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Sunday, 3 March 2013

#SocialChat Discusses SEO for Community Managers

On Monday Feb. 26th, Travis Wright (@teedubya) took a spin in the hot seat to discuss SEO for community managers.  Mr. Wright specializes in local search, SEO, mobile, social and other digital marketing strategies.  He is currently the Global Social Media Manger for Symantec Corporation.  In his words, he’s a “Digital Disrupter and Interactive Awesomeizer.”

Check out what he had to say when it comes to Business Relationship Optimization, or BRO.

Q1 @teedubya Search & Social are “Bros.” Mind explaining the idea behind Business Relationship Optimization?

speaker-travis-wright-82Travis: I had an epiphany one night while working… Relationships are the root of all revenues for businesses.  I’ve worked on SEO since the mid 90s, but things are not just about the code and bots anymore,  now everything is content driven. I thought… hmmm, SEO is really about business relationships.  It’s about where and how you optimize your content.  Then it hit me BRO! Business Relationship Optimization. And it was magical. The skies parted, sun shined & birds sang.

Q2 @teedubya How do social signals affect search rankings?

Travis: Social Signals are becoming a big part of the Google algorithm and continue to gain strength.  How many like your brand on FB?  How many FB shares?  How many Twitter followers?  Retweets? Etc.  All weigh on rankings.  The more visibility that your content gets from social sharing and the more influential the sharers, the greater the value.  Definitely keep in mind that Google+ social signals carry weight.  A little home cooking, but definitely important.

Q3 @teedubya What kind of search opportunities will we find on Twitter, YouTube, Others?

Travis:  TWITTER – You can monitor Twitter for news and trends that might play well into your brand’s message and “piggy back” on that news.  I’ve done this a lot.  In fact, if you can gain some key Retweets from friends at key times, you can become the top tweet on any trend.  I’ve effectively newsjacked the top tweet on terms like #cybermonday & #blackfriday by having influential BROs.

YOUTUBE – Keep in mind that YouTube is the number 2 search engine, so you definitely want to optimize videos for keyword terms.  It’s not just about social signals.  It’s about search, as well.

BLOGGING: By building great relationships, you can get guest posts. You build relationships, then gain author accounts on top blogs where you can post your own content.  SEO+Social = BRO  Brands are becoming media companies.  Content opportunities are literally everywhere right now.  Build those relationships. Business Relationships open doors… Read the book, Brandscaping.  It’s a similar message about partnering with other brands.

Q4 @teedubya How does Facebook Graph Search figure into the game?

Travis: Facebook Graph Search is huge… and kinda creepy.  I can search for all my single friends in CA who like Star Wars.  So it’s great to find interesting people that you and your friends know.  It’s also going to be good for local business.  With FB Graph, if I want a nearby Mexican Restaurant, I can search for which of my BROs have checked in or reviewed the place.  Plumbers Nearby… you can find them.  So, if you are a business and you don’t have a FB page yet, you will suffer.

Q5 @teedubya How can brands optimize for social sharing?

Travis: I think brands should really try to engage their employees to help share their content. You should really try surfacing your advocates.  Think about it. Who already loves you?  Who is influential & loves you?  Brands can also increase their BRO, by partnering with other brands who have a similar target audience. Brands need to have a strategy for outreach with their current customers and future customers.  These relationships are vital.

Q6 @teedubya Your tips for re-purposing content?

Travis: Well, if you fully embrace BRO, you will obtain a few author accounts on OTHER influential blog sites.  Don’t put ALL of your content on YOUR site.  Put a few choice items on partner sites, as well.  You get SEO backlinks and Social signals that way.  For example, you can take a successful piece of content that you’ve written and turn it into a slideshare.  At @NortonOnline, we recommended converting one of @marianmerritt’s blogs into a Power Point presentation. Boom! 130k views.  Take a successful article, turn it into a video.  Maybe make some graphic visuals for Pinterest or Instagram.   Building strong business relationships allows the content that you create to receive greater visibility and amplification.

BRO!  Travis has an in-depth article on the topic on his website, traviswright.com.

This Monday at 9PM Eastern #SocialChat will be discussing Creating Killer Content that Gets Shared

If you want to learn more from the hosts of #SocialChat, Alan K’necht and Michelle Stinson Ross, they will be presenting on several panel sessions at SMX Toronto on March 20 & 21st.

