Google Penguin Changes are Coming: Will Your Site be Affected?

The SEO rumor mills are at it again…  At this year’s SMX West conference, Matt Cutts – head of Google’s Web Spam team – announced that webmasters can expect to see the latest version of the Penguin algorithm rolled out sometime during 2013.

Of course, Cutts wouldn’t clarify exactly what types of sites or activities the update would target, nor how big of an impact the rollout would potentially have.  But that hasn’t stopped some SEO pundits from speculating that this could be another “big one” in the vein of the original Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.

Currently, the most widely circulated theory regarding Penguin 4.0 is that it will go after the link networks that weren’t affected by previous updates.

According to Julie Joyce, writing for Search Engine Watch:

“Simply, a link (or site/blog/article) network is a group of sites that are connected. They can be owned by one person or multiple people, their connections can be as obvious as a badge displayed that proudly identifies the site as a member of X network or as covert as a footprint uncovered by lots of digging.”

Google has been going after these properties since at least March 2012, when it completely deindexed the popular “BuildMyRank” service, as well as several other prominent link networks.  Certainly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Google take further action in these areas as the sensitivity of its algorithms at detecting networked sites improves.

However, there’s another interesting piece of evidence that points to Penguin 4.0 being tied to low quality backlinks in some way.  A recent studied carried out by Portent indicated that Google is becoming increasingly stricter in terms of the percentage of spam links that can be pointed at a site before Penguin filters are triggered.

After looking at the link profiles of hundreds of different sites – including about 20 that were hit by the initial Penguin updates – Portent found that, while sites were initially able to survive negative effects with as many as 80% spam links, that number has since dropped to around 50%:

The troubling thing about this data is that no one is certain how low these limits will go.  Could Google refine its algorithms to the point where as few as 0-10% of spam links will be allowed?  Though this outcome certainly seems unlikely, there’s no way to guarantee how far Google will take things.

This steady progress towards the minimization of spam link influence – along with increased murmurings about future link network action – should give webmasters pause.  Even if these Penguin 4.0 predictions don’t come to pass (whether the impact of the update is much smaller or it targets an entirely different area), it’s clear that webmasters need to be concerned about the quality of their backlink profiles.

This is especially important when you consider how few websites ever fully recovered from the impact of the first Penguin rollouts.  According to a poll of more than 500 websites carried out bySearch Engine Roundtable, only 6% of respondents were able to claim a full recovery:

In this case, the best defense against future Penguin actions is a good offense.  Consider taking all of the following steps to help minimize the potential impact of the forthcoming Penguin rollout on your own website:

Step #1 – Continue to clean up bad backlinks

Last May, we gave you a few recommendations on how to identify bad backlinks in your site’s link graph and how to remove them in order to prevent them from triggering Penguin’s filters.  Specifically, we asked you to:

• Assess the diversity of the domains linking back to your site
• Assess the PageRank distribution of all sites linking back to your pages
• Check for “bad neighborhood” links
• Assess your anchor text distribution to ensure high variability

All of these tips still hold up a year later and should remain a part of your site’s regular SEO activities.  At least once a month, check your site’s link profile using tools like SEOMoz and Majestic SEO in order to identify spam links (whether ones that you’ve created in the past or that your site has acquired as part of a negative SEO attack).  If you find these links, do your best to get them removed by contacting webmasters and link building services, or by using Google’s Disavow Links tool.

Step #2 – Think “natural” when it comes to new link creation

In addition, pay particular attention to the quality of any new link creation endeavors you undertake.  While it’s premature to say that you should avoid all link networks, it’s a good idea to balance any artificially created links with their naturally-driven counterparts.

So how can you acquire natural links?  Well, the easiest way is to simply do something link worthy!

For example, working with a designer and researcher to create a compelling infographic image that can be disseminated across industry sites could do as much for your website’s backlink profile as will hundreds of purchased spam links.  Writing great blog posts and engaging with followers on social networks can also help to create legitimate backlinks in a non-sleazy way.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that “natural” is the new name of the link building game.  No tool is ever going to be able to replicate the backlinking results generated by a committed group of readers and brand advocates.  Focus first on activities that will prompt link acquisition naturally and look at other solutions as nothing more than a way to supplement your main efforts.

Step #3 – Diversify your traffic sources

Finally, keep in mind that SEO should only represent one avenue of traffic generation.  If your site receives the bulk of its inbound traffic from Google alone, you’re setting yourself up for failure by placing all of your eggs in one basket.

For this reason, it’s important to make it a priority now to diversify your traffic sources.  In addition to Google, your site could receive visitors from:

• Other search engines
• Paid search ad placements
• Social media marketing
• Paid social ads
• Content marketing
• Media buys
• Guest articles published on other sites

Yes, some of these strategies may require more work than tweaking a few on-site and off-site variables (as in the case of traditional SEO), but the reassurance you’ll receive from knowing that your business is no longer vulnerable to Google’s unpredictable algorithm changes will be invaluable.

