Webinar Recap: How the Facebook-Bing Partnership Will Affect Your SEO

October 29th, 2010 by Cynthia Everson

On October 13th, Facebook and Bing held a joint press event to announce the start of their new relationship, working together to form what they are calling “instant personalization”. Twitter feeds and Youtube videos showing up on the Google SERP have become a standard sight, but now Bing has teamed up with Facebook to take the integration of social media into the search engines to another level: pulling data out of your personal account and putting it among all of the organic results.

Unfortunately, getting the actual results pulled from Facebook to show up on the Bing SERP is quite the challenge. The steps to syncing up the accounts are not obvious and have changed a couple of times since the press event.

Cynthia-FB-Bing-Post1

Currently, you have to go into Preferences to log in to Facebook, and until today I couldn’t find an option to sign in to Facebook without first logging into Windows Live first.
Also, there are only two types of information that Bing is pulling from Facebook:
1. People: Namely, your friends and your friend’s friends. Search their names, and get a lovely picture right at the top.

2. Things your friends “like”. Meaning, they click a button on Facebook that says they “like” something and become a “fan”. To be honest, I have yet to see this actually come up on the Bing SERP. Either it’s being rolled out reeeally slowly, or the algorithm needs some serious tweaking. I suspect results to come up more easily in the near future.

That’s me!?! Thanks, Bing!

That’s me!?! Thanks, Bing!

So what does this all mean?

At this point, I think it should be treated as more of a heads up that social media is on the rise. No, this won’t affect your organic rankings, but your organic results will be sharing the SERP more and more with social media results.

My SEO advice: Keep optimizing. And don’t neglect Bing just because Google is still taking the lead. Between this Facebook alliance and the Bing-Yahoo alliance several months back, it looks like Bing is taking some pretty smart steps to keep Google on their toes.

My social media advice: Get started on it now if you haven’t already. It’s still on its way up, so best to get on now.

My overall advice: Utilize both SEO and social media. The two go hand-in-hand (see last week’s Webinar with MarketingSherpa, The Real Truth About Social Media and SEO). Hey, get PPC going, too, and you could be dominating the SERP on three different platforms!

The main takeaway here: Nothing major has happened yet, but baby steps are being taken and new ways of doing search are being put out there. Get your Facebook account going and don’t forget about Bing!

-@cynniebug

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Webinar Highlights | No Comments »

Marketing Sherpa’s Real Truth about Social Media & SEO

October 26th, 2010 by Sarah Shakour

The key to getting your website to rank at the top of a search engine’s results is to implement SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Integrate SEO with SM (Social Media) and you’re sure to see your rankings and website’s popularity increase. In last week’s webinar, MarketingSherpa’s Real Truth About Social Media & SEO, Webmarketing123’s Paul Taylor (@Webmarketing123) and MarketingSherpa’s Todd Lebo (@ToddLebo) discussed how SM and SEO combine to help your business increase sales, lead generations and website rankings on Search Engine Result pages.

At Webmarketing123, we have the 5 Pillars of SEO. By following these tactics, your website will significantly improve its ranking on Search Engine Result pages. These 5 pillars include optimizing your Keywords, site content, Meta content, URLS and inbound links. Among SM users, 64% use keyword research to find what they are looking for vs. 59% of non SM users. Keyword research is one of the most important components of SEO–determining the language people use to describe products/services and what keywords they are using is crucial! In addition, 48% of SM users rely on link building to market their brand vs. only 37% of non SM users. See below:

Marketingsherpa-SM-graph

This chart indicates how all aspects of SEO are enhanced by the integration of SM. This correlation will only become more apparent as SM evolves.

There are many unique marketing benefits that SM provides. Having a SM presence:

  • Increases brand awareness
  • Builds community following
  • Helps establish loyalty and trust behind your brand (one of the most important benefits!)
  • Offers direct sales opportunities
  • Displays your SM results on the first page of Google

SEO has a lot of benefits as well that yield:

  • A higher ROI
  • 3RD Party Validation (Google determining your site’s relevance to search terms)
  • Improved flow of Traffic

Integrating SM with your SEO efforts will have far-reaching benefits for your website’s market presence. Your site will likely experience an increased number of inbound links, improving your current rankings and increasing click through rates on Search Engine Result pages.

