Central Perk

miercuri, 10 septembrie 2014

How we're responding to the ISIL threat:

Good evening,

I just addressed the nation about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.

Let's be clear: While this group may call itself the "Islamic State," it is not "Islamic." No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. Nor is it a "state." It is not recognized by any government, nor by the people it subjugates.

This is nothing but a terrorist organization with no vision or goal other than to slaughter all who stand in its way. While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, these terrorists have threatened America and our allies. And the United States will meet this threat with strength and resolve.

Already, our military has conducted more than 150 successful airstrikes over the past month against ISIL targets in Iraq -- strikes that have protected American personnel and facilities, killed hundreds of ISIL fighters, and helped save the lives of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

Going forward, our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy.

Here is what that strategy looks like.

First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists. Working alongside the Iraqi government, we'll expand our efforts beyond protecting our own people to hit ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense. And we will continue to hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, whether in Iraq or Syria. They will learn what leaders of other terrorist organizations have already learned: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.

Second, we will increase our support to the forces fighting these terrorists on the ground. We will send an additional 475 service members to Iraq to support Iraqi and Kurdish security forces. These American forces will not have a combat mission. But they are needed to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence, and equipment -- and tonight, I again called on Congress to give our military the additional authorities and resources it needs to train and equip the Syrian opposition fighters.

Third, working with our partners, we will continue to draw on our substantial counterterrorism capabilities to prevent ISIL attacks. Working with our partners, we will redouble our efforts to cut off its funding, counter its warped ideology, improve our intelligence, strengthen our defenses, and stem the flow of foreign fighters into and out of the Middle East.

And fourth, we will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the innocent civilians displaced by this terrorism organization. This includes Sunni and Shia Muslims who have borne the brunt of this terror, as well as tens of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities.

I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL. But I believe we are strongest as a nation when the President and Congress work together. So I welcome congressional action to support this effort in order to show the world that Americans are united in confronting this danger.

This mission will not be like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This effort will be a steady and relentless approach to take out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting our partners on the front lines.

This is American leadership at its best: We stand with people who fight for their own freedom. And we rally other nations on behalf of our common security and common humanity.

When American forces helped prevent the massacre of civilians trapped on Mt. Sinjar, here is what one of them said:

"We owe our American friends our lives. Our children will always remember that there was someone who felt our struggle and made a long journey to protect innocent people."

That is what the United States of America does. That is the difference we make in the world. And moving forward, our own safety and security depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to defend this nation, and uphold the values that we stand for.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

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Tune In: President Obama Addresses the Nation on ISIL

Featured

Tune In: President Obama Addresses the Nation on ISIL

Tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET, from the State Floor of the White House, President Obama will address the nation on the threat of ISIL, and the United States' strategy to degrade and destroy the terrorist group.

Watch the President's address tonight at 9 p.m. ET at WhiteHouse.gov/live.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with members of the National Security Council in the Situation Room of the White House. September 10, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Back to Fundamentals: 6 Untapped Keyword Sources that Will Boost Organic Traffic

Posted: 09 Sep 2014 05:15 PM PDT

Posted by neilpatel

I used to perform keyword research in the typical, perfunctory way—go to the Keyword Tool, type in some words, and punch out a list of terms.

Easy. Quick. Simple.

Today, things are different. The much-loved keyword tool has been replaced, long-tail keywords have the ascendancy, and it's harder to figure out what users are actually searching for.

The rules have changed, and so have the ways of playing the game. I still use the Keyword Planner, but I've also discovered a medley of not-so-obvious ways to get keywords that improve my organic traffic.

1. Wikipedia

Do you think of Wikipedia as just a massive encyclopedia? Think again. I use Wikipedia for keyword research.

How to Use Wikipedia for Keyword Research

Image from Search Engine Journal.

My process is pretty simple.

Step 1: Google inurl:Wikipedia and my topic. Or just Google the topic or head term. Wikipedia is often the first organic result.

Step 2: Look at the SERP to identify the most relevant terms and possible keywords within a Wikipedia entry.

Step 3: Open the entry in Wikipedia and identify the most relevant terms from the first few paragraphs, morphing them into longail iterations.

Step 4: Identify other relevant terms from Wikipedia's table of contents on the topic.

Step 5: Link to other associated Wikipedia to see related subjects, and identify even more keywords.