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Latest posts by Michelle Stinson Ross (see all)

  • #SocialChat Discusses SEO for Community Managers - March 1, 2013
  • Facebook Inks New Partnerships for Better Ad Targeting - February 28, 2013
  • 100 Million Actively Use #Instagram Every Month - February 27, 2013

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3 Essential Content Curation Best Practices to Boost Content Marketing Performance

Keep Calm and CurateCreating original content is resource intensive and while some companies that have all the copywriting resources they need (that’s an exception not the rule) it makes sense to curate content in addition to publishing original articles and media.

Curation is the cornerstone of being useful on the social web by finding, filtering and adding insight to content online and sharing with social networks.

Qualitative curation over time helps associate the topics being curated with the company or person doing the curating. When a company does a good job of defining its unique selling proposition and what it stands for, those key concepts help define editorial themes in everything from a content calendar to topics that drive curated social media content.

In combination with original content and industry participation, curation can be very powerful for creating awareness and credibility.

Due to it’s importance, content curation is a topic I cover in Optimize and to dig a little deeper, here’s an excerpt from Chapter 9 to help you get a better idea of what content curation can do for your business and some best practices.

Content Curation Facilitates Many Content Marketing Objectives:

  • Efficient, topically focused collection of information that appeals to customers looking for a “single source” on a particular topic.
  • Grows awareness of your brand as a topical authority based on adding insight to industry commentary.
  • Facilitates networking into spheres of influence in your industry. Collecting and sharing content from influential members of your community can get you on their radar resulting in being mentioned, links or even referrals.
  • Attracts links from social sources like Facebook and Twitter. Social links can send traffic, influence social and standard search visibility.
  • Attracts links from other web sites which can also send traffic and influence better visibility on search engines like Google and Bing.
  • Keeps prospects engaged as part of your lead nurturing efforts.

Blending a mix of new content with the filtering and management of other useful information streams is a productive and manageable solution for providing prospective customers a steady stream of high quality and relevant content. There are several good free services that facilitate curation tasks like Storify. Paper.li, Silk, News.me, Scoop.it and many more. Software can help, but on it’s own, isn’t the answer.

Pure creation is demanding. Pure automation doesn’t engage. Curating content can provide the best of both. Here are several best practices to help you with curation sources, types of content and where to publish.

1. Sources of News to Curate:

  • Industry specific newsletters sent to you via email
  • Links to content and media shared on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit and other social sharing websites
  • Google Alerts, Google News or Google+ Search
  • Curation tools: Flipboard, Scoop.it, Storify.com
  • Real-time search engines: Topsy, socialmention.com
  • Niche topic blogs
  • News aggregators: Alltop, popurls, Techmeme
  • Bookmark and or subscribe to updates from industry news, magazine and blog websites
  • Press Release Distribution Services like PRWeb, PRNewswire or Marketwire
  • Review competitor websites and monitor for mentions of their brand terms in though Google Alerts and social media monitoring tools like Trackur or Radian6 to see what kind of curation tactics they’re using

2. Types of Content to Curate:

  • Useful resources relevant to your target audience: blogs, news, training, tips, networking and industry events.
  • Content created by influential people of importance to the target audience
  • Statistics, research and reports
  • Compelling or provocative industry news
  • Videos: YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler
  • Slideshare presentations or search Google.com for .ppt file types
  • Whitepapers, eBooks and case studies
  • Infographics and other data visualizations
  • Tips, How To’s and best practices
  • Create short lists of tips according to keyword themes
  • Compile large collections of resources according to topical theme
  • Aggregate the best comments from other blogs or your own blog
  • Run surveys, polls & contests that result in content

3. Where to Publish Curated Content:

  • Company Blog
  • eBooks
  • Email Newsletter
  • Social Media Channels
  • Contributed Articles or Blog Posts to Industry Sites
  • Niche Microsite Dedicated to a Specific News Category

These are just a few suggestions and the best ideas for content creation and curation will come from a specific analysis of your own customer groups and industry. The key is to do the homework of understanding what motivates your community and to assemble a compelling mix of curated, repurposed and original content to inspire them to engage and buy. Be thoughtful about the usefulness of the content you assemble, create and promote. Empathize with your customers’ interests and goals so you can properly optimize content for both search engines and social media sharing.

Still not convinced? Check out what Brian Solis, David Meerman Scott, Ann Handley, Joe Pulizzi, Rebecca Lieb and Paul Gillin have to say about content curation.

