duminică, 12 iulie 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Critics Flock to Site "ThisIsACoup"; Killing the European Project; Illusions; Who's Going to Pay?
Tsipras' Choice: Total Capitulation or Grexit; Text of 4-Page Eurozone Demands
Greece Offered "Temporary" Grexit in 4-Page Proposal; Merkel's Choice: "No Deal at Any Cost"; Waterboarding the Ward of the Eurozone

Critics Flock to Site "ThisIsACoup"; Killing the European Project; Illusions; Who's Going to Pay?

Posted: 12 Jul 2015 10:58 PM PDT

CNN Money reports the top trending twitter hash site in Greece, Germany, the UK, and Ireland this evening is #ThisIsACoup.

As European leaders tried to hammer out a last minute deal that would keep Greece in the euro, a large group of critics -- including many Greeks - slammed the proposed terms of a new bailout, using the #ThisIsACoup hashtag to voice their displeasure.

"I can't believe what's going on in Brussels," one user said. "These demands are insane. #ThisIsACoup"

"This Eurogroup list of demands is madness," the economist Paul Krugman wrote on his blog. "The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right. This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief."

Killing the European Project

Let's delve further into Krugman's rant, Killing the European Project, in which he mentioned #ThisIsACoup.

Suppose you consider Tsipras an incompetent twerp. Suppose you dearly want to see Syriza out of power. Suppose, even, that you welcome the prospect of pushing those annoying Greeks out of the euro.

Even if all of that is true, this Eurogroup list of demands is madness. The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right. This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief. It is, presumably, meant to be an offer Greece can't accept; but even so, it's a grotesque betrayal of everything the European project was supposed to stand for.

Can anything pull Europe back from the brink? Word is that Mario Draghi is trying to reintroduce some sanity, that Hollande is finally showing a bit of the pushback against German morality-play economics that he so signally failed to supply in the past. But much of the damage has already been done. Who will ever trust Germany's good intentions after this?

Can Greece pull off a successful exit? Will Germany try to block a recovery? (Sorry, but that's the kind of thing we must now ask.)

The European project — a project I have always praised and supported — has just been dealt a terrible, perhaps fatal blow. And whatever you think of Syriza, or Greece, it wasn't the Greeks who did it.

Grotesque Demands

For a list of the grotesque demands that Krugman refers to (and I agree with him on that score), please see Tsipras' Choice: Total Capitulation or Grexit; Text of 4-Page Eurozone Demands.

Fatal Flaws

"It wasn't the Greeks who did it," says Krugman. He is correct as written.

However, it appears to me that Krugman is blaming Germany.

If so, he is mistaken. If the eurozone project ends in failure, blame the initial architects for numerous fatal flaws.

Fatal Flaws

No currency union without a fiscal union has ever survived, but the arrogant founders thought they could force fiscal and social convergence without letting the citizens even vote on such matters.
The Target2 implementation was a disaster.
The "one size fits Germany" interest rate policy of the ECB promoted fiscal insanity in club-med countries.
The treaty requires unanimous consent on rule changes. This led to constant bickering between countries. And the more countries that joined, the more bickering there was.
Fiscally and socially speaking, there is a world of difference between the socialists in France and the conservatives in Germany. Irreconcilable differences? It seems that way.
Pensions, work rule , and retirement age differences make some countries vastly more productive than others.
There are no enforcement rules on budget overloads.

Illusions

The founders thought differences would work themselves out over time. For a while, it appeared as if that could happen.

However, it was all an illusion as the great recession showed.

Unlike Krugman, I was never a supporter of the Eurozone "project" because it had too many fatal flaws to work.

And worse yet, arrogant politicians tried to force their views down constituents throats, even if they had to install puppet governments in Italy and Greece to do just that.

This "grotesque betrayal" is precisely what some of us have long predicted, and it started long ago, with the imposition of puppet governments in Greece and Italy, if not long before that.

Speece Revisited

I have written about the illusion of German virtues and Greek and Spanish vices on numerous occasions. "Speece" is my term for Greece, Spain, Portugal, and all the club-med states in trouble.

As sides form again, each pointing the finger at the other, and especially if you think one side or the other is mostly to blame, please consider From ZIRP to NIRP: Virtues of Germany vs. the Vices of Greece; What About "Speece" and Gold?

In that link I discuss the rise of extreme parties and debunk flawed notions of "risk sharing".

Risk-sharing makes Spain partially responsible for Greece and vice-versa. That may sound good, but in bad times (now), no one wants to do what it takes.

A fundamental issue is that regardless of who is to blame, bad debts do not go away.

Importantly, the Maastricht Treaty under which the eurozone was formed does not even allow risk-sharing or bailouts.

So here we are, with the conversations getting more and more heated, and the rifts wider every day.

Critical Question

In my post I ask a critical question: "Is the euro so fundamentally flawed, and tensions so high that the euro cannot possibly be saved at all?"

Critical Answer

If the answer is no, then someone needs to explains what it will take to get Germany to forgive enough debt to allow "Speece" to grow without perpetually high unemployment rates.

I believe the answer to that question is yes, as I stated on numerous occasions over the years. And if it is yes, I commented "discussion better begin soon on how to exit from this mess".

Well, it's plain to see that such discussion never started. And because of political arrogance such discussion won't start until it clear to everyone the whole mess is about to implode.

Solution

My recommended best solution is for Germany to exit the eurozone, and let the countries that want eurocrats and fiscal sharing, have eurocrats and fiscal sharing.

Who's Going to Pay?

One way or another, Germany is going to pay (by bailout, by default, or by destructive breakup). For now, Germany, the creditors, and the top politicians all refuse to admit that 100% guaranteed outcome.

Political arrogance and denial makes the destructive breakup all the more likely.

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

Tsipras' Choice: Total Capitulation or Grexit; Text of 4-Page Eurozone Demands

Posted: 12 Jul 2015 03:31 PM PDT

We now have "THE Final Offer Before Grexit" (I think). Of course, more offers will come after Grexit.

The Financial Times has the Four-Page Text of the Eurozone Demands on Greece.

The document is not in a form that can easily be copied. There is a line break of some sort after every character, that even my line break removal tool does not fix.

I retyped most of the document, sometimes shortening sentences or paragraphs, the essential ideas below.

Greece has Three Days to "Rebuild Trust" and Do the Following

Streamline VAT and broaden tax base to increase revenue.
Upfront comprehensive pension reform
Adopt Civil Procedure Code with major overhaul of civil justice system
Safeguard full legal independence of ELSTAT
Fully implement Treaty on Stability, make Fiscal Council operational before finalizing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
Introduce quasi-automatic spending cuts in case of deviation from targets after seeking advice from Fiscal Council and subject to the approval of the institutions
Transpose the BRRD within a week with support from European Commission

MoU Highlights

Carry out ambitious reforms to fully compensate for the fiscal impact of the Constitutional Court ruling on 2012 pension clause
Implement a zero deficit clause or mutually agreeable measures by October 2015
Adopt more ambitious market reforms with a clear timetable for implementation of all OECD toolkit recommendations including Sunday trade, sales periods, pharmacy ownership, milk, bakeries, ferries, etc., etc.
Privatize electricity network
Undertake rigorous reviews of collective bargaining, industrial action, and collective dismissals
Modernize framework for collective dismissals
Strengthen financial sector including decisive action on non-performing loans
Eliminate political interference in appointment process and governance of HFSF

On Top of That (Mish note: those were the exact words)

Develop a significantly scaled up privatization program with improve governance
Invite an independent body to assess price of assets sold with involvement of the Commission OR transfer 50 billion to an existing external and independent fund like the Institution for Growth in Luxembourg to be privatized over time to reduce debt.
Modernize and significantly strengthen Greek administration and put in place a program under the auspices of the European Commission, a capacity-building and de-politicization of the Greek administration. The first proposal needs to be provided by July 20.
To fully normalize working methods with the institutions, the government needs to consult and agree with the institutions on all draft legislation before submitting to parliament or the public. The Eurogroup stresses implementation is the key and welcomes Greek authorities to request by July 20 support for technical assistance.
Amend or compensate for "roll-back" legislation adopted during 2015 that is counter to the framework of the February 20, 2015 Eurogroup statement.

Minimum Requirements

The above-listed commitments are minimum requirements to start the negotiations with the Greek authorities. However, the Eurogroup made it clear that the start of negotiations does not preclude any final possible agreement on a new ESM programme, which will have to be based on a decision on the whole package (including financing needs, debt sustainability and possible bridge financing).

Mish comment: the above sentence was retyped exactly as written.

Additional Financing Needs

The Eurogroup takes note of the possible financing needs of between €82 billion and €86 billion. The Eurogroup notes the urgent financing needs of Greece and the need for very swift progress in reaching a decision on a new MoU: Estimated amounts are €7 billion by July 20, and an additional €5 billion by mid-August.

Additional Bank Recapitalization Buffer

Given the accute challenges of the Greek financial sector, a new ESM would have to include a buffer of €10 billion to €25 billion for bank recapitalization, of which €10 billion would immediately be available in a segregated account at the ESM.

No Haircuts

The Eurogroup stresses that nominal haircuts on debt cannot be undertaken.
The Greek authorities reiterate their unequivocal commitment to honour their financial obligations to all their creditors fully and timely.
Provided all the necessary conditions contained in this document are fulfilled, the Eurogroup and ESM board of directors may mandate the institutions to negotiate a new ESM programme.

Capitulation or Grexit

In case no agreement could be reached, Greece should be offered swift negotiations on a time-out from the euro area, with possible debt restructuring.

End of Document

Bloomberg sums it up this way: EU Demand Complete Capitulation From Tsipras.

German chancellor Angela Merkel had her choice, and she made it.

Merkel's Choice

Pony up another €80+ billion to Greece and offer debt relief on top of it, even though a majority of German voters would rather see Greece out of the eurozone.
Push Greece out of the eurozone.

Merkel selected option number 2. This pushed the ball in Tsipras' court.

Tsipras' Choice

Go back against everything he vowed to do and completely give in to Germany, accepting a far worse offer than he had weeks ago
Grexit

Mish Analysis

This proposal is in ways a step in the right direction. Indeed France would benefit greatly if it had to adopt the best of the ideas: loosen work rules, make it easier for businesses to fire employees, reduce state spending, increase retirement age, undertake rigorous reviews of collective bargaining, and fully implement the treaty on stability.

