joi, 12 ianuarie 2012

Damn Cool Pics

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 08:39 PM PST

Who doesn't love a good meal? This adorable puppy is so excited to eat that he can't even stay on his own feet! That's just too cute.

Small Plastic Figures Hold Up The Floor

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 07:05 PM PST

For this striking work, Korean artist Do-Ho Suh placed thousands of tiny human figures below a sheet of glass. They support the weight of visitors who is standing above. It's currently on view at the Lehmann Maupin pop-up gallery at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute.

Via: mymodernmet

Let’s See Those Numbers

I could keep talking, or I could show you the numbers. The following graph shows Spearman correlations (r-values) for 13 variables with UPVs. Blue bars are social factors, green are community factors, and purple are content factors:

Correlations with Unique Pageviews

Most of the variables are self-explanatory, but a few that might need elaborating:

Words (Post) is the word count of the post’s content
Words (Title) is the word count of just the post’s title
Headers is the count of all header tags (<h1>, <h2>, etc.)
Bold Tags is the count of all <b> and <strong> tags
Lists is the count of all <ol> and <ul> lists

We use Spearman rank-order correlations because many of these variables tend to be skewed (for example, some posts get a ton of Tweets, whereas many get very few). As always, correlation does not imply causation. I originally captured both Pageview (PV) and Unique Pageview (UPV) data, but the correlation between them was very high (r = 0.998), so I decided to just keep it simple. Every cited r-value is significant at p < 0.01. Many thanks to our resident stats guru, Dr. Matt Peters, for helping me pull the numbers together.

What Does It All Mean?

First off, I’d better explain the “Post Age” data (in red). That’s actually a negative correlation with UPVs. In other words, the older the post, the less traffic it got. That may sound counterintuitive, but remember that the traffic data was only from 2011, whereas the posts could be written at any time. Naturally, posts written in 2011 tended to get more traffic in 2011. In retrospect, that seems obvious. Interestingly, thumbs up was also negatively correlated with post age (r = -0.76) – the other reality is that the community has just grown over time.

Clearly, social factors had the strongest influence in this data set. Causality is a bit tough to pin down, as we do have a chicken-vs-egg problem. Likes, for example, may drive sharing and traffic, but posts with a lot of traffic will naturally get more clicks on the Like button. Which came first? Probably a little of both. As we saw in the smaller data set last year, there does seem to be “cross-talk” between the 3 social buttons. People that like a post will naturally +1 it. For reference, here are the inter-correlations between social factors:

Social Factor Inter-Correlations

As you can see, they’re pretty highly correlated with each other. It’s hard to separate why, at least from this data. It could be that (1) The best content attracts the most social signals and the most traffic, (2) People who regularly use social tend to use all 3 services, or (3) People use all 3 because the buttons are close to each other.

Community factors are similarly tricky – posts with more traffic get more thumbs, all else being equal. Still, it seems that our community metrics have some validity – posts that get a lot of thumbs up and comments tend to also get a lot of traffic.

The content factors are the weakest group, as a whole, but here the causality is at least clear. No post magically got longer or had more images in it because more people visited it. It does appear that longer posts tended to fare pretty well with our audience.

Where Do We Go From Here?

While we can’t predict the future of any given social network, and Google+ is still in its infancy (even by internet time), I think that 2011 was the year where social really made its mark. It’s clear that social is driving traffic, and the impact of social factors on SEO is growing fast.

I think both studies suggest that you shouldn’t be afraid to use all 3 of the major social buttons. I wouldn’t go crazy (if you have 50 social buttons, you weaken them all), but the inter-correlations strongly suggest that, at worst, the 3 big buttons don’t hurt each other. People who regularly use social probably send multiple signals.

It’s also interesting to me that long posts seem to do pretty well on SEOmoz. When I wrote my duplicate content mega-post, it was a bit of an experiment. We had talked about doing another guide for e-commerce SEO and opted to try a long-form post on one sub-topic instead. I don’t think that every post needs to be that long, but there’s certainly room for mega-posts when the topic merits them. To give credit where credit’s due, Oli’s mega-post made that point before mine did.

Of course, every audience is different. I admit that I do these analyses as much for myself as anyone else – I’m really fascinated by trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Much like with SEO in general, though, “quality” is a complicated thing. If you write a long post just to fill up space, you’ll have a mountain of crap instead of a pile. Use the data wisely.

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Ring in the New Year with New Moz Features!

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:15 AM PST

Posted by Erica McGillivray

Holy smokes, I don't think our product and development teams have slept since Thanksgiving; they're probably really dreaming of figgy pudding with all the new features they've been creating. These four features: universal search, historical link metrics, custom reports, and branded keywords are definitely squee-worthy. Plus, there's a bonus that you might've not heard about yet.