Excerpt from Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing, published with permission from Wiley. 

How are you adding content curation to the content marketing mix?



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Saturday, 2 March 2013

As Google’s Search Share in China Shrinks, a New Competition Emerges

Recent data compiled by comScore, a digital business analytics firm, shows continued strength for Google in the search engine field. The leader in search engines, Google remains the top choice among searches in the United States and is still the top search engine in the world. However, Google has not been able to establish that same position of strength in China, the world’s most populous nation with a fast growing consumer base.

Now the news is getting worse for Google behind the wall as a new competitor is emerging in the search engine business in China. Alibaba, an Internet company based in China, is launching a new search engine titled Aliyun in an effort to not only challenge the most popular search engine in China (Baidu) but Google as well.

Aliyun, which will be housed within the AliCloud subsidiary of Alibaba Group, will provide Web surfers with many of the same features that other search engines offer. The page will feature Internet, news, image, and map searches. The map service available on Aliyun will be powered by AutoNavi, a Chinese digital mapping and navigation firm.

Currently, the Chinese search engine marketplace is dominated by Baidu. With a 72.97 percent share of the market in China, Baidu’s dominance might be better labeled as a choke hold on the industry. The next closest competitor, Qihoo 360 at 9.64 percent, cannot even claim a double digit share of the marketplace. Third place belongs to Sogou at 7.83 percent, followed by Google in fourth with a humbling 4.72 percent share. Bing heads up a list of several search engines that can claim less than 1 percent of the market.

With such a cluttered industry dominated by one provider, it might seem confusing that another business would want to step into the ring. However, there is more to this story than the entrance of another competitor in the Chinese search engine marketplace. The Alibaba Group has deep financial pockets, and therefore has the means to take a measured approach at cracking into the Chinese market and doesn’t need to rush through an “all or nothing” approach right out of the gates.

While the main goal of any company launching a search engine is to challenge the leader, Baidu in this case, Alibaba appears to be out to stick it to Google. For starters, it seems to be no small coincidence to industry analysts that Aliyun’s search engine will have more in common visually with Google than other competitors in the Chinese marketplace.

Beyond a similar look to its search engine, Aliyun’s entrance into the market may be another shot across the bow in the battle between Google and Alibaba in China. Yes, these two competitors in the tech industry have a history with one another in the country, and it is not one that would be described as friendly.

Last year Alibaba created the Aliyun mobile OS for use on smartphones in China and had convinced Acer to develop a handset running the operating system. However, Google quickly stepped in to rain on Alibaba’s parade by forcing Acer to back out of the project. Google’s reasoning was that the Aliyun mobile OS, which uses Android technology, was not a strong and compatible Android OS. As Acer is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, it was not allowed to sign onto the project and pulled out.

In an explanation at the time, Google pointed out that:

“Compatibility is at the heart of the Android ecosystem and ensures a consistent experience for developers, manufacturers, and consumers.

Non-compatible versions of Android, like Aliyun, weaken the ecosystem. All members of the Open Handset Alliance have committed to building one Android platform and to not ship non-compatible Android devices.

This does not however, keep OHA members from participating in competing ecosystems.”

To summarize, Google doesn’t care if Acer develops handsets for use with Windows Phone 8, Apple iOS, or Blackberry OS. On the other hand, they are not allowed to create a handset that operates on an Android OS that is deemed to be inferior.

It seems obvious that there is no “fuzzy feeling” between these two companies, but Alibaba’s move with the Aliyun search engine could work out better than the Aliyun mobile OS did in China. Google’s position in China is admittedly weak, and data from 2012 shows that Google’s positioning in fourth place is not exactly concrete.

While competitors that are already ahead of Google in China, namely Qihoo 360, experienced growth in 2012, Google’s position weakened. Qihoo 360 saw a 2 percent jump in page visits and unique visits during the final quarter of 2012 alone, going from 7.3 percent and 7.4 percent respectively to 9.6 percent and 9.8 percent. By contrast, the final quarter of 2012 saw Google’s share of the market dip from 5.1 percent and 5.2 percent respectively to 4.7 percent and 4.5 percent.

