Dictionary of ad buying: key terms and acronyms

For beginners, buying ads can be a confusing labyrinth of jargon and acronyms. To help you make sense of them, we’ve compiled this helpful glossary.

If you’re new to buying ads, you may not know where to begin. There are a lot of terms; some, like targeting, are fairly obvious, while others just seem like an alphabet soup of acronyms. If you’re like, “AMP, CPC, DSP, what?” fear not. We’re here to help.

We’ve separated this glossary into three categories:

• Before – where we define the different kinds of ads.
• During – is about the terms you’ll come across while in the purchasing stage, such as “ad exchange,” which is very different from an “ad network.” 
• After – breaks down some of the things that happen once your ad has made its way to the Internet.

First, let’s go back to the beginning.

Before

The first thing you should know is the difference between the various kinds of ads you may be buying. In case you missed our beginner’s guide to display advertising, here’s a brief refresher.

Display ad: ads on webpages that are obviously advertising. Display ads are measured in pixels – picture elements, or the dots that make up pictures – and come in several forms. There are the rectangles and squares we’re not going to bother defining because we’re confident you’ve been to first grade, as well as a few others whose names aren’t so self-explanatory.

• Banner ad: The horizontally long, vertically short ads most commonly placed at the top (leaderboards) or bottom of the page. According to Google, the ones that perform best are 728×90 and 320×110. Banners can also take a more tall, narrow form in skyscraper ads, which run alongside the page.
• Billboard: similar to banner ads, but a bit taller. With that extra height, billboards better lend themselves to text.
• Button: a small display ad. Common sizes are 120×90 or 125×125.

Native ads: native ads are designed to blend in with their surroundings, as commonly seen on Yahoo’s digital magazines.

Pop-ups: ads that pop up in a new window. They can also appear underneath your window, so as not to be disruptive (pop-unders) or in between activities (interstitial). Another form of pop-ups ads are the overlays, which close on their own after 15 to 30 seconds.

Responsive ads: ads designed to adapt to different devices and screen sizes.

Rich media: ads with audio, video, or some other interactive element.

During

Now you know the kind of ads you can buy. Here are some terms from the next stage: actually buying them.

Ad exchange: a technology platform that enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell advertising space. AOL’s Marketplace, Google’s DoubleClick and Microsoft are a few of the big ones.

Ad network: companies that connect advertisers with the websites that want to host their ads. Networks vary based on transparency regarding where the ads will run (vertical networks are transparent, while blind networks are not), whether the advertiser is looking to reach a specific demographic, and formats, such as mobile and video.

Ad serving: the technology and services that place ads on webpages:  providing the software, counting them, deciding which ads will be the most profitable, and ultimately tracking the ads’ performance.

Ad verification: a system ensuring that an ad is a good one, from a quality standpoint.

Auction: the process that determines who sees ads, and when and where they see them on a page. In Google’s AdSense auction, for example, advertisers determine the maximum amount they’re willing to pay for an impression, and the winner is chosen based on a combination of targeting, format, and Quality Score. That determines how useful someone is likely to find an ad, taking into consideration its relevance, keywords and predicted click-through rate (CTR). This can be done instantly, on a per-impression basis, known as real-time bidding (RTB).

Audience buying: Using data to target specific groups of consumers.

Cost per click (CPC): how much an advertiser earns each time someone clicks on one of their ads.

Cost per mille (CPM): a unit of measurement that refers to the price of advertising. The name can be confusing; “mille” is the Latin word for 1,000, and doesn’t mean 1 million.

Data aggregation: the practice of pulling together different kinds of data – ad-serving, conversion, third-party – without attaching anyone’s personal information.

Demand-side platform (DSP): the technology that allows advertisers to purchase ads automatically via real-time bidding exchanges. The publisher version of this is known as a supply-side platform (SSP).

Dynamic creative: segment-based advertising that changes automatically, depending on who’s seeing it.

Inventory: the number of ads or the amount of space a publisher has available to sell.

Management platform: audience management platforms (AMP) automate the process of segmentation, while a data management platform (DMP) serves as a one-stop shop for all of an advertiser’s data.

Programmatic buying: an automated way to purchase ad inventory. This is a particularly hot topic now, as agencies beef up their programmatic capabilities.

After

You’ve purchased your ads. Here are some helpful terms for what comes next.

Ad blockers: browser-enabled software users use in order to avoid seeing ads.

Ad fraud: the practice of serving ads that will never be seen by human eyes, in order to illegally profit off the clicks.

Banner blindness: the idea that there users see so many banner ads that they don’t even notice them.

Conversion: when a clicks leads to something valuable for the advertiser, such as a purchase, sign-up or pageview.

Cookie: small files passed from a web server to a browser, allowing advertisers to track people throughout the internet.

Frequency capping: a restriction limiting the number of times someone will see the same ad.

Impression: the measure of ad views.

Viewability: a metric regarding ads actually being seen by people. The current rate is inadequate, according to senior leadership from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Ratings Council (MRC).

This article was originally published on our sister site ClickZ.

The article Dictionary of ad buying: key terms and acronyms was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

How B2B brands perform on social (spoiler: better than you think)

In B2B social media there are a few accepted ‘truths’. B2B can’t work on Facebook or Pinterest. Instagram is a waste of time. LinkedIn is the only place for us (and we should set up a group, not a page).

All of these are total claptrap of course. B2B works just as well (or better than) B2C, because the content and information they have to share is incredibly deep and engaging.

Things have changed a bit recently of course. One only has to look at giants like GE or Maersk to see incredible work, but just in case, how about a few stats to clear things up once and for all?

TrackMaven has compiled an overview of content from 300+ B2B brands across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest to see which verticals were performing well. 508,060 social media posts and more than 100 million interactions make for some fascinating insights…

Firstly, the old adage about B2B needing to stick to LinkedIn can be put to bed. B2B brands on Instagram saw engagement levels more than 20 times higher than on LinkedIn, with median engagement rates (defined as “Interactions per post, per 1,000 followers) at 22.53 on Instagram, compared to just 1.09 on LinkedIn (Twitter bought up the rear, with an engagement rate of just 0.86).

With that said, the hierarchy of familiarity clearly plays a part here, as B2B brands had an average of 109,000 followers on LinkedIn, almost 36 times more than Instagram, with just 3,000.

Engagement rates vary wildly by sector and platform:

Of course, these topline figures don’t take into account the type of content being shared by different sectors. the aerospace and defense industry performs incredibly well on Instagram, with an average engagement rate of 29.10.