The best part about these recommended actions is that there’s almost no downside.  If you take steps to improve your site’s link profile and the next Penguin update winds up affecting only a tiny percentage of sites, you haven’t lost anything – in fact, you’ve improved your chances of staying safe throughout the next round of algorithm changes.

Remember, Google is never going to stop refining its algorithms.  Even if you’ve been safe throughout these tumultuous last few years, there’s no guarantee that your site won’t be filtered out by a future update.  Take the time to clean up your link building activities now – your long-term site stability will thank you!

Source: http://www.singlegrain.com/blog/google-penguin-changes-are-coming-will-your-site-be-affected/

Marketing Advice For A New Website: Starting From The Ground Up

It can be difficult for a new website to get off the ground and get noticed, especially if there is no prior platform for promotion, for example if the new website owners already have a good web presence and following to help with the initial promotion. If the idea for the website is new, it is often difficult to capitalise on existing search volume for industry related keywords.

It is often the case that these websites need a little ‘out of the box’ thinking so they can infiltrate existing communities that are likely to take an interest in their offerings.

On occasions, the website may not offer anything new per se in terms of the subjects covered or industry targeted – it could be that you feel that your offering is slightly different or that your implementation is different and this is all that sets you apart from the competition.

Whether you feel you have the most original product ever or not, this post will explore some of the areas, tools and resources a new website can exploit to help grow your audience.

Social

Social is one of the best ways to reach your target audience, and can be a lifeline for new websites/businesses. Aside from various types of paid advertising and SEO, it is the best way to create an interaction with your brand online that can resonate through the web and grow your online presence. If you have a thoughtful strategy, there are many web users poised to share what you create.

Social profiles

It may sound obvious, but having a presence on the popular social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ and regularly utilising those platforms to interact within these active communities of users is a good place to start. You can have a company profile and individual profiles for each founder/employee. Generally it seems that people prefer to follow individuals on platforms such as Twitter and Google+, on Facebook however business associated ‘pages’ are quite popular.

Image sites

Some of the most socially shared content online is images; people like to share images that are interesting, unique, powerful, humorous, and educational and there are many platforms dedicated to helping users share and discover different images. Some notable platforms include:

• Pinterest
• Flickr
• Instagram

Depending on your individual industry, there may even be image sites or categories on existing platforms that are dedicated to the industry you operate in (or one with a similar target audience).

These platforms are good places to start interacting within the community. If you are in the position to be able to create your own interesting images that you think would interest your audience, you can easily become the originator of this content online that can be shared endlessly across the web.

Social communities

There are many different individual social communities full of regular users who are sharing and communicating within the platform. Here are a few examples:

• Vine (a video platform from Twitter)
• Bundlr (bookmarking and content discovery platform)
• Dribbble (designers can showcase portfolio)
• GitHub (open source software development platform)
• Quora (share content and knowledge, ask and answer questions on a variety of topics)

These are just a number of communities available online in different industries, if you can think of a good way you can exploit your own skills and expertise whilst adding something valuable to these types of platforms, it is a good way to get noticed and to start engaging within related communities.

Video

Video is a hugely powerful resource, one that many businesses are yet to exploit and is a new way of reaching your audience. Google is also a fan of video and regularly displays videos relating to various topics on the first page of the search results in an effort to create more variation for their users as different types of multimedia content is created and consumed. Millions of people also search, browse and share videos online each day as one of the most popular online media; they are also shared regularly via social media and on blogs.

It is therefore a great place to help market your business or website if you have the capabilities to create useful content that is related to your offering. The more helpful, interesting and unique the video is the greater the likelihood that it will be discovered and shared by others.

Contests/Giveaways

Contests and giveaways are a great initial way to generate interest from a community that are highly likely to have a familiarity with your offerings. If for example interaction is required, you could gain a significant following in that time.

Popular platforms to host competitions include the above social networking sites ( e.g. “Tweet to enter” style promotions), email and on the site itself. Although it is definitely recommended that a social element is involved to reach a greater number of people.

Think about what you are giving away. Making sure that the prize is likely to draw in people interested in your services, they may then feel compelled to follow so they don’t miss out on similar opportunities in the future. A good example of a related prize would be an iPad if you run a mobile applications website for example.

On-Site

By having a website and setting it live, there is no guarantee that it will be easy to navigate, engaging to your target audience or fulfil its potential as intended. It is therefore important to consider on-page factors which will help give the site the best chance alongside the external work that is on-going.

Build a following

One of your goals in growing your online presence is to create a social media presence firstly; secondly you want to help users find those pages easily by building links to these platforms into your website.

Here are a few ways in which this can be done:

• Include links to these platforms from every page of your website. Make a point to highlight these on the Home page and Blog pages.
• Try to secure profile usernames that include your company name should anyone choose to search for you on these platforms or via the search engines.
• Create an email newsletter – highlight the benefits of signing up to build up an email list. This will give you a platform to reach an interested audience with business updates, news, new site features and more.
• Include a Twitter username in blog post Meta titles – Although I have not tried this myself, I have noticed a few sites utilising this method so that when people share a post from the site, it will add in a mention within the Tweet (unless the Tweet is edited to remove this).

