Lately it seems that every article I read about SEO or online marketing techniques is thrusting a new programme or app at me. It’s always ‘the best new SEO tool’ or the ‘app that SEO’s cant live without’ and all I keep thinking is… I’m coping pretty well without this tool already?
In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I’m coping really well without this tool. So if like me you’ve come to that conclusion, it might be time to take a quick look at your current repertoire of go-to tools and show your appreciation for the years of service they’ve given you.
Since my entire working life pretty much revolves around Google, it’s no surprise to anyone that some of my best used SEO tools are courtesy of the Big G itself (and free, of course). So, if you’re not bothered by the latest SEO fad, here are the steadfast Google products that I think every SEO and online marketer should use:
You know how I referenced Google as the Big G? Well to me, Google Analytics is the Bible. No matter what your marketing strategy is, you will need to track it which will probably mean you’ll spend time in here on a daily basis.
Improving for presence in Google Search? Track it in Analytics. Experimenting with different AdWords campaigns? Track them in Analytics. Studying how users navigate around your site? Track them in Analytics.
Seriously, pray to it.
Webmaster Tools is like your websites doctor, except you go for a check up every day. It can tell you exactly which bits of your site arent working; links, broken pages etc. and for the bits that are working, it can give you various stats like CTRs, navigational patterns, referrers etc.
It can also show you which search queries are bringing traffic to your site, which pages they’re landing on and how many impressions those queries are receiving. Even more recently, Webmaster Tools can show your +1 statistics and which pages are receiving the most +1’s. It’s like the Bible, part 2.
If you’re a content creating online marketer then Think Insights is a haven of sharable information that Google will freely allow you to use in your blogs, articles, white papers, infographics, case studies etc.
If you’re just looking for a little educational material then you can search for journals and studies based on your industry, your media platform, your audience, or your marketing objective. The marketing objective search is really useful as you can search for objectives like ‘Drive Online Conversions’, ‘Engage your Audience’, and ‘Build Brand Awareness’; all great stuff if you need a helping hand.
You can also compare search patterns for certain terms and over certain periods of time. So if you’re really clever you could make an educated guesstimate of which search patterns are likely to emerge and tweak your SEO strategy accordingly.
Given that this is a paid tool, it’s not vital that you use it, but it’s a pretty big part of most online marketing strategies so I’d recommend that you do.
AdWords is a pretty intricate system and can take some time to get used to but once you’ve got the hang of refining campaigns and keyword targeting it’s a great tool for bringing in highly targeted traffic from an audience with the right intent.
It’s likely that you already have a list of obvious keywords you want to try to rank against/include in content/advertise against; but sometimes obvious isn’t enough to produce an effective marketing campaign.
Enter the Google Keyword Tool. Based on a phrase or website you provide, the tool will show you a load of similar terms and how high the competition for ranking is. Its not a tool you need to rely on but if you find your keywords arent putting out the results you’d like, then giving it a go is a good idea.
As you well know, everything you do when it comes to marketing (online or otherwise) needs to be tested. Testing SEO changes is relatively easy in that traffic will either increase or decrease, you’ll either rank or you wont, etc.
Where it does start getting a little tricky is testing how effective actual pages are, and that’s where Google’s Website Optimiser can help you out.
A/B split testing is a pretty common thing when you’re trialling landing pages and the website optimiser will allow you to test several different elements on the same page to see which headlines, content, images, etc. are the most effective. (You can do similar tests using AdWords and running a few different campaigns).
So there you have it, my favourite Google tools for SEO and online marketing! Let me know what your favourite tools are in the comments below. (No, SEOmoz doesn’t count, everyone loves SEOmoz).
What is the rel=”NoFollow” attribute?
The rel=”NoFollow” attribute is a HTML attribute that can be applied to individual links so that none of the ‘link juice’ from the linking page is passed through.
How is the rel=”NoFollow” attribute used?
The rel=”NoFollow” attribute is used by adding it to the end of the link you do not wish to vouch for (example below).
