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miercuri, 16 iulie 2014
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The New Link Building Survey 2014 - Results
The New Link Building Survey 2014 - Results |
| The New Link Building Survey 2014 - Results Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:16 PM PDT Posted by JamesAgate Many of you may have seen our Link Building Survey results published here on Moz around this same time last year. The reception was fantastic, so we decided to push ahead with turning this into an annual series to see how this strand of the industry is developing and evolving over time. Firstly, "link building"... Yep, we've not changed the name to a "content marketing survey" or "inbound link acquisition survey;" we still feel link building is a vital part of an SEOs arsenal of tactics, and therefore it deserves its own survey. As a company we're investing just as much in link building for our clients (granted, we've adapted what we are doing), but the fact remains that if you want to score big with decent organic search visibility then you need links. Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to the details: Who took the survey?A massive thank you to the 315 or so people who took the survey. That number is slightly down from last yeah, which I feel is partly due to fewer people considering link building to be a part of their day-to-day roles. I'd argue that's a missed opportunity, and this year we had a few duplicate entries and submissions that needed a bit of tidying up, so we trimmed it back to these 315 submissions. The makeup of the respondents was broadly similar to last year, as expected, although based on user feedback from our inaugural survey, we added a few more categories for respondents to self-classify—so it is hard to make specific comparisons. How much does your company spend on link building per month? In the 2013 survey, 10% of respondents said their company spent $50k+ per month on link building, so it appears that the upper limit to link building spend may have decreased slightly across the industry. That being said, there now appears to be a much larger number of companies in the $10-$50k per month bracket when you compare this year's 37% with last year's 11%. I would attribute the changes year-on-year to two factors;
Warren Buffett once said "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful." Based on conversations alone that I've had with a wide range of businesses, many are now fearful when it comes to building links. In fact, we gathered some data later in the survey that revealed that one of the biggest challenges people face is not knowing which links will help and which will harm them. Google's widespread action against websites (and dare I say it webmaster propaganda) has had a dramatic impact on some people to the point of paralysis. There are clear opportunities that, with a sound strategy, can be seized in today's market. You can build links like it's 1999 for a microsite or second level property, keep it super-clean and identify link opportunities that would be valuable irrespective of Google, or somewhere in between those extremes. The fact is the links still form the backbone of the internet and of Google's algorithm and that isn't going to change for a very long time. What percentage of your overall SEO budget is allocated toward building links?Thanks to John-Henry Scherck for this one as he made the suggestion following the 2013 survey that having data on the percentage would be really interesting. Looking back we don't have a point of comparison but not of course moving forward we will have so we should get a clearer picture of whether online marketing budgets are just increasing in general (and therefore link building gets allocated the same percentage but of a bigger pie) or whether folks are seeing the value from building links and therefore allocating a larger percentage of the same sized pie to link building activities. Would you say you've increased or decreased your spend on link building over the past 12 months?This aligns with our data on more people entering the $10-$50k per month investment bracket this year: Why the increase/decrease in spending? We asked people why they decided to increase or decrease their spending on link building over the past 12 months. Responses could be categorized into the following areas: Common reason for increases:
Common reasons for decreases:
In the next 12 months, will you look to increase or decrease your spend on link building? Why the planned increase/decrease in spending?
Which link building tactics do you utilise most often?(Numbers listed are votes rather than percentages) When we compare with responses from the 2013 survey, there is a clear shift towards content-led initiatives and a reduction in some tactics for example close to 50% said in 2013 that guest blogging was their staple tactic, in 2014 fewer than 15% listed it as one of their staple activities. Another interesting bit of data is the fact that paid links have seen somewhat of a resurgence in popularity, presumably as companies look for tactics where they can maintain greater control. In 2013, just 5% listed paid links as their staple linking tactic whereas in 2014 over 13% reported paid linking and blog networks as one of their main link building tactics. What is currently your biggest link building challenge?
