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Why you can’t use Google Keyword Planner for SEO

September 27, 2017 by katherine ong 1 Comment

Why you can’t use Google Keyword Planner for SEO

I know. Everyone wants to use a keyword tool for free, but the Google Adwords Tool is SO unreliable you can’t use it for SEO anymore, and here’s why:

  • It was never built for organic search, so it will limit the data you see.
  • Some words/phrases will not show initially because the tool is for paid advertising. If you’re running discovery-focused searches in AdWords you will not see all of the valuable/high-volume keyword phrases connected to a word/phrase.
  • Some words/phrases are grouped together (though Google won’t tell you which).
  • All metrics are broad match (So your search volume number for “pools” might include searches for things such as “swimming pools,””pool tables,” and “car pools”).
  • This means that the broad match volume numbers will include: Misspelled terms, acronyms, singular and plural versions, and synonyms. Additionally, Google may look at auction records to see what queries have been returned based upon keywords that people have bid upon and will include those queries as well if they think they will fit the broad match of a particular keyword. 
  • If you’re not running a large ad campaign it now only shows you HUGE ranges.
  • A full list of limitations is here: https://moz.com/blog/google-keyword-planner-dirty-secrets

So what are your options if you don’t want to purchase a tool like Ahrefs or Moz?

Here are your options:

Your Google Search Console data

You can see what terms are currently driving traffic to your own site and how well you’re ranking and performing.

Bing’s Keyword Tool

Bing has a keyword tool that only pulls keyword data from Bing, but they’ve been clear that it was built for SEO. I’ve noticed that it’s been having issues working recently.

Using Google’s “searches related to” feature

Any keyword that Google provides at the bottom of the search engine result pages are keywords with *some* volume. The trick is you don’t know how much.

Wordstream’s Free Keyword Tool

It’s from a company that runs PPC and runs off of Adwords, so I would take the data with a grain of salt, but it might be worth checking out: http://www.wordstream.com/free-keyword-tools

Keywords Everywhere Chrome Plugin.

You can get the Chrome plugin here. As you use the Google search box,  it will show volume for the keywords that you are using.

It will also show Google Adwords data (via API) as an overlay on a host of other sites, and in Google Analytics reports.

Where does it get its data?

From the Google Keyword Planner API.

Keywords Everywhere Bulk Upload Feature

More from them about how this tool works:

“Recently, Google Keyword Planner only showcases ranges for the search volume and not exact value. Well unless you have an active campaign with a high daily spend, you would be able to access such data.

With Keywords Everywhere’s Bulk Upload Tool (which is free) you can now get the same data for an unlimited number of keywords by using the “Bulk upload keywords” tool. Up to 10,000 keywords can be uploaded at once for as many times as you like.”

AWESOME!

Here’s how to use the tool:

Hopefully, these tools are enough to get you started on your keyword research journey even if you don’t have the budget for a keyword tool (yet).

But keep in mind that you still need to judge (manually) the organic opportunity for each keyword phrase, and check the searcher’s intent to make sure the keyword makes sense for you to add to your optimization list.

Want to learn more about how to do keyword research and implement a keyword research process at your workplace?

Confused about how to start conducting keyword research? Sign up for my SEO Bootcamp class where I’ll walk you through the process of finding the perfect keyword for you.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

Filed Under: SEO

Come join me and learn SEO

September 14, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Come join me and learn SEO

12/11/2017: Quick update:

It was great to see everyone at the Meetup! You can find my slides in my free member library: https://wostrategies.com/library/.
If you enjoyed the presentation or are excited to tackle SEO as your New Years Resolution, you can join my SEO Bootcamp Course at any time!
I also mentioned the following resources in the Meetup in November:

Top 11 Ways to Learn SEO post

Searcher’s Intent Tutorial

Local SEO Checklist

Why you can’t use Google’s Keyword Planner for SEO

September 14th, 2017:

Are you looking a free event in DC where you can learn SEO?

Come join me! I’ll be hosting and conducting a live, free SEO training in the DC area on September 26, 2017, at Canvas Dupont at 6 pm.  If you’re new to SEO, this will be a perfect opportunity for you to get a foundational understanding of how SEO works.

As an added bonus, my friend and co-conspirator, Marissa Goldsmith will be joining me to give attendees a crash course in Google Analytics.

It will be fun. Come with your questions and be ready to take tons of notes. RSVP here: https://www.meetup.com/seo-72/events/243363706/

 

Filed Under: SEO

Top 11 Ways to Learn SEO

July 19, 2017 by katherine ong 1 Comment

Top 11 Ways to Learn SEO

Interested in learning SEO and want to know where to start online?

The online marketing industry writes copious posts about tactics, tools, and the latest algorithm updates, but there is also a lot of misinformation out there.

Also, Google makes around five algorithm changes per day to its algorithm, so often what you’re reading is out of date.

With that reality in mind, I decided to pull together the top 11 different ways you can learn SEO and know that you’re picking up solid, accurate information.

(If you prefer hands-on learning, you can check out my Technical SEO Training class).

[Disclosure: Please note that links to books mentioned within this post might be using an affiliate link which means that – at zero cost to you – I might earn a commission if you buy something through that affiliate link. That said, I the books below I personally used to learn about SEO and now sit on my bookshelf as reference.]