Video

Video has been mentioned above as a good quality off page tactic to generate interest and help build your brand. It is also useful to include video content on your own website to bring more balance to the website.

Video is useful to educate and inform visitors about your site (which can help to create potential customers); it can also be used to highlight your brand values and display shareable media. Visitors are just as likely to discover your videos through your website and go on to share if they want to, as they are to discover them on video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo.

Referral Programs

By referral programs, I mean employing a system whereby affiliates can promote your products or services and in return will gain commission towards the value of what was sold. You will need to have a system in place to be able to track these referrals and pay these affiliates; however there are plenty of third party platforms for merchants wishing to do this.

This is a great way of generating business on the site when starting from nothing, it gets people talking about your business and helps grow your brand. One factor to consider is monitoring the links affiliates use to make sure they are not damaging your website.

Blog

In my opinion, blogging is one of the best ways to grow your site if you are starting from zero. You will need to have a clear content strategy by establishing the type of content you would like to post and how often you may be able to create content. Outsourcing the content is a possibility (if you do not have the time) as long as the content is of a good quality and unique, it is however suggested that as experts in your industry, you find the time to put together a post once or twice a week.

Here are some pointers on getting a blog going:

• Include a summary of your blog, the topics you cover and what people can expect. This can be useful for those who are unsure if the blog has a theme that they might be interested in following.
• Create a variety of posts and topics; including generic industry related posts, tutorial type posts as well as business/news related posts.
• A lot of traffic can be generated by creating useful content that people are likely to be searching for and bringing in people that are essentially your target market.
• Try to create a blog schedule – once or twice a week is a good starting point.
• Make your blog social – include sharing icons so people can easily share your content.
• Promote your content using your social media profiles.
• Link to your social profiles from the blog, this way the visitors can follow you on these platforms and discover any new content you have created.
• Enable comments on these blog posts to encourage engagement.

Help users find the information they need

Online user engagement is key nowadays because the typical web user doesn’t have much patience when it comes to discovering new websites. When landing on your website, they will be searching for something specific and if they cannot find the information they are searching for easily and quickly, they are likely to leave and not return.

It is therefore important to have a clear navigation on the site and ensure you educate visitors as much as possible, especially if your product or service is new.

Review and optimise the landing pages

Following on from the above point, you will want to be careful to ensure that you review every potential website landing page. If a visitor was to land on that page, is the function of the page clear? Does it contain all the relevant information a visitor is likely to expect to see? Can they easily navigate to other pages on the site and find any other of your offerings that may interest them?

Each landing page is not static, it can be reviewed and optimised continually so be sure to install an analytics package to help you review the page performance, don’t be afraid to play around with these various page elements.

Off Site

Here we have included some off-site strategies that can help grow your online presence on top of what has been mentioned so far in the post. These are not directly related to the elements of the web page or utilising social media.

Infographics

Infographics are another popular and highly shareable form of packaged content. There are many of these around nowadays so it is recommended that some research is conducted as to what already exists for any ideas that you may have.

These have the potential to be shared across the web and can appear on some high profiles sites. These external sites should link to you as the source, however you can provide an embed code to ensure that the image links through to your site.

Become a community contributor

Earlier on in the post, I briefly mentioned a range of current site communities that have a thriving user base. By participating within these communities, providing good content and helping others out, you can easily start to create a presence within your industry. This can have additional benefits if requested to contribute on another user’s site or alternatively a link may even be generated naturally if someone discovers you through one of these platforms.

You can also allow employees to create a presence and become another face that represents the company on these communities, multiplying the benefits.

Press releases

There are a number of free and paid press release websites for the submission of newsworthy articles. Using a good quality press release site, you can secure a link for the site and reach additional web users (or journalists) who may have an interest in your website.

Contacting industry related blogs

Your newsworthy content can also be really interesting from an external blogs point of view. Some blogs are constantly on the lookout for new things to talk about – your new website/product/service may just be the type of thing that they would be interesting in writing about.

If you are already aware of some well-known blogs in your industry, it is worth contacting them to see if they might be interested. A large number of the more high profile websites will have a submission form for these types of enquiries.

Creating external websites, tools or resources

As mentioned previously, people love sharing any interesting or useful content and this includes useful websites, tools and resources. If the resources are available to you and you have the expertise in your industry to create something helpful and free for users, these can easily gain authority and an established user base that are at your disposal to help promote your main site.

Some existing examples include mortgage calculators, hex colour generators, online image editors, file converters, tutorial blogs and many others; the opportunities are endless as long as it is manageable.

Paid advertising

Paid advertising is a good way of instantly reaching your target audience via platforms such as Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter or through website banner ads and even advertising in traditional print media.

Despite the initial monetary investment, you can easily send some good quality traffic to your site.

Local presence

Exploiting local resources can be a quick, free and easy way to send traffic to your site. Here are some of the resources available to you:

• Local business directories (Yell.com, Yelp, Qype etc.)
• Google+ Local (previously Google Places)
• Review sites

By creating a presence using the above sources, people may discover you through these platforms. The search engines also likely to include local results within the search engine result pages and by having a presence on the above, you are likely to show up for these local searches.