Ironically, not even Germany fully implements the treaty on stability. Instead, the previous two bailout agreements relied on massive VAT hikes with no real reforms.

Greece imploded.

Note that even if Greece does everything asked, the agreement above does not lead to a guaranteed ESM restructuring.

Here is the exact sentence (emphasis in italics mine): "Provided all the necessary conditions contained in this document are fulfilled, the Eurogroup and ESM board of directors may in accordance with article 13.2 of the ESM Treaty, mandate the institutions to negotiate a new ESM programme, if the preconditions of Aricle 13 of the ESM treaty are met on the basis of the assessment referred to in Article 13.1"

Lovely!

If Greece meets the all Eurogroup demands (and the document allows more to come), then if the preconditions in article 13 are met, then the ESM committee may (or may not), tap the ESM.

Meanwhile, Greece is told that no nominal haircuts are coming.

Tsipras' Clear Choice

The wording of this document makes it clear Germany wants to push Greece out of the eurozone.

Please review the final sentence of the proposal. Here it is again: "In case no agreement could be reached, Greece should be offered swift negotiations on a time-out from the euro area, with possible debt restructuring."

If Greece turns down the offer, it gets "swift" negotiations on a "temporary time out", including the possibility of restructuring.

In contrast Greece has no chance of restructuring if it accepts all of the above demands.

Tsipras would be a fool to accept this proposal.

As I have said all along, Greece's best chance is to default, not pay back a cent, and initiate the reforms it needs to grow over the long haul.

Greece does not need the euro. No country does.

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

Greece Offered "Temporary" Grexit in 4-Page Proposal; Merkel's Choice: "No Deal at Any Cost"; Waterboarding the Ward of the Eurozone

Posted: 12 Jul 2015 12:15 PM PDT

There was no agreement on Saturday or so far today. And the rift between France and Germany has widened. Yesterday I outlined Merkel's Choice.

Merkel's Choice

Pony up another €80+ billion to Greece and offer debt relief on top of it, even though a majority of German voters would rather see Greece out of the eurozone.
Push Greece out of the eurozone.

"No Deal at Any Cost"

Today Merkel appears to have taken choice number 2. She says "No deal at any cost". Hardliners in Germany, Finland and other places have dug in their heels too as the Rift Between German and France Widens.

Fraught negotiations in Brussels over a €86bn bailout package at the weekend created fresh uncertainty for Greece's future in Europe's monetary union after finance ministers failed to agree a way out of the biggest crisis to face Europe since 2012.

French president François Hollande pledged to get an agreement and warned that at stake was not just whether Greece stayed in Europe but "our conception of Europe".

But a grim Ms Merkel said: "There's not going to be an agreement at any cost." Eurozone leaders, she added, were considering "nothing more and nothing less" than the preconditions for a Greece rescue by Europe's bailout fund — a stance that appeared to cast doubt on whether a full accord could soon be reached.

Highlighting the drama, Luxembourg has warned Germany that pressing for Grexit would bring "a profound conflict" with France and "catastrophe for Europe". Jean Asselborn, foreign minister, told the Süddeutsche newspaper that it would be "fatal for Germany's reputation in the EU and the world" if Berlin did not seize the chance offered by the Greek reform promises.

Germany exerted maximum pressure, with the finance ministry raising the possibility of a five-year timeout from the eurozone for Greece, and transferring €50bn of assets to an "external fund" for privatisation to help fund debt repayment. Among Germany's staunchest allies is Finland, where the populist Finns party threatened to resign from the two-month-old coalition government if a Greek bailout went ahead.

Athens Offered "Temporary Grexit"

Moments ago, the Guardian reported Athens Offered 'Temporary Grexit' If No Deal. Here are some Guardian Snips.

Waterboarding the Ward of the Eurozone

Alexis Tsipras was given a very rough ride in his meeting with Tusk, Merkel and Hollande, our Europe editor Ian Traynor reports.

Tsipras was told that Greece will either become an effective "ward" of the eurozone, by agreeing to immediately implement swift reforms this week.

Or, it leaves the euro area and watches its banks collapse.

One official dubbed it "extensive mental waterboarding", in an attempt to make the Greek PM fall into line.

Nine Countries Open to Grexit

Economics professor Karl Whelan, of University College Dublin, believes the proposal for 'temporary Grexit' shows that Germany is determined to get Greece out of the eurozone.

Proposal: Greece to be offered euro time-out if no deal

The four-page proposal on the table tonight is now circulating in Brussels.

It confirms that Greece could indeed be offered a 'temporary' exit from the eurozone if it doesn't agree a deal with its creditors tonight.

Sky's Ed Conway has helpfully uploaded all four pages. @EdConwaySky: Here's the full 4pg eurogroup document on #Greece, inc "time-out", total amt needed (€82-6bn) & reform proposals.

Unfortunately the pages are totally illegible. So other than knowing there are four pages regarding a "temporary" Grexit, we have little else.

I will post a link to the proposal as soon as I find one. Meanwhile, it is crystal clear that Germany has sponsored policies hoping to bring down Tsipras' government in Athens.

He has decided he wants a deal after all, a very poor decision, in my opinion, especially after the resounding "no" he campaigned for.

One of the demands Germany has placed for a deal is Greece put up €50 billion collateral for further loans, no doubt islands and state-owned enterprises at bargain-basement prices.

Greek citizens are upset, and riot police have been called out, but so far the situation is calm. It won't be if Greece agrees to this deal.

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

Why Blogging Has Made Me A Better Marketer

Why Blogging Has Made Me A Better Marketer
Reaching new heights: How outdoor clothing & camping retailers are achieving success online
8 SEO basics to optimise your site
Community tips: How to turn customers into brand advocates
How Ecommerce Sites can Leverage the 5 Stages of the Customer Buying Cycle
Google Search Console: A Beginner’s Guide
Matt Bentley on SEO tools, keywords & the future
SEO Myths Busted – One week on
7 Ways You Might Have Botched Your Rel=Canonical Implementation
Surveys – add authority to your content marketing

Why Blogging Has Made Me A Better Marketer

Posted: 09 Jul 2015 01:50 AM PDT

This post is perhaps a bit overdue, but after speaking at the Content Marketing Show about working with bloggers, I figured that some of you might be interested in becoming one of them.

I’m here to gently persuade you to give it a go, purely to see if it can help you within your own marketing position too. (I won’t lie, there are some other nice perks when you’re a blogger, but more about that in a future post!)

My backstory

When I moved back to the UK in 2006, I had little idea of what I wanted to pursue at university. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have a great deal of time to make up my mind as I needed to get my application into UCAS within a matter of days (I was late to the party as I completed my high school education in Canada). So I picked three universities I knew little about, and simply picked the courses that sounded the most interesting to me. After getting offers to each of my choices, I decided to be brave and pick the university the furthest away from all my family in Cambridgeshire; the University of Chester for a degree in photography and journalism.

After three years of late nights (“studying”), my BA (Hons) Journalism opened up a number of career opportunities for me.

I almost ended up doing PPC but I was directed into an SEO Copywriter position within the same agency. It was here that I began writing full time; a good 7.5 hours a day if not more. As my role progressed and the industry matured, I also started to get involved in blogger outreach campaigns; I became fascinated with all of the different types of blogs online, and the people behind them.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I decided to start my own blog. I’d been contributing to various sites online in that time, including for EasyJet and for blogs within the digital marketing industry. Being a contributor was natural for me. I wrote things, a skill I had been honing each day for my professional life. Starting my own blog was a scary prospect as I knew there was a lot I needed to learn.

But I realised that was a good thing. After all, I work with clients every day to help them with their marketing and business goals. I thought that starting a blog would make me more qualified to make recommendations based on first-hand experience.

My blogging days

I’m now in the position where I can confidently call myself a blogger. I write frequently, I contribute to the wider blogging community, and I get a fair share of emails that ask for my stats for various review opportunities (I’m a food and lifestyle blogger). I also write here, and on other sites that are based around the topic of digital marketing.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing though; I won’t pretend that it’s easy. I’ve come up against plenty of new concepts and have struggled with some of the more technical aspects of starting a blog. Despite this, I do think it’s been well worth it. To explain why, I’m first going to share some of the areas that I just couldn’t get my head around when I started out.

Things that made little sense to me:

Picking a domain name

Call it a #firstworldproblem if you please, but it’s amazing how long it can take to choose a domain name. It feels so permanent (and this is even true when you’re au fait with the ability to redirect websites and pages). Perhaps this is something that is easier for a business that already has a name in place, but even then the domain needs to be available to purchase – something which isn’t possible if someone has already registered it.

Trust me, I spent a fair number of hours typing variations into the search bar on 123 Reg. And then I had to decide whether to choose a .co.uk or .com domain, or both, or neither. There are so many others listed including .london, .net, .co, and so on.

In the end I chose a primary .co.uk domain and another with a close text variation, just to ensure that someone else couldn’t try and be clever and steal some of my potential traffic through misspellings and the like. I have a 301 redirect [this Moz guide is super if you aren’t familiar with redirects] in place so users end up in the right place. Happy days!

Choosing how to host a blog

When I started doing blogger outreach, it seemed that many people relied on a Google hosted Blogspot domain. This is the first route that I went down after purchasing a domain. I created an account on Blogger gaining me access to [example].blogspot.co.uk, and then I changed some settings to use the domain I had already registered on 123 Reg. This would have been confusing if it wasn’t for the ‘Blogger Help’ section on Google Support. If you go here, click “On a top-level domain” at the bottom of the page and more helpful content will be shown so you can set up your domain with your blog. Be prepared for trial and error here if you haven’t delved into the world of CNAMEs before.

However, I quickly remembered my own SEO knowledge and figured I should try and use another form of hosting. In Blogger I was limited by how I could display URLs and it just didn’t feel organised enough. I wanted the flexibility of a better content management system, so I paid for hosting and installed WordPress.

WordPress Themes

If someone says it’s all about the content and not about how a site looks, please ignore them. The appearance of a blog is important; it can be the difference between people reading what you’ve written or just clicking the back button in their browser. Navigation menus need to be clear to understand, and the posts themselves should use a suitable font and colour theme that work well for accessibility. Think about the user experience and work from here. Whilst this all sounds easy enough in theory, in practice it is going to require some clever choices and tweaks.

There are a certain amount of free WordPress themes; I’ve always relied on these as I already spend enough on hosting and domain renewals! However from here it is a good idea to customise colours, font size and backgrounds.