By adding the attribute to a link you are telling search engines that you cannot say that the content on the linked to page is of high quality and that you do not wish for your page to pass on any of its value, i.e. its ‘link juice’.
What does the rel=”NoFollow” attribute look like?
Attaching the rel=”NoFollow” attribute to a link looks like this:
<a href=”http://www.serchen.com” rel=”NoFollow”
When a search engine reaches this link, it will know that anything beyond it has not been vouched for and should not receive any ‘link juice’.
How do search engines look at the rel=”NoFollow” attribute?
This image from The Art of SEO (Enge, Spencer, Fishkin, Stricchiola) shows how most search engines will look at the rel=”Nofollow” attribute in a link.
Note that the rel=”NoFollow” attribute does not omit the linked page from being crawled. Search engines will usually not follow the link as the current site has not vouched for the quality of the content; however, it is possible for it to happen (the exact circumstances in which it happens are still unknown).
How does the rel=”NoFollow” attribute differ from the Robots Meta NoFollow tag?
The rel=”NoFollow” attribute differs from the Robots Meta NoFollow tag in that it is only applied to one link at a time.
The Robots Meta NoFollow is aMetatag that can be applied to a whole page of links, thus excluding every link from the crawl of a search engine. It is a way of applying the NoFollow attribute to a whole page of links without having to edit each one.
It looks like this:
<meta name=”robots” content=”nofollow”>
You wouldn’t be blamed for getting carried away when it comes to using social networks as part of your marketing strategy. The sheer number of different social networks and online networking sites suggest your company is probably already signed up to at least 2.
While the social interaction with current customers is certainly important for your brand, there’s also a world of potential customers that haven’t found you yet and could benefit from seeing more personalised sites like your social profiles.
This is where SEO comes in. I want to look at the SEO benefits that the new Google+ Brand pages have and what kind of things you can do to help optimise the page for potential customers searching for the services/products you offer.
The way that I approach SEO for social profiles is to look at them as if they’re web pages on your own site. What’s the purpose of the page? What’s your page title? Your meta description? Your content? Etc.
I’m going to break it down into sections using the Serchen Google+ page as a shameless plug example.
Page Title/H1 Tag
Google hasn’t specified what weight is placed on certain elements of Google+ pages with regards to SERP position or PageRank so (just to clarify) I’m not telling you that stuffing this bit of information with keywords is going to get you ranked well.
However, if you’re describing your services in this space (which is what most brands have done) then the likelihood is you’re going to mention certain products that can serve as keywords in Google. (Remember, Google will crawl your Google+ page as it would a regular web page).
You can see from our Google+ page that by simply describing our company we’ve inadvertently got ‘online advertising’ and ‘technology industry’ as keywords visible to Google.
Non SEO tip: This is the first bit of information that visitors to your brand page are likely to read; it’s at eye level on the page and it’s directly below the largest visible text.
Meta Description
When Google displays your Google+ profile in search results it uses your ‘page title’ mentioned above, as well as your About Us section, as a meta description (at the time of writing at least).
Google call this a snippet and it works in the same way as an ordinary search result, which means that if any of the words in that text match a search query, they’ll be highlighted on SERPs.
Again, no keyword stuffing, but this is a great place to describe your services and your industry so that visitors to your page find it useful and users finding you in Google will know what they need to about your company. (And of course Google will crawl the text for keywords).
Dofollow links
As far as SEO’s are aware, all of these links are dofollow’s (for now at least) so make the most of them and be aware of anchor text. I’m sure you know that adding other social sites and pages of interest makes you more accessible to visitors, just make sure they’re relevant (you don’t want your visitors leaving your page to visit a site about puppies your social manager thinks is cute).
Content
As always, content is a great way to optimise any page for search results. Google will of course index your posts so keep up with the optimised content I’m sure you’re already well rehearsed at writing.
I’m sure it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be duplicating this content! Keep the content on your social page unique, as opposed to copying articles from your website, or you could end up fighting yourself for rankings, linkbacks, etc.
Hashtags and Trends
Another thing to factor in with Google+ is hashtags. I’m sure Google would kill me for saying this but Google+ hashtags work in the same way as Twitter hashtags; you tag your stuff and people can find it by searching for the tag.
