The Caffeinated Blog

Whole Lotta Link Love Friday, October 3

To kick off this week's edition of Whole Lotta Link Love, I have an announcement to make:

I've accepted a position with a search marketing agency in the UK, and will be moving there next month to become their Online Communities and Content Manager.

This obviously means that I will no longer be freelancing - yes, I'm heading back to the ol' 9-to-5 grind.  I'm looking forward to this, though - the agency is a great one, and I definitely love the UK.

On to the links:

1. Here's a really great summary of points covered at the Social Media Marketing Summit about how companies can effectively monitor and manage their online reputations, courtesy of the TrishaLyn blog.
2. Meta tags are not just for SEO - yes, they do actually need to sell your products.  Here are some tips for writing effective marketing-driven meta descriptions.
3. I guess you could say my latest social media interest is in widgets - and Newgator Widgets blog provides some best practices for building and marketing your widgets.
4. If you work for an online agency, you may be faced with clients who think that online reputation management is a one time fix rather than a proactive, ongoing activity.  Here's where the role of the agency is so important in this ongoing management.
5. And now, a little video love from the Beatles - a video for one of my favorite songs, "Hey Bulldog".

SEO Tips and Tools for Content Writers: Keyword Research

Many freelance writers who typically write for print publications are beginning to realize the advantages of moving into online content.  There are a ton of opportunities out there, ranging from content portals and online publications to blogs.  Writing for the web, however, is a completely different beastie compared to its sibling in print.

Online audiences have a notoriously shorter attention span – and as a writer, you have to compete with a lot more in order to gain that little bit of attention.  You have to know what it takes to get your content found and read, and this means knowing how to optimize your content for search engines.

I have a feeling that most of my readers already know exactly what SEO (search engine optimization) is.  For the sake of those who don’t, I’ll give you the short definition, according to Wikipedia:

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via ‘natural’ (‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’) search results for targeted keywords.”

The operative words here are “targeted keywords”.  SEO is all about keywords, because those are what searchers use to find web pages.  What you want to do is optimize your content with the proper keywords in order to increase its ranking in search engines and gain more traffic.

SEO is an intensive, ongoing process.  Think of it like a puzzle – there are several pieces required in order to see the big picture, and writing is one of those pieces.  Many businesses will hire freelancers to write optimized content for their websites, so you’ll need to have some basic SEO writing knowledge to be successful. 

Here are a few tips for finding the right keywords for content optimization:

Tip #1: Talk to your client about the keywords they want to use.

Many clients already know what keywords they want their content optimized for, and they’ll provide those to you (typically anywhere from 1 to 5 keywords).  However, if they’ve provided you with more than a few, you will need to find out which ones are their primary keywords.  These are the keywords they want integrated into the content the most. 

Tip #2: Have some keyword research tools ready.

You may have clients who either have keywords, but don’t know which ones to focus on, or don’t have keywords at all and want you to conduct the research.  In either case, you’ll need to have some keyword research tools ready to work with.

There are plenty of excellent, free tools out there to help you.  Here are a few I recommend:

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool – Comprehensive keyword research tool that shows you data across the 3 major search engines, as well as Delicious and Topix.net

Google Adwords Keyword Tool – Keyword tool used by Adwords advertisers (and no, you don’t need an account to use it)

Google Insights for Search – See Google search trends for keywords by category, seasonality, and geography

Tip #3: The keyword with the most traffic may not necessarily be the best keyword for the content.

When researching keywords, you have to think about the target audience and the keywords they would use to find the content you’re writing.  This isn’t always the keyword with the most traffic, and more times than not it’s a long-tail keyword.  Long-tail keywords are typically multi-phrase search terms, and much more targeted by nature because they embody the searcher’s need to find very specific information.

Here’s an example: “coffee beans” is a broader keyword that receives a large amount of daily traffic; however, when you consider the topic you’re writing about, you may want to target specific types of readers with certain long-tail keywords:

“buying coffee beans online”
“green coffee beans online”
“how to roast green coffee beans”
“types of coffee beans”

As you can see, these keyword searches are narrower in their purpose, and therefore may be a better choice for your content. 

Tip #4: Don’t try to optimize one article or page of content with too many keywords.

If your client has a list of 5 or more keywords that need to be woven into the content at a 3-5% density each, you may need to have a talk with that client.  Over-optimization (or “keyword stuffing”) can result in a few problems:

Readability issues: trying to fit too many keywords into one article will compromise the readability of the content, making it sound something like this: “There are many types of coffee beans and green coffee beans.  This article is about the types of coffee beans and how to roast green coffee beans, buying coffee beans online, green coffee beans online…”. 

