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THE STATE OF CONTENT MARKETING: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SPEAKERS OF #MOZCON
The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
This post wraps up the three-part post series that includes the "The State of SEO" and "The State of Social Media" multi-author interviews. Today, the MozCon speakers share their thoughts, beliefs, and suggestions about an old friend of any marketer that regained its fame over the past few months: Content Marketing.
Out of all the disciplines that make up Web Marketing, Content Marketing is surely the oldest. It was an established discipline before the web as we know it was even invented.
However, thanks to updates like Panda, it seems that SEOs have finally understood the importance of Content Marketing. As with any new idea, they can't stop talking about content of all kinds, from blogging, to video, to data visualization, to gamification, and more...
While this renewed interest in Content Marketing is something I'm absolutely thrilled about, I fear that this craze might open the door for a superficial and not-critical approach to possibly the most difficult web marketing discipline of all: Content Marketing.
Content is
Question: The first thing I am going to ask is more of a request than a question: may we all try to avoid using the “Content is King” phrase in this interview?
Content is at the base of any potential web marketing success, but I consider that phrase chopped, overused, and – worst of all – misused. Content is essential, but that phrase is misleading as content without all the other web marketing disciplines may risk being just that: content. Content might be wonderful and relevant, but ignored without the correct marketing practices.Do you agree with this statement? What is your take?
Peter MeyersPeter Meyers: I’m honestly not a big fan of arguments over semantics. For every person that uses “content is king” too much, there’s a person wasting too much time complaining about the first person. Let’s just say that no smart SEO strategy in 2012 can fit on a bumper sticker.
Paddy MooganPaddy Moogan: I’d probably agree and it is something that sometimes gets forgotten. You can have the best content in the world but if no one sees it, then it is a bit pointless. This is where the argument of “build great content and you’ll attract links” fails. Sure this can happen, but for most of us that content needs promotion in order to get traction and succeed. So when people say content is important, yes it is, but for most sites promotion of this content is just as important.
Richard BaxterRichard Baxter: Content is just content. How it’s promoted is the strategy. I’ve seen bad content do well and great content do badly – because of strategy. That’s where “Content Marketing” comes in to play.
Mike Pantoliano
Mike Pantoliano: I think you’re exactly right. I can’t stand "content is king." If a blog post or presentation uses the phrase, or any other web marketing platitude for that matter, they’ve lost me.
Cyrus ShepardCyrus Shepard: How about "Content First?" The worst job in the world is doing SEO for a site with crappy content or an inferior product. Conversely, when you have a great product, the marketing process becomes a joy. Too often, businesses want to market the hell out of something without making that something great. That’s why I say content first, then marketing.
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: Content is hugely important, but it must be marketed. Too many think that they’re Kevin Costner. They believe that if they build it, people will come. Sadly, you’ll be waiting a very long time for traffic to line up if you take this approach. This is real life, not the movies.
This is where SEO fits in perfectly. It’s our job to ensure that content gets in front of the right people. Great content makes that job a lot easier.
Rhea DrysdaleRhea Drysdale: There’s a word missing from your question — marketing. As in “content marketing” has had a surge of popularity in the past year. Skimming the next questions, it looks we’ll get to this, but my point is: yes I agree, we can’t separate good content from good marketing. When content takes off without marketing, it is an anomaly, not the standard by which all content should be measured.
Mike KingMike King: First, Michael is King and there can only be one! Ok, now, that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I believe the reality of it is that most brands are not there yet for a variety of reasons. This is largely because remarkable content creation at scale needs to penetrate the general culture of a brand the same way that enterprise SEO only works if the whole team is onboard. Also, there is this issue of compliancy and way too many stakeholders needing to review things before content can go live. It’s a very challenging problem as content is obviously the glue to every channel.
I certainly agree that content is not this “if you build it, they will come” situation. Don’t believe me? Look at the graveyard of failed infographics out there.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: If you use the phrase "content is king" in the post, I may start crying. The statement cheapens content into a crappy parlor trick, when it’s communication. Marketing, messaging, etc. don’t exist without content. King? Meh. Let’s just talk content :-).
New love for an old discipline
Question: Over the last 12 months, Content Marketing has been portrayed as a recent invention. I have never read so many posts written about content in one year, especially in the SEO blogs. I find this occurrence quite funny as Content Marketing has always existed, even before web marketing itself.
Do you believe that this focus on content is a sign of maturity that has reached the SEO discipline, or it is because the only way to obtain lasting success both in Search and Social Media Marketing? Worse, is the recent focus on Content Marketing becoming another fashion trend in the SEO world?
Peter Meyers
Peter Meyers: I’m not sure I’d use the word “maturity,” but I do think it’s a natural evolution. Look at analytics – we all chased hits, then page views, then unique page views, then conversion metrics, etc. Each time, the majority of people acted like the current obsession was something they knew all along, even though they still had tunnel vision and were really 3-4 years behind the people who really got it. People paying lip service to content marketing like it’s some brand new discovery don’t get it, and they don’t see the big picture.
Paddy MooganPaddy Moogan: I think the focus on content marketing has come about partly through necessity. Older SEO techniques that were quick and easy have slowly started to die off and not work as well as before. SEOs have started to realize that to win in the long term, you need to deserve to get links, and you can only deserve to get links by making something cool. Whether it is your product, service, a tool, or a piece of content.
Richard BaxterRichard Baxter: It’s easier to build links with good content. I think the industry, for the most part, has matured enough to recognize this. Better webpages (usually with a richer, more valuable content experience) tend to rank better now more than ever, with obvious credit given to the search engines for (finally) making this the case. The SEO industry is highly motivated to drive traffic and links and therefore, SEO’s are highly motivated towards learning and mastering the techniques that work.
Mike Pantoliano
Mike Pantoliano: I think you said it. It’s a sign of maturity of the industry. Something needs to be created in order to get links, just as something needs to be created in order to get mindshare, market share, sales, coverage, tweets, etc.
Cyrus ShepardCyrus Shepard: Not to be cynical, but the answer is simply many SEO ‘tricks’ like link networks and blog commenting have lost much of their effectiveness, and folks don’t know where else to turn. “Oh yeah, maybe we should actually create some content people want to share.”
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: I’m not sure why content marketing has become the hot new buzzword. It’s certainly not new. Perhaps the animal rollercoaster ride (Panda and Penguin) has created an opportunity to bring content marketing to a wider audience.
Publishing platforms like WordPress and Tumblr, among others, allow more people to produce content. The explosion of content is astounding. So it makes some sense that people would become more interested in content as a strategy.
Finally, the Google tax continues to rise. All those small businesses that ignored the Internet for years, and then stubbornly used it while holding their collective noses, are now realizing what it can do for them. But they need alternatives to the rank-high-quick schemes.
Rhea DrysdaleRhea Drysdale: I give Google more credit for the growth of content marketing than anything intentional from the industry itself. When Google’s Panda update devalued cheap, spun content farms, everyone took note. If you do a search with Google Insights for “content marketing” you’ll see a massive surge from 2011-present. The industry will mature at the same speed of the major search engines.
Jessica BowmanJessica Bowman: I believe a lot of it has to do with many things:
The infusion of new talent in the SEO space. Many early generation SEOs were not the creative types that come up with innovative, hilarious content we see today. They liked to work with the site, spoof the bots, test to see what worked, etc. They wanted to do as little as possible to get as much as possible, and in that SEO era, it worked! In the last five years, creative types joined the SEO space, bringing a different skillset to the SEO scene – voila, they brought immense creativity that SEO needed to maximize conversions and improve the brand, while simultaneously improving SEO rankings.Non-SEOs in the organization suddenly paying attention to what SEO is doing. In many organizations SEO was the red-headed stepchild, given little attention and free reign to do what was needed to boost rankings. We now have management on board and willing to invest in creative content. We are also starting to see Public Relations departments stepping in with ideas for content that will build the brand AND increase rankings.
Mike KingMike King: Unfortunately, it's another sad reality. Content marketing is trendy right now and that’s why I decided to speak about how to get buy-in for content marketing at MozCon. There are so many ideas floating around about how everyone should be investing in content and how there are so many cool, agile brands creating remarkable content in this ideal world. However, content creation is a process that no one owns and everyone owns, and it’s incredibly hard to push through.
At iAcquire, we’ve bet the farm on content marketing and it’s such a challenge to get a brand to let us place even high quality content on their sites. Brands typically think of their sites as a way to advertise and pull from users rather than a way to answer questions and entertain. Obviously a lot more are coming around and you have brands like Coca Cola, Red Bull, and Old Spice leading the change, but they are not the norm.
The other issue is that a lot of times we are championing content as an overnight success done on a shoestring budget (for example, the Dollar Shave Club video), but then we find out that there was some large agency (in this case BBH) with the appropriate budget that pushed the content via a service like Sharethrough and it’s not the organic and viral success that we make it out to be. I don’t think we’re maturing in practice because much like link building a lot of that conversation just isn’t pragmatic at this point.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: I think a lot of really crappy marketers and SEOs suddenly have nowhere else to turn, actually. Sorry, does that sound bitter? For folks like me, who’ve been pushing strong content, strong messaging and smart outreach since, I dunno, 1998 or so, the ‘sudden rise’ of content as a marketing tactic is a little sad. If you’re suddenly talking content now, when you never did before, it means you probably did your clients a pretty serious disservice. Look at the leaders across all marketing disciplines and you’ll see folks who’ve been talking marketing for years or decades.
