miercuri, 15 iulie 2015
Case Study: How I Turned Autocomplete Ideas into Traffic & Ranking Results with Only 5 Hours of Effort - Moz Blog
Case Study: How I Turned Autocomplete Ideas into Traffic & Ranking Results with Only 5 Hours of Effort
Posted by jamiejpress
This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.
Many of us have known for a while that Google Autocomplete can be a useful tool for identifying keyword opportunities. But did you know it is also an extremely powerful tool for content ideation?
And by pushing the envelope a little further, you can turn an Autocomplete topic from a good content idea into a link-building, traffic-generating powerhouse for your website.
Here's how I did it for one of my clients. They are in the diesel power generator industry in the Australian market, but you can use this same process for businesses in literally any industry and market you can think of.
Step 1: Find the spark of an idea using Google Autocomplete
I start by seeking out long-tail keyword ideas from Autocomplete. By typing in some of my client's core keywords, I come across one that sparked my interest in particular—diesel generator fuel consumption.
What's more, the Google AdWords Keyword Planner says it is a high competition term. So advertisers are prepared to spend good money on this phrase—all the better to try to rank well organically for the term. We want to get the traffic without incurring the click costs.
Step 2: Check the competition and find an edge
Next, we find out what pages rank well for the phrase, and then identify how we can do better, with user experience top of mind.
In the case of "diesel generator fuel consumption" in Google.com.au, the top-ranking page is this one: a US-focused piece of content using gallons instead of litres.
This observation, paired with the fact that the #2 Autocomplete suggestion was "diesel generator fuel consumption in litres" gives me the right slant for the content that will give us the edge over the top competing page: Why not create a table using metric measurements instead of imperial measurements for our Australian audience?
So that's what I do.
I work with the client to gather the information and create the post on the their website. Also, I insert the target phrase in the page title, meta description, URL, and once in the body content. We also create a PDF downloadable with similar content.
Note: While figuring out how to make product/service pages better than those of competitors is the age-old struggle when it comes to working on core SEO keywords, with longer-tail keywords like the ones you work with using this tactic, users generally want detailed information, answers to questions, or implementable tips. So it makes it a little easier to figure out how you can do it better by putting yourself in the user's shoes.
Step 3: Find the right way to market the content
If people are searching for the term in Google, then there must also be people on forums asking about it.
A quick search through Quora, Reddit and an other forums brings up some relevant threads. I engage with the users in these forums and add non-spammy, helpful no-followed links to our new content in answering their questions.
Caveat: Forum marketing has had a bad reputation for some time, and rightly so, as SEOs have abused the tactic. Before you go linking to your content in forums, I strongly recommend you check out this resource on the right way to engage in forum marketing.
Okay, what about the results?
Since I posted the page in December 2014, referral traffic from the forums has been picking up speed; organic traffic to the page keeps building, too.
Yeah, yeah, but what about keyword rankings?
While we're yet to hit the top-ranking post off its perch (give us time!), we are sitting at #2 and #3 in the search results as I write this. So it looks like creating that downloadable PDF paid off.
All in all, this tactic took minimal time to plan and execute—content ideation, research and creation (including the PDF version) took three hours, while link building research and implementation took an additional two hours. That's only five hours, yet the payoff for the client is already evident, and will continue to grow in the coming months.
Why not take a crack at using this technique yourself? I would love to hear how your ideas about how you could use it to benefit your business or clients.
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Seth's Blog : Shadows and light
Shadows and light
There are two ways to get ahead: the race to the bottom and the race to the top.
You can get as close to the danger zone as you dare. Spam people. Seek deniability. Hide in the shadows. Push to close every sale. Network up, aggressively. Always leave yourself an out.
Or, you can do your work out loud, in public, and for others. Be relentlessly generous, without focusing on when it will come back to you.
In each case, the race to the bottom or the race to the top, you might win. Up to you.
