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joi, 7 mai 2015

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UK Election Shocker: Exit Polls Show Cameron's Tories Do Far Better Than Expected, 10 Short of Outright Majority
Explaining UK's Dysfunctional Voting System; Where is British Politics Headed? Horse Trading
Meet Yangyang Another Humanoid Robot
UK National Elections Underway: Expected Outcome is Hung Parliament

UK Election Shocker: Exit Polls Show Cameron's Tories Do Far Better Than Expected, 10 Short of Outright Majority

Posted: 07 May 2015 03:57 PM PDT

An exit poll shocker shows Cameron's Tories Do Far Better Than Expected.

Heading into the election, the Guardian made this projection:

Conservatives 273
Labour 273
SNP 52
Liberal Democrats 27
Democratic Unionist party 9
UKIP 3
Paid Cymru 3
Greens 1

UKIP

Here's a report in from South Thanet, the constituency that Farage is hoping to take off the Tories, from FT reporter Barney Thompson:

Nigel Farage, Ukip leader, will be hoping dawn brings a similarly bright future as the new MP for South Thanet, where he stood unsuccessfully in 2005. But he is in a skintight race with the Conservative Craig Mackinley (a former Ukip deputy leader, in fact), with Labour breathing down both their necks.

Rumour has it that Mr Farage will not appear at the count for several hours; instead, he will be monitoring Ukip's challenges in other parts of the south east: Clacton (a sure-fire win), Rochester & Strood (where Mark Reckless is trying to cling on) and Thurrock, another constituency that is too close to call.

British Pound Reaction

Coalition

The likely coalition now is Tories plus Liberal Democrats and UKIP if needed. If Tories or Liberal Democrats do as much as one vote worse than exit polls show (assuming the gain is for Labour), the coalition will need UKIP.

This was a rout of Labour and the Liberal Democrats vs. expectations.

UKIP did better than expected.

The FT's Gavin Jackson observes: "Ukip have done quite well in the seats that have declared so far. But these are safe Labour seats, for the overall result how they do in the marginals is more important - and at whose expense".

Better than expected, even far better than expected may not translate into seats, but it does reflect important sentiment, especially when it's at Labour's expense.

The range for UKIP now appears to be 1-4, with 1 a given. The Guardian pre-election poll for UKIP predicted 3, whereas two other polls suggested 1.

The comments on Election live: The battle for Westminster tell the story.

I am relatively happy with this outcome. If Cameron keeps his word there will be an up-down vote on UK exit of EU. A Labour victory would have been an outright disaster.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot

Explaining UK's Dysfunctional Voting System; Where is British Politics Headed? Horse Trading

Posted: 07 May 2015 11:48 AM PDT

Early this morning in UK National Elections Underway: Expected Outcome is Hung Parliament I noted the dysfunctional nature of the election.

To recap, the expected outcome for the Scottish National Party (SNP) is 51 seats on 4-5% of the vote, while the expected outcome for Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party (UKIP) is one seat on as much as 16% of the vote. UKIP could win 25% of the vote and still potentially not win any seats.

I expect UKIP to do a bit better than one seat, but I could easily be wrong. Indeed it is conceivable that not even Farage wins.

This morning I said "What matters is how concentrated the votes are, not how many you get."

Actually both matter, but concentration is the key to winning seats. SNP is likely to win nearly every Scottish seat because SNP dominates Scotland. It will get no votes elsewhere.

Recall the platform of SNP was to break away from the UK. And 51 votes taken away from the Tories (Cameron's party - Conservatives) or Labour (Ed Milliband) is sufficient to result in a hung parliament.

The UK The Labour Party is a full member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. They favor taxation as a means to achieve a "major redistribution of wealth and income". Lovely.

Had Cameron simply granted UKIP the promised up-down vote on the UK remaining in the EU, the Tories would have had a better outcome.

Where is British Politics Headed?

Stratfor has a nice writeup today that explains Where British Politics Is Headed.

For the second election in a row, the Labour Party and the Conservatives (or "Tories"), the two traditional heavyweights, probably will not muster the 323 seats needed to form a majority government. Whereas in 2010 the Tories were able to form a reasonably stable coalition government with the centrist Liberal Democrats, this time the numbers do not seem to support a two-party coalition.

