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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Industry
Local & Maps
Search Marketing
Searching
SEM / Paid Search
SEO
The post SearchCap: Local SEO, link resolutions for 2017 & New Year’s Day Google doodle appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Here’s to a great 2017 full of learning and growing your SEO and SEM success! View ticket options and rates here.
We look forward to seeing you at SMX West, March 21-23 in San Jose!
The post Start your SEO and SEM campaigns off fresh with tactics that work appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Welcome to my first Local SEO column of the year on Search Engine Land! While most other sites are publishing roundups or predictions for 2017, there’s really only one way to kick off the beginning of a new year: a new installment of Greg’s Soapbox!
As you faithful readers know, my posts are almost always influenced by recent conversations with clients or near-clients, and this one’s no different. A few weeks ago, one of the auto dealers on our website platform called our support department with a question about inbound links. Our support team forwarded the call over to our SEO team.
The dealer wanted to know how to “get rid of some links.” Obviously, we asked for a bit more detail — and were blown away by the answer.
The dealer explained that they had about 75 to 80 links that they wanted to get rid of because they were bad links. He had run his link profile through Moz and had seen some high Spam Scores, so they turned to Majestic and saw low Trust Flow. He only had 100 inbound links, and he wanted to summarily execute 80 percent of his link profile.
The problem was, only one of the links was really a bad link. The other links were actually very valuable links — because they were links from small, hyper-local websites. The dealer was taking the tools at face value without really understanding how to use them.
Optimizing websites is an organic process that requires human insight. If you ask five SEO professionals to optimize the same page, they’d all do it differently. They’d all agree that title tags, H1s and content need to be optimized, but they’d optimize each element differently.
SEO tools are meant to make our jobs easier by simplifying tasks or gathering and visualizing data. But you still have to know how to interpret the data that’s presented. Trust Flow is Majestic’s estimation of a link quality score, based on the inferred quality of links from various sites. Moz’s Spam Score is calculated by looking at various factors that tend to belong to spammy sites.
Those of us in the local search sphere approach link building a bit differently from traditional SEO practitioners. We know that a link from a small, hyper-local site can carry a disproportionate amount of weight in the local algorithm — but the SEO tools don’t take “local” into account.
In fact, many of the elements that Moz correlates with spammy sites are also elements we see on most smaller local websites. Let’s look at a few of the “spammy” elements:
See what I mean? A small site for a local business that’s run by the business owner could trip a significant number of Moz’s Spam Score criteria.
If the client had simply looked a bit harder at the domains that were linking to him, it would have been clear that the links were valuable. The links came from local businesses, local clubs, local churches and local charities. They were exactly the kind of links his dealership needed — but because he was only looking at one element of the tool, he was ready to burn nearly every valuable link he had acquired.
Looking back at my recent posts here, I seem to rant fairly often about SEOs looking for silver bullets and shortcuts. Incredibly enough, many of the SEO tools out there help people fall into that very trap. Tools are meant to help us do our job — not do our job for us!
Your tools are a starting point. You need to understand the data the tools present so you know how to interpret what they’re telling you. SEO is a complex and nuanced discipline, so look beyond the tools and use your big brain to optimize your sites.
Let’s make it our New Year’s resolution to emphasize the human element in SEO. We’ll be better at our jobs, and we’ll get better results for our clients.
The post Local SEO is about so much more than tools appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Fake news and its influence on the election dominated headlines for weeks as fabricated news reports went viral and the election results shocked the nation. But fake news is just one tentacle of a troubling and growing trend of fake media content. The headlines simply brought to light what is a much wider problem: the ease and prevalence with which false online information is used to manipulate behavior.
The manipulation can be of consumer behavior, business behavior or even the behavior of software triggered by false information fed into its system. Scam artists are strongly motivated to take advantage — recent reports cite Russian hackers who stole up to $5 million a day in advertising revenue by posing as fake users in a scheme tagged by the name “Methbot.”
The impact on marketers is particularly hard. As consumers search for information to help make purchase decisions, uncertainty about the veracity of the information they receive impacts the effectiveness of local search marketing. Online advertising already faces challenges gaining consumer trust, and the proliferation of fake content will only hurt it more. Worse, you may be spending money on advertising that no one ever sees, be competing in an unfair market, suffer from hits to your reputation or pay more than you should for marketing products or services.