Marketingsherpa-respondents-graph

MarketingSherpa research includes a mix of Social and Search data to improve inbound traffic, leads and conversion rates. Here are a few key takeaways to help your site reach its goals:

  • Optimize content for keywords using SM channels
  • SEO and SM work together to create a comprehensive online campaign.
  • The combination yields a stronger customer community, an increase in conversions and a higher ROI
  • SM will become more integrated in organic search results in the near future

-@SarahShakour

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Webinar Highlights | No Comments »

Back to the Basics: Long Tail Keywords vs. Short Tail Keywords

October 18th, 2010 by Ray Mao

If you’ve ever seen one of our webinars, or know the first thing about SEM (search engine marketing), you know how essential keywords are to your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts. You may also know that keywords can be split up into 2 groups, long tail and short tail keywords.

Short tail keywords are generic or broad keywords that are highly searched. They lack any specificity that can characterize the user as uninformed about the search term. Also, unless your company is a giant monopoly and a household name in your industry, it’s going to be pretty tough (and expensive) to rank for and go after generic keywords. On the other hand, long tail keywords are phrases that are detailed. Though they are less widely searched, ranking for long tailed keywords will refine your audience and bring qualified users to your site, increasing your chances of conversion. Seems pretty simple, right? But with SEM, we know that’s not always the case.

Effects of Google Instant

With the new Google Instant that rolled out last month, the days of waiting for Google to deliver results are long gone. As you may have noticed, Google will actually deliver search results as you type– does this mean the end of long tail keywords? One might think that the months, perhaps years they have spent eliminating short tail keywords and going after the quality converting phrases will go to waste now that Google delivers instant results, but here’s what I think:

From a user perspective, I can see how Google Instant’s predictive search opens up a new can of worms for chasing keywords. I mean, who could resist a recommended search for juicy gossip about your favorite band when what you originally wanted were their tour dates–but really, how often will the predictive results influence a user’s search?  I’m willing to bet not that often. Only time will tell if Google Instant will have an effect on long tail keywords but after one month, I have not seen much of a change. Personally, I like predictive search. It shows me what else is being searched and rarely do I find myself getting carried off track by a predicted search term. If a user really knows what they are looking for, don’t you think they’re going to follow through with their search query? And if they don’t, they aren’t necessarily the users you want to bring to your site anyway.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Travis Low

Share of Search: How to Measure Your Company’s Overall Search Volume

September 21st, 2010 by Travis Low

Companies continuously wonder what their online market share is. Ideally, they want to know how many people are searching for their company on search engine sites like Google, Yahoo and Bing. This information is especially important to them when reviewing how many people search on their brand versus a competitor brand.

Luckily, there is an easy way to measure your overall share of search by using web traffic tools like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  With this tool, you can quickly find how many times your brand or your products are being searched in the previous month.

Your company can also look at non-branded keywords. These are keywords that do not contain your company name or the name of your branded products. Look for top performing keywords in your industry–they should be keywords that are being frequently searched for, convert really well and are industry wide keywords that describe your type of business.

Here are certain steps you can take to measure search volume:

1)     Keyword Analysis: Figure out which keywords are getting a decent amount of traffic or keywords that are specific to your industry

2)     Relative: Are these keywords related to your company, as well as your competitors? (i.e. Competitor A, Competitor B)

After you have compiled your list, enter your own analytics to figure out the number of visitors you receive using those keywords, then you can devise your search.

Now let’s give an example of Branded Share of Search: if companies within your industry are receiving 100,000 searches on company named keywords, and 30,000 of those 100,000 are for your company name, then your share of branded search would be at 30%.

As basic as these steps are, they can give your company better insight as to where you stack up against your competitors.

-@TravisLowSEO

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Webmarketing123

Google Instant–Will it Affect Your SEO?

September 17th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

The biggest question from our webinar yesterday (held by Travis Low–@TravisLowSEO) was: Will Google Instant Affect SEO?