While this wont have a huge effect in your search rankings, if you’re a big content writer it can be super useful for people finding your content using the Google+ search box.
The same applies to Google+ Trends. Trends (again, like Twitter trends) shows the most discussed topics on Google+ every day. If any of these trends apply to your content you can make the most of the increased traffic by tagging your posts.
WARNING! Please, please, please ONLY tag your posts with trends if they’re relevant! I cannot stress this enough, there is really nothing more spam-tastic than tagging your posts (this goes for Twitter too) with irrelevant keywords. Do not do it!
Individual Google+ Profiles
Similar techniques for all of the above can apply to your individual Google+ profile, if you want to optimise that too. Many Google+ brand pages and profiles are ranking highly in SERPs so if you put a lot of emphasis on your social profiles id definitely make sure you do a quick SEO check and cover all bases.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but over recent months, Google has begun to make moves which bring back memories of MS in the late 90s. Lately I’ve felt very much like I’m living increasingly on the Google’s Animal Farm.
Conflict of Interest
Right at the top of my list would be their continued assault on vertical search and the obvious conflict of interest this represents. Sure I have a vested interest in all of this because my business is advertising, but this goes beyond all that. There is something inherently wrong with a business that lets others innovate and then simply copies in the case of Google Flights, or acquires in the case of Zagat. Worse still is when a company uses its existing monopoly to elevate their products above those of their competition. Do a search for “Maps” and none cynics among you will be shocked at the results. Anyone remember Mapquest? Apparently Google’s algorithm which lacks any human intervention (nudge nudge, wink wink) feels that they are no longer relevant. Depending on your location when reading this post, its quite probable that Bing Maps doesn’t even factor into the top 5 results either. But dont worry, Google Maps is here to save the day. Ranked number one, organically, for most map related searches you could care to mention.
Double Standards
I’ve been in the online advertising industry for almost 15 years, and in that time I’ve seen a lot of change. One of the most active areas of any online business is SEO. The complexity is ever increasing. As a business we pride ourselves on keeping pace with change within our industry, but the more recent SEO developments have given many of us pause for thought. The list of “commandments” issued by google makes one suspect there is another agenda at work beyond pure search and site usability.
Lets take the issue of duplicate content for example. A site whose whole purpose for being is to replicate content from other sites and order it in relevance, is telling us not to do the same? Apparently they consider pages that have content that share similar characteristics are less releveant to their visitors. This logic evidently doesnt apply to searches performed on their site of course. Search for any multituide for related terms around a topic of your choosing, and you will surely find pages that share results and content.
If that wasnt bad enough, one of the latest statements coming from the search giant now claims that sites with ad heavy pages could also be penalised in search results! (Reported by Search Engine Land) We are clearly dealing with a whole new level of hypocrisy. Yes thats right, a site which gets the bulk of its revenue by placing ads alongside duplicate content is telling us not to sell our own ad inventory (well not too much anyway). Oh, but lest we forget, their ads are super relevent to their users and of course everyone elses aren’t. So guess what Mr Camera review site, your ads for the latest Nikon just dont fill a need. But please, please Mr / Mrs publisher continue generating that content, because without it Google wont have anything to sell its own more relevent ads alongside in their search results.
Conclusion
At the heart of the problem for Google is the need to increase revenue. Simply put. Their goal to organise the worlds’ information is becoming increasingly overshadowed by the desire to increase profits, quarter on quarter. That internal conflict will continue to grow as the revenue numbers needed to be beaten become higher and higher. Adding 10% of growth to a $1M company is one thing but the maths get frightening when your talking about $40B-$50B company. I’m not sure what or if there even is an easy solution to the problem, but as was the case with Microsoft in the 90s more and more businesses are turning to the law to act on their behalf. I see this trend set to continue.