1. Learn about the history of search engines and SEO

Read this book: How Google Works, or this one: The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization

Or, watch the new SEO Movie.

2. Read information from the search engines

I always recommend that my US students and mentees start with a history of how search engines evolved and then review the current “rules” provided by the search engines themselves.

Below are the “rules” directly from the search engines.

Google’s SEO resources

  • Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
  • Google’s steps to a Google-friendly site
  • Google’s Webmaster Central Blog
  • Google’s Webmaster Central office hours (and if you can’t attend them live, Deepcrawl always summarizes the top takeaways from each, or you can watch the recordings on their YouTube channel.
  • Google’s Webmasters social channels and help forum
  • How to speed up your site. The Critical Rendering Path free course

Bing’s SEO Resources

While not the biggest search engine in the US, make sure to check out these resources from Bing:

  • Bing’s getting started checklist
  • Bing’s webmaster help and how-to guide

3. Read the beginner SEO guides

Additionally, there are some solid industry leaders that produce great resources as well that will introduce you to the basic SEO concepts including:

  • Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO
  • Search Engine Land’s Guide to SEO
  • I also taught a class on SEO at Georgetown University
  • Local SEO overview

4. Follow Industry Publications

Finally, there are some industry standard publications and online events that will help you stay on top of the changes in the algorithms and industry. Those include:

  • Search Engine Land
  • Marketing Land
  • Search Engine Journal
  • Search Engine Watch
  • SEO Roundtable
  • Backlinko
  • Moz Blog
  • Search Engine Roundtable

5. Listen to Industry Podcasts

  • Duct Tape Marketing
  • FM/ SEO 101
  • Search Engine Nerds
  • Webcology
  • The Digital Marketing Podcast
  • Search Talk Live
  • The Agents of Change
  • Marketing School
  • PNR: This Old Marketing
  • Experts On The Wire
  • Lion Zeal Show

6. Track the most recent industry studies

Most of these studies are created by vendors, but in particular, I’m fascinated by the research being conducted by:

  • Search Metrics (their yearly ranking studies)
  • Ahrefs
  • Buzzstream
  • Hubspot
  • SEMRush

7. Follow the industry experts

There are few folks that have been in the industry since the beginning and are great about giving a solid perspective around Google updates based on their experience watching search changes throughout the years. The big ones are:

Rand Fishkin

Rand Fiskin, Founder of Moz, SEO expert
Photo @randfish

@randfish on Twitter / https://moz.com/rand/ 

Wil Reynolds

Will Reynolds, Founder of SEER Interactive
Photo: @wilreynolds Twitter

@wilreynolds  / http://www.seerinteractive.com/about/team/wil-reynolds/

Greg Gifford (local SEO genius)

Greg Gifford, Director of Search and Social at DealerOn
Photo: @greggifford Search Engine Land

 

 

 

 

 

Mike King, technical SEO wiz

Mike King, CEO of iPullRank
Photo: @iPullRank Twitter

@iPullRank  /  http://ipullrank.com/author/ipullrank/

Bill Slawski

Bill Slawkski, Director of SEO Research, Go Fish Digital
Photo: @bill_slawski Twitter http://www.seobythesea.com/

 

8. Understand how humans interact with the search results

Check out the free User Experience for the Web (WebUX) course.

9. Learn Google Analytics so that you can measure your strategy

Google offers free courses online via their Analytics Academy. They are:

  • Digital Analytics Fundamentals
  • E-commerce Analytics
  • Google Analytics Platform Principles
  • Google Tag Manager Fundamentals
  • Mobile App Analytics Fundamentals

There’s also an associated Google + Community focused on Google Analytics and one just focused on the Google Analytics Academy

Or when I got started using and understanding Google Analytics, I read these books:

  • Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
  • Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity

10. Join online communities so that you can get support as you’re learning

These are the ones that I frequent and post questions when I’m stuck:

  • Inbound.org
  • Moz’s Community
  • If you’re in DC, our DMV Search Marketing Meetup Google+ Group
  • #SEMRushChat on Twitter (every Wednesday)
  • Online Genesis
  • Technical SEO Google+ Group

11. Find a coach or mentor

Here’s where I wanted to share with you how I got my start in SEO.

I built my first website in 1994 on a whim (Hampshire College offered a course), and I put my rainforest preservation curriculum on it (I created a nonprofit when I was 16. More on that here). I also built my first email newsletter that same year.

I did light web editing and web page creation for various jobs when I landed in DC post graduation, (at National 4-H Council, and Barquin International), but I really got my deep dive into SEO when I was working at the Points of Light Foundation as the Director of Sales and Marketing for 1-800-Volunteer.org.

My job was primarily focused on selling the volunteer management solution behind 1-800-Volunteer.org, as a true startup, I didn’t have the capacity to stay on top of ALL of the marketing of the site by myself.

Then one day the CFO came into my office and asked me why he couldn’t find our site in Google. At that time, my SEO experience did not include dynamically driven, complex, homegrown CMS system sites (like 1-800-Volunteer.org) so I told him that he needed to send me to SES Chicago where I would ask other SEOs to determine why our site had fallen off of Google.

