Fix your outbound link problem in a single workday

Links are the foundation of Google’s algorithm. A naïve reading of the algorithm suggests that you shouldn’t link to anybody else, ever. It turns out that’s not at all true. But your outbound links play an important role in your ability to turn up in the SERPs.

Let’s make sure your outbound link game is on point. Follow the steps below and get yourself situated today.

Background: It’s not just a PageRank issue (and hasn’t been for years)

Google’s original PageRank algorithm was pretty simple. Each page inherits PageRank from the pages that link to it. The PageRank that gets passed from one page to the next is its own PageRank divided by the number of outbound links on the page, minus a damping factor. Basically, it was a simulation of how likely somebody was to land on your page if all they did was randomly click on links.

It wasn’t long before SEOs started hypothesizing that linking to other sites could hurt your PageRank — the idea being that you lost a little bit of PageRank by linking out to other sources, perhaps giving their page a boost at your own page’s expense.

Taken in concert with Google’s suggested limit of 100 outbound links per page (a guideline which has since been dropped) and Google’s push to combat link spam by penalizing sites with “unnatural outbound links,” it’s no wonder SEOs and webmasters began to conclude that outbound links were best avoided (or nofollowed) altogether.

It’s true that spammy outbound links can be detrimental to your site. But there is evidence to suggest that, when implemented correctly, outbound links do not hurt — and indeed can actually help — a site’s rankings. Matt Cutts, former head of the web spam team at Google, made it clear way back in 2009 that “parts of [their] system encourage links to good sites.” Google doesn’t want your site to be a dead end.

While Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller has since made contrary claims, an experiment conducted by Reboot Online demonstrated results that could scarcely be more definitive. By the end of their five-month experiment, the sites with outbound links to authoritative sites were in the top five positions in Google for a made-up keyword, and the sites without outbound links were in the bottom five positions. These results were also true for a second made-up keyword that they didn’t include in the anchor text of those links.

So if you want to optimize your outbound links for search engines, you may need to cut some links (those to spammy or low-quality sites), but it would be a very bad idea to cut all of them.

Let’s talk about how to identify and fix any outbound link issues on your site.

1. Crawl that site

You’ll need to start by crawling your site to get a list of all of the links. There are a lot of tools you can use to accomplish this, but Screaming Frog is a freemium product whose free version can get you everything you need.

Once Screaming Frog is installed and running, enter your site’s home URL­ in the bar up top:

Press the “Start” button and allow it to crawl your site until the bar to the right reaches 100 percent:

Now, go to the “External” tab:

From here, sort “Inlinks” in descending order, so that the arrow is pointing downward:

The “Address” column now lists the URLs that your external links point to, sorted by the highest number of outbound links on your site.

Next step: Start cutting links.

2. Trim those sitewide links

Our first goal in trimming outbound links is to eliminate as many unneeded sitewide links as possible. These are the outbound links that sit in your site’s navigation, meaning that they link out to other sites on every page of your site (or at least on every page of your site that uses the same navigational template).

When your outbound links are sorted descending by “Inlinks,” sitewide links will sit at the top. They are easy to identify, because the number of inlinks will be comparable to the number of pages on your site.

I wish I could give you a perfect rule that would tell you which outbound links you should cut here, except no, I actually can’t. If things were that easy, it would ruin a lot of innovative marketing strategies. Still, these guidelines should give you an idea of what to trim.

As a general rule, these are the kinds of sitewide links you may want to keep:

• Links to your social media profiles — provided you’re strategic about this, the profiles are active, and you aren’t listing dozens of profiles. You should consider a link to a dedicated page on your site listing all of your properties if you have more than three or so.
• Links to places you were recently featured, provided that this remains in rotation and doesn’t start to pile up. Again, if you have more than three of these, a link to a dedicated page on your site would likely be more useful.
• Links to a parent or sister company, if and only if this isn’t part of a link scheme.
• Links necessary in order for aspects of the page to function correctly.

These are the types of links you should consider cutting:

• Blogroll-type links to sites that you like, especially if you have more than three or so, and especially if the sites aren’t widely considered authoritative. The risk that these could be interpreted as part of a link scheme is fairly high, so you should only keep the links if you feel that the user experience argument is very strong. Consider moving them elsewhere if you want to keep them.
• In general, any sitewide link to another site that isn’t one of your properties needs a strong case in order to remain in place.

