Wednesday, September 30, 2015

SearchCap: Google App Indexing API Boost, AdWords Audience Insights & Google News SEO

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web.

From Search Engine Land:

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

Local & Maps

Searching

SEO

SEM / Paid Search

Search Marketing

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Google Adds Additional Ranking Boost For Using App Indexing API

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Mariya Moeva, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, announced today at SMX East that in addition to the app ranking boost Google announced on February 26, 2015, Google launched an additional ranking boost for those apps that utilize the new App Indexing API.

Mariya explained that when an app utilizes this new API, they are able to gather additional engagement data from that app where Google can determine how useful the app is.

Google has not yet published a blog post announcing this, Mariya said that is because all of this is changing incredibly quickly. In addition to the new ranking boost for using the App Indexing API, Google announced a few more things around app indexing at SMX East.

New iOS Google Indexing Documentation

Google also came out with a brand new set of documentation today around iOS app indexing. The new documentation can be found here and works nicely with the new iOS 9 operating system.

We hope to have more on the new iOS app indexing documentation from Google soon.

New Search Console Features For App Indexing

The Google Search Console has some new beta features App Indexing developers can play with including:

(1) The ability to segment out data, Search Analytics data, based on clicks on the search result links versus clicking on the install app button.

(2) The ability to fetch as Google not just based on the Google Play APK URL but also by uploading your APK directly through the fetch as Google feature.

(3) The fetch as Google results will now also show the complete API response including title, description, API URL and more.

These are some of the new announcements from Google around App Indexing today.

The post Google Adds Additional Ranking Boost For Using App Indexing API appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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5 Mistakes SEOs Still Make With Links & Content

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You make a lot of mistakes. That’s part of life.

And SEO is a complex field; there’s a lot to remember, even more to do, and everyone’s stock answer to your questions seems to be, “It depends.”

Furthermore, it’s not just the fresh-faced, new-on-the-scene SEOs who are making mistakes. Seasoned veterans and outright experts are doing it, too.

Here are five well-known mistakes that SEOs make in regards to links and content — and that are costing vital traffic:

Mistake #1: Building All Links On The Home Page

It’s tempting to point all your links to your home page. Because, well… that’s usually where your sales funnel starts, right?

Or your client is nagging you to drive all your traffic there — which can be even worse.

But building all your links to your home page isn’t just a mistake.

It’s a bad strategy.

Firstly, most sites have too many home page links. And if most sites are doing it, you shouldn’t be. Because following the crowd in SEO is guaranteed to find you somewhere on the 10th page…if you’re lucky.

A good strategy is to link deep into your site and use all those lovely internal pages you took the time to craft.

Neil Patel said it best in this post about link building:

Look at Wikipedia. The site that ranks for almost every term out there and is the 6th most popular site in the world. Majestic SEO is showing that Wikipedia in total has over 600 million backward links, whereas the home page has roughly 6 million links. That means 1% of their total links point to their home page, while 99% goes to internal pages.

Spreading your link equity across your site, rather than concentrating it on your home page, just makes sense. Instead of users landing on your home page and having to fight to find the content they’re looking for, they’re already there. It feels more natural — and if your content is good, it builds more trust.

Linking deep helps you build the overall SEO value for your site, too — the more high-value pages you have, the more opportunities you have to achieve search engine visibility.

It’s a win-win.

Mistake #2: Stopping Link Building After Hitting The First Page

Look, let me be straight with you: search engine optimization efforts don’t last forever. Within a matter of weeks, you’re going to need to change something.

That’s why campaigns never really finish; they just change focus for a while.

SEO is constantly changing, and it’s your job to keep up with it.

Sure, when you hit the first page, give yourself a pat on the back. Grab a beer, high-five your client, take a few screenshots, and enjoy it. But once you’re done celebrating, it’s time to work on a strategy to help you stay on the first page.

Think of this from Google’s point of view: Your site wasn’t doing anything. Now, it’s suddenly hot and alive and interesting. And then it stops doing anything again.

It assumes you’ve either had a quick hit of a link building campaign or a viral blog post, and you’ve finally run out of steam.

Keep building links. Don’t stop being hot and alive and interesting in the eyes of Google — or you’ll run out of traffic (and clients) quickly.

Mistake #3: Not Using Blogging As A Strategy

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a marketing director at a Fortune 500 company. She asked me to write a series of blog posts for her that would drive traffic to their new initiative.

I asked her, “How long would you like the post to be?” To which she said, “It doesn’t matter; it’s not like anybody is actually going to read it.”

This is what’s wrong with how businesses and old-school marketers view blogging. They view blogging as low value — and it’s a view that’s rubbed off on lots of SEOs, too.

But not blogging is a big mistake. In fact, it can be one of the highest-value strategies you can use.

Look at it this way: How often is the content on your site updated? Not often. Because you can’t really update your About Me or Services page more than a couple of times a year.

That means your site is just sitting there dormant. And Google doesn’t like inactive sites.

But if you have a blog, you’re adding another page to your site at least once a month — if not once a week or once a day.

That says to Google, “Hey, look at us! We’re working our butts off over here. Come and see what we’ve made.”

And if you’ve got more pages in your index, there are more pages to rank with that you can work your SEO magic on for a little extra traffic.

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HubSpot sees blogging as a vital way to attract new customers.

Take a look at HubSpot, for instance: 70 percent of their traffic comes from old blog posts — that is, content they didn’t create that month. That’s a ton of visitors for work they did months ago.

And with every month that they grow their content index, the bigger that 70 percent becomes — because they’re bringing strangers into their site and converting them with great blog content.

You don’t have to focus on your blog as much as some big sites like HubSpot or Buffer to get the most out of your SEO. But even having a blog you update with relevant content twice a month is better than having no blog at all.

But, as you’ll see next, relevance is the key.

Mistake #4: Ignoring Content Relevance

I believe there are two big flaws in online marketing:

  1. Marketers think people are dumb.
  2. Marketers think search engines are dumb.

Advertising legend George Lois once said, “If you think people are dumb, you’ll spend a lifetime doing dumb work.”

And he was right.

People aren’t stupid. They’re clever and brilliant. They want to be sold to and discover products in creative ways.

But most of all — and what makes them smart — is that they want trust. They want to know that they’re spending money with someone worthwhile.

So if the content you’re creating to rank isn’t relevant, they’re going to see right through you. They won’t trust you. And, they’ll bounce quicker than my niece on a trampoline.