Because, well, this looks amazing:

Over on Twitter, it’s an entirely different story. Engagement rates for the same industry are just 0.54. There are two obvious reasons for this: Firstly, Aerospace news tends to surface on Twitter, so rather than images of jets launching missiles, you get press releases informing you of… less interesting developments.

The other reason may be the nature of the platforms themselves. Twitter’s most engaged users are usually part of small niche communities, whereas it’s larger user groups are less engaged with brand updates. A digression, but an important one.

While overall follower numbers don’t tell us a huge amount, the rate of growth from different industries is more illuminating:

Comparatively ‘new’ industries like Biotech are flying ahead, with small but very engaged followers. Similarly there’s an interesting split between ‘Professional Services’ and ‘Financial Services’. The former has a huge audience but they are less likely to engage.

In the past I’ve experienced engagement as sluggish in this sector partly due to a glut of lightweight content that is often hidden behind registration walls, but also because regulation has discouraged individuals from sharing information without consent.

This should of course, also be true of finance, but it’s inherent newsworthiness, combined with a love of data viz and stats (not to mention the rise of the Fintech sector) seems to have overridden this, driving average annual growth of 81.77%.

Overall, finance, biotech and engineering saw the best performance, with consistently high engagement across channels. This is of interest as it indicates a dedication to content marketing and (hopefully) some awareness of extended attribution models – it is after all, rather difficult to sell complex financial products in 140 characters.

The results also show the importance of relevance by channel. Software brands have seen phenomenal growth (an 82% average increase) but very low engagement, possibly indicating an over-reliance on glossy product photography and traditional PR techniques that don’t engage users.

Overall these figures show that there is a place for B2B on newer, more visual channels and it’s a mistake to assume that you are dealing in ‘boring’ content that won’t appeal to users on those channels.

The article How B2B brands perform on social (spoiler: better than you think) was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

How to track clicks to offline sales from a B2B lead generation website

Some products demand a very specific conversion strategy. If yours includes a process of generating leads through your website to nurture and follow up offline, then you may face an issue which has plagued marketers for years.

While it may make your old-school PPC account manager feel warm inside to see a healthy rate of conversion from form fills and phone calls, that often isn’t a good indicator of campaign success anymore.

The modern day digital marketer needs to understand which clicks are turning into sales and not just the ones that are generating interest.

So, where does the problem lie, and what can you do about it?

The problem

Let’s say you spend $100,000 each on two separate campaigns. Campaign A generates 1,000 online leads, whereas Campaign B generates only 500.

Using this information alone, you would probably choose to focus your resources on Campaign A as it seems to offer a better ROI. However, the problem lies in the fact that the lead-to-sale conversion rate is rarely consistent across different campaigns, keywords and channels.

If Campaign B converted its 500 leads at a rate of 50% and Campaign A only managed 10%, then it puts a dramatically different perspective on the success of both. The more granular you get with conversion analysis, the better you’ll understand these conversion rates and the more effectively you’ll be able to allocate your budgets.

When you’re spending $50 a click in some valuable and competitive markets, then it is a necessity rather than a bonus.

Failing to recognize and tackle this issue can mean you’re not aware of which of your leads are good or bad, and can cause a whole host of other issues including:

• Manual work to review and feedback on lead quality
• Not knowing which keywords are actually generating sales, so you can’t optimize AdWords/paid marketing accordingly
• Wasted ad spend on keywords that generate low-quality web leads

The solution

There are ways to tackle the problem, though. Digital marketers usually optimize their campaigns in one of two places:

1. Ad platforms such as AdWords or Doubleclick (or perhaps a third party management platform like Marin or Kenshoo)
2. Analytics platforms – such as Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics or IBM Analytics (formerly Omniture and Coremetrics)

To make this optimization more effective you need information about your final offline sales to be visible in those systems. This is now a straightforward process and can be achieved much easier than most people think.

The examples below are for AdWords and Google Analytics, but you may also need to explore other methods using your own specific setup and platform.

Injecting offline conversion and activity into Google Analytics

Using your analytics platform to hold information about offline activity and conversions, that started with an online journey, is the best solution to problem. This will give you a solution that works for all your online efforts and not just a specific ad platform.

For this to work, you need to make it possible for users to share an ID between their online sessions and your CRM database. This is then used to record what happens with the customer once you have their details.

There are two possible ways to do this, by using either the UserID method, which is the most effective, or the Client ID method.

Here’s how you can implement these changes:

UserID method

Google Analytics (GA) now has the ability to link sessions across devices and even activity that occurs offline (perhaps at the point of sale in a shop, or a face to face sales meeting).

It does this by making use of a feature called UserID tracking. This UserID is an ID that you set to uniquely identify each visitor to your website in your CRM. You probably already have this ID in your CRM.

In each session/hit that a user interacts with your website, you make a small customization to the tracking script to output this ID. This then enables GA to link this activity together whether it is on the same device, a different one or even offline. To implement this, take the following steps:

1. Set up a UserID view in Google Analytics (GA) – You need to create a new view that will have the sole purpose of presenting all sessions and activity that has a UserID associated with it.
2. Output that UserID at every opportunity – The most important time to do this is during the session that they originally make an enquiry in. Your technology needs to be integrated enough and capable of saving information submitted in a form in your CRM, getting the ID from that CRM record and then outputting it to the “Thank you” page of the form that the user has just submitted. Once this ID is output in the original, lead generating session you have the ability to join your offline activity with that session. More importantly, you will better understand the channels that drove it. Find out more information here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3123662?hl=en
3. Inject offline activity back into GA – Next, you need to be able to customize your business system so that it’s able to execute some very basic code when something you are interested in tracking occurs. This might be a sale when an enquiry turns into a ‘qualified enquiry’, when a sales visit occurs or any number of other checkpoints. You have to make use of what is called the Google Analytics measurement protocol to inject this data. Although this may sound complicated, it really couldn’t be much simpler. All the change does is allow your system to generate a simple URL (such as the one below) in a predefined format or protocol.

POST http://www.google-analytics.com/collect

v=1&tid=UA-XXXXX-X&cid=1234.9876&uid=123&t=pageview&dp=%2Fdummypv&z=ud7ckjr

The values of the parameters relate to what type of information you want to put into GA. More information and a reference to the measurement protocol can be found here:

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/reference

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/devguide

And that is it! One point to note is that to make UserID as effective as possible, it’s worth taking every opportunity to output the UserID to the web sessions of people when you know who they are. This could include:

• Storing this ID in a cookie so it is available in future sessions – important if your site does not require login
• Outputting this UserID whenever they log in
• Including this UserID in email marketing to set and store the UserID when they click a link
• Any other opportunity you get to inform the web browser that the user has an ID

ClientID method

As mentioned above, there are two possible ways to link your offline activity to online leads. If you do not have the ability to integrate your website and CRM fully to output the UserID on the ‘Thank you’ page after a form is submitted, then there is an alternative.