These are the types of sitewide links you should almost definitely cut:

• Any link with anything other than branded anchor text. No keywords, not even partial ones, unless they are part of the brand name, should be included at all. If you feel elaboration is strictly necessary for the user to understand the link, include it outside of the anchor text.
• Any advertising or sponsored placement at all, unless the link is nofollowed. Never place an advertisement without nofollowing the link.
• Anything over three links to external sites that aren’t your own properties should almost certainly be cut from the sitewide navigation and placed on a dedicated page elsewhere, even if the links are completely justifiable. Few things signal spam like a navigation full of external links.
• Any external link that could be confused for a part of the internal navigation. Don’t place external links in tabs or drop-down menus, or in other locations that most people would assume are part of the internal navigation. This is begging for a penalty.
• Any links that aren’t readily visible to the user, or that share the page background color even if they are visible, should be reformatted to be visible or removed. Anything that could be misconstrued as a cloaked link to an external site is all but certain to get you penalized.

All right, now that you’ve pruned your sitewide outbound links, let’s look at the rest.

3. Cut the non-authoritative links

Your site is bound to have too many outbound links to check entirely by hand (at least in a single workday, as this guide has promised).

So here’s what we recommend. Copy the rest of your link addresses from Screaming Frog and run a batch analysis with Ahrefs. Use the free trial and cancel if you must. It’s worth it.

After signing up for the free trial and going to the batch analysis page, all you need to do is paste your link URLs into the box and click “Start Analysis.”

When the analysis is finished, sort ascending by “DR,” which stands for “domain rank.” Your links will be listed from least to most authoritative.

Now it’s time to start cutting your low-authority links.

Let’s be careful in our language here. I’m not saying you should cut every low-authority link. I’m saying that if an outbound link is low-authority, it needs to be justified. We don’t want to be citing a 13-year-old blogger’s WordPress site for important facts. We don’t want to be citing “fake news” sites. We should avoid citing secondary sources if we can. We want to avoid linking to untrustworthy or spammy sites.

In other words, use good judgment when cutting your outbound links.

It would be misleading for me to give you a domain authority cutoff point. Again, use your best judgment and stop where you feel the links have reached a consistent level of trustworthiness.

For each of these types of links you cut, make a note in a spreadsheet indicating the page where the link was and what it used to link to. This will come in handy in the next step.

4. Spruce up your sources

This is the piece that most outbound link strategies are missing.

You can’t just cut outbound links and expect this to help your authority with the search results. Remember the first section? It’s not just about PageRank anymore, and simply hoarding your links isn’t going to do you any favors. The tests show the opposite. Cutting too many outbound links may hurt your own rankings.

Especially when it comes to informational content, like what you would find on a blog or magazine, outbound links are crucial. Anybody who’s been to college knows that you should cite everything, and use authoritative sources.

This is mentioned explicitly in the search quality evaluator guidelines. When looking for “Low Quality Main Content,” they are asked to look for content that is “Failing to cite sources, or making up sources where none exist.”

For every link you cut, you should consider replacing it with an authoritative link.

Here I’m speaking strictly in terms of citation. If the original link wasn’t being used as a citation to back up a claim, there’s a good chance you don’t need to replace it. But if you are stating a fact without a citation, adding an authoritative source is highly recommended.

Take a trip through your spreadsheet and collect your replacement sources all in one go. Then go through and update your site with the links. It will go much faster this way.

5. Get a system in place

Finally, it’s time to get a procedure in place to keep your outbound link quality ahead of the game for the future. Add notes such as these to your content guidelines, and make sure they are enforced:

• Factual statements should be sourced with a hyperlink.
• Link to the original source if possible.
• If the original source can’t be found, link to a trusted publication.
• Links to less well-known or widely trusted publications should be to attribute opinions, rather than to source facts, unless the publication is the original source.

There you have it. Your outbound link game is on track, your reputation is solid, and your future is looking bright.

Have thoughts on this? Do not hesitate to Tweet me @DholakiyaPratik.

The post Fix your outbound link problem in a single workday appeared first on Search Engine Land.

7 most important SEO focus areas for colleges and universities

July typically means a new fiscal year for colleges and universities, bringing with it new marketing plans and goals for the upcoming educational year. Where does SEO fit into your higher education marketing plan this year? Hopefully, right at the top.

Earlier this year, Chegg Enrollment Services and the National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA) conducted a survey of 726 high school students researching universities. Online searches ranked as the top method used by prospective college applicants to discover universities and programs, and the second most popular method used both during and after the admissions process.