Federico Einhorn

Federico Einhorn

FullTraffic
Founder and CEO at FullTraffic. Passionate about Search Engine Marketing and Optimization, regular writer for the FullTraffic Blog. Since 2005, FullTraffic has evolved to become one of the most important Traffic providers worldwide for small to medium sized businesses.
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Latest posts by Federico Einhorn (see all)

  • As Google’s Search Share in China Shrinks, a New Competition Emerges - March 1, 2013
  • Overcoming the Google Panda, EMD and Disavow Updates - December 14, 2012
  • 7 Fun Ways to Inject Holiday Spirit into Your Social Media Campaign - December 4, 2012

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Google AdWords Editor 10

Google AdWords EditorGoogle has announced the new version of enhanced campaigns change coming to AdWords. The key features include:

  • Upgrade campaigns to enhanced, either individually or in bulk.
  • Set campaign level bid adjustments for mobile devices.
  • Set bid adjustments for targeted locations.
  • Specify device preferences for individual ads (Mobile or All).

You can read the full release note over here.

Zee, a Google AdWords support representative said in the forums to "ensure uninterrupted use of AdWords Editor, you will need to upgrade by June 28, 2013."

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help, WebmasterWorld & Google+.

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As Google’s Search Share in China Shrinks, a New Competition Emerges

Recent data compiled by comScore, a digital business analytics firm, shows continued strength for Google in the search engine field. The leader in search engines, Google remains the top choice among searches in the United States and is still the top search engine in the world. However, Google has not been able to establish that same position of strength in China, the world’s most populous nation with a fast growing consumer base.

Now the news is getting worse for Google behind the wall as a new competitor is emerging in the search engine business in China. Alibaba, an Internet company based in China, is launching a new search engine titled Aliyun in an effort to not only challenge the most popular search engine in China (Baidu) but Google as well.

Aliyun, which will be housed within the AliCloud subsidiary of Alibaba Group, will provide Web surfers with many of the same features that other search engines offer. The page will feature Internet, news, image, and map searches. The map service available on Aliyun will be powered by AutoNavi, a Chinese digital mapping and navigation firm.

Currently, the Chinese search engine marketplace is dominated by Baidu. With a 72.97 percent share of the market in China, Baidu’s dominance might be better labeled as a choke hold on the industry. The next closest competitor, Qihoo 360 at 9.64 percent, cannot even claim a double digit share of the marketplace. Third place belongs to Sogou at 7.83 percent, followed by Google in fourth with a humbling 4.72 percent share. Bing heads up a list of several search engines that can claim less than 1 percent of the market.

With such a cluttered industry dominated by one provider, it might seem confusing that another business would want to step into the ring. However, there is more to this story than the entrance of another competitor in the Chinese search engine marketplace. The Alibaba Group has deep financial pockets, and therefore has the means to take a measured approach at cracking into the Chinese market and doesn’t need to rush through an “all or nothing” approach right out of the gates.

While the main goal of any company launching a search engine is to challenge the leader, Baidu in this case, Alibaba appears to be out to stick it to Google. For starters, it seems to be no small coincidence to industry analysts that Aliyun’s search engine will have more in common visually with Google than other competitors in the Chinese marketplace.

Beyond a similar look to its search engine, Aliyun’s entrance into the market may be another shot across the bow in the battle between Google and Alibaba in China. Yes, these two competitors in the tech industry have a history with one another in the country, and it is not one that would be described as friendly.

Last year Alibaba created the Aliyun mobile OS for use on smartphones in China and had convinced Acer to develop a handset running the operating system. However, Google quickly stepped in to rain on Alibaba’s parade by forcing Acer to back out of the project. Google’s reasoning was that the Aliyun mobile OS, which uses Android technology, was not a strong and compatible Android OS. As Acer is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, it was not allowed to sign onto the project and pulled out.

In an explanation at the time, Google pointed out that:

“Compatibility is at the heart of the Android ecosystem and ensures a consistent experience for developers, manufacturers, and consumers.

Non-compatible versions of Android, like Aliyun, weaken the ecosystem. All members of the Open Handset Alliance have committed to building one Android platform and to not ship non-compatible Android devices.

This does not however, keep OHA members from participating in competing ecosystems.”

To summarize, Google doesn’t care if Acer develops handsets for use with Windows Phone 8, Apple iOS, or Blackberry OS. On the other hand, they are not allowed to create a handset that operates on an Android OS that is deemed to be inferior.

It seems obvious that there is no “fuzzy feeling” between these two companies, but Alibaba’s move with the Aliyun search engine could work out better than the Aliyun mobile OS did in China. Google’s position in China is admittedly weak, and data from 2012 shows that Google’s positioning in fourth place is not exactly concrete.