So there I am at SES Chicago in an SEO audit session with about 200 other people. When they asked for volunteers, I was the first to raise my hands. After explaining that the developers had blocked Googlebot in the robot.txt file, I realized I was in for quite a lesson in enterprise SEO as they listed off issue after issue that I had to address in order to the site back into the Google index.

I left the session and called my development team to explain all the issues the audit session found with our site, and I spent the rest of the week at SES going to sessions, asking questions, and working every evening from my hotel room to build a full online marketing plan for the site, and an online marketing training plan so that all our the customers that used the site to recruit for volunteers could optimize their own volunteer postings.

Quite a few of the individuals who bought the 1-800-Volunteer.org volunteer management product were older women close to retirement age (or came out of retirement to run the Volunteer Center) and those were my first online marketing students. It was a great experience because I can now train anyone on SEO/online marketing regardless of their technical skill. Oh…and I got the site back in Google.

This is all to say that you can jump start your SEO knowledge by finding yourself a mentor or by having your site looked at by someone in the industry who could hold your hand through your site’s SEO challenges.

And that’s the type of SEO coaching that I provide to my students – quality SEO education that includes one-on-one coaching to ensure that you truly understand how SEO works and how to craft the best solution for your business and your particular online marketing challenge.

I coach and mentor a limited number of students each quarter and if you’re interested in joining the next group of students, drop me a note.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

 

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: how to learn SEO, learn SEO

Searcher’s Intent Tutorial

July 3, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Searcher’s Intent Tutorial

Most of the content online related to searcher’s intent is catered to managers of e-commerce sites.

But that’s not you.

Maybe you’re a nonprofit, a government agency, an association or a news site.

So, how do you structure your keyword research so that it’s keywords that make sense for you and your audience and keywords are grouped in a way in which you can move forward with tracking hundreds or thousands of rankings and can spot optimization opportunities?

With a huge number of potential keywords, how do you organize your keyword list and make sure that your keywords are the PERFECT keywords?

Why is getting the INTENT right so important?

Today’s search engine result pages are personalized to the end user – based on location, IP, search history, Gmail activity, online reading behavior, context, etc.

This kind of environment makes it even more essential for a marketer to reverse engineer the intent of the searcher for every keyword phrase to make sure that one is targeting terms where your answer (and URL) are the absolute best answer to the implicit question contained in that keyword phrase. Otherwise, you’ll get traffic that will bounce (which is a negative search ranking signal).

Also, make the most of your time by creating content that has the best chance of being shown in a Google search.

Let’s look at an example.

Say you are running the site www.cancer.gov and you want to see if you can rank for term “why quit smoking”. Here’s what that search engine result looks like:

Based on those results you can see that the target users are looking for the following:

  • All the reasons to quit smoking
  • How long it might take to quit smoking and what the process involves
  • How soon they would see the benefits from quitting smoking

Based on the searcher’s intent, they really are not (with that keyword phrase) directly looking for how lung cancer is driven by smoking.

But let’s look at a keyword phrase that is a better fit: “cancers from smoking”:

And now Google is showing www.cancer.gov content.

Still not convinced?

Google doesn’t show your page if you don’t match the searcher’s INTENT.

In case you’re still not convinced about searcher’s intent, I think you’ll find this data finding from Wordstream’s March 27, 2017, post compelling.

“Google has confirmed a recent core algorithm update, and surprisingly, some of the biggest losers were high-authority magazine domains like the Atlantic and the New Yorker. However, it’s not so surprising when you look at where they lost rankings – on older content that was ranking for third-party brand searches:”

Intent Marketing - core algorithm update

“In this image from Searchmetrics (apologies for the grainy image), you can see that the Atlantic had pages ranking for keywords like “Netflix” and “pizza hut.” Guess what! It’s highly unlikely that people searching for “pizza hut” want to read an old think piece about it; they probably just want to find the nearest store or the number to order a pizza. By booting these results out of the rankings, Google is recognizing that intent is more important than domain authority.”

You need to be the PERFECT answer for your target audience and the question that they had in their heads when they typed (or spoke) a keyword phrase into Google.

In 2017 you need to understand:

What was the searcher’s specific GOAL based on their keyword phrase?

Each search query is not just empty words. It has a user’s hope and desire behind those phrases – a burning question.

Smart SEOs go after keyword phrases where the searcher’s intent COMPLETELY matches the content being optimized so that they attract visitors to their site that stay and don’t bounce back to the search engine result pages (SERPs). Bouncing back to the SERPs is called pogo sticking in the industry, and is a NEGATIVE signal to Google.

Targeting high volume keywords is not how to do SEO.

Targeting keyword phrases where the searcher’s INTENT is perfect for what your content provides is.

How do you figure out searcher’s intent?

Here is the reverse engineering into the intent behind each search query (Or “searcher’s intent” as it’s called in the industry).

1. Look at the non-personalized SERPs by your keyword.

Particularly the “People also ask” box and related searches. These queries are presented because of what Google knows about the intent behind each keyword and they also give you some sense about how Google links topics together.

Let’s look at an example.

I searched for “pet food articles” using Chrome’s Incognito and here’s what that result looks like:

Once you get past all of the ads (this is clearly a low organic opportunity SERP), you can see that the searcher intent is the following:

“I am a pet owner and am looking for information about what is in my pet’s food, and whether I should switch pet foods to keep my pet healthy.”