These may be possible to do with a handy theme stylesheet editor customisation panel, or you might have to go to the dreaded “Editor” (or similar name) in the Appearance menu dropdown in the sidebar. This is where you’ll find the stylesheet.

If you’re going to make any changes, it’s a good idea to keep a reference of the first version, and only make small changes at a time in the event that you make things look horrible and you want to reinstate what was once there.

Other bizarre concepts I’ve come across:

Having to override the default setting for meta titles
Being explicit about sponsored posts
Learning to deal with a lot of spam attempts
Installing widgets and actually getting them to work
Trying to publish regularly (quite hard when you work full time too)

Why these things are actually useful:

At this point you’re probably thinking “so what? How does this make you a better marketer”, so thank you for keeping up with me until this point.

Up until I started blogging I had little insight into the wider marketing approach in terms of design and development. Yeah, I’d worked with some super clever colleagues before who did these things but I didn’t really get how everything came together. Blogging quickly made me learn more about HTML, CSS and everything else techie that I’d successfully avoided before.

Not only that but I fell into a world where promotion would be driven by only one person: myself. I couldn’t rely on other teams or agencies to do other activities to assist my efforts; I’d only get back what I put in to it. Regular publishing became vital, especially in the early days, and I had to (and still do) take part in blogger chats on Twitter to gain some followers and regular readers.

I love Canva

I learned about creating basic banners for internal and external sidebar advertising; Canva became my go-to tool for pretty templates that could be customised with my own images and text in a flash.

I continued improving these designs so I could improve my click-through rates from social media posts with the correct size images. This guide on Sprout Social became my best friend to get these right.

For the first time, I felt the urge to revisit my almost-career in paid media. I wanted to learn more about online advertising and how paid forms could be used alongside more organic efforts. This is the kind of integrated approach that works well for clients too, something which we shouldn’t forget in agencies where we have multiple product offerings.

Shock horror – I also gained a few more skills in Google Analytics! I sat through hours of Analytics Academy videos to gain my analytics certification a few months ago, but there is nothing like a bit of practical application to secure the concepts firmly in place. Now I make it part of my client campaigns to deliver some deeper insights from GA each month; things that are hidden below the surface of the tool but are still nuggets there waiting to be found.

And really, this is just the beginning for me. I have ambition to grow my blogging presence online, something which will require much more investment in the future – more of my time and effort than money. I know that I will make mistakes and learn new things, but doesn’t it make more sense to use my personal blog as a place to do testing before I roll out my ideas to the sites of my clients? I definitely think it does.

Let me know whether you have a blog and how you’re getting on with it. You can reach me here or on Twitter @HannahFButcher.

The post Why Blogging Has Made Me A Better Marketer appeared first on White.net.

Reaching new heights: How outdoor clothing & camping retailers are achieving success online

Posted: 09 Jul 2015 12:31 AM PDT

We have seen a growing number of enthusiasts spending more time climbing the hills of the UK in pursuit of keeping fit and escaping the pressures of everyday life. While it's easy to get lost in the beauty of British landscape, the unpredictable weather conditions ranging from heatwaves to hail create a demand for people to be equipped and ready for muddy slopes at any time.

With such a wide range of brands offering clever engineering and manufacturing clothing technologies the modern adventurer is spoiled with unlimited choices and shopping destinations. As part of our mission to produce insightful whitepapers and market reports into niche and trending sectors, we conducted research and analysis into the outdoor apparel and camping market with the aim of discovering how outdoor brands attract, retain and engage consumers. We took a good hard look at what is working and where there is room to improve in order to inspire other retailers and marketers out there with SEO, content and social media ideas which may lead to further business success.

We have analysed various brands including Sports Direct, Wiggle, and Go Outdoors, with the desire to discover how these brands are reinventing shopping experiences with actionable digital marketing strategies.

As our report details, traditional outdoor retailers with a weak online visibility are competing against sometimes surprising and new 'go to' retail destinations that are benefiting from strong organic strategies.

In this report we also uncover distribution channels tactics and content strategies which help these brands reach new opportunities while recruiting new consumers with the use of blog, visual and animated content as well as social media.

7 insights you will find in the Camping & Outdoor Market Report:

How Ellis Brigham is capturing consumers through question and comparison search queries
Organic Share of Search: Blacks Outdoor Retail, which owns both Blacks and Millets, occupies just 4.6% of the online market, despite being one of the largest retail chains in the UK. Find out who has beaten them and who is lagging behind
Engagement tactics: brands are fostering passion for sport, adrenaline and the great outdoors with interactive competitions which challenge the audience to stay fit, be creative & spend time in nature with family and friends
How Wiggle’s product pages are speaking to consumers
How one relative newcomer to the market is aiming for tent sales with a designer look and a focussed search strategy
Footwear trends: what products are popular and what’s on the rise?
Branded content: capturing attention with branded content that is emotion, people and story oriented
Instagram: why this is the favoured channel for outdoor brands and how retailers are utilising it to foster brand discovery

We’ve also looked at some of the brands’ weaknesses, enabling us to assess the challenges across their websites and social media.

You can find these topics and more in our FREE to download Market Report:

The post Reaching new heights: How outdoor clothing & camping retailers are achieving success online appeared first on White.net.

8 SEO basics to optimise your site

Posted: 30 Jun 2015 01:00 AM PDT

As someone who is relatively new to the world of SEO, I have been reading a lot around the fundamentals of the subject, and the processes involved in successful SEO campaigns. Beginning in SEO can be quite daunting when considering all of the factors that are involved. This is why I would like to share what I have learnt with you, so without further ado, here are my top 8 SEO basics to optimise your site!

Something to keep in mind before we begin is that ultimately there is not one magic quick fix that can help your website rank higher, and it won’t happen overnight. SEO is a complex process and there are many rules and factors that need to be taken into consideration. There are also a number of myths and misconceptions (we’ve collected them in our SEO Myths piece by the way) around what is considered to be best practice, the basics I share below and are ones that I feel are fundamental.

1. Optimise titles and descriptions

Title Tags

Firstly, title tags are a short meaningful description of the content for each page on your website. They are displayed at the top of your web browser window and are often used as a preview snippet on search engine results pages (SERPs).

This has a big part to play in SEO particularly with Google, yet is also important in terms of social sharing. It is important that each page title is unique and is accurately aligned with the page content – this is critical for both SEO and user experience.

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are a short description of what a particular page is about and along with title tags these should be unique to each page on your website. An ideal meta description should be between 150 – 160 characters to avoid text cut off when displayed on search engines – you will want to be concise and informative sparking the reader's interest. Meta descriptions do not directly influence rankings on search engines, however they do encourage user’s to click on your search result.

By creating a compelling description with the use of important keywords it can help to improve the click-through rate of the given webpage. In order to maximise click-through rates it is important to know that Google amongst other search engines display keywords in bold when the terms match the search query. However it is important not to overuse keywords, keep in mind that your content should flow naturally. Below you can see a SERP preview displaying title tags and Meta descriptions.

2. Make your site mobile friendly

Another basic SEO factor to consider is making sure your website is mobile/user friendly and optimised for mobile browsing. This is vital as mobile marketing statistics show that more and more users are using their mobiles/smartphone devices to search online each day.

I am sure you are already aware but in April this year Google decided to roll out a mobile friendly update. Google decided to reward those with mobile friendly sites by boosting their rankings in mobile search results. Google insists that text is readable, without the need for tapping and zooming. For platforms such as WordPress, Wp-touch pro is a useful plugin offering mobile optimised themes. The plugin also has additional mini plugins useful for your site such as responsive images, which leads on to my next point.

3. Optimise your images

The use of visuals and images is a great way to enhance a user's experience.

Text browsers and other web user agents are unable to see images. Using alt text or text near your images will enable text browsers/web user agents to understand what your image contains.

When labelling your file names avoid using generic names such as image.jpg. Instead use relevant keywords to describe what your image is displaying for example, womens-nike-clothing.jpg.

The smaller your image (in KB) the faster your website will be – Kraken is a tool enabling you to reduce your image size without compromising quality.

4. Use internal links well

Internal links are another factor to consider for SEO optimisation on your site. Internal links are those links that direct users to other pages within your website. Make sure the pages relate in some way; for example, if you wrote a blog post on cardio exercise, you could link this back to a previous post about warm up techniques.

Internal links can be useful for SEO however, many are still using this incorrectly.

Here are a few SEO tips for internal links:

DO NOT create links purely for the purpose of SEO – links should only be used for the purpose of site navigation, and make sure you do not overuse them.

Make sure that text within the links are descriptive – use target keywords from the page you are linking to within the anchor text. By using the target key phrase it helps Google to identify the relevance of the page.

Don't use terms such as, 'click here' or 'read more here' because search engines use the text in a link to help identify what the link is about.

Tip: When running a blog, every couple of weeks go back and link newer posts from older posts. It's not an easy task to do especially if you have a lot of posts, but it can be a very good tactic for showing your readers different content on your website.

5. Make sure URLs are user friendly

A URL is the unique address of a web page, they can be seen in the address bar of your web browser. A page URL is one of the most important parts of your website when looking to make your website user-friendly and SEO compliant. It consists of a string of words usually ending with .co.uk/.com/.org or .net. URLs should be simple and easy to understand, as well as mimic the structure of your website.

How to optimise URLs:

Make sure URLs are easy to understand, not only for search engines but also for users
Don't use capital letters within URLs (they can be case sensitive), this will avoid causing confusion to visitors and search engines
Don't use lengthy URLs that include irrelevant words
Use hypens (-) to separate words within an URL

Still unsure of what your URLs should look like? I have included a couple of good examples below, these follow all the steps that I have mentioned above to optimise your URLs.

6. Create sitemaps

A sitemap is a list of all public facing pages and posts on your website, search engines use this as a way to understand the structure of your site. There are two types of site maps – an xml sitemap and an html sitemap.

XML Sitemap – created for search engines

An xml sitemap is submitted to Google, Bing and other search engines. To create and also update your sitemap it could be easier to install a plugin, however this is dependent on the platform you are using.

