The Hat Play

Google Keyword Planner Now Shows Conversion Estimates Google announced today that conversion estimates have been added to the Keyword Planner tool in AdWords. Google will use an account’s historical conversion data, or users can enter their own conversion rates and conversion values to see how bid changes might impact metrics such as estimated conversion, conversion value, ROAS and Average CPA for mobile and desktop. You can see the conversion estimates broken out by ad group, keyword, device and location by selecting the respective tabs above the chart area. To get started, choose the “Get traffic forecasts for a list of keywords” from the Keyword Planner home page.

DoubleClick Search Announces New Google Shopping Campaigns Tools For Retailers Today Doubleclick Search launched three new reporting and optimization tools for retailers using the DoubleClick Search Commerce Suite. Designed for Google’s Shopping Campaigns, which take effect on August 31, new Adaptive Shopping campaigns structures product groups based on similar conversion rates. Integrating directly with Google Merchant Center, the tool automatically subdivides existing product groups by product ID based on performance. Google says it has found that 90% of the median advertiser’s cost comes from only 9.5% of its products. Adaptive Shopping Campaigns are designed to isolate high-spending, high-converting products from lower-converting products so that bids can be set separately. Advertisers often lump these high-spend products into bid groups with other, lower-converting products — leading to bid values that are not optimized, based on relative performance. Adaptive Shopping campaigns e...

Google Market Share: 67 Percent On PC, 83 Percent In Mobile Last week, comScore released its August U.S. search market share rankings report. It appears Google has permanently plateaued at 67 percent (or so). In Europe, Google’s share is above 90 percent, which is why all the antitrust activity. Back in the U.S., Microsoft and Yahoo combined for 29 percent, which is where the Search Alliance has been since day one. The only drama of late was provided by the fall of Yahoo’s share below 10 percent briefly. However, Yahoo now appears to be resting at 10 percent. Google Market Share: 67 Percent On PC, 83 Percent In Mobile StatCounter, by comparison, shows Google’s U.S. desktop market share to be higher: 76.4 percent. Bing has 13 percent and Yahoo has 9 percent in the StatCounter data. The comScore numbers above don’t reflect mobile search. However, I suspect we’ll see that in the near future, just as comScore has combined mobile and PC traffic in its new unified Top 50 sites list. StatCoun...

Yahoo Replaces Google As Default Search Provider in Firefox Yahoo and Mozilla just announced a “strategic five-year partnership that makes Yahoo the default search experience for Firefox in the United States on mobile and desktop.” The companies said they will explore other potential “future product integrations and distribution opportunities to other markets.” Yahoo is thus going to displace Google the current Firefox search provider. Firefox was at one time the main alternative to Microsoft’s IE browser but has been supplanted for many by Google’s Chrome, now the world’s top browser. In mobile Firefox has struggled to find an entry point. Firefox has a roughly 16 percent browser market share on the desktop in the US market according to StatCounter. Google and Firefox have had a less congenial relationship since the former launched competitive browser Chrome. The last Google-Firefox search deal was in 2011. While the Yahoo deal makes sense for both parties, there may be some monetary ...

Google Launches Mobile Friendly Test Tool The new tool is at google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly and it basically gives you a pass or fail grade. Either it tells you that you are mobile friendly or you are not mobile friendly. The messages I was able to generate include: Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly. Not mobile-friendly In each output, the yes, you are mobile friendly or no you are not, Google may or may not give more or less advice depending on the site. For example, for this site, we got an “Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly,” but it did add that “this page uses 9 resources which are blocked by robots.txt. The results and screenshot may be incorrect.” It then listed out those resources it had issues with, so you as the webmaster can decide if it is something that needs addressing. Here is a screen shot: Google Launches Mobile Friendly Test Tool I then tested a site that I know what not mobile-friendly and Google explained what the issues were including (a) text t...

Google’s Knowledge Graph Finally Shows Social Networks Not Named Google+ Years after a controversy over a decision to promote its own social network, Google+, in search results, Google has begun linking to other social networks in its Knowledge Graph. As first spotted by Bernd Rubel and reported by Search Engine Roundtable, Google is now showing icons for social sites including Facebook, Twitter and even MySpace and others. The Knowledge Graph panel on a search for “U2,” for example, shows links to the band’s profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, along with Google properties like YouTube and Google+. Google’s Knowledge Graph Finally Shows Social Networks Not Named Google+ The social links don’t appear in all Knowledge Graph panels, and different social sites will show up for different Knowledge Graph entities. Search for “Starbucks,” for example, and you’ll still only see the company’s recent Google+ posts. Search for “Bono” and you won’t see anything from any social network. Sear...