The ClientID is an internal ID that GA uses to identify an individual. The ‘Client’, in this sense, relates to the software client, most probably the web browser or app. Instead of pulling an ID from your CRM to output on your website, this method is slightly simpler in that you only need to capture the ClientID and ‘push’ it with the lead information they send.

GA provides an interface/function to capture this ClientID, which means you don’t have to go looking in cookies yourself – it is as follows:

ga(function(tracker) {

var clientId = tracker.get(‘clientId’);

PLACE CODE HERE TO UPDATE THE ‘VALUE’ OF THE HIDDEN FIELD WITH clientId.

});

You then simply find a way of populating a hidden field in your web forms with this value. You can then use this ClientID with the measurement protocol as described earlier.

Importing offline conversion into Google AdWords

Of course, if you implement the GA method above, then you have the option of importing GA goals into AdWords. However, if you prefer to import offline conversion data directly into AdWords, then there is now functionality to do so. The following steps should be followed if you wish to do this:

1. Enable auto-tagging – You need to enable auto tagging which will automatically put a parameter called ‘gclid’ onto each URL when someone clicks an ad. This parameter will contain a string value that uniquely identifies the click.
2. Capture the above-mentioned gclid parameter – When someone lands on the site, or the landing page contains the gclid parameter, then you need to program your site to capture this value and store it (probably in a cookie). This is a relatively simple task, especially if you use the script provided by Google shown here: https://support.google.com/AdWords/answer/2998031?hl=en-GB

It becomes even easier if you have Google Tag Manager installed, which makes this a two-minute job.

3. Push the gclid ID into your CRM when a lead is completed – When a form is submitted, you need to ensure that you take the gclid parameter value out of the cookie (mentioned in point two) and then place this in a hidden field. That way, it’s ready for your CRM to record this against the lead it records.
4. Push conversions back into AdWords – When one of the leads you accept, with a gclid against it, goes on to complete offline conversions (such as buying something), then you need to push this information back into AdWords. There are two ways of doing this, you can either:
   1. Upload a CSV or Excel file with the details of the conversion and the gclid it belongs to. This also contains other information like the conversion date. You can process a full batch of these at a time (perhaps every day or week). You can even automate this using AdWords scripts.
   2. Upload using the AdWords API – this is a more advanced method but is the most effective, and allows you to push conversions in instantly as they occur.

What about phone enquiries?

There are phone tracking systems on the market now that allow you to individually link online sessions to a phone call (for example Infinity or ResponseTap).

You can make a small customization to these systems to hold the information you send it from the web browser. This will enable the system to work with the above AdWords and GA (ClientID) methods. Although, there is a little more custom development required.

So, what does this all mean?

In summary, understanding the true value of the clicks you are buying or generating allows you to make a better-informed decision about their importance. This knowledge is what separates the market leaders, from the market followers.

In a competitive market, having confidence that a keyword is generating $2 per click instead of $1 can be the difference between setting bids that put you at the top of Google, or the bottom.

The article How to track clicks to offline sales from a B2B lead generation website was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

How are businesses using Google Posts?

Google has recently debuted a new feature giving individuals and organisations a new platform for communicating with the wider public.

Dubbed ‘Google Posts’ by most commentators – although Google has indicated that the feature does not have an official name yet – the new platform appears as a carousel of ‘card’ style updates within a search engine results page.

The feature was originally introduced as part of the U.S. Presidential Elections, as a way for presidential candidates to deliver a personal message to the public via Google. Later on, some sharp-eyed searchers noticed that Posts had been rolled out to a very limited number of local businesses in the US, and was being given a prominent billing on search results pages.

Google has been fairly quiet about the new feature’s existence so far. Search Engine Land managed to confirm with the company that this was an official test, which has been rolled out to a “few dozen” local businesses.

Of these, only three seem to be widely known about: a day spa and massage therapist, a comic book store, and a jeweller’s specialising in engagement and wedding rings. So how are these lucky few making use of Google’s newest innovation, and what can we take away for when the feature is rolled out more widely in future?

Andrews Jewelers

Andrews Jewelers was the first business to be spotted using the new feature, by local search expert Mike Blumenthal as he searched for engagement rings in Buffalo, New York.

Searchers who enter the right keywords on Google.com are presented with a miniature carousel of the most recent few posts by the business in the search results page. Each has a time stamp, and a share button which allows the posts to be republished on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and (in weirdly meta fashion) Google+.

Although the posts are showcased prominently in search results, businesses using Google Posts don’t seem to be artificially boosted to the top of the results page. Rather, the Posts carousel will appear directly below the business’s highest entry on the search results page, whether it be the top search result or the fourth.

Clicking on the company’s logo takes you to a feed of published posts by that company which is presented on, in Blumenthal’s words, “a slimmed-down Plus like page”. The resemblance to Google+ (and the fact that well, it is a Google creation) has caused many to speculate that the new feature could eventually be phased in as a replacement for Google+, which has noticeably been stripped out of branded searches as of late.

As a retail business, Andrews Jewelers has made use of the strong visual element of Google Posts to show off its products, with eye-catching images of their diamond rings and custom designs.

Andrews Jewelers’ updates on Posts are slightly more evergreen compared with something like its Twitter feed, promoting longer-lasting content like a diamond-buying guide, a post on the importance of prong maintenance, and current trends and styles in the jewellery world.

The business is good at linking up its various different channels, drawing attention to five-star Google reviews and encouraging readers to visit its Google+ Page.

Most interestingly, company founder Andy Moquin published a longer piece to his business’s Posts page, addressing an “ongoing debate in the jewelry industry” about gemological laboratories and diamond grading.

I’m on the fence about whether Google Posts makes the best platform for this kind of piece. The no-frills platform interface makes text posts very readable, but without an image, a text post is only given a few lines of preview in the main feed, and is very easily overlooked between the more attention-grabbing visual posts.

I almost missed the text post here when scrolling through the feed.

Then again, when you’re one of the first businesses ever to make use of a new Google platform, anything is a good idea from a visibility standpoint. It’s cool to see businesses experimenting with different types of post on the new platform, and hopefully there’ll be plenty of room to find out what works when the feature is rolled out more widely.

Escape Pod Comics

Another local New York business, Escape Pod Comics in Huntingdon, NY, has also been spotted using Google Posts.