Same content everywhere
Question: Before starting my career as a web marketer, I spent many years working in the television industry as Head of Programming. My main duty was to decide what movies, series, etc. we would broadcast and at what times. One of the classic disputes was – and still is – what content we needed to buy and produce. Should we follow what Nielsen was telling us was working, or should we emphasize our own opinions to be consistent with our vision and run the content that we wanted people watching. My team finally chose the latter to avoid a leveling in the quality of our programming.
I see worrying signs of the same issue (but on a larger volume) in what content strategy businesses decide to follow. If people want infographics, they are given infographics; if people want posts just about two or three topics, let’s write just about those topics; and so on. It seems that the more I surf the Internet, the more I see the same content everywhere.Am I alone, or do you experience the same findings? If so, what should be at the base of a content strategy that a business should follow?
Peter Meyers
Peter Meyers: It’s really tough because we’re content producers, and we’re surrounded by content producers, so when there’s a trend or meme, we see it pounded into the ground. We’re not the end-consumer in most cases. The industry naturally chases trends, and they wouldn’t do that if it didn’t work at all. Obviously there’s a lot of mediocre content out there, but it’s hard to say that chasing the trends is completely wrong. I think it depends a lot on your audience, and it’s a difficult balancing act.
Richard BaxterRichard Baxter: Every good search marketer needs to understand this and be able to innovate. Anyone who is marketing ever-so-slightly ahead of the game will be able to capitalize on the “seen it all before” fatigue you’ve just described.
Mike Pantoliano
Mike Pantoliano: I don’t think we have to worry about the web being flooded with shit content. It already is! And yet, the best content still manages to bubble to the top. Consider the trash magazines at the supermarket near the checkout. Have you ever read the headlines? They’re essentially just clickbait blog posts. “10 ways to lose that belly fat for summer!” That will always exist. And for that reason, no one’s making any connections with the producers of that content. It’s transient.
I wouldn’t call myself a content strategy expert, but since you asked, I’d tell any business to skip the clickbait lists and create something that is genuine and unique.
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: Cookie cutter solutions and bandwagon strategies can be seen in almost any industry. I think it’s more obvious with content because it’s what’s in front of you everyday.
There are always those who are willing to simply follow the advice of others blindly without thinking about whether it makes sense or if it’s right for them. So, yes, I’m rather tired of stitched together infographics. I find many of the headlines and formats for blog posts to be rather stale.
I believe content should be authentic and tailored to your specific industry and vertical. A highly technical industry may not want infographics but instead want white papers. Videos might be a great match for one industry but lousy for another.
Giving users what they’re asking for can be smart, but switching things up can keep users engaged. In the end, it’s the businesses that take risks on new topics or content types that wind up winning.
Rhea DrysdaleRhea Drysdale: It’s natural to want to write for your audience. Where I find the greatest issue is in the definition of that audience and our responsibility to them. Just because a certain audience likes kittens, it doesn’t mean your SEO blog should feature a daily kitten. We still have to write timely, relevant content that our community responds to. When it comes to the content strategy of a business, the business should start by identifying who they are (e.g. company values, brand, voice, etc). Then identify their audience (both customers and industry). Identify what your competitors are doing well and not so well. From there I feel like content will naturally fall into place.
Jessica BowmanJessica Bowman: This is definitely happening. When we define content strategies, we focus on understanding what everyone else is doing and how to differentiate and one-up the competing content, instead of keeping up with the Jones’. Instead of following the trends, focus on the target personas and what they would like to see, in the format they would like to see it. Instead of focusing on the content type that’s hot/trendy, focus on diversification – having infographics and 3 blog posts a week could be right for your business, but that is not likely the only thing you should be doing.
Mike KingMike King: Well as an artist myself, I’m constantly conflicted with the same issue, but the thing you have to consider is businesses are generally very risk averse and if they do those risks have to be very calculated. Even those brands like Axe that take big risks in creating a video like this have to put those through a series of market tests to ensure it connects with its demographic. By the same token, we are generally locked into doing things that are proven to work. In fact, advertising generally tends to leverage the 7 story archetypes that are known to resonate with consumers when telling those stories.
And that’s exactly it. Ultimately, brands need to be committed to telling a story and to that point SEOs need to learn how to sell a big idea and then weaving that thread throughout all of the strategic content that is created. Content should never be an isolated incident, it needs to be a part of a bigger story.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: I think online content strategies suffer from this a little less, because content is so much cheaper on the web. I don’t mean $50/article garbage – I mean really great stuff for $1000-2000. Compare that to the cost of a TV show or ad. It’s mind-boggling.
Folks will always jump on the bandwagon – infographics are hot right now. Elf Yourself spawned all sorts of copies and derivatives. Something else will show up later. But that’s how a lot of this stuff evolves. So believe it or not, I think it’s OK, because online these trends happen much faster, and you don’t see folks getting mired in one kind of content (reality TV, anyone?).
Data is Content... too
Question: One of the biggest misunderstandings I see is when people consider “content” a synonym for “written content,” while – in my opinion – everything on a website must be considered content. This includes:
The design;The imagineryThe videos the site presentsProducts and servicesData visualizationAPIs and code (if justified)Written content (obviously)
Even though there is no obligation to include the above factors in a Content Marketing strategy, small business this side of web marketing are sure to assume a central role, which means more investments and bigger budgets. As a consequence, many small businesses say they cannot fight against big brands.
What would you says to businesses owners and marketers who complain about the costs of Content Marketing?
Peter Meyers
Peter Meyers: Although I’m not sure I’d define “content” that broadly, I definitely agree with the concern. Too often, I’ll talk to a small business which is generating fluff to cover up the unfortunate fact that their product or service just isn’t very good. A bunch of words slapped on a page aren’t going to save you if you suck at what you do. Content is an extension of your core business and the value proposition of your product or service. Without that core, you’re building everything else on a very shaky foundation.
Paddy MooganPaddy Moogan: I’d argue that you can film a good quality video and take good photos on an iPhone. Sure it won’t be as good as a high quality camera, but some of the most popular videos on the web have been filmed on bad quality devices. It is the creativity that is harder to nail but fortunately, everyone has the ability to be creative, even if you don’t think of yourself as a creative person.
Richard BaxterRichard Baxter: For those people, I explain how SEOgadget was started – on a blog. It’s pure content that opened the opportunities for our growth over the past 2.5 years.
Mike Pantoliano
Mike Pantoliano: Well, the first thing I’d do is tell them that they’re right. It’s a serious struggle. Then I’d tell them, “Hey, listen. Content is king.” Then I’d bill them.
But seriously, I think the best strategy for a SMB is to focus on what makes them unique, target an audience, build something for that audience, make sure that audience knows about it, rinse, and repeat.
Cyrus ShepardCyrus Shepard: In my opinion, content marketing delivers the highest, long-term ROI of any form of online marketing. I also reject the notion that you need a big budget to compete. You simply need something useful or entertaining to offer the world, and a unique presentation style – which may be as simple as your point of view.
Every small business has someone on staff that’s an expert at something, even if it’s just in their local area. Finding ways to harness this expertise and get it into the world presents a long term, low-cost content marketing solution.
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: What are the costs of not doing it? The fact of the matter is many small businesses fail because they suck at marketing. That’s true offline and online.
Creating compelling and authentic content is an investment in your business that can pay long-term dividends. Those are assets.
Why go to the trouble to invest in PPC and drive them to a brochure-ware site? Why start to have a social media presence if you’ve got nothing of your own to share?
Rhea DrysdaleRhea Drysdale: Any form of marketing should always be driven by both curiosity and business case. If something has a positive ROI, it’s easy to invest in it regardless of the budget. It’s much less easy to invest in intangible assets like brand and reputation, but these can often account for a massive percent of company’s value. With that in mind, do what you can. Determine the resources, timeframe, and budget you have and put together a strategy that fits within that. Putting together a few great pieces of content will matter more than quantity.
Jessica BowmanJessica Bowman: It’s the cost of doing business online in 2012 and beyond. If you cannot compete with the sites creating compelling, useful, authoritative content, then the business model needs to be assessed because it will not thrive online. I would also challenge a small business to assess where they are spending their marketing time/budget vs. where they are getting the leads. I would talk to them about creative means of getting great content on a shoestring budget – most companies just haven’t brainstormed enough low-cost content generation tactics.
Mike KingMike King: I would simply say “I don’t want to work with you.” I sincerely would like to see more inbound marketers turning away business when the client does not want to build content. In fact, if your brand is not committed to telling a story and creating content that helps people, then you’re essentially obsolete. Stop complaining about brands. Be a brand. Content Marketing in 2012 is not optional, it’s a reality.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: Business owners complain about the cost of everything. I should know :-).