If you think search engines are dumb, then you, my friend, are in the wrong game.

In the same way that people want relevant, trustworthy content, so do search engines. In fact, it’s what the boffins (techies) at Google are crying out for. Because, as you’ve just read, it’s what the people want.

So just creating SEO content for the sake of creating SEO content isn’t good enough anymore.

But what makes relevant content?

  • It fits the topic of the site you’re writing for.
  • It adds value to the end reader.
  • It fits any (and all) keywords you’re using.
  • It makes sense for any backlinks to point to it.
  • It contributes to the overall quality of the site.

If your content isn’t doing any of those things, then it isn’t relevant.

Mistake #5: Not Using Brand Anchor Text

Anchor text is probably going to remain a constant in SEO for years to come. But it’s not anchor text itself that’s a problem — it’s the type you use.

For example, it’s no secret anymore that the more diverse your anchor text, the better — and the more natural it is in the eyes of Google.

But there’s one type of anchor text that SEOs always overlook: branded anchor text. That is, links on text that are:

  • Your brand name
  • Your name
  • Your URL

For example, by linking to Apple’s home page with the text “Apple Inc.,” I’ve just created a branded anchor text link.

Now, you might be thinking, “But you just said don’t link to your home page.” And you’d have a point — you shouldn’t link to your home page if it’s more relevant to link to another page.

All too often, however, SEOs will write a guest post or some content and leave their brand name unlinked. And it’s a sin — because it’s the perfect opportunity to boost your search rankings.

Of course, you have zero control over what anchor text people use when they link back to you. But that’s out of your control, so I’m not talking about that.

I’m talking about when you do have control. When your name, brand or URL come up naturally in content, take the opportunity to link it.

You won’t be penalized for it, and it could get you a much better ranking.

Don’t Worry, Get Traffic

Be honest with me: How many of those mistakes are you making?

It doesn’t matter if it’s one, two or the whole list. What matters is that you do something about it.

Because if you don’t make the change, you’re going to be left in someone else’s virtual dust, aren’t you?

Let’s quickly recap the mistakes, and what to do about them:

  1. Building All Your Links To The Home Page: While some links to your home page are great, don’t saturate it. Focus on deep linking and creating a rich index of SEO content.
  2. Stopping Once You Hit The First Page: SEO doesn’t last forever. The minute you relax is the minute it changes. Keep working and getting backlinks to make sure you’re a permanent fixture on the first page.
  3. Not Using Blogging As A Strategy: Keep your site active and create a big index of pages that you can link to.
  4. Ignoring Content Relevance: People and search engines aren’t dumb. So don’t treat them that way. Create relevant content that’s fit for purpose.
  5. Not Using Brand Anchor Text: Don’t let easy links to brand messages that use your name pass you by. Link them, and look for the difference it makes in your rankings.

So tell me, which one are you going to focus on first?

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Using Component Metrics In Your SEO Analysis

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There are a lot of great SEO performance ranking tools out there, many with unique features that add real value for a search marketer attempting to report clearly on performance improvements.

But can SEO learn from PPC and start isolating performance components better to allow for real analysis?

I think so — which is why I’ve been trialing a few “component metrics” to create better context in SEO reporting.

Understanding Components

Component metrics, as my data scientist friends like to say, isolate only one aspect of performance, and they are most valuable shown alongside other component metrics to create context.

Let me give an example using two component metrics with which digital advertisers should be familiar: CPC and CPA.

CPC (“Cost Per Click,” for casual readers) is a useful component metric, as it gives an unambiguous clarity on the price being paid each time a user clicks your ad. It’s simple, it’s easy to understand, and it’s probably one of the most important metrics in a PPC campaign.

But you couldn’t run a campaign efficiently just using CPC alone. Let’s walk through the gaps that scenario would create.

You are three months into a new PPC campaign. Although you started with a small budget (say, $1,000 a week), you’ve been ramping up spend each week as you’ve managed to consistently bring down your CPC over time.

You don’t have another metric to look at, but as an experienced search marketer, you know it’s probably driven by expanding your campaign ad groups to only use tightly themed creative matched to the terms triggering your ads.

Your click-through rate is probably pretty good, and over time you’ve built a click history which is probably improving your Quality Score. All is right with the world.

Your boss walks into the room, takes you to one side and tells you he appreciates your hard work, suggests you have a bright future, and, gently but firmly, fires you.

“But I don’t understand!” you protest while being escorted off the premises, a box in your hands containing a photo of your wife, a novelty poster the guys gave you on your birthday, and a Google pen left by a rep. “My campaign had the lowest CPC I’ve ever achieved!”

“Yes, Frank,” says your (now former) boss, “but not a single PPC sale was made.”

If only poor old Frank had taken the time to add CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) to his reporting, perhaps he would still be making notes on his novelty calendar using his favorite pen today.

Graphing component metrics — such as CPC and CPA — together is a great way to get clear understanding on a “combination metric.” Here, for example, we use CPC and CPA to get a feel for the efficient growth of our campaign over time. Looks like we’ve got some work to do on this campaign!

Viewing CPC alongside CPA allows you to understand at a glance if you're driving profitability efficiently.

Viewing CPC alongside CPA allows you to understand at a glance if you’re driving profitability efficiently. In this case, not so much!

Similarly, looking solely at ROI (Return on Investment) would not give context of the source of revenue growth or efficiency. Graphing revenue and PPC spend is, of course, a simple way to get a window on that — but better in that scenario would be looping in a few other component metrics: PPC Revenue, Non-Brand (or Shopping) Traffic and CPC, for example.

All of these metrics together give a very solid context to campaign performance, areas of efficiency and scope for improvement.

Component Metrics In SEO

So, what about SEO? What component metrics do we use typically? Rank, Traffic (ideally split brand vs. non), Impressions vs. Clicks (i.e., SERP [Search Engine Results Page] click-through rate), Organic Bounce Rate, Organic Conversion Rate, Total Links, Links by Domain, Indexed Pages, Page Response Time (segmented desktop, tablet, mobile). Perhaps a few others, but that’s the core.

All of these are useful for general campaign performance and traffic behavior analysis, but none are suitable for drilling into ranking performance in any detail.