The person most likely to be smiling after the election results are revealed is Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the secessionist Scottish National Party — not just because disorder in Westminster strengthens her party, but also because her party looks set to increase its seat count from six to 53, with pollsters predicting a landslide in Scotland. By contrast, UKIP, another newly influential insurgent party with ambitions to extract the United Kingdom from the European Union, looks set to win just one seat.

The Limitations of First Past the Post

British elections, like those of many of its former colonies such as India and the United States, runs on a first-past-the-post system, in contrast to the more fashionable proportional voting system preferred by many European nations. Under first past the post, politicians compete for individual seats around the country, and at the end of the vote the party that has won the most total seats is judged to have won the election. Under proportional voting, the electorate votes for their favored party, and when the votes are counted the seats are then apportioned to each party based on how many votes they received.

The upshot of the first-past-the-post system is that a niche party is unlikely to win influence in government, since in order to gain sufficient seats it would need to be the dominant party in several constituencies. In a proportional voting system, such a party would find that its presence in government would rise as its popularity increased, even if that support was scattered around the country.

It has also frustrated insurgent parties — a famous example being the Social Democrat Party that, in an alliance with the Liberal Democrats in the 1987 elections, managed to amass 22.6 percent of the vote and win just 3 percent of the seats.

Herein lies the catch with first past the post: It might keep insurgent parties at bay when they are based on ideology, but it struggles to contain a party that is specifically tied to a region with highly concentrated supporters in the manner of the Scottish National Party.

Consequently, the Scottish National Party is positioned to become the third most influential party in the new government with just 4 percent of the overall vote. Meanwhile, UKIP, which is surfing an anti-immigration wave, looks set to find its winnings limited to a handful of seats (at most) off the support of a considerably larger section of the electorate.

In its newfound position of influence within Westminster, the Scottish National Party will no doubt set about doing its best to represent Scotland's interests. These include the support of the Barnett Formula, a controversial temporary convention from the 1970s that has been neither reversed nor made into law. The formula calls for more public money being spent on Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales than on the United Kingdom's English citizens.

In 2011, the British public voted against changing the electoral system to alternative vote, in which the voter ranks the candidates in order of preference.

This time, six parties are involved, 34 percent of voters are likely to vote for a party outside the main two, coalition talks probably will last much longer than five days, and any deal is likely to result in a weak and unstable government.

These conditions are likely to change the thinking about the current British electoral system. Electoral reform will be undertaken, shifting the British system to something more closely resembling its European neighbors'. As a result, the Scottish National Party and other regional parties will find their newfound influence on Westminster to be short-lived. But as one door closes, another opens, and a proportional voting system would usher in new opportunities for UKIP and any future parties built upon a similar model to gain a substantial foothold in British politics. Whatever the case, the future looks increasingly bleak for the United Kingdom's establishment parties.

UK's Two Party System is Effectively Over

To rein in SNP, the UK may go to a proportional vote. But to do that, UKIP will gain prominence, and likely far more than it would have otherwise.

Why? Because many people did not want to "waste their vote" on a party that would get few, if any seats.

Then again, if Cameron manages to hold on long enough to grant the promised up-down vote on the UK staying in the EU, and then if that vote is "no" much of the reason for UKIP will go away.

Expect an unstable coalition out of this. Cameron staying in power might even depend on UKIP winning a handful of seats more than expected.

Once again here is the Final Projection from the Financial Times.

Note that Labour could merge with SNP and the Liberal Democrats to get a majority. Indeed it is likely that Labour and SNP merge.

However, Liberal Democrats are a better fit with the Conservatives. Yet, Conservatives plus Liberal Democrats will not throw them over the top.

The Guardian projects ...

Conservatives 273
Labour 273
SNP 52
Liberal Democrats 27
Democratic Unionist party 9
UKIP 3
Paid Cymru 3
Greens 1

Horse Trading

We will have the results of the election soon. But projections suggest that's when the horse trading really begins.

Are there enough horses to go around?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot

Meet Yangyang Another Humanoid Robot

Posted: 07 May 2015 09:57 AM PDT

A female humanoid robot "Yangyang", named and modeled after her creator, has a variety of realistic facial expressions. "Yangyang" wows visitors at Beijing's Global Mobile Internet Conference.

