“What Content Does My Site Need?”

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300px-Free_Content_Logo.svgContent marketing is becoming more and more of a talking point for SEO services as more people realize they can’t try to trick search engines with pages strictly for the search crawlers and shady link profiles, but many don’t realize this is also changing the standards for content.

Content has always been an important part of an SEO campaign, but it is indisputable that its status is being raised within Google and they are tightening their guidelines. You can’t just stuff keywords into a wall of barely legible text and expect Google to think your page has value. Now your content must be informational, resourceful, and actually captivating.

The biggest question for most is what type of content they need. If they’ve done any research, they might come to you with a list of types of content like infographics and webinars they “need” according to “the internet”, but more likely you will just get asked the broad question of what type of content will be needed. Once you know their business, you can probably make some good guesses, but making a wide statement for what type of content works is a farce.

While blog posts are always a good place to start with creating content, infographics or ebooks will only help relevant areas. A nursing home probably won’t be able to find a relevant infographic, because that way of delivering information doesn’t work well for portraying the complex and focused care they will be giving loved ones. Similarly, videos don’t make much sense for a photographer to have, and tutorials don’t have much place in a medical website.

Most importantly, the content has to be quality, and it has to fit your companies needs. Even if you are delivering daily blog posts and guest blogs, they won’t have any effect if they aren’t worth reading. The best way to know what type of content you need to be making is trying to think like your competitors and customers. If you can make users happy with your website, you are already well on your way to making Google happy with your content.

Speaking of your competitors, you can do competitive analysis to find out what is working for them. I don’t mean scoping out their site and seeing what they have that you don’t. Instead you can use a number of sites and tools to see what is doing well on their site compared to yours, which will give you a good indication what type of content you should be making. Josh McCoy collected a few of those for you to get the jump on your competition.

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How To Boost Your SEO Productivity

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Everyone gets distracted, or sometimes just a little lazy. When you work online, it is easy to switch tabs in the middle of a project to check your email, and end up completely off track looking at blogs or news. Having a job where you are constantly at a computer offers endless distractions that are constantly refreshing to keep you interested.

This type of distraction can be completely innocent, but it can also become a habit keeping you from getting important work done. There are ways to keep yourself from sliding off course, however. Between tools and lifestyle changes, you can increase your productivity and still be able to get away from your work when you really need to.

Richard Kirk collected five different tools you can use to keep yourself from getting distracted. One, called StayFocused, simply blocks websites you know you visit too much during the day until you are off the clock. Reddit addicts and those that can’t seem to get themselves away from Facebook until the day is over, though that could get in the way of your social marketing.

A similar conundrum is the time killed keeping up with industry news. Every SEO needs to be checking blogs and SEO news sites practically daily to keep up to date with any Google algorithm changes or big announcements, but it can also lead to lots of dead time or reading non-relevant news. Pocket helps you store articles you will want to read later so that you can come back to them when you aren’t supposed to be working. It’s great for train rides or hanging out on the couch at night.

Another option is stripping down your word processor with WriteMonkey, which will help keep you focused while trying to create content like blog posts. Minimizing distracting elements on your screen will help you keep you focused on making your content as good as it can be. If that doesn’t work, you can always download one of the many timers online to set short breaks for yourself, with a reminder when you need to get back to the grind.

Of course, all the tools in the world won’t help if the problem is internal. Most procrastination is caused by us just being lazy. I know this because I suffer from laziness as much as anyone out there. But there are simple ways to get you out of the lazy rut.

I’ve always been a big proponent of music as a motivator and a tool to help focus. Many agree, and refer to the increase in productivity while listening to music as the Mozart effect, though the legitimacy of such an effect has been questioned. Some say it distracts them while working, but in my experience turning on relaxing or more passive music while working will help you keep your mind where it needs to be.

Most also need to make changes in their habits, like using email as a means to constantly be switching tabs and getting away from their project at hand. Kirk suggests limiting your email time with a “surgery hours” model limiting you to checking your mail three times a day. There are times when you may need to respond to an email more urgently, but you can set those types of emails to alert you on your phone if you need to see them immediately. Otherwise, clients will understand a small delay, as long as you respond within a few hours.