Exclusion from Google: Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical SEO practice, and Google may actually exclude the page from search results if it thinks this is the case.

Lack of focus:  Again, think about the purpose of the content and the target reader.  Using too many keywords can degrade the focus and overall purpose of the content – resulting in a lack of conversions.

For best results, try to focus on up to 3 primary keywords.  Another rule of thumb – the shorter the content, the fewer different keywords needed for optimization.  I tend to gauge it this way – one keyword for every 250 words total.  So, if a piece of content needs to be 500 words long, then you can optimize it for up to 2 keywords.

Tip #5: Know where to put the keywords for best results.

Keywords should be integrated throughout the piece, but concentrate more on the title and first paragraph.  Mention the main keyword once in the title, and mention it again within the first 50-60 characters of the first paragraph (this is what will be seen when the page appears in search results).  Search engines place more importance on the appearance of keywords in those areas when ranking pages, and searchers are more likely to click on results that contain those keywords.

If you want to make the jump into writing for the web, basic SEO writing knowledge is an absolute must-have.  As a writer, your piece of the SEO puzzle is really not that difficult to obtain - it just takes a few tricks and tools to fit that piece into the big optimization picture.

Social Media Optimization Part 1: Optimizing Your Social Profiles for Search

Most of my recent posts have focused on social media, and I’ve come to the realization that I haven’t been posting as much as I should about search marketing.  After all, “SEM” is part of my tagline, and it’s the foundation of my online marketing experience (“Back in my day, we only had one search advertising platform, and it was called GoTo.com!”).

So, I’m going back to my roots.  While I really love social media and networking, I have a passion for search marketing that I can’t deny.  So, that being said, I’m going to talk about how you can integrate your search marketing efforts with social media.

There are a growing number of ways for you to do this, like through blog posts, social site profiles, and videos.  And, as always, content needs to be the heart and soul of your strategy.  With good, strong, original content, you’ll not only drive traffic from search engines; but also from social sites.

But, what if you don’t have a blog or website yet?  Whether or not you do, you’re likely already (or starting to become) involved in social media, networking, and bookmarking sites.  It’s a great way to build up a cache of followers who will then happily visit your website when you have one.  So today, I’m going to give you some tips for optimizing your social site profiles to build your online reputation and a following.

Define your goals.  Why are you participating in social media and networking sites?  What do you hope to achieve for yourself by doing so?  What kind of audience are you trying to target or network with?  You need to be able to answer these questions before diving in head first, so you can determine which social media sites on which to build a profile and how you should build those profiles.

Choose your social sites.  Depending on your goals, you’ll want to choose relevant social sites where you’ll be able to blend in and network easily, as well as find and share content that interests you and your network.  Here are 5 business social sites to consider, as well as 5 more.  You can also check out this big list here.

What will search engines crawl?  By searching for my first and last name on Google, I’m able to find many of my social media and networking profiles and see what parts of those profiles the Google bots crawled.

 

Notice how Google doesn’t crawl any information other than my name from my LinkedIn profile; but crawls my bio information for Gooruze and SEOmoz.  Sphinn doesn’t even offer the ability to write a full bio, so Google just crawls the available fields.  This gives you a window into what information you should be putting into your profile, based on your pre-defined goals.  You may want to do this after you've already built some profiles, so you can search for them and optimize accordingly.

Do some simple keyword research.  Just like with SEO, you can do some keyword research to find one or two relevant keywords (not counting your name) to include in your profile bios.  Just like with everything else, these should be based on your pre-defined goals.  Then, after figuring out what parts of your profiles the search engines will crawl, integrate these keywords into your profiles by way of your bio, interests, headline, etc. – without overdoing it.  It’s also best to integrate them within the first 50-60 characters so they show up in the actual search result.

Note: since you don't have as much control over your social profiles as you would, say, your own website (and you don't have nearly as much text to work with), don't expect that you'll be able to optimize your profile to rank #1 for the most searched keyword in your niche.  However, a little bit of optimization works (I have found this out a few times myself).

Develop solid, original content.  Some professional social sites (like Gooruze and Biznik) will allow you to post your own original articles.  If you don’t have a blog, this gives you an excellent platform to develop good, authoritative content that will get crawled by search engines.  Look for social sites that give you this opportunity, and then make sure that your content will get crawled by search engines.

Are there any tips I’m missing here?  If you know of any tips specific to certain social sites that you want to share, please leave a comment!

The Yahoo Deal that Won't Die

I read this article today on Search Engine Land about the latest in the Microhoo deal (more appropriately, "ordeal").  I loved how Greg Sterling started out with the horror/suspense movie metaphor, comparing Microsoft to a monster or bad guy that the hero thought was dead, but pops back up at the most unexpected moment to scare the hell out of everyone.