2. Brainstorm the major and minor intents you see.

Ask yourself these questions:

  • Why does someone land on your page?
  • What were they searching for right before they arrived?
  • Based on the other pages ranking (and related searches), what type of answers are they hoping they will find for that keyword phrase?

Most non-personalized search results show more than one intent. Record as many intents as possible.

 

3. Understanding your searcher’s “micro-moment”

Micro-moments are instances where your target audience is looking for information on the fly often on their phone – and they want instant answers. In fact, 91% of users check their phones for information while performing some other task.

Google, in their 2017 human rater guidelines, breaks out these micro-moments intent into four categories:

  • Know query, some of which are Know Simple queries
  • Website query, where the user is looking for a particular website or webpage
  • Do query, some of which are Device Action queries. (Some examples of this would be: download, buy, obtain, to be entertained by, or to interact with a website).
  • Visit-in-person query, some of which is looking for a specific business or organization or category of business.

Here’s how to make micro-moments actionable:

As you look at the non-personalized SERPs for your keyword, record the micro-moment of your user – is that query a “know query” or a “do query”? The content that you provide to them should match their desired action as well as their desired question.

4. Use your Personas

Ask yourself these questions:

  • Is this content you’re working on associated with a specific persona?
  • If so, what do you know about that persona’s background that would influence what type of results they would like to see

5. Use your internal search data

Do you have users searching for this keyword phrase using your site search? If so, what results do they click and stay on? What does that data tell you about what type of content best satisfies the question behind their query?

6. Where are they in the customer journey?

Even for an information based query, your target audience could be either in the beginning stages of research or have moved on to a comparison or consideration phase.

Where does this content fall along the customer journey?

Record that data as well in your tracking sheet.

7. Use a keyword research tools to spot related terms.

Yoast has a great Google Suggest Expander and there is also Ubersuggest. If you’re a Moz user, you can use the Keyword Explorer tool.

Head on over to Keyword Explorer and drop in your primary keyword like “cancer from smoking” and choose “related to keywords with similar result pages” and sort by “Relevancy”.

Moz Keyword Tool - cancers from smoking query

How do those related terms help you confirm their intent?

8. Deliver on active and passive intent

Every user has a singular answer that they are looking for when searching for something by keyword phrase. Additionally, they will find your site useful if you deliver on supportive information that they didn’t explicitly ask for but is useful to their original query.

Active intent is explicitly described by the query itself. You must satisfy active intent immediately on the landing page because if the user doesn’t see their keyword phrase, they will bounce back to the search results.

Passive intent is hinted at by the query or keyword phrase. For instance, a search for “potty training” is implicitly looking for books, videos, tips and charts/reward systems to help with the overall process of potty training.

You should deliver on the active intent with the content on the page, and the passive intent by linking to supportive content that answers the passive intent query.

9. Dive into your own Google Search Console data

If you have a site with a decent amount of traffic, you can spot the intent of your users by looking at the queries that are currently being driven to your site.

Go to Search Traffic > Search Queries and filter by a particular query. You will often see a pattern emerging and you should be able to build a hypothesis around what your searchers are looking for. You can then click “Pages” to see what page is receiving that keyword traffic.

Feel free to grab the other keywords that you see in the Google Search Console report and add them to your landing page copy. There is no need to go overboard with keyword stuffing, though. Focus on making the copy readable to the end user.

There you go. The nine step process for figuring out your searcher’s intent by keyword. Evaluate your data, and collect it in the SEO Writing Template. Use the terms and create content that is the PERFECT answer to your user’s burning question – if you’re the best answer to that user’s question, you are one step closer to having Google reward you with better rankings and traffic.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: searcher's intent

SEO Testing – The only tutorial you need to read

May 27, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

SEO Testing – The only tutorial you need to read

Are you looking to get your feet wet with SEO testing?

I’ve tried to pull together all of the resources that you’ll need to think through the benefits, risks, and challenges you need to think through as you set up and measure your first SEO test.

Let’s start with:

The benefits of testing for SEO

There are a variety of reasons why you might be interested in launching an SEO testing program and are looking for a tutorial of sorts of how to get started.

Some in-house SEOs see it as a way to get internal buy-in for changes that they see as necessary for improvement, but for which there is internal pushback on implementing. Others are in-house marketers with a high traffic site and they don’t want to make a change that will accidentally tank organic traffic.

Both are valid.

There are two really big benefits to SEO testing.

  1. Results from the test can provide justification for further investment in various recommended SEO changes. (This bullet seems obvious)
  1. Test results can also help you avoid making changes that would have negative consequences.

I want to provide an example for that second bullet to illustrate the point.

Here’s an example of why you only run SEO experiments with an established testing plan

This example is from the Pinterest engineering team who wrote a post in 2015 about their work with SEO experiments. In that post, they outline that for UX (not SEO) reasons the Pinterest team really wanted to be able to render content client side in JavaScript.

Luckily they just made that change to a limited number of pages and tracked the impact. (Sidenote: Google notoriously has issues indexing JavaScript  – in fact, I worked with a client that lost almost all of their organic traffic because of a development driven move to Angular JS 1).

Because as they tested the JavaScript design, they could see the significant and sustained drop in organic traffic and were able to turn off the experiment and cancel plans to roll out the change to the rest of the site.

