SEO and Marketing
Find the best ways to increase your traffic and earnings with solid SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) and marketing techniques.
-
Nurcin Erdogan Loeffler, head of strategy and innovation, Vizeum China, outlines the seven ways businesses can future proof their digital strategies. With more than two years in China and a background in strategy, Nurcin Erdogan Loeffler shared her thoughts on future proofing a business strategy with the audience at ClickZ Live Shanghai. While the future for many of us is seen as something unpredictable and scary, the definition on Wikipedia is quite simple: “The Future” is the time after the present. But what does that actually mean? “When we look at the reality, especially in our industry, the future is now. We are already used to seeing science fiction as s…
-
- 0 replies
- 72 views
-
-
While poking around in the Google AdWords keyword research tool recently, I noticed something that made me do a double take. I refreshed my browser and re-inputted the same keywords as before. Same result. Something had changed, and I think it’s for the better. First, some background For the past couple months, I’ve struggled to see the value of Google’s update to the Keyword Planner which now shows aggregated search volume for keywords and close search variants. There have been a number of write-ups about this if you’re curious about how searchies have reacted to this change. Spoiler alert: not super well. The logic behind the update is sound: someone sea…
-
- 0 replies
- 62 views
-
-
We all know Q4 is the biggest time of the year when it comes to ecommerce. Google Shopping tends to be a strong revenue driver for businesses investing in digital marketing. So how do you make sure you are being as efficient and effective as possible on Google shopping? Below are some key tips to make sure you are capitalizing on the holiday opportunity: 1) Optimize the product titles in your feed Titles in the feed make the biggest difference in capturing more traffic. When optimizing your feed, remember that the titles play a significantly larger role in capturing traffic than descriptions. You still want to have a proper description, but you absolutely mu…
-
- 0 replies
- 63 views
-
-
Last week we published the third instalment of our complete guide to Google ranking signals. It concentrated on the rather nebulous term ‘quality content’ and the practical signals you can provide Google to prove the text on your webpage is worthwhile. This week we continue diving into on-page content factors, with content freshness. Freshness How recently your webpage was published is a ranking signal. However different searches have different freshness needs. (Source: Google Inside search post) Google checks content for freshness by monitoring the following types of searches… Recent events or hot topics: Anything that begins trending on the web, that se…
-
- 0 replies
- 14 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week we have Google unleashing Penguin 4.0, AMP coming to organic mobile SERPs, Twitter making some changes for the better and the introduction of Google’s own personal messenger service, Allo. Penguin 4.0 is finally rolled out As I reported earlier today, Google has finally confirmed that its Penguin algorithm update is now rolling out in all languages. The spammy-link killing update will feature the following improvements… Penguin is now real-time Penguin data is refreshed in real time, so any changes will be made as soon as the…
-
- 0 replies
- 81 views
-
-
After a couple of years waiting, and various algorithm fluctuations described as ‘normal turbulence’, Google has finally confirmed today that its Penguin algorithm update is rolling out in all languages. The last update in 2014 – Penguin 3.0 – may have only affected less than 1% of US/UK searches, but that ultimately translated to 12 billion queries. Here we’ll detail all the changes you can expect from Penguin 4.0 according to Google’s blog post. But first a little refresher… What is Penguin? According to Adam Stetzer in his post on the delayed Penguin update, Google first launched the Penguin update in April 2012 to catch sites spamming the search results. Spe…
-
- 0 replies
- 67 views
-
-
National Geographic is known for its impressive visual content. How did it use it though to create a highly successful social presence? There are not many brands that can explain the power of visual storytelling as well as National Geographic, a media brand with a history of 128 years in science and photography that uses all its resources to create a compelling social presence. Nadine Heggie, Vice President of Global Partnerships for National Geographic Partners Europe & Africa, offered an insight during Social Media Week on how the brand dominates social media with the use of storytelling and the power of the community. National Geographic is already rea…
-
- 0 replies
- 51 views
-
-
How can you create content marketing which works for search, right from the start? Many of us probably think of SEO as something which is done after the fact: you create your copy, then you think about how to optimise it. But at the Content Marketing Association’s Digital Breakfast last week, Kevin Gibbons from BlueGlass proposed a radically different approach. To make your content work for SEO, Gibbons’ advice is to “start with the end in mind”. You need to be thinking about promotion from the word go, he said; so that when it comes to publishing your content, you already have a distribution and promotion strategy in mind, and have crafted your content towards that…
-
- 0 replies
- 72 views
-
-
For the last two years there has been much discussion and debate around whether click through rate (CTR) is something Google uses to determine where to rank a site. It all began way back when Rand Fishkin did an interesting experiment which provided some evidence behind his theory that CTR is in fact something that could influence rankings. This theory makes sense; why wouldn’t Google be looking at user based signals to improve search results? Just as we do user testing on our websites to increase the number of conversions, Google will surely want to be looking at user signals to ensure they are fulfilling their goal of ‘organising the world’s information’ in…
-
- 0 replies
- 71 views
-
-
Just in case you’re ever tempted to try a few black-hat practices to manipulate your search positions in Google, here are 12 tales to persuade you otherwise. Whether using cloaking, unnatural paid-for links, doorway pages, spam or hidden links, Google is swift and brutal with a manual penalty. Even if the transgression isn’t necessarily your own fault. In fact for some of the following well-known brands, they’re merely guilty of not paying enough attention or not being educated enough when it comes to what Google cracks down on. There’s some great advice here about what to do when hit with a manual penalty, but for now, let’s check out the circumstances of 12 hig…