I realize that for you die-hard Mozzers -- yes, those of you checking your RSS reader while everyone else watched shiny disco balls drop from the sky -- this may be a little bit of a repeat. This is more for those of you who are like me and spent most of your holiday break playing with your family's new puppy, eating pumpkin pie, and airing grievances at Festivus parties. (My cat swore he'd finally get a job in 2012, lazy bum.)

Onto the features...

Custom Automated Reports: Make the data talk for you.

"I need that report..." You know what follows. Or you know the reminders that pop up on your calendar every Monday or every 1st of the month telling you it's time for reports.

Boss Cat Doesnt Believes Ur Excuses

Take a deep breath. SEOmoz reports now are customized and automated! Instead of logging in every week or month just to pull numbers for your boss, client, or other person-in-need, you can concentrate on making the perfect swirl of cream in your coffee or working on improving your site's SEO while being assured your report's arriving on time.

Send up to 5 people .pdf reports of your keyword SERPs, crawl errors, and more. Make your boss happy and be a superhero. Learn how to set them up.

Branded Keywords: Separate and track them as a group

One of the most important segmentation you can do in your SEO analytics is to look at the differences in rankings and traffic between your branded and non-branded keywords. By setting up some simple rules, you'll be able to automatically label which keywords are branded. (You can also add other labels for other groups your business may need.) You'll be able to filter to clearly see improvements or declines.

Tip: Don't forget to set up your Google Analytics profile to your campaign so you can dive into traffic, in addition to your rankings.

Why is this important?

To really dive deeply into SEO, you need to recognize differences in keywords. Different groupings have different needs -- sometimes even different customers! -- and need to be optimized differently.

Your brand's name is generally a powerful signal. Typically, most companies find that branded keywords generate the majority of their organic traffic. But if your brand name's dropping that's a sign you need to work on some brand building and getting your name out there.

Instead of setting up crazy filters in Google Analytics, you can now see both your rankings and your traffic as they change without pain. And it's so easy to set up!

You want to gain insights into your groupings of keywords so you can give shape to your plans for SERP improvements. As I was filtering through my own analytics for this post, I found through this feature that my non-profit GeekGirlCon needs to spend some more time on non-branded keywords since 80%+ of our organic traffic's coming through via our brand! Group behavior helps you see keywords more clearly and come up with better actionable plans. More on this update.

Universal Search: Holy local search SERP!

Fresh out of the Moz laboratories, we just launched our first venue into Universal Search yesterday. Like you, we've been closely monitoring the rise of Universal Search results and seeing Google's results serving up more personalized results. There's local, video, shopping, images, news, and more. Traditional organic rankings are being pushed further and further down the page. How's an SEO to keep up?

search for "vegetarian food"

We're working on making it easier for you to track your SERPs and know exactly where you stand in Universal Search.

Why is this important?

Rankings are more than just 10 SERPs these days, especially if people are looking for your business locally or a certain product you sell. The more relevant information -- whether it's location, hours, phone number, catalog, pictures of the outside of your shop -- that they can find the better.

Plus, if you show up multiple times on the first page, you look like the authority over your competitors. Clearly, she who has the most SERPs wins. (Someone please make me that t-shirt.)

Now when you start tracking keywords with local results too, we'll let you know where you are. And you'll also be able to figure out where you aren't if that keyword has local rankings, but just not for you.

Local SERP hover

Looking at how Google personalizes everyone's searches based on local gives you a different way of looking at your page optimization. You may realize that some terms are extremely important locally and other's not so much. You may find new competitors or that known competitors don't rank well for local.

The more relevant you can be for Google's Universal Search, the more relevant you're going to be for your customers in the long-run. Which just translates into customer happiness. How-to dig into your local SERP rankings in PRO.

Historical Link Metrics: Rock your data

We now keep track of your historical link metrics. That's right, access information from your numbers going back to October 2011 or when you first set up your campaign, whichever came first.

Instead of digging back through spreadsheets that you downloaded, you can access this information right in SEOmoz's PRO app in your campaign. See your improvements in link building just jump right out at you. Or see where the competition is leaving you in the dust.

Don't run around collecting old numbers when you can start investigating your site's link metrics' strengths and weaknesses today. Read more on accessing this invaluable resource.

Mystery Solved!

Bonus...New Link Directory

Yes, we updated the Link Directory and rolled it in glitter just for you! Directory listings can still help your link juice a little bit. But you want to make sure those sites are quality ones, so the signal doesn't go the wrong way. Filter directories by category, DA, and MozRank and add your voice by thumbing them up or down. Start evaluating quality directories today.

*beep beep* --> That's Roger Mozbot sharing in the excitement.

Hope you enjoy all the New Year's gifts from us at SEOmoz and that they enhance your SEO reporting, planning, and execution. Like you, we have big goals for 2012, and our number one goal is to help you achieve your inbound marketing goals with the best analytics we can provide.