However, higher education faces its own set of unique challenges for SEO. University websites are often segmented by school, program or department. This can result in many contributors to the SEO process, often without a singular roadmap to follow across the organization. Additionally, it’s not uncommon for the university’s IT department to own web development, sometimes creating a backlog for technical SEO changes that need to be made.

I’ve worked with many colleges and universities on SEO, and the problems can certainly be unique compared to other industries. I recorded a webinar about those challenges earlier this month, and I pulled out the primary points to share. As you begin to prioritize your higher education marketing plan and the specific SEO tactics you’ll tackle this upcoming year, here are the seven top areas that I see as some of the greatest challenges in SEO for universities, and also the areas that need the most attention.

1. Perform an SEO audit

Before you can improve on your organic rankings, you have to first understand what needs to be done. Performing an SEO audit will help you to identify and prioritize tactics. That’s especially important when some of the tactics involve technical site changes that involve the IT department. Often a university IT department will have a backlog of requests and site changes.

Tools like Screaming Frog, ahrefs, SEMrush and Deep Crawl provide measurements on a variety of SEO ranking factors and are helpful to ascertain the SEO health of your website.

2. Think ‘mobile-first’

Google has announced that in the coming months, it will be implementing “mobile-first” indexation. Essentially, this means that the mobile version of a website, rather than the desktop version, will be considered the default version for Google to create and rank its search listings (even for desktop users).

This shift to mobile first may pose a problem for universities — often, multiple websites and content management systems are pulled together under one overarching domain. That often means that some parts of the university’s website may be mobile-ready, while others are not.

Remember, too, that Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool works on a page-by-page basis. So don’t trust that just because one page of your university’s site is mobile-friendly, all of them are. Make sure mobile is prioritized for your site this year.

3. Review your keywords and how you’re integrating them into site content

While there are many areas of the university website that may be outside your control, most marketing departments do control the site’s content.

It’s not uncommon for colleges and universities to name a degree or program with a brand name that might not match the search keywords a prospective student will use in a search query. And while Google is getting better at semantics, it’s not perfect. Help Google learn the connection by integrating keywords and brand terms.

For example, my own degree is actually in “Human Communications” from James Madison University. What does that mean? Over the years, I dropped the word “human” from the degree on my resume because it confused so many people. The intent of the university had likely been to separate mass communications (journalism and the like) from other communications (public relations, alternative dispute resolution). But if I were a student today searching for a degree in public relations, would I know to use the term “human communications?” Would Google know that human communications and public relations degrees are the same?

Consider the terms you’re using on the page. Even if the branded degree is “B.S. in Human Communications,” you can write content that incorporates important keywords that define the degree, such as “The Bachelor of Science in Human Communications is a degree incorporating public relations and corporate communications.”

Other programs and degrees may need regular keyword review because the terminology changes over time. Google reported that 15 percent of queries last year were queries that had never been seen before. That’s nearly a million new, unique queries every day! Consider reviewing and revising your keyword list annually.

4. Remedy duplicate content

Websites often inadvertently create duplicate content, but it’s important to recognize duplicate content and indicate to Google which version of the content you want displayed in organic search results. There are three common culprits I find on university websites that create duplicate content: secure protocol, URL parameters and blogs.

Google has indicated that using secure protocol can give a website a slight edge in the organic search rankings, so many sites have already implemented it. However, some sites forget to redirect the non-secure version (HTTP) to the secure version (HTTPS). HTTP and HTTPS appear as two different URLs to Google; thus, if it finds both versions, then both may be indexed and ranked, creating duplicate content.

Another problem with URLs is parameters. Here’s an example of JMU’s donation page:

Notice how the URL is the same except for the “dids” parameter. Google identifies each URL with a unique parameter as a unique page. In this case, JMU is using the dids parameter to determine the program that the donor specifies that the donation is given to. It’s the same page with just the donation recipient changed. Dids 288 is the Future Fund while 188 is Finance and Business Law Department Endowment and 426 is the Wolla Scholarship.

This can become a problem if one of these URLs ranks above all others; it could unfairly skew how donations are received by various recipients. By identifying parameters to exclude in the Google Search Console, this problem can be easily fixed, or even avoided altogether.