By James Ketchell
What is the goal of all forms of advertising? Branding, Sales, Education? The list is literally endless. It can however be simplified by one word that unifies everything. Action! All advertising has the goal of getting the viewer / listener / reader to take action. That action can of course take many different forms, from signing up for a newsletter, giving to a charity, or even making a purchase. Once we accept the goal of all advertising is essentially the same thing, it makes things much easier when we start to look at where best to place our advertising to generate our desired “ACTION”.
The placement options available to the budding marketeer are limited only by the imagination of the individual. So its little surprise that budgets are, more often than not, wasted. Conference Hotel room keys anyone? (Seriously I often wonder who has an ad budget so large they feel the need to test hotel key card demographics).
I’m all for testing new placements and new ideas as they develop, but the game hasn’t really changed in the last hundred years or so. Advertise where there is most “INTENT” to take our desired action. Got an airport car rental company? Guess what, advertising on airline booking sites on pages that cover your airports might be a good idea. Wedding photographer? Advertising on a local wedding planning site might work?
Seems obvious doesn’t it, yet so many companies ignore the obvious and instead chase the newest innovations. I love Peets Coffee, I mean seriously love Peets Coffee, but do I follow their twitter feed? No! But hey everyone needs a twitter account, right? This isn’t the time or place to get into social media and the misinterpretation of what is meant by marketing in that sphere. Hint: it’s not sponsored tweets.
Finding your niche
So where do we find intent? The simple answer is niche. Niche is where intent thrives. It’s important to remember, when people think niche, they generally think way too big. They confuse niche for market. There is a difference. A niche is a subset of a market. You need to think really small… Or perhaps more accurately focused.
Can you see where conflict might exist in a world which is dominated by comments like “Audience size is everything”, “Bigger is better”, “Who has the most market share wins”, and other such fairy tales? The smart marketeer doesn’t fall for this sort of media hype. The smart marketeer understands that all visitors are not alike. The key difference is? Yes you guessed it, INTENT!
What is intent?
Intent is the playing field leveller that no one wants to talk about. It’s far too easy to quote visitor numbers and membership statistics, why get into specifics which are potentially most useful to the marketeer?
Using the airline booking site as an example of niche. What is the intent of their typical visitor? I’m going to take a huge leap of faith and assume it’s the purchase of an airline ticket. Even if some visitors are searching on behalf of a relative or friend, they still represent that intent through a proxy. Its safe to assume a large percentage of visitors go on to purchase a ticket via that site (assuming the site in question represents a large enough cross section of the available marketplace).
Now let’s take another typical marketeer who’s focused on audience size and market share (see notes relating to airline booking site in the footer).
Our intrepid marketeer decides to mistakenly focus on market and not niche. Choosing to advertise on highly trafficked travel sites. People that travel after-all often rent cars don’t they?
In this rather obvious illustrative example, the intent of the travel site visitor is vastly different than one visiting an airline site. The list of intent for a travel site visitor is pretty much endless. Places to stay, where to eat, things to do, entertain the kids, etc.
Intent ratio
So let’s do some rather over simplified maths for a moment. Being generous lets say that 10% of people visiting a travel site have the intent of buying an airline ticket. Even if we completely ignore the geographical targeting offered by an airport booking site. That means we still need 10 visitors for every 1 booking site visitor to register the same level of intent.
In most industries the ratio of intent is vastly reduced the further you move away from the niche. Sure, TechCrunch and Mashable are incredibly useful sites for those keeping up with the latest technology developments. Their audience figures are in the millions and have legions of loyal fans. Those audience figures shrink dramatically however, once you apply an intent ratio to your product or service. Although you can safely assume most of their visitors are technically aware and most likely early adopters, how many are actually in the market for your product/service right at this moment? Generally as a rule, you would be lucky to get into single digit percentages.
So next time you read a headline about the latest hot app, platform, web site, [Insert here]. Ask yourself what’s the appropriate intent ratio to apply. That number will provide you with the first key metric to use when comparing rival placements. It’s the ultimate playing field leveller.
Note: OK so airline booking sites are a big easy example to use. Many of these sites represent the largest on the internet. So they actually fulfil audience and niche criteria. That’s unusual and only generally exists in a few search verticals. The others being retail, financial services and media / entertainment.
By James Ketchell
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