Here are the key steps you need to consider when creating an XML sitemap:

Identify your most important content pages for search. For example, you can ignore shopping cart pages and user login pages
Validate your sitemap using a tool such as Google's sitemap generator
Post the sitemap file to your website, the root directory is the perfect place to put it – helping to cut out the issue of invalid URLs. Once you have posted your sitemap you should update your robots.txt file with reference to the location of your sitemap by adding a line to the end of your robots.txt file similar to the following sample: Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
Register your sitemap with Google and Bing, the best way to do this is through Google Search Console
Update and repost your sitemap file as site content changes

HTML Sitemap – created for users

An html sitemap is created to enable the user to browse through your content more easily. The sitemap should include links to all posts and important pages on your site. It is also possible to group posts in terms of author and category etc.

7. Setup Search Console and Google Analytics

Google’s Search Console tool is where you register and submit your website index. This is your central point of tracking valuable information about your site.

It is a way of telling search engines about your site – for example submitting your sitemap
It enables you to get feedback on your indexed pages
Enables you to get notified about possible problems such as issues that restrict your content from being crawled
Identify the amount of internal links you have directing to your site
And much more…

Google Analytics is also a great tool, in fact it is one of my favourites. The tool enables you to find out a number of factors about your site, helping you to identify where you can make improvements (there is always room for improvement):

Track how visitors are directed to your website for example, directly through your URL or from particular search terms
How much time is spent on particular pages
How many pages are viewed per visit
How many are returning or new visitors
Measure the impact of mobile engagement

There are endless benefits.

8. Take care of your content

All the factors I have mentioned above are all very important. However, don’t forget about the content – content is still key. Your content should be of a high quality and original – it should always answer what the user is looking for.

How do I know if my content is good?

There are two simple ways in which you can identify if your content is useful to others. Firstly, you can look at your analytics package – this will enable you to find out how much time is spent on a particular page. Also checking your social media shares on Facebook and Twitter etc, this is a good way to understand what type of content users are looking for and enjoy reading enough to share.

Remember that promoting and sharing your content is just as important as creating it. After-all, what’s the point in having great content if no-one can see it?

How to create good content?

Firstly, there are no particular guidelines that need to be followed in order to write good content. Content will vary depending upon the topic you are writing about. However, there are certain things that you can consider when writing content. I have included the factors which I feel are the most important below:

It is crucial to stick to the point you are hoping to make with your content
Tell the user what the page is about with a short snappy introduction – make the user want to continue reading.
Check content for typos, spelling and grammatical errors.
Make sure your content has structure and flows well.
Provide links in your content to other pages within your site (for extra information) – only do this where appropriate, not simply for the sake of it.
Show reference to research or case studies to back up what you are suggesting – again only do this where appropriate.

How long should my blog post be?

What type of content should I create? – this is quite a common question. The point is that there is no set limit – the length is dependent on the type of post and the topic.

All in all this is where the quality vs quantity scenario comes in – it is much better to write a quality post without feeling that you have to meet a certain criteria with the word count. This is a key difference between print and online content; where once space for content was at a premium, when printed in a document, online content is not restricted to a pre-defined length. Content should answer what the user is looking for, it's quite easy to start rambling but if the post is not to the point it is potentially more likely to be ignored.

Create fresh content

Having fresh content will give search engine bots a reason to come back and crawl your site more often. Alongside this it will also encourage users to come back and browse your site. Be sure to keep your content original, avoid posting similar content on your blog or website for the sake of posting.

Summary

You should always keep SEO to the front of your mind and always remember to follow best practices. Ignoring the basics of SEO will leave your site's groundwork messy, preventing you from maximising your full revenue opportunities.

Are there any other SEO practices that you feel are important? Please share your suggestions in the comments, I would like to hear them.

The post 8 SEO basics to optimise your site appeared first on White.net.

Community tips: How to turn customers into brand advocates

Posted: 25 Jun 2015 06:19 AM PDT

Today's digital opportunities provide brands with many occasions to connect with their core consumers in meaningful ways. But in order for this to work, brands themselves have to foster advocacy and make it a prominent part of their marketing strategies. In the age of consumer control and peer-to-peer influence, it's not a secret that brand ambassadors are amongst the most powerful partners you could wish to have on your side. Yet as many reports suggest, brands are largely failing at driving advocacy through social media.

To help you grow a healthy environment on social media we are starting with letter A for 'ADVOCACY', which is part of our 'A to Z of social media: a guide to success'. If your aim is to become a great brand and produce a unique experience for your audience, keep reading as in this post we're going to share with you some advice, tactics, and suggestions on how to build an advocacy program.

Why are advocates valuable to your business?

Advocates, often mistaken for loyal customers, don't just consistently keep buying from you, they take a much more personal approach to your brand with authentic enthusiasm and endorsement. They champion your brand, making others pay more attention and trust.

7 surprising insights about brand advocates from Deloitte, Forrester, Zuberance:

– 92% of consumers trust brand advocates
– Customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate
– Brand advocates are 5X more valuable than average customers
– They spend at least 2X as much as average customers
– Brand advocates spend 3X as much as average customers over the lifetime of their relationship with a company or brand
– Every time they advocate for a product or service, they reach 150 people using social media

As you can see from the this data, advocacy is a very powerful asset which is helping companies, big and small.

Yet it's also important to point out that great online engagement doesn't just happen, brands have to work on it by supporting their efforts with an active plan to focus on identifying, engaging and retaining those visible and hidden advocates amongst their audience.

As this diagram presents, an advocacy system is built upon trust, authenticity and the effort of creating a positive experience. A brand's culture, it's heritage, and personalisation, are amongst other ingredients which can lead to success.

Let's have a look at some tactics to spur brand advocacy and inspire your next steps in applying it:

1. Share advocates' content with a wider audience & acknowledge their efforts

Advocates' endorsements deserve recognition, how simple is that! Yet often these acts of kindness are being forgotten. Start with something simple:

● Like/Favourite their updates
● Retweet/Share their comments
● Turn their photos into photo collages
● Use the Flipagram app to create short photo movies

Take this example from Taco Bell, who rewarded its top Twitter advocates with personalised handwritten notes and a custom ring. This small gesture not only created lots of buzz on social media, but also provided the brand with engaging user-generated content.

TIP: When collaborating with brand ambassadors keep in mind the high value of content co-creation. Offer them tools to enhance their creativity and allow them to create branded content on their own.

2. Offer something special

Paying attention to your advocates' activities will provide you with some ideas of how to show your appreciation for their work. You can start by giving them special access to VIP promotions, information, or events.

These tactics will allow your brand ambassadors to increase and share their excitement while expanding brand loyalty for your organisation.

TIP: If you are creating hashtags for specific events or campaigns make sure to track and record them in order to evaluate performance and pursue in the future the formats which resonated the best with your audience.

3. Inspire conversation and engagement with content

Building a brand advocacy program can provide you with an opportunity to examine your messages and the content you're producing. Put aside the concept of using your blog, YouTube videos or social media just for selling your products. Instead, concentrate on providing useful information, tips and solutions to build further advocacy.

For retailer Mr Porter, the blog is a place where people can find inspiration about style, history and fashion curiosities. To add extra weight to each article, the brand is using the correct tone of voice and copywriting style, as well as exquisite photography and illustration which are crucial elements of any good piece of content.

TIP: Produce content that other people can believe in by aligning it with causes, emotions and lifestyle.

4. Focus on your fans' emotions and their stories

Use social media to explore your advocates' passions and turn their visual storytelling into a much bigger campaign. People who build your brand create stories which are much more powerful, believable and portray your philosophy more effectively.

TIP: Display your advocates' uniqueness and artistic skills by inviting them into a brand-consumer collaboration while challenging them to try something new.

When building an advocacy ecosystem you must remember that it can only work when it's real and authentic. To make it work try to avoid the following tactics:

● Avoid paying or incentivizing advocates, instead acknowledge their efforts
● Don't view advocate marketing as short-term promotion, to make it work apply a systematic approach
● Don't just do it alone – invest in experts' help who understand this relatively new marketing approach and who are able to select the best tactics to fit your business.

I hope this post has inspired your thoughts as I would love to hear what tactics you are planning to apply to grow your brand's advocacy. In my next blog post I will be reviewing the meaning behind the letter 'B' and explaining how social media should never be 'owned' just by one person but should reflect the character of the whole brand.

The post Community tips: How to turn customers into brand advocates appeared first on White.net.

How Ecommerce Sites can Leverage the 5 Stages of the Customer Buying Cycle

Posted: 23 Jun 2015 01:42 AM PDT

The customer buying cycle is a process that everyone within digital marketing should be familiar with. Whether you're redesigning a website or improving the site structure the stages within the customer buying cycle should be considered at all times.

Identifying what your potential clients are searching for and the content required for each stage is paramount to turning a shopper into a client.

Whilst it's common for online business owners to always focus on the sale, it's important to remember that shoppers go through a purchasing funnel before they become customers.

What are the 5 stages of the customer buying cycle?

Awareness: This is the first stage in the buying process where a customer has a need for a product and realises that your business might be able to fulfil their needs. Customers may become aware of you through a variety of sources e.g. PPC, organic, social media etc.
Consideration: This is the research stage where the shopper wants to find out more about the products you offer and evaluate whether you would suit their needs. The shopper will likely also conduct the same research on your competitors' sites. The shopper is looking for ways to save money, more information about the product, the best delivery options, and so on
Preference/Intent: The shopper has made a decision that they want to buy. This stage of the process needs to give them everything they need that will entice them to make the purchase. This is the most logical stage of the process where they are justifying why they want to buy with you. This is where your emotional marketing helps too
Purchase: The shopper (soon to be customer) is going through the motion of buying your product and wants the shortest and easiest checkout process
Repurchase: Just when you think the hard work is done, how you target your customers after purchase is equally as important. This aim of this stage is to create a long term relationship with your new customer

Why should I create targeted content for each stage?

Search queries are the golden ticket in identifying what your customers are actively looking for. Targeting customers at each stage of the journey is vital for achieving the sale.

The quality of a landing page sets the foundations of the user's journey. So, if it doesn't relate to their search query users will most likely bounce off the site, therefore resulting in a lost sale and poor engagement signals with search engines.

Kissmetrics make a very good point that window shoppers that walk past a brick and mortar store are just the same shoppers that hover around online. The difference with online shoppers is you can find out exactly what they are searching for and how they are behaving online. That way you can make more informed decisions about what content is needed for each stage.

Don’t worry if you're unsure of how to find out the search queries, the next section covers this.

But first we need to identify the search terms shoppers are using at each stage of the buying cycle. To put it into context I have used mascara as an example.