Blogs, too, can lead to duplicate content. Take this example from UVA’s Darden School of Business. Darden has 10 blogs — some run by the school, some by professors, and some by students. Sometimes blog posts might be copied and used on multiple blogs on the site because each blog has a unique audience, and a piece of content might resonate with multiple audiences. For example, a piece titled “UVA Darden Strategic CFO Roundtable Tackles Impact of Trump Administration First 100 Days on Business and Society” appearing on the Institute for Business in Society blog at Darden also appears on the news section of the Darden site, creating duplicate content:

In this case, the canonical tag should be used to identify the piece of content that should receive the SEO benefit and be the version ranked by Google.

5. Address page load speed

Page load speed is a ranking factor for Google and has been for many years. One of the more common issues affecting page speed is image size. It’s not uncommon for university websites to have multiple people adding content, including images, to the site. However, not everyone who is uploading images is also optimizing them for the page.

The example above shows two images. The image on the left is only 194 pixels wide. It’s the actual image size of the image file that loads on that page. The image on the right is 783 pixels wide and has a file size of 143K. If the image were resized to fit only the 194 pixels needed, the file size would be reduced by 88 percent.

Taking the extra step to resize images can go a long way to help improve page load time, and it’s something that university marketers often can control. Free online tools like Compressor.io can help you resize images quickly and easily without sacrificing image quality.

Also try Google’s newly revised Test My Mobile Site tool, which tells you how fast your mobile pages are loading and how you compare to others in your industry. Google will even send you a report with specific recommendations on what to fix to improve mobile page load speed.

6. Optimize your linking

Inbound links are typically the most difficult type of link to attain but can hold great value. Unfortunately, when sites are redesigned or degrees or programs are changed or removed, it can create broken links. External links that once pointed to a live page are now broken, and those inbound links are lost for SEO. Or are they?

I recently wrote an article about link reclamation — reclaiming your broken inbound links. Link reclamation represents an incredible opportunity for many sites to regain valuable inbound links quickly by just fixing the broken links. What impact can it make? I recently ran a broken links report for Virginia Tech using Ahrefs. While Virginia Tech boasts nearly 8 million inbound links, it also has over 400,000 broken inbound links. By reclaiming its broken backlinks, Virginia Tech could increase its inbound links for SEO by 6 percent.

7. Measure, assess and understand SEO value

SEO requires a lot of effort and addresses many aspects of your site. How do you know if your efforts are resulting in positive outcomes? Analytics is a great place to start. It’s important to measure beyond the pageview if you can and examine how organic traffic is responding to calls to action on your site. Set up goals and review how organic traffic meets those goals.

With university sites, it’s not uncommon to find many third-party tools, such as application processing, integrated with the website. In most cases, these third-party tools don’t allow for Google Analytics tracking code to be added to the pages within the tool, such as pages of the online application process.

Consider creating an event goal in Google Analytics to track when a visitor begins the application process and tracking a pageview goal for the page the applicant returns to on your own site once the application is submitted. This will allow you to parse how many applicants start the application process and how many finish and even allow you to provide retargeting ads to those that do not initially complete the process.

The post 7 most important SEO focus areas for colleges and universities appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google Posts are removed after 7 days, with one exception

Google has confirmed that most Google Posts are removed seven days after they are first published. The exception to this rule is Google Posts that are based on upcoming events. Event-based Google Posts are removed after the event date.

A Google spokesperson told us, “Posts enable merchants to share timely, relevant updates on Google Search and Maps. To ensure that posts are timely, they’re removed from the default view after seven days (or when the event date the post referenced has passed). However, a historical view of posts is shown under the Posts tab on mobile.”

Google Posts recently went live to most Google My Business customers. It enables these businesses to share timely messages to their customers, which show up in the local panel on web search and Google Maps.

Brodie Clark from optimising.com.au shared a screen shot of a notification Google sends to notify businesses that the Google Post will expire:

This information about when Google Posts expire is currently not in the Google Posts help documents.

The post Google Posts are removed after 7 days, with one exception appeared first on Search Engine Land.

SearchCap: SEO success, AdWords spreadsheets & July Fourth

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

From Search Engine Land:

• This script automates adding any AdWords data to a Google spreadsheet
  Jul 5, 2017 by Frederick Vallaeys

  Feeling bogged down by all the reports you need to create for your AdWords campaigns? Columnist Frederick Vallaeys has put together a script that may help.

• SEO case study: Zero to 100,000 visitors in 12 months
  Jul 5, 2017 by Andrew Dennis

  Columnist Andrew Dennis outlines the process he used to successfully build up traffic for a brand-new website — without using any tricks or hacks.