The robot is modeled on one of the researchers who helped develop the technology. She can blink, smile, shake hands and even hug her human doppelganger. Yangyang is the fourth robot produced by Shanghai Shenqing Industry. The robots are controlled remotely and are made of a special type of silica gel that feels like human skin. Researcher Song Yang saying (Mandarin): "This is the first one inside China. At present this robot has the most features, she has 43 degrees of freedom across her whole body, most of them are concentrated on the face, because of this, her expressions can be very varied." The team behind Yangyang believe future robots like her could be used as sales assistants, or body doubles for celebrities. One of the researchers has already used his body double to deliver lectures on his behalf. But the robot isn't foolproof, it couldn't answer any of the student's questions.

Yangyang

Click on link above to play video.

Also consider "Ham" the Humanoid Robot.

Ham reacts to facial expressions, can engage in conversation and make eye contact.

"Ham" meet "Yangyang". I believe she is your type.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot

UK National Elections Underway: Expected Outcome is Hung Parliament

Posted: 07 May 2015 12:15 AM PDT

I frequently comment on major elections, but here we are with voting for UK prime minister now in progress, and I have not chimed in yet.

Unlike in Greece where I was confident Syriza would poll better than expected (and it did), I have no particular feeling of confidence on what is likely to be a a very important election.

Voting Booths are just now open as of 1:00AM US central where I reside.

Here are the Final Polls.

Note that UKIP is in third place. How do you think that will translate into parliamentary representation?

Here is a Final Projection from the Financial Times.

Note the apparent silliness of it all. What matters is how concentrated the votes are, not how many you get. On a guess the revolt vote is underestimated, I am going to go out on a limb and suggest UKIP will win 7-10 seats.

Hung Parliament

The most likely outcome is there will not be a winner. The Guardian reports General election 2015: Britain heading for hung parliament.

When the Guardian's poll projection, an average of all the polls made public, is updated to take account of the new ICM data, it places both the Conservatives and Labour on 273 seats – neither anywhere near the 326 required for an absolute majority.

But the huge anti-Tory SNP bloc of 52 gives Miliband the stronger position in the battle to negotiate for control of No 10. The cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, is on hand to prepare for talks, but will not press Cameron to leave Downing Streeet, since it will be his right as prime minister to decide whether to test the opinion of the Commons on a Queen's Speech.

ICM pressed voters on the government they would prefer. The single most popular choice – picked by 25% – was a Conservative overall majority, followed by a Labour majority, which 23% preferred.

A Conservative-led administration in which the Tories have to strike deals with others is the choice of 22%, while a Labour-led government that had to strike deals was picked by only 19%, a possible sign of success for the Conservative warnings about a SNP-backed "coalition of chaos" installing Miliband in Downing Street.

The public also envisages the Lib Dems outperforming most polls by achieving 14%, and Ukip underperforming somewhat, with 10%.

Elusive Outcome

If this sounds confusing, it is because it is confusing. Bloomberg highlights the issues in U.K. Votes in Unprecedented Election With Outcome Elusive.

Polls suggest that neither Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron nor his Labour opponent Ed Miliband will come close to getting enough seats in Parliament to govern alone. Instead, they face days or even weeks of talks to try to win over enough smaller parties to command a majority.

The uncertainty attached to the electoral outcome in a Group of Seven nation is beginning to play out in markets, with volatility buffeting the pound and gilts. One reason is the political risks even once a government is formed: If Cameron manages to stay in office, he'll hold a referendum on leaving the European Union. If Miliband gets in, it will be with the support of the Scottish National Party, which will be looking for opportunities to further the cause of independence.

While the Labour and Tory campaigns have failed to inspire the electorate -- the polls have stubbornly refused to budge since the beginning of the year -- other parties have engaged voters who have been sidelined for decades. The SNP looks set to win at least six times as many seats as it took in 2010. At the other end of the country, the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party may win seats for the first time at a general election.

Rich First

Miliband has returned repeatedly to the future of the state-funded National Health Service as a campaign theme, arguing that the Tories are bent on its privatization. He's accused Cameron of pursuing policies that only favor the rich.

"I'm not simply asking you to reject the Conservatives but to reject their plan to put the rich and powerful first," Miliband told a rally in northwest England on Wednesday. "I'm asking you to reject a plan to double the cuts next year and devastate our NHS. I'm asking you to reject a plan for a recovery that only reaches the City of London."