1. "mascara" – This is a generic term that indicates the first stage in the buying process. The customer is aware that they need mascara but hasn't considered any preferences yet.
Example content- Category page that includes all of the mascaras
2. "Compare mascaras" or "best mascaras'"– The consideration phase normally results in the shopper comparing products. The need to compare products indicates that they haven't yet made a selection but are looking broadly at what's to offer.
Example content- Blog post that compares the mascaras
3. "Lancome mascara"- The preference phase usually takes place once the shopper has reviewed the products there are to choose from. In this case with a mascara, the shopper has selected that the brand they prefer is Lancôme.
Example content- Sub category page that includes Lancôme's range of mascaras
4. "Lancome doll eyes mascara" – The shopper knows exactly what they want and are intent on making a purchase. This is a very specific query that includes the exact product name as well as the manufacturer. This refinement in the search query indicates that the shopper is either looking to find this product on a website or is evaluating prices.
Example content- Lancome doll eyes mascara product page

How do I know what my customers are searching for?

There are a number of tools you can use to dive into your search queries. I have listed below the top three search query tools I like to use.

Google Analytics – this is the first place you should go to look at the search queries. Try and go back as far as you can when looking at search queries so you can get a big picture of what people are searching for.
Webmaster Tools (recently rebranded to Google Search Console) – Provides you with search query data (see our guide for more info)
Google Keyword Planner– Search for short tail and long tail keywords that you believe your customers will be searching for. The search volume with give you an indication of how common that particular search term is. It's important to remember that short tail keywords will have a much higher search volume than longer queries.

If you want to discover more tools in addition to those listed above, my colleague Bobby recently wrote a really useful blog post which goes into further detail on all the tools you need for keyword research which is definitely worth a read.

How do I convert shoppers into buyers?

The most important step within the buying process is how we convert shoppers into customers. The last page a shopper will engage with before heading to the checkout is usually going to be the product page. This page should contain all of the content required to encourage shoppers to make a purchase.

The following types of content should feature on your product page:

Descriptive product pages
Product advice
User generated content (product reviews)
Stock availability
Delivery and returns information
Payment options
Add to wish list
Live chat
Blogs
How to videos
Product demonstrations
Testimonials
Product guides, dimensions, colours and size charts
FAQs

Why are shoppers abandoning products at the cart?

There's nothing more frustrating than enticing customers all the way through the site for them to drop off during the purchase stage. With abandonment rates at 68% shoppers are failing to check out their goods, but why? There are a number of reasons why this can happen.

The most common reasons why people abandon their shopping are:

Needed to register before buying – no guest checkout
Didn't want to pay the shipping costs
Lumped with unexpected costs
Total price was too expensive
Discount code wasn't accepted
Wanted to find out delivery times
Item wasn't actually in stock
Complicated checkout process
Slow page load time
Difficulty in filling out forms
Wasn't easy to check out on a mobile device
Didn't save payment details
Concerns about payment security
Website crashed
Website timed out
Payment was declined
Changed their mind
Decided to purchase from a competitor

How do I create loyalty with my customers?

Giving customers the best shopping experience will resonate with them when you make future contact. You want your customers to want to hear from you and be excited when they do. Econsultancy shared some great examples of how ecommerce sites have driven engagement at each stage of the buying cycle.

The process of re-engaging with clients that are already satisfied is the easiest part of the process. If they had a good experience with you they are more likely to come back and purchase from you time and time again.

Types of content that will drive repeat business:

Feedback surveys
Product reviews driven with incentives
New products
Newsletter sign up
Loyalty programme
Tailored email campaigns – new products, exclusive offers, etc.
Special offers
Free delivery codes
Refer a friend scheme
Competitions

Understanding shoppers search habits enables you to create targeted content to help support each stage in the buying process. Focusing on the needs and expectations your audience at each stage of the buying process will help your business achieve its end goal which is for your customers to purchase from you.

Do you have any other suggestions on how e-commerce sites should leverage the 5 stages in the buying cycle? Please let me know by adding a comment to and I’ll add them to the list. I look forward to hearing from you.

The post How Ecommerce Sites can Leverage the 5 Stages of the Customer Buying Cycle appeared first on White.net.

Google Search Console: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted: 17 Jun 2015 02:22 AM PDT

This blog post supersedes the original version which was published by Daniel Bianchini in July 2011 under the title ‘Google Webmaster Tools: A Beginner’s guide to Installation’.

Since Google Webmaster Tools first launched around 10 years ago, its been the first port of call for webmasters diagnosing issues with their website. In 2015 that hasn’t changed. We may have sophisticated tools for monitoring web projects and software that shows us our data in a million different segments, but Webmaster Tools remains as valuable today as ever.

Webmaster Tools in 2007

I should mention first and foremost that as of May 2015, it is no longer called Webmaster Tools but in fact, Google Search Console. It’s essentially the same set of tools, just with a different name and a greater focus on making the data within more accessible and open to less tech-savvy people. It follows a couple of minor UI changes and an overhaul of the ‘Search Queries’ tool. Check out Google’s John Mueller reminiscing over Webmaster Tool below…

So what is Google Search Console?

It is a free and useful way for webmasters to view their own website the way that Google sees it. It features the following information:

How many pages on your site have been indexed
Errors encountered while crawling your site
The crawl rate of your site
Analyse your website’s performance in Google organic search via ‘Search Analytics’
Which domains link to your site

It also allows you to:

Submit your xml sitemap(s) to Google and receive feedback on how many contained URLs are indexed and any URL errors found
Test URLs against your website’s robots.txt file to ensure they are blocked/allowed
See how Google renders (views) your website with the Fetch as Google tool
Configure the use of parameters on your website
Check the implementation of Hreflang tags, via the International Targeting tool

Your input

Google Search Console allows you to report the actions you have taken to solve some of the issues you have diagnosed, for example:

Submit and update disavow files
Reconsideration request
Submit and configure new parameters
Remove URLs from search results

Search Console implementation and verification

Many of us who have been using Webmaster Tools for years probably don’t even remember how we implemented Google Webmaster Tools across our websites. Often we get invited by another owner who has already verified the site previously.

For new users of Search Console, the options for verifying your site are:

Adding a meta tag to your home page (proving that you have access to the source files). To use this method, you must be able to edit the HTML code of your site’s pages
Upload an HTML file with the name you specify to your server. To use this method, you must be able to upload new files to your server
Verify via your domain name provider. To use this method, you must be able to sign in to your domain name provider (for example, GoDaddy.com or networksolutions.com) or hosting provider and add a new DNS record
Add the Google Analytics code you use to track your site. To use this option, you must be an administrator on the Google Analytics account, and the tracking code must use the asynchronous snippet (all codes generated these days are but legacy ones may not be – it’s time to upgrade!)
Verify via the Google Tag Manager Container Snippet which should be placed after the opening <body> tag of your page

For many, the easiest option will be verifying via your Google Tag Manager Account or via your website’s Google Analytics code. We recommend that you use the same account for all Google products and if it's a business account, create a central account for the entire business.

Delegating access in Google Search Console

GWT allows the administrator of the account to provide access to multiple users by adding them to the Verification Details via the "Manage" link as you log in to the tool.

Once you have clicked the "Manage" link, you will be directed through to the Verification Details page, where you will be allowed to add/edit/delete the users who have access to the data via their own Google account.

To add a new user, click the "Add an owner" button and enter their email address. This will only work for users who have a registered Google Account, so if they do not currently have one please refer them to step 1.

If you would like to remove any users who have been previously added then just click the "Unverify" link.

What is Search Analytics?

Previously called the ‘Search Queries’ report, Search Analytics is still in beta (as of 16th June 2015) however, its definitely an upgrade in terms of data and segmentation. Whilst this feature still only provides the last 90 days worth of data, you can get quite granular in order to identify impressions and clicks across:

Keyword
Landing pages
Device
Country
Date range

For full run through of how to use the data contained within the Search Analytics tools, see Google’s documentation here.

Finding this data in Google Analytics…

If you link your Webmaster Console account to your Google Analytics account, you can access this same data in the ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ section within ‘Acquisition’ in Google Analytics (see image below) This is helpful if you like to have all your data in one place, although it should be noted that this still only provides the last 90 days of data.

So there you have it, our beginner’s guide to Google Search Console. If you have any tips to share or questions on making the most of this excellent, free resource that we haven’t answered here, drop us a comment below.

The post Google Search Console: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on White.net.

Matt Bentley on SEO tools, keywords & the future

Posted: 16 Jun 2015 01:26 AM PDT

SEO can be a hard craft. It can feel a slippery, fickle topic; the downside to the industry’s fantastic agility, adaptive streak and drive for constant improvement is a need to continually adopt new techniques, knowledge and tools.

That does however give us the perfect excuse to always be trying out new software and tools, and who doesn’t like to kick the tyres on some new toys?

It was while checking out one of the new keyword tools on the block, CanIRank, that I got chatting to Matt Bentley, the tool’s founder. Matt kindly agreed to turn our banter into a full interview. We discussed about how the tool fits into an increasingly crowded market, why he wanted to build it, and how he’d like to see the industry develop.

During our conversation Matt showed he’s not only very passionate about SEO and building a tool that helps marketers, but is also one of the industry’s most articulate and forward-looking thinkers.

CW: Hi Matt, thanks for taking time to speak with us; can you tell us a little about CanIRank – who is it for, and what can users achieve with it?

MB: We call CanIRank an SEO Intelligence tool: it's part keyword research, part competitive analysis, and part artificial intelligence. The purpose of SEO intelligence tools is to improve your productivity by giving you a better understanding of why each site ranks where it does, which factors are holding you back, and what your biggest opportunities are.

In short, we let computers do what they do best — compile and analyze data — to free up more time for marketers to focus on what they do best — coming up with creative ways to attract and engage potential customers.

In the past 5 years SEO has become almost exponentially more complex. To really understand why a site ranks where it does you need to consider a huge list of factors (keyword usage, anchor text, topical relevancy, website authority, trust, speed, mobile friendliness, https, user behavior, etc…). It's no longer possible for humans to keep all of that in their head and really understand how sites compare in these hundreds of factors, and which ones might be making the difference.

In the past 5 years SEO has become almost exponentially more complex

But computers can make sense of it all. CanIRank collects 4,000 data points from 11 different sources for every single keyword analyzed. Our software can take 40 randomized URLs, collect data on them, and re-rank them in the same order as Google to a 60% correlation. I don't think the best human SEOs in the world could do that, even if you gave them a week.