Fact: One cannot run a “true” A/B SEO Test

Sorry to disappoint you if that’s what you were looking for.

But let me explain why you can’t.

First of all, you can’t really do a true SEO A/B split test as it would require that you split your users into two groups and you have two identical samples, then you change just one condition on “A” and leave “B” alone and then measure the results.

Here’s an illustration of an A/B test:

Example of an A/B Test

That would mean you would need two pages on the same domain with the same Domain Authority and backlink profile, internal link profile, content, etc.

This creates two problems:

  1. Creating this type of duplicity might run you into a cloaking penalty with Google (if they index it).
  2. Additionally, there’s a really good chance that you couldn’t even get Google to index “A” because it would look like duplicate content.  Which means you can’t even get started running the test as you need both pages indexed and ranked to see if one change over the other is going to positively impact your organic traffic.

Here’s the process for running a statistically significant SEO test on just one page:

  1. Measure your site’s traffic for at least 10 days without that keyword in the title tag, and no other changes to the site, or marketing to that page.
  2. Change the title tag.
  3. Wait until it shows up in Google’s cache (that way you know it’s indexed), then measure the site traffic for at least another 10 days (again no changes or marketing to that page).
  4. Change the title tag back, wait until it shows up in the cache again, and measure for at least 10 days.
  5. Put the keyword back in, wait for it to be in Google’s cache, and measure again for 10 days.
  6. Run a sample t-test to compare the traffic on the days with the cached keyword and without.  Here’s a free tool to help you crunch the t-test data: http://www.usablestats.com/calcs/2samplet

Why so many days of no other changes?

You need a total sample size of at least 40 before you can run a test without worry about skewed data.  You’re switching it back and forth to minimize the impact of seasonality or other outside trends impacting your data. You also need to pay attention to Google’s cached page because that’s the copy that they are evaluating for ranking. You need to start measuring your “days” above from when you see the cached copy.

If the above seems impossible to execute, that’s the point.

There are a few other options.

What sort of SEO testing CAN you do?

Since strict A/B testing is out from a statistical perspective, what kind of testing is left? You can test changes to a randomly selected group of pages and measure their performance vs. their projected performance.

The process would look like this:

  1. Identify a set of pages you want to improve
  2. Choose the test to run across those pages
  3. Randomly group the pages into a control and a variant group
  4. Note the date of the Google cached page (the date that Google added the changed pages to their index)
  5. Measure the impact and declare the test a success if the variant group outperforms the forecasted performance (and if the control does not)

Because you’re now conducting a test on a group of pages your pages are not statistically identical, you can’t just compare performance across those pages but instead need to forecast the performance of both sets of pages.

If you’re interested in diving into the statistics and math involved in this process, I would encourage you to check out Distilled’s resources which include:

  • Predicting the present with Bayesian structural time series [PDF]
  • Inferring causal impact using Bayesian structural time series [PDF]
  • CausalImpact R package
  • Finding the ROI of title tag changes
  • Ben Estes’ post about R and analytics forecasting

If all of this seems too challenging, there is always Distilled’s OCN software (which I’ll discuss later in this post).

But let’s assume that you still want to set up an SEO test manually…

Here are some things to keep in mind when setting up your first SEO test

You’ve decided that you’re going to launch an SEO test focused on which tactics are going to drive the organic visitors that stay on your site.

Keep the following in mind when setting up and launching that test:

1. Focus on measuring what’s important

Photo of a hanglider lifting up.

Make sure you’re focused on changes that impact the deep KPIs for your site and business (like lifetime visitor value, and organic purchases) vs. rankings.

With Google’s use of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and their complex personalized algorithms, you can’t create a test with scientific accuracy about a factor that will impact your rankings. Besides, have you seen the study that shows how much rankings change on an hourly basis? If you’re only tracking ranking improvements, it’s likely you’re going to miss the changes that improve organic clickthrough rate but not rankings. Ultimately, those changes will increase the organic traffic to your site, which is the desired end result!

You also want to make sure that any ranking improvements improve (or keep steady) the time that users are spending on your ranking pages and site; otherwise, your temporary ranking improvements might become longer term ranking declines if Google sees that your high ranking pages are resulting in visitors that bounce back to search.

2. Make sure you’re using good analytics data

Google Analytics Dashboard

As you’re pulling your analytics data to see if there’s a trend, make sure to:

  1. Pull only non-paid search traffic.
  2. Pull it from a filtered account that removes any spam traffic. Unfortunately, organic keyword driven spam IS a thing.

3. Randomness is important

You need to make sure that you’re not biasing things based your favorite products, an existing promotion, Google algorithm update, or seasonality. Since SEO Testing is Page Oriented – vs CRO (conversion rate optimization)  testing which is user oriented – you need to make the same tactical SEO change across a random group of pages. You can see Distilled’s example below:

Distilled's graphic of SEO A/B Testing
Image: Distilled’s graphic of SEO A/B Testing

 

4. Change only one thing across those pages

You need to test only one SEO tactic at a time, otherwise, you won’t know which factor resulted in your traffic lift.

5. Testing on stable SERPs is ideal

If you are going to go the route of your own SEO test, then you really want as much outside stability in your control and test group as possible. Testing on keywords that have a lot of SERPs (Search Engine Result Page) volatility is going to skew your data and make it tough to see a test result that is insightful.