Being aware of how false information is being used will help marketers avoid problems and identify when they may be affected, saving them from both headaches and wasted dollars. Below are eight ways that false information is being used that you need to know about:
Fake news got a lot of headlines, and while its impact on marketing is indirect, the effect can still be significant.
The problem is that fake news often outperforms real news in traffic and engagement. Consumers love sensationalized news. Top fake stories received more engagement than top news stories, and some even went viral. Analysis by BuzzFeed found that the 20 top-performing fake election stories generated over 8.7 million shares, reactions and comments, compared to approximately 7.4 million of the 20 best-performing election stories from major news websites.
It may be tempting to follow the mantra that “all publicity is good publicity” and take advantage of the attention fake news gets you. At best, that is short-sighted — at worst, it’s self-destructive. Unlike the sources of fake news, advertisers need more than a click to make money. Online ads need to drive purchase decisions, but a recent study by Marketing Sherpa (registration required) demonstrated that it is still traditional advertising that influences purchase decisions most. The top five most trusted media formats were traditional media, led by print, TV, direct mail, radio and out-of-home ads, and consumers clearly expressed that they are highly influenced by ads in these media compared to online or digital media.
Fake news in digital media certainly doesn’t help. Being viewed as associated with fake news undermines trust in any related content, and that can hurt direct sales, as well as branding or online reputation. And continuing to allow ads to be placed together with fake news only perpetuates the problem by funding it.
The problem with fake news is defining it. While large publishers like Facebook and Google have promised to block fake news sites from receiving their ad products and services, writing algorithms that identify fake news is a harder task than blocking porn sites, hate speech or sites that sell illegal drugs. News as a category is much less black-and-white. There are opinions and editorials. Political positions and contradicting data. Satire and commentary.
There’s also frequency and degree — is a story that has 25 percent false facts or a site that contains five click-bait stories enough to get categorized as “fake news?” Complicating it all is the seeming lack of truth coming from news subjects themselves. I don’t believe I saw a single “fact-check” this past campaign season where any candidate came close to being always truthful.
Regardless, recognize that losing trust hurts us all. Demand accountability, and insist that your marketing not be displayed in a manner that would support or be associated with fake news. Look for options in programmatic advertising choices that help filter out controversial inventory. While the options may be limited now, more are sure to become available in 2017.
Real brick-and-mortar locations are battling call centers that create fake listings across the local search ecosystem, including on Google. These fake listings even have fake locations on Google maps, created to boost SEO and pretend the listing has a real location and local presence.
These scams not only steal customers away from true local businesses, they often bait and switch with lowball quotes over the phone, send unqualified service technicians to do the job and demand higher payment once the job is complete.
These fake listings are common in home repair business categories such as plumbing, HVAC and carpet cleaning, as well as emergency services such as locksmiths. While industry groups and Google have tried to address the scam, it’s often akin to playing “Whack-a-mole.” As soon as one location or fake listing is taken down, another pops up and takes its place.
Local businesses can fight back by making sure to clearly and prominently communicate genuinely local markers in their communications. Consumers prefer local businesses for their personalized service, reliability and quality work. Show pictures of your storefront, staff and signs. Use language that is local in nature, such as referring to specific neighborhoods, cross-streets and other local landmarks. Engage in multi-media marketing for local brand recognition.
Also, regularly perform searches for local competition as a consumer might, and report any fake listings or businesses that you know aren’t real.
Two kinds of fake ads are being used, especially on social media sites. The first is an ad that poses as a headline story by a major publisher like ESPN. The stories may report the fake death of a famous athlete or some fake scandal involving a celebrity. The ad looks like the major publisher’s content and displays its logo, URL and other identifying marks, but when clicked on, the ad directs to a sales site.
The other type of ad offers fake deals or free giveaways to lure buyers. Photos of a local business’s products, boxes or storefronts may be used in the ad, and the business’s name or URL may also be displayed. But the ads are really run by scammers who take credit card and payment information to run false charges before the payments can be stopped.
Both of these have great potential to affect local businesses. Ads that display fake headlines but lead to other sales sites may appear on your business’s Facebook page, on auto-populated display or banner ads on your website or other business pages that permit third-party ads. Visitors who click on these fake links lose trust not just in advertising generally, but also in those who display them on their websites or social media pages.
Ads that steal your business’s identity and use it to commit fraud clearly damage your reputation and brand. So be on the lookout for these types of scams, and report them immediately.