21 Link Building Ideas That Have Nothing To Do With Guest Posting I think we’ve gotten better at not relying completely on guest posting as the only way to get links. I think. At least, I sure hope we have. Don’t get me wrong: Guest posting done correctly still works really well – note the emphasis on “done correctly.” I’m not recommending you remove it from your tactic list, but a little tactical diversity never hurt anyone. Note: I’m keeping these high level and vague on purpose in order to inspire as many starter ideas as possible. I find this to be ideal for brainstorming. It’ll be up to you to take the ones you like, add your own twist, and flesh it out to make it work for your company. (C’mon, I can’t do all the work for you!) PR Boilerplate. Press releases aren’t dead. Make sure you have an optimized boilerplate at the end of all of your news releases that talks about your company. It’s almost always included if/when your release gets picked up by another source. Executive Bios....

Designing Analytics Dashboards From Google Webmaster Tools Keyword Data Ever since Google made the move to encrypt all searches, marketers have been searching for alternative ways to glean keyword referral data — and many have turned to Google Webmaster Tools (WMT) data as a replacement source. To be clear, the data from Google Webmaster Tools is limited. You can only see your top 2000 terms, your data only goes as far back as 90 days, and the information is related to user interaction with the SERPs rather than with your site. But, while you can’t use WMT data as a true replacement data source for keywords, you can use it as a proxy. In my article on Marketing Land today, I share some tips for how you can effectively use WMT to glean keyword insights.

Google Mobile’s Flash Warnings Now Rolling Out To More Languages Google began labeling the mobile search results that had results from Flash enabled sites with mobile warnings. The warning cautioned mobile users from clicking to the site, by showing a notice that reads: “Uses Flash. May not work on your device. Try anyway | Learn more.” That warning is rolling out to more international languages today. In early October, it expanded to Spanish searches on google.es, Japanese queries on google.co.jp, and British queries on google.co.uk. Today, according to Google’s Johannes Mehlem, it is expanding to “more non-English queries.” Here is what the warning might look like in English and German: This warning is also included in the new mobile usability reports within Google Webmaster Tools, that also launched this morning.

Facebook is making 'Facebook at Work,' so you can Facebook at work You already Facebook at work, so here's "Facebook at Work." Facebook is working on extending its network beyond the social realm and into the professional world, according to the Financial Times, citing anonymous sources. SEE ALSO: The countries where Facebook censors the most content The company's new, enterprise-focused product will be similar to the functionality of its current site, with a newsfeed, groups and messaging capability. However, it will also include collaborative tools for work on shared documents. Facebook at Work will be entirely separate from personal accounts, with no information from a user's social profile appearing on his or her professional page, and vice versa. Facebook at Work is currently in an early pilot program that is based out of London. At the time of this writing, it does not host advertising. Facebook employees are known to use the site internally for work...

SEO & SSL: A Conversation With Jon Henshaw Of Raven Tools When Google speaks, SEO professionals listen. But that doesn’t mean they need to act… yet. In the wake of Google’s announcement that it is now giving a rankings boost to HTTPS sites, Raven Tools co-founder and Chief Product Officer Jon Henshaw thinks internet marketers should test the waters first before fully committing to a switch for an established site. In a conversation with Clark Buckner about SSL and its impact on SEO, Henshaw said the rewards are not yet worth the time, resources and sacrifice in traffic that would come with turning a strong HTTP site into an HTTPS. However, considering the growing concerns around data privacy and information security, he does believe that Google’s rewards for more secure sites are here to stay. The added layer of security on HTTPS websites comes from SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, which is most commonly used by e-commerce sites to encrypt data and secure its transfer over the interne...

For The Trifecta, Bing Ads Rolling Out Close Variants On Phrase Match Bing Ads has already announced the switch to include close variants on Exact Match and Broad Match Modifier keywords. Now Phrase Match keywords will also get the close variants treatment. With close variants, ads trigger on search queries that closely resemble the keyword — plurals, misspellings, abbreviations, and the like — while still adhering to the original search intent. In this announcement, Bing Ads said it has found that adding close variants to phrase match improved click volume upwards of 5 percent overall. Below are examples of how this change will affect the types of queries phrase match keywords can now trigger. These changes are still only live in the U.S. For The Trifecta, Bing Ads Rolling Out Close Variants On Phrase Match Advertisers can opt out of close variants in Bing Ads, for now. The move to enable close variants on the platform followed Google AdWords’ decision to disable the ability to opt-ou...