The final tip is one you’e heard all your life. Sleeping well is essential to making you feel clear headed and ready to take on every day. Keeping a regular sleep schedule and not letting yourself stay up until two in the morning will keep that groggy feeling we’re all familiar with at bay.

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Bing Announces Bing Basic

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Today is April Fool’s Day, and of course that means every major company has unveiled a new fake product. Google, for example, announced Google Nose, which would let you smell your results, if it worked. That’s the type of prank you normally expect to see from big companies. They’re all in good fun.

Well, Bing decided to make their April Fool’s Day prank a fake new product and a slam directed obviously at Google all in one. They announced, through a blog post, Bing Basic, a redesign of their front page, only accessible through a special “telltale query”, “you’ll get something a little more bland” than their front page.

If you guessed the “telltale query” was “Google” and that Bing Basic removes the big pictures from their front page in favor of a colorful logo, white space, and a simple search box, you’d be correct.

bing-april-fools-2013

Of course, this Google bashing is far from new for Bing, but it is kind of odd to see a company take a day normally full of nonsensical and sometimes wonderful fake ads, webpages, redesigns, and other fun little jokes and turn it into a swipe at the competition. It certainly isn’t the first time though.
In the meantime, I’ll be dreaming of the day Google Treasure Maps is a real thing.

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What Showed Up On SERPs Last Year? [Infographic]

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It can be hard to notice, but Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) are constantly changing. Sometimes it is a result of new algorithms or updates to Penguin or Panda, but often it is a result of Google’s non-stop tweaking of their formula. If you weren’t consistently studying and analyzing SERPs, you probably haven’t even noticed.

SearchMetrics does just that type of analyzing of SERPs, and they just released their study of last years result pages, and there are some interesting points for all search marketers wanting to know what Google is favoring in their results. The highlights of the study, as pointed out by Search Engine Journal, are:

  • A small decline in video integration
  • A significant increase in image integration
  • A sharp decline in shopping
  • A large increase in news integration

The decline in video integration is one of the most surprising, as I’ve heard more than one analyst predict video will be one of the most popular mediums for content marketing this year. If they’re predictions are true, video makers will have stiff competition getting their content onto the SERPs.

Similarly, eCommerce pages are on the rise, and the data suggests business owners should be considering paying into the Google Shopping network to have their products seen by more people.

On the other hand, the big increase in news shows big opportunities for content creators reporting on events and doing news worthy journalism.

SearchMetrics made an infographic to go along with the release of their study, which you can view below or here.

rsz_universal-search-in-the-google-serps

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Responsive Redesign SEO Considerations: Above The Fold

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Responsive design is one of the most popular website design methods out right now. Users like having a consistent experience across different devices, without having to worry about pinching, zooming, or being restricted to a downsized version of a website. But, going responsive raises some concerns for the SEO professional managing a site.

Bonnie Stefanick explores some of the issues of high importance to SEOs when redesigning a site to be responsive, but before dealing with the questions she separates redesigns into two categories – cosmetic and full redesigns.

The main distinction between a cosmetic redesign and going all the way is URL management. If URLs are going to be changing during your redesign, you have substantially more issues than just updating the appearance of your site. The issues raised by Stefanick run closer to cosmetic redesigns, as complete redesigns have their own, much larger, can of worms to deal with.

Responsive design has its own unique style and appearance, and some times it can conflict with the best SEO practices. Such is the case with the area above the fold. Responsive design relies on negative space and giving elements area to breathe and move, but navigation and critical linking elements often get pushed down by big banners popular in responsive designs.

These large banners designers constantly put in responsive designs lead to important SEO elements being under the fold, only reached by scrolling down to find menus  By talking to the designer before the prototype is made and establishing where you main categories are on your homepage, you can avoid losing the SEO elements.

Another issue with the content above the fold in responsive designs is simply that there is no actual content. Responsive design is intrinsically visual, and designers favor the visual design elements over delivering content directly to users. Search engines notice when none of your content is above the fold, and can rank sites differently for their efficiency in directing users to the content they are trying to reach.

There are plenty of other major considerations for responsive redesigns. Clear communication with designers through the entire process can help manage many of them, but you will also have to pull your own weight to make sure your new design is working as well within your SEO strategy as your last design.