Wikipedia is the world's sixth most popular website, and ranks it at number #4 on Google's list. It boasts 310,000,000 unique visitors (20% of its traffic), and has 7,900,000,000 pageviews. All of this with absolutely no advertising.

In other words, Wikipedia has one of the best organic SEO strategies on the planet. Obviously, these are keywords that matter. Wikipedia's popularity shows us that people want information. It's like the greatest content marketing strategy ever, combining user-generated content with prolific publishing on a grand scale.

Do what Wikipedia does. Use the terms that people search for. You won't outrank Wikipedia, but you will start to rank organically for the longtail varieties that you discern from Wikipedia.

2. Google autocomplete

When you type stuff into Google's search bar, Google predicts your query and types it out for you. The feature has been around for a long time. The more time that goes by, the more intelligent the autocomplete algorithm becomes.

These autocomplete suggestions are all based on real user queries. They vary based on geographic location and language. However, in spite of the variation, autocomplete provides a fairly accurate representation of what people are looking for.

Here is why autocomplete is a killer source of keywords:

Step 1: It indicates some of the most popular keywords.

Step 2: It provides longtail suggestions.

Step 3: The keywords are ranked according to the "freshness layer" algorithm. That means that currently popular search terms will rank higher in the autocomplete list.

How do you use autocomplete for keyword research? Well, you can go about this the good old-fashioned spade and shovel way, like this:

Google 2014-08-11 13-50-24

Step 4: Open Google. To prevent Google from autocompleting previously-searched for terms, log out of Google or open an "incognito" window (Chrome: Shift + Cmnd + N).

Step 5: Type in your main keyword or longtail keyword E.g. "lawnmower."

Step 6: Write down the suggestions that appear in autocomplete.

Step 7: After you type in your main keyword or head term, type in "A" and write down the autocomplete suggestions.

Step 8: Repeat Step 7 for rest of the alphabet.

Or, you can do it the easy way, with Übersuggest. It's called"suggest on steroids." It will do all the work for you. The only downside is that it doesn't suggest keyword extensions based on search popularity.

Keyword suggestion tool — Google suggest scraper — Übersuggest 2014-08-11 13-53-48

If you can get past the eye-popping UI, Übersuggest is a pretty awesome tool.

Keep in mind that Google is not going to provide suggestions for everything. As quoted in Search Engine Land, here is what the algorithm will filter out:

Hate- or violence-related suggestions
Personally identifiable information in suggestions
Porn & adult content-related suggestions
Legally mandated removals
Piracy-related suggestions

3. Google Related Searches

Since Google is the biggest search engine, we've got to take our cues from its mighty algorithm, imperfect and agonizing though it may be.

Google's related searches is a really easy way to snag some instant keyword research.

Step 1: Search for your keyword in Google.

Step 2: Scroll to the bottom, and ignore everything in between.

There, at the bottom is a harvest of keywords, ripe for the selection:

lawn mower - Google Search 2014-08-11 14-05-22

The idea is similar to Google suggest. However, instead of providing autocomplete suggestions, Google takes the keyword and mixes it up with other words. These other words may be at the end, at the beginning, or sprinkled throughout. These related searches might not even include the actual keyword, but are simply connected in a tangential way.

Whatever the case, you will undoubtedly find some keyword ideas from this list.

4. MetaGlossary.com

Not a whole lot of people know about MetaGlossary.com. You won't find a lot of information about the company itself, but you will find a ton of keyword ideas.

Here are the instructions. Not too hard.

MetaGlossary.com 2014-08-11 14-53-43

The whole point of the glossary is to provide definitions. But along with the many definitions, you'll get "related terms." That's what we're looking for.

When I type in "Search Engine Optimization," my head term, here's what I get:

Metaglossary.com - Definitions for "search engine optimization" 2014-08-11 14-56-26

All of those are potential keywords.

I can take this a step further by looking through the definitions. These can provide even more keyword fodder:

Metaglossary.com - Definitions for "search engine optimization" 2014-08-11 14-57-28

For this particular term, I found 117 definitions. That's enough to keep me busy for a while.

5. Competitor keywords

Another great way to get keyword ideas is to snag them from the competition.

Not only are you going to identify some great keywords, but you'll be able to gain these keywords ideas from the top-ranking organic sites in the SERPs.

Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Google your top keyword.

Step 2: Click the first organic result.

