SEO Werkt!

In this month’s video segment I decided to compile several 30 second soundbytes from the recent Social Media Marketing World Conference. I asked several content creators what their thoughts were on how social media is changing search marketing. Highlights: How Social will impact the way people search: Andrea Vahl, Social Media Examiner Why Social Media is [...]

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Srinivas Rao

Srinivas Rao is the host and cofounder of BlogcastFM where he’s interviewed over 300 bloggers, authors, and entrepreneurs. Pick up his free guide on How to Repurpose Content for Profit and Fame.

The post How is Social Media Changing Search Marketing? appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Bing’s U.S. search market share has hit another all-time high, passing 17 percent for the first time. It gained at Google’s expense, as the search giant slipped six-tenths of a percentage point last month. That’s from comScore’s April 2013 qSearch report, just out today. For…



Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

If SEO is dead, social media will be, too, in another five years. So, keep calm and tweet on. Hold that thought for a second – I can explain. In today’s search world, there’s a lot of talk about how social is “taking over,” how “content is king,” and how search engine…



Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

A new Facebook/Bing integration today will further entrench Facebook data into Bing results. Users are now able to interact with Facebook directly within the Bing Search Results Pages, in more than the usual one-way, read-only context. When a logged in user performs a Bing search for a  query…



Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

A few weeks ago I sat down with long time SEJ community member and SEO expert Alan Bleiwess. This is the start of an ongoing monthly video series that I’ll be producing for SEJ. Here are some of the highlights from our chat:   How to Leverage Another Community to Build Your Personal Brand Why [...]

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Srinivas Rao

Srinivas Rao is the host and cofounder of BlogcastFM where he’s interviewed over 300 bloggers, authors, and entrepreneurs. Pick up his free guide on How to Repurpose Content for Profit and Fame.

The post SEJ Video Series: A Sit Down With SEO Expert Alan Bleiweiss appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

What are the most popular activities done or content consumed by apps? Google’s now bringing that information to its search results, assuming the app developer makes use Google+ Sign-In, that is. Google+ Sign-in was launched in February as an easy way to let anyone sign into a site or app…



Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Is your paid search program under performing    Do you need to find a way to decrease your CPA’s?  These are the first steps you should take to improve performance. 1.    Locate “Bleeder” KW’s Run a KW report for the last 90 days – Include conversions, CPA, and conversion rate Filter for KW’s greater than 2X your [...]

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Alexander Dao

Alexander Dao is a Senior Manager at DataPop.com. You can follow him @the_dao_jones

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The post 3 Steps to Reducing Search CPA’s in Half! appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

The value of ranking first on a search results page is no secret, but today Bing is putting some hard numbers on it: More than 50 percent of Bing users click the first result, and more than 75 percent click there if the first result includes Bing’s deep links. In a blog post today, Dr. [...]



Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

At some point, most of us have been lost. We know our ultimate destination, but either through a wrong turn or poor directions we find ourselves in the wrong place and likely very frustrated.

Without landing page optimization, your visitors may have this same lost feeling when they arrive on your website. Whether the content was written 10 days or 10 months ago, it’s easy to make assumptions about your website visitors and assume the directions (read: content and calls to action) you are providing make sense.

If anyone has ever given you directions based on landmarks (turn right at the gas station) you can understand this feeling. And ultimately you are unsure and have questions such as: what gas station, what if there is more than 1 and good grief why didn’t you just give me the street name?

As the Membership Director of MnSearch, I had the chance to attend a “Search Snippets” event on the importance of creating better directions for web visitors in search of solutions.

During that presentation we heard from 3 different speakers, each covering a different perspective on optimizing for the customer journey starting with an overview of Conversion Rate Optimization from Aaron Weiche (@AaronWeiche).

4 Steps To Get Started

Step 1  - Know Where You Are
Just like when you are lost, it’s best to pull over and figure out where you are. This is the wrong time to make assumptions, as you may end up further off course.

Before you implement any edits or changes, measure your current results from the page in question. Maybe the situation isn’t as bad as you perceive it to be.

Step 2 – Optimize The Funnel
Existing funnels can be optimized at every step. Start first by identifying which areas of the funnel are least effective.

As you look at optimizing your funnel, follow a structured approach. The approach Aaron recommended to the audience was READY:

• Relevant
• Engaging
• Authoritative
• Directional
• Yield Optimal Results

Step 3 – Know Your Recipe
Any good chef knows that you only change one ingredient at time, otherwise you don’t know what element made the dish more (or less) tasty.

It can be tempting to change multiple elements on a landing page, especially if you are misguided by assumptions about the page (see step 1).