And honestly, SEO is just a whole lot more fun when you can focus on the creative aspects, the problem solving and relationship building, rather than spending all day poring over data in Excel.

CW: I think for many folks it really is (though some of us still like geeking out in Excel!) For you, what’s the most exciting thing about CanIRank?

MB: The most exciting part for me is seeing the results we've been able to help clients achieve. First is the massive time savings. So far we've analyzed over 200,000 websites, which means collecting 40,000,000 raw data points and distilling that down into 23,000 Action Recommendations. That's a 99.9425% reduction in data you have to pay attention to!

For small teams or those trying to get results quickly, it can be pretty overwhelming trying to figure out where to start, so it’s a big deal to know specifically which issues you should address to make the biggest positive impact on your ranking. SEO is just too big these days to do everything.

Of course, all of that wouldn't be worth anything if our AI models didn't make accurate recommendations, but we've tested that and clients who don't follow CanIRank’s Action Recommendations actually see a slight decrease in ranking on average, whilst those who follow at least some Action Recommendations for just 1 week see an average ranking increase of 12%, and those who spend 1 month completing Action Recommendations see an average 25% improvement.

Obviously, that's just the average. We had 1 client who managed to increase search traffic 533% in just one month — and he was brand new to SEO!

CW: Is that what you built CanIRank for, to help those with less experience or technical nous or is it for everyone, including agencies? Who is the tool aimed at?

MB: Our initial goal was to improve the transparency of SEO — to take all these ranking factors and distill it to something where anyone can just look at a CanIRank report and say "aha! so that's what's going on."

So that's certainly helpful for someone who's a bit newer to SEO and maybe doesn't have the years of experience that really badass SEOs do where they can just look at all these numbers flying by and instantly see the big picture, kind of like operators in the Matrix.

But as we've grown we've discovered that agencies and professional SEOs also appreciate being able to quickly diagnose issues, automate their keyword research, and find keywords they can rank for quickly.

Basically, everyone these days is under pressure to deliver more results in less time, so even the most expert SEOs benefit from the productivity and efficiency increases of automating the most time-consuming analysis.

You could give me detailed instructions on how to build a house, and I'd probably get through it with considerable time and effort, but it's not going to be the same result as you'd get from a master carpenter

CW: You’ve built CanIRank to let users really develop their SEO understanding and ability – do you think it allows people to do SEO for themselves without outside training/expertise? Was this a goal?

MB: The combination of increased transparency into search ranking factors along with detailed instructions means that CanIRank is a great way to learn SEO. It's "learning by doing" where each step is tailored to addressing the needs of your site, like a book that was written just for you.

That said, there's always going to be a role for SEO experts. You could give me detailed instructions on how to build a house, and I'd probably get through it with considerable time and effort, but it's not going to be the same result as you'd get from a master carpenter following the same instructions.

Experts can look at an issue that CanIRank uncovers and immediately think of a dozen different approaches for addressing that issue, some of which they have absolutely dialed. So for most businesses it's going to be worth it to let the experts do what they do best.

But even for businesses who aren't doing the work themselves, CanIRank can serve as a kind of bridge between the business and their SEO agency. Put it this way: hiring an SEO shouldn't feel like a trip to the auto mechanic. I take my car in for an oil change, and the mechanic tells me there's a problem with my rear flux capacitor turnbuckle coupler, and I should pay £3,000 to get that fixed unless I want to put my entire family at risk.

I have no idea if he's just making that up; the car seemed fine to me! Looking at a CanIRank report, even a novice can see where their website falls short of the top rankers and have a real understanding for the challenges that lie ahead and the value they're going to be getting from the work done by their SEO agency.

CW: I think that’s a fantastic analogy – bridging the gap between what we do and what our clients understand is a big part of the job, especially when it can sound like gobbledygook…

We’ve seen a fair number of new SEO tools enter the market as it starts to reach a new level of maturity; how do you see CanIRank fitting into an SEO’s toolbox?

MB: It is a very crowded market! Only a few years back the problem was we couldn't get enough data. Now, the problem is there's way too much! It's almost a full time job keeping track of all the great data coming in from all these different marketing tools, there's no time to act on what you're learning.

And I guess that pretty much captures where CanIRank fits in: we're a layer of machine learning intelligence on top of the tools that you're already using (Moz, SEMRush, Ahrefs, social media, crawlers, keyword tools, etc.) that automates the data collection, makes it understandable, and helps you figure out which things you need to pay attention to.

We have a sister company (http://www.lightship.me/) in stealth mode that kind of hints at where we're headed: automation and intelligence that turns all your raw data into directly actionable opportunities.

CW: What other online marketing tools have you used that you really liked? Have any of them inspired CanIRank at all?

MB: Well of course we're long time users and big fans of the companies that provide data to CanIRank — especially Moz, SEMRush, and Ahrefs — all do a fantastic job and are really the backbone of SEO analysis.

More generally, I'm super excited about the potential of predictive analytics technology to transform online marketing. I think within a relatively short timeframe we'll all be doing our jobs in collaboration with an AI of some sort — companies like Adometry, Pretarget, TellApart, Preact, and 6Sense are some other leaders in this space.

I owe much of the inspiration behind CanIRank's technology (not to mention the direction of my career in the past 7 years!) to coaching and advising from Dean Abbott of Abbott Analytics who helped me get started as a data scientist and lay the foundation for CanIRank's predictive analytics technology.

I think within a relatively short timeframe we'll all be doing our jobs in collaboration with an AI of some sort

CW: Now that is interesting. We’re big fans of SEMrush, Ahrefs and Moz here as well. I think the possibilities for AI predictive input into what we do is fascinating, probably deserves its own dedicated conversation!

As you’ve brought up your background, I wanted to ask; you’ve been an online entrepreneur for many years, as well as working in data science, what’s your experience with online marketing? Is it something you’ve always been keen on?

MB: Online marketing, and particularly growth marketing, has always seemed like the most interesting challenge in startup companies, and I've been lucky enough to have spent time in a variety of online marketing roles at startups, some successful, some not so much. SEO has always been a part of that, but I'm definitely more of a generalist than some of the other folks who have spent 15 years doing nothing but SEO.

In a way, I think that's been beneficial as the tool we built was what I always wanted as a startup growth marketer trying to grow traffic on a limited budget: it's much more accessible than other tools that might only make sense to professional SEOs.

Online marketing, and particularly growth marketing, has always seemed like the most interesting challenge in startup companies

CW: What made you want to take on building an SEO tool? Was it simply about a gap in the keyword analysis market, or was it more about filling a need in the increasingly competitive industry overall?

MB: I talked with a lot of startups and small businesses about the challenges they faced with their online marketing, and one of the most common scenarios went something like this:

Pick a target keyword that's way too challenging
Learn just enough SEO to be dangerous, start building links in all sorts of unsavory ways
Get penalized by Google and end up worse off than when you started

So we thought: what if we could build an app that could tell people whether or not a keyword was reasonable for them to target? They could avoid wasting time chasing impossible dreams, stay out of trouble with Google, and see results much more quickly.

Since then of course we've added many more features and it's as much how can I rank? and what are my biggest opportunities as it is can I rank, but still the original name stuck!

CW: It still works well as a different way to present the information – feeding in the terms you feel are important, and then getting a checklist of ideas.

CanIRank gives out detail on next steps to take for on-page, off-page & technical SEO aspects – with so much debate on the best way to do things, how did you select the right advice to give? Is it all tied directly to the app’s machine learning?

MB: Yes, the algorithm learns which factors are most influential based upon what's working well for each keyword. This is an important differentiator between us and other software that follows a standard "checklist" approach for every website: if we've learned one thing over the past few years, it's that SEO changes extremely quickly. By the time something becomes generally accepted as a "best practice" and starts getting pushed heavily by all the gurus, it's already on its way to being a penalty trigger.

From directories to reciprocal links to guest blogging, many SEO tactics have tended to follow a similar evolution:
Discovery -> Promotion -> Broader awareness -> Automation and abuse -> Penalty trigger

One or two experts stumble upon something that works, they promote it to help build their brands and expertise, it becomes more widely known including amongst spammers, someone figures out how to automate it or otherwise do it at massive scale, it's now so widely (ab)used by low quality websites that it becomes a penalty trigger.

So we rely on the results to teach us what's working, rather than expert opinion.

CW: What’s next in the pipeline for CanIRank? What do you hope the tool will eventually grow into?

MB: Our primary focus right now is on making our Action Recommendations more intelligent and personalized.

Whereas now we can identify a certain issue and recommend some specific actions that will address it, the next step iteration won't just describe the action, but will show you specifically where you can go for your website. For example, if you need to build more Website Strength, we'll be analyzing your competitors' links to determine which ones might represent an opportunity for you.

Lots of actions involve something like looking for industry resource pages, or influential bloggers, or niche communities to participate in. Rather than just describe how to do that we'll go out and find resource pages/ bloggers/ communities/ etc. and analyze them to determine which ones represent the best opportunity for you.

So in this case the AI will be used to answer questions like:

Can I get a link on this page?
Is it worth the effort for me to get a link on this page?
How trusted/ relevant/ authoritative is this page?

And then presenting you with the best opportunities based upon that analysis.

So basically, new applications of our core theme: collect a ton of data, analyze it to determine what's most relevant and actionable for your website, then present just the best stuff to you so you can focus on getting things done!

CW: Wow, that sounds like a hugely impressive ideal to reach for. I’m curious, how much does CanIRank’s ability to correlate with Google’s order depend on stability?

For example, has the recent Phantom update meant you’d had to reassess any of your learning? And what would happen if another Panda (the original affected 12% of English queries) was launched?

MB: If you think about it, most search engine updates don't involve new signals, but rather new ways of processing and prioritizing those signals. So some of those shifts we’ll pick up automatically, others we'll pick up second-order effects that still let us reflect the change. Of course, as search engines start to prioritize new signals, like https or mobile friendliness, we'll have to add as many of those things as is feasible into our models.

But as hard we try, we're not Google, and never could be. No one has access to the kind of data they have. We're just trying to make the data that is out there and available as actionable as possible.

The cool thing about SEO is that it's a series of little competitions. In competitions, you don't have to perfect to win, you just have to be better than the other guy. So if (other things being equal, which they're not!) a tool gives you even a slight edge, say increasing your productivity by 5%, that can mean the difference between page 1 and page 2, translating into a 1,000% increase in ROI.