Competitor analysis

In an existing industry, there will be a number of websites and companies that already have a presence. It is worth analysing this existing competition to see what they are doing to market themselves online and whether they are doing anything that is bringing them success. There may even be opportunities they are missing out on that you could exploit; this method is particularly good for generating ideas.

Please note that it isn’t suggested that you copy their strategy. This is just a good way of seeing what exists and spotting any gaps in the market.

Should you have a process/plan?

It is less important to follow a specific process or plan per se. A marketing strategy should and will be different for all websites. It is however important to establish what resources are available to you and form a strategy based on these (using the above information).

How important is keyword targeting?

SEO is a great way to bring relevant traffic to your site, when it comes to keyword targeting, this should be a consideration in the layout of your site. Make sure you have a clear page structure and assign a relevant keyword to that page to help users find you. Here are some helpful tips:

• Choose keywords relevant to each page (don’t force in keywords purely because you wish to rank for them).
• Each page should target one or two keywords, any more would be bordering on keyword stuffing.

Please note that SEO is a longer term strategy and that you are unlikely to see value from this straight away.

If you decide to create a blog for the site, keyword research can help generate ideas for blog posts – the longer tail nature of blog posts will increase the likelihood that they rank for related searches.

Inspirational example

I wanted to include an example where a new site quickly managed to generate a lot of traffic to their site which helped them secure an active user base.

Wish.co.uk is a UK based company that specialises in unusual experience days. One of their main offerings when starting up was a zombie experience and to capitalise on this unusual day out, they decided to Tweet the service to Simon Pegg (star of Shaun of the Dead) who then retweeted the link to all his followers. Various websites picked up on this and they managed to grow a user base quickly with this out of the box thinking.

See wish.co.uk for more information on the success of this story.

Key takeaways

Here are some key takeaways from the post:

• Create a social presence on the main social networks and any others related to your industry.
• Use resources such as video, images, Infographics and anything else at your disposal to help market your company, website, products and services.
• Optimise your website to engage visitors.
• Highlight your social media presence to visitors.
• Create a blog for your site to help generate additional visits and help grow the number of followers/regular visitors.
• Keep SEO in mind throughout so that you are gradually increasing your search engine presence.
• Keep an eye on competitors and look out for opportunities that they may be missing.
• Create a long term strategy for the website and stick to it.
• Think outside of the box wherever possible – some of the most inspirational examples have come from this.

I would be interested to hear your comments on the post and whether you know or have heard of any other strategies that may help a newly launched site.

Source: http://www.koozai.com/blog/branding/starting-from-the-ground-up-marketing-for-a-new-website/

7 Ways to Get Leads with LinkedIn

LinkedIn may not be as flashy as Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, since it’s perceived as the more “professional” social networking site. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Many companies, especially those that sell to other businesses, use LinkedIn every day to generate leads for their products and services. Here are some strategies that you can employ  to get leads with Linkedin for your business:

1. Use keywords in your profile – If you want your target audience to find you on LinkedIn, you need to include keywords in your profile, starting with your professional headline. You should also include keywords in your current and past occupations, professional summary as well as your skills & expertise.

One word of caution. Don’t be tempted to stuff your summary or past occupations with row upon row of keywords. This “black hat” SEO practice hurt websites on Google, and it’s very likely LinkedIn will also penalize profiles that engage in keyword stuffing. There’s no point in achieving a top ranking for a LinkedIn search, only to lose your prospect’s interest because they were turned off by the repetitive use of a keyword.

2. Add rich media to your profile – LinkedIn has made it easier to add video and presentations to your profile, so take advantage of this feature. If you have YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations or a PDF portfolio that promotes your product or service, upload them to your LinkedIn profile.  LinkedIn displays your rich media in a full-screen window called “Your Professional Gallery.” This is a golden opportunity to demonstrate to prospects why they should hire you or buy your products/services.

3. Endorse others – Another way you can generate leads for your business is with LinkedIn endorsements. This feature allows users to easily endorse a person’s skill(s) with the click of a button. Ideally, you want to accumulate as many endorsements for a particular skill(s) so that a prospect will see that you are proficient in a certain area. Endorsements aren’t showing up in LinkedIn search results yet, but they should be soon. The more endorsements you receive, the more often you will show up in the search results, the more trusted you will be, and the more leads you will potentially generate.

How do you get endorsements? You can ask your colleagues, clients and LinkedIn connections through an email or direct message. But a better strategy is to give them out yourself. Most people who receive endorsements turn around and endorse the giver. It’s a win-win a situation for both parties.

4. Participate in groups – Joining the discussion in a LinkedIn group is one of the best strategies you can undertake to generate leads. Notice I said, “joining the discussion,” not posting a link to your most recent blog article. Many people join LinkedIn groups thinking all they have to to be effective is to share articles with the other members. You can certainly do that. But a better strategy is to pose a question when you’re posting an article, in order to stimulate discussion. Or simply start a discussion without including a link. The goal here is to demonstrate your expertise on a subject and be a resource to the other members of the group. The more often you can provide useful information to the group, the more its members will begin to regard you as someone they trust. And of course, we all know that people do business with those they like and trust.