Step 3: View the page source (Chrome: Cmnd + Alt + u)

Step 4: Search for "<Title>". Identify any non-branded terms as possible keywords.

Step 5: Search for "<h1>". Identify any potential keywords in the H1 text.

Step 6: Search for "<keywords>". Identify any potential keywords that they have identified as such. Some websites have this, such as specific Wordpress themed sites, or WP sites using an SEO plugin. Most websites don't.

Step 7: Look at all the content and locate any additional longtail keywords or keyword variations.

The competitors that are first in the SERP for a given head term or longtail query are ranking high for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is their keyword selection. Sure, they may have good link profiles, but you can't rank for a keyword unless you actually have that keyword (or some variation thereof) on your page.

6. Amazon.com

Amazon.com is king of the ecommerce jungle, no questions asked.

Part of their power is that they have total domination of the organic search results for just about any purchase-related keyword. When your audience circles closer to a transactional search query, Amazon is ranking somewhere.

Why? They've got keywords—lots of them. And they have reviews—lots of them. This means one thing for you: Lots of keywords ideas.

Let me make a quick clarification. Not everyone is going to find keyword ideas on Amazon. This works best if you have a physical products, and obviously only if Amazon sells it.

Here's how to skim the cream off of Amazon's great keywords.

Step 1: Google your keyword.

Step 2: Locate the Amazon entry in the SERP.

Step 3: Click on the result to see the product/landing page on Google.

Step 4: Locate keywords in the following places.

-"Show results for" menu

-Main header

-Text underneath main header

-"## Results for" text.

-Breadcrumb

-Items listed

Here's a quick survey of where you can find these keywords. Notice the highlighted text.

Amazon.com: Bags & Cases: Electronics: Sleeves & Slipcases, Messenger Bags, Shoulder Bags, Backpacks & More 2014-08-11 14-28-16

You'll find even more keywords once you dive into individual products.

Pay special attention to these areas on product pages:

-"Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought"

-"Product Description"

-"Product Ads from External Websites"

-"Customer Questions & Answers." You'll find some nice query-like longtail keywords here.

-"Customer Reviews." Again, this is a great source of longtails.

Let Amazon be your guide. They're the biggest e-retailer around, and they have some great keyword clout going for them.

Conclusion

Keyword research is a basic skill for any SEO. The actual process of finding those keywords, however, does not require expensive tools, formula-driven methods, or an extremely limited pool of options.

I've used each of these methods for myself and my clients with incredible success.

What is your favorite source for finding great keywords?

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!

Market Report: Beds & Mattresses | Summer 2014

Posted: 09 Sep 2014 07:02 AM PDT

It’s been an busy summer here at White.net. We’ve been busy talking to new companies, launching new client websites, speaking at industry events, and even barbecuing.

In between all of this, we’ve also been digging into mountains of industry data to explore some new verticals and bring the intelligence and insights we discovered directly to you. Our quest to understand popular search landscapes led us to consider some less-highlighted, but nonetheless popular sectors.

Our chosen areas of interest have been informed by the sectors that we at White encountered in our everyday life, both at work and at home. As a result, this summer we’ve analysed the Beds & Mattresses sector.

Why?

Bed & mattress retailing is a growing sector.

According to research by the National Bed Federation, bed industry turnover was £570m in 2012, up from £516m the previous year* with 2,763,000 units sold in the first six months of 2013.**

It’s an industry where a growing number of retailers, both bricks and mortar and online-only, are entering the market, choice is increasing, and purchasing is becoming a journey rather than a transaction. Retailers are no longer selling just a product, they are selling a lifestyle to aspire to.

Beds are both a major purchase and an intimate purchase, so people need readily available information which allows them to understand the benefits of the money they are spending. They also need to feel sufficiently inspired by the product to want to spend the money so retailers need to appeal to their hearts as well as their heads.

Karl McKeever, Retail Consultant, quoted in Beds, May 2014 edition

Amongst our research you’ll find well-known brands such as Feather & Black, Tempur, Dreams and Silentnight. To find out who else made our organic top 25, download the market report today.

Here are just some of the insights you will find in the Beds & Mattresses Sector Report:

Organic Market Share of Search

Swedish retailer IKEA holds a 9.4% share of organic search in this sector. Find out who beat them to the top-spot in our organic visibility Top 25.

