marți, 15 martie 2011

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog


6 Reasons Why Q&A Sites Can Boost Your SEO in 2011 (Despite Google's Farmer Update)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 03:51 AM PDT

Posted by Pavel Israelsky

A lot of SEO predictions for 2011 were published in the end of 2010, while not many marketers mentioned the increasing popularity of Q&A sites. I think that it could be a great opportunity to exploit this new rising phenomenon for our marketing efforts while it's still fresh.

Why shouldn't you worry about Google's Content farm update?

I'm pretty sure that you're already familiarized with the Google's recent farmer update, and might think that Q&A sites are useless now. But if you take a closer look, there are a bunch of quality Q&A sites that did not suffer at all and can still be used for your marketing efforts. It's important to use only these kinds of sites as part of the following techniques, to get the most value for your efforts.

I believe that Google (and other search engines) should try and fit their offering to users according to changes on the web, so completely ignoring a rising concept such as Q&A platforms will be like shooting themselves in the foot.

What's a Q&A site and how does it work?

Before diving into the endless marketing opportunities of this concept, it's important to understand what a Q&A site is and how exactly it works. The simplest definition can be found in Wikipedia:

"A Q&A website is a website where the site creators use the images of pop culture icons to answer input from the site's visitors, usually in question/answer format."

While this definition mainly refers to the traditional type of Q&A sites, the whole concept refers to the following four groups:

Q&A sites comparison

This table highlights the main purpose and value of each group, and we will see how we can use each group in a different way. The following article will mainly concentrate on the potential of the first two groups – social and standard Q&A sites. Also, the examples for each group include only general websites and not niche oriented (which are of course useful for the following techniques).

Now that we have clearer picture of the different kinds of Q&A sites, let's see the top seven reasons to use them, in order to improve our online acquisition efforts.

1. Recent Trend: people google more questions than generic keywords

It doesn't necessarily mean that the search volume of generic keywords is higher. But we can clearly see that there's an extreme increase in the search volume of question quarries, while at the same time a slight decrease in the search volume of generic primary keywords. The most interesting fact of this phenomenon is that it happens with keywords from the same topic.

To visualize this data, I chose some competitive generic keywords and related questions for those keywords. Than compared with Google KW Tool the difference between their search volumes in 2010.

For example, here's a comparison between the search volume of both generic and questions quarries for iphone keywords (it's "exact" search):

generic keywords vs questions

2. QA sites have become much more popular in the last year

Another evidence for this phenomenon, can be found in the fact that the traffic to QA and "how to" sites has been dramatically on the rise in the last year. Using Compete comparison, we can see the yearly change among some of these sites (unique visitors):

Q&A sites traffic

This is a very interesting trend, which can tell us a lot about the evolution of our search habits. What does it say about our web search psychology? How will this change impact the search engine's relevancy algorithm?

While the content farm update "erased" some of these sites, there will probably be new alternatives that will take their place (the next point can explain why).

3. Q&A pages ranked high in search results

It seems that pages from QA sites rank pretty well in organic search results. These pages are highly on-page optimized for the main keywords, well engaged by the users and are continuously updated by users. Here are some reasons why these pages might rank high:

  • Search results variety – For each query, Google tends to offer different kinds of websites and content in the organic results, in order to diverse it's offering for users. So for example, if we will search "Michael Jackson", the search results will include links to different kinds of websites and content: Wikipedia, videos, music sites, magazine/news sites etc. Therefore, we can think of QA sites as an independent group of content, which might be ranked high for many queries.
  • Frequently updated content - people always love to share their knowledge by answering questions related to their area of expertise. Whether in forums, professional communities or QA sites. People will always add new comments/answers to such pages. And if new content is frequently generated – you can be sure that Google will be there to index it and prioritize it over "dead" pages. Another aspect that definitely contributes to the richness of the content is user engagement. Things like commenting, scoring and voting make these pages very valuable for users.
  • Well on-page optimization – most of these pages include various elements, which are an essential part of the on-page optimization factors (e.g. title, meta description, related tags and text). First of all, each one of these elements includes the main keywords of the specific question. Also, the internal linking structure supports the optimization level (e.g. "related questions" in each question page, "Recent answers" in user's profile, recent questions in main categories etc). For instance, take a look at a question page from Pro Webmasters:

on page optimization of Q&A page

Knowing that, you can simply search for the most relevant questions related to your keywords and start dropping useful answers. Of course in addition to your answers, you can place links within the text in a relevant context. This way, you can drive some really targeted traffic and increase your backlinks profile. It's better to start with QA pages that are already ranked high in SERPs, since they already have existing and relevant traffic.

questions with rankings

After dominating the 1st result page for your related terms, it's time to expand your sources by searching within the QA sites themselves. You can use Questionhub to save a lot of time. Questionhub is a giant aggregator that gathers questions from various QA sites around the web. Using Questionhub, you can find a lot of relevant Q&A pages in which you can leave answers and links to your site.