These are similar challenges to those reported in 2013 in the sense that there is still concern over which links are helping and harming organic search performance as well as difficulties relating to processes and the lack of scalability. The interesting thing is that SEO is full of challenges so as soon as one is overcome, the next appears. In 2013, 28% of respondents said that "finding link prospects" was a key challenge but this year not a mention of link prospects being an issue. This arguably suggests that we as an industry were adjusting to the "new world" back in 2013 and that now we have advanced our capabilities enough for this to now longer be the primary challenge in our day to day work. Now the main problem doesn't seem to be getting links as such but more about getting links into the pages that we all need to rank to stay in business … the money pages. Which link building tactics do you believe to be most effective?(numbers below are "votes" rather than percentages) Which link building tactics do you believe to be least effective?(numbers below are "votes" rather than percentages) Which link building tactics do you consider to be harmful to a site?(numbers below are "votes" rather than percentages) See the complete visual below: Thank you for everyone who took part in the survey! See you all again next year. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! |
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Seth's Blog : When in doubt, re-read rule one
When in doubt, re-read rule one
Rule one has two parts:
a. the customer is always right
b. if that's not true, it's unlikely that this person will remain your customer.
If you need to explain to a customer that he's wrong, that everyone else has no problem, that you have tons of happy customers who were able to successfully read the instructions, that he's not smart enough or persistent enough or handsome enough to be your customer, you might be right. But if you are, part b kicks in and you've lost him.
If you find yourself litigating, debating, arguing and most of all, proving your point, you've forgotten something vital: people have a choice, and they rarely choose to do business with someone who insists that they are wrong.
By all means, fire the customers who aren't worth the time and the trouble. But understand that the moment you insist the customer is wrong, you've just started the firing process.
PS here's a great way around this problem: Make sure that the instruction manual, the website and the tech support are so clear, so patient and so generous that customers don't find themselves being wrong.
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marți, 15 iulie 2014
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
| Corporate and Government Bonds: Where to From Here? Posted: 15 Jul 2014 08:39 PM PDT Inquiring minds are concerned about corporate and government bonds, especially bond funds. Is a debacle in bonds on the way? If so, how does one play the setup? That is what is on the mind of reader Kim who emailed: Hello MishWhere to From Here? Hello Kim I suggest government bonds are likely the last to be affected in any major bond selloff. Look at it this way: In a flight to panic of any sort, government bonds are typically the safe haven. That is particularly important for bond funds as opposed to buying individual bonds and holding them to term. While no one has a crystal ball, I suggest the bloodbath will be in corporates first. Assuming that happens, reassess government bonds. As for the freeze in retirement accounts, forced ownership of government bonds, and other similar ideas, I suggest you ignore them. Exit corporate bond funds first, especially high yield. Junk bonds are in a massive bubble, as no-covenant agreements abound. The worry about US government bonds is, for the time, overblown. Personal Note Hello from Glacier National Park, Montana. Here is an unsharpened, not color corrected image of Liz and I at Virginia Falls.  Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Triple Whammy for German Economy Posted: 15 Jul 2014 08:22 AM PDT I have a guest post this morning from Saxo Bank chief economist Steen Jakobsen regarding the slowing German economy. Steen says the German economy is decelerating too quick for comfort and faces a triple whammy from Asian rebalancing, the US economy, and a bad energy policy. From Steen Jakobsen Germany May Have Won the World Cup, but Its Economy is Cooling Fast We need to congratulate Germany on its World Cup win. It was a victory for organisation and science, but unfortunately the Germany economy is slowing fast — and too fast for comfort when we look at Eurozone GDP. I have long argued this slowdown was coming based on Asia rebalancing (reducing imports of capital goods and turning more domestically-based); Bad energy policy (being dependent on Putin and his Russian gas rather than German nuclear energy — not exactly perfect substitution); A new minimum wage and a coalition government that has either reversed or halted a lot of the progress that had been made in the labour market. Unlike its football team, Germany became complacent and the switch to a reliance on green energy is now at risk as growth collapses. A few charts to illustrate my old argument ...  ZEW Expectations  Industrial Production  Strategy This confirms that we are destined for new lows in yields in core Europe, something I have constantly said since Q4-2013. The world is barely producing growth with zero interest rates — how can ANYONE believe rates will go higher? Beats me! Therefore: Long IEF, Bund futures and 10-year US Treasury notes. Above courtesy of Steen Jakobsen Europe is not prepared for a German slowdown, but it is coming. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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