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marți, 14 iulie 2015
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
- White Knight Irony: IMF Threatens to Walk Away From Bailout Deal Citing Unsustainable Debt
- Deflationary Pressures Unabated; Another One-Hit Wonder; Transitory Tales
- Retail Sales Unexpectedly Sink Below the Lowest Economist's Estimate; September Hike? Really?
| White Knight Irony: IMF Threatens to Walk Away From Bailout Deal Citing Unsustainable Debt Posted: 14 Jul 2015 02:46 PM PDT IMF to the Rescue? In the final minutes of the gunpoint "negotiation" between Greece and its creditors, the last two sticking points were IMF involvement and €50 billion in pledged Greek assets in return for another "bailout". Prime minister Alexis Tsipras said he could not give in on those demand. In the end, Tsipras bowed down and kissed the feet of German chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble on those issues, and everything else they demanded as well. Ironically, it could very well be the IMF that comes to the rescue and sinks this inane deal. IMF Threatens to Walk Please consider IMF Signals it Could Walk Away from Greek Bailout Deal. In the three-page memo, sent to EU authorities at the weekend and obtained by the Financial Times, the IMF said the recent turmoil in the Greek economy would lead debt to peak at close to 200 per cent of economic output over the next two years. At the start of the eurozone crisis, Athens' debt stood at 127 per cent.White Night Irony It would be fitting irony if the IMF saved Tsipras from himself. Even if Greek parliament foolishly accepts terms that cannot possibly be fulfilled economically, the IMF may walk away, killing the deal outright. Alternatively, the IMF may force the ball back in Germany's court. Musical Tributes Many songs with the word "walk" in them come to mind . In hope that the IMF does indeed walk away I offer ... I'm Walking Link if video does not play: I'm Walking - Fats Domino Walk Like a Man In contrast, Tsipras crawled like a helpless baby, at best. The next tribute is about what Tsipras should have done, but didn't. Link if video does not play: The Four Seasons "Walk Like a Man" Music Video Watch The Four Seasons "Walk Like a Man" music video from 1963. It features the foursome singing at a dance hall overlooking an interesting variety of energetic fans unleashing dance moves that could have only come out of the 1960s. During the recording sessions that produced the hit song, producer Bob Crewe would stop at nothing for the perfect take. After realizing that a fire had broken out in the room above the studio, he blocked the studio door and continued recording until firemen had to force their way in and pull Crewe out.For further discussion of the gunpoint deal and humiliating cave-in by prime minister Tsipras, please see ....
Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deflationary Pressures Unabated; Another One-Hit Wonder; Transitory Tales Posted: 14 Jul 2015 12:55 PM PDT Another One-Hit Wonder In spite of counterproductive attempts by the Fed and Central Banks to foster price inflation, debt overhang has stymied those efforts, at least in regards to consumer prices and import/export prices. Last month, following a surge in gasoline prices, import and export prices did rise a bit, but as with retail sales, the import/export price report was another "one-hit wonder". Missed Boat Again Bloomberg Econoday Economists again missed the boat.  Cross-border deflationary pressures are not abating as import prices fell 0.1 percent in June with export prices down 0.2 percent. Year-on-year, import prices are down 10.0 percent with export prices down 5.7 percent. These rates are not showing any improvement from prior months with import prices not even getting much of a lift from the bounce back in petroleum prices as the ex-petroleum reading fell 0.2 percent in the month. Year-on-year, ex-petroleum import prices, and this is a core reading, are down 2.6 percent.Import-Export Prices  Crude Oil  From Mid-March to early May, the price of crude rose from $44.00 to a high of $63.61. Since then, the price of crude is down by about 17%. Gasoline Futures  From Early March until Mid-June, gasoline futures rose from $1.70 to $2.15. Since then, gasoline futures have fallen about 10%. Deflationary Pressures Unabated Economists keep expecting consumers to spend elsewhere "what they save" on gasoline. Of course the idea that one can "save" this way is totally absurd. In practice, consumers have chosen to save, the only way they really can (by not spending in the first place and instead paying down debt). This is a consequence of a consumer that is still over-leveraged in debt. And as I have pointed out, it is only sub-prime auto sales that has propped up the consumer economy. (See Retail Sales Unexpectedly Sink Below the Lowest Economist's Estimate). Transitory Tales Today's import/export and retail sales reports are more flies in the ointment of the expected September rate hike thesis. The Fed insists the negative first quarter GDP is "transitory". Second quarter GDP will indeed rebound, but not as much as previously expected. Third quarter and fourth quarter will tell the story. Will the Fed hike before we know how the "transitory tale" ends? Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retail Sales Unexpectedly Sink Below the Lowest Economist's Estimate; September Hike? Really? Posted: 14 Jul 2015 10:02 AM PDT A month ago, following the Expected Retail Sales Bounce, I stated "A sales snapback was coming at some point. May was the month following months of disappointments." Key Questions Here were my two key questions:
Economists Surprised Again The surge in spending did not continue. Today's report not only revised last month's sales numbers lower, this month surprised if not shocked economists, with negative numbers below any forecast in the Bloomberg Consensus Estimate.  Economists predicted a rise in sales of 0.3%. Actual sales came in at -0.3 percent, a half-percentage-point below the lowest estimate, and another wrong sign for the economists. One month does not tell a story, but it may provide clues. Advance Retail Sales Numbers Let's dive into the Census report for additional details on Advance Retail Sales for June.