Before we get into the details, we want to make sure we define a few key terms that will be used throughout the post:

Short-tail/Head Match Keywords – a general 1-2 keyword search term. For example, with keywords such as “black running shoes size 12,” “nike running shoes for women” or “light running shoes” the head match is “running shoes.”

Long-tail Keywords – at least 3+ keyword search term. For example, “business process management software solutions.”

Impressions – (defined post-Google Instant)

1)      User begins a search query and clicks anywhere on the page

2)      User chooses a particular query by clicking the search button, hitting enter, or selecting an auto-complete suggestion

3)      User stops typing and results are displayed for a minimum of 3 seconds

An example of seeing impressions through Google Adwords can be seen below:

Impressions on Google Adwords

Impressions on Google Adwords - KW: "bpm software" with 1,600 Impressions

Now that we addressed key terms, we can discuss how Instant has changed. Google Instant displays the predicted query—unless searchers continue typing or click on the search button. What is important to know is that Google Instant is changing the overall experience for the user, and now it is even more important that your website ranks on the first page, preferably within positions 1-3. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Keywords should be in your site content, meta content, inbound links, hyper text links, URL, and content silos
  • Focus on your title and meta descriptions
  • Short-tail keywords will get a lot more impressions, but the quality of search terms will improve over time as users are given more long-tail suggestions
  • You need to start focusing on optimizing for the long-tail keyword suggestions Google provides

For example:

google-instant-predictive-text-ex

Keyword “BPM Software” - Google Instant Predictive Text

Google captures what are the most searched queries on certain topics. If one of your keywords, for example, is “bpm software” (seen above), you want to start optimizing for the long-tail keywords that Google suggests. Frequently check to see if there are newer keywords Google suggests, or if the ones shown above remain to be the top searched queries on “bpm software” and optimize for those.

Keep in mind that with Google Instant, there is no change to the organic algorithm. If you ranked #1 prior to Google Instant, then you remain #1. The significant affect of Google Instant is with user experience.

Key Takeaways:

1)      Google makes no changes in ranking algorithm, it’s primarily just changing the user ranking

2)      Too early to tell how user behavior may change, but first page rankings and auto complete suggestions are more important. Essential to optimize for these suggestions.

3)      Impressions for head match terms will definitely increase. The quality for the search terms will improve as we are starting to give more long-tail suggestions.

4)      Important that your SEO campaigns focus on your return on investment. What are your overall marketing and business goals? Once these are defined, it’ll be easier to optimize.

We will keep you updated on the progression and/or any changes with Google Instant, and how or if it will affect your Search Marketing efforts–so keep checking back! To download a copy of the slides, click here.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »

Seth Gutierrez

Where’s Your Social Media Citizenship?

August 9th, 2010 by Seth Gutierrez

Here’s a really cool info-graphic that’s been floating around our office today. Recreated by Flowtown from an earlier XKCD design, this map is a great illustration of the world’s social media distribution, in a geographical layout. If the entire world was made up of social media countries and bodies of water, every nation would be represented here. From the various dating and erotic social media platforms, to the internet superpower that Facebook has become – everyone’s accounted for!

2010 Social Networking Map

Take a dip in the warm waters of the “OMG WTF TTYL Ocean,” or paddle around the “Lake of Myspace Bands,” just below the land of “Defunct Social Networks.” Hike across the “Media Mountain Ranges” in the growing “Empire of Google,” and stake your claim on the “Rising Island of Google Buzz!”

In terms of sheer numbers, the user demographic for all the major social networks are pretty accurately illustrated and from this depiction it’s clear that Facebook has sped off and distinguished itself from the rest of pack.

However, we do miss snorkeling in the “Noob Sea” (not pictured in this map), so be sure to check out the original design by XKCD’s Map of Online Communities.

Peruse the design, tell us what you think and where you take your social media break. Just don’t get caught by your co-workers cruising the “Adultfriendfinder” coastline!

- Seth

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Yahoogle? A New Alliance of Search Engines in Japan

August 3rd, 2010 by Cynthia Everson

A week ago, I wrote a blog entry chronicling Google’s gradual move into Japan. I was living and working in Tokyo from April 2008 to April 2010, and in that two-year time-frame Google started popping up all over the place in a country that otherwise had been dominated by Yahoo Japan.