Another trick that has been around for some time is fake invoices, but again, technology and the use of fake information is making these types of scams easier to sell. At its most basic, invoices for services never provided show up with the hopes that they will be paid, often for amounts small enough to avoid red flags and under the guise of familiar names or images like a generic Yellow Pages walking fingers logo.
Those schemes are becoming more sophisticated. For example, real agreements are made for sales of useless listings or digital products that are made to look legitimate but have no real audience. Fake agreements are generated through fabricated emails or spliced phone calls to capture voice authorizations that never occurred.
Local businesses are also billed for misleading charges such as expiring annual URL subscriptions or fake URL address subscriptions that get paid when business owners are too busy to pay close attention.
Scammers are also posing as clients, vendors, or even the government asking for payment. Emails appear legitimate, yet links to bank accounts or online payment portals redirect payment to criminals.
These scams can target local businesses or marketers alike. Make sure you educate your staff to watch for these false charges and bills. Thousands of advertisers pay these fake bills every month, costing businesses billions. Don’t be one of them!
Most of the concern to date with fake reviews have been with negative reviews. Local businesses usually complain of losing customers and sales over one- and two-star ratings. Yet the power of reviews to affect purchase decisions is driving another trend: fabricating positive reviews.
With reviews impacting decisions for 92 percent of consumers, positive reviews boost sales dramatically. Yet an honest, hardworking 3.5-star rated company is going to find it hard to compete against a 4.5-star company that offers a similar product or service. False reviews artificially skew expectations and create an unlevel playing field. Sometimes, the false positive reviews even “compare” competitors’ products and state why the product being reviewed is superior — a double whammy for the competitor.
Amazon is aware of these problems in its marketplace and sued 1,000 people about a year ago for selling fake positive reviews of products. Yet the problem continues, often through promotional programs, including product giveaways. Product giveaways are usually accompanied by a voluntary request that the recipient honestly review the product. While not a fake review, the potential for misleading a customer exists when a review is indirectly paid for.
The FTC requires that reviewers who are compensated disclose that fact, but based on the complaints on Amazon, reviews that don’t comply abound on the site. And because many customers get the free products through coupon codes that discount the product substantially or completely, even filtering reviews from “verified purchasers” doesn’t solve the problem.
Combat the problem by getting legitimate reviews from real buyers of your product or service. Almost 90 percent of consumers would leave a review if asked, so you can increase the number of reviews simply by reaching out. Genuine reviews will stand out more, too, as reviews themselves are now getting reviewed: many sites direct users to the highest rated or most helpful reviews.
Four of the largest ad agency holding companies are facing Department of Justice investigations into price fixing. Reports describe the alleged misconduct as soliciting bids for services such as video production that are rigged so that agency prices for similar services would appear to be comparatively competitive.
Stories like these are absolute killers to the reputation of the marketing industry at a time when local businesses already distrust marketing companies and question the return on investment of hiring a marketing provider.
In this culture, transparency with your client is critical, and pricing must be clear and in writing. Cost of the service, knowing what they are getting and realistic expectations of results are the most important decision factors for advertisers who are shopping for marketing services. Make sure that there is no question about the reliability of that information provided to prospective clients.
The Russian Methbot scam epitomizes why so many local businesses express concern over digital advertising. Methbot created fake web pages that attracted ad algorithms into placing video ads on these sites. They then used manufactured consumer profiles to “watch” the ads that paid the sites for the fake human traffic and views. The scam was unprecedented in its ability to create fake consumers that mimicked real ones in the way they surfed the web, clicked on content, moved the mouse and possessed unique IP addresses, all of which increased the value of ads placed on those sites and made detection of the fraud difficult.
Yet even less sophisticated campaigns that generate false impressions in response to search ads or that hire real people to click on ads can be costly.
Local businesses can ill afford to absorb the cost of advertising that isn’t viewed by real customers. Concerns about paying for fake impressions, views or even clicks are real. Yet avoiding digital advertising doesn’t seem to be the answer.
Be alert to the issue and look over your bills carefully. Watch out for unusual spikes in traffic and clicks that are clustered together in short time spans. Identifying problems early will help avoid costs from running up and result in faster resolution with media sellers.
The Methbot scheme duped programmatic advertising platforms into placing ads on false websites. False URLs are intended to capture real consumers who mistype URLs of websites that they are in fact trying to visit. Also referred to as typo-squatting or URL hijacking, some examples of addresses that have used this ploy include usatodaycom.com and abcnews.com.co.