As you’re building pages for your test group, see what their rankings look like for their target phrases. If they bounce around a lot in the rankings, along with other people’s pages bouncing in rankings, then those pages would not be ideal for testing.

6. Pick pages that have the potential to move

Here are the facts: Ranking in positions 1 through 6 is hard. There are TONS of factors that go into those rankings (and that’s not even taking into account Knowledge Graph, shopping results, instant answers, etc) which is why it might make more sense to take pages that are ranking 8 through 30 of the SERP for their associated terms. This is an area where a minor change (like a meta title change) might make more of an impact.

7. Set a time frame for your test

Distilled has a few suggestions:

“In deciding how long to run tests for, you first need to decide on an approach. If you simply want to verify that tests have a positive impact, then due to the rational and consistent nature of Google, you can take a fairly pragmatic approach to assessing whether there’s an uplift — by looking for any increase in rankings for the variant pages over the control group at any point after deployment — and roll that change out quickly.”

“If, however, you are more cautious or want to measure the scale of impact so you can prioritize future types of tests, then you need to worry more about statistical significance. How quickly you will see the effect of a change is a factor of the number of pages in the test, the amount of traffic to those pages, and the scale of impact of the change you have made. All tests are going to be different.”

8. Yes, setting up an SEO test might be difficult

Some CMS systems will make it difficult to make changes to an arbitrary group of pages. It might even be hard to gather and analyze the data in a way in which you are sure of the trend and will come to the right conclusions. This approach will also make it difficult to test things like changing the internal linking structure or adding different schema markup.

Here’s the easiest SEO testing option: Distilled ODN

Distilled ODN overview graphic

Distilled’s ODN (Optimisation Delivery Network) works like a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and is displayed in front of your website to users and Googlebot.

Here’s how Distilled’s SEO testing process works:

  1. Make a change within their CMS interface to a group of similar pages (like product pages).
  2. The platform will then automatically make that change to half of the pages on your website. (setting up your control and variant groups for you).
  3. The platform then analyzes the organic search traffic to your test pages and will show you how they perform against the original pages.
  4. Once you see the results (and if it’s positive), you can then make that change to all of your pages across your site via the ODN CMS interface.

This platform also allows you to run a small test, and if the results are not positive you can rollback the changes with minimal negative organic traffic impact. However, Distilled’s OCN is an enterprise tool with an enterprise price tag.

The software might be best for you if:

  • You’re short on in-house statistical staff
  • Pulling and analyzing the results data from your analytics program might be challenging
  • Your analytics data is not reliable due to spam issues, lack of a filtered account, or other issues
  • You have a CMS that isn’t flexible enough to let you set up random groups
  • You have a low-risk tolerance (high traffic that you’re concerned about losing)
  • You want to get started testing quickly

As a side note Distilled OCN lets you make all sorts of changes to your site that might be stuck in your development queue. I’ve talked to them on behalf of other clients related to setting up Google Tag Manager or implementing schema. As an in-house marketer, you can take that out of your developer’s queue and make the changes yourself.

As a final note

Though it might seem like it, I’m not on Distilled’s sales team, though I’m a fan of any solution that will allow in-house marketers to quickly set up tests and tracking that gives them strong insights to enhance their digital campaigns. In many situations that are off the shelf software vs. creating a system from scratch if you have the budget.

Either way, you should think about how to set up an effective and efficient SEO test for your site. Throughout my career, I’ve found that data often wins over colleagues who are hesitant to change, and that data can make your job implementing an SEO strategy just THAT much easier.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

 

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: seo testing

Number of Google algorithm changes in 2016

May 15, 2017 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Number of Google algorithm changes in 2016

Curious as to how fast Google is now changing its algorithm per day?

Most SEOs mention that it’s almost 2 times a day, but that’s from 2012 data.

Recently, Google announced updated data related to how many changes they make to their algorithm as a part of their newly updated How Search Works website, which shows how many live experiments it runs and algorithm updates it launched in 2016.

So in 2016, Google conducted almost 30,000 experiments and launched 1,653 algorithm updates.

That’s over 1,600 Google algorithm updates in ONE YEAR.

Almost 5 changes PER DAY.

While some of the major algorithm updates like Hummingbird, Panda, and Penguin were announced to the SEO community, the most recent updates weren’t formally announced or verified.

Now if you’re curious if you’ve gotten hit by an algorithm update, you *can* view an entire list of the announced Google updates here on Search Engine Land, or by checking out Moz’s Google Algorithm Change History. I also highly recommend using the Panguin Tool if you’re using Google Analytics.

But that’s after the fact.

What if you want to stay ahead of the game?

How do you keep up with the five Google updates per day?

Since starting in SEO I’ve personally had a regular diet of at least 8 hours per week of reading to keep up with search updates.

But what if you don’t have the time?

Clock telling time

If you’re an in-house marketer who is in charge of SEO (along with other marketing channels), it’s tough to find that kind of time.

How can you stay up to date?

Well if you have the budget, you can hire an SEO agency.

 

And what if you don’t have the budget?

 

Depressed bulldog

You can hire an SEO Coach

An SEO Coach is someone who can help you regularly review your SEO strategy and keep the implementation momentum going while keeping an ear to the ground to stay on top of major Google algorithm updates.