Red Lines

Clegg has set out six "red lines" that he'll demand as the price of joining a new coalition, including higher education and health spending and pay increases for public-sector workers. Cameron has made it clear that the holding of an EU referendum represents his own red line. Clegg has not ruled out accepting that demand.

Arithmetic suggests Labour and the SNP may have enough seats together for a majority. While Miliband said last week he'd rather not be prime minister than do a deal with SNP leader Sturgeon, he doesn't need to. If the numbers add up, Miliband could form a minority government, safe in the knowledge that the SNP has pledged to support it in any confidence vote and oppose a Tory-led administration. He also has the option to do a deal with the Liberal Democrats

Still Confused?

I thought so. This is one of the most complicated elections ever.

I have no love of David Cameron. Yet I am rooting for him because of his promised up-down vote on the UK remaining in the EU. Although there is no reason to believe Cameron will keep his word, there will not be a vote for certain if Labour wins.

Such is the sorry state of politics. How about a vote for "none of the above"?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot

Damn Cool Pics

Behind The Scenes Pictures Of Scarlett Johansson As Black Widow

Posted: 07 May 2015 11:00 AM PDT

Everyone is talking about the Black Widow solo movie parody Scarlett Johansson recently did for Saturday Night Live. Black Widow finally got a trailer for a solo movie but it was the romantic comedy no one saw coming. A few behind the scenes photos have made their way to the Internet and they feature Scarlett rocking the classic leather jumpsuit which is always easy on the eyes.

Pictures That Perfectly Sum Up Floyd Mayweather Vs Manny Pacquiao

Posted: 07 May 2015 10:49 AM PDT

We waited five years for that?

I Can't Drive 155: Meta Descriptions in 2015 - Moz Blog

I Can't Drive 155: Meta Descriptions in 2015

Posted on: Thursday 07 May 2015 — 02:16

Posted by Dr-Pete

For years now, we (and many others) have been recommending keeping your Meta Descriptions shorter than about 155-160 characters. For months, people have been sending me examples of search snippets that clearly broke that rule, like this one (on a search for "hummingbird food"):

For the record, this one clocks in at 317 characters (counting spaces). So, I set out to discover if these long descriptions were exceptions to the rule, or if we need to change the rules. I collected the search snippets across the MozCast 10K, which resulted in 92,669 snippets. All of the data in this post was collected on April 13, 2015.

The Basic Data

The minimum snippet length was zero characters. There were 69 zero-length snippets, but most of these were the new generation of answer box, that appears organic but doesn't have a snippet. To put it another way, these were misidentified as organic by my code. The other 0-length snippets were local one-boxes that appeared as organic but had no snippet, such as this one for "chichen itza":

These zero-length snippets were removed from further analysis, but considering that they only accounted for 0.07% of the total data, they didn't really impact the conclusions either way. The shortest legitimate, non-zero snippet was 7 characters long, on a search for "geek and sundry", and appears to have come directly from the site's meta description:

The maximum snippet length that day (this is a highly dynamic situation) was 372 characters. The winner appeared on a search for "benefits of apple cider vinegar":

The average length of all of the snippets in our data set (not counting zero-length snippets) was 143.5 characters, and the median length was 152 characters. Of course, this can be misleading, since some snippets are shorter than the limit and others are being artificially truncated by Google. So, let's dig a bit deeper.

The Bigger Picture

To get a better idea of the big picture, let's take a look at the display length of all 92,600 snippets (with non-zero length), split into 20-character buckets (0-20, 21-40, etc.):

Most of the snippets (62.1%) cut off as expected, right in the 141-160 character bucket. Of course, some snippets were shorter than that, and didn't need to be cut off, and some broke the rules. About 1% (1,010) of the snippets in our data set measured 200 or more characters. That's not a huge number, but it's enough to take seriously.

That 141-160 character bucket is dwarfing everything else, so let's zoom in a bit on the cut-off range, and just look at snippets in the 120-200 character range (in this case, by 5-character bins):

Zooming in, the bulk of the snippets are displaying at lengths between about 146-165 characters. There are plenty of exceptions to the 155-160 character guideline, but for the most part, they do seem to be exceptions.

Finally, let's zoom in on the rule-breakers. This is the distribution of snippets displaying 191+ characters, bucketed in 10-character bins (191-200, 201-210, etc.):

Please note that the Y-axis scale is much smaller than in the previous 2 graphs, but there is a pretty solid spread, with a decent chunk of snippets displaying more than 300 characters.