I’ll steer clear of this question otherwise, because the best online content is a tiny fraction of the cost of traditional stuff, and saying it’s too expensive is a little ridiculous.
Content marketing costs
Question: On the contrary, how would you tell big brands that web marketing (and Content Marketing as a part of it) is something that needs velocity and alertness, and that their bureaucracy may kill their web marketer’s (in house and agencies) efforts?
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: This can be tough. You point to case upon case of a bigger brand getting beat by the agile upstart. The response is often, "but we’re different." There’s a sense that it won’t happen to them. And, often, when they do realize that it is happening to them, well … it’s too late.
Marketing innovation is accelerating and if you’re not keeping up you’re being left behind.
Rhea DrysdaleRhea Drysdale: I’d tell them that they need to develop a streamlined, enterprise-level content marketing strategy. That may sound ridiculously corporate, but roadblocks stem from fear — fear that a big brand will lose control because of a poorly timed or inflammatory piece of content. To combat this, establish clear expectations, brand guidelines, content policies, social media policies, approval flow chats for certain topics, response strategies, etc. With these in place it will be much easier to publish content even if it washes some of the originality from the process. Think in baby steps. Once content is being consistently added and promoted, it will be easier to demonstrate results. As trust is gained it will then be easier to push the boundaries.
Jessica BowmanJessica Bowman: They need to assess their marketing operations for 2012 online marketing needs. In sales “time kills all deals," when it comes to online marketing “time kills opportunities.” I would also challenge the in-house web marketers to learn how to work in the reality of the operational limitations. If it takes 3 months to get content approved and out the door, then keep pushing content through and the only lag you have is the first three months. Many in-house marketers are not consistent enough to keep a steady stream of content. When I was an in-house SEO at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, it took us 3 months to launch content changes. It was frustrating, but I was diligent about content planning and kept a steady stream of updates and over time we made efficiencies to address the SEO need for speed.
Mike KingMike King: I’d tell those brands to look at Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Red Bull, Old Spice, and Coca-Cola. It’s very feasible for big brands to be agile and create content that tells that compelling story. Think about it huge brands invented that. If you recall, big brands are responsible for soap operas.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: You guys are in big trouble. Big brands have had a lot of chances to get moving – they’ve seen Amazon, Woot, Zappos, and others all start eating their lunch in a matter of years.
I don’t see many big, traditional companies making smart moves, content-wise. Turf wars between marketing teams, branding teams and others seem to block progress at every turn.
Content... recyclable
Question: I consider a good content strategy one that is able to “recycle” its content production in every possible online channel. It is in that “recyclable” content strategy that I see the secret of inbound marketing. Is this theory correct? If so, what is the process you follow?
Peter Meyers
Peter Meyers: While it’s certainly smart to re-use bits and pieces of what you’ve built, I tend to think that the best content only fits in certain channels. What works for video or an infographic might make a lousy e-book or blog post, for example. I think the best content marketing is paired appropriately to its channel, and not all combinations work. Recycling may be cost-effective and a sound strategy at times, but you can definitely push it too far.
Cyrus ShepardCyrus Shepard: Recycling is key, from large agencies to small businesses. you express your ideas and information through an infographic, you can also express it in an eBook, blog post, video, animated cartoon, song, and social media campaign. Every time you produce something on the web, ask yourself if you can release this same information through another channel. That’s high ROI marketing.
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: Content that can be used in multiple ways is valuable.
Give a presentation at a conference and you’ve also got yourself a handy SlideShare deck. Write an awesome how-to guide blog post and you can turn it into an eBook. Hold a Google+ Hangout On Air and then you’ve got a YouTube video as a result.
Not everything has to fit into this multi-channel model but when you’re mapping out your content strategy you want to take an inventory and think creatively about how to get the most out of your assets.
Jessica BowmanJessica Bowman: We work with clients to create a content creation worksheet that forces them to think about all of the different ways a piece of content can be used, promoted, repurposed in their world. It contains the email to customers, tweets, Facebook likes, YouTube videos, blog posts, articles, presentations, and more. I know it works because when the SEOinhouse.com team uses it, we maximize potential, when we don’t use it, we leave opportunities on the table, every time.
Mike KingMike King: Absolutely, always start from a content audit and see what can be repurposed and think of how to build any new content as a maximum viable product to make it hard to copy.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: Definitely! First, you have to define "content" as ideas, not writing or video or something else. Then you present those ideas as many ways as possible. Say I do a webinar. I’ll certainly record that and offer it as a screencast. And, if I used slides, I’ll annotate those and turn them into a Slideshare presentation. And, I’ll probably write a blog post to narrate the whole thing.
Content Marketing Tips
Question: Let’s talk about specific Content Marketing tactics. What do you like and dislike? What are your best tips about:
BloggingVideo MarketingImages and Data VisualizationContent and Social Content CurationEmail MarketingDesign and CodingGamificationOther tactics of your choice
Peter Meyers
Peter Meyers: I think we all naturally gravitate toward the channels that fit our skill-set, so it can be really tough to compare and contrast. I don’t do much video work, because frankly, I’m not good at it. There are definitely times when I see the appeal and effectiveness, though. In general, I think diversity is important. Too many people bad-mouth email marketing as outdated, for example, but it’s still incredibly powerful, and maybe even more importantly, it’s Google-proof. If you build up a solid list of 10K+ subscribers that regularly read what you send them, it doesn’t matter what the algorithm does. That’s critical in 2012.
I also think it’s important not to get carried away and try to fit every round peg into a square hole. The obvious example right now is infographics – people try to turn everything into an infographic, even when it’s not visual, just because they think that’s what’s hot. So, we end up with some real crap, because they’re picking the tool before they understand the job. Every channel has its place.
Mike PantolianoMike Pantoliano: Related to Data Visualization, my suggestion would be: interactivity. Let people play and experiment. Any good data viz should come accompanied with a writeup and/or press release detailing some of the industry stories the data tells. But some has to be left for the user to uncover themselves.
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: My suggestions are these:
Blogging: I love it. Do as much of it as you can. Quality over quantity and make it readable.Video Marketing: Get good at editing and pay close attention to retention rates.Images and Data Visualization: Please read something by Edward Tufte before you crank out your next infographic.Content and Social Content Curation: I’m a big proponent of curation. Pointing people to the best content in your industry is a great way to build trust and authority.Email Marketing: There are few things better than having access to someone’s inbox.Design and Coding: Don’t be afraid to break your site by futzing with the code! Think about usability and understand progressive enhancement.Gamification: Be very careful that you are incentivizing the right behaviors.
Rhea DrysdaleRhea Drysdale: I’ll keep this short—I like all of those. It depends on the business, but each could/does work wonderfully when implemented in an intelligent and timely fashion. The biggest tip I have is to simply keep things relevant. I hate seeing content placed on a site purely for social appeal even though it has absolutely nothing to do with the brand nor does it even attract their audience. You know who also hates it? Google. They want to see content that is relevant to a domain. Whatever tactic you choose, make sure it makes sense. If we don’t do this, I have a hard time believing that our industry has matured much, because we’re still looking for a shortcut.
Jessica BowmanJessica Bowman: Blogging is a good marketing tactic, but it’s often un-optimal. Make sure that you are saying something innovative and thought provoking, something that showcases your expertise. Far too often I visit a blog only to find run-of-the-mill content that does not make the company or blogger shine in the best light. It was content created for the sake of creating content (or content created fast). Think of every blog post as your stage at a conference – say something that would make someone say, “I need to work with that person!”
Video marketing is very under-utilized. It’s tough to get buy-in for it and companies shy away from things that do not look professionally shot. The reality is that video is the future, and now is the time to test the waters, get experience, and make mistakes. You do not want to get started with video marketing in a few years – your early videos will look very amateur then!
Mike KingMike King: Here are my suggestions:
Blogging: Love it. I have no secrets here; just spend the time to write exhaustively on your topic with great design so everything you right is a definitive resource.Video Marketing; Love it. Use the TubeMogul OneLoad tool to distribute videos to all the video sites and also use a solution like Wistia to host it on your own site. Use your video sitemaps. Own the SERPS! Obviously this isn’t inbound marketing stuff, but considering using solutions like Sharethrough or TubeMogul to kick off shares and experiment with offline advertising with Google TV Ads, it’s cheaper than you think to get on TV.Images and Data Visualization: Love it, but tired of infographics there’s so many other ways to visualize data and get more contextual content around them to distribute the link equity. Thank me later.Content and Social Content Curation: Love it. It’s content marketing for lazy people. It’s a way to prove out content marketing at the price of a copywriter essentially. Start there if the brand says we can’t afford that.Email Marketing: Not crazy about it. Hubspot murders my inbox, but I understand that it is incredibly effective. I think it’s important to realize that flooding someone’s inbox is annoying regardless of what the data says. There needs to be a qualitative look at what we’re doing not just the numbers.Design and Coding: This is my favorite. I love to make beautiful things and focus on innovation. Challenge yourself to do just that. At iAcquire that’s exactly what we’re doing with the new tools I’ll be releasing at MozCon. I think as SEOs we need to think more about what we can do that’s not already out there and weave that into the big idea after you’ve sold in and proved out easier quick hits.Gamification: I’m a sucker for this too. I don’t have any tricks for it, but I get sucked in by it regularly.Events and Community: I think Jen made great points and they work so well in context of gamification. Simply build a community around brands so that your link building is just pressing the publish button.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: This one’s a bit big for me to tackle in one post. Most of what you’re describing above are channels, like games, video, e-mail etc. I think any channel, used wisely, can generate great results. The only tactic I do not like is “get content on the cheap.” That’s a mindset that eventually gets you buried in Panda update, penalized by a Penguin update, or drives away customers because you sound like a moron.