To truly be effective, you have to remain disciplined and only test one page element at a time.

Step 4  - Matrix Your Factors    

Map out the types of factors you may want to adjust and what they accomplish. Start with the following, and make sure you have items in each category:

• Benefits
• Features
• Emotion
• Value

 Step 5 – Test & Maximize
Starting with a clear hypotheses, then you can A/B test for a champion.

To wrap up, Aaron overviewed the need to use Cohort Charts so you can start to see how data is related and what optimizations are having impact and pursue those items that are making a positive impact.

The Past, Present & Future of SEO Landing Pages

Next in the series of presenters was James Svoboda (@Realicity). He took the audience through the past, present and future of SEO landing pages.  What lessons were learned in the past?

Past Lesson #1 - Learn that every page is a landing page, it’s not just about the home page.

Since every page is an entry point to the site, it’s also important to understand that every page will have an entry point (such as search or social) and an exit point (to another page or leaving the site).

Past Lesson #2 - Analyze data to be informed and make recommendations.

Recommendations have been largely based on how visitors are behaving on the site. There was also a rise in the use of tools as more became available to track a variety of data. Think heatmaps, for example.

Past Lesson#3 – Continually seek information.

You’re reading this blog, so you’ve got this one covered.

Present Lessons Learned

Lessons we are learning in the present include identifying main conversion points on your site such as:

• Header
• Side bar (adjacent to content)
• In-content conversions (within the content – suggestion to the reader)
• Footer – (your last resort!)

As you outline the conversion points on the page, be sure to find the fold. Or the point where most visitors will have to scroll to see more information.  Once you understand the elements you have on the page, the next step is to build trust through content and visuals.

Some ways to build trust include associations, BBB logos, customer testimonials etc. The kind you use will depend on the type of business (B2B vs B2C), but don’t shy away from simple statements of credibility. Something like a 25^th, 50^th or 100^th anniversary can instill confidence for the visitor.

The next consideration CROs are currently integrating are social elements. If search is going to be social, then landing pages need social elements both for the visitor and the search engine to recognize the authority of the page.  Finally, current landing page optimization efforts are focused on tracking, testing and analyzing to spot patterns.

Test and analyze SEO results by segmenting analytics data. If you need to get started, here are ways to do so  by analyzing organic traffic:

• keywords
• locations
• devices
• bounces
• steps in visitor flow charts
• conversion type (leads, sales)

Future Lessons

James wrapped up by challenging the user to think of what the future holds for landing pages. One prediction he shared was to think of one url as your ultimate landing page going forward. As social signals influence search, imagine if all of the collective search and social equity was captured among a handful of pages where you invest the most time (vs 100’s of pages with less equity and therefore little to no visibility).

Use Psychology to Boost CRO Results

The final presenter was Josh Braaten (@JLBraaten) of Rasmussen College. He gave the audience a primer on using Psychology to boost CRO results.

Josh started by reminding the audience that when it comes to make decisions emotion beats logic. And the best website visits are emotional experiences, not rational encounters.

As noted in the book Brainfluence by Roger Dooley, campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31 vs 16%) as those that were rationale.  Additionally, campaigns that were purely emotional still did better than those that mixed emotional and rationale (31% vs 26%)

In order to achieve higher conversion levels we need to create hypotheses using psychological factors, then develop testing plans.

When considering conversion rate psychology, there are two factors:

1. Can do – factors that influences a visitors’ ability to complete a task
2. Will do – factors that influence a visitor’s willingness to complete a task

To get started, ask yourself what is preventing the visitor from taking action and what will make them want to take action?

What I find most interesting about this topic is the reminder that regardless of the company, product or service; at the end of the day we are still people communicating to people – if even through mechanisms that oftentimes remove the face-to-face interaction.

If we were to think about customer needs first and aligned our copy and calls to action to their need to learn and accomplish a goal, would our landing pages be different? I think the answer is Yes.  :)

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Are Bad Directions Leaving Web Visitors Stranded? Optimize For Outcomes to Improve Experience & Conversions | http://www.toprankblog.com

When you are entering the Internet world, you will see that there are many people searching for something to meet their needs. The core medium to find information online is by using a “search engine”. Search engines have become the best resource for the people to get relevant source of information in terms of content, [...]

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Sanket Patel

SEO Consultant at blurbpoint

Sanket Patel is an experienced SEO consultant. He has been in the Internet marketing industry since 2006. He likes to research on the latest methods, tools and techniques of link building, website optimization and affiliate marketing.

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The post 3 Practical Tips for Creating Magic Content Flow appeared first on Search Engine Journal.