Without looking at every original meta description tag, it's very difficult to tell exactly how many snippets have been truncated by Google, but we do have a proxy. Snippets that have been truncated end in an ellipsis (...), which rarely appears at the end of a natural description. In this data set, more than half of all snippets (52.8%) ended in an ellipsis, so we're still seeing a lot of meta descriptions being cut off.

I should add that, unlike titles/headlines, it isn't clear whether Google is cutting off snippets by pixel width or character count, since that cut-off is done on the server-side. In most cases, Google will cut before the end of the second line, but sometimes they cut well before this, which could suggest a character-based limit. They also cut off at whole words, which can make the numbers a bit tougher to interpret.

The Cutting Room Floor

There's another difficulty with telling exactly how many meta descriptions Google has modified – some edits are minor, and some are major. One minor edit is when Google adds some additional information to a snippet, such as a date at the beginning. Here's an example (from a search for "chicken pox"):

With the date (and minus the ellipsis), this snippet is 164 characters long, which suggests Google isn't counting the added text against the length limit. What's interesting is that the rest comes directly from the meta description on the site, except that the site's description starts with "Chickenpox." and Google has removed that keyword. As a human, I'd say this matches the meta description, but a bot has a very hard time telling a minor edit from a complete rewrite.

Another minor rewrite occurs in snippets that start with search result counts:

Here, we're at 172 characters (with spaces and minus the ellipsis), and Google has even let this snippet roll over to a third line. So, again, it seems like the added information at the beginning isn't counting against the length limit.

All told, 11.6% of the snippets in our data set had some kind of Google-generated data, so this type of minor rewrite is pretty common. Even if Google honors most of your meta description, you may see small edits.

Let's look at our big winner, the 372-character description. Here's what we saw in the snippet:

Jan 26, 2015 - Health• Diabetes Prevention: Multiple studies have shown a correlation between apple cider vinegar and lower blood sugar levels. ... • Weight Loss: Consuming apple cider vinegar can help you feel more full, which can help you eat less. ... • Lower Cholesterol: ... • Detox: ... • Digestive Aid: ... • Itchy or Sunburned Skin: ... • Energy Boost:1 more items

So, what about the meta description? Here's what we actually see in the tag:

Were you aware of all the uses of apple cider vinegar? From cleansing to healing, to preventing diabetes, ACV is a pantry staple you need in your home.

That's a bit more than just a couple of edits. So, what's happening here? Well, there's a clue on that same page, where we see yet another rule-breaking snippet:

You might be wondering why this snippet is any more interesting than the other one. If you could see the top of the SERP, you'd know why, because it looks something like this:

Google is automatically extracting list-style data from these pages to fuel the expansion of the Knowledge Graph. In one case, that data is replacing a snippet and going directly into an answer box, but they're performing the same translation even for some other snippets on the page.

So, does every 2nd-generation answer box yield long snippets? After 3 hours of inadvisable mySQL queries, I can tell you that the answer is a resounding "probably not". You can have 2nd-gen answer boxes without long snippets and you can have long snippets without 2nd-gen answer boxes, but there does appear to be a connection between long snippets and Knowledge Graph in some cases.

One interesting connection is that Google has begun bolding keywords that seem like answers to the query (and not just synonyms for the query). Below is an example from a search for "mono symptoms". There's an answer box for this query, but the snippet below is not from the site in the answer box:

Notice the bolded words – "fatigue", "sore throat", "fever", "headache", "rash". These aren't synonyms for the search phrase; these are actual symptoms of mono. This data isn't coming from the meta description, but from a bulleted list on the target page. Again, it appears that Google is trying to use the snippet to answer a question, and has gone well beyond just matching keywords.

Just for fun, let's look at one more, where there's no clear connection to the Knowledge Graph. Here's a snippet from a search for "sons of anarchy season 4":

This page has no answer box, and the information extracted is odd at best. The snippet bears little or no resemblance to the site's meta description. The number string at the beginning comes out of a rating widget, and some of the text isn't even clearly available on the page. This seems to be an example of Google acknowledging IMDb as a high-authority site and desperately trying to match any text they can to the query, resulting in a Frankenstein's snippet.

The Final Verdict

If all of this seems confusing, that's probably because it is. Google is taking a lot more liberties with snippets these days, both to better match queries, to add details they feel are important, or to help build and support the Knowledge Graph.