New Content for New Devices
Question: This last question is about mobile. We have discussed the importance of mobile for SEO and Social Media in the previous two interviews, but it is also important for Content Marketing.
What are the challenges that mobile presents to Content Marketing, and what new approaches to content marketing do you see working?
AJ KohnAJ Kohn: I think a lot is currently going on in terms of how content is presented versus the actual content. Mobile applications like Instagram, Foursquare, and even Google+ show the power of feeds and the priority on good visuals.
Of course, the current challenge is simply ensuring that your content is optimized for multiple screens: desktop, phone, and tablet. I think at some point we’ll move beyond that to thinking about what kind of content might make sense for those in the mobile context.
If they’re on the go do they have less time to devote to content? Are they interrupted more often? As such, should our content be shorter? Should it be even more scannable?
It’ll certainly be interesting to find out.
Rhea DrysdaleRhea Drysdale: The greatest issue with mobile is finding the balance. How do we make content that is accessible, but not overwhelming? I love seeing apps like News.me or even Twitter’s new summary email that detail the stories that are relevant to me from my networks. LinkedIn is starting to do the same with their email campaigns tailored to my network. It’s much more engaging and will bring users into their sites. Personalization. That’s a big hurdle for content marketing, but one that’s being solved in interesting new ways.
Mike KingMike King: Mobile and tablet devices are obviously the future. Essentially your portable device is the best way to eliminate the distance between what is happening on and offline. The future is to create content and interfaces that facilitate that. Mobile and tablet are going to revolutionize so many experiences. Think about how we all converse via hashtags during tv shows; now think about how TV networks could leverage that to build collective TV watching experiences and have brands build games relevant to the commercials being aired to keep people further engaged with the ad as it’s being broadcast. Whoever gets the jump on that will the next instant billionaire. In fact…I gotta go.
Ian LurieIan Lurie: I consider mobile a huge opportunity. Folks who are getting good at responsive design are going to rule this category. Folks who rely on apps will do OK. And people who continue to ignore it are going to see opportunities pass them by.
I don’t, however, see it as a revolution. Mobile is another channel. The devices are revolutionary, insofar as they can deliver video, audio, photos, etc. from anywhere, and read them anywhere. But the channel is an incremental expansion of the internet. That doesn’t reduce the importance. It just means you don’t have to revamp your whole strategy to capitalize on mobile. Adjust a little, tweak your site to perform well on mobile devices, and you’re set.
View the original article here
Thursday, September 5, 2013
MOBILE MARKETING:
MOBILE MARKETING: HOW TO REACH YOUR BUYERS WHEREVER THEY ARE
By Patricia Redsicker
social media book reviewsAre you wondering how to use mobile marketing to grow your business?
If so, you might be intrigued by this fun fact: 4 billion people own a mobile phone. (Guess how many people own a toothbrush? 3.5 billion!)
In fact, as I write this article, I’m on a short visit to Kenya, where even a housemaid earning $85 a month routinely uses a mobile phone.
As more consumers use their mobile phones for multiple purposes, marketers like you will have the power to reach buyers at the exact time and place they’re looking for what you offer, explain Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner in their new book, Go Mobile.
Go Mobile covers a lot of solid ground in mobile marketing, and while I cannot go into as much detail as I’d like, here’s a taste of what you can expect.
Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner have set out to answer your most pertinent questions concerning mobile marketing such as SMS, MMS, mobile display ads, QR codes, mobile websites, mobile apps, location-based marketing and many other tools to increase your business revenue.
Their goal is to remove the shroud of mystery that surrounds mobile marketing so you can get started with your own campaign.
jeanne hopkins and jamie turner Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner, co-authors of Go Mobile.
If you’re curious to know how large companies and small businesses alike are using mobile to connect with customers in new and exciting ways, then this is definitely the book for you.
go mobile book cover
In this 227-page hardcover, you can expect a thought-provoking read with great tips and ideas that completely demystify the world of mobile marketing. What’s more, the authors have translated all of the heavy “marketing-speak” into a fun, simple, easy-to-read layout that describes:
The overall mobile landscape and the best practices used in various mobile marketing case studies (Part I)How to set up your business for success with mobile marketing campaigns (Part II)The various tactics used in mobile marketing such as how to set up a mobile website using SMS, MMS and mobile display ads to attract customers (Part III)B2B mobile marketing and how to measure the ROI of your mobile campaigns (Part IV)
Go Mobile is a fascinating book through and through, but my favorite chapters are as follows.
According to the authors, the biggest mistake that small businesses make is to assume that mobile marketing is for large corporations with huge budgets. Not only is this completely false, but in reality many small businesses that have been successful with mobile marketing started out studying how big companies were using it, and then borrowed the tactics that worked for them.
You too should study companies such as Adidas, Nissan and NorthFace to see what you could apply to your own business.
For example, the New Jersey Nets wanted to create buzz and engagement using Gowalla, so they hid free pairs of virtual game tickets throughout New York City.
The virtual tickets were placed in sports stores, parks and gyms and could be exchanged for real tickets to a particular game. The overall redemption rate was 15.2%, which may seem low, but not if you consider that there were no announcements and no media costs.
two tweets The Gowalla campaign generated a ton of positive brand sentiment for the New Jersey Nets.
If you work for a hotel, airline, sports franchise, amusement park or any other venue that has leftover inventory during non-peak periods (e.g., vacant rooms, free passes, a new menu item, etc.), this kind of promotion would be ideal.
Not only is the cost of giving away unsold tickets to an event nominal, it would generate a ton of engagement and demand among people who are not your typical customers!
In many cases, mobile phones have replaced the more traditional computer landscape of laptops and desktops and the effects are being felt all over.
For example, where potential customers once stood idle in register lines at the grocery store, today’s consumers are using those free moments connecting to the online world through their mobile phones.
Here are three of the nine ways that businesses (both large and small) are using mobile media to capture these audiences:
Short message service (SMS): Create text-to-win contests or voter-based competitions (think American Idol!) to create brand awareness. You can also use SMS to inform your subscribers of content updates or new product information.Multimedia messaging service (MMS): MMS includes not just text but also sound, images, animations and video content. As a marketer, you should be excited that your subscribers can send MMS messages from their mobile phones to your email address. Encourage engagement by inviting them to send a photo, a tune or a short video to win a cool prize or opportunity.Mobile display advertising and paid search: Because the number of people accessing the web via mobile phones is skyrocketing, by placing ads on relevant mobile search engines, businesses are more likely to catch prospects during some part of their buying cycle and convert them into customers.
So no matter the size of your business, keep in mind that mobile marketing offers a variety of opportunities that simply cannot be ignored.
As you plan your mobile campaigns, you should be aware of the most common key mistakes that people make. Here are some of them:
Treating PC and mobile users the same—mobile marketing requires a different approach in terms of speed, brevity of content, creativity and location options.Failing to recognize the difference in mobile equipment—such as bandwidth limits, charges and fees, keyboard and mouse features, etc.Ignoring mobile’s limitations—small screen, no mouse, no printer, limited keyboard; keep these in mind when creating content for a mobile device.Seeking perfection—trying and trying for that ONE flawless campaign; polishing, tweaking and emphasizing only to come away disappointed. Go out on a limb and the results will provide a benchmark for future efforts.Mobile-spamming your audience—just because it’s easy and cheap to send frequent messages to your audience doesn’t mean you should. Think instead of creating a well-thought-out campaign that sends messages occasionally.Treating mobile as a one-way street—it’s easy to send messages that don’t require a reply, but if you’re looking for interaction, use your mobile list to ask questions or request feedback.thumbs down Mobile marketing mistakes are very easy to make. Learn what the common ones are and be sure to avoid them. Image source: iStockPhoto.
You do not need to build your own app to be successful in mobile marketing. But if you have some extra cash and are feeling a little adventurous, you’ll find that creating an app isn’t that difficult at all—even for non-code speakers.
There are several app development tools for ordinary humans just like you. Here is a sample of them from the book:
AppMakr: This browser-based platform allows you to design your own iPhone app quickly and easily. You can even use existing content and social network feeds to create different styles for your app.GENWI: This tablet and smartphone platform allows you to create and manage your online presence on all popular mobile devices including iPad, iPhone, Android and HTML5 apps. Apps can also include revenue-generating capabilities such as ads, coupons and in-app subscriptions.Mippin: It’s one of the easiest platforms for creating an app. It can be used for Android, iOS and Windows and can also provide a lot of flexibility in designing the app. mobile apps Mobile apps are a bit challenging to produce, but they provide a great way to add value to the business-client relationship. Image source: iStockPhoto.