5. Start your own group – An even better strategy to generate leads is to form your own LinkedIn group, since this gives you instant credibility and establishes you as an authority in your niche. Among the benefits to being a group administrator is that you can send an email to your members once a week. This is an excellent opportunity for you to share information about upcoming events. You can also send group members (and prospects) tips and strategies to improve their business in the form of blog articles or ebooks. Sending these weekly emails helps you build rapport with the group.

You can also set up a welcome message that goes out automatically to new members.  To make the most of this message, take the opportunity to thank the member for joining the group and include a link where they can sign up for your newsletter to receive more tips and advice.

6. Create a company page – One LinkedIn feature that many small businesses don’t take advantage of is the company page. Similar to a Facebook business page, a LinkedIn company page can be a powerful marketing tool. Make the most of your company page by adding a relevant cover image and including descriptions of your products or services. Ask your customers to recommend your products/services. And don’t forget to post regular status updates, images and presentations to keep your followers up to date on your company’s activities.

7. Prospect via messages/emails – There’s no reason you have to wait for a lead to contact you through LinkedIn. Be proactive and seek out prospects, and invite them to learn more about your business. Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find the best candidates. Once you’ve identified a prospect, look for commonalities that you share, such as a LinkedIn group. Then, send them a message or email, mentioning what you have in common as an ice breaker. Establish relevance by mentioning something that is currently “top of mind” with your prospect, such as a trade show, new product launch or industry survey. Finally, offer to send your prospect something that positions you as an expert in their eyes, such as an e-book or write paper you’ve written. And be sure to keep the email short and to the point. If you’ve done a good job, your prospect will respond positively, and you’ll be able to start the sales conversation.

Source: semrush.com/blog/publications/7-ways-to-get-leads-with-linkedin/

Google Analytics Certification and How to Pass the GAIQ Test

When I hear the word, “cookies,” I generally think of warm, gooey homemade chocolate chip cookies. But when it comes to passing the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) test, I had to put my cravings for Mrs. Fields’ Nibblers aside and learn about the differences between first-party and third-party cookies.

Cookies are just one of the many topics covered on the exam, and passing can be a daunting task, especially for those unfamiliar with the program and its ever-changing features. The GAIQ test is one of the best ways to become a more knowledgeable user and deepen your understanding of Google Analytics. For those to new to GA or seeking additional tips & tricks, check out our Google Analytics Guide. Studying for the exam can be a fun process, and I would like to offer some advice so that you can pass as well.

The GAIQ Test

The test is limited to 90 minutes, consisting of 70 multiple choice questions with two to five answer choices. The trickiest part is that some questions ask you to select "all that apply," which means there can be up to 24 possible answer combinations for those questions (assuming you have to select one answer). The test can be accessed at the Google Testing Center, and each sitting costs $50. During the test, you have the ability to pause and come back anytime within the next five days. Although the questions vary in difficulty, it's an open book exam. The pass mark is 80%, which means you must answer at least 56 out of 70 questions correctly.

Preparing for the  Google Analytics Exam

All the topics and content covered on the exam are available through Google’s Google Analytics IQ Lessons, formerly known as Conversion University, which consists of online lessons that are freely available for viewing at your leisure. There are 21 different presentations that are easily digestible and will last a total of roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes. However, these presentations move fairly quickly, so I recommend pausing and taking notes that you can use during the exam. A rough outline of topics is listed below:

• Accounts & Profiles
• Interface Navigation
• Tracking Code
• Interpreting Reports
• Traffic Sources
• Campaign Tracking & AdWords Integration
• AdWords
• Goals
• Funnels
• Filters
• Advanced Segments
• Cookies
• Regular Expressions
• E-Commerce Tracking
• Domains & Subdomains
• Custom Reports
• Motion Charts
• Internal Site Search
• Event Tracking & Virtual Page views

The GAIQ lessons are the best way to study for the test and should be your starting point. I recommend watching each video at least twice, and using your own Google Analytics profile in tandem with the videos, to practice and walk through each lesson to make sure you understand the topics. It is important to note that there have been many changes to Google Analytics over the past year, and Google has updated its exam in January 2012. The fundamental material covered on the exam has stayed the same, but if you are still using the old version of Analytics, you may want to get used to the new version and all of its new features before taking the exam.

I would not be surprised if Google started asking questions on features that are only available in the new version (multi-channel funnels, real-time analytics, social plugin analytics, and flow visualization). Also, there is always a chance that Google has made an update, but hasn’t changed the test question or GAIQ lesson videos. For example, the “__utmc” cookie is no longer used by the Google Analytics tracking code to determine session status, but it is still mentioned in the GAIQ lessons and could still be asked about on the exam as one of the cookies that Google sets. When in doubt, I would answer questions like this based on whatever has been taught in the GAIQ lessons. It is more likely that Google would not change the test without updating the videos first.