Economic Comparison
Retail Sales vs. Last Month  Retail Sales vs. Year Ago  Subprime Auto Loans That last chart shows the real driver for retail sales: subprime auto loans. When that goes, it's likely all over. Was this the month? September Hike? Really? This report will undoubtedly shave a few tenths of a percent off second quarter GDP. It will also raise questions about the strength of the economy. Unless we see a sharp economic rebound in the next two months, the Fed won't hike in September. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A Vision for Brand Engagement Online, or "The Goal" - Moz Blog
A Vision for Brand Engagement Online, or "The Goal"
Posted by EricEnge
Today's post focuses on a vision for your online presence. This vision outlines what it takes to be the best, both from an overall reputation and visibility standpoint, as well as an SEO point of view. The reason these are tied together is simple: Your overall online reputation and visibility is a huge factor in your SEO. Period. Let's start by talking about why.
Core ranking signals
For purposes of this post, let's define three cornerstone ranking signals that most everyone agrees on:
Links
Links remain a huge factor in overall ranking. Both Cyrus Shepard and Marcus Tober re-confirmed this on the Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors session at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle this past June.
On-page content
On-page content remains a huge factor too, but with some subtleties now thrown in. I wrote about some of this in earlier posts I did on Moz about Term Frequency and Inverse Document Frequency. Suffice it to say that on-page content is about a lot more than pure words on the page, but also includes the supporting pages that you link to.
User engagement with your site
This is not one of the traditional SEO signals from the early days of SEO, but most advanced SEO pros that I know consider it a real factor these days. One of the most popular concepts people talk about is called pogo-sticking, which is illustrated here:
You can learn more about the pogosticking concept by visiting this Whiteboard Friday video by a rookie SEO with a last name of Fishkin.
New, lesser-known signals
OK, so these are the more obvious signals, but now let's look more broadly at the overall web ecosystem and talk about other types of ranking signals. Be warned that some of these signals may be indirect, but that just doesn't matter. In fact, my first example below is an indirect factor which I will use to demonstrate why whether a signal is direct or indirect is not an issue at all.
Let me illustrate with an example. Say you spend $1 billion dollars building a huge brand around a product that is massively useful to people. Included in this is a sizable $100 million dollar campaign to support a highly popular charitable foundation, and your employees regularly donate time to help out in schools across your country. In short, the great majority of people love your brand.
Do you think this will impact the way people link to your site? Of course it does. Do you think it will impact how likely people are to be satisified with quality of the pages of your site? Consider this A/B test scenario of 2 pages from different "brands" (for the one on the left, imagine the image of Coca Cola or Pepsi Cola, whichever one you prefer):
Do you think that the huge brand will get a benefit of a doubt on their page that the no-name brand does not even though the pages are identical? Of course they will. Now let's look at some simpler scenarios that don't involve a $1 billion investment.
1. Cover major options related to a product or service on "money pages"
Imagine that a user arrives on your auto parts site after searching on the phrase "oil filter" at Google or Bing. Chances are pretty good that they want an oil filter, but here are some other items they may also want:
- A guide to picking the right filter for their car
- Oil
- An oil filter wrench
- A drainage pan to drain the old oil into
This is just the basics, right? But, you would be surprised with how many sites don't include links or information on directly related products on their money pages. Providing this type of smart site and page design can have a major impact on user engagement with the money pages of your site.
2. Include other related links on money pages
In the prior item we covered the user's most directly related needs, but they may have secondary needs as well. Someone who is changing a car's oil is either a mechanic or a do-it-yourself-er. What else might they need? How about other parts, such as windshield wipers or air filters?
These are other fairly easy maintenance steps for someone who is working on their car to complete. Presence of these supporting products could be one way to improve user engagement with your pages.