Escape Pod has a good mix of posts going on in its feed, using images, video, GIFs and text posts to promote the business, spotlight individual artists and highlight upcoming events. As a comic book retailer, it uses visual posts to great advantage, using GIFs to showcase a creator’s distinctive style ahead of a signing, or to show off products within the store every Wednesday (the day new comic books are released).

The page features some cross-promotion of Escape Pod’s blog, as well as a post which makes use of a screenshot from the store’s Instagram. With posts dating back to 29^th February, Escape Pod Comics is also our earliest adopter of the three Google Posts businesses, as the other two feeds both date back to 1^st March.

I found it entertaining that, when searching for Escape Pod Comics on Google.com (Google Posts currently only appear in search results for Google.com and not any of the localised Googles), Google has already begun to make associations between searches for the different businesses who are using Google Posts.

A Healthy Choice Spa

Our third Google Posts business is based in Lincoln, Nebraska, which promptly did away with my theory about whether the businesses that Google has chosen to debut Posts had any geographical link.

A Healthy Choice is our most frequent updater on Posts, often publishing two or three posts per day. The updates tend to be short and simple, containing just a single line of text, an image or GIF, and a link.

At this stage, it’s impossible to say whether updating more frequently on Google Posts could be an advantage, a disadvantage, or not really make a difference. In a situation where most or all businesses on Google have their own Posts feed, it’s conceivable that Google could boost the more active publishers higher up the search results, but this could also turn out not to be a factor at all.

Currently, the most that it affects is the number of recent posts which show in the ‘carousel’ on the search results page, which seem to have a cut-off period of about one week; the more posts which have been published in the past week, the more will be displayed in the carousel.

As well as updates promoting its business and the health benefits of massages, A Healthy Choice uses its feed to support and promote local events, history and causes. This isn’t unusual for social media, but when publishing to a platform which feeds directly into search results pages, I wonder if it’s such a good idea.

On the one hand, it looks good for a business to be seen promoting its local area, and building trust and respect with the nearby community is always important for local businesses.

On the other hand, with Posts from businesses appearing directly within search results, businesses might have to put on a search engine ‘hat’ and consider how to deliver the most useful information to searchers who are looking up their business on Google.

I can see it going either way, but as with most things, it will be up to businesses to refine what works when Google Posts is rolled out on a larger scale.

What’s next for Posts?

It’s difficult to speculate too much about what Google plans for Posts, given that Google itself has kept so quiet about the whole project. None of the businesses taking part in the initial, experimental testing stages seems to have made an announcement about being approached or selected, leaving searchers to stumble across these early users by accident.

The homepage for Posts on Google definitely implies a wider implementation of the platform, calling it an “experimental new podium” which will allow people to “hear directly from the people and organisations [they] care about on Google.”

“Verified individuals and organisations can now communicate with text, images and videos directly on Google,” it proclaims. Anyone who is a “public figure or organisation” who would like to publish on Google can join the waiting list, though noticeably, the form doesn’t require anyone to specify why they are significant or even what organisation they represent in order to sign up.

Based on what we’ve seen of Posts so far, Google’s new feature seems like a halfway house between a new social media outlet and a publishing platform. Certainly, the early adopters seem to be using it that way.

But I think there’s potential here for Posts to become something completely new altogether. As I mentioned before, the fact that Posts are published directly into search results means that publishers will have to bear searchers in mind as their audience with their presentation and the information they provide.

The key thing setting Google Posts apart from social media (and blogging platforms) is the lack of interactivity. You can share posts, but not otherwise comment on or interact with them. That could always change in future, but I think it’s a statement of intent as to where Google is going with this feature.

Speculation about replacing Plus aside, I don’t think Google is setting out to create a self-contained social network with its own ecosystem, but something that extends more seamlessly from existing Google search. It’s not just another social network or another publishing platform – both of which Google already owns.

But combining elements of both with the huge ‘audience’ that Google (as the world’s most popular search engine) commands makes using Posts a very attractive prospect indeed, at least from a business perspective.

I think the next big consideration will be whether users find it beneficial, or whether it will be seen as just another level of clutter trying to draw their attention away from the information they’re searching for.

The article How are businesses using Google Posts? was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

How to use In-Page Analytics and how it can help boost conversions

Google Analytics is most certainly complex, so naturally there are a few options and features that go unnoticed.

So where do you begin if you’re trying to get more advanced and need a place to start? In-Page Analytics is probably one of the most under-used features that can also be the most impactful to a small business.

By looking at these specific analytics you can figure out which areas of your site are most important and which links visitors are clicking when they are actually on your site.

Once you can understand some of the details associated with user patterns, you can reformat your site and optimize in ways that ultimately will boost your conversions.

How to access your In-Page Analytics

The purpose of In-Page Analytics is to be able to tell what is working visually and what is not. In order to see your In-Page Analytics data you will need to sign into your Google Analytics account. Before you can do anything specific with the report, you will have to enter the URL for the page on which you want the report to launch. You enter that URL when you edit the settings for a Reporting view.

You can access this report two ways:

• Access—Way #1
• Sign in to your Analytics account.
• Navigate to your view.
• Select the Reporting tab.
• Select Behavior > In-Page Analytics.
• Access—Way #2
• Select Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.
• Drill into a page and select the In-Page tab.
• This opens the report for that page.

In both cases you access the report through the ‘behavior’ section. Once, you click on In-Page Analytics, your website’s home page will display the exact percentage of where users are clicking on your site. Below shows where you can find the In-Page Analytics report and what it looks like:

Once again, the job of the In-Page Analytics report is ultimately to infer the number of clicks on a page element (CTA, links, etc.) from the number of times that page appears as the referrer to subsequent pages.

In this way you can see which elements are leading to the more popular subsequent pages on your website. In many cases this is not just a preference of content, but something that stood out more than other elements on your website.

Customizing In-Page Analytics

According to Site Pro News, you can also customize in-page analytics for the needs of your site, which Site Pro News also touched on here. This can directly help to optimize your site, which in turn will help boost conversions.

Here are two ideas for how you can customize the report:

Importance of setting the date range

Just as with any report, you may customize your date range by clicking on the date panel located on the top right-hand side of your analytics dashboard and choosing your own date range.

This will allow you to understand exactly what was up on your site or any changes you have made, and when. Periods of time are incredibly important to consider with this analysis, so I recommend clicking the ‘Compare To’ button to see if you’re making improvements:

Keep in mind that the only way to say whether or not your numbers are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is to compare them to what they were in previous months, and this is especially true with this report.

Every website is different, so you’re in a competition with yourself first and foremost before worrying about competition.

Using Segmentation

There are a lot ways to segment your data on the in-page analytics platform. This will allow you to look at how users arrive on your site (for example) and then the ways that they navigate it once they are there.