MobiCart: If you have an ecommerce site that you’d like to take to the mobile-sphere, this app builder will link up with PayPal to allow any business or consumer with an email address to securely and conveniently send and receive online payments.MyAppBuilder: For only $29 a month, this platform will create an iPhone or Android app for you. All you have to do is to provide content (e.g., videos, books, etc.). Their experts will also upload your new app to the app store for you.ShoutEm: This platform is ideal for bloggers, students, sports fans, news portals and local publishers. Again, you don’t need to know any code because the experts at ShoutEm will even take care of the iTunes and Android Marketplace submission process.
Go Mobile is a genuinely important book. It is interesting, fun and compelling. Above all it provides valuable insights into a little handheld device that you and I (and practically everyone in the world) are intimately familiar with, but may not realize how much more we could do with it.
l love that Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner have made it their passion and mission to show us the many wonderful ways that a mobile phone can be used for business. What a discovery!
The way the book reads is like you’re having coffee and conversation with friends—relaxed, entertaining and stimulating. They make mobile marketing seem so doable (and it is!) and you come out feeling pumped up and futuristic, ready to change the world with your phone!
So if you’re serious about mobile marketing for your business, you really must read Go Mobile. It is both priceless and practical. Way to go, Jeanne and Jamie!
Social Media Examiner gives this book a full 5-star rating.
Over to You
What do you think? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.
Pin ItAvatar of About the Author, Patricia Redsicker
Patricia Redsicker writes book reviews for Social Media Examiner. She's a content marketing expert, helping business owners to craft content that sells. Her blog provides content marketing advice to healthcare industry audiences. Other posts by Patricia Redsicker »
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4 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GOOGLE
4 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GOOGLE+ ENGAGEMENT
By Mike Stenger
social media how toAre you looking for better engagement on Google+?
Google+ has a unique culture and set of capabilities that set it apart from other social networks.
Here are four tips that have helped me build engagement and expand business networking.
Wherever you invest time online, have a target audience or connection with people who could be interested in your product or service, which will eventually lead to sales.
Now, finding these people can be a bit of a challenge, but search makes your job a lot easier.
google plus search 1 The search on Google+ has multiple options to choose from.
When you type a keyword in the search box at the top of the site, you’re first presented with a real-time updating stream. Looking right below the search box, you’ll see your keyword with a dropdown box next to it.
To find people based around that topic, simply select “People or Pages,” and the results will be all people or pages that have the keyword in their profile.
google plus search 2 Finding relevant people is just a few clicks away.
Alternatively, if you want to see posts based around that keyword, select “Google+ posts.” And if the stream moves too fast, you can always press the Pause button right above the very top post.
RealEstate.com is one business that is applying this first principle. They make sure to connect with other realtors and real estate offices.
real estate google plus RealEstate.com is following people relevant to their business.
Tip: Spend the time to find the right people with whom to build a social network on Google+. These people should be active on Google+ and should potentially be interested in what you have to share there.
To build an active and engaged audience, it takes more than just following the right people. You also have to get into the trenches and interact with those people.
Once you’ve found relevant and active people to add to your circles, participate in conversations with them for a few minutes here and there.
dogfish head brewery google plus Dogfish Head Brewery does a good job of jumping into the comments and interacting with fans.
Tip: Commenting and building an active social network is a great strategy, considering the added search and SEO benefits. With the introduction of Search Plus Your World, Google+ results are integrated into search. People who are connected with you can potentially see your content on Google, depending on what they’re looking for.
Hangouts are a great way to meet new and exciting people. Video is the next closest thing to meeting a person in real life and allows you to better connect with someone.
Dell is fairly active with Hangouts and does a Hangout On Air (a live-streaming Hangout) about twice a month or so.
dell hangout on air Dell preparing for an upcoming Hangout On Air and giving users the chance to win a new laptop.
Instead of just sending out a text update or sharing press releases about a new product, Dell engages with their audience through video.
Tip: This fosters relationships because now their business has a face and builds a more visual experience, something that people will remember better.
Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, give Hangouts a chance. If you don’t want to start your own in the beginning, simply keep an eye out for when someone you follow starts one and join in. This will give you a good feeling for how everything works, being able to experience it firsthand.
Take the time not only to create but also share great quality content. As Scott Stratten says, “People share awesome.” The same goes for interacting with that content as well, whether it’s +1s, comments or reshares.
In order to get value, whether it’s +1s, comments, shares and beyond, you must first give out value. What’s great about Google+ is that you can write far more than 140 characters and use bold or italic text, which helps bring attention to your content.
ford google plus Ford getting creative with their content.
Going back to following active and engaging people, you should find plenty of great content to share from other people. Sharing other people’s content shows that you appreciate it.
Also, adding your own comments as you share their content gives those who follow you the opportunity to engage with you and take the conversation further.
jamie furlong google plus Jamie Furlong sharing practical how-to information and including images.
Tip: Notice the topics and types of content your audience likes to interact with. Figure out what they value most and continue with the same high-quality content.
In a way, Google+ isn’t much different from other social networks when it comes to building engagement. Hopefully you can take these tips, apply them and start experiencing how great the platform can be.
What do you think? What’s your experience with engagement on the social network? Please share in the comments box below.
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7 TIPS FOR CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA
7 TIPS FOR CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN FOR YOUR BUSINESS
By Jim Belosic
social media how toDo you have social media plan?
Are you looking for an easy to follow guide to formulate a plan for your business?
Keep reading for seven tips to help your business develop a social plan…
Businesses often fail in their social media efforts for the same reason New Year’s resolutions fail: It’s a good idea, but there’s no structure or commitment.
Then, when there are no immediate results, or the goal ends up being more difficult to attain than previously thought, it goes by the wayside.
Has this happened to your business’s social media presence? You aren’t alone. Very few people can simply choose to be active in social media and stick with it.
For the rest of us, we need something to keep us honest. That’s why I advocate you create a social media plan—a checklist, if you will—complete with daily maintenance, recurring tasks and milestone projects.
These seven tips will help you design a social media plan that will keep you on track, active and moving forward.
Before you even start creating your plan, you have to make a promise. Establishing a healthy social media presence can be a very slow process. You can’t expect your list of fans, followers or subscribers to grow overnight.
You don’t want to start your business’s presence out by posting and updating consistently, only to get bored, lose interest and forget to log in when there’s no immediate gratification.
To prevent that kind of slide, make a commitment. Even if it’s just to yourself—even if you have to frame it and hang it above your computer.
No matter how silly an exercise it may seem, acknowledging and agreeing with yourself that building this presence could take upwards of a year (and then some), and then promising to invest time, energy and resources into it no matter what, will keep you committed and prepare you to be active and engaged even when you feel like your presence is stagnating.
If you’re just getting your business’s social media efforts up and running, part of creating your plan revolves around seeing if you already have a fanbase out there.
yelp review Search for your business on sites like Yelp. Thank customers for their good reviews, and apologize to customers who gave bad reviews. You could turn that bad experience into a loyal customer and a better review.
So do some searching. Are there lots of people posting videos to YouTube of themselves using your product? Does your company have a bunch of mentions on Twitter? Do you have reviews on Yelp?
Although it’s important to establish a presence on a giant like Facebook, make sure you also set up shop where you’re already visible.
Now that you’ve identified the social media platforms you’re going to focus on, it’s time to turn your attention to the ways and frequency with which you’ll engage with your users.
Infrequent interaction is one of the main reasons businesses experience social media failure.
Those who are most successful in social media know that you have to engage steadily.
taco bell twitter feed Funny, engaging and prolific, Taco Bell's Twitter feed provides fans with frequent news, entertainment and engagement—a model for other companies.
Think of creating and responding to comments, tweets, posts, etc., as simple daily maintenance. It must be done. You need to start the conversation with your users, and anytime they reach out to you, you need to be prepared to respond.
Remember that the timetable for creating and responding to content is platform-specific. Twitter moves so fast that tweets can become irrelevant within the hour, whereas Facebook status updates and posts have a few hours of staying power, and videos are great because of their longevity.
Your fans and followers don’t want commercials, they want conversation. They don’t want to hear how great your company is, they already like or follow you. They don’t want sales numbers, they want industry news and thought leadership.
A good rule of thumb is to talk about your customers and your industry 80% to 90% of the time, and then discuss your own business. That means you need to start a blog, write white papers, explore trends, release case studies and create infographics.
Post frequently and do it consistently. Your ideal goal should be some kind of content every couple of days or so. Avoid going longer than a week without posting.
Thorough, in-depth articles and papers will position your business as an industry expert and thought leader, and keep your fans and followers (and even competitors) looking to you.
mail chimp guides MailChimp's more than 30 Guides cover a range of topics—from email marketing best practices to papers on how to use MailChimp most effectively—positioning them as a leader in email marketing.
Contests and promotions keep fans and followers excited, interested and coming back. Most importantly, they’re a covert way to get your business or brand in front of more people. That doesn’t mean you need to run one all the time.