Hiring a professional SEO Coach is often more affordable and flexible option for businesses that don’t have the budget for a full SEO engagement.

Interested in learning more about my SEO coaching services?

Drop me a line here.

I’m happy to navigate these rapid-fire changes in search algorithms with you so you can ensure that you’re not caught by a loss of organic traffic.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: google algorithm updates

12 Easy Ways to Build Links to Any Piece of Content

November 29, 2016 by katherine ong 1 Comment

12 Easy Ways to Build Links to Any Piece of Content

Ideally, every piece of content you publish would launch with a mini link building plan, but sometimes the new content is not exciting enough to launch a full-blown link building plan.

But the Internet is a vast place, and you don’t want your new piece of content to disappear in the massive waves of new content published every day either.

Kid Dropping Rock in Ocean

So what should you do then to generate links to this new piece of content?

I’ve outlined 12 different ways you can kick off social sharing and link building to your new piece of content that require minimal effort.

Without further ado, here’s the list:

1. Make sure the new piece of content is being linked from somewhere else on the website. 

Don’t be the one publishing orphaned pages!

2. Make sure the page has social sharing buttons to make sharing easy.

3. Share the article to your social media handles

(Particularly Twitter as it will speed up indexing of the new piece of content).  

While the social link itself won’t share PageRank, you’ll be getting your content in front of your audience.

Ideally, you would create dozens of snippets for social sharing and schedule them over the next weeks or months. Here are some examples of what you can share:

  • Variations of the title
  • Short statements from the content
  • Short quotes from the content
  • Statistics from the content

4. Email your list with a mention of your new content

5. Get your employees to share on social or email

6. Email any companies or people mentioned in the content (if relevant)

7. Does your content answer an open question on Quora, AnswerBag, Yahoo Answers, or Answers.com?

If so, answer the questions and link to your new content.

8. Get links from resource pages.

Buzzstream has a great resource here about the process you should follow to find and ask for links from sites that have resource pages.

9. Contact people who have linked to similar content.

You can find other similar types of content and use Moz’s Open Site Explorer to find out who has linked to those pieces. Then find a contact with that site and create a pitch for why they should also list/link to your resource.

10. And of course, If it’s newsworthy, research and pitch people interested in the topic.

Either bloggers or webmasters in your client’s niche or post to relevant industry groups on LinkedIn. If you’re not sure how to get started, I provide link building coaching for clients.

11. If you’ve created a detailed resource, you can upload a .pdf version of it to Scribd.

12. Post to content aggregator sites if there is a conversation relevant to your topic.

Here are a few examples below:

  • Inbound.org (Inbound marketing)
  • Hacker News (Startups and computer science)
  • DataTau (Data science)
  • Product Hunt (Product creation)
  • Biz Sugar (Small business)
  • Lobsters (Technology)
  • Boxnutt (General)
  • List.ly

And if you’re not sure about how to draft a link building outreach email? I’ve collected examples here: http://watier.org/katherine/a-collection-of-link-building-email-templates/

If you’re challenged by a site or content that is controversial or hugely unpopular I’ve even got some other ideas for you here: http://watier.org/katherine/13-ways-to-build-links-for-unpopular-sites/

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

Filed Under: SEO

Google’s Mobile First Index – Are you up to speed?

November 14, 2016 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Google’s Mobile First Index – Are you up to speed?

Google announced last week that it’s testing out a mobile first index – using the elements from your mobile site to determine how your content should ranking for both mobile AND desktop queries.

While the update will most likely not roll out for a few months, what do you need to do now to prepare?

If you have a separate mobile site

If you have a separate mobile site, Google has guidance here: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/11/mobile-first-indexing.html

If you don’t have a mobile site

If you don’t even have a mobile site, Google says  not to worry. “If you only have a desktop site, we’ll continue to index your desktop site just fine, even if we’re using a mobile user agent to view your site.”

Though from my experience, you won’t rank as well for your audience’s mobile queries without a mobile site….

If your site is responsive

And if you have a responsive site, you might think you’d be all set, but have you looked at your mobile page speed recently? In the future, the page speed of your mobile pages will impact both your mobile and desktop rankings.

Mobile page speed will impact your desktop rankings

I think it’s time for everyone to shore up how fast their mobile site loads – to ensure they are all set for the upcoming update and don’t experience ranking decreases due to the index change.

Page speed matters for more than just rankings. 

Keep in mind that mobile search officially outpaced desktop searches (in March of last year) and people searching on a mobile devices are more impatient.

How important is page load speed for mobile searchers?

Here’s a bit of recent research about how fast page load is critical to the mobile experience:

53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.

Sites that load in 5 seconds (vs the average 19 seconds) observed:

  • 25% higher ad viewability
  • 70% longer average sessions
  • 35% lower bounce rates

What should you do now?

Have you checked your mobile page speed recently?

The Google PageSpeed tool is great for a quick glance and GTMetrix is a must as you start to work with your developers to make page speed improvements.

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

Filed Under: Mobile

Do you have what it takes for a digital marketing career?

August 10, 2016 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Do you have what it takes for a digital marketing career?

Are you interested in pursuing a career in digital marketing? Perhaps you’re wondering where to start?