4. Great opportunity to diversify your backlinks profile

It's always recommended to include links from various kinds of websites in your backlinks profile, and not to concentrate just on one type (e.g. blogs, forums, news sites, social bookmarks/networks, static sites etc...). Basically there are two main reasons why you should get links from various sources:

  1. Your campaign will look more natural – if all your links come from blogs for example, it definitely won't look natural. More likely to be flagged by Google. It's much more natural that people will link from various spots rather than only one type of sites.
  2. Chances to gain more trust - Barry Schwartz referred to a video, in which Matt Cutts talked about the value of links from different segments of sites. In this video, Matt does seem to imply that Google is valuing links differently according to the type of the site.

If you expect to find some dofollow links with anchor text, you might be disappointed. But it doesn't matter as they will still be counted by Google (you can see them clearly in your webmaster tools account). And in any case, like I said before, it's a great opportunity to diverse your backlinks profile.

5. Pages that people prefer linking to

Let's say you wrote some really nice piece of content about car insurance for your blog. Since you want to make it useful for your users, you will link from it to external sources in a relevant context. But which pages will you probably link to? Will you link to some pages from commercial/corporation websites, or to some Q&A or "how to" pages? Let's assume for example that both options have the same relevancy to your content, and both deal with a narrow topic that you can't find on Wikipedia. I'm pretty sure that you will choose the 2nd option in such case.

Why do people prefer to link to such sources?

  • Psychology – The action of linking from our site to a corporate or commercial website may be interpreted as an act of solitude or identification between us and that said company. This might make us rule it out in at point blank, sub consciously. Therefore, there are high chances that Q&A pages will gain natural links.
  • Value – referring to Q&A and "how to" pages is much more valuable for users. Imagine yourself reading an interesting article and suddenly bumping into a link – wouldn't you prefer that it takes you to a neutral source that can assist you and teach you something new (or will expand existing knowledge)?
  • Easy to find – as I wrote before, Q&A and "how to" pages are ranked well in SERPs because of their high level of on-page optimization. The most common thing to do if we want to find the appropriate source to link to - is to search for it. If I want to link from a paragraph that deals with cooking thanksgiving turkey for example, I might search for "how to cook a turkey" and will probably get results from Q&A and "how to" sites.

easy to find such pages

Build your own Q&A asset and gain natural links

The best way to benefit from this behavior and attract links, is to establish your own Q&A property. This kind of asset can be built on a separate domain or on a subdomain/subfolder in your existing domain. There are a lot of free open source solutions for building such platforms, just choose one (it's pretty ironic that I naturally found the Q&A site which I'm linking to right now, using the same technique I've described in the previous paragraph J).

After establishing the platform, you should think about a keyword strategy that will assist you in focusing your content. It's better to have a targeted Q&A section with questions related to specific and narrow topics, rather than general ones. So for example if you have a hotel - website, focus your content only on this field by covering all related long tails. If all questions will be related to a specific topic, it will encourage users to use your platform because they will treat it as an authority source to get answers (will you prefer to ask about hotels in a dedicated or general source?). It will also encourage expert users to leave answers (ego?), especially if they have a business or a website in the hotel industry that they wish to promote.

Now that we know which keywords we should focus on, it's time to fill them with some initial questions/answers and spread the word. Here's a quick action items list that will assist you with this mission:

  1. Publish about 10-20 initial questions that will include your main keywords. You can check in other popular Q&A sites what are the most common questions being asked, and imitate them. Also, it's highly recommended to concentrate on questions with low-middle competition in SERPs (only in the beginning of the process). A practical way to verify that, is to use the intitle:"your question" search operator in Google (more search operators that can help with narrowing your query).
  2. Leave detailed answers to these questions. But don't do it at once, use a couple of hours interval so it will look more natural. If you want it to look even more natural, you can use different identities instead.
  3. Drive traffic to your new section using social media (retweet new questions, share on facebook, email all your friends, link from your homepage, ask for reviews in forums etc). If it will bring value, I'm sure that shortly after launch, users will start asking and answering questions. And if the source will become an authority of a sort – links will soon follow.