But who's really the "thing that won't die" here - Yahoo or Microsoft?  Sure, Microsoft keeps coming back alive after every attempt to kill them is made; but Yahoo keeps doggedly refusing to die themselves.  Someone is gonna have to give up at some point, here.  I think we know which one.

My question to all of you is: should Yahoo keep holding out, either for themselves or a merger with AOL, or should they just give up to Microsoft?  Also, do you think that a Microhoo deal will improve the search platform landscape, both from a user perspective and a advertiser perspective?

How accurate is Google's keyword research estimates?

The other day I found this great blog post from Yoast.com about the accuracy of Google's keyword traffic estimates.  I was in the middle of doing some keyword research for a client, and needed traffic estimates in numbers to provide him.  Joost de Valk makes the point that Google's estimates in it's keyword tool are waaaay off vs. what actual analytics show (Google Analytics, no less), about "110-220 to 1".

Now, I know that the estimated search volume (and estimated clicks) are, yes, estimates; but about 200 to 1?!  Seriously, Google could be a little more accurate, even with estimates.  If you're doing research on those all important long-tail keywords (like I was), this could throw you for a loop.

Has anyone else seen a discrepancy like this?

The Positive Side of Negative Keywords, Part 2 - Negative Match Types

Last week, I posted this introduction to using negative keywords to get better traffic and save money.

Now, I want to talk about (and get opinions on) another part of negative keywords that many Adwords advertisers may not be aware of - negative match types.  Here's what they look like:
Broad negative (default): -memory cards
Phrase negative: -"memory cards"
Exact negative: -[memory cards]

I wanted to talk about these here, because Google doesn't even go into much about these.  After much searching, I found this post on the Inside Adwords blog from November 2007.  It actually provides a pretty decent chart that explains the different negative match types.

This is really good information to have, as I found out managing a rather large Adwords account.  I had all broad negatives; but upon generating and checking several search query reports, I found that my ads were still being served on keywords I thought I'd eliminated with negatives. 

I eventually brought my costs down by changing all of my negatives to negative phrase match; but who know how many hundreds of dollars I wasted on those keywords!  It's really too bad that Google kind of hides it away, as many new, less experienced advertisers don't have that much of a budget to just throw away.

I'd like to get others opinions - how long were you managing Adwords campaigns before you found out about negative match types?  Once you started using them, did you see a significant difference?

The Positive Side of Negative Keywords (or, How to Stop Paying Way More Than You Should for PPC)

In my last post about getting started with Adwords, I talked about the 5 basic things you need to know when building your first campaign on Adwords.  I also mentioned that I would post some more tips.  While it’s been over a month, I believe that it’s never too late to dispense some good Adwords advice – especially if it can save you money.

And save you money is exactly what negative keywords can do.

First of all, if you’re new to advertising on Google, you may be wondering what negative keywords are.  Well, negative keywords are best described using an example (let’s use the greeting cards example from the last post):

Let’s say you sell greeting cards on your website, and you’re advertising on the keyword “cards” (phrase-matched).  By advertising on this keyword, you’re pretty much covering the gamut of greeting card types (birthday cards, get well cards, anniversary cards, Christmas cards, etc.).  However, I would be willing to bet that you’re also getting (and paying for) quite a bit of traffic from keywords such as memory cards, business cards, baseball cards, video cards, and a host of other keywords where you really don’t want your ad to be.  What’s worse is that by appearing on these untargeted keywords, you’re inadvertently lowering your quality score, which effects how much you pay and where your ad appears (basically, the lower your QS, the lower your position and the more you’ll pay).  This is where you can use negative keywords to your advantage.

All you have to do is add negatives directly to your keyword list, like this:

-memory
-baseball
-business
-video

This will prevent your ad from being shown on those unwanted keywords.

So how do you find negative keywords to add to your account?  Here are a few ways:

Adwords Keyword Tool

The easiest way to find negative keywords.  This is what I used to find the negatives I used in the example above.  I put in the keyword cards, unchecked “Use synonyms” (so I just got results containing cards), and ran the tool.  If you sell greeting cards, you’ll see in the results all the keywords you don’t want to advertise on and will want to add to your negative list.

Search Query Performance Report

You can run this report at the campaign or ad group level, whichever works best for you.  It will show you the keywords for which your ad is being served and getting clicks (which unfortunately means that if you find any unwanted keywords here, you’ve already spent money on them).  If you already have negative keywords in your campaigns and/or ad groups, then it’s a good thing to run this report every now and then to make sure your negatives are working for you, and you’re not wasting money on unwanted terms.