I firmly believe that great marketers have the power to persuade others and distill complicated information into more simple, actionable copy. More importantly, digital marketers need to be able to “just figure it out” by themselves most of the time.

I also think that SEO is a skill that many different types of marketers need to understand even if they don’t have an SEO job title, and the 2016 Digital Marketing job and salary research by Conductor confirms this hunch:

“Instead of SEO as a job skill held by a single marketer on a team, SEO is becoming a needed skill for a diverse set of professionals across the organization.”

In fact, we know that SEO as a skill is the #4  on the hottest list of skills that people get hired for via LinkedIn.

2015 LinkedIn list of hottest skills

Eventhough digital marketing jobs are in high demand, there’s a skill gap and employers often struggle to find qualified talent. I experienced these challenges while hiring team members in my previous roles.

This is especially the case when hiring marketers that have technical and analytical skills. Moz’s 2015 State of the Inbound Marketing Economy study highlights that I wasn’t the only hiring manager with this problem:

“According to an article in The Guardian, ‘Companies will increasingly look for rounded individuals who can combine analytical rigor with the ability to apply this knowledge in a practical and creative context.’ Being both detail-oriented and a big picture thinker is also a sought-after combination of attributes.

In a study conducted by Bullhorn, 64% of recruiters reported a shortage of skilled candidates for available marketing roles. Wanted Analytics recently found that one of the biggest national talent shortages is for marketing manager roles, with only two available candidates per job opening.”

If you’re either new to the job market or looking to transition your career, digital marketing might be for you. It certainly has a good work/life balance as the lastest Glassdoor survey illustrates.

Do you think you have what it takes to get started in digital marketing?

If you’re curious as to why and how I ended up in digital marketing, or what skills I think you need to succeed in the industry, I encourage you to listen to my interview on the Authentic Careers Podcast.

You can also listen to the interview directly here:

https://wostrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/KatherineOng080716.mp3

 

Need to brush up your SEO skills or looking for an SEO crash course so that you can feel like you have a solid foundation on one of LinkedIn’s hottest skills?

Then sign up now for my SEO Bootcamp course. My formula has launched 16 young people’s careers in the industry, and you’ll get direct coaching for me as you dive into the material.

Sign up now! The Bootcamp Course is LIVE!

Thanks for reading!

Katherine

PS: Thanks for taking the time out to read my post and geek out about SEO with me!  I get my inspiration for post topics from other SEOs and in-house marketers struggling with SEO strategy and implementation questions, so if you like this post, please…
1) Leave a comment
2.) Share it with your network
4) Follow me for future posts

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: digital marketing career

Trashing your Google Analytics – UTM Campaign Tagging

July 6, 2016 by katherine ong Leave a Comment

Trashing your Google Analytics – UTM Campaign Tagging

I had to write a post about this issue as I’ve now seen it across quite a few clients’ Google Analytics accounts, and it’s a surefire way of trashing your Google Analytics data.

It’s this:

Using Google Analytic’s UTM campaign parameters on internal URLs

Here’s an example:- www.domain.com/contact?utm_source=Email-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fall+newsletter%20appeal

I’m a huge proponent of using UTM campaign tagging to track your marketing efforts, but the tracking should only be used on links you either place IN your email or ON other people’s sites/platforms. That could include:

  • links in Facebook ads
  • links in organic Facebook posts
  • links in the email/email newsletters you send
  • banner ads on other people’s sites
  • tracking in CPC ads
  • etc.

So why can’t you use campaign tagging on internal links?

Because this is what happens:

Normally, when a visitor comes to a site that has the Google Analytics tracking code installed, Google Analytics captures a lot of data via cookies: the medium (organic, referral, direct, etc.), source (site the visitor came from), browser, screen resolution, country, metro, etc.

With campaign tagging, you can overwrite the cookie data with your own custom tags.

When you add campaign tagging, you are reassigning the campaign source and medium data. Additionally, you start a new visit.

So let’s take the example above:

Say that I was an organic visitor from Google who visited your homepage then your contact page, but you had this UTM tagging in place on that internal (contact page) link:

www.domain.com/contact?utm_source=Email-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fall+newsletter%20appeal

There would be one visit (session) for me as an organic user from Google to your homepage, and another new visit (session) as a user  from Email – your internal email newsletter.

Just think about how this might trash your ROI calculations for your organic and paid efforts. And EVERY visitor who visits that link gets reassigned.

It’s one of the best ways to trash your Google Analytics data.

How do you know if this is an issue for you?

In Google Analytics, go to Behavior->All Pages and search for “utm”. If pages appear, you’ve used UTM tagging on internal links like the example below:

Google Analytics UTM tagging

 

So here’s the takeaway:

  1. Don’t use UTM campaign tagging on internal links
  2. Use UTM tagging on links you place elsewhere (not on your own domain)

If you’re interested in tracking clicks from one part of your website to another, that’s where Google Analytic’s event tracking comes in – or you can just use the default Behavior Flow report.

 

Sources:

  • http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/01/26/track-conversions-internal-external-campaigns/
  • http://www.annielytics.com/blog/analytics/how-to-trash-your-google-analytics-account-with-campaign-tagging/

 

Filed Under: Google Analytics Tagged With: campaign tagging

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