On a side note, that's why it's usually worth it to hire the best SEO you can afford, since the difference between high rankings and low rankings is a lot bigger than the difference in their rates!

We're just trying to make the data that is out there and available as actionable as possible

CW: I love diving deep into keyword topic models and user-led content development, which is one of the reasons I was excited to try CanIRank. The way we analyse keywords with lots of data, their intent as well as relevancy, is becoming hugely important. CanIRank also values understanding what works for a keyword in detail – do you think this is the future of keyword research?

MB: Yes, in any case it's certainly been the biggest change in the past couple years, as the actual keyword string has greatly declined in importance, and the amorphous "topic model" and even more amorphous "intention” have risen. In some ways this has made keyword research a lot easier: you no longer have to analyze every keyword micro-variation (singulars, plurals, sizes, etc.) or try to find a less difficult variant by adding superfluous modifiers or awkward plurals like very cheap iPhones 6+ case…

Now the search engines just ignore your silly obscure keywords anyway, so you might as well focus on the real meat keywords, and instead use the extra time to dig deeper into truly understanding what it will take to rank.

We still have some customers who come in with the mindset of wanting to analyze thousands of micro-variations in order to uncover some hidden gem that no one else has thought of. And unfortunately a lot of 1st generation keyword research tools that only look at keyword string occurrence will tell them "yes! very cheap iPhones 6 case is way easier because nobody's targeting that right now". So they waste time adding silly pages to their website, and still don't end up ranking.

CW: For me the rise of a topic model makes things easier, as you can concentrate on creating several excellent pieces of content, rather than being asked to develop tens of near-identical Panda fodder. It not only works for SEO, it just build better websites.

Finally, as someone who has been a keen observer of the industry, and has now jumped right into it, what do you think the future holds for SEO and online marketing? Is it data-driven tools working alongside creatively-minded brand building? And what do we need to be doing better?

MB: Well, it's definitely going to be an interesting time! Marketers have experienced this unprecedented explosion of data. Where once we were swimming blind, now we're all ADHD. When it's literally possible to know more about your customers' interests and behavior than previous generations knew about their own spouse, how do you even process that?

I think online marketing right now is still going through the awkward teenager phase, struggling to incorporate all this knowledge, or worse, using it in creepy ways. As it grows up, we have an opportunity to reach what I consider the ultimate pinnacle of marketing: Helpful Marketing. Marketing that informs rather than deceives, and helps you make the best purchasing decision.

Helpful marketing is some future version of FitBit or Apple Watch that can monitor my health metrics and say "Matt, you're starting to get some inflammation in your rotator cuff that could lead to impingement, here are the top rated shoulder specialists in your area. Would you like an appointment?" Or my Tesla monitoring its own performance, automatically identifying any issues and suggesting nearby mechanics or appropriate aftermarket parts.

And perhaps some not-so-distant future version of CanIRank that monitors all of your online marketing metrics and can connect you to the appropriate experts for whatever challenges your site is facing.

So when we're all constantly getting advice from Future Siri/ Google Now, our Tesla, even our refrigerator telling us when we're out of milk, will SEO evolve into helping companies better meet the demands of these billions of new "implicit search queries"? I hope so!

In any case, for marketers it's going to be a great time. Our data processing tools will help connect us to people who have the exact problems our clients are able to solve.

Only helpful and relevant messages will make it through the blockers and filters anyway (that's a hole we dug for ourselves!) Nothing feels better than being able to authentically connect with someone and help them out!

And that’s all we’ve got space for!

A huge thanks once again to Matt for chatting with us. I hope you’ll agree it’s been a fascinating insight into the motivation behind creating an SEO tool. We’ll be taking a deeper look at CanIRank in the coming weeks and will be writing up our thoughts on how to use it. If you’d like to find out more about CanIRank for yourself, or jump right in and take a free 30 day trial, head over to canirank.com, or you can find Matt on Twitter.

The post Matt Bentley on SEO tools, keywords & the future appeared first on White.net.

SEO Myths Busted – One week on

Posted: 11 Jun 2015 04:40 AM PDT

Myths. They’re everywhere, and they range from those that crop up in everyday life (cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis) to the downright odd (Tom Jones insured his chest hair for $7 million). Try as we may we can’t escape these falsehoods, and unfortunately it’s no different in the world of digital marketing.

myth
1. A widely held but false belief or idea:
‘keyword research is all about choosing big volume keywords‘

Last week we launched our new resource: ‘SEO Myths Busted by the Experts & You!‘, aimed at creating a space where we can collate all the industry myths we discover, and attempt to debunk them once and for all.

So, one week on, I wanted to explain the reasons behind the piece, as well as its hopefully exciting future!

The inspiration

We had the idea of creating content around SEO myths a while ago, and the inspiration for the piece originated from the website uxmyths.com, which presents 34 myths, as well as explanations for why each of the statements are in fact just myths. The site does a great job of simply presenting these myths to the user, and I personally found them to be a great learning resource. This got me thinking.

As the saying goes, “practice what you preach”, so instead of creating just another blog post, or putting together another ebook, we decided to approach the task of myth busting in a whole new format. Instead of just using our own knowledge, we decided to get in contact with a number of industry experts, and ask them for their own SEO myths – who better to ask than our peers with experienced minds!

Inspiration for the design came from the posters that were designed and created for the UX Myths project. The main poster presented each myth in different sized boxes, and each myth has its own poster, that includes explanatory copy. So we took the inspiration of the core poster, and applied it to our design, in turn working in our own interactive features, such as the more popular myth being in the bigger box, as well as the added Twitter handle, image, and total share count.

Of course, the overarching inspiration for this whole project is to share this curated expert knowledge with the rest of the industry, with the hope that we can start putting these myths to bed, or at least educate those just starting out in SEO.

Future wise, we don’t want to give away too much, but we’re certain that you’ll be seeing more of our SEO myths project. We will also be releasing some more myths on the page soon and hopefully on a fairly regular basis, as well as the ability to download each myth as an awesome wallpaper for your computer, or even your office wall, so keep your eyes peeled!

Fancy seeing your own myth on our board?

If you feel you have a myth that you want to share with the community, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email on bobby [at] white.net. As you may have seen from the piece, we’re looking for roughly 120 words to help put your myth to bed. We can’t guarantee that every myth will make it up to our board, but if we like it we’ll get in touch with you.

Come and join the conversation over on Twitter with @whitedotnet, or myself, @bobbyjmcgill. Alternatively leave a comment in the box below; we’d love to hear what you think of our SEO myths project, or on a myth that grinds your gears!

The post SEO Myths Busted – One week on appeared first on White.net.

7 Ways You Might Have Botched Your Rel=Canonical Implementation

Posted: 28 May 2015 08:13 AM PDT

I confess: when I’m carrying out a technical audit on a website I basically act like I’m running a police investigation. I know that there will be mysteries to solve, and it’s my job to find the clues that will lead me in the right direction.

And with the right tools in hand, I’ll usually sniff something out when I get to the strange occurrences of rel=canonical.

What is rel=canonical?

In a nutshell, rel=canonical is a way to clean up duplicate URLs on a website. I know what you’re thinking, it would be much easier if duplicate content just didn’t exist at all. This would make my job all sunshine, rainbows and flowers rather than the sweat and tears it generally involves, but this is the real world and duplicate content is sometimes unavoidable.

This is especially true when it comes to ecommerce sites which pose some of the most complex mysteries for SEO forces all across the nation. The way that many of these sites present information or products to users means that some pretty wacky things can happen to the URL – all designed to provide the most relevant results to users through the use of parameters.

Guides for beginners

Moz has a great guide on canonicalisation which I’d urge you to read if you’re new to the concept, as the purpose of this blog post is to guide you with proper implementation rather than a full explanation of what it is.

Alternatively you could shimmy on over to the blog of Matt Cutts; he wrote a post in 2009 called “Learn about the Canonical Link Element in 5 minutes” which is just as relevant today as it was back then.

Make sure to revisit this post when you’re familiar with the topic as you’ll find it much more valuable then!

Rel=canonical: The good, the bad and the ugly

If I’ve captured the attention of your inner geek, sit back as I share some of my recommendations for rel=canonical best practice. The reality is that I’ve seen lots of cases recently where issues have gone undetected for far too long, and I want you to be able to check that you’re not being taken for a ride by your own website.

The source of duplicate content

The first thing you’re going to need to do is identify the culprits that are causing duplicate content. My preferred sidekick for this job is the ever-dependable Screaming Frog SEO Spider.

Once you have performed a crawl, you should be able to use the overview report on the right-hand side of the tool to give you a quick insight into where issues might be occurring. Is it showing results for duplicate page titles, URI or meta descriptions? If so, these may indicate where there are duplicate pages which all share the same content and meta data. Use this a starting point for deeper investigations by manually visiting each version and checking out the source code of each.

Scroll down to the ‘Directives’ folder to see what is being acknowledged by the tool in terms of canonicalisation for more quick hints. Although it’s from the main ‘Directives’ tab in the top navigation where you can really start drilling down into individual issues. At this point you may start to spot strange occurrences that require a bit of manual investigation. Or a lot.

But then it does help to know what you’re actually looking for. Here are the common causes for why multiple URLs can load the same content:

A product has dynamic URLs as a result of user search preference or user session
Your blog automatically saves multiple URLs when you publish the same post in multiple sections
Your server is configured to serve the same content for the www / non-www subdomain or the http/s protocol

Example 1 – a product has dynamic URLs as a result of user search preference or user session

Example 2 – the blog automatically saves multiple URLs when you publish the same post in multiple sections

Example 3 – the server is configured to serve the same content for the www / non-www subdomain or the http/s protocol

Overcoming duplicate content issues

When these issues occur, it’s important to choose a preferred URL for indexation by search engines. This is where the rel=canonical link comes in.

As a side note, there are other ways you can do this, including using 301 redirects, indicating how search engines should handle dynamic parameters, etc. but this is deserves a post of its own, something I’ll come back to in the near future.

The Google Webmaster Central blog has a great summary of rel=canonical:

“Including a rel=canonical link in your webpage is a strong hint to search engines about your preferred version to index among duplicate pages on the web. It's supported by several search engines, including Yahoo!, Bing, and Google. The rel=canonical link consolidates indexing properties from the duplicates, like their inbound links, as well as specifies which URL you'd like displayed in search results.”