Want more info? Join tomorrow's webinar!

For more insights into these new features, tune into tomorrow's webinar at 10:30am PST (6:30pm GMT) for Upgrade Your SEO Reporting with Local Rankings, Historical Link Metrics, Branded Keywords, and Custom Reports. Join Mozzers Adam Feldstein, Karen Semyan, Samantha Britney, Miranda Rensch, and me as we walk you through SEOmoz latest PRO tool updates -- universal rank tracking for local search, historical link metrics, branded keywords, and custom reports -- and give you tips and tricks on how to make them work for your SEO and greater inbound marketing efforts. Bring your questions! Register today; it's free.

Please let us know how you're enjoying these new features and how you're using them to make your site(s) even more awesome. If there's something you want to see added to these features or they make you think of another feature you'd love to have, don't be shy and leave us a feature request.

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Everything You Need to Know About Insourcing

Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, January 12, 2012

Everything You Need to Know About Insourcing

After decades of watching American companies outsource jobs to other countries, we're beginning to see entrepreneurs and manufactures insource, making the decision to keep factories and production facilities here in the United States—or even bring jobs back to the U.S. from overseas.

Find out why insourcing is so important and see what the President had to say at the "Insourcing American Jobs" forum yesterday.

SEOptimise

How Google Search Plus Your World Will Impact SEO

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:28 AM PST

You've probably heard by now that Google announced the roll out of social search yesterday, dubbed 'Search, Plus Your World'. There has been vast speculation about Google's motives, with the most credible of which suggesting it's to do with…

Gaining market share in the social network market.
To improve the quality of search results through increased trustworthiness and personalisation (research by Nielsen suggests that 42% of people trust search results, but 90% trust recommendations from friends).

In reality, all of the above will contribute to why Google's launched social search. However, in this post I don't want to talk about the politics – I'll leave that to the tabloids. I want to talk about how this is inevitably going to impact our jobs as SEOs.

What’s Google’s Game Plan With ‘Search, Plus Your World?

To really understand the impact, we need to realise what Google's game plan with social search is. I’ll point out now that I’m not an expert or an insider in any way, but this is where I think Google might be going with Search, Plus Your World and Google+.

Google is creating a 'map' similar to Facebook's Open Graph that connects people with their content, websites and readers to understand who produces what content, what happens with that content and how people react. This is where the rel="author" and rel="publisher" tags play a big part (I wrote a post about this on Social Media Explorer).
Google will then learn contextual information about readers and content producers taken from their Google account activity (e.g. what YouTube videos they watch and searches they make when signed in) and use this data in combination with existing ranking factors and G+ sharing data to better place content in search results.

If I'm right, then I can see a shift in prominence in the SERPs to content producers with an active audience, but only in niches where communities exist.

For example, in the social media niche, sites such as Mashable, Social Media Explorer and Social Media Today will receive extra prominence in SERPs because they have an audience containing not only the 'influencers' but also the remaining mass of social media enthusiasts who share their content. The social media sites that don't have an active audience or community will lose prominence.

In niches where there is no community (think 'septic tank maintenance' or 'zinc coating of ships') social search won't change anything, at all. That is unless a company creates an active audience from scratch – for example, how Compare The Market arguably created an active audience in the insurance niche using Aleksandr Orlov.

As I never wrote a '2012 predictions' post, here are five things I think this shift towards social search will make us think about more as online marketers.

Email marketing will become increasingly important due to the power it has to encourage desired actions, such as social shares. I am currently writing a post on SEOmoz about using email auto-responders to influence social SEO – hopefully it should go live in the coming week (follow me and I'll tweet it when it does go live!)
SEO strategies will have two sub-strategies: the ‘personalised SEO strategy’ and the ‘non-personalised strategy’ – the latter of which will be almost identical to what you’re doing already, but the former being more about gaining social approval and engagement from your audience.
Low quality link building will become obsolete in niches where communities and active audiences exist. High quality link building will still play a major part in ranking for all sites, low quality link building will still work for uncompetitive niches with no audience.
Companies will need to find ways of gaining the 'social approval' of influencers in their niche (if such a thing exists). +1s from your niche's celebrity will be the social equivalent of the .edu/.gov link.
Google will work on increasing the proportion of people who are signed in. That one’s just obvious :)

Conclusion

It’s fair to say that Google+ and social search will inevitably impact SEO this year. To what extent we don’t know, whether Google decides to make the ratio of social:links as a ranking factor 1:1 or 5:1 or 0.1:1 just isn’t possible to say yet, but my advice is prepare for the worst case scenario and you won’t regret it, because it’s something that will only increase in importance over time.

Of course, this is all my opinion and if you disagree with me I’d love to hear about it and build a fuller understanding of all sides of the story. As usual, share your thoughts in comments below!

Image Credit: Birgerking, vanmarcianoart.