When Taking the  Google Analytics Exam

For a “pass-the-exam” strategy, the most important thing to remember is to keep moving. Answer all of the easy questions first and don’t get tied down by any one question. You have roughly 1 minute and 16 seconds to answer each question, so if you answer all of the easy ones first, you can judge how much time you have left to finish the remaining, tougher questions. You have the ability to mark questions, answer them, or leave them incomplete. A good strategy is to answer the easy ones, mark the questions that require some research, and leave the questions you have absolutely no idea about blank. That way, during your second run-through, you can review all marked questions first and do the most difficult questions last. I feel safe in assuming that all questions are weighted equally in the score and that there is no penalty for guessing incorrectly.

During the test, I recommend having the following resources open on your computer: Google Analytics IQ Lessons, an Analytics account, the Google Help Center, and Jens Sorensen’s test notes. There will be some questions that require research, so keep these resources close.

Practice Problems

I’ve included some original practice problems with solutions that will help you get ready for the exam. These problems are meant to challenge you, but do not necessarily represent how Google will test you on these topics. These problems should be a final test to take after watching all of the GAIQ lessons. They are available for download in the link below :-)

Passing the  Google Analytics Exam

If you pass, Google sends you an email with an official certificate showing that you have passed the exam. The certificate is valid for 18 months from the date of the passed exam. Google does not give you the results for each question, but it lists the percentage of questions you answered correctly, and the four most missed topics on your exam.

Sometimes, the difference between passing and failing can be a matter of how you interpret some of Google’s questions. They can be quite tricky, so be sure to pay attention to detail on every question. If you fail, you may take the exam again, but you have to wait 14 days and can only take it twice within a 30-day period. You have to pay the $50 fee for each sitting, so do your best to pass it the first time.

If you’ve taken the Google Analytics exam, we’d love to hear your thoughts and study tips. Or if you have any other questions, please leave a comment!

Best of luck!

Source: seomoz.org

Creating Quality PPC Landing Pages - Landing Page Optimization for PPC

Creating Quality PPC Landing Pages - 

You can have an SEM account with hundreds of thousands of keywords that each have fantastic click-through rates (CTR) but without quality landing pages, you will never fully optimize your CPA and never reach your true money-making potential.

Landing Page Layout via Unbounce

I have put together some guidelines to help you create the best PPC landing pages for your AdWords account.

1. Establish Your Goals.

The first step in creating quality landing pages is to establish your marketing goals to decide what you are trying to accomplish. Do you want sales, form fills, mailing list registrations, sign ups, etc.?

Once you have established what you are trying to accomplish with your campaigns and ad-groups, do some competitive research. Check out your competitors’ landing pages and look up some templates to see how you can design your pages.

2. Consider Your Target Market …

Think about who is coming to your landing page. Consider their demographics, location, interests, etc.

3. … And How They Got There.

You should not use the same message to target viewers from PPC that you would use if they came from social media or email nurturing campaigns. Considering how your viewers got to your page should influence and change the messaging you use to close them.

4. Create Dedicated Landing Pages For Each Ad Group (If Possible).

In a perfect world each ad group would have its own dedicated landing page. However not all of us have the time or resources to do this. My advice is to do your best.

Start with one landing page per campaign. As you have the time to build a new page, add it in and slowly convert your ad groups to all have specific targeted landing pages.

5. Don’t Lead Traffic To Your Home Page.

People are inherently lazy. The more hoops you force them to jump through the less likely they will convert. That means less leads, less sign-ups, less sales, less $$$$. Instead of leading people to your homepage, test out driving traffic to a more targeted, conversion-optimized landing page (see below).

6. Optimize Your Landing Pages For Conversions.

Here’s how:

• Keep the page clean and easy to read. Don’t overload your visitors with all the information in the world. Keep it short and sweet and give them exactly what they are looking for.
• Make it easy for your traffic to convert and give them multiple ways to do it. The goal of a landing page is to build trust and have your traffic convert.
• You don’t need your visitors’ entire biography. Instead try asking only for the information you need most. This will appear as less risk to your visitors and will lead to higher conversion rates.
• Use clear calls to action along with arrows and catchy text while avoiding a  “scammy” look. Depending on your marketing goals you should consider putting your phone number at the top of the page, adding a form directly to the page, or allowing a purchase to be made directly from that page.

7. Always Be Testing – “Coffee Is For Closers”

If you have ever been in sales or seen the movie Glen Gary Glen Ross you will surely remember the acronym “A.B.C. – Always-Be-Closing” and the Alec Baldwin quote, “Coffee is for closers.”

Take these two sales terms to heart. Your landing page is your last chance to close the sale. But unlike traditional sales you do not have the flexibility to try different angles like any good salesman would.

Your solution: “A.B.T. – Always-Be-Testing”. In the same fashion you would test out ad text, A/B test landing pages using Google Experiments (the tool formally known as Website Optimizer). This will allow you to change and test single variables such as headlines, imagery, body text, and calls to action evenly over time.