The whole purpose of indicating a preferred URL with the rel=canonical link element is so that search engines are more likely to show users your chosen URL structure as opposed to any duplicates. It is important to remember that rel=canonical elements can be ignored, especially when there are conflicting instructions, making accurate implementation all the more important.

Implementation

Check out this example from the Google Webmaster Central blog; it sums up correct implementation pretty well:

Suppose you want https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome/ to be the preferred URL, even though a variety of URLs can access this content. You can indicate this to search engines as follows:
Mark up the canonical page and any other variants with a rel=”canonical” link element.
Add a <link> element with the attribute rel=”canonical” to the <head> section of these pages:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://blog.example.com/dresses/green-dresses-are-awesome” />

Have you got rel=canonical implementation right?

Whilst the concept of rel=canonical is easy enough to understand, it’s the implementation that can cause strange occurrences that require investigation (and probably a headache or two along the way).

There are some common mistakes that webmasters and SEOs make when it comes to rel=canonical, although there are some excellent blog posts and guides out there already which may prove immensely helpful for you. Start off with 5 common mistakes with rel=canonical from the Webmaster Central Blog, and then read through Yoast’s rel=canonical: what it is and how (not) to use it.

To help you avoid the common mistakes, I’ve put together a helpful list of 7 things you should remember when implementing rel=canonical. You can refer back to this blog post, or grab the PDF version here: PDF of rel=canonical guide

7 Things To Remember When Implementing Rel=Canonical

Why are these considerations important?

Specify only one rel=canonical link per URL

When more than one is specified, all rel=canonicals will be ignored! This can occur with some SEO plugins that insert a default rel=canonical link, so be sure to understand what plugins you have installed and how they behave.

Use an absolute URL

It’s possible to insert a relative URL into the <link> tag, but this almost certainly won’t do what you want it to. A relative URL includes a path that is “relative” to the current page. This means you need to add in the lot, including http:// (or https://).

Don’t canonicalise a paginated archive to page one

You will risk some content not being indexed if you specify that page-one is the preference. Put it this way, are the other pages duplicates of page one? It’s highly unlikely.

Add rel=canonical link to the <head> of the HTML document

Rel=canonical designations in the <body> are disregarded, so it’s best to include the tag as early as possible in the <head>.

Watch out for self-referencing conflicts

If your site can load on both http and https versions, check that you don’t have an automatically generated self-referencing rel=canonical. This could mean that both https://www.example.com/red-dresses and http://www.example.com/red-dresses are denoted as the preference.

Rel=canonical specified link should work, so no 404s!

It’s fairly obvious that you want the search engines to index URLs that provide actual value and a positive experience to users…

Use trailing slash/non trailing slash preference consistently

It helps if you pick a preference for use across the site to minimise the chances of referencing a URL in this way; ensure it is included in all internal links and within the rel=canonical tag element.

Bonus: Twitter and Facebook honour your rel=canonical links

This is something I learned from the Yoast blog post referenced above. He has put it quite eloquently, so I’ve included it here for your reference:

“If you share a URL on Facebook that has a canonical pointing elsewhere, Facebook will share the details from the canonical URL. In fact, if you add a like button on a page that has a canonical pointing elsewhere, it will show the like count for the canonical URL, not for the current URL. Twitter works in the same way.”

Now it’s your turn to get on the case and investigate whether your own site has any of these issues with rel=canonical. I’d love to hear if you uncover any hidden culprits, and I’m also happy to put on my investigator hat to answer any questions you may have on the topic too – please leave me a comment below or get in touch through Twitter.

Hopefully we can then utter a collective “case closed”, and move our focus to other technical issues instead!

The post 7 Ways You Might Have Botched Your Rel=Canonical Implementation appeared first on White.net.

Surveys – add authority to your content marketing

Posted: 21 May 2015 05:00 AM PDT

How can you add more authority to your content marketing campaign? Hard data! Recently, I have spent some time planning and conducting a survey for one of my clients in an effort to boost their content marketing strategy.

In a 2-part post, I want to summarise what I have learnt during this process to give you some tips on how to create your own survey and what you can do with your results. We’ll start with why you should create surveys and how to create them.

Why carry out a survey?

Surveys can be a relatively easy method of content marketing and depending on which service you use, it can be an inexpensive method. Surveys allow you to inform and educate your current and potential clients about your industry as well as enable you to set your business apart as a source of authoritative information.

What can a survey tell you?

Often people's opinions on surveys are that the data isn’t trustworthy because what people say they do can differ from, or can conflict with, what they do. Let me put this in simpler terms, if you ask people in a survey what they would do and then observe what they actually do, then you might see several differences. However, rather than measuring future behaviour a survey should instead measure preferences, characteristics or perceptions.

For content marketing, effective surveys can look at the following:

Audience analysis – preferences and demographics of your users or audience
Expectations and perceptions of your brand and its content
Impact of your content on offline behaviour when no other method to understand offline behaviour is available

Creating your survey

Perhaps the most time-consuming phase of the survey process is asking the right questions. It's important to break down what you are trying to gain from the survey – what are your goals? What are you trying to measure?

There is little point going through the motion of spending money and resources on creating a survey only to realise there is nothing you can do with your results. Before writing your questions, have a think about the following points:

What is your topic?
What are your aims?
What are you trying to measure?
How many questions do you want to ask?
Do you have demographic restrictions?
What do you plan on doing with the results?
Which service will you use to conduct the survey?
Do you need a screening questions? (Do you want to eliminate certain respondents at the start so they can't continue with the survey?)

Once you have the answers to the above, it should make things a little easier when writing your questions!

What platform should you use?

There are a number of platforms you can use to create your survey. I'll take you through some examples and their advantages and disadvantages.

Google Consumer Surveys

Google surveys is the platform I used recently for my client work. This service allows you to choose your target audience, type your questions and receive results within a 24 hour time frame.

Advantages:

Google surveys includes extra information within your results so that you don't have to use up questions to ask your respondents e.g. age, location, income and parental status (of course not all of your respondents will agree to allow you to use their income).
If your survey can be improved they will email you! Before my survey was launched, I got a useful email giving me some recommendations on how to make it better.
Customer service is quick and they are very helpful!

Disadvantages:

I thought the price was a little steep!
Some of the types of questions you can use are confusing (open text, screening) – its worth doing your research before choosing your type of question.

World's Opinion

This is an app platform where you can ask anything to their worldwide community of more than 70,000 members and get answers within a few hours – they claim!

Advantages:

It's cheap (but perhaps not cheerful!)
Easy to build our your questions
500 responses

Disadvantages:

Long responses – you may be waiting a week or longer.
Questionable reliability

Survey Monkey

This platform is perhaps the most known out there where you can create, "any type of survey – from simple to sophisticated".

Advantages:

Clear pricing table on the website – you know what you're paying for
Good audience database
Mobile app
Customise your branding on your survey

Disadvantages:

Data download: Open-ended questions and numeric questions need to be downloaded in separate files
Invitation design – you can change the subject in the survey invitation but you cannot add a senders name (if you're sending to specific individuals to fill in). The 'from' field on your receivers end will be "on behalf of surveys@company.com" – not exactly professional?

What you can do once you have got your data

So now you have gone through the motions of choosing your topic and conducting your survey. What can you do with your results to aid your content marketing efforts?

Press releases
Infographics
Videos
Blog content
Guides
Memes
Case studies
Interviews

As you’ve seen from this list, there are plenty of content options! The more strategic you are, the more powerful your marketing efforts become. It’s worth bearing in mind that you don’t have to try all of these examples, just choose one or two that you think will be the most effective to represent your survey findings to your audience. Don’t be afraid to try new stuff – too many people shy away from doing something new because they are afraid it will fall flat, but you could create something extremely powerful.

In my next post, I'll talk you through using press releases and infographics as part of your content marketing as well as give you some tips on outreach! In the meantime, have you used surveys and have they been effective? What platforms would you recommend?

The post Surveys – add authority to your content marketing appeared first on White.net.

duminică, 12 iulie 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Why Blogging Has Made Me A Better Marketer

Why Blogging Has Made Me A Better Marketer

My backstory

My blogging days

Things that made little sense to me:

Picking a domain name

Choosing how to host a blog

WordPress Themes

Other bizarre concepts I’ve come across:

Why these things are actually useful:

7 insights you will find in the Camping & Outdoor Market Report:

You can find these topics and more in our FREE to download Market Report:

1. Optimise titles and descriptions

Title Tags

Meta Descriptions

2. Make your site mobile friendly

3. Optimise your images

4. Use internal links well

5. Make sure URLs are user friendly

How to optimise URLs:

6. Create sitemaps

XML Sitemap – created for search engines

HTML Sitemap – created for users

7. Setup Search Console and Google Analytics

8. Take care of your content

How do I know if my content is good?

How to create good content?

How long should my blog post be?

Create fresh content

Summary

Why are advocates valuable to your business?

7 surprising insights about brand advocates from Deloitte, Forrester, Zuberance:

1. Share advocates' content with a wider audience & acknowledge their efforts

2. Offer something special

3. Inspire conversation and engagement with content

4. Focus on your fans' emotions and their stories

What are the 5 stages of the customer buying cycle?

Why should I create targeted content for each stage?

How do I know what my customers are searching for?

How do I convert shoppers into buyers?

The following types of content should feature on your product page:

Why are shoppers abandoning products at the cart?

How do I create loyalty with my customers?

So what is Google Search Console?

It also allows you to:

Your input

Search Console implementation and verification

Delegating access in Google Search Console

What is Search Analytics?

Finding this data in Google Analytics…

The inspiration

Fancy seeing your own myth on our board?

What is rel=canonical?

Guides for beginners

Rel=canonical: The good, the bad and the ugly

The source of duplicate content

Example 1 – a product has dynamic URLs as a result of user search preference or user session

Example 2 – the blog automatically saves multiple URLs when you publish the same post in multiple sections

Example 3 – the server is configured to serve the same content for the www / non-www subdomain or the http/s protocol

Overcoming duplicate content issues

Implementation

Have you got rel=canonical implementation right?

7 Things To Remember When Implementing Rel=Canonical

Why are these considerations important?

Why carry out a survey?

What can a survey tell you?

Creating your survey

What platform should you use?

Google Consumer Surveys

World's Opinion

Survey Monkey

What you can do once you have got your data

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

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