We might use a proprietary metric from our preferred ranking tool for that. At QueryClick, we use our in-house tool, SearchLens, which uses “Search Visibility” — a metric which takes into account a few factors:

  • The average CTR (click-through rate) for a given SERP ranking (so ranking position #1 is factored by the position #1 CTR avg [c22.96 percent], and #11 by the position #11 CTR [c1.37 percent], and so on).
  • The number of competing results for the key phrase term (so ranking for a term with 10 million results generates a much higher score than one with only 1,000 results).
  • The market share of the search engine in the country you’re gathering results in (so ranking #1 in Google in the UK is worth significantly more than a #1 in Bing).

In short, it attempts to show the strength of the ranking in purely SEO terms.

Recently, we have experimented with viewing two other component metrics alongside: a value and a general change metric.

So what kind of visibility on rank performance do we get now? Let’s look at a graph with just strength and value to get a feel.

In the above image, we see that despite a loss of “Search Visibility” across the key phrase set measured, rankings against our “Search Opportunity” measure have improved significantly, driving organic traffic as a result.

This occurs when losing rank for a few highly competitive, but less relevant one- or two-word key phrases, but many more terms gain ranking that are are highly relevant and trafficked for PPC reach top three positions in high market share countries (driving up captured “Opportunity”). This helps put focus on achieving relevant, targeted performance, rather than vanity ranking for overly generic terms.

Compared to a simple rank grouping and the change of a single SERP “visibility” metric over time, the three component metrics give a strong picture of what’s changing and what can be improved.

Our first metric is our “Search Visibility” score, giving an idea of the overall strength of our rank group. If we gain movement for terms with lots of results listed, then this will reflect that.

Equally, if we lose rankings on high competition terms, then we’ll see a big dip here. In essence, this is a bellwether for performance on short key phrase terms with lots of targeted content out there — “shoes” or “menswear,” for example.

Strong performance here indicates you are able to rank top three for the most difficult terms in your market. If you have the best score in this metric, you are the strongest SEO competitor in the set.

Our second metric is “Search Opportunity.” This again uses the average CTR for your ranking, but instead of taking competing results, it brings in the number of searches for the term via AdWords. This gives an understanding of the traffic impact of a change, and your ranking ability to capture the most commercialized, targeted search terms in the set (i.e., the most valuable). I expect these terms to be 2–3 words long (“leather brogues,” “short-sleeve polo white” and so on).

Strong performance here shows you are targeted to the most commercially valuable terms, and this metric shows if you are seasonally matched to your target audience’s searching habits.

A final metric I would consider including is a weighted rank average score taking into account the CTR only (I use “Search Change” for this metric). This is an important component metric, because the other two metrics use rank CTR and so will be affected if we gain or lose rankings in high CTR areas (position 1 to 3 in particular, as the CTR rate is an exponential drop away from position 1).

Strong performance here means we are increasing our ranking position to the top positions over time, and particularly in the highest rank positions. This is agnostic to the competition or traffic associated for a term, so a 5- to 6-word key phrase will impact this just as much as a one-word term. Thoughtful key phrase selection is therefore important to make this metric relevant.

In addition, I like to show the grouped key phrase volumes in categories with these components, to get an idea of where the rank changes are coming from. Start segmenting your key phrase terms, and you have a suite of reports giving your biggest gaps in ability to perform versus captured, relevant traffic, and if you are improving or dropping away over time.

So what component metrics do you use and find most useful in your search marketing role?

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New Adwords Audience Insights Report Offers Deeper Dive Into Audience Demographics

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How To Resolve Issues With Flexible Bid Strategies In AdWords

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In November 2014, Google quietly rolled out an AdWords update that provides more detailed status information for flexible bidding strategies.

The detailed reporting allows you to see when updates and changes made to the bid strategy caused it to move from an active status into a “learning” mode, as well as why a bid strategy is “limited” and therefore unable to be used for optimization.

If you are troubleshooting performance issues in your AdWords account and you are using Flexible Bid Strategies, these status updates might be the key to understanding why performance has gone awry — or at least, not as you planned.

How Do You Find Your Bid Strategy Status?

Bid Strategies are located within the “Shared Library” in AdWords. The status can be found by hovering over the speech bubble (SpeechBubble) in the Bid Strategy Status column and in the performance charts within a specific strategy.

FindBidStrategyStatuses

[click to enlarge]

Why Do Flexible Bid Strategy Statuses Matter?

To explain why it matters, I want to tell a story — a story where a manager was very frustrated by stagnant performance.

At the beginning of the year, the manager set up multiple flexible bid strategies across her AdWords account. She segmented the top performing keywords into specific ad groups, used a “Target CPA” flexible bid strategy, set a fairly aggressive CPA target, then activated it and let it run free in the wild.

Month after month, the manager continued to add and remove campaigns, ad groups and keywords within the ad groups associated with the strategy to try to get it to meet performance targets, to no avail. The performance for their top converting keywords was pretty flat, and CPCs swung up and down but didn’t seem to be able to optimize against the CPA target.

The manager spent hours digging into the account, doing campaign settings audits, Quality Score reviews, and looking at various segmentation via the dimensions tab — yet was unable to find a smoking gun that explained why the account wasn’t performing to expectations. It didn’t even cross the manager’s mind to look at the status and settings within the flexible bid strategies to see if that was causing the issues with optimization.

Here is the performance timeline view of the flexible bid strategy for the Top Converting keywords:

TopConvertingKeywords-NotOptimizingStatusUpdates

[click to enlarge]

The manager didn’t realize that the bidding strategy was limited. It was stuck rotating between a “learning” state of gathering data (due to the regular composition changes) and a “limited” state (due to too low maximum CPC thresholds and too-small daily budgets).

The moral of the story? As search managers, we get so used to digging into the weeds that we don’t always start our investigations at the top (or in the most obvious place). If you have flexible bid strategies implemented in your account and you are experiencing performance issues, start by looking at the bid strategy status and then dig into the account.

On a separate note, digging into the bid strategy makes it easy to understand the impact of changes to a given bid strategy and to see how often the elements are not being optimized due to moving into a “learning” state.

Bid Strategy Statuses & Troubleshooting Tips

Let’s review the various statuses for flexible bid strategies and discuss when you can ignore the status and when you need to dig in and make some changes.

The first three statuses — Not Limited, Inactive, and Unavailable — are good to know, but it’s the latter three that demonstrate the value behind Google providing us with more information.