8. Avoid Common Mistakes During Testing.

The biggest mistakes I see made in regards to testing are not allowing your tests to run for significant amounts of time and stopping after one test.

Stay patient and pull in as much data as possible before declaring a winner, then use that data to set up ongoing tests against the winner to find and display the best possible advertisements and landing pages you can.

9. Allow Visitors To Share.

Finally, you are not in this alone. The strongest messages will not come from you; they will come from your customers. Make it easy for them to brag about their purchase and share their experiences by adding links to all types of social media. The most successful companies in the world do it, why shouldn’t you?

Creating excellent PPC landing pages can be tough. If you follow my best practices above you will lower your CPA and increase your cash flow.

Every industry is different which makes it difficult to put together the perfect guide. So I ask you, what is the best landing page you have seen? What has worked for you? Join the conversation by sharing your experiences below!

No More Google Affilicate Network - An update on Google Affiliate Network

Here is What J.J. Hirschle the Head of Google Affiliate Network updated on Google Affiliate Network

"Our goal with Google Affiliate Network has been to help advertisers and publishers improve their performance across the affiliate ecosystem. Cost-per-action (CPA) marketing has rapidly evolved in the last few years, and we’ve invested significantly in CPA tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer. We’re constantly evaluating our products to ensure that we’re focused on the services that will have the biggest impact for our advertisers and publishers.

To that end, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.

We’ll continue to support our customers as we wind down the product over the next few months. And there are other products that can help you achieve your goals. Affiliate publishers can continue to earn AdSense revenue through the AdSense network. And marketers can take advantage of other CPA-oriented Google tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer to drive valuable online sales and conversions. These areas are growing rapidly and we’re continuing to invest heavily in them.

Thanks for your support of our affiliate product, and we look forward to helping you grow your business in the future."

7 Ways to Use Facebook for Marketing - Facebook Marketing Tips

Facebook continues to be the reigning champ of social media sites, as the #1 spot where friends connect and share online. More than just a meeting place for friends, Facebook has grown into a venue for businesses to market themselves through interaction with customers and self-promotion.

In this post we will be looking at seven ways you can use Facebook for marketing.

Whether you’re a big corporation or a small local biz, Facebook is a powerful marketing tool – it’s a great space to keep customers informed, develop brand identity, and broaden your reach.

1. Making The Most Of Your Facebook Business Page

A Facebook page is a great free marketing tool for businesses. These pages let businesses identify themselves – not just through listing product offerings and services, but also by sharing links, images, and posts on a customizable page to give a better sense of a business’s personality and character.

Your Facebook business page is a great spot to develop your brand identity and show your human side. Facebook is where you can loosen the tie a bit – don’t be afraid to be funny. If you’re a local footwear store, you might consider posting a video like this little gem:

Ultimately you should consider what your key audience would want to see. Share images, links, videos, anything, as long as it is connected to your business and it seems like something your target audience would enjoy.

In addition to hilarious videos of dogs walking in tiny shoes, a store specializing in footwear might also post an article about how to measure your foot size accurately, what kind of shoe inserts are best for different sore feet woes, etc. A nice mix of humor, educational resources, and posts about your store updates is ideal.

2. Facebook Advertising: Classic Ads

Facebook offers its own form of advertising with Facebook ads, which appear in the side columns of the Facebook site. These classic ads are referred to more specifically as Marketplace Ads. They include a headline with copy, an image, and a click-through link to either a Facebook page, a Facebook app, or an outside website.

Image borrowed from Site Reference

Implementing Facebook advertising into your Facebook marketing strategy is one possible technique for increasing likes or driving website clicks.

Facebook advertising features include:

• Demographic targeting by Facebook user data on age, location, education, and interests.
• The ability to set ad budgets.
• Ad testing, in which multiple ad versions can be run simultaneously in order to compare ad designs and setup.
• Built-in ad performance measurement tools.

Facebook doesn’t release information about their ad CTRs, so it’s difficult to know how successful Facebook ads really are. In our Facebook Ads vs Google Display Ads Infographic, we found that Facebook ads generally have a CTR of 0.051%, and an average CPC of $0.80; however, a business’s Facebook advertising cost can vary a lot depending on the targeting options set and competition.

Using Facebook advertising to increase your “Likes” can be very beneficial – once a user likes your page, they essentially become followers of your business page, and your posts will appear on their Facebook news feed.

This results in more users interacting with you and your brand, forming relationships that may end up translating to conversions in the future.

3. Hosting Facebook Contests

Running Facebook contests, sweepstakes, or promotions is another Facebook marketing tactic that can increase fans and brand awareness.

When conducting a Facebook contest, be aware that contests can’t be hosted through Facebook itself (meaning you can’t ask for likes as entries, have people write answers in the comments, etc.) Businesses must use a third-party app for creating their Facebook contest, then direct users to the app from their Facebook page.

There are plenty of paid tools to help you do this, as well as some free ones. Shortstack offers a number of free contest templates, so long as your page has under 2,000 likes. Pagemodo also has a free option. Many third-party Facebook contest apps offer free versions, but your options with them are limited.