Just searching

I managed campaigns on Yahoo, and their platform doesn’t have a negative keyword tool; so I ran searches their site with Search Assist turn on.  This showed me terms that contained my keyword(s) and had been already searched on.  I was able to pick out negative keywords from there.

You can also use Google organic search results to find negatives, simply by looking for search results for your keywords that are completely irrelevant.

 
Your own analytics

If you’re running Google Analytics or any other analytics package on your website, it will tell you the keywords that are driving traffic to your site.  Run a weekly or monthly report and see if you can spot some negatives.

So, the overall takeaway here is negatives are positive.  By implementing and continually expanding your negative keyword list, you’ll increase your CTR and Quality Score; but most importantly, you’ll save loads of moolah.

Microsoft Backs Away from a Noseless Jerry Yang

In what could be interpreted as Steve Ballmer's strategy for buying out Yahoo at dirt cheap, Microsoft formally withdrew it's bid for the ailing Yahoo, and Yahoo's shares plunged 20 percent as a result.

It was like an arranged marriage that Jerry Yang didn't want to be a part of.  He was not at all attracted to his billionaire suitor, and tried to woo other suitors to make the other jealous.  But alas, Jerry's plan backfired; and after turning down Steve's unsolicited marriage proposals one too many times, he gave up.

This isn't finished yet, though.  Yahoo is out on it's own after Jerry Yang cut off his nose and shot himself in the foot.  They're still trying to make it work with Google; but that could end up being the wedding night from hell with FTC scrutinizing the partnership.  Yahoo's relationship with News Corp. has "cooled", and AOL already outsources its search ads to Google (which would make for a tricky love triangle).  Yahoo may be crawling back to Microsoft in short order, begging to be taken back.  Microsoft will oblige; but the ring will have a much smaller rock on it.

What are your reactions?  Do you think Yahoo can pull itself back up?  Will shareholders all but crucify Jerry Yang?  Will another hero sweep in to save the day?

Should You Still Advertise on Yahoo?

Unless you’re a Neanderthal who’s finally coming out of your cave to speak after 30,000 years, you may be hearing all the brouhaha (or, Microhoo-haha…that was a joke, I’m here all week folks) about Microsoft’s bid to take over Yahoo. We all know that Yahoo hasn’t been doing too well, and Microsoft wants to sweep in like Mighty Mouse to save the day.

So, have businesses started becoming wary about advertising on Yahoo? Turns out, no. They still have the second largest piece of the search pie, and they’ve just increased their share of search advertising dollars, according to a recent SearchIgnite report. Meanwhile, Google and MSN have decreased their shares.

But what about the recent news that Yahoo will be displaying Google Adwords ads in its results in a 3-week test? Is this good or bad news for businesses currently or considering advertising on Yahoo? Well, if you think about it, it’s bad news, since it will increase competition and costs for advertisers.

This is a shame – my personal experience advertising on Yahoo has been good. Their program and platform is pretty solid, and I have gotten better ROI advertising on Yahoo than on Google. If Yahoo becomes flooded with Google ads, costs will rise and ROI will tank (especially since many ads displayed Google, especially through its content network, are highly untargeted – big loss for the people searching on Yahoo).

So, should you advertise on Yahoo?  It's up to you (and your budget), but I would have to say yes.  Despite all the Yahoo drama, it's worth it to test the waters on Yahoo, especially since it's the second largest search engine in terms of searches - it's exposure you can't afford to turn your back on.  Start small, and monitor your costs (just in case the 3-week Adwords test messes with your CPCs).  If it doesn't work, you can always wait until after someone buys Yahoo to test it again.

Do you currently advertise on Yahoo?  Has all the back and forth between Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, et al affected this?  Have you seen any significant increases or decreases in your costs?  Have you increased your Yahoo budget, or scaled it back as a result?

5 Tips for Your First Google Adwords Campaign

Advertising using Google Adwords may look easy to many first-timers, but it's quite deceiving.  Under that deceptively simple facade is a complicated structure of rules, algorithms, features and options that, if not used correctly, can make managing an Adwords campaign a nightmare - costing you money, time, and sales.

So, I've put together these tips to help any first-time Adwords advertiser get the most from their campaigns, without wasting money.  I think the overall theme here is "targeting, targeting, targeting".