You can separate, as the screen shot indicates, by categories such as ‘made a purchase’, ‘referral traffic’, ‘direct traffic’, or ‘new users’. All of this can be used to optimize your site and figure out what focus you need to have to boost conversion rates.

To create a segment, click on All Users. This will take you to a screen where you can ‘Add a Segment’ (as shown below). You can then click to create a recommended segment or create a custom one. The screenshot below, for example, has segments for Bounced Sessions, Direct Traffic, and Converters. Just hit ‘Apply’ at the bottom when you’re finished.

Note: If you’re new to segmentation, segmenting your email lists is probably one of the easiest and most important places to start. Check out this article to learn more.

Making the Most of In-Page Analytics for Conversion Rates

Just as we discussed above in the section on data customization, there are a lot of different ways to make the most of your data to enhance your conversion rates. Segmenting data is one of the more successful ways to focus on who is finding your site and how these differences might effect interaction.

If you are interested, check this out this video on the visual context for your In-Page Analytics data from Google…

So now that you know how to read the data and what to look for, it’s important to understand how exactly to customize it. Below are some tips on customization that will help you make the most of your data for conversion rates:

• Make sure you segment or have a category for each of the streams/referral sites that people may be coming from—whether it be social media or other sites.
• For each channel, you want to construct a separate report (this includes direct traffic as well). This will give a clearer picture of the differences in where your audiences are coming from.
• Make adjustments as you see fit. For example, if you have a CTA that is either not being clicked, or people are leaving your site once they do, then you probably need to readjust and reconfigure the way this particular element is presented. There may also be differences for certain audiences that you want to account for, but remember to prioritize places where you are getting the most traffic from.
• Find out where maximum click happens. For example, if it happens on the top left side of the page, then put your conversion links there. Always check this when you run your analysis and make sure you adjust accordingly, as this can change over time.
• Make efforts to reduce whenever exit rate is high, especially when it is on most-linked or top pages on your site.
• Make it a goal to check back on a regular basis, as you do with your other analytics, so you are conscious of what needs to be adjusted over time

The Takeaway

It is difficult to understand why In-Page Analytics are as underused as they are when they provide such valuable insight. Definitely do not miss out on the opportunity to look at this as a tool of change and boosting conversion rates. The ability to segment your visitors and see how they interact with your site is very valuable; so start now!

Do you have experience with Google’s In-Page Analytics? Let us know in the comments section below, we would love to hear from you.

The article How to use In-Page Analytics and how it can help boost conversions was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

Okay, now Google’s Artificial Intelligence Division is just showing off

In Seoul, South Korea, a Google-created artificial intelligence has been squaring off against a mortal man in the 2,500-year-old strategy game, called Go, that’s several orders of magnitude more complicated than chess.

When it was finally over, Google’s AlphaGo won four out of five matchups, making AlphaGo a role model for young artificial intelligences everywhere.

How did the robot pull off such a decisive win?

Wired reported that “AlphaGo relies on deep neural networks—networks of hardware and software that mimic the web of neurons in the human brain. With these neural nets, it can learn tasks by analyzing massive amounts of digital data.”

That’s bad news for SEOs the world over, because Google isn’t just using neural nets to beat Koreans at board games, it’s also using these advanced networks to make their search results more efficient. And in the process Google might just create the artificial intelligence science-fiction authors have been dreaming about for decades.

When will Google become sentient?

For eons, our foremost philosophers and scientists believed that man’s ability to make tools set him apart from the animals. It was actually Jane Goodall who smashed this macho theory to bits after she witnessed chimpanzees making rudimentary tools.

Now, many scientists instead believe that it’s our unique capacity for language that truly sets us apart from the beasts of the world. In the quest to give birth to artificial intelligence, computers’ inability to comprehend human speech is one of the main stumbling blocks – as anyone who’s ever tried to talk to Siri can attest.

Yet we’re getting closer to that Brave New World every day, and in many ways Google is leading the charge. Not only does the company control one of the most complex computer networks on the face of the planet, but by necessity Google is making major strides in Natural Language Processing.

Because search engines can’t (yet) understand a piece of content or search query the way a human does, the company uses advanced algorithms to analyze the semantic content of content. Recently, Google started using neural net technology to push its NLP efforts forward.

And while Google is using machine learning to bring you more relevant search results, and Apple is doing the same to make Siri more useful, both tech companies are striking at the very core of human consciousness.

How long until Siri can pass the Turing Test?

This March it seemed like every website on the internet covered the story about Siri and Cortana responding to questions about violence and suicide. As Gizmodo summed it up, “Siri Is Woefully Ill-Equipped to Help With Your Mental Health Problems.”

Clearly we haven’t quite cracked the secret to artificial intelligence, even despite recent breakthroughs in machine learning (see my earlier post on Google’s RankBrain).

So why does it matter that Siri, Cortana, and Google Now still struggle to understand even basic questions?

Alan Turing, the father of the computer, is known for many things, but AI geeks remember him best for the so-called Turing Test. The test has evolved through a number of different versions over the years, but simply put, the Turing Test is a method for determining whether a computer can think like a human being.

Per the Webopedia version of the experiment…

“The test is simple: a human interrogator is isolated and given the task of distinguishing between a human and a computer based on their replies to questions that the interrogator poses. After a series of tests are performed, the interrogator attempts to determine which subject is human and which is an artificial intelligence.”

If a computer can genuinely pass the Turing Test and convince a human that it’s a fellow living, breathing, talking person, then that machine can fairly be called Artificial Intelligence, with a capital AI.

One day, when you pull out your smartphone to ask Google or Siri a question, instead of returning a list of search results, they just might answer back.

The article Okay, now Google’s Artificial Intelligence Division is just showing off was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

Remembering Klout: how ‘influence’ has changed over the years

I came across a tweet the other day from a follower giving a +K to another user, which serves as a reward for someone’s expertise, and it reminded me that Klout is still out there, although I haven’t visited it for years.

What is Klout?

It was back in 2008 when Klout was introduced to everyone as an online platform measuring social media influence. Klout aggregates a user’s performance (ranging from followers to engagement) among several social networks in order to calculate the Klout score, counting from 0 to 100, depending on the online influence someone has.

Although it wasn’t the only site that attempted to measure online influence, Klout quickly became popular for its measuring algorithm, which was a mystery for many years.

Image source: Garry McLeod

How we became obsessed with our score

It was in 2012 when Klout reached its peak popularity, as passionate social media users became obsessed with their Klout scores, looking for ways to improve their numbers and then use them accordingly as a way to prove their online credibility.