Of the specialist bed retailers ranked in our Organic Top 12, who has the most shops, and is that benefiting them online?

Online-only versus bricks & mortar retailers

76% of the top 25 organic domains have a physical store within the UK – are they dominating organic search? You’ve heard of Bensons For Beds and Dreams, but are you familiar with the rest of our top 25?

Ratings & Reviews

Only half of the top 12 sites are using Adwords Ratings Extensions. Find out how many are utilising Product Listing Ads (PLAs) and Paid Search Ads.

Industry-leading Brands

Tempur is the most searched for brand in the United Kingdom. Find out who is trailing them in organic search and their share of organic search.

Key Search Trends

Living space is decreasing, so are we looking to buy smaller beds? Find out what’s out of fashion and what’s selling in our Key Search Trends pages.

*Beds Magazine May 2014 (NBF data)

*Beds Magazine, May 2014 (ONS data)

The post Market Report: Beds & Mattresses | Summer 2014 appeared first on White.net.

Seth's Blog : 2 new articles

The value of access

Access to people

Access to capital

Access to technology

Access to infrastructure

Access to gatekeepers

Access to trust (and the benefit of the doubt)

Access to civilization

Access to energy

Access to information

Access to responsibility

Access to freedom

Some come from free markets, some come from societal infrastructure, some from technology.

So easy to undervalue, until you don't have them. I don't think we should be so quick to take these for granted.

• Email to a friend •

Functional jewelry

Watches and eyeglasses have morphed into devices that many choose to spend time and money on, becoming not just tools, but a form of identity.

We could extend this a bit to handbags and to cars, but the number of items that qualify as functional jewelry is fairly small--and the market for each is huge, far bigger than if the only use was as a tool.

Apple has long flirted around the edges of this psychological sweetspot, and the reaction to yesterday's watch is fascinating to see.

1. What does this remind me of? is a key question people ask. Certain glasses make people look smart, because they remind us of librarians and scholars. Some cars remind us of movie chase scenes or funerals... If you're going to put something on my wrist, it's going to remind me of a watch. What sort of watch? The Pulsar my grandfather wore in 1973? A 175,000 euro Franck Muller Tourbillion, with complications?

Marketers rarely get the chance to start completely fresh, to say, "this reminds you of nothing, start here."

2. Do people like me wear something like this? is the challenge that the Google glass had (a challenge at which, so far, they have completely failed). Remember when bigshots used to wear Mont Blanc pens (oh, another bit of functional jewelry) in the outside pockets of their Armani suits? They didn't need a fountain pen that handy... it was a badge, a label, something the tribe did.

3. What story do I tell myself when I put this on? is the core of the fancy wristwatch marketing promise, because, after all, most people aren't going to realize quite how much you paid.

4. Do I want this to be noticed or invisible? is the fork in the road for all of this. You can buy a car or glasses or a watch that no one will comment on, remember or criticize. Or you can say, "look at this, look at me."

The iPhone and the iPod weren't launched as functional jewelry, they were pocketable tech, designed to be a tool for a user seeking a digital good-taste experience, but not originally thought of as jewelry. White headphones and phone cases and then Beats transformed these devices into a chance for individuals to wear a label and a message and tell a story (to themselves and to others) about their importance and tool choice.

The challenge the Apple watch faces right now is that there are only three of them. And successful jewelry is never, ever mass. Even engagement rings come in 10,000 varieties.

So, as technology people continue to eye the magical fashion business with envy, they're going to have to either change our culture, to create a 1984-style future in which all jewelry is the same jewelry, for all knowledge workers, slave to their devices, or they need to shift gears and understand that people are sometimes more like peacocks, eager for their own plumage, stories and narratives.

Or they could just make tools that are hard to live without.

• Email to a friend •

miercuri, 10 septembrie 2014

How we're responding to the ISIL threat:

Tune In: President Obama Addresses the Nation on ISIL

Back to Fundamentals: 6 Untapped Keyword Sources that Will Boost Organic Traffic

Back to Fundamentals: 6 Untapped Keyword Sources that Will Boost Organic Traffic

1. Wikipedia

2. Google autocomplete

3. Google Related Searches

4. MetaGlossary.com

5. Competitor keywords

6. Amazon.com

Conclusion

Market Report: Beds & Mattresses | Summer 2014

Market Report: Beds & Mattresses | Summer 2014

Why?