If your flexible bid strategy is showing a status of Learning, Limited, or Various, then I’d recommend digging in to better understand what changed and what you need to do to get your bid optimization back online and running.

Not Limited

This means the flexible bid strategy is active, without any restrictions.

Inactive

This is straightforward — your bid strategy is not active because either campaigns, ad groups or keywords assigned to the strategy are paused or because it has not been assigned yet.

Unavailable

There is no status. I can’t explain it and neither can Google. Good luck and check back again either tomorrow or in a few days.

Learning

A change was made to the strategy, so AdWords is gathering performance data in order to start making bid optimization changes. If you make changes to your bid strategies often, the learning status will show you how long it takes AdWords to learn and adjust bidding to meet your new strategy.

What are the various learning statuses, and what do they mean?

  1. New Strategy. A strategy was either recently created or reactivated.
  2. Budget Change. The budget was recently changed.
  3. Setting Change. One of the settings for your bid strategy was changed.
  4. Composition. Campaigns, ad groups, or keywords have been added to or removed from your bid strategy.

The most frequent learning status that I see in our accounts is the composition changes that stem from moving elements like keywords, ad groups and campaigns into and out of bid strategies based on performance changes to meet a target CPA or ROAS goal.

Limited

The bid strategy needs to be edited to start optimizing campaigns because of one of the following 5 potential reasons:

1. Bid Limits. Either your Maximum CPCs are too low and/or your Minimum CPCs are too high so AdWords cannot optimize bids.

How to resolve the “Bid Limit” status: Check your minimum and maximum CPCs. Adjust accordingly based on your strategy. If you are targeting maximum clicks, be careful to avoid adjusting the maximum CPC too high, you could accidently and easily increase your spend [and Google’s revenue] quickly.

2. Not Enough Data. There aren’t enough conversions to optimize your bids. There need to be at least 15 conversion in the last 30 days.

How to resolve the “Not Enough Data” status: First, check your conversion tracking pixel to make sure that it is still enable and firing correctly. If you dig into the performance chart looks like the one below, it might be a strong signal that something went awry with your conversion tracking pixel.

Next, check to see if you are/were using the conversion optimizer in conjunction with the flexible bid strategies for CPA targeting. In the example screenshot below, the manager originally suspected an issue with the conversion pixel, however, digging into the website revealed that it was caused by adjusting the Campaign Strategy Bid Strategy for Conversion Optimizer.

NotEnoughData-Status

It could mean that the elements that have been opted into the strategy aren’t converting frequently enough or at high enough thresholds to be optimized with the current strategy.

My fellow contributor Frederick Vallaeys wrote an in-depth overview to bid management in March that addresses a few different approaches to optimizing bids with little data. If you are using the “Target CPA” or “Target ROAS” approach you could add in additional campaigns/ad groups/keywords that are at or near your current strategy target to meet the minimum conversion threshold.

3. Low Priority Spend. The campaign budget is, too low and it needs to be adjusted or the target spend thresholds need to be increased or removed to allow AdWords the ability to optimize the campaigns. Low priority spend could appear when you have keywords within the same campaign with multiple bid strategies or manual bidding that when combined together exceeds the campaign daily budget.

How to resolve the “Low Priority Spend” status: Adjust either the campaign daily budgets or the target spend level.

4. Budget Constrained. Too many keywords within this strategy are “Limited by Budget” so AdWords doesn’t have the ability to raise bids.

How to resolve the “Budget Constrained” status: Adjust either the campaign daily budgets or the target spend level.

5. Low Quality Score. Too many keywords have a low Quality Score.

How to resolve the “Low Quality Score” status: Fix issues with low Quality Score keywords! No, seriously, evaluate your Quality Score; if the keywords aren’t meeting your KPIs, pause them or remove them from your account.

Various

Most likely this means that your strategy is limited for multiple reasons such as having both Low Quality Score and low Max CPC Bid Limits. If your status is “Various,” then I’d recommend digging in and editing the strategy so it can be reactivated for optimization.

Final Thoughts

I must acknowledge the humor in the fact that many of the fixes for a “Limited” bid strategy status involve increasing your AdWords budget.

For a minute or two, I thought that perhaps I had gotten a new job as a Google rep, because it sounds so very much like a recommendation that they would provide to any advertiser.

In truth, though, if you aren’t allocating enough budget to a given strategy or set of keywords to auto-optimize, then you should probably focus on manual bid optimization.

If you are optimizing with flexible bid strategies, I recommend including a monthly check-in in your optimization plan to check their status and performance.

I also find it helpful to identify how frequently the bidding strategy is learning and gathering performance data, so that I can prepare to have conversations either with my clients or the leadership team on what might be impacting our overall performance. Either way, make sure that you’re regularly checking your strategies and their health so you can adjust as needed.

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At Nexus Hardware Event Google Shows Now On Tap & Expanded Voice Actions

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Yesterday Google held its Nexus and Android hardware release party. Most of the attention and coverage was focused on the devices introduced: the Nexus 5X and 6P phones, the Pixel C Android tablet and various Chromecast devices.

However there was also a discussion or reintroduction of features associated with the “Marshmallow” update to Android OS. (Android now has 1.4 billion users globally according to yesterday’s news.).

Google originally introduced “Now on Tap” at its I/O developer conference earlier this year. It has subsequently discussed or demonstrated it several times, including at SMX Advanced in Seattle and SMX Paris. Now the feature is rolling out in earnest with Android Marshmallow.

Google Now on Tap allows users to get additional information, take actions or navigate between apps without conducting a formal search. It makes “search” the connective tissue between app experiences on Android. (Bing has also introduced a Now on Tap-like capability called Bing Snapshots for Android.)

Now on Tap is invoked by holding the home button. It will scan the app or webpage and bring up contextually relevant information. For example, in a social media discussion about a specific restaurant, holding the home button will bring up a lower-third pop up with the restaurant name and relevant other apps (e.g., Yelp, OpenTable). The user can then go directly into these and find more information or make an OpenTable reservation.

This illustrates how search is being used in the background across Android and becoming more “contextual” and “transactional.” It also parallels moves Google has made on the desktop to integrate more transactional capabilities (e.g., make an appointment) into the Knowledge Panel of the SERP.

Yesterday Google also demo’d an expanded version of Voice Actions that integrates within apps. Previously Voice Actions stopped at the front door to an app. However during the keynote at the Nexus event Google showed how developers can bring Voice Actions into apps to enable conversational navigation, search or commands within an app.