6. Targeted traffic = better conversion

Imagine that you are a blackjack enthusiast, and next month you're traveling to Las Vegas for a vacation. Since this will be your first visit to Vegas, it's reasonable that you will search questions like "Which casino has the best blackjack game in Las Vegas". Chances are you will hit a Quora result:

Quora result in google

In this page you will find some very informative answers from anonymous users, who describe various casinos in Vegas and even provide some blackjack tactics. In fact, this answer is so informative and insightful, that you just can't ignore it. I bet you also won't ignore the single link within the content, which refers to a blackjack strategy page:

link from text

Now when you click on the link, chances are high that you will also click on the affiliate banner in this blackjack website and the rest is history. Let's see how the funnel of this process looks like:

conversion funnel

You can use this technique for both link building efforts and traffic generation. But if you are looking only for SEO benefits, you should concentrate mainly on getting such links. While these kinds of links may be worthless in terms of link juice as they are not followed, but  they do have an alternative added value:

  • Traffic – if you leave such detailed answers with links in more than one question, it can bring you some really nice and targeted traffic.
  • Conversion – if the traffic is targeted to your niche, there are high chances that those users could become customers.
  • Link from a Q&A site – although in certain cases they are not followed, they are still counted in the overall backlinks calculation. And like I've mentioned before – it's a great way to diverse your backlinks profile.

What is your experience with Q&A sites?

The techniques shared in this article can improve your SEO campaign, especially in a competitive niche. If all your competitors are doing pretty much the same – this is a great chance to be prominent and bring something different to the table.

Have you been using Q&A sites as part of your SEO tactics? How exactly? Or are you completely sure that these tactics don't have any value? Your thoughts are more than welcome.


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Traffic Source Diversity is Essential for Successful SEO

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 05:08 PM PDT

Posted by randfish

 I recently created some custom filters in Google Analytics to illustrate SEOmoz's traffic over the past 12 months:

SEOmoz's Traffic Sources Distribution

Moz Traffic Distribution from March 2010 - March 2011
_
Data from March 15, 2010 - March 14, 2011

Here's the breakdown in percentages:

  • Search (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Baidu, etc.): 36.0%
  • Direct (Bookmark + Type-In): 27.7%
  • Feed (RSS via Feedburner): 7.9%
  • Social (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Hacker News, StumbleUpon): 5.9%
  • Partners (Distilled, Open Site Explorer, WebsiteGrader): 2.5%
  • Blogs (SELand, SERoundtable, AVC, etc.): 2.0%
  • Forums (WebmasterWorld, Google Webmaster Groups, etc.): 0.7%
  • PPC (AdWords): 0.2%
  • Other (uncategorized + everything else): 17.3%

As SEOs, we know that search traffic has vulnerabilities and fluctuations that are out of our control. The recent examples of sites that were unintentionally affected in the the Farmer/Panda update is a good example, but there are hundreds of potential issues, both from our own efforts and those of others (the engines themselves, our competitors, etc.) that can affect things outside of large-scale algo updates.

We've also felt the search engines moving in a more "holistic" direction, and seeking features that "brands" have, but generic sites don't in order to reward the former in their rankings. I did a presentation on this topic at the recent Be-Wizard! San Marino event, included below:

 

 

It's my sense that increasing the diversity of sources is an excellent path for online marketers to take, especially at this junction, because:

  • Search engines want to reward sites that "naturally" attract traffic from other sources - those who get clicks on the links that point to them, who have social media sharing happening aroud their content and who aren't simply a "farm" for search visits.
  • The online world is diversifying at a much greater clip in the last 3 years than anytime since the mid-90's. Instead of consolidation, we're seeing expansion as sites like Reddit, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, YouTube, etc. all expand their reach and newcomers like Foursquare, Path, Quora, StackExchange, Groupon, LivingSocial, and many others become substantive traffic drivers. Sites that can't play in these new ecosystems will likely lose out to their early-adopter-friendly competitors.
  • No single source of traffic is wholly "safe," but a diversified portfolio has much less associated risk.
  • Diversifying traffic sources means experimenting with new potential channels for traffic, and that means potentially finding sources that send great visits, links, citations, shares, etc.
  • Getting to a new channel before a competitor can be key to owning mindshare and traffic from that source.
  • Diversification makes it less likely that a road bump in any single channel can have a devasting impact on your overall business. One thing I'm very thankful for is that SEOmoz only gets ~30% of its traffic from Google. Should they ever (intentionally or unintentionally) alter our ability to perform, we won't be dead in the water (unlike many of our peers in similar spaces).