While not a new tactic, “fat finger” mistakes are more prevalent today with touch screens and small keyboards on mobile devices. The expansion of gTLDs also provides more opportunities for capturing typos with domains such as .om, .cm and mimicking popular web addresses with different domains.
USA Today cites Intel Security’s chief technology officer explaining,
“They create a site that looks essentially like the real one, at least on the surface. It’s fairly straightforward to do, and then you’re simply relying on human nature to not notice.”
Most of the time, these sites serve advertising that generates revenue for the URL owner and are relatively harmless. Other times, though, malware infections or phishing attempts to collect personal information are the goals.
While high-traffic sites tend to be the targets of typo-squatting, small business is not immune. A marketer for a local wine bar found that another local business used a variation on his client’s URL to direct online traffic its way.
You also want to be cautious of having your ads appear on typo-squatting pages, sites that are unlikely to provide any positive return for those ads. And beware of your own typos when providing links from your site to social media or other high-profile domains. Studies showed that up to 80 percent or more of single character typos for names like Twitter, Facebook and Google landed on typo-squatting sites. Sending customers to one of these fake URLs is one sure way to lose them.
While many of the scams themselves are not new, the way that false content and information are being used to disguise the scam or improve the success rate are. It is critical to be aware of and guard against these attempts both for yourself and on behalf of your clients. Demand accountability, and refuse to support fake news or other false information by funding it through advertising. Our future depends on it.
The post The fake information epidemic and how it will hurt local search in 2017 appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Back in 2014, I had 14 link resolutions. For 2017, I have 17 for you.
Maybe you’re doing some or all of the following already; congratulations if that’s true, as you’re much more proactive than most. If you aren’t doing any, start with just a couple — but please, please, please make sure you do the first one. That’s the biggest first step you can take if you’re not clued in to what’s involved with your link development.
This one is really never going to change, as far as I’m concerned. It’s definitely not earth-shatteringly new advice, but you would be utterly amazed at the number of people who have no clue about their link profile. I’ve dealt with people who don’t even know where they’d go to look for their backlinks. I’ve dealt with people who are confused about how to analyze what’s there and have never bothered, and people who are too terrified to even dig in.
Whether you want to pay for a tool or just rely on what Google shows you in their Search Console, just make sure you’re looking. Be aware that different tools show you different data, though, so if you’re going to keep track (and of course you are) then pick one and use it for trending purposes, too.
I don’t like the idea of mimicking anyone else’s efforts, but I know a lot of link builders who disagree with me there. What I do like to get out of competitor research is a better idea of what is NOT there. That way I have a good idea of what to do to fill a void with something useful and not just copy something else.
I love BuzzSumo for this task. Many clients ask questions like, “Why is competitor X doing so well with half the number of links that I have?” or “How is it that so-and-so just started to rank way above me and they’re brand-new?” I can’t think of any big downsides of seeing what your competitors are doing and figuring out how to use that to your advantage somehow.
Putting out 10 pieces of content a week is not sustainable for many sites. I mean, if you’re one of those lucky brands that can make this happen, go for it. But if you’re like most brands, where this would be next to impossible to do well, accept it — don’t just vomit out watered-down, useless content. It’s hard to get links to great content sometimes. Poor content doesn’t stand much of a chance.
Everyone else is continuing to move forward, so when you halt your work, you’re likely going to get left behind by your competitors. We’ve had so many clients get to where they want to be in the rankings and then pause our link development work — and over half of them have come back within a couple of months.
Paid media can be effectively utilized in conjunction with your link-building efforts. If you can’t rank organically for some key terms, I see nothing wrong with using paid ads to capture the traffic from those phrases.
Alternatively, if you need to watch your budget and you’re ranking number one for certain keywords that are costing you a fortune in PPC, consider slacking off on the paid stuff just a bit if you can (unless your conversions are much stronger in PPC).
You can write something amazing, but if it’s not the right fit for your audience, it’s not going to be as effective. About a year ago, I wrote about this exact issue, explaining how poor preparation caused me to do a really poor job on a content marketing workshop. I didn’t research my audience enough.
Don’t only interact with someone in order to get a link or a mention on Twitter. If the only time you are reaching out to an “influencer” is when you want them to comment on a post of yours or upvote it somewhere, they’re going to stop caring about you. I speak from experience here.