In fact, it was believed back then that a high Klout score could lead to great rewards, both in the online and offline world, and a new form of rising influence with endless opportunities.

Many companies were fascinated by this measurement platform that allowed them to separate the influencers from the average Internet users and they even turned a high Klout score into a job requirement for their hiring process.

Klout realised its rising power and launched ‘Perks’, a service that rewards influencers with perks coming directly from companies that joined the program.

It was the first time that users could officially monetise their online influence with actual rewards, and they were happy to do so.

However, Klout Perks disappeared at the end of 2015, as Lithium Technologies, the company that bought Klout in 2014, decided to focus mostly on the algorithm and its powerful social data.

Why we moved beyond the Klout score

Klout recently released a paper analysing how its score is calculated and all the factors that determine the measurement of a user’s influence.

According to Klout, its scoring system processes 45 billion interactions daily and analyses 3,600 different actions that define the score that is assigned to its 750 million users from nine networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube, Lithium Communities and Wikipedia).

Image source: Klout

Although the algorithm takes into consideration many factors to determine a user’s influence, it still doesn’t include rising social networks, such as Snapchat and Vine, or it doesn’t consider Pinterest and blogging platforms, despite the fact that a user may connect these to a Klout profile.

Thus, Klout struggles to keep up with all the changes on social media and this inability to include the rising social networks on its measuring algorithm makes its score incorrect, or at least, not as relevant as it hoped to be.

the worst class i took in college was a social media class. we got graded based on our klout scores. i can’t believe someone approved that.

— Maya Kosoff (@mekosoff) March 28, 2016

It’s not that we got past our vanity to measure our social presence, as it may still serve as an indication of someone’s influence, but we now seem to realise that we can’t take it as seriously as we did, if we ever did.

How do we define social influence today?

Klout might not be the primary measurement of influence anymore, but social influencers  gained significant power lately, turning their social recognition into a profession.

Many brands seek online ambassadors to promote their products and Instagram appears to be their most popular choice, as it blends the visual appeal and the increasing engagement with the business leads.

Although the number of followers is still important in many cases, it’s certainly not an indication of a user’s influence, as a number may be misleading (and that’s also the case with Klout and how we stopped relying on just a number).

Tyler Oakley started creating videos while he was in college and he counts today more than 8 million subscribers, turning his hobby into a profitable job.

It’s the engagement an influencer creates and the ability to affect users that matters most to brands, and this can be analysed today through numerous platforms, or simply by taking a closer look at a user’s online presence.

What’s more, what Klout failed to depict was the fact that every platform is different, which means that it also leads to a different type of influence. Social influencers nowadays may focus on a specific platform, or they may create a unified social presence, which requires the necessary attention on each social network separately.

For example, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber, who all have a Klout score higher than 90 out of 100, belong to the social influencers that are all over the web and may use their social power every way they want.

However, the freedom of social media and the call for authenticity created a new type of influencer, the self-made ones that usually focus on a single platform and create an engaged community who is ready to listen to their suggestions and their reviews. Though they cannot be compared (yet) with the influencers mentioned above, as they don’t have the same exposure to media, they still manage to build a solid presence, which makes brands chase a collaboration with them.

Natasha Oakley is considered one of the biggest influencers in the swimwear fashion industry in 2015 and counts 1.7 million followers on Instagram, also promoting her own swimwear brand.

Yes, social influence gets more complicated day by day, but it’s another sign how social media is maturing and so does the users’ influence.

It may not be easy to consider yourself a social influencer, but this makes it more challenging, and usually more rewarding.

The article Remembering Klout: how ‘influence’ has changed over the years was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

Is a brutal approach to content migration best for SEO?

I read a great article over at Boagworld about the pain of content migration, a term that will send shivers down the spine of anybody unfortunate enough to have been through such a process.

Written by Paul Boag, it explains some of the common problems with migrating vast amounts of content. Notably, the reorganising of content in a way where lots of mismatches occur, breaking navigation and links, ending up with wonky URL structures and – as a result – lots of frustrated users and too many 404 pages being shown.

Paul suggests that you need to tackle the issue head on, by pruning your website.

“Failing to address content in a redesign means that your shiny new website inherits the problems from your old one. You will have a bloated website full of redundant, out of date or trivial content. Content that you should be removing.”

He says that a redesign is the best opportunity you’ll have to remove content, and he’s right. Content owners and other stakeholders can be very precious about old content. They’re emotionally attached to their work and don’t want to see your grubby fingers hovering over the Delete key.

So what to do? The solution is brutal.

Cut everything

Instead of removing content, maybe the mindset should be about adding content…

“What if you started from scratch? What if instead of deciding what to remove you removed everything? You then don’t have to audit what you already have. Your political fights are less too. After all everybody is receiving equal treatment. Everybody is having their content removed.”

An intriguing thought, and one that is probably backed up by the data.

“Take a moment to look at your analytics. I bet the vast majority of traffic only hits a fraction of your pages. I also bet that if your site is big there is an enormous proportion of pages that are rarely if ever viewed. In truth 80% of your audience only needs 20% of your content. So cut the rest. At least to start with. You can always add content back in later if there is a proven case.”

This is certainly a hardcore approach to a site redesign, but it makes sense. Everybody involved will understand that it’s not just the design that is being overhauled, but the content too. From there it’s about what is added back to the site.

Caution: SEO

While I like this bold approach, and I agree that it’s wise to get everybody on the same page when undertaking these large projects, there are some alarm bells ringing in my head.

Firstly, let’s consider SEO, given that any content-rich site will probably attract the lion’s share of its traffic from organic search, if the team and technology are doing the right things.

Removing so many pages might seem like a good idea if they all have low amounts of traffic, but content clustering is important from a Google perspective.

It’s generally a good idea to have a sense of how similarly themed pages contribute to your overall rankings, even if they don’t appear to do much for your business on the face of it.

For example, it might be risky to remove them if they have lots of internal links to related pages, hero pages and hub pages.

Also, some of these pages may rank for the niche terms that contribute greatly to your business, even if the volume isn’t there…

Alert: high value visitors

The data doesn’t lie, does it? No, but it depends on what you’re looking for.

If you axe 80% of pages based on visits or – worse – impressions, then I fear that the axe may swing around in your direction.

Low-traffic pages can attract some of the most interesting visitors, either by accident or design.

Sometimes a page will rank for something so specific, either by way of a highly descriptive anchor text link or on-page content (or more often some combination of the two), that it will attract a very specific type of visitor.

Some of the best conversion rates live in the long tail. If only we could scale it!