Of course, knowing what we have to do is the easy part. Executing on that is much more challenging. That's why, over the next 18 months, it's my goal to start investing more energy into research, case studies, content and, of course, software, to help. In order to win at SEO, we're going to need to win at ALL of inbound marketing, and luckily, the side effects are incredibly beneficial, too.


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Seth's Blog : Live in New York City

Live in New York City

One of my favorite events is coming up April 11th.

I'll be spending the day at the Fabulous Helen Mills Theatre in New York. Tickets go on sale today.

This is a live, ad-lib event, driven completely by your questions and issues and opportunities. It's limited to just a hundred tickets, and it always sells out.

If you type in the discount code: sethsentme you'll save another 10%.

PS if you haven't seen the new book yet, it's been on the Amazon top 100 for the last two weeks--the most successful book launch we've ever done. There's even a 52 pack. Thanks for spreading the word.

 
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Content Farms – What You Can Learn and Apply Graywolf's SEO Blog

Content Farms – What You Can Learn and Apply Graywolf's SEO Blog


Content Farms – What You Can Learn and Apply

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 08:07 AM PDT

Post image for Content Farms – What You Can Learn and Apply

While Google has taken action against content farms, from a strategic perspective I still think there are lessons that every publisher can learn from the content farm model. If you haven’t already seen it, please take a look at the leaked AOL document on content farms.

… AOL sees content as a commodity to sell ads against …
The first slide worth taking note of is slide 15 – content generation process. Basically, the slide goes through the decision process for determining how valuable a piece of content will be and determines if it gets created and who creates it. They use keyword/news tool to determine a piece’s “demand” and, depending on how valuable it is, it goes to low cost, in house, or vetted freelancer. Evergreen content, which will generate long term value as opposed to short term content, gets special consideration and special “SEO treatment.” To be honest, you should be doing this with your posts/content already. The pieces which will generate the most revenue or most links (see building links with encyclopedic content) should be produced by your best writers and be fully optimized with the best SEO Tools.

Slide 17 talks about the day to day creation of content. The key takeaway here is “how much” will it cost to produce this content, how are we going to monetize it, and what is its monetization potential (see adding revenue streams into your website). Slide 20 breaks down the decision process even further. As you are going down this path just be careful you don’t fall into the pageview journalism trap: once you do, you sacrifice quality for quantity, and chances are good that you’ll never make it out.

Google is a willing complicit conspirator in this low budget content creation process…
The next slide worth noting is slide 30, which talks about scaling the content creation process and how to promote the content so it gets maximum exposure. It’s a whole lot less shoot-from-the-hip and a whole lot more planning than you may be used to, but it’s a good starting point for developing your own plan. Slide 36 is the last slide that I think is noteworthy. It goes into detail about recruiting outside writers into the network or promotion strategy and how guest posts are a win-win for both parties.

On the opposite side of the coin, it’s important to see what someone who lived this plan has to say. Paul Miller was an engadget writer who recently left and had this to say about AOL … “AOL sees content as a commodity to sell ads against.” As the bar to becoming a publisher constantly lowers (a concept discussed in some detail in Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky), it becomes easier for low budget publishers to eek out profits, but high cost publishers can’t break even unless they cut production costs to the bone. Or, put another way, a $5 piece of content is going to be a lot easier to monetize than a $30 piece of content, no matter what level of traffic you have.

While it’s easy to blame publishers like Demand Media and AOL, don’t lose sight of the fact that Google is a willing and complicit conspirator in this low budget content creation process. By creating adsense and making it possible for anyone to monetize a website without needing to hire a sales staff, to pick up the phone cold calling advertisers,  or to pound the pavement, they brought monetization to great, unwashed masses. No single product has created more pollution on the web as Google’s Adsense program has. They may have started out the with “don’t be evil” mantra but, like so many before them, they have become what they set out to destroy. They are the virtual drug dealers of the 21st century, selling ads wrapped around other people’s content, creating information polluted ghettos, and they will become the advertising equivalent of a drug lord poised to rule the web.