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Study Shows Penguin Algorithm Getting Stricter

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Screen-Shot-2013-03-19-at-2.26.52-PMWhile everyone in SEO collectively yells every time a Google Panda update rolls around, announced or unannounced, Google’s spam fighting algorithm Penguin may be of more concern for many website owners.

Though Google’s estimates say less than four percent of websites have been affected by Penguin, a new study by Portent suggests that Penguin will eventually be a concern for SEOs everywhere, if it continues to follow its trend.

Since the reveal of Penguin, Google appears to have become less tolerant of spammy links. The study looked at 500,000 links which show that Google has been steadily reducing its webspam tolerance, and increasing the likelihood of site penalties over time.

This isn’t an issue for most legitimate site owners, as it takes roughly 50-percent spammy backlinks in your profile to trigger a Penguin site penalty, but when Penguin came out, a site needed to have 80-percent of it’s backlinks classified as spam to attract the attention of Google.

Still, a site with 50-percent spammy links isn’t watching their profile all that carefully, and is probably engaging in some pretty questionable strategies. The concern is where Google will draw the line. Will they keep tightening their grip until only 5-percent of backlinks are allowed to be “spammy”? We won’t have any idea until another Penguin update appears.

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Why Responsive Design Is Winning The Mobile SEO Debate

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Source: WikiCommons

Source: WikiCommons

It is no secret how important a mobile SEO strategy is in today’s market, especially with predictions coming out stating mobile internet usage will overtake desktop internet usage in the next year.

Eventually, mobile search could catch up to desktop search, and users aren’t just staying on any website they find. Two-thirds of consumers say they are more likely to purchase from a website that has a mobile-friendly website, and more than a few survey has shown how low-quality sites or long load times repel searchers like a disease.

You probably knew all this. The debate over the importance of a mobile SEO strategy is over. The real question for most web designer’s is how do I achieve a mobile-friendly website? You have two options: a responsive web design, or an entirely separate mobile website.

There are pros and cons to both methods of course, but gradually it appears responsive designs are winning, especially when SEO is a factor. Jay Taylor, writer for Search Engine Watch, breaks down three reasons why responsive design seems to be taking the lead.

The biggest reason stems from a big endorsement from Google. It is an SEO professional’s job to please the almighty Google, since they command more searches than all of the other engines combined, and Google loves responsive design so much they called it the best practice for the industry.

Google’s preference for responsive design is likely because responsive sites have one URL and the same source code, regardless of how it is viewed, which makes the site easier for Google to crawl and contextualize. Separate mobile sites, on the other hand, have separate URLs and HTML, which complicates everything for the search engine.

Further more, content on responsive sites is easier for users to interact with and share than content that is separated between different websites. If that seems weird, imagine what happens when you get a link over Facebook from a friend who was on their phone. If you open that link on your desktop, you might get sent to a stripped-down mobile website if they use the separate website method.

When Google recommends a method for achieving your mobile SEO strategy, it is always best to do as they say, but there are other reasons responsive design is slowly taking over the search market. It allows a more uniform experience across devices, and makes managing your entire strategy easier. Everyone likes their work to be easy right?

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The Pet Peeves of SEOs

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One of the problems with working in an industry few actually understand is that clients tend to come to us with requests or ideas that are wildly impractical  entirely not possible, or in most cases just show a complete misunderstanding of how SEO works.

After a while of working with a good number of clients, you start to run into some of the same requests and patterns that can start to drive a person a little crazy, or at least annoy them enough to write a list like “10 Things Most SEO Consultants Hate“, which is exactly what Trond Lyngbø did.

Of course, everyone has their pet peeves and some will be more frustrated by issues like these. But you can help make your first meetings with an SEO firm a little smoother by familiarizing yourself what they don’t want to hear. You’ll understand how SEO works a little better while you’re at it.

The most common annoyance is the constant requests for a quick fix. Many website owners and small companies don’t worry about hiring an SEO until something goes wrong, in favor of saving money and streamlining their company’s efforts. For a small business, it’s a fairly savvy move, but SEO is simply not a process with immediate returns.