Niche content has its place, and the user flows from these landing pages to key conversion areas of your website can be really valuable. Pages that are positioned prominently for high intent, multi-phrase terms should be your bread and butter.

Plan ahead

Finally, it’s crucial to spend some time figuring out taxonomy, metadata and vocabulary upfront when starting afresh with content (or undertaking a migration). It will save you so many headaches down the line, and it will help your techies to make sense of your content, when undertaking a migration.

If a redesign and content migration is looming then you have my sympathies. It’s a stressful time for all involved.

The key to getting it right is all in the planning, before and after you launch. That means a proper audit of your content, your search analytics, and your tech. Good luck!

Do share your content migration horror stories (and tips!) below.

The article Is a brutal approach to content migration best for SEO? was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

Three early results of Google removing right-hand side ads

About a month ago, Google introduced what now seems like a very obvious change to its results pages: it removed paid search ads from the right-hand side.

Apparently Google made this change based on years of testing. These tests showed that no one was really clicking on these ads and it would better align with the mobile experience if they simply weren’t there.

The impact of this means there will be less inventory, and ranking at the top of the page is potentially even more important than ever before.

So now that we are a few weeks into this change what is the impact? Did everything the industry predicted come true?

To understand the impact I ran a keyword level report that included the Top vs. Other segment, looking at three weeks post and prior to the change.

There are three things to note:

1) Inventory is down

As expected, with no more ads on the right-hand rail there are less ad spots available. As a result we are seeing a 19% decrease in total inventory. The majority of that reduction is within the Other bucket.

2) Traffic shifts

You can see from the data below that traffic for positions below the organic listings has shifted up significantly and dropped in lower positions due to inventory restrictions. You also see an increase in traffic to positions 3 & 4 in the Top ads. While the increase is still noticeable, it is still <5% of total traffic in the post-right-hand-side-ad world. This implies that either we don’t manage a lot of brands that have ‘highly commercial’ queries or that the impact of adding a 4^th position is still pretty small.

3) Despite these changes CTRs and CPCs are down

The fact that click-through rates are up isn’t that big of a surprise given the fact that more ads are seen by searchers, so you would expect more click-throughs to occur. What is really good news for advertisers is the fact that consumers are responding well to the new layout of the page: CTR is up {12%) and CPCs are down (-11%). Hopefully this will help overcome the reduction in overall inventory.

So what does it all mean?

This is a big change that seems to be having the expected impact of reducing total inventory, but increasing the amount of traffic as a percent of total impressions.

Advertisers need to be taking a look at their own data. Are they seeing different data? Are CPCs going up in certain areas given competition? Is the incremental CPC worth it to your business, or does the reduction in CPC allow you to spend more in other areas?

Staying close to your Top vs Other data segments and detailed data points will allow you to respond to this change in a smart and sophisticated way.

The article Three early results of Google removing right-hand side ads was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

The rise of ‘Micro-Moments’ and how to optimise for ‘near me’ search queries

In the past year or so Google has published numerous articles and research around the topic of ‘Micro-Moments’, which it describes as “the new battleground for brands”.

Let’s look at a top level overview and then we’ll explore a few ideas around how to optimise one particular micro-moment.

So what are ‘micro-moments’, exactly?

Google says they are “critical touch points within today’s consumer journey, and when added together, they ultimately determine how that journey ends.”

It points to the use of mobile as a key driver of searches that reflect a consumer’s micro-moment, and it says brands need to be ready for them.

“These I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-buy, and I-want-to-do moments are loaded with intent, context, and immediacy.”

All of which sounds marvellous, if you know your search onions.

There are numerous stats to help focus minds, should you need to convince colleagues or clients. These stats come from a survey Google conducted in the US last August (they undoubtedly reflect wider trends in the more mature mobile markets).

• 91% of smartphone users turn to their phones for ideas when in the middle of a task
• 90% are not certain of the brand they want to buy from
• 82% use their phones to check on prospective in-store purchases
• 65% look for the most relevant information to their query, regardless of the company that provides the answer
• 51% have discovered a new company or product when searching on their phone
• 33% have purchased from a different brand than the one they had in mind, because of the information provided

In summary, when it comes to finding answers, mobile searchers are a) very active and b) not brand loyal.

This is a huge opportunity, especially as the mobile search land-grab is still underway, with many firms lagging behind due to poor mobile user experiences.

The advice? It’s all about anticipation, relevance and ease of use…

An example of ‘Be There’ would be around location.

Consider the growth in ‘near me’ searches. These are when the user adds ‘near me’, ‘nearby’ and nearest’ in their queries. Google says that ‘near me’ searches have doubled in the past year.

If you look back a little further, it would appear that these searches have skyrocketed since 2013, with ‘near me’ growing 15-fold.

Google Trends needs to be taken with a little pinch of salt, not least because it the volumes indicated are relative rather than absolute, but any which way you look at it, that’s huge growth.

How to optimise for ‘near me’ searches

I won’t go into too much detail here, but you can dig into these seven areas for starters.

Do the basics

As in, have a properly structured, highly usable website, with some excellent content and technically optimised for the search engines. Make sure it you create a frictionless user experience across all devices. If you run an ecommerce operation then this is a very good read.

Optimise your existing footprint (or create a new one)

Google looks for a bunch of basic information about your business to display within its local listings. Things like contact information (address, phone number, email), a map (e.g. Google Maps), opening hours, customer reviews, and so on. Use schema markup for extra brownie points.

Set up local business listings

Moz Local can prove helpful in this respect a lot. In fact, David Mihm’s slides from last September’s Brighton SEO event are a goldmine of insight in this area.

Get lots and lots of reviews, and then get some more

Google is increasingly paying attention to reviews, and with good reason. A Brightlocal survey on the subject last August found that only 11% of consumer don’t take any notice of them. Quality and velocity matter. I feel that most brands – especially offline companies – don’t do enough to secure customer feedback, even when we know it is a crucial part of Google’s local search algorithm. I also think that Google will uprate social ranking signals in the years to come.

Undertake a local search audit

There are a number of tools that you can use to analyse local rankings, to figure out how to get one over your competitors.

Get more local links

Make friends with the community! There are plenty of ways of attracting links from local sites. Think about events, directories, local news sites, awards, schools and colleges, non-competing companies, and so on.

Add ‘near me’ copy on your pages

Does this really work? Colleen Harris at CDK Global investigated whether this would help by undertaking a study of 82 auto dealers over a five month period. She found that those that added ‘near me’ content increased clickthroughs by 81%, compared with those that didn’t (8,833 clicks vs 4,365 clicks). Impressions increased too, though by just 15%. Good enough!