While competitors that are already ahead of Google in China, namely Qihoo 360, experienced growth in 2012, Google’s position weakened. Qihoo 360 saw a 2 percent jump in page visits and unique visits during the final quarter of 2012 alone, going from 7.3 percent and 7.4 percent respectively to 9.6 percent and 9.8 percent. By contrast, the final quarter of 2012 saw Google’s share of the market dip from 5.1 percent and 5.2 percent respectively to 4.7 percent and 4.5 percent.

Federico Einhorn

Federico Einhorn

FullTraffic
Founder and CEO at FullTraffic. Passionate about Search Engine Marketing and Optimization, regular writer for the FullTraffic Blog. Since 2005, FullTraffic has evolved to become one of the most important Traffic providers worldwide for small to medium sized businesses.
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Latest posts by Federico Einhorn (see all)

  • As Google’s Search Share in China Shrinks, a New Competition Emerges - March 1, 2013
  • Overcoming the Google Panda, EMD and Disavow Updates - December 14, 2012
  • 7 Fun Ways to Inject Holiday Spirit into Your Social Media Campaign - December 4, 2012

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How Search Works – Google Tells All

In an ongoing effort to enlighten us and fight spam, Google tells all today in an infographic entitled How Search Works that was released just moments ago.  They tell the story of Google Search and how they deal with everything from your clicks to scammers.

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They start off by telling us that Google is searching and indexing 30 trilling individual pages each day. And it’s growing each and every day with the increased number of sites helping Google find them better online.  Google navigates the web by crawling each and every page.  It’s basically following each and every link and relating them to each other.

Google crawling the internetIt then uses programs and formulas to deliver the bests results humanly possible as we search the internet.  Their programs and algorithms then search for clues and inferences to better understand what we mean as we’re searching.  Then they pull up relevant documents and web pages that they feel are relevant to what we’re searching.  These documents are pulled from their index.

They then pull the rankings and display them to us.  Keep in mind that there are 200 different factors that make sup these results.  These results also appear to be a little different based on what device you’re searching on weather it be a desktop, laptop, mobile or tablet.

Google states “Our algorithms are constantly changing.  These changes begin as ideas in the minds of our engineers.  They take these ideas and run experiments, analyze the results, tweak them, and run them again and again.” Exploring the Search Lab.

Google search fighting spam

Google is always looking to eliminate spam.  The majority of web spam is done automatically through Googles Algorithms.  However, when they find spam the take MANUAL ACTION.  They then take actions to notify website owners of the penalty in the form of Google Webmaster Tools.  Looks like they are also informing site owners how they can fix the issue to get back into the search rankings.

Interesting to note that in the 800 seconds it took me to read their infographic, 32 Million searches were performed.

John Rampton

John Rampton

Managing Editor John Rampton is an entrepreneur, full-time computer nerd, PPC guru, and founder at PPC.org.
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Latest posts by John Rampton (see all)

  • How Search Works – Google Tells All - March 1, 2013
  • Could Guest Posting Be Dead? - October 11, 2012
  • Holiday PPC Checklist - November 30, 2011

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Daily Search Forum Recap: March 1, 2013

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Video: Google Advertorial Penalties, Yahoo's 18th Birthday & Women In Search
    This week, I cover the major penalty Google dished out for advertorials and link buying. Google's Matt Cutts explained what dilution means with 301 redirects. Google...
  • Google AdWords Editor 10
    Google has announced the new version of enhanced campaigns change coming to AdWords. The key features include...
  • Google On Evil Google
    Pedro Dias, a former Google search quality rep, and now an SEO, shared his thoughts about why many of those that preach that Google is evil on his Google+ page. In short...
  • Webmaster Tips On Launching A New Site In 2013
    Since the existence of creatures such as panda and penguin, webmasters are more nervous and cautious about launching new web sites. They are worried that it would be almost impossible to monetize.
  • Yahoo's 18th Birthday
    The internet icon, Yahoo turned 18 years old today. Yahoo is one of those companies that the internet grew up with. In the past five years or so, the company has been going through some growing pains...
  • Google Dog Sleeping In Conference Room
    Marcelo Camelo posted a picture of one of the conference rooms in the Google New York City offices where he spotted a dog taking a nap. I guess this Google dog had a rough day. I know Google has sl

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

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