So what should you takeaway from this post?

  • Use keyword or demand tools to help you decide which pieces to create
  • Create content based on monetization potential and link building potential
  • Send your content out to the appropriate writer based on monetization and link building potential
  • Evergreen and SEO flavored content should be given extra consideration
  • Have a plan for promotion
  • Beware of falling into the high volume, low quality, page view journalism model

 

tla starter kit

Related posts:

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Content Farms – What You Can Learn and Apply

March Madness Webinar Week

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March Madness Webinar Week

For the second straight year, SEO.com is hosting its own Madness. This year, it’s not just one day. This year, it’ll fill up the entire week.

The March Madness Webinar Week will feature daily webinars from March 21-24. It will cover everything needed to help boost your website’s search engine rankings, increase your presence on social media, drive paying traffic, and convert that traffic into sales.

The March Madness Webinar Week will include four presenters covering the following topics:

  • March 21: Greg Shuey, VP of SEO.com, will make your head spin with “Link Building in Real Time”
  • March 22: Claye Stokes, Dir. of SEO, will blow your mind with “SEO’s Role in the Evolution of Advertising”
  • March 23: Scott Cowley, SEO manager, will change your life with “Learn to SEO Your Blog Like a Pro”
  • March 24: Boyd Norwood, Dir. of SEO, will excite you during his “Life After the Farmer Update”

SEO.com March Madness Webinar Week

When: March 21-24, every day at 9:00 AM MDT time. (8:00 AM PDT, 10:00 AM CDT, 11:00 AM EDT)
Cost: It’s free, but you must register to attend.
Sign up for the madness. Become an SEO Ninja and be happy.

Click here to register now.
 

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Helping Every Child Get Ahead

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday, March 15,  2011
 

Photo of the Day 
 
Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama looks back at Education Secretary Arne Duncan during remarks to students and teachers at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Va., March 14, 2011. While at Kenmore, the President visited a classroom and delivered a speech on reforming education to better prepare students to out-educate and out-compete the world in the 21st century economy. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

President Obama: "It’s Not Enough to Leave No Child Behind. We Need to Help Every Child Get Ahead."
The President lays out his principles for fixing No Child Left Behind and reforming our education system.

Women in Uniform, From World War Two to Today
In honor of Women's History Month, the Department of Veteran Affairs has posted a set of photos of women in uniform over the last half century.

Introducing FOIA.gov
The Department of Justice launches a new website dedicated to the Freedom of Information Act that makes it easier than ever to find information, make a request, and share ideas.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

10:00 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing

11:25 AM: The President is interviewed by KOAT Albuquerque, KDKA Pittsburgh and WVEC Hampton Roads on the importance of education reform and the need to fix No Child Left Behind

12:30 PM: The President and the Vice President meet for lunch

1:30 PM: Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney WhiteHouse.gov/live

1:45 PM: The President meets with student finalists of the Intel Science Talent Search 2011 competition

2:00 PM: The President meets with senior advisors

4:30 PM: The President and the Vice President meet with Secretary of Defense Gates

5:30 PM: The President and the Vice President meet with the Combatant Commanders

7:00 PM: The President and the First Lady host a dinner for the Combatant Commanders and spouses; the Vice President and Dr. Biden will also attend

WhiteHouse.gov/live  Indicates events that will be live streamed on White House.com/Live.

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Seth's Blog : Are you doing a good job?

Are you doing a good job?

One way to approach your work: "I come in on time, even a little early. I do what the boss asks, a bit faster than she expects. I stay on time and on budget, and I'm hardworking and loyal."

The other way: "What aren't they asking me to do that I can do, learn from, make an impact, and possibly fail (yet survive)? What's not on my agenda that I can fight to put there? Who can I frighten, what can I learn, how can I go faster, what sort of legacy am I creating?"

You might very well be doing a good job. But that doesn't mean you're a linchpin, the one we'll miss. For that, you have to stop thinking about the job and start thinking about your platform, your point of view and your mission.

It's entirely possible you work somewhere that gives you no option but to merely do a job. If that's actually true, I wonder why someone with your potential would stay...

In the post-industrial revolution, the very nature of a job is outmoded. Doing a good job is no guarantee of security, advancement or delight.

 
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