4. Facebook Promoted Posts

Facebook Promoted Posts let Facebook page owners pay a flat rate in order to have a single post reach a certain number of users, increasing a specific post’s reach and impressions.

Some businesses have asked – why should I have to pay to ensure that my post is seen by users who are my followers? If a user has liked my page, they should always see my posts on their news feed, shouldn’t they? The answer to this question is no, because it assumes that users spend every waking moment of their life on Facebook’s news feed. For the health and safety of your Facebook fans, we hope this isn’t true!

If a fan of yours happens to be looking at their news feed when you post your story, they are likely to see it, but even then there is no guarantee if their news feed is swamped by other posts. That’s where Promoted Posts comes in – it ups your chances of being seen on a user’s news feed. Facebook Promoted Posts are shown to existing fans, with an added option to reach friends of fans.

Promoted Posts are easy to set up – just click the button beneath any of your page posts.

While the flat rate simplifies the process, Promoted Posts lack the targeting options offered by other Facebook ads.

5. Sponsored Stories

Sponsored Stories are a type of Facebook ad that shows a user’s interactions, such as a Facebook like, to the user’s friends.

Sponsored Stories seeks to capitalize on the “word of mouth” concept. If a user sees that three of his friends like a certain page, he is more inclined to pay attention. The goal of Sponsored Stories is to have a user take the same action as their friends. Advertisers can choose to show friends “likes” if they want more page likes, show friends who have “claimed this offer” if a business wants more users to claim offers, etc.

While the action performed by a friend liking a page or claiming an offer is automatically posted in a user’s news feed, these posts easily get overlooked. Sponsored Stories get preferred positioning, capable of appearing in news feeds and the right side bar. Sponsored Stories is also the only ad format available on mobile devices.

Sponsored Stories don’t only apply to likes or offers – they can be used with any Facebook Open Graph app. If a friend has just installed Scramble With Friends on Facebook, Sponsored Stories can show users that their friend has just played the Scramble game, with an invite to “challenge them,” “play with them,” or any similar variation.

Facebook claims that Sponsored Stories have 46% higher CTRs and 20% lower CPCs than regular Facebook ads, making them a very serious strategy for marketing on Facebook.

Facebook Sponsored Stories can be created easily through the Facebook ad create flow. Open Graph Sponsored Stories with a customized call to action require advertisers to use a third-party provider.

6. Facebook Open Graph

Facebook Open Graph lets businesses label a user’s action with their app. Billions of interactions are posted with Facebook Open Graph every day.

Businesses can create third-party apps that connect to a user and post a notice on Facebook when a user performs a specific action with the app. Facebook’s Open Graph allows for creative interactive options outside of the standard “like” and “comment.” Posts can suggest that users “listen,” “taste,” “read,” – it’s up to businesses to get creative.

Virtually any time a site or app prompts users to sign in to Facebook, it has something to do with connecting the user with the Facebook Open Graph.

Spotify is a great example of how Facebook Open Graph becomes a powerful Facebook marketing tool.

It all starts with a Facebook login prompt.

This is followed immediately by a permission request, which many users click through with little thought. I actually discovered that I had given permissions to 130 apps, 95% of which I don’t recall the reasoning behind.

Once permission has been obtained, Spotify is able to stream what songs a user is listening to on a friend’s news feed.

Pic borrowed from Justin Lafferty of AllFacebook.com

Notice that users are given a variety of options – they can like the song their friend is listening to, listen to the song themselves, or star it as a favorite in Spotify.

Open graph actions like these are unique enough to stand out from the cluttered craziness of a user’s news feed.

Many Facebook games make frequent use of Facebook open graph actions, posting a notice when a user has completed a level or won an achievement.

Farmville. Oh joy.

Open graph actions are being categorized as a new type of consumer story, taking advantage of the word of mouth phenomenon. Open graph posts are more meaningful to users because they are being generated by a familiar friend, not simply a brand, making them the latest and greatest of Facebook marketing tools.

7. Facebook Exchange (FBX)

Facebook Exchange lets advertisers take advantage of ad retargeting on Facebook through real-time bidding. Advertisers can target audiences based on web history data – when a user visits a product page on a retailer’s website, but fails to make a purchase, the retailer can then display an ad for that same product on Facebook with FBX.

While Facebook retargeting ads were only relegated to the side columns, recently these ads have been allowed to appear in news feeds, the most valuable Facebook real-estate. This is great news for FBX advertisers, since response rates for news feed ads are 10 to 50 times higher than that of ad placements in the right column.

So how do Facebook Exchange ads perform? The CTR for Facebook Exchange ads is 40% lower than for other web retargeting ads, like those offered by the Google Display Network. Other retargeting ads are also cheaper, with price per unique clicks costing 80% less than Facebook retargeting ads. Still, in terms of cost-per-impression and cost-per-click, FBX ads are considerably cheaper, so the monetary benefits depend on your business’s needs. These numbers are also subject to change as FBX ads begin to appear more often in the news feed.