-
- 0 replies
- 113 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week we have news from the depths of the irony-well, a few Google product updates and the social network everyone forgot about adds some pretty good ecommerce functions. Adblock Plus launches its own ad service Oh the irony of ironies. Well maybe it’s not ironic, maybe it’s just hilariously predictable. Adblock Plus is getting into the ad business with launch of its own RTB platform. Yes apparently there are ads that should be allowed, you know, the ‘good kind’ – and they’re the ones provided by Adblock Plus itself As Al Roberts report…
-
- 0 replies
- 77 views
-
-
Google has begun experimenting with a cleaner, whiter, brighter user interface. As reported by Barry Schwartz over at SER today, this new layout test appears to offer a more spacious, desktop experience. Here’s the tweet that revealed the possible change… #Google Rolling New SERP Layout | Change in Search Bar | Space b/w Results @rustybrick @AbhaySaxena87 pic.twitter.com/CHsIu0GcFj — AbhisheK Kasaudhan (@abhikasaudhan) September 16, 2016 As you can see the top bar is less grey and larger, covering the tabs below the search box now,and the search button has been changed from a blue button to a white button with a blue magnifying glass. Here’s Barr…
-
- 0 replies
- 13 views
-
-
To date the leaders of restaurant takeaway and delivery have prospered, largely, on an open approach, that allows customers to choose between mobile web and apps. But a new breed led by UberEats and Amazon Prime won’t allow mobile web access, as they attempt to drive people download their native apps. Whether consumers want to find/order a meal to eat in, takeaway or have delivered, increasingly the tool of choice is the mobile phone. But many restaurant businesses – with a few notable exceptions – have been slow to capitalize on this shift, which has allowed third-parties to gain a foothold in the market. This is happening in many major cities worldwide, but le…
-
- 0 replies
- 140 views
-
-
Local businesses may not have the same resources, budgets or social tools available to international retailers, yet somehow some of them manage to impress us with their awesome social media campaigns. Here are some recent examples of local and small business campaigns that are rocking social media marketing… Red Mango If you like frozen yogurt and smoothies, chances are you have been to a Red Mango store for their all natural yogurt and juices. Apart from their delish yogurts, Red Mango is also well-known for their social media presence. They have over 76.4k followers on Facebook and 58.9k followers on Twitter and highly engaged followers at that! Now let’s look…
-
- 0 replies
- 76 views
-
-
Adblock Plus, one of the most popular ad blocking add-ons for browsers, is getting into the ad business with the launch of a new marketplace that allows publishers and advertisers to buy and sell ads that are not subject to ad blocking. The marketplace is an extension of Adblock Plus’ Acceptable Ads initiative, which was launched in 2011. That initiative gives publishers and advertisers the ability to, for a fee, work with Adblock Plus to whitelist ads that meet certain criteria. Among other things, Acceptable Ads must be clearly distinguishable as advertising, can’t disrupt a user’s natural reading flow and must not exceed certain sizes or contain animation.…
-
- 0 replies
- 81 views
-
-
As influencer marketing grows in popularity, we’re also seeing it become increasingly commoditized. We’re seeing marketplaces auctioning off influencers with the largest following to the highest bidder. And networks “matching” brands with any influencer they have available. This commoditization eliminates the human matchmaking element. Taking away the smart brand match detracts from the meaningful engagement that influencer marketing can create. This over-emphasis on making influencer marketing a ‘scalable’ tactic is resulting in spammy posts. Like the examples we’ve seen from Scott Disick… You can avoid these pitfalls and find authentic success with your…
-
- 0 replies
- 63 views
-
-
It’s been a Google heavy month and we’re only halfway through September – what with its latest mobile-first product announcements, various algorithm fluctuations and many SERP experiments. So let’s leave the big G to do its own thing for a while and check in with the second most popular search engine, Bing. What’s Bing been up to lately? How’s Bing feeling? What’s new with Bing? How does Bing like to take its tea? Let’s take a look at the latest round of announcements from the Big B over the last couple of weeks that you may have missed. Bing Network reaches 20% market share in the UK Bing has announced that it has surpassed 20% market share in the UK, accord…
-
- 0 replies
- 49 views
-
-
Publishers are scrambling to produce more digital video content to meet advertiser demand for video ad inventory, and some are even turning to automated video creation technologies. But when it comes to video ad effectiveness, not all video content is created equal. According to a study by FreeWheel Media, in Q1 2016, ads on long-form video content saw a 95% completion rate, a significantly higher percentage than mid and short-form video content, which delivered completion rates of 80% and 71%, respectively. Ads associated with live video content, which is one of the biggest video trends of 2016, delivered a 94% completion rate, suggesting that it could quickly b…
-
- 0 replies
- 62 views
-
-
Like a lot of marketers, I find LinkedIn Ads frustrating. The thing is, by making just a few needed improvements, both LinkedIn itself and advertisers could greatly benefit. For LinkedIn, advertising could be bringing in much more than a meagre $181 million in revenues, as it did during the second quarter of 2016. Compare that to the advertising revenues of Google ($19 billion) and Facebook ($6 billion) during the same quarter. For advertisers, better LinkedIn ads would offer some pretty obvious benefits. It would give brands and businesses another platform to reach LinkedIn’s 450 million professionals (although only a quarter of those users are reportedly activ…
-
- 0 replies
- 74 views
-
-
19 ways to tell… Top 5 signs that… What Bridget Jones can teach us about… It will come as no surprise that these cliché, clickbait headlines are the focus of a lot of digital marketers’ frustrations. While people aspire for the next piece of viral content, expecting to become internet sensations overnight, it needs to be understood that things like this don’t happen by accident. Of course, there is some degree of luck involved in just how popular a piece of content is, but the process of creating the idea and building out the strategy behind it is the core to success. Everybody needs content. As digital strategists, SEOs and consultants, and as consumers, we …
-
- 0 replies
- 78 views
-