Fortunately, we hadn’t gotten around to publishing that blog post yet, because in it I concluded that Google would never have the presence in Japan that Yahoo has. Then last week I found out…they’re teaming up, forming an alliance of sorts. Not a merger (Yahoo will keep its logo and interface), but the organic search and paid results will be based on Google’s technology. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Google will take over Yahoo’s presence, per se, since the logo will remain Yahoo’s, but it does mean that they will hold a virtual monopoly over what you can find on the Internet in Japan.

As someone who has lived in Japan, I believe the real power of Yahoo Japan comes from their partnership with SoftBank, the largest cell phone provider in the country, that owns a 40% stake in Yahoo Japan (compared to Yahoo Inc.’s 35% stake). I used Softbank while I was in there and found myself, always a loyal user of Google in the US, slowly switching to Yahoo. I never had the chance to sneak into a Japanese person’s house to track their search engine usage, but the feeling I got was that most people used the Internet more on their cell phone than at home from a personal computer. Trains in Tokyo are an odd site. They’re jam-packed with people to the point that you can barely move at rush hour (and rush hour, by the way, is more like eight hours), and still most of the people are glued to their phones, either text messaging (a major Japanese pastime), surfing the web, reading the news, or even watching TV. With the default browser of the biggest cell phone provider set to Yahoo, the Yahoo search engine maintains a very high status.

I think the affinity for SoftBank in Japan goes beyond what we as Americans can understand as brand loyalty to a cell phone provider. Because mobile phones are such a way of life in Japan and marketing is as amazing as it is, it’s not uncommon to see the mascot, a big white dog who used to be a human father of a family of normal people, dangling from people’s bags or worn as slippers at home. I follow the dog on Twitter. He has a separate account from actual Softbank. Furthermore, Softbank sponsors a baseball team, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, which plays at the Fukuoka Yahoo! JAPAN Dome. Sweet deal.

As proof of Softbank’s status in Japan, here’s a fascinating commercial, featuring Brad Pitt carrying a gigantic sumo wrestler.

Anyway…

I think the biggest concern among Japanese people that are keeping up with the news of this alliance is that the organic search results are going to be really different. It always seemed to me that when I ran a search in Japanese on Google, the results weren’t as relevant as the ones Yahoo Japan pulled up. But I’m not a native speaker, so I’m not really the person to ask.

So what does the future hold for Google Japan? Probably a lot. But with the Yahoo logo still staying up as the SoftBank default browser, I don’t know that their presence will surpass Yahoo’s dominance as the most popular search engine in Japan. Yahoo is pretty settled into the Internet world there and I highly doubt Google could take over the dominance of their weather reports, auctions (did you know they had auctions? I didn’t! ), and aforementioned train schedules. It would be pretty cool, though, if they took over Yahoo! JAPAN Dome and painted it multi-colored…

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments »

Seth Gutierrez

BingHoo? How the New Bing & Yahoo Alliance Works for your SEM!

July 30th, 2010 by Seth Gutierrez

For those of you who missed our webinar on BingHoo! or want a refresher, here’s a brief recap of Wednesday’s presentation. Big thanks to Antonio, Travis and Ben for leading the way on this one—but more importantly, to everyone who tuned in. Thank you for your questions and comments – we appreciate the constant participation!

The subject of this week’s Webmarketing123 webinar was the emerging alliance between Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo search engines. We have to stress the fact that although the two companies are teaming up for many SEO, PPC and web search purposes, this alliance is not to be misconstrued as a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo. BingHoo!, as it’s being called, will maintain the Yahoo interface, while all organic searches for web, images, video and queries, as well as paid search results, will be powered by Bing.

In addition to the 5 Pillars of SEO (Keywords, Site Content, Meta Content, URL’s, and In-bound Links) that we have discussed at length in other webinars, a few major points to take away from Wednesday’s BingHoo! webinar are as follows:

  • In the next year, as the alliance unfolds, focus more on optimizing for Bing than Yahoo. Be sure to have Bing Webmaster Tools installed.
  • After the transition, Bing will represent roughly 30% of overall search queries.
  • Incorporate and understand your new Bing webmaster tools and pay close attention to how the Bing Spiders crawl through your searches!