If you’ve always got some kind of giveaway going, they’ll soon become more social background noise. This is especially true if you’re giving away not-so-great prizes.
Run a contest or promotion every couple of months, and make sure the prize is something to get excited about.
falken tire contest giveaway Falken Tire's Porsche Giveaway is gated to fans only. And when the prize is as great as a Porsche, their fanbase is sure to be active and their fan count is sure to go up.
Every social media plan needs to start out the same way, with a commitment to the long haul and a focus on the basics like interaction and content. But once your presence is established and your users are engaged, you’re free to open things up to experimentation.
If you’ve built a solid fan following on Facebook, create and install some custom apps on your page, start posting videos on YouTube or interact more frequently by hopping on Twitter. Try things out for a few months, and then go back and see how they’ve performed for you.
Not every platform will be a fit, so if your business isn’t performing well on one for an extended period of time, don’t be afraid to pull the plug and explore different options.
rosetta stone apps Rosetta Stone's numerous custom apps help them better engage their fanbase of over 1.1 million.
If you’re at the point where you’re looking at expanding to new platforms, congratulations! You’ve likely got a healthy presence. But don’t let all of this growth overwhelm you. The larger you grow, the more in danger you are of failing to engage (point #3), because—let’s face it—social media is a lot of work.
So look into adding some more team members. Graphic artists for your infographics, writers for your blogs and white papers and even some interns to manage the day-to-day social media conversations and information-gathering. A talented team can give you a richer, more robust presence than you could ever achieve on your own.
facebook admins More admins frees you up to expand your social media pursuits and makes day-to-day engagement easier to cover, especially for pages with large fan bases.
What do you think? What’s your business’s story? Do you already have a social media plan? How’s it working out? Or are you about to implement one? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.
Pin ItAvatar of About the Author, Jim Belosic
Jim Belosic is the CEO and co-founder of ShortStack, a custom Facebook apps design platform that helps businesses maximize their social media presence and potential. Other posts by Jim Belosic »
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Wednesday, September 4, 2013
TWO MOZSCAPE UPDATES
TWO MOZSCAPE UPDATES IN AUGUST! AND MORE INFO ON WHY PA/DA FLUCTUATE
Just 14 short days ago, I wrote about the August Mozscape index update. Today, as part of our efforts to create shorter deltas between indices, I'm excited to announce that we have our fastest ever time between updates. There's new data right now in the Mozscape API (for which we're still seeking beta testers on the new version), in Open Site Explorer, through the Mozbar, and in your PRO web app.
This current index has the following metrics:
60,852,245,271 (60 billion) URLs657,072,652 (657 million) Subdomains153,355,227 (153 million) Root Domains610,557,978,730 (610 billion) LinksFollowed vs. Nofollowed 2.26% of all links found were nofollowed 54.95% of nofollowed links are internal45.05% are externalRel Canonical - 13.46% of all pages now employ a rel=canonical tagThe average page has 70 links on it 59.91 internal links on average10.57 external links on average
And the following correlations with Google's US search results:
Page Authority - 0.34Domain Authority - 0.24MozRank - 0.20Linking Root Domains - 0.24Total Links - 0.20External Links - 0.24
Below is a histogram showing this update's crawling pattern:
2nd August Mozscape Index Crawl Histogram
Basically, this is very good news. We had an outage of our crawler in early June, but the large amounts of crawling performed in late July mean a lot of this index is extremely fresh - in fact, parts of this index are the freshest we've ever had (launched ~20 days after crawling - that's some speedy processing).
Every index, we get a lot of questions about why a site's/page's PA/DA goes up or down. The answer's not easy because the inputs vary quite a bit, but basically, four things can cause change in these metrics from index to index:
The site/page received more or fewer links or more/fewer more/less powerful links. Your site's link profile may even remain completely unchanged and still see fluctuation in DA/PA because the sites pointing to you have been recalculated to have better or worse metrics.Google changed things in their ranking algorithm and thus our models for DA/PA, which measure and attempt to track to correlation with Google's rankings changed, too.The web's link graph changed, and what was "0" (the lowest possible score) is now lower/higher than before and/or what was "100" (the highest possibly score) is now higher/lower than before. Essentially, think of this as the goalposts moving because the field's gotten bigger or smaller.Our web index changed in size/structure as we toss our more spam/junk and crawl more/fewer webpages, potentially biasing against links we were counting or hadn't counted in prior indices.
Thus, it's very hard to know for sure whether an increase in DA/PA for a particular page is entirely tied to your efforts, Google's changes or changes to the web as a whole. This is why I strongly, strongly recommend tracking your metrics against your competition. For example, in July, I compared several sites to show the delta between their scores across the May vs. July index like so:
Mozscape Data for Seattle Startups from the May Index Update
Above: May's 165 Billion URL index data
July Mozscape Data
Above: July's 78 Billion URL index data
Comparison of August 1st update data
Above: August 1st's 69 Billion URL index
(please ignore the SEOmoz.org numbers in this one - we had an error that affected our own site in the last index)
Above: August 14th's 61 Billion URL index
(again, please ignore SEOmoz.org numbers. Index error on our part)
This comparative process is done for you inside the PRO web app if/when you set up competitors:
Domain Authority Over Time
Using the comparison data is a great way to get a sense of whether you're gaining/losing vs. the competition and remove a lot of the bias from the other types of macro-index-level modifiers. More so than any other methodology, I recommend this technique to help get a sense for how your site's metrics perform vs. a raw historical perspective.
As you can see, the past few indices have been falling in size. This is due to our efforts to make indices faster and more consistent. We hope to remain in the 60-70 billion URL range for the next few indices, and we're relatively close to having our first index produced on our new private cloud. It will take a while, possibly 6 months, to get back up to the 150 billion page indices we had this Spring (which were very, very slow and stale), but the goal is to have an index every 2 weeks that exceeds that size. Exciting stuff, but crazy hard. Luckily, we have a fantastic and growing team of engineers working on it. If you know great minds in the field, we still pay $12,000 referral and signing bonuses, so send 'em our way!
Thanks very much - looking forward to your feedback.
View the original article here
Just 14 short days ago, I wrote about the August Mozscape index update. Today, as part of our efforts to create shorter deltas between indices, I'm excited to announce that we have our fastest ever time between updates. There's new data right now in the Mozscape API (for which we're still seeking beta testers on the new version), in Open Site Explorer, through the Mozbar, and in your PRO web app.
This current index has the following metrics:
60,852,245,271 (60 billion) URLs657,072,652 (657 million) Subdomains153,355,227 (153 million) Root Domains610,557,978,730 (610 billion) LinksFollowed vs. Nofollowed 2.26% of all links found were nofollowed 54.95% of nofollowed links are internal45.05% are externalRel Canonical - 13.46% of all pages now employ a rel=canonical tagThe average page has 70 links on it 59.91 internal links on average10.57 external links on average
And the following correlations with Google's US search results:
Page Authority - 0.34Domain Authority - 0.24MozRank - 0.20Linking Root Domains - 0.24Total Links - 0.20External Links - 0.24
Below is a histogram showing this update's crawling pattern:
2nd August Mozscape Index Crawl Histogram
Basically, this is very good news. We had an outage of our crawler in early June, but the large amounts of crawling performed in late July mean a lot of this index is extremely fresh - in fact, parts of this index are the freshest we've ever had (launched ~20 days after crawling - that's some speedy processing).
Every index, we get a lot of questions about why a site's/page's PA/DA goes up or down. The answer's not easy because the inputs vary quite a bit, but basically, four things can cause change in these metrics from index to index:
The site/page received more or fewer links or more/fewer more/less powerful links. Your site's link profile may even remain completely unchanged and still see fluctuation in DA/PA because the sites pointing to you have been recalculated to have better or worse metrics.Google changed things in their ranking algorithm and thus our models for DA/PA, which measure and attempt to track to correlation with Google's rankings changed, too.The web's link graph changed, and what was "0" (the lowest possible score) is now lower/higher than before and/or what was "100" (the highest possibly score) is now higher/lower than before. Essentially, think of this as the goalposts moving because the field's gotten bigger or smaller.Our web index changed in size/structure as we toss our more spam/junk and crawl more/fewer webpages, potentially biasing against links we were counting or hadn't counted in prior indices.
Thus, it's very hard to know for sure whether an increase in DA/PA for a particular page is entirely tied to your efforts, Google's changes or changes to the web as a whole. This is why I strongly, strongly recommend tracking your metrics against your competition. For example, in July, I compared several sites to show the delta between their scores across the May vs. July index like so:
Mozscape Data for Seattle Startups from the May Index Update
Above: May's 165 Billion URL index data
July Mozscape Data
Above: July's 78 Billion URL index data
Comparison of August 1st update data
Above: August 1st's 69 Billion URL index
(please ignore the SEOmoz.org numbers in this one - we had an error that affected our own site in the last index)
Above: August 14th's 61 Billion URL index
(again, please ignore SEOmoz.org numbers. Index error on our part)
This comparative process is done for you inside the PRO web app if/when you set up competitors:
Domain Authority Over Time
Using the comparison data is a great way to get a sense of whether you're gaining/losing vs. the competition and remove a lot of the bias from the other types of macro-index-level modifiers. More so than any other methodology, I recommend this technique to help get a sense for how your site's metrics perform vs. a raw historical perspective.