Facebook Tests Searching By Keyword In Mobile Apps Eventually Facebook will bring Graph Search to mobile devices. At least Mark Zuckerberg says so. In January, he said it would be coming “pretty soon”. Facebook is staying quiet about any timetable, but now and then tests leak into public. In June, it was a test for mobile web users. This week, it’s a test giving some mobile app users the ability to search by keyword. First reported by Bloomberg, the test enables people to search through content posted by friends and pages they follow. We asked Facebook to give more details about the test, including what devices are included, and got this emailed response from a spokesperson: “We’re testing an improvement to search on mobile. In this test you can use keywords to search for posts you’re in the audience for on Facebook.”

4 Easy & Honest SEO Mistakes That Could Penalize Your Site No one gets a site penalty on purpose. Sometimes it happens through carelessness, sometimes through black-hat techniques and, sometimes, through honest SEO mistakes. I’ve watched four such mistakes happen recently. These sites were honestly attempting to follow SEO best practices, but they were penalized. Why? I’ll explain all. It is worth noting that I wrote this article based on a real-life experience, so this isn’t pie-in-the-sky theory. Each point that I discuss below is tied to a real life ranking problem. Each example that I discuss is connected a to a real-life online business. (However, company details have been changed to protect their identities.) A Disclaimer: If you find any points of connection between your site and the examples, don’t panic. Millions of sites have affiliate programs. Millions of companies engage in cozy relationships. Just because you share a commonality does not mean that you’re careening for...

Google Structured Snippets Officially Live In Search Results we caught Google testing a form of knowledge graph data within the search results snippet. This feature is now officially being confirmed by Google on the Google Research Blog. Google calls these “structured snippets,” where Google will show snippets of data, relevant to the query, within the snippets of the search results. Google says the data is “powered by the Knowledge Graph and other data sources.” Here is a screen shot of what it looks like: Google Structured Snippets Officially Live In Search Results You can replicate this result yourself by searching for [nikon d7100] and looking for the dpreview.com snippet. The structured snippet part of this result are the factual elements, specifically: Sensor resolution (type): 24MP CMOS Weight (with battery): 765 g (1 lb, 11 oz) Display size / resolution: Fixed 3.2″, 1.2… Google explains: The WebTables research team has been working to extract and understand tabular data on the ...

Moz: Google’s New Quick Answer Box Now Showing 98% More Often According to a Moz tracking study the new formatted quick answers box you find in Google for queries like [what is seo] is showing up 98% more often than a week ago. Overall, general answer boxes, including stock quotes, weather forecasts, box scores and so on are showing up 44% more often. What are direct or quick answers from Google? Here is a picture of an example; but keep in mind it may or may not show images or photos within the box. However, they are different from the Knowledge Graph panel in that they are at the top of the search results. Moz: Google’s New Quick Answer Box Now Showing 98% More Often Moz said the day-over-day increase from September 25-26 in new answer boxes was +98%, almost doubling the total number in their data set. Here is the graphic: Moz: Google’s New Quick Answer Box Now Showing 98% More Often This is not to say that these answers show up for 50% of the search queries you do; they do not. But ...

Study: Organic Search Drives 51% Of Traffic, Social Only 5% After analyzing “billions of pieces” of content, content marketing firm BrightEdge claims organic search is the primary driver of website traffic to business sites, while social barely generates a blip on the traffic radar. The BrightEdge study found organic search drives 51 percent of all visitors to B2B and B2C websites, trumping all other non-organic search channels, including paid search (10%) and social (5%). Study: Organic Search Drives 51% Of Traffic, Social Only 5% BrightEdge went beyond breaking down traffic sources to examine how traffic is distributed by industry. According to the study, organic search traffic accounted for 73 percent of all traffic to business services site, more than a 20 percent jump from the 51 percent when evaluating organic search across all sites. The business services sector also received the least amount of traffic from display, email and referred compared to the other industries, gaining l...

Latest Google AdWords PLA Test: Segmenting Products By Brand Google has been running several experiments on the way it displays product listing ads (PLAs) in the search results. We’ve seen ads grouped in pricing buckets, PLAs showing in knowledge panels, and now, PLAs segmented by brand. While researching Chromebooks, Samuel Edwards at Tenthwave Digital saw the result below which groups product listing ads by brand. Samsung brand Chromebooks are displayed above a second grouping of HP brand laptops, followed by an “Other brands” category. (Note that there is actually an HP product relegated among the Other Brands.) Latest Google AdWords PLA Test: Segmenting Products By Brand This format puts a whopping 12 PLAs on the page, with three text ads appearing below the PLA block. The pricing segment test — which I haven’t seen in the wild and may have been retired — only showed the more typical 8 PLAs. I’ve been able to replicate this type of result, though with Acer replacing Samsung at the ...