So, let's get back to the original question – is it time to revise the 155(ish) character guideline? My gut feeling is: not yet. To begin with, the vast majority of snippets are still falling in that 145-165 character range. In addition, the exceptions to the rule are not only atypical situations, but in most cases those long snippets don't seem to represent the original meta description. In other words, even if Google does grant you extra characters, they probably won't be the extra characters you asked for in the first place.

Many people have asked: "How do I make sure that Google shows my meta description as is?" I'm afraid the answer is: "You don't." If this is very important to you, I would recommend keeping your description below the 155-character limit, and making sure that it's a good match to your target keyword concepts. I suspect Google is going to take more liberties with snippets over time, and we're going to have to let go of our obsession with having total control over the SERPs.

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Give It Up for Our MozCon 2015 Community Speakers

Posted on: Wednesday 06 May 2015 — 13:30

Posted by EricaMcGillivray

Super thrilled that we're able to announce this year's community speakers for MozCon, July 13-15th in Seattle!

Wow. Each year I feel that I say the pool keeps getting more and more talented, but it's the truth! We had more quality pitches this year than in the past, and quantity-wise, there were 241, around 100 more entries than years previously. Let me tell you, many of the review committee members filled our email thread with amazement at this.

And even though we had an unprecedented six slots, the choices seemed even tougher!

241 pitches
Let that number sink in for a little while.

Because we get numerous questions about what makes a great pitch, I wanted to share both information about the speakers and their great pitches—with some details removed for spoilers. (We're still working with each speaker to polish and finalize their topic.) I've also included my or Matt Roney's own notes on each one from when we read them without knowing who the authors were.

Please congratulate our MozCon 2015 community speakers!

Adrian Vender

Adrian is the Director of Analytics at IMI and a general enthusiast of coding and digital marketing. He's also a life-long drummer and lover of music. Follow him at @adrianvender.

Adrian's pitch:

Content Tracking with Google Tag Manager

While marketers have matured in the use of web analytics tools, our ability to measure how users interact with our sites' content needs improvement. Users are interacting with dynamic content that just aren't captured in a pageview. While there are JavaScript tricks to help track these details, working with IT to place new code is usually the major hurdle that stops us.

Finally, Google Tag Manager is that bridge to advanced content analysis. GTM may appear technical, but it can easily be used by any digital marketer to track almost any action on a site. My goal is to make ALL attendees users of GTM.

My talk will cover the following GTM concepts:

[Adrian lists 8 highly-actionable tactics he'll cover.]

I'll share a client example of tracking content interaction in GA. I'll also share a link to a GTM container file that can help people pre-load the above tag templates into their own GTM.

Matt's notes: Could be good. I know a lot of people have questions about Tag Manager, and the ubiquity of GA should help it be pretty well-received.

Chris Dayley

Chris is a digital marketing expert and owner of Dayley Conversion. His company provides full-service A/B testing for businesses, including design, development, and test execution. Follow him at @chrisdayley.

Chris' pitch:

I would like to present a super actionable 15 minute presentation focused on the first two major steps businesses should take to start A/B testing:

1. Radical Redesign Testing

2. Iterative Testing (Test EVERYTHING)

I am one of the few CROs out there that recommends businesses to start with a radical redesign test. My reasoning for doing so is that most businesses have done absolutely no testing on their current website, so the current landing page/website really isn't a "best practice" design yet.

I will show several case studies where clients saw more than a 50% lift in conversion rates just from this first step of radical redesign testing, and will offer several tips for how to create a radical redesign test. Some of the tips include:

[Chris lists three direct and interesting tips he'll share.]

Next I suggest moving into the iterative phase.

I will show several case studies of how to move through iterative testing so you eventually test every element on your page.

Erica's notes: Direct, interesting, and with promise of multiple case studies.

Duane Brown

Duane is a digital marketer with 10 years' experience having lived and worked in five cities across three continents. He's currently at Unbounce. When not working, you can find Duane traveling to some far-flung location around the world to eat food and soak up the culture. Follow him at @DuaneBrown.

Duane's pitch:

What Is Delightful Remarketing & How You Can Do It Too

A lot of people find remarketing creepy and weird. They don't get why they are seeing those ads around the internet.... let alone how to make them stop showing.