3. Offer industry-leading non-commercial content on-site
Publishing world-class content on your site is a great way to produce links to your site. Of course, if you do this on a blog on your site, it may not provide links directly to your money pages, but it will nonetheless lift overall site authority.
In addition, if someone has consumed one or more pieces of great content on your site, the chance of their engaging in a more positive manner with your site overall go way up. Why? Because you've earned their trust and admiration.
4. Be everywhere your audiences are with more high-quality, relevant, non-commercial content
Are there major media sites that cover your market space? Do they consider you to be an expert? Will they quote you in articles they write? Can you provide them with guest posts or let you be a guest columnist? Will they collaborate on larger content projects with you?
All of these activities put you in front of their audiences, and if those audiences overlap with yours, this provides a great way to build your overall reputation and visibility. This content that you publish, or collaborate on, that shows up on 3rd-party sites will get you mentions and links. In addition, once again, it will provide you with a boost to your branding. People are now more likely to consume your other content more readily, including on your money pages.
5. Leverage social media
The concept here shares much in common with the prior point. Social media provides opportunities to get in front of relevant audiences. Every person that's an avid follower of yours on a social media site is more likely to show very different behavior characteristics interacting with your site than someone that does not know you well at all.
Note that links from social media sites are nofollowed, but active social media behavior can lead to people implementing "real world" links to your site that are followed, from their blogs and media web sites.
6. Be active in the offline world as well
Think your offline activity doesn't matter online? Think again. Relationships are still most easily built face-to-face. People you meet and spend time with can well become your most loyal fans online. This is particularly important when it comes to building relationships with influential people.
One great way to do that is to go to public events related to your industry, such as conferences. Better still, obtain speaking engagements at those conferences. This can even impact people who weren't there to hear you speak, as they become aware that you have been asked to do that. This concept can also work for a small local business. Get out in your community and engage with people at local events.
The payoff here is similar to the payoff for other items: more engaged, highly loyal fans who engage with you across the web, sending more and more positive signals, both to other people and to search engines, that you are the real deal.
7. Provide great customer service/support
Whatever your business may be, you need to take care of your customers as best you can. No one can make everyone happy, that's unrealistic, but striving for much better than average is a really sound idea. Having satisfied customers saying nice things about you online is a big impact item in the grand scheme of things.
8. Actively build relationships with influencers too
While this post is not about the value of influencer relationships, I include this in the list for illustration purposes, for two reasons:
- Some opportunities are worth extra effort. Know of someone who could have a major impact on your business? Know that they will be at a public event in the near future? Book your plane tickets and get your butt out there. No guarantee that you will get the result you are looking for, or that it will happen quickly, but your chances go WAY up if you get some face time with them.
- Influencers are worth special attention and focus, but your relationship-building approach to the web and SEO is not only about influencers. It's about the entire ecosystem.
It's an integrated ecosystem
The web provides a level of integrated, real-time connectivity of a kind that the world has never seen before. This is only going to increase. Do something bad to a customer in Hong Kong? Consumers in Boston will know within 5 minutes. That's where it's all headed.
Google and Bing (and any future search engine that may emerge) want to measure these types of signals because they tell them how to improve the quality of the experience on their platforms. There are may ways they can perform these measurements.
One simple concept is covered by Rand in this recent Whiteboard Friday video. The discussion is about a recent patent granted to Google that shows how the company can use search queries to detect who is an authority on a topic.
The example he provides is about people who search on "email finding tool". If Google also finds that a number of people search on "voila norbert email tool", Google may use that as an authority signal.
Think about that for a moment. How are you going to get people to search on your brand more while putting it together with a non-branded querly like that? (OK, please leave Mechanical Turk and other services like that out of the discussion).
Now you can start to see the bigger picture. Measurements like pogosticking and this recent search behavior related patent are just the tip of the iceberg. Undoubtedly, there are many other ways that search engines can measure what people like and engage with the most.
This is all part of SEO now. UX, product breadth, problem solving, UX, engaging in social media, getting face to face, creating great content that you publish in front of other people's audiences, and more.
For the small local business, you can still win at this game, as your focus just needs to be on doing it better than your competitors. The big brands will never be hyper-local like you are, so don't think you can't play the game, because you can.
Whoever you are, get ready, because this new integrated ecosystem is already upon us, and you need to be a part of it.
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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