Lyngbø evaluates clients on a quarterly or annual basis, and though many SEO’s pay closer attention and spend their efforts fine-tuning aspects of their strategy, the fact is organic traffic is one of the cornerstones of SEO, and there is no way to rush it. Marketing and SEO campaigns take time to see results, but the patient reap the benefits.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg of patterns that can frustrate you SEO. Being the person to do any of the things on Lyngbø’s list isn’t anything to be ashamed of because SEO isn’t exactly common knowledge, but if you are working with one, it is always best to learn a little about what SEO is able to do, and how it functions.

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Where Is SEO Right Now?

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Everyone involved in SEO will tell you how drastically everything has changed this past year. They’ll emphasize how Penguin and Panda “changed everything” and they will be more than happy to talk about how dramatically linkbuilding strategies have been affected, but it seems like very few are talking about what these changes mean for SEO as a whole.

John Mihalik wrote about four strategic SEO trends that he sees as important for the rest of the year, but his predictions also work as a summary of where SEO is at right now. He misses a couple things that can’t be ignored like local SEO, but remembering these four trends Mihalik points out should be enough to give you a good idea of what SEO means for website owners today.

Quality is the New Standard – To be blunt, SEOs used to be able to take any site of almost any quality, and improve performance significantly with keyword stuffing, link buying, and all sorts of other borderline spammy tactics, but Google’s algorithm’s have advanced to unbelievable levels. With their complex set of metrics to evaluate sites by, Google can pretty confidently tell if a site is low quality, and there will be no way to bring a site out of the ether until the quality problem is solved.

Social is Important – Social signals are just now beginning to affect search results, but Google has made it more than clear they are implementing social signals into their algorithms and Facebook is working on improving their own search engine relying almost entirely on social data. Aside from questionable privacy practices, implementing social data into search makes sense. Interests, friend circles, location, and even internet habits can help search engines deliver results more tailored for individual people.

You Aren’t Mobile Friendly Yet? – At this point, any website without a responsive or mobile friendly version is beyond behind the times. More and more people are doing their searches on their phones and tablets. You can’t just throw together a low quality mobile portal either. Search engines look for the same quality signatures they do on desktop sites, and you won’t be getting any more traffic with a shoddy mobile page.

Knowledge Graph

The Knowledge Graph – Google’s knowledge graph, or that box of information in the top-right corner of your screen when you search for a celebrity or prominent brand, has been slowly becoming more common on SERPs over the past year. Mihalik also believes it offers an opportunity for brands to optimize their web presence and gain a little added performance for direct searches.

I question to efficiency or importance of the last one. The knowledge graph information does allow searchers to easily find concise information, but for a brand to appear on a SERP, the user has to search directly for that brand. If there is another company somewhere with the same name as yours, you could use the knowledge graph to gain a foot up on them, but otherwise I don’t see the knowledge graph becoming a cornerstone of SEO. Every other trend mentioned is pretty much a certainty at this point, however.

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Panda Update May Have Happened, But Don’t Expect Google To Say So

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Resting PandaLast week the internet felt tremors that were very similar to the shock waves unleashed by Google’s Panda Updates, but something was different this time. Google didn’t announce or confirm the update, and they say they won’t confirm any updates in the future.

At this point, it is widely assumed the small shakeup last week was the Panda Update that Google’s Web Spam guru Matt Cutts said would be coming sometime soon at SMX West early on last week. But, as Search Engine Land reports, while he was talking, Cutts also said that Google’s Panda Updates would no longer be unveiled in big monthly changes. From now on, Panda’s changes will occur gradually.

The shift from big abrupt changes to a more fluid update system means that sites hit for low-quality content may not be able to diagnose their issue as easily. Site owners can’t look at their Analytics and see a big drop correlated with a confirmed update around that time period. However, Danny Goodwin says it may mean a faster recovery.

Site owners who have done their proper due diligence will no longer have to wait for the next update to roll around to see if Google has viewed their work favorably.

Google confirmed 24 of the Panda Updates, and the 25th is believed to have occurred late last week, but from now on, there won’t be any big announcements or confirmations. Just like everything else at Google, their web spam algorithms will be constantly changing over time rather than abruptly transforming.

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