These are impressive and valuable new capabilities that will enhance the user experience for Android owners. They also make Google search (broadly defined) and Google Now vital “horizontal” features of the whole Android experience.

Google Now (including third party app-card integration), Now on Tap and expanded Voice Actions, among other moves, are Google’s way of adapting and more deeply integrating search and related technologies into a mobile user experience that is now fundamentally different than search on the desktop.

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Why Some Might Think Google Is Hostile To The Daily Show

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If you ask Google about The Daily Show, the response might look a bit hostile towards the show. As @adamjohnsonNYC pointed out, the Knowledge Graph box that shows up for the popular comedy show uses a negative description of the show. It reads:

Accused by some of misinforming its core audience of young adults about international news, this series doesn’t hide the fact that it’s not a news program and only uses newsworthy stories as a jumping-off point…

Here is a picture:

oogle-daily-show-box

One might assume this is a description Google itself wrote about the show, but no – it is not. Google is picking it up from their crawl of the web and because Google is not showing the source of the description, searchers may assume it came from Google directly.

It does seem like other places are using the description as well, including Verizon, AOL TV, TIVO and others. So it is probably being licenses from a third-party provider.

We have reached out to Google for a comment on this and will update this story if and when we hear back.

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Google News Publishers No Longer Require Three-Digit Numbers In URLs

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Google is no longer requiring Google News publishers to maintain the classic “three-digit rule” in the URL structure.

Google News has always required Google News publishers to have three-digits in their URLs to ensure their content gets indexed and ranked by Google News. The exception to the rule were those publishers who implemented News Sitemap indexing.

But now, even without a Google News Sitemap, you no longer need to have three-digits in the URL structure of your Google News publisher site.

Stacie Chan from Google explained that the Google News indexing “team took this into consideration, and decided to remove this rule in order to include more of your great news content.”

“We’re happy to announce that Google News no longer requires you to follow the “3-digit rule,” which previously required you publishers to have a unique number of 3 digits in your article URLs,” Stacie Chan announced to all Google News publishers.

Of course, those publishers who have already implemented the 3-digits in their URLs do not need to make any changes. You can keep your URL format the way they are. You still do need to make sure your URLs are unique and permanent.

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Communication & Transparency In Enterprise Link Building

communication-transparency-links-andrew-dennis-SEL

Link building is a technical and nuanced practice that is difficult to do well. Building real links requires manual effort, dedication and no shortage of creativity.

To earn worthwhile links, you have to:

  • Critically analyze your client’s site and identify potential assets valuable to their audience.
  • Find relevant, quality sites where your client’s audience lives online.
  • Identify any online relationships, mentions, opportunities or engagement that could lead to a link.
  • Persuasively explain the value of your client’s page to the site owner’s audience in order to secure a link.

Matt Cutts said it best when he referred to link building as “sweat plus creativity.” Effective link acquisition at the enterprise level is even more competitive. But links are foundational to online visibility, and even major brands need link building.

There are several unique challenges connected to enterprise link building, and many of the solutions to these hurdles lie within communication and transparency.

Communication Starts Before You Have The Client

Success in enterprise link acquisition is predicated on effective communication.

Even before a project starts, strong communication (sometimes in the form of marketing) is required to attract the business of Fortune 500 companies. Large corporations can afford to hire the best vendors available, and if you can’t clearly communicate quality, professionalism and competence all the way through the onboarding process, you won’t get their business. Some ways to demonstrate your expertise include:

  • Detailed proposals.
  • Structured reports.
  • Case studies.
  • A clear route of communication.
  • Prompt response time to client queries.
  • Multiple layers of contact available.
  • Testimonials or referrals from previous clients.
  • Instructional videos.
  • A professional website.
  • Designated meetings and discussions.
  • A clear outline of strategy.

All of these require strong communication skills to execute well, and they will help make a case that you can handle enterprise-level clients.

Ongoing Communication Supports A Successful Link Campaign

Once you’ve secured an enterprise account, you will need to continue open communication throughout a campaign.

Open and direct communication with the client during strategy creation is vital. By collaborating with the client, you can ensure the strategy you develop aligns with client goals and expectations.

Enterprise companies aren’t particularly agile and will not pivot easily if your current strategy proves ineffective. This is why it’s important to ensure you and the client fully understand one another — and can establish clear goals and expectations from the start of a campaign.

Open communication during strategy development also encourages integration. By discussing strategy with the client, you can learn what marketing strategies they are currently executing and explore ways to leverage those initiatives to benefit your link project. Furthermore, you’ll be able to communicate the potential benefits of integration with the client, which is key to truly integrating and building project buy-in.

Integrating with the client and company will also help you find previous marketing initiatives that might have generated unclaimed link opportunities.

For example, an excellent piece of content buried within the company’s giant site could serve as a linkable asset that’s just waiting to be promoted. Or perhaps the client ran a successful PR campaign that generated media coverage and exposure but left behind a number of unlinked brand mentions. These opportunities can offer quick wins and build early momentum for a campaign.

Through integration, you can maximize campaign efficacy, as well as secure links that support other initiatives, helping those initiatives succeed. By making other departments look good, you’ll get buy-in — making integration and collaboration even easier as the project progresses.

Effective Communication Mitigates Bureaucracy

Enterprise companies can afford to execute a variety of marketing campaigns at any given time, which might generate extra opportunities for links. However, all these moving parts can lead to potential pitfalls, as well.

These corporations have their fair share of “red tape” and bureaucracy, and the key to reducing these obstacles is earning their trust early through effective communication.

Clear communication is vital to navigating the corporate hierarchy. When dealing with enterprise clients, you will often have a point of contact who still has to convince their bosses (who might not be SEO-savvy) of the validity of your project. By clearly communicating value to your contact, it’s easier for them to communicate that value “upstream” to decision makers and budgetary gatekeepers.

Effective and consistent communication can prevent a link campaign from being bogged down by red tape or a lengthy chain of command.

Transparency

The old adage of “actions speak louder than words” rings true in enterprise marketing. All the communication in the world won’t mean much without transparency. Don’t just tell your client what you’re doing — show them!

Once you’ve established a rapport with the client, you can build further trust by being transparent in your work.

Transparency in terms of a link campaign means:

  • Full access to their contact at all times.
  • Shared and agreed upon strategy documentation.
  • A full list of all links built, updated regularly.
  • The complete list of target sites and sites contacted.
  • Detailed list of completed work and time allocation.
  • Reports of effort in terms of links, relationships and leads generated.