As you can see, the past few indices have been falling in size. This is due to our efforts to make indices faster and more consistent. We hope to remain in the 60-70 billion URL range for the next few indices, and we're relatively close to having our first index produced on our new private cloud. It will take a while, possibly 6 months, to get back up to the 150 billion page indices we had this Spring (which were very, very slow and stale), but the goal is to have an index every 2 weeks that exceeds that size. Exciting stuff, but crazy hard. Luckily, we have a fantastic and growing team of engineers working on it. If you know great minds in the field, we still pay $12,000 referral and signing bonuses, so send 'em our way!
Thanks very much - looking forward to your feedback.
View the original article here
ANNOUNCING MOZCAST
ANNOUNCING MOZCAST - THE GOOGLE WEATHER REPORT
If you follow me on Twitter at all (and, if so, may God have mercy on your soul), you may have seen me saying things like this over the past couple of months…
…and you may have found yourself wondering “Where does he get all that wonderful data?” Like all of the best things in life – cookies, babies, belly button lint – the answer is that I made it myself. Luckily for you, I’m in a sharing mood.
So today, I’m pleased to announce the launch of Mozcast.com – the Google weather report. You can visit it right now, and it looks something like this:
MozCast Screenshot
The first thing you'll notice (besides Roger's smiling face), is yesterday's weather. The hotter and stormier the weather, the more Google's algorithm changed over the past 24 hours (a "normal" day is roughly 70°F). The weather report updates automatically each morning (about 7:30am Pacific Time currently, but that may change over time).
One every page of MozCast.com, you can view a 5-day history on the left-hand side of the screen. The home-page also provides a complete 30-day history – mouse over any day on the graph for the date and a specific temperature reading. In the near future, we'll be adding a 30-day average and may open up more historical data.
There's a detailed explanation on the MozCast site, but here are the basics. We track a hand-selected set of 1,000 keywords every 24 hours. Those keywords are delocalized, depersonalized, split evenly across 5 "bins" of search volume and are tracked from roughly the same location and the same time every day. Our goal has been to keep the system as controlled as possible.
For each keyword, we store the top 10 Google organic results, and then we compare those results to the previous day. We calculate a metric called "Delta10", which is essentially the rate of change across the entire top 10. Then we take the average of all Delta10s (which ranges from 1-10) to measure the daily flux. We multiply that by a fixed value (currently, 28.0), and that becomes the day's temperature on MozCast.
Each temperature is also converted into one of five weather states: sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rainy, or stormy. These are completely dependent on the temperature - think of it as the quick view. The stormier it is, the more rankings changed. If it's really hot and stormy, odds are good that something big changed in the algorithm. You can see more in the launch presentation from Mozcon below:
We've also created a new Twitter account @mozcast - stay tuned there for daily weather reports, feature updates, and occasional deep dives into unusual events. If you're at Mozcon, I'll be at the Garage party tonight and around all day Friday, so please feel free to stop me and ask questions about MozCast. I hope it keeps you out of the rain, even here in Seattle.
View the original article here
If you follow me on Twitter at all (and, if so, may God have mercy on your soul), you may have seen me saying things like this over the past couple of months…
…and you may have found yourself wondering “Where does he get all that wonderful data?” Like all of the best things in life – cookies, babies, belly button lint – the answer is that I made it myself. Luckily for you, I’m in a sharing mood.
So today, I’m pleased to announce the launch of Mozcast.com – the Google weather report. You can visit it right now, and it looks something like this:
MozCast Screenshot
The first thing you'll notice (besides Roger's smiling face), is yesterday's weather. The hotter and stormier the weather, the more Google's algorithm changed over the past 24 hours (a "normal" day is roughly 70°F). The weather report updates automatically each morning (about 7:30am Pacific Time currently, but that may change over time).
One every page of MozCast.com, you can view a 5-day history on the left-hand side of the screen. The home-page also provides a complete 30-day history – mouse over any day on the graph for the date and a specific temperature reading. In the near future, we'll be adding a 30-day average and may open up more historical data.
There's a detailed explanation on the MozCast site, but here are the basics. We track a hand-selected set of 1,000 keywords every 24 hours. Those keywords are delocalized, depersonalized, split evenly across 5 "bins" of search volume and are tracked from roughly the same location and the same time every day. Our goal has been to keep the system as controlled as possible.
For each keyword, we store the top 10 Google organic results, and then we compare those results to the previous day. We calculate a metric called "Delta10", which is essentially the rate of change across the entire top 10. Then we take the average of all Delta10s (which ranges from 1-10) to measure the daily flux. We multiply that by a fixed value (currently, 28.0), and that becomes the day's temperature on MozCast.
Each temperature is also converted into one of five weather states: sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rainy, or stormy. These are completely dependent on the temperature - think of it as the quick view. The stormier it is, the more rankings changed. If it's really hot and stormy, odds are good that something big changed in the algorithm. You can see more in the launch presentation from Mozcon below:
We've also created a new Twitter account @mozcast - stay tuned there for daily weather reports, feature updates, and occasional deep dives into unusual events. If you're at Mozcon, I'll be at the Garage party tonight and around all day Friday, so please feel free to stop me and ask questions about MozCast. I hope it keeps you out of the rain, even here in Seattle.
View the original article here
TO CATCH A SPAMMER
.
TO CATCH A SPAMMER: UNCOVERING NEGATIVE SEO
Google recently updated its claims regarding the ability of other webmasters to affect your rankings via negative SEO. While questions about the efficacy of negative SEO continue to exist, it does not seem to be slowing down the growth of what is arguably the most contemptible part of the search industry.
On July 9th, a good friend of mine reached out to me with a problem. As a very risk-averse webmaster, he constantly plunges into the numbers, especially anchor text diversity, in order to make sure his site is as penalty-proof as possible. The latest updated data in SEOmoz's MozScape revealed a massive shift towards anchor text over optimization for several primary terms. It took only a few minutes to identify the culprit.
Diagnosing the Damage
The first step was to dig down into all the link data to identify just how deep the damage was. We downloaded all the links available on SEOmoz, MajesticSEO and AHrefs to make sure that we had every possible outlet covered. It didn't look good. On a primary keyword, the number of unique linking domains with exact anchor text went up 20x in a matter of two days. Below is an example of one of the spam posts.
example of spam
Now the leg work began of identifying as many negative links as possible. But this is when it got interesting. We were able to quickly identify that there were several sites involved in the attack.
Wait, what? Did you just read what I read? Distilled, the venerable white-hat SEO company was being attacked along side several bingo sites and an insurance liability website. This was too interesting to give up. At that point, I knew my day was shot.
Footprints, Footprints, Footprints
Let me go ahead and get this out - if you are thinking about doing negative SEO and are not a regular practitioner of black hat SEO, you are going to get caught. Sorry, but you just haven't thought it through enough to cover your tracks. What follows is a perfect example of that.
After digging through several of the XRumer spammed backlinks, most hitting up old .cgi guestbooks and bulletin boards, I noticed a handful of sitewide links coming from poor quality blogs. My first instinct was that these were from hacked sites.
gotcha
But something was different about these. Normally hackers hide their links in the posts with display:none tags so that the webmasters never actually see the bad links. It is a very effective strategy, but in this case they were fully exposed. So I checked another site that seemed to follow the same pattern.
network 2
In this example, the links were included in a post. It is very strange for a "hack" to follow such different patterns, sometimes dropping links sitewide and other times just in posts. So, it was time to investigate these anomalies. Off to one of my favorite sites, DomainTools.
For some reason, people still think that private registration is enough to cover all your tracks. Sure, it helps if you register a new domain and establish private registration at the point of acquiring the domain, but if at any point in your history you had accurate domain registration data, we can get to it. Anyone can. Using the DomainTools Registration History, we were able to track down the original registrant email address to info@-------.com
A Quick Note on Outing
As you have no doubt noticed so far in this post, I am not going to out the perps. We know the motive, and we know the likely perpetrator, but I can't prove that the parent company knew of the actions, nor even that the SEOs responsible for their accounts were aware of the actions taken on their behalf. I will not allow myself to be responsible for the downfall of a company that may have merely been ignorant rather than malicious, and I certainly won't open myself up to false flag attacks. That being said, the likely culprits are members of this community, and I believe they have much to lose if they continue in their ways. I can't prevent you all from connecting the dots, but I won't paint the picture myself.
So, back to the Investigation.