In summary

Google is going big on micro-moments, and there are a ton of articles and studies to explore over at its Think With Google site.

It’s true that many companies have a lot more work to do in terms of understanding the consumer journey, and that the mobile user experience on many sites leaves a lot to be desired. But there’s a lot to play for, and the guidance issued by Google – as well as the countless algorithmic and search UI tweaks – suggests that it is now essential to get on top of this stuff.

Have you had any success with optimising your site for micro-moments? Do leave a comment below…

The article The rise of ‘Micro-Moments’ and how to optimise for ‘near me’ search queries was first seen from https://searchenginewatch.com

2016 guide to free online SEO training courses

All of the SEO knowledge with NONE of the expense.

Online education is big business. That includes the digital marketing space. Scores of people are pushing online training programs promising to turn students into ‘SEO Rockstars’.

Here’s the good news. You can learn most, if not everything, taught in these courses for FREE. I’ll even share the ‘secret sauce’ that nobody ever tells you about. Here it is: Being successful online takes a LOT of HARD work. It requires having an understanding of how SEO works, then taking the time to develop and execute a strategy. On the plus side, most SEO skills are non-technical in nature. These skills can be acquired over time and at your own pace.

Following is a syllabus that I have created for the development of Organic Search Specialists at my own company, Measurable SEO. Individuals could use this knowledge to secure a job in SEO or to optimize their own website(s). Companies looking to develop an in house marketing team could also follow this plan.

Introduction to SEO

In the US, Google enjoys roughly double the market share of Bing and Yahoo combined. No one understands Google better than Google itself, so the best place to begin is by reading and understanding the 32 page Google SEO Starter Guide. This guide was originally developed as an internal document for Google employees and later released for the benefit of webmasters.

Some other good beginner guides:

• Moz’s The Beginner’s Guide to SEO
• Wordstream’s SEO Basics: Complete Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization
• Buffer’s The Complete Beginner’s Guide to SEO

Website Performance

Google has developed a Website Performance Optimization MOOC. In this short course, you’ll learn how to optimize any website for speed. The introduction of the accelerated mobile page project (AMP) and the use of website speed as a ranking factor are signals that speed is an increasingly important factor for achieving online success. Looking for a quick tutorial instead? Check out A Beginner’s Guide to Website Speed Optimization.

User Experience

The User Experience for the Web (WebUX) MOOC provides an overview of the general principles of online user experience. Students will learn about the techniques and tools used to create a great UX and how user-centric design fits into the software development cycle.

For those interested in learning more about Mobile optimization, there is a UX Design for Mobile Developers course. Invest six hours per week to finish this course in approximately six weeks.

Technical SEO

As mentioned previously, most SEO is non technical, but one cannot ignore the fact the web is a technical platform. There are certain rules and best practices to follow when building and auditing websites. This module, from Distilled U, explains how search engines interpret pages. This knowledge will help you in diagnosing problems and understanding how to improve websites. You will need to sign up for a Demo account, which permits you to experience up to three modules for free.

Keyword Research

A Google search for the phrase ‘keyword research’ returns nearly 7 million results. This is probably the most written about topic in all of SEO, so where do you begin? In terms of a simple, yet comprehensive and effective approach, I like the 19 Step Keyword Research Process. This exercise is designed to help you find relevant and highly searched keyword phrases with low competition.

On Page Optimization

The basics are covered well in the Google Starter guide. A number of free tools are available to assist you. One ‘advanced’ optimization technique, marking up content with schema, is detailed in this Quick Start Guide . Once you’ve finished optimizing your site, analyze it using the free Microsoft SEO Toolkit.

Writing for the Web

This Writing for the Web course emphasizes the differences between online writing and print writing. Without understanding that difference, it is difficult to effectively communicate across the web. Due to the interactive nature of the internet, the course emphasizes the importance of user behavior. You will learn how web design, writing style, structure and search engine optimization can impact that behavior.

Content Strategy

Creating an Effective Content Strategy for Your Website is an online course which teaches you how to develop a strategy that utilizes a variety of media (text, images, videos, and infographics) across multiple channels.

In this course, the instructor will show you how to transform an outdated, text heavy website into a multimedia powerhouse. Learning how to create a content inventory, gap analysis, and content matrix will help you form the foundation for a strategy. This will require signing up for a 10 day free trial at Lynda.com. Since the course is only two hours long, you should be able to easily complete it within the trial period.

If you prefer a written tutorial, as opposed to an online video, check these out:

• From Moz: A Content Strategy Template You Can Build On
• From Hubspot: How to Create a Content Strategy That Actually Drives Organic Traffic

Link Building 

There has been a lot of chatter on the web that links aren’t as important as they once were. I have written several articles explaining why that isn’t the case. The mere existence of the Penguin algorithm and manual link penalties sends a clear message that links still have a profound impact on search rankings. This was most recently confirmed on March 23, 2016 in a Google Q&A where the three most important ranking signals were revealed.

The key takeaway is to be in compliance with Google webmaster guidelines pertaining to link building and to stay away from link schemes. The follow guides will get you started:

• Beginner’s Guide to Link Building
• Link Building With Ahrefs: A How-To Guide
• The Essential Guide to Effective Link Building Outreach
• Link Building – How to Build Links for Free

Google Search Console

Formerly known as Webmaster Tools, the data, provided by Google, in the console, helps you monitor a website’s health and visibility within Google Search results. The search console offers insight as to how Google views a website and helps one optimize for peak performance in the SERPs. Learn about Search Console by navigating to Search Console Help

Google Analytics

Many are intimidated by Google analytics, but there’s no need to be afraid when you can become a pro for free. Google teaches analytics via online courses at Analytics Academy. Choose from a wide array of self-study programs, including:

• Digital Analytics Fundamentals
• Ecommerce Analytics
• Google Analytics Platform Principles
• Google Tag Manager Fundamentals
• Mobile App Analytics Fundamentals

By taking these courses, you will learn the key principles of digital analytics and specifically how to get started with Google’s own Analytics.

Run a Digital Marketing Campaign

After you have studied all of this material, it will be time to run a digital marketing campaign. This course teaches you how to assemble and organize different online marketing channels into a cohesive, profitable campaign. This 10 hour course touches on everything from design and how it can influence customer decisions to calculating ROI, measuring marketing channels and knowing what to focus on.

In Summary

Despite the overwhelming volume of digital marketing resources available on the web, much of it is outdated, or in some cases, really bad. If you study all the course material presented here, you will have a better understanding of SEO than many of the so called SEO rockstars.

Just keep in mind that digital marketing is very fluid and ever changing. The famed cinematographer Conrad Hall probably sums it up best, “You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward”.

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