You can also demonstrate transparency to a client through consistent reporting and examples of how you represent them online.

Transparency in link acquisition starts with reporting. Large corporations have complex structures — meaning you need to impress your contact, and your contact’s boss. Providing detailed, frequent reports on how your project is progressing (as well as how it contributes to client goals) will keep your contact happy, because their boss will be happy.

However, bear in mind that enterprise businesses are accustomed to seeing high-quality reports. Your reports need to have the following attributes to cater to an enterprise client:

  • Timely — Be quick to respond when a client needs data regarding their project.
  • Customized — Send customized reports that are tailored to the client’s unique campaign and goals (e.g., KPIs, organic traffic growth or conversion growth).
  • Professional — Presentation matters, especially because you should assume that every report you share could reach the C-suite.
  • Succinct — It should be possible to quickly scan your reports and have a general understanding of campaign progress.
  • Clear — Reports should focus on clarity and simplicity and be devoid of industry jargon.

Consistent, comprehensive, professional reports will help build trust and provide your contact with the tools necessary to keep their managers happy.

Transparency is also important when dealing with large companies that have established brand equity and care deeply about how their brand is represented. Showing an enterprise company exactly how you will represent them during a campaign builds trust that’s essential to sustained success.

Of course, you can only build that trust if you’re able to accurately represent your client’s brand. Full transparency means you show the client how you’re representing them within your link campaign — show the client the sites you’re contacting and how you’re contacting them. Enterprise clients will be more trusting and comfortable knowing you’re representing their brand accurately.

TL;DR

Link acquisition is a challenging and nuanced practice, and it becomes even more complicated when working with a corporate brand. Two pillars of successful enterprise link building are communication and transparency.

Here is a recap of why they’re important, and how to successfully execute in these two areas.

  • Communication
    • Starts before you secure the account – enterprise-grade marketing
      • Proposals, white papers, case studies, etc.
    • Collaborate with the client during strategy development
      • Ensures strategy aligns with client goals and expectations
      • Encourages integration from the outset
      • Provides opportunity to learn about past and current marketing initiatives
    • Ongoing communication throughout the link campaign
      • Cultivates trust and understanding
      • Helps navigation of corporate hierarchy
  • Transparency
    • Consistent reporting
      • Timely, personalized, professional, succinct reports
    • Brand representation
      • Accurate brand assimilation through research (brand voice, USP, competition, audience, market position, etc.)

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Google Search Console Changes URL Removal Language To “Temporarily Hide”

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Google has quietly changed the language and action buttons in the Google Search Console, where you are able to remove content from the Google index.

The “Remove URLs” tool in the Google Search Console now says “temporarily hide” URLs as opposed to the old language of “create a new removal request.”

While there was no change to the actual protocol or time the content would be removed from Google’s index after using this feature, Google must have felt the language scared webmasters away from using it. But changing the language to “temporarily,” maybe webmasters will more proactively use the feature.

In addition, there were some webmasters who undoubtedly felt that the feature permanently removed content from Google. That was never the case and by clarifying that language, Google would kill two birds with one stone.

Jennifer Slegg posted before and after screen shots of the page, so you can read the differences:

NEW Language:
google-remove-url-new

OLD Language:
google-remove-url-old

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Google News “First Click Free” Gets Less Free To Appease Publishers

google-news-ss-1920

Google announced that they are changing the “First Click Free” program based on publisher feedback. The First Click Free program enables publishers who provide content behind a paywall the ability to allow Google and some users the ability to see that content, for free, based on the number of times a user clicks over from Google to the publisher site.

Previously, a user would be able to see free content from a participating publisher for free but only up to five articles. Now, Google said they are reducing that to three articles based on publisher feedback.

The rational seems to be that with more individual users having more devices, i.e. desktop, tablet, mobile phone, etc – they are able to access content for free five times multiplied by the number of devices. By reducing it to three articles, that drops the overall number of potential free content a single user can get.

So in the case of a user with a desktop, tablet and mobile phone – they would be able to potentially access 15 articles for free. By dropping the number to three articles, now they would only be able to access nine articles per day.

John Mueller said that publishers still have control to determine how to count a user’s accesses. But this change is valid on both Google Search and Google News. This change was done based on the new “multi-screen, multiple device world we now live in,” John explained.

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MarTech Europe Is 3 Weeks Away! Register & Save £100.

martech-1200x800Nearly 60% of marketers are not fully utilizing their marketing technologies, according to a recent study. Selecting and on-boarding the systems that promise to deliver exceptional customer experiences is just the beginning; rubber meets road when the organisation, people and culture are aligned to effectively apply them.

Continue on the journey of achieving the full potential of marketing technology…attend MarTech: The Marketing Technology Conference, 21-22 October in London.

You’ll join like-minded marketers, marketing technologists, IT pros and digital innovators in exploring how to evolve your organisation to take advantage of technology-powered marketing. The agenda features real-world experiences from major B2B and B2C brands that will provide you with new insights. See what past attendees have said about this unique conference.

MarTech Is Right Around The Corner
Register at the low pre-conference rate of £995, £100 off on-site rates. Get two days of insightful presentations and networking with peers who are capitalising on the dynamics of marketing technology.

Hurry! MarTech Europe starts in 3 weeks. Secure your place today!

 

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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

SearchCap: Local Marketing Automation Tools, App Indexing May Change SEO & Mars Google Doodle

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

Searching

SEM / Paid Search

SEO

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Enterprise Local Marketing Automation Tools – New Marketing Intelligence Report

Marketing Land’s latest edition of the “Enterprise Local Marketing Automation Tools 2015: A Marketer’s Guide” examines the market for local marketing automation platforms and the considerations involved in implementing these tools in your business.

Locally targeted ad spending by U.S. national brands will grow from $54.4 billion in 2014 to $68.9 billion in 2018, according to BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast. Local marketing growth is being driven by several important trends, including consumers’ increasing preference for online local information – particularly through social media – and their use of mobile devices to shop locally.

This free, 39-page guide examines the critical elements for local marketing success and current trends in enterprise local marketing automation; including omnichannel marketing, tag management, and mobile measurement and optimization. It also includes profiles of 20 leading local marketing automation vendors, pricing charts, capabilities comparisons and recommended steps for evaluating and making an informed purchase.