Start small:  It can be all too tempting to just start entering tons of keywords when you first start setting up your ad groups, but it's best not to be overly-ambitious at first.  Pick the top 5 keywords that represent your products or services, then do your research around those by finding the best (read: most targeted) keywords you can possibly be on and what they're going to cost.  You can do this before you start setting up your ad groups by using Google's Keyword Research Tool.  Simply type in a keyword that you want suggestions for (you can also choose to get synonym suggestions), and hey presto - there you go. 

After you get your suggestions, be sure to select "Exact" under the Match Type column (more on this in tip #3).  To see your estimated costs, select "Show Estimated Avg. CPC" from the "Choose columns to display" menu, then put in the maximum cost per click you want to pay.  You can also display the "Estimated Avg. Position" column to see where you would be ranked at the max CPC you're willing to pay.   

Now, choose 5-10 keywords for each type of product you sell, and which have a decent volume of traffic and high enough positioning for the max CPC you're willing to pay.

Use Ad Groups to your advantage:  You'll want to make sure that your keywords are grouped in the best way possible, whether it's by product type, offer type, etc.  For instance, if you sell shoes, you may want to set up ad groups around different types of shoes, like women's, men's, and children's.  This is not just a way to organize your keywords, but a way to target your ad copy and landing pages and get the best click-through rate and conversion rate you can possibly get.  The better your click-through rate, the better your Quality Score, which determines where your ad will be placed and how much you're going to pay per click.

Know your Match Types:  Google has 3 different match types:  broad, phrase, and exact.  Here's how they work:

• Broad - when you first add your keywords, broad match is the default option.  The keyword women's shoes, for instance, is simply added to your ad group as  women's shoes.  Your ad would then show up on any searches that contained the word women's, or which contained the word shoes.

• Phrase - Using the same example, women's shoes would be added to your ad group as "women's shoes" (quotes around it).  Your ad would then come up on any searches that contained the phrase "women's shoes", in that order (so, your ad could come up when someone searched for red women's shoes, or women's shoes size 7).

• Exact - Women's shoes would be added to your ad group as [women's shoes] (brackets around it).  Your ad would come up on only searches for the exact keyword women's shoes.

Let me just say this: broad match is evil.  Don't use broad match.  Just trust me on this.

You could use phrase match, but if you're just starting out, the best thing to do is to just use exact match.  Exact match has the least traffic, but it's the most targeted, since your ad will only show up on those exact keyword searches.  Track your results for a month, then you can either start adding more exact match keywords, or you can add some carefully researched, highly targeted phrase match keywords.  Remember: targeting is key.  The better your ad is targeted, the better conversion and return on your investment your going to get.

Target your ad copy: Remember what I said earlier about your click-through rate?  This is how you can improve it.  If you have a compelling ad that speaks to exactly what searchers for your products are looking for, then you'll get a lot more clicks than if your ad was general, un-compelling, or (worse) didn't make sense.  If you've grouped your keywords well, then you'll be able to write a good ad that tells the searcher "I have this exact product you want to buy - come take a look!". 

If you have an ad group for children's shoes, for example, you may want to write an ad like this:

Brand Name {KeyWord:Children's Shoes}
Huge Selection of Children's Shoes at
the Lowest Prices.  Shop Now!

Notice the {KeyWord}...Google has a nifty feature that allows you to dynamically insert your keyword into your ad - use this feature.  Research has shown that ads that contain the keyword that was just searched will get more clicks than ads that don't.  However, make sure that your ad will make sense when different keywords are inserted using this feature.  Your ad may contain the keyword, but at the end of the day your ad will just look strange if it doesn't make sense.

Also notice the ad body didn't have dynamic keyword insertion, but it still hit the target by mentioning children's shoes.  This is why it's so important to group your keywords well in the beginning.

Target your landing pages.  You've placed your ad on the best, most targeted keywords you can buy, you've written compelling ad copy that gets tons of clicks, and you've got loads of traffic coming into your site - where are you sending that traffic? 

This is where your landing page comes in.  Simply put, it's where clickers land after they've clicked on your ad.  Let's say you sell all types of greeting cards.  You're advertising on the keyword [birthday cards], and your ad talks about birthday cards.  So, what page on your site would you send them to?

        A. Your homepage

        B. Your get well cards page

        C. Your birthday cards page

If you chose C, you would be correct (and actually making sales).  And why not your homepage?  While it may convert into sales sometimes, what you don't want to do is make someone go to the effort of searching all over your site for birthday cards (they were just on a search engine, for Pete's sake).  Send them to what they were looking for in the first place - you sell birthday cards, show 'em birthday cards without making them look for birthday cards.

While there's a lot of other things that you will need to know to advertise on Google, these 5 tips will get you started and through the setup of your first campaign.  I'll be posting more (and slightly more advanced) tips in the near future, so stay tuned!