• Fourth of July Google doodle inspired by US’s 1st National Parks director, Stephen Mather
  Jul 4, 2017 by Amy Gesenhues

  Created in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson, the US National Park Service is often cited as America’s best idea.

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

• How to determine if that ‘free audit’ solicitation email is legit
• More content, less traffic: Part II
• People-based marketing requires good people
• Google goes after mobile native advertising with new AdSense formats
• New evidence highlights the conversion lift of mobile optimization
• Forbes ranks the top 50 most influential CMOs & finds 40% lead technology companies
• For Valtech COO, business transformation means agility and access to data

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• EU backs tax clampdown on Google, Apple, MarketWatch
• Exclusive: EU antitrust regulators seek expert help in Google Android case – sources, Reuters
• Google to Tap Renewable Power From Norway’s Biggest Wind Farm, Fortune.com
• Meet the New Executive Editor of SEJ: Danny Goodwin, Search Engine Journal

Local & Maps

• Google Earth Live: Explore.org invites you to hang out with Alaskan Brown Bears, Google Blog
• Google My Business Websites Hijack Local Business URLs, Bill Hartzer
• Google Posts Expire In 7 Days, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• Are There Any Broken Backlinks Left? Yes!, Majestic Blog

Searching

• KAYAK Introduces Travel Search by Emoji, prnewswire.com
• Search Algorithms Kept Me From My Sister for 14 Years, Wired
• SearchResearch Challenge (7/5/2017): An important plant that’s now extinct?, SearchReSearch
• Wolfram Alpha Is Making It Extremely Easy for Students to Cheat, Wired

SEO

• 13 SEO Job Interview GOTCHA! Questions You Should Never Ask, Search Engine Journal
• 7 Content Marketing Tactics To Boost Your Organic Traffic, Search Engine People
• Google Can Index Content In iFrames: SEOing iFrames, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Search Console Index Status Takes 3-5 Days To Collect Data, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google’s June 25th Update Shows No Real Patterns, Search Engine Roundtable
• How SEMrush Tools Can Save You Time Creating Reports for Clients, SEM Rush
• New Share Button on Android sends any page to your Majestic account., Majestic Blog

SEM / Paid Search

• Calculating Bid Adjustments: How to Set More Specific Bids In AdWords, periscopix.co.uk
• How To Create Actionable PPC Reports, PPC Hero
• The Comprehensive Guide to Online Advertising Costs, WordStream
• Top Consumer Product Keywords in UK Paid Search, AdGooroo

Search Marketing

• 7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting, problogger.com
• Google Attribution – Google Analytics Updated, Hallam Internet

The post SearchCap: SEO success, AdWords spreadsheets & July Fourth appeared first on Search Engine Land.

This script automates adding any AdWords data to a Google spreadsheet

If you’ve ever been frustrated at the amount of time you spend creating PPC reports, you’re not alone. Today, I’ll do my best to help you with a new AdWords script I just finished.

The severity of the reporting problem became very clear to me at a conference I recently attended. Attendees were asked to leave sticky notes describing the most timing-consuming aspects of their jobs. I know it’s not exactly a scientific study, but I found the results fascinating anyway. Here’s what the board looked like:

The orange arrows highlight each note that said “reporting” was the most time-consuming PPC task.

Meetings are another time-consuming task people added to the board several times — but I’m not going to help you fix that with a script, so let me focus on reporting, a topic I’ve covered several times in recent posts here.

When it comes to reporting, you should really try to produce something that gives the stakeholder the data and insights they need, but in such a way that you can easily repeat, and hopefully even automate it. There are plenty of tools that can help with that.

And while automating reports is a reasonable goal, the reality is that there will always be cases where the client wants just one extra piece of data. And because of Murphy’s Law, this will always the one thing your reporting tool doesn’t cover.

Why don’t reporting tools cover everything? By my last count, AdWords has 46 different types of reports available through their API, ranging from common ones like an account performance report to the more obscure, like the keywordless category report:

Reports available through the AdWords API. Screen shot from the Google Developers Site

In all likelihood, the vast majority of people care about just 10 percent of these reports, so engineering resources get assigned to supporting the most commonly requested reports. And even if a tool covers all 46 possible report types, it might not filter the data the way the client wants, or include some of the lesser used metrics, attributes or segments.