This talk will focus on the different between remarketing & creating delightful remarketing that can help grow the revenue & profit at a company and not piss customers off. 50% of US marketers don't use remarketing according to eMarketer (2013).

- [Duane's direct how-to for e-commerce customers.] Over 60% of customers abandon a shopping cart each year: http://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate (3 minute)

- Cover a SaaS company using retargeting to [Duane's actionable item]. This remarketing helps show your products sticky features while showing off your benefits (3 minute)

- The Dos: [Duane's actionable tip], a variety of creative & a dedicated landing page creates delightful remarketing that grows revenue (3 minute)

- Wrap up and review main points. (2 minutes)

Matt's notes: Well-detailed, an area in which there's a lot of room for improvement.

Gianluca Fiorelli

Moz Associate, official blogger for StateofDigital.com and known international SEO and inbound strategist, Gianluca works in the digital marketing industry, but he still believes that he just know that he knows nothing. Follow him at @gfiorelli1.

Gianluca's pitch:

Unusual Sources for Keyword and Topical Research

A big percentage of SEOs equal Keyword and Topical Research to using Keyword Planner and Google Suggest.

However, using only them, we cannot achieve a real deep knowledge of the interests, psychology and language of our target.

In this talk, I will present unusual sources and unnoticed features of very well-known tools, and offer a final example based on a true story.

Arguments touched in the speech (not necessarily in this order):

[Gianluca lists seven how-tos and one unique case study.]

Erica's notes: Theme of Google not giving good keyword info. Lots of unique actionable points and resources. Will work in 15 minute time limit.

Ruth Burr Reedy

Ruth is the head of on-site SEO for BigWing Interactive, a full-service digital marketing agency in Oklahoma City, OK. At BigWing, she manages a team doing on-site, technical, and local SEO. Ruth has been working in SEO since 2006. Follow her at @ruthburr.

Ruth's pitch:

Get Hired to Do SEO

This talk will go way beyond "just build your own website" and talk about specific ways SEOs can build evidence of their skills across the web, including:

[Ruth lists 7 how-tos with actionable examples.]

All in a funny, actionable, beautiful, easy-to-understand get-hired masterpiece.

Erica's notes: Great takeaways. Wanted to do a session about building your resume as a marketer for a while.

Stephanie Wallace

Stephanie is director of SEO at Nebo, a digital agency in Atlanta. She helps clients navigate the ever-changing world of SEO by understanding their audience and helping them create a digital experience that both the user and Google appreciates. Follow her at @SWallaceSEO.

Stephanie's pitch:

Everyone knows PPC and SEO complement one another - increased visibility in search results help increase perceived authority and drive more clickthroughs to your site overall. But are you actively leveraging the wealth of PPC data available to build on your existing SEO strategy? The key to effectively using this information lies in understanding how to test SEO tactics and how to apply the results to your on-page strategies. This session will delve into actionable strategies for using PPC campaign insights to influence on-page SEO and content strategies. Key takeaways include:

[Stephanie lists four how-tos.]

Erica's notes: Nice and actionable. Like this a lot.

As mentioned, we had 241 entries, and many of them were stage quality. Notable runners up included AJ Wilcox, Ed Reese, and Daylan Pearce, and a big pat on the back to all those who tossed their hat in.

Also, a huge thank you to my fellow selection committee members for 2015: Charlene Inoncillo, Cyrus Shepard, Danie Launders, Jen Lopez, Matt Roney, Rand Fishkin, Renea Nielsen, and Trevor Klein.

Buy your ticket now

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joi, 7 mai 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics

I Can't Drive 155: Meta Descriptions in 2015 - Moz Blog

The Basic Data

The Bigger Picture

The Cutting Room Floor

The Final Verdict

Please congratulate our MozCon 2015 community speakers!

Adrian Vender

Chris Dayley

Duane Brown

Gianluca Fiorelli

Ruth Burr Reedy

Stephanie Wallace

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

joi, 7 mai 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics

I Can't Drive 155: Meta Descriptions in 2015 - Moz Blog

The Basic Data

The Bigger Picture

The Cutting Room Floor

The Final Verdict

Please congratulate our MozCon 2015 community speakers!

Adrian Vender

Chris Dayley

Duane Brown

Gianluca Fiorelli

Ruth Burr Reedy

Stephanie Wallace

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

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