Click here to get your copy.

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SPONSORED MESSAGE: Get a 360-degree view of marketing effectiveness with Marchex Call Analytics

Read The New Report: The $1 Trillion click to call economy

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Could Deep Links To Apps Represent The Future Of Link Building?

apps-mobile-smartphone-ss-1920

Deep links have been a mainstay in the SEO community for more than a decade. Rather than pointing an external link to a home page, deep links point to a more specific internal page, such as a product page or a blog article.

This establishes greater diversity in your link profile, increases the page authority of individual pages, and gives users greater opportunities to explore more of your website’s content.

Traditionally, deep links have relied on networks of other Web pages, because until recently, that was the only place for them to exist. They might be embedded in an article, included in a forum comment, or even mentioned in a social media share.

Today, there’s a new kind of deep linking emerging, and it might pave the way for the future of link building — and SEO in general.

The Basic Premise

Instead of deep linking to an interior page of a website, the future of the industry could establish the importance of app-based deep linking. Basically, instead of having a link pointing to a deep internal page of a website, you’d have a link pointing to a specific area within a mobile application.

In theory, this is simple. Let’s say a user has your app installed, and he or she performs a Google search on their mobile device. One of the results is for your content, which exists both on your website and in your mobile app. If your app is indexed, clicking the result will take the user to not to the page on your website, but to the corresponding location in your app instead.

For users who don’t have your app installed, Google might surface results urging users to download and install your app from the associated app store.

App Indexing

For the past few years, Google and other Web giants have been slowly shifting their attention and priorities to mobile users. Mobile is responsible for a larger and larger percentage of all online activity every year, and companies are pushing to make that transition complete.

As a result, Google is already indexing apps, similar to the way it indexes websites. Because apps rely on different structures and different environments, Google actually produced a guide for developers that specifies how to properly format and send this information to Google for proper indexing.

Once indexed, Google is theoretically able to provide app information to anyone conducting a relevant search on a mobile device. For example, someone searching for “transportation app” on a mobile device might find a link to download the Uber or Lyft app.

Why might this be a game-changer for SEO?

For businesses whose end goal was once getting people to visit a website, a new contender emerges: getting people to download an app. And if the end goal is getting people to download an app, the rules of SEO will need to be rewritten. You’ll need to take actions and implement strategies that get your app to be more noticeable in search results, but how exactly do you do that? With in-app content? With popularity ratings through superior functionality?

Little is known yet about how Google ranks deep links, although Emily Grossman and Cindy Krum have done a great job summarizing what we know so far in their recent article on app indexing for Google search.

The Possibilities Of App Deep Linking

While the technical complexities are intimidating and the notion of traditional websites becoming obsolete is somewhat alarming, it’s impossible to deny the potential benefits of this kind of deep linking.

First, it represents a new means of increasing the visibility of your app in general. Much in the way that deep Web links have diversified traditional link building strategies to pass more authority, new app linking strategies could similarly boost rankings for apps in both web search and (possibly) the app store.

Second, because deep linking will lead people to specific sections within your mobile app, you can consider it a kind of shortcut for your users. You can get them to a checkout screen faster than ever before — and because you know they’re on a mobile device, you can cater to them even more specifically.

The long-term potential for this type of link building means that link building itself is likely to stick around for a while longer — it’s just going to evolve to meet the new demands of consumers.

Don’t Get Too Excited Yet

It will probably be a few more years before the mobile-using population grows to an overwhelming majority and URI formats for app content become more streamlined. As a result, it will be a while before this strategy hits its peak. Still, it pays to look forward and prepare for the changes that are coming down the road.

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Monday, September 28, 2015

Mars Google Doodle Posted Shortly After NASA Shared Evidence Of Water Flowing On The Red Planet

Google Mars doodle
Just hours after today’s announcement from NASA that it had found evidence of water flowing on Mars, Google posted a Mars-themed Doodle to mark the major discovery.

From Google’s Doodle blog: “Today’s news stirred us like a long, cool drink in the blistering heat.”

The post goes on to report that the Doodle team felt compelled to honor such an exciting discovery, along with the implications it brings in regards to the search for life beyond Earth.

Here’s the animated image of Google’s Mars Doodle, sipping on a glass of water. The logo is currently displayed on Google’s homepages across the globe, and links to a search for [Mars].

evidence-of-water-found-on-mars-5652760466817024.2-hp

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SearchCap: User Science Behind Long-Form Content, Bid Boosting On Bing & Google’s Customer Match

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

Link Building

Local & Maps

Search Marketing

Searching

SEM / Paid Search

SEO

The post SearchCap: User Science Behind Long-Form Content, Bid Boosting On Bing & Google’s Customer Match appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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The SEO And User Science Behind Long-Form Content

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Bid Boosting On Bing: Discover The Untapped Value

bing-ads-offsetB-1920

Reaching the right audience at the right price is the goal for every advertiser, but that goal can be frustratingly elusive. Fortunately, there’s a powerful tool at your disposal to do just that: bid modifiers.

Bid modifiers provide you additional control to ensure your ads are shown to the customers you care about most — and not shown to those you care about least — while helping you optimally manage to your campaign goals.

How Does Bid Boosting Work?

Bid modifiers allow you to change keyword bids based on a number of parameters, helping to ensure your ad wins the auction and appears on the search results page. They can be applied to a searcher’s geographic location, the day and time of their search or the device they are searching from. Bid modifiers also allow you to bid on audiences using remarketing.

These modifiers are applied in real time during the auction when a Bing user’s search triggers your paid search ad, and they alter your base keyword bid.

For example, let’s say you own a boutique called Van Ness Dress that designs custom-fit dresses and want to improve the odds of showing your ads to customers who live in the city of San Francisco. Your bid on the keyword “dresses” is $1.00. You add a 20% incremental bid for people who live in San Francisco. Now, when a search user in the targeted city searches for “shoes”, your bid is $1.20, and more likely to be a winning bid that gets your ads displayed.

If a particular search user matches against multiple bid adjustments, the adjustments are combined using addition. Using the Van Ness Dress example, if we added another bid boost of 10% for users searching on Wednesdays, the potential maximum bid amounts would look like this:

Lives in San Francisco Searching on Wednesday Max bid
Search User #1 (Add .20) (Add .10) $1.30
Search User #2 (Add .10) $1.10
Search User #3 $1.00

Bid boosting is not just about raising bids, but can be equally effective at helping you manage the return on your ad spend by boosting down (i.e. below zero) against various parameters.