So, how do we get custom data from AdWords into virtually any reporting engine? Through a data connector. And one of the most popular places for marketers to store data is in a spreadsheet.

Google Sheets, just like AdWords, can be automated with App Scripts from Google. This means we can write some code to make the spreadsheet connect with a data source of our choosing. Combined with AdWords scripts, which have permission to access your AdWords data, we can create an automation that lets you specify a template for a report, and then automatically add the requested data on a predetermined schedule.

So, here we go! Let’s get you a free tool to put any AdWords data you want into a Google Spreadsheet.

Step 1: Set up the report template in Google Sheets

Copy this spreadsheet into your own Google Drive. This sheet will look very boring when you first load it, but there are about 600 lines of code in the “Script Editor” section where all the magic happens. This will also be moved to your Google Drive when you copy the script into your own account.

Notice that when the spreadsheet finishes loading, you’ll have a custom menu called “AdWords Data Grabber from Optmyzr.”

Select the type of report you’d like to run from this custom menu:

When you select a report type, the spreadsheet connects with AdWords to get the appropriate attributes, metrics and segments for the selected report. It automatically sets up drop-downs in the spreadsheet to let you choose which elements to include in the report and what filters to apply.

Go to the “Settings” tab and choose a date range for your report from the drop-down. Since the goal is to set this report on an automated schedule, the only options are relative date ranges.

Next, select any filters you want to apply to the data. A pretty common one would be to filter for items that have more than 0 impressions. This step is optional.

For things where AdWords expects you to choose from a set list of values, the spreadsheet will present you with a drop-down of valid choices, for example, for campaign status, you could choose “ENABLED.”

Now, go to the “Report” tab and select the data you want to include in each column. Once again, the spreadsheet will already be loaded with the available options for the report type you have selected.

Step 2: Install the AdWords script

Now to automate the data pulls, simply install the following AdWords script code into your account and set it on a reasonable schedule, like weekly or monthly.

In this code, edit lines 17 through 22 with your preferences. The most critical field to update is the one with the URL of the Google spreadsheet we created and modified above.

Now you can preview the script; if your settings are fine, you should see a success message similar to this one:

Your spreadsheet should then contain the requested data and could look something like this:

Note: There are many metrics that cannot be combined in reports, for example, conversion type name cannot be reported at the same type as clicks in the campaign report. Checking for this before attempting to populate the report is tricky, so the script will return an error about your error.

When this happens, simply update the headers in the “Report” tab of the spreadsheet and run the script again until all errors are cleared.

Including the data in a report

You can use the data as-is in Google Sheets, but you can also include it in automatic scheduled reports. In Optmyzr, you would add a reporting widget that points to the URL of the spreadsheet. The tool then pulls in that data and includes it in the report, using the same styling as the native Optmyzr widgets. Your client won’t be able to tell the difference, and you’ll look like a hero for delivering the custom data they want on an automatic schedule.

Conclusion

PPC reporting takes a ton of time. And because clients invariably have some custom requests for their reports, reporting tools often need some custom integrations to deliver the goods. This AdWords script, together with the Google Apps Script in the spreadsheet, lets you bring custom data from AdWords directly into most reporting engines where you can now automate one more thing.

I hope this script helps you get back a little bit of time to do other things. And if you’re anything like the people who left the sticky notes on the board, I hope you’ll enjoy that next meeting!

The post This script automates adding any AdWords data to a Google spreadsheet appeared first on Search Engine Land.

SEO case study: Zero to 100,000 visitors in 12 months

You need more traffic.

More visitors on your site means more impressions, more signups, more purchases — more revenue.

But how do you capture more traffic from search results that are becoming more crowded, more diverse, and evolving in the way they are delivered?

With SEO, of course!

Today, I want to share a process we’ve developed at Siege Media to earn links and visibility, and to increase web traffic for our clients. I’m going to walk through how we built a site’s SEO strategy from the ground up — growing from zero visitors to 100,000 — and share key takeaways that you can apply to your own strategy.

The general outline of our strategy was:

1. Start slow and take advantage of “easy wins.”
2. Focus on securing a handful of strategic links to important pages.
3. Establish passive link acquisition channels to build momentum.
4. Be intentional about content creation and its impact on search.
5. Level up over time, and target higher-value opportunities.

Let’s dive into the case study.

Note: We had control over every aspect of the site, making it much easier to accurately attribute organic gains to the SEO work we were implementing, as well as to make SEO recommendations every step of the way. I have also anonymized the data to maintain confidentiality for the website.