And here are a few tips on preparation for the new BingHoo! alliance:

  • Continue to place your main focus on Google, a.k.a. the King. Typically, what Google does is followed by Yahoo and Bing.
  • Look to optimize your searches using Bing algorithms – obtain “exact” domain matches whenever possible.
  • Keep in mind that Bing favors sub-domain or root-domain keywords, so be sure that your domain names are effectively optimized.
  • As always, be sure to obtain fresh in-bound links from a diverse array of sites. The greater variety of in-bound linkage that you have, the more traffic your site will receive.

As the effects of this alliance reveal themselves, the most important thing is to stay current on your company’s optimization. Look into in the future and plan for the long-term by planting the seeds for the release of new products within your keywords. Keep up with the pulse of your company’s keyword selection—it’s good practice to run a quarterly review of your keyword basket. Also, make sure that you’re in touch with your consumers and are able to effectively identify the language they use in regards to your company and products, as well as your industry as a whole.

With that said, keep your links fresh, keep your site content relevant and substantial, and optimize, optimize, optimize. SEO is the best way to boost traffic to your site!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this week’s webinar. Next Wednesday’s webinar will be on integrating your SEO with social media. To sign up for next week’s webinar, please visit http://bit.ly/Web123-Webinar –it’s going to be a good one!

- Seth

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Pay Per Click, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Webinar Highlights | No Comments »

Webmarketing123

Cookies or Chocolate Chip Cookies? Which Keyword is Optimal for SEO?

May 28th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

Yesterday’s webinar was all about the ABC’s of keywords optimization. Or as Travis puts it: “How much is that keyword worth to you?”

KEYWORDS are the FOCAL POINT of your SEO efforts. So naturally, identifying your highest impact keywords, and then strategically incorporating them into your site are crucial to your SEO success.

Keywords fall into two buckets: Head match and long-tail match. Head Match keywords are general searches, like “shoes” or “cookies”, whereas long-tail match keywords are more descriptive searches, like “women’s dress shoes” or “chocolate chip cookies”. Because long-tail keywords are more specific, they are better matched to the searchers needs, have less competition than generic head match keywords, and therefore can produce a high volume of impressions.

The first step in maximizing sales from: SEO is setting the right keywords. This means focusing on a short and ideal list of key phrases your sales prospects and customers use to find you.

On May 5th or 6th 2010, depending on where you live, Google changed its search results page. One of the changes included the Google Wonder Wheel, a keyword expansion tool which shows related searches to your current search inquiry. The Wonder Wheel is an incredible tool and particularly helpful with finding other options for keywords.

Using the example that Travis used during the webinar, let’s say your company is in conveyor services.

In Google, search “conveyor systems” and on the left side of your screen click on “Wonder Wheel”.

5-26-10_wonder wheel_1

Here, you can see other keyword options, to help narrow your search. Since you are in the industrial sector, click on “Industrial Conveyor Systems”.

industrial-conveyor-systems

Boom! Now you have six other keyword options to help optimize your search. We’ll go with “belt conveyors”.

belt-conveyors

Other Key Tools and Highlights:

  • Google Insights – diagnose keyword search trends & its popularity in geographical regions
  • Google Analytics – helps you understand what your customers are typing in to find your website, and which keywords you need to push to optimize, or if you need to start a PPC campaign
  • Make sure that your company‘s terminology is in line with your customer’s terminology—the keywords they search for should be the ones you’re optimizing for!
  • Keyword selection is your foundation for optimization. Keyword selection takes 2-3 weeks, in order for the account management team, analysts, and engineering teams to understand your keyword selection base.

Choosing the right keywords are the KEY to success—wow, that was cheesy…but you get the point. See you at the next webinar!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Optimization, Webinar Highlights | No Comments »

Webmarketing123

Google at it Again…

May 11th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

Something that brought a smile to our faces today…second time we’ve seen this!

Google did it again.

google_bing

Who else has gotten this? Or thinks it’s as hilarious as we do? :)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Google Updates | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »