing or removing the content that is counterproductive or simply inefficient.
Sudhir describes the top six KPIs to benchmark, along with instructions on how to do so using BrightEdge’s S3 platform, as follows:
Number of Pages in Google
One important metric to track is the total number of pages that Google has indexed from your site. Why should you do this? Sudhir says: “Knowledge about how many pages are indexed by Google and what those pages look like in Google’s search results is a great way to get a sense of how your website looks overall.”
Landing Pages
The pages through which visitors enter your site, landing pages “allow you to see how much traffic is increasing based on the specific topics of each respective landing page, as well as how much each landing page converts traffic and/or sales on your primary website,” says Sudhir.
Number of Keywords
“Like it or not, keywords are and will continue to be an integral part of SEO. The key is to combine high-quality content with intelligently generated keywords,” writes Sudhir. He then notes, “BrightEdge’s S3 platform is even better with Google Webmaster Tools integration, and can help you get the data you need.”
Following simple instructions, you’ll be able to view such integrated keyword data reports as this:
Backlink Profile
“One of the most important benchmarks for SEO is ‘link authority,’ otherwise known as the number of reputable websites linking to your website. Even with all of the changes made to Google search algorithms over the years, this metric has remained a powerful indicator and metric for SEO success,” says Sudhir.
Organic and Referral Visits
“After you have installed GA (Google Analytics) on your website, you will know exactly how many visitors you have and from what sources” within the BrightEdge S3 platform, writes Sudhir.
Social Media
“Social media is increasingly important for good SEO. Google wants to see that individuals are sharing your content. It makes sense, as this is a pretty strong indicator of quality content,” Sudhir says. “One easy way to track your social media presence” he says, “is to use Pages reports in BrightEdge, which can help you figure out exactly how shared your content is across social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.”
”Avoiding the Penguin Slap: Best Practices for Backlink Analysis and Disavowing Links” by Mark Mitchell
In this Bright Ideas blog post, Mark Mitchell discusses how website owners can avoid being “slapped” by a manual Google Penguin penalty, as well as best practices for conducting a backlink analysis, and if necessary, disavowing links altogether.
Mark notes that Google offers several examples of “unnatural links” – those that weren’t “editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s owner” – on its link schemes page . As an ounce of prevention is worth the proverbial pound of cure, it’s recommended that site owners familiarize themselves with Google’s guidelines to avoid a Penguin manual penalty.
The next best line of defense is to conduct a backlink analysis and clean up those links to your site that may invite a “Penguin slap.” Mark outlines a four-step process for cleaning up your site’s links, as follows:
- Get a list of domains linking to your site, which you can export from GWT (or BrightEdge, if you use it).
- Examine those links, and determine which ones may be a source of trouble.
- For those links that you identify as problematic, email the site’s webmaster and ask for removal of the link.
- After you’ve attended to all of the above, and specifically No. 3, all links that have not been removed then need to be added to your site’s “disavow list” for submission to Google.
He also provides a flow chart that shows the link clean-up process “that Google prefers you take – and that BrightEdge recommends – before you move onto disavowing links via Google”:
Mark then outlines how to go about examining the authority metrics of those sites linking to yours to establish cost-effective threshold guidelines for further investigation, before offering a step-by-step walk through of using BrightEdge’s SEO platform for link analysis.
“Back to School: How to Create a Customer Learning Program That Empowers” by Emilia D’Anzica
“We’re all familiar with the benefits of onboarding new employees, but have you considered the advantages of onboarding new customers ?” This is the questions Emilia D’Anzica asks on her post for the Bright Ideas Blog.
She continues:
Regardless of whether you have a product or a service, learning curves often exist to get customers up to speed with how to use a product or best understand the concepts behind that service, so customers can get the most from it.
The consequences of not having a learning system around your product or service includes everything from misuse and inactivity to misunderstandings or worse: disengagement from your brand entirely.
Emilia outlines three principles for a successful customer onboarding program:
- Make learning flexible
- Spend time onboarding
- Create a certification program
Each of these three core elements of an effective customer onboarding program contain important specifics that you’ll want to know more about! A great read for anyone introducing a new product or service that entails a customer “learning curve.”
In-Depth Articles from the Marketing Community
”5 Myths About Mobile Content Strategies and What You Can Do Instead” by Dave Lloyd
Adobe’s senior manager of global search marketing, Dave Lloyd (one of the industry thought leaders scheduled to speak at Share 14), begins his ClickZ article with a recent quote from Google’s Matt Cutts:
“Mobile is very important. I expect Google’s mobile traffic to exceed desktop traffic in the very near future. If you don’t have a plan for mobile, you really need to make it a high priority.”
Dave continues:
In my view, mobile adoption hit a steep trajectory two to three years ago. And mobile devices are about to reach critical mass on a global scale. As we’ve seen for many years, in many second- and third-world countries, mobile is the primary means of accessing the Web.
Mobile is not an alternative to the “regular” desktop Internet. Rather, it’s the way the bulk of the world’s population is going to get online for the foreseeable future, skipping the home-Internet experience altogether.
Dave then lists five mobile content strategy myths versus the realities (or what a savvy digital marketer should consider doing instead):
Myth 1: “Mobile” means smartphones and tablets, and you can lump them together in your content planning.
Reality: People use smartphones and tablets differently, and your content plan should consider this.
Myth 2: Responsive design is a mobile content strategy.
Reality: Responsive website design is a tactic within an overall mobile strategy and is not primarily about content.
Myth 3: You should have a separate content strategy for mobile.
Reality: Have one umbrella content strategy, of which mobile is one aspect.
Myth 4: Best practices for mobile content are different than for PCs.
Reality: There are standard practices for excellent content; what’s good for mobile will be good for desktop.
Myth 5: Mobile users want only short content.
Reality: There’s a role for mobile content of varying lengths, including very long-form content.
Search News
Google Starts Giving A Ranking Boost To Secure HTTPS/SSL Sites
Via its Official Webmaster Central Blog, Google announced Wednesday (August 6) that it’s “starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal,” specifying that “it’s only a very lightweight signal – affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high quality content.” However, the announcement suggests the signal may carry more weight in the future.
HTTPS – otherwise known as HTTP over TLS, or Transport Layer Security — is what Google uses for its own secure search, as well as its other properties such as Gmail and Google Drive.
At Google I/O , the search giant called for “HTTPS everywhere” on the web. The search giant offers some basic tips to get started, and is in the process of publishing “detailed best practices” ( now posted in its Webmaster Tools Help center) “to make TLS adoption easier, and to avoid common mistakes.”
Tracking the story for Search Engine Land, Barry Schwartz writes :
Should you be concerned when switching from your HTTP to HTTPS site for SEO purposes? Not so much. Google has been telling webmasters it is safe to do so for years. But you need to take the proper steps to ensure your traffic doesn’t suffer. That means make sure to communicate to Google that you moved your site from HTTP to HTTPS.
Events
BrightEdge’s Share 14 is less than two weeks away! We’ll be holding it in the “City of Lights” — San Francisco — August 20 to 22. If you haven’t registered yet, we encourage you to do so now!
Among the global brands and thought leaders featured are the senior digital marketing manager at Experian Consumer Direct, Ngia Vang, and the co-author of “Think Like a Freak,” Stephen Dubner.
Be sure to check out the interviews we held with them this past week:
- Content and SEO Teams Can’t Act in Silos – Ngia Vang of Experian
- Measurement and the Digital Revolution – Stephen Dubner
Have a wonderful weekend!