1. Starting slow with a new site

Starting with a new site, we understood there were limitations.

At the beginning, we focused on opportunities with low competition and decent traffic value. We used SEMrush to determine traffic value and manual research to gauge competition.

Examining the search engine results pages (SERPs), we looked for results with:

• bad exact-match domains.
• a lack of big name brands.
• low-quality or outdated content.
• pages with low link counts.

Here is an example of this type of SERP, for [life insurance quotes in California]:

You can see that although some big brands are ranking (State Farm and GEICO), there is also a bad exact-match domain result:

Clicking this link shows the content quality is pretty low:

There are other poor results in the SERP, too:

Finding results with these types of pages would give us confidence that we could easily build something searchers would prefer.

Once we identified potential opportunities, we built best-in-class content targeting those specific SERPs. To separate our content from others in the space we used:

• custom-built graphics.
• clear, concise, compelling copy.
• original photography.
• optimal formatting — font size, column width, scannable text and so on.

By building content that would best answer searcher intent and needs, we set our pages up to be successful in the SERPs.

More resources:

• “What is quality content?”
• “Content and SEO: Building linkable content”

2. Securing a handful of links to important pages

Pages need links to rank in search.

But the number of links needed to be competitive depends on the page, site, niche, type of query and so on. Furthermore, search engines have become more sophisticated in how they evaluate links, placing more emphasis on quality and less on numbers.

What we learned from doing this project is that bottom-of-the-funnel pages really only need a handful of quality links to rank well, and from there, positive engagement signals would further validate the page as an authority in the eyes of search engines.

Of course, securing links to bottom-of-the-funnel pages is extremely difficult because these pages typically aren’t link-worthy. The purpose of these pages isn’t to inform or entertain; these pages exist to drive conversions, and that doesn’t usually compel other sites to link.

There are a few situations where serving direct value to your site aligns with the goals of other websites, and link opportunities exist. These opportunities involve hyper-focused link pages that are relevant to your content.

Using the same insurance example, a page like this would represent a hyper-relevant links page for a company that offers pet insurance:

This strategy isn’t sustainable for a long-term, large-scale campaign because these situations are limited. But we learned that you only need to execute on a select handful of these opportunities to be successful with bottom-of-the-funnel pages.

Other opportunities available to bottom-of-the-funnel pages include:

• egobait — a specific person, brand, product or service, for example, is mentioned on your page.
• unique product or service — resource pages that list the small number of vendors available.
• discounts or promotions — the linking site’s audience is eligible for exclusive discounts.
• local — resource pages exclusive to local vendors and service providers.
• reviews — pages that review your product or service.

You can’t build a sustainable link acquisition campaign with these tactics, but you can secure a few quality links to your converting pages and drive initial engagement for your site.

More resources:

• “4 e-commerce link building tactics that still work in 2016”
• “Overlooked Link Building Opportunities for Ecommerce Category & Product Pages”

3. Establish passive link acquisition channels

Link building is really hard.

Link acquisition is a manual process that is ongoing, forever. My favorite description of link building came from former Googler Matt Cutts, who defined it as “sweat, plus creativity.”

Because securing links is so difficult — and we knew we needed links to grow traffic — we sought to establish passive link acquisition channels to amplify all our link-building efforts.

Part of our content strategy was to use high-quality, original photography, and this provided a perfect opportunity to attract passive links. Rather than copyrighting or watermarking our photos, we decided to use a Creative Commons license that allowed others to use the photos as long as they linked back to their original source (on our site).

For example, in the screen shot below, Ars Technica is citing the photo they used for their article.

Even massive publications like this need great photos and often turn to Creative Commons or other sites to do that.

Along with having your images cited, other potential ways to earn links organically include:

• sponsorships and community involvement.
• compiling original data or research.
• being interviewed or quoted.
• building a unique tool.

The key is to create something original, and then make it easy for others to cite (link to) you as the original source.

More resources:

• “9 Things We Should Never Stop Doing in Link Building”
• “35 White Hat Link Earning Ideas”

4. Strategic content creation

Content drives SEO success.

It’s possible to secure a few links to bottom-of-the-funnel pages, but you’ll need middle and top-of-the-funnel content to sustainably capture attention and links.

Creating useful content for your audience is always a sound strategy, but you can take it a step further by being intentional and strategic about the content you publish. We maintained a relentless focus on SEO — creating every page with search, and the opportunities available to us, in mind.