Advertisers may find that certain demographics, devices, audiences or locations do not convert as effectively or do not spend as much when they do convert. In these cases, adding a negative bid boost reduces the chances an ad will show, but each click will be at a reduced cost, allowing an advertiser to have further control over campaign performance.

Bid Boosting Drives Advertising Success

Bid boosting not only allows advertisers to be more (or less) competitive during the auction process, but advertisers that adopt bid boosting in ways that align to their campaign goals see increases in campaign performance across both click-through and conversion rates. There are four important areas where you can apply bid boosting to help you achieve better performance:

1. Boost By Demographics

Advertisers who are boosting bids on Age and Gender characteristics are seeing the greatest click-through rate (CTR) performance gains, according to internal data here at Microsoft. In fact, advertisers using bid boosting based on gender-related demographic information are seeing normalized CTR rates averaging 125 percent higher than their non-bid-boosted counterparts. However, less than 2 percent of campaigns are utilizing gender-based bid boosting, so the opportunity is wide open.

Advertisers using age-related bid boosting are seeing normalized CTR rate boosts an average of 133 percent over non-boosted rates. But like gender, we’re seeing that less than 2 percent of Bing Ads campaigns have bid boosts implemented on age-related demographics.

Advertisers using bid boosting for demographics are seeing impressive improvements in conversion rates. In the retail segment, for example, advertisers see 60 percent and 120 percent higher conversion rates for age and gender bid-boosted clicks, respectively.

At Bing, we’ve made significant improvements in our coverage of targetable users based on age and gender — which has more than doubled — helping you reach more customers who are more receptive to your message.

Bid adjustment for demographic targets can range from -90 percent to +900 percent.

Example scenario: Expanding on my example above, Van Ness Dress may decide that it wants to bid boost ads targeting female searchers, as they are the most likely to convert to a purchase, either via a phone call or through a store visit. Knowing their average conversion rate, margin on those sales, and CPC allows them to know how much they can bid boost and still maintain a positive return on investment.

2. Boost By Location

Bid boosts can also be applied based on geographic location, working in conjunction with geotargeting (country/state/metro) and radius targeting (ZIP code, for example). Using advanced location options, advertisers can be more selective on location intent, identifying customers searching for/viewing pages about their targeted location or targeting ads to customers physically in those locations.

Bid boosting by location is far and away the most popular form of bid boosting. Advertisers using this tactic to reach customers in the most highly desired locations are seeing normalized CTR gains on the average of 40 percent over non-boosted rates.

Bid adjustments for location targets can range from -90 percent to +900 percent.

Example scenario: In this case, our hypothetical Van Ness Dress decides to implement two bid boosting strategies similar to demographic bidding. First, they bid boost up for searchers located in San Francisco knowing their store proximity increases the likelihood to call or visit. However, residents in the Bay Area also hold value in that people will often come into the city over the weekend for shopping and entertainment. In this case, they me decide to bid boost down a small amount (say, for example, -20%), knowing Bay Area searchers still convert but their purchases tend to be smaller, giving them a lower ROI.

3. Boost By Device

While not quite as popular as location targeting, a substantial (and growing) number of advertisers are taking advantage of bid boosting across device types, including PC/tablet and mobile. And those advertisers are seeing normalized CTR gains averaging 32 percent over non-boosted rates.

Tablet bid adjustments can range from -20 percent to +300 percent of the desktop bid, while mobile bid adjustments can range from -100 percent (to exclude smartphone traffic) to +300 percent.

Example scenario: Mobile offers some significant opportunities for advertisers, and our friends at Van Ness Dress know this. Because they value store visits and calls very highly — and because mobile searchers offer them the unique opportunity to get in front of customers who are ready to take action now — they add a small bid boost to searchers on mobile devices.

4. Boost By Audience

Finally, advertisers are able to apply bid boosters against custom audiences. In this case, advertisers first must deploy tracking code on their site (called Universal Event Tagging on Bing Ads), create a remarketing list and make at least one association to an ad group. Once this is complete, advertisers can utilize bid boosting when remarketing to custom audiences, which could include visitors who have taken some sort of action on an advertisers’ site.

Bid adjustments for location targets can range from -90% to + 900%.

Example scenario: Van Ness Dress knows that custom-fit dresses are not an impulse purchase and that customers shop around before making a decision. Therefore, being able to remarket to people that have visited their site is imperative to capturing that final conversion opportunity. With appropriate tagging, Van Ness Dress boosts bids significantly for searchers who have visited their website.

Advertiser Takeaway

When bid boosting is thoughtfully applied to campaigns, advertisers experience significant CTR improvements — especially in categories where their competitors aren’t using it. By increasing or decreasing your bid boost when a user (or their search) meets specified parameters, you can increase the likelihood that your ads will be shown — and likely improve their positions. In addition, you may find that a combined approach to bid boosting will allow you to realize the best performance gains.

Most important, though, you’ll increase your chances of reaching the audiences you care about most at the price that is right for you, and you’ll reduce waste by avoiding consumers who don’t fall within your target.

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Final Chance: SMX East Starts Tomorrow! All Access & Expo+ Passes Still Available.

smxeast_lastchance_1200x800Gear up for the world’s largest search marketing conference: SMX East in NYC this week! Learn cutting-edge tactics in areas including paid search, SEO and social that will drive ROI, conversions, traffic and engagement. Our comprehensive agenda consists of 50+ sessions designed to make you a proficient and successful search marketer.

Act now while tickets are still available! Register for an All Access Pass and pay just $1795 — $100 savings from on-site rates. Build an all-star Internet marketing team by bringing your colleagues! Team discounts of 10%-20% are available if you sign up a group of 3 more. Can only make it for a day? One day All Access passes are also available.

On a tight budget? We can work with you! Just sign up for an Expo+ Pass by today and get it for FREE, or pay $50 on-site. Attend educational sessions including the “Learn With Google” track, Plus sessions, keynotes, SMX Theater presentations, and get valuable face time with nearly 40 exhibitors and sponsors including Google and Bing. View the complete Expo+ agenda.

Your opportunity to save on All Access Passes or score a free Expo+ Pass lies here. Three days of innovative content, networking opportunities, and market-leading solutions await you.

Register today!

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