Don’t badger people with your content. I do really love it when someone writes a piece that they feel might interest me and they let me know, because I miss a lot when I’m not focusing on what’s being published. I hate it when the same people direct message me on Twitter every single time they write an article when they write five a week.
Don’t expect that you’re going to get eyes on your work without some form of promotion. Years ago, that might have been true; today, it’s not. There’s just too much to wade through, too much noise.
I want to mention BuzzSumo again here, as it’s fantastic for showing you where different content performs the best in terms of social media platforms.
You know those Twitter users who only tweet their own articles? And then retweet them in case you missed them the first 10 times? Don’t be like that.
I’ve made a lot of really good contacts from sharing other people’s work. It’s a great way to start building a relationship. Note the example below, where my fellow link builder Debra Mastaler is tweeting other people’s content, not her own. She’s not mentioned in these pieces either, so there’s no major benefit to her doing this. I like her style.
I feel that this is such a big problem right now. Only you can make the decision about how much you’re willing to risk and which methods you’re okay with using. If you want to build some links, and you’re thinking of doing so in a way that violates Google’s webmaster guidelines, don’t pursue it without getting a full understanding of what’s involved.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that a tactic which violates the guidelines “won’t be an issue,” either. It may not be, but you can’t assume anything when it comes to marketing. Don’t engage in questionable link-building methods if you aren’t prepared to deal with the potential fallout.
Ask your link team why they recommend a certain method. Ask about the downsides of everything. Ask about the benefits of investing in content. Ask yourself what you expect to get out of this. Ask anything that pops into your head. Use Casie Gillette’s piece as a starting point if you need help with what questions you should be asking. I certainly would if someone were building links for my site.
Remember when we used to do all that exact match anchor text? And then we did a lot of “click here” anchors? We figured out what worked and abused it until it messed us up, and then we went with the latest and greatest trend. I’ve stopped doing that and have had much more success with link building since we started to just build links that looked like good links. It’s very simple!
I’m sure most of you have a client who emails you the second they learn about a new trend or read an article that seemingly contradicts your current link-building strategy.
Many people write controversial pieces just for attention. Some have done testing and have valid points, but maybe what they’re talking about doesn’t apply to you. Nothing is worse than a client who constantly wants you to stop what you’re doing and do something different because they read some article on another industry site. If it’s working for you and you’re happy, keep it up.
Move your focus away from simply rising up in the rankings. I have a few clients who really, really hate a nofollowed link, even when it’s on a good site and has the potential to send them relevant traffic. I would never turn that down, personally. If I get a conversion out of it, I’m good to go.
Analyze the links that send you the most relevant traffic, and figure out how to get more like them. These are your key links. Maybe you have a great link in an older article on a particular site, and every month you get some conversions from it. Wouldn’t it be smart to try and get another link in a newer article on that same site and see if that brings you more conversions?
To give you an example, one of my best sources for new clients is this site. I write a monthly column, and every month I get some really great contacts from it. I take it seriously and keep writing. I don’t just hope that I’ll get continued referrals from my old work.
If you write a post for another site and it goes crazy and everything’s amazing, why not ask for a column? You have nothing to lose from trying.
I feel bad about saying no to people who ask me to contribute to a roundup post, for example, but I don’t have the time or the desire to contribute to 10 a week. In some cases, the sites are brand-new and make me a bit nervous — and if I don’t want my link there, I’m not going to bother. Be picky. Just because you can get a link somewhere does not mean that you should get a link there.
Here’s to a great 2017!
The post 17 link resolutions for 2017 appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Google is welcoming in 2017 by letting loose its celebratory balloon drop from yesterday’s doodle.
The New Year’s Day 2017 doodle is a follow up to the New Year’s Eve doodle Google posted yesterday – an image of balloons waiting to be dropped.
Today’s doodle leads to a search for “New Year’s Day 2017,” and includes the usual sharing icon to post the image in social feeds or send via email.
From the Google Doodle Blog:
Cheers to a new year! As 2017 makes its debut, we celebrate new beginnings and set our resolutions. Here’s to another year of exploring, learning, and growing!
Here are both doodles as they appeared over the past two days:
Search Engine Land wishes all its readers a Happy New Year!
The post New Year’s Day 2017 Google doodle features balloon drop to mark 1st day of the year appeared first on Search Engine Land.