To determine opportunity, we compared SEMrush traffic value against competition level.

Using the “pet insurance” example, we can analyze potential opportunities. For example, this site is ranking number one, which SEMrush estimates is worth $31.2K:

However, it looks like the competition for this SERP is fairly high with strong results such as Canine Journal, Consumers Advocate, Consumer Report and Nerd Wallet.

To find something less competitive, I’ll try [exotic pet insurance], where Nationwide is ranking number one and has a traffic value of $2.9K in SEMrush:

Looking right below the Nationwide result, I can see these pages ranking with bad exact-match domains:

Navigating to the page further validates this is a bad result:

This represents an opportunity to create content that would better serve users and have a great chance to rank.

Along with manually reviewing the search results, you can also use Moz’s Keyword Explorer tool to get an estimate of the competition and difficulty surrounding various terms and phrases.

Of course, investing into creating quality content is important, but the key takeaway for us was the success we saw from being strategic about the SEO impact of the content we created.

More resources:

• “The complete guide to optimizing content for SEO (with checklist)”
• “Why SEO should always complement your content marketing”

5. Leveling up over time

Momentum is key in SEO.

As you build traction with your campaign, SEO tends to have a multiplying effect where your results will build exponentially. As you earn more visibility in search, you begin to attract more visitors — and if you satisfy the needs of those visitors, they will keep coming back (increasing traffic), endorsing your website (links) and sharing how great you are with others (social media, blogs, podcasts and so on).

We recognized our site was building momentum, and after six months of work, we started to raise expectations. We began to target more competitive spaces (which we avoided at the start), and because we had built a strong foundation, we were successful.

We established a solid baseline of authority and trust with our site, giving us the ability to compete for higher-value terms. Seeing early returns, we began taking even bigger bets on the content we created — not only investing in original design and photography but also adding interactive elements such as custom tools and video.

For example, in this screen shot you can see the payoff:

We targeted a very competitive, high-volume topic in the summer months of this year, and the result is more all-time highs, beating our previous numbers by a significant margin.

Another strategy that was fruitful was updating and improving old content using “Last Updated” post dates. Whether it be updating copy or adding a video, we found that small updates to existing content helped us in a variety of ways — it provided content freshness, increased click-through rate (CTR) and showed readers the post isn’t outdated.

For example, you can see Brian Dean of Backlinko executing this strategy here:

As we started targeting more competitive terms and earning more visibility, we began seeing significant gains in traffic, eclipsing 100,000 visitors by the end of month 12.

More resources:

• “How your old content can help with SEO”
• “Link Building Never Ends”

Recap

We didn’t use any secret tricks or hacks to grow traffic. Rather, we invested in building quality content, and we implemented various link acquisition strategies to match each stage of the project. As the site grew, so did our expectations and goals.

To recap, here’s our process for growing traffic:

1. Start slow and take advantage of “easy wins.”
2. Focus on securing a handful of strategic links to important pages.
3. Establish passive link acquisition channels to build momentum.
4. Be intentional about content creation and its impact on search.
5. Level up over time, and target higher-value opportunities.

This is a repeatable, scalable process that we’ve found to be effective. Of course, you will need to tweak and adjust this process a bit to fit your unique situation and needs. However, I hope you can take the key lessons we learned from this project and apply them to your own strategy.

The post SEO case study: Zero to 100,000 visitors in 12 months appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Fourth of July Google doodle inspired by U.S.’s 1st National Parks director, Stephen Mather

Google is celebrating today’s Fourth of July holiday with a doodle inspired by the U.S.’s first National Parks Service Director and noted conservationist Stephen Mather.

The red, white and blue logo leads to a search for “Fourth of July,” and includes images of deer, bears, moose and other animals you may find in one of America’s 58 national parks.

According to Google, Mather’s birthday was also on July 4th. He was named director of the the National Parks Service — often cited as “Amercia’s best idea” — in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson who created the NPS the same year.

“Over a century old, America’s national parks span 84 million acres and host more than 275 million visitors every year,” writes Google on its Google Doodle Blog.

It was 241 years ago today the Continental Congress voted to adopt America’s Declaration of Independence and proclaim freedom from Great Britain. For all those celebrating, Search Engine Land wishes you a happy Fourth of July!

The post Fourth of July Google doodle inspired by U.S.’s 1st National Parks director, Stephen Mather appeared first on Search Engine Land.