Now that we had a domain, we had a strong position from which to catapult our investigation. We quickly turned the domain into a twitter account, a twitter account into a link building company out of India. Aside from Distilled, a seemingly random business liability website was lumped into the attack. We were able to determine that the likely culprit owned a site which competes directly with this business liability insurance site. But we were stuck, until my good friend came through and did a quick analysis of the perpetrator's follow list on Twitter.
network 3
After a cursory look, he was able to identify a stinging indictment. Of the 41 individuals the likely culprit was following on Twitter, two worked for a direct competitor of the targeted bingo sites, one of which was the CEO of the company and the other the head of Web Marketing. He also followed Distilled, perhaps waiting to see how they responded when the attack was revealed.
the connection
This isn't quite the smoking gun yet, though, because the connection is not reciprocal. It is a strong indication, but not a nail in the coffin so to speak. But, alas, twitter is only one social media site. After digging deeper and deeper, we were able to find direct conversations of a personal, non-business, nature between the head of Web Marketing for the competitor sites and the likely culprit on Google+.
connection 2
Of course, this still only shows a link. But, as if the icing on the cake couldn't get any thicker, here is a nice comment the Director of Web Marketing left on a post about negative SEO just a few weeks ago. As you notice, he is contemplating Google's updated statement that negative SEO is possible. Seriously, could you make this any easier?
contemplation
So, what exactly does the evidence tell us...
A negative SEO attack was launched between May 20th and May 22nd of 2012 against several bingo sites, Distilled, and a business liability insurance site.The attack was likely created by an individual from India who owns a link building company.We know that who ever performed the attack had direct access to websites owned by the individual from India.That individual has direct connections with the CEO and Director of Web Marketing for a bingo website company.The Director of Web Marketing has reciprocated communication on social media sites with the individual likely responsible for the attack.The Director of Web Marketing responded with curiosity to Google's updated notation on negative SEO.
What do we not know?
We don't know, for certain, that either the CEO or Director of Web Marketing requested these actions be taken.We don't know, for certain, that the individual who owns the link building company was directly responsible.Why did they target Distilled in the campaign? Did they assume Distilled was an SEO of record for one of their competitors?
The Aftermath
If you are a victim of negative SEO, there are a handful of steps you simply have to tag to prevent potential damage to your site.
Download a complete list of links pointing to your site from Open Site Explorer.Mark any links in this list that came from the negative SEO attack.Submit these as a preemptive reconsideration request or via the feedback channel in Google Webmaster Tools.Use the Bing Webmaster Tools Disavow Tool immediately.Finally, if necessary, begin removing the bad links wherever possible. There are several tools to help out with this, including Virante's Remove 'Em, rMoov, or Richard Baxter's Excel Tool.
The Good News
At least at the moment, it appears that the negative SEO attack has been as effective as their ability to cover it up. For the time being, none of the sites appear to have been dramatically impacted by the campaign. However, with looming updates to Penguin, there is no telling. The best bet for any SEO is to stay on top of their backlinks, watching closely to make sure nothing nefarious makes its way into your profile.
Editor's Note
After the author wrote this post, Google announced a way to download your most recent links in Google Webmaster Tools that could prove very useful in this situation.
View the original article here
TO CATCH A SPAMMER: UNCOVERING NEGATIVE SEO
Google recently updated its claims regarding the ability of other webmasters to affect your rankings via negative SEO. While questions about the efficacy of negative SEO continue to exist, it does not seem to be slowing down the growth of what is arguably the most contemptible part of the search industry.
On July 9th, a good friend of mine reached out to me with a problem. As a very risk-averse webmaster, he constantly plunges into the numbers, especially anchor text diversity, in order to make sure his site is as penalty-proof as possible. The latest updated data in SEOmoz's MozScape revealed a massive shift towards anchor text over optimization for several primary terms. It took only a few minutes to identify the culprit.
Diagnosing the Damage
The first step was to dig down into all the link data to identify just how deep the damage was. We downloaded all the links available on SEOmoz, MajesticSEO and AHrefs to make sure that we had every possible outlet covered. It didn't look good. On a primary keyword, the number of unique linking domains with exact anchor text went up 20x in a matter of two days. Below is an example of one of the spam posts.
example of spam
Now the leg work began of identifying as many negative links as possible. But this is when it got interesting. We were able to quickly identify that there were several sites involved in the attack.
Wait, what? Did you just read what I read? Distilled, the venerable white-hat SEO company was being attacked along side several bingo sites and an insurance liability website. This was too interesting to give up. At that point, I knew my day was shot.
Footprints, Footprints, Footprints
Let me go ahead and get this out - if you are thinking about doing negative SEO and are not a regular practitioner of black hat SEO, you are going to get caught. Sorry, but you just haven't thought it through enough to cover your tracks. What follows is a perfect example of that.
After digging through several of the XRumer spammed backlinks, most hitting up old .cgi guestbooks and bulletin boards, I noticed a handful of sitewide links coming from poor quality blogs. My first instinct was that these were from hacked sites.
gotcha
But something was different about these. Normally hackers hide their links in the posts with display:none tags so that the webmasters never actually see the bad links. It is a very effective strategy, but in this case they were fully exposed. So I checked another site that seemed to follow the same pattern.
network 2
In this example, the links were included in a post. It is very strange for a "hack" to follow such different patterns, sometimes dropping links sitewide and other times just in posts. So, it was time to investigate these anomalies. Off to one of my favorite sites, DomainTools.
For some reason, people still think that private registration is enough to cover all your tracks. Sure, it helps if you register a new domain and establish private registration at the point of acquiring the domain, but if at any point in your history you had accurate domain registration data, we can get to it. Anyone can. Using the DomainTools Registration History, we were able to track down the original registrant email address to info@-------.com
A Quick Note on Outing
As you have no doubt noticed so far in this post, I am not going to out the perps. We know the motive, and we know the likely perpetrator, but I can't prove that the parent company knew of the actions, nor even that the SEOs responsible for their accounts were aware of the actions taken on their behalf. I will not allow myself to be responsible for the downfall of a company that may have merely been ignorant rather than malicious, and I certainly won't open myself up to false flag attacks. That being said, the likely culprits are members of this community, and I believe they have much to lose if they continue in their ways. I can't prevent you all from connecting the dots, but I won't paint the picture myself.
So, back to the Investigation.
Now that we had a domain, we had a strong position from which to catapult our investigation. We quickly turned the domain into a twitter account, a twitter account into a link building company out of India. Aside from Distilled, a seemingly random business liability website was lumped into the attack. We were able to determine that the likely culprit owned a site which competes directly with this business liability insurance site. But we were stuck, until my good friend came through and did a quick analysis of the perpetrator's follow list on Twitter.
network 3
After a cursory look, he was able to identify a stinging indictment. Of the 41 individuals the likely culprit was following on Twitter, two worked for a direct competitor of the targeted bingo sites, one of which was the CEO of the company and the other the head of Web Marketing. He also followed Distilled, perhaps waiting to see how they responded when the attack was revealed.
the connection
This isn't quite the smoking gun yet, though, because the connection is not reciprocal. It is a strong indication, but not a nail in the coffin so to speak. But, alas, twitter is only one social media site. After digging deeper and deeper, we were able to find direct conversations of a personal, non-business, nature between the head of Web Marketing for the competitor sites and the likely culprit on Google+.
connection 2
Of course, this still only shows a link. But, as if the icing on the cake couldn't get any thicker, here is a nice comment the Director of Web Marketing left on a post about negative SEO just a few weeks ago. As you notice, he is contemplating Google's updated statement that negative SEO is possible. Seriously, could you make this any easier?
contemplation
So, what exactly does the evidence tell us...
A negative SEO attack was launched between May 20th and May 22nd of 2012 against several bingo sites, Distilled, and a business liability insurance site.The attack was likely created by an individual from India who owns a link building company.We know that who ever performed the attack had direct access to websites owned by the individual from India.That individual has direct connections with the CEO and Director of Web Marketing for a bingo website company.The Director of Web Marketing has reciprocated communication on social media sites with the individual likely responsible for the attack.The Director of Web Marketing responded with curiosity to Google's updated notation on negative SEO.
What do we not know?
We don't know, for certain, that either the CEO or Director of Web Marketing requested these actions be taken.We don't know, for certain, that the individual who owns the link building company was directly responsible.Why did they target Distilled in the campaign? Did they assume Distilled was an SEO of record for one of their competitors?
The Aftermath
If you are a victim of negative SEO, there are a handful of steps you simply have to tag to prevent potential damage to your site.
Download a complete list of links pointing to your site from Open Site Explorer.Mark any links in this list that came from the negative SEO attack.Submit these as a preemptive reconsideration request or via the feedback channel in Google Webmaster Tools.Use the Bing Webmaster Tools Disavow Tool immediately.Finally, if necessary, begin removing the bad links wherever possible. There are several tools to help out with this, including Virante's Remove 'Em, rMoov, or Richard Baxter's Excel Tool.
The Good News
At least at the moment, it appears that the negative SEO attack has been as effective as their ability to cover it up. For the time being, none of the sites appear to have been dramatically impacted by the campaign. However, with looming updates to Penguin, there is no telling. The best bet for any SEO is to stay on top of their backlinks, watching closely to make sure nothing nefarious makes its way into your profile.
Editor's Note
After the author wrote this post, Google announced a way to download your most recent links in Google Webmaster Tools that could prove very useful in this situation.
View the original article here
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