17 Tips for Tip-Based Content
Tips, "the smallest documentable unit of ‘how-to’ do something," provide great opportunities for link strategists and other content marketers. Here are 17 tips about tip-based content for marketers, broken down into tips on understanding the significance of tips within a vertical; research and categorization tips; tips for scalable and unique tip-based content; and tips for promoting tip-based content. (Search Engine Watch)
6 PPC Landing Page Optimizations
If your landing pages aren’t converting, it’s your fault, not your customer’s. This checklist offers and overview of six of the common pitfalls for pay-per-click landing pages: 1) pre-populate cursor, 2) eye contact, 3) testimonials, 4) point-of-action assurances, 5) match headline with intent, and 6) drive a single call-to-action. (SEOmoz)
Google’s Unhealthy Obsession With Speed
Larry Page and Sergey Brin are apparently fixated on the task of speeding up the search experience on Google. The recent unveiling of Google Instant pages confirms this. "The problem is that Google is inexplicably obsessed with the immediate gratification moment of the individual search rather than viewing the lifecycle of a search journey." While saving a few seconds is no small deal, it’s not what users will ultimately reward with future behavior and usage. (ClickZ)
How to Write an E-Book That Generates Leads
Content creation shouldn’t be limited to your business blog. While an e-book takes a lot more time and effort than a blog post does, the reward pays off in leads. Here are 13 tips for writing and launching an e-book. Among them are formatting the design, adding social sharing links and creating the landing page. (HubSpot)
Facebook Like vs. Google +1
So what’s the difference between Facebook’s like and Google’s +1? Google +1 creates validity and "acts as a collective rating system helping results be more trustworthy, but not adding the social infrastructure." Facebook’s like feature has two channels (Facebook and Bing) through which likes can be accrued and viewed. It also makes it easier to have conversations about search queries. Both features affect organic and paid search rankings to different extents. The bottom line is that this is the beginning of a game-changing wave. (Search Engine Land)
12 Social Media Tools
If you need some help making your social media marketing campaigns work, here are 12 tools recommended by the pros. Among them are Socialbakers, Blekko, Klout and Wetoku. (Social Media Examiner)
How to Increase Your PPC CTR
“The main focus of the advertiser is to gain a high number of qualified, targeted clicks to their site therefore having a relevant and appealing advert is a must.” Here are four main tips for boosting CTR: 1) using a trademark or registered symbol; 2) using call-to-actions and incentive-based words; 3) using sitelinks; and 4) using dynamic keyword insertion. (PPC Hero)
Don’t Ignore Schema.org
Schema.org is the joint venture between major search engines to “help search engines better understand your content.” The initiative also offers website owners or content publishers a way to have more control over their published content. Early investors will reap the biggest returns here. (Search Engine Journal)
Google’s Father’s Day ‘Reminder’ Fails
Google swung and missed with its little Father’s Day reminder to call dad, displayed in the chat window in Gmail. This rubbed some users the wrong way – especially those who didn’t have their fathers around for the holiday. “Taking into account its stumbles with Orkut, Dodgeball, Buzz, Wave and (some might say) +1 and the fact that 25% of all employee bonuses are now reportedly based on Google “getting” social, Google should really take user feedback to heart on this one.” (TechCrunch)
ICANN Approves for Expanding Generic TLDs
Are you ready for a world where .google, .coke and .nyc? The organization that acts as the organizer of the Internet’s “naming system,” ICANN, has heard the demand for these generic top-level domains (TLDs) and answered with a nod of agreement, finalized rules that will clear the way for these site endings. This is especially big news for major companies, though these generic TLDs won’t come cheaply or easily. (Web Hosting Industry Review, CNNMoney)
5 PPC Ad Strategies to Boost Your CTR
Ad copy testing is at the heart of taking hold of strong performing paid search campaigns, but where do you start? Here are five ad copy attributes to test: 1) price points and percentages off, 2) Google sitelinks, 3) “official site,” 4) sense of urgency, and 5) extended headline. (Search Engine Watch)
Mobile Shopping: $31 Billion by 2016
According to Forrester Research, mobile commerce is expected to reach $6 billion in 2011, double the $3 billion from 2010. By 2016, this figure is expected to balloon to $31 billion. The hurdles preventing people from using their phones to shop include security and technical barriers like speed. (NYTimes.com)
Google Tests Display of Click Counts on Paid Search Ads
Google has confirmed what some have spotted out in the wild: click counts being displayed under certain AdWords ads on Google.com. A spokesperson called it “part of a very small experiment.” (Search Engine Land)
Watch out for Internet Marketing ‘Gurus’ and Other Scam Artists
“Hate. That’s a strong word, right? Well, hate isn’t strong enough for how I feel about some of these Internet marketing “gurus” who sell absolute garbage to people with no care or concern for anyone but themselves.” While calling individuals out isn’t the smoothest of tasks, what this writer chooses to do is shed some light and offer some education on what to look out for, along with the types of products that make for easy targets for these scam artists. (ZDNet)
In-App Ads Have Higher Recall Than Mobile Ads
According to a recent survey from Compete, 52 percent of smartphone owners recall in-app ads they’ve encountered, which is notably more than the 40 percent of users who recall ads while surfing the mobile Web. Google’s Android users had slightly higher recall than iPhone users (55 percent vs. 51 percent), while BlackBerry owners lagged behind (22 percent). (MediaPost)
Yahoo Introduces App Search Engine and AppSpot
Yahoo introduced two new search tools yesterday: 1) a new online search engine for finding new mobile applications, and 2) a mobile app for iPhone and Android called AppSpot that does the same thing. While Yahoo’s entrance into this realm isn’t a big surprise, it’s joining an already-crowded market. One feature that might set it apart is recommendations for apps based on the ones you already use. (ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM)
4 Steps to Measure Social Media ROI With Google Analytics
Social media ROI has been something of a unicorn for many marketers. But with a new feature in Google Analytics, some customization to your Google Analytics tracking and some diligent work from your social media team, you can open the door to measuring the ROI of your social media efforts. Here are the four steps of the process. (Search Engine Watch)
3 Ways to Benefit From Social Media Crowdsourcing
Social media is “now a multiplayer experience that relies on collective, thoughtful engagement.” Crowdsourcing can be used to tap cultural drivers that can be utilized to achieve powerful social engagement and activation. Three ways to do this are: 1) ask for feedback (and do something with it), 2) create contests and giveaways, and 3) poll or survey your fans. (Social Media Examiner)
Mobile Traffic Patters in Paid Search
Advertisers need to get a good grasp on the nuances of the mobile market to adapt their strategies. Here’s a glimpse at time-of-day and day-of-the-week usage patterns by device (desktop, mobile and tablet). “Attempting to infer the precise incrementality of mobile traffic based on usage patterns alone is a bit ambitious, but the data suggest that a substantial percentage of mobile usage occurs during times when users likely have access to multiple devices. In those cases, mobile traffic can be considered cannibalistic of desktop to a large extent, but that assessment may ultimately be more important to web development priorities and attribution analysis than advertising tactics.” (RKGBlog)
Google’s ‘Me on the Web’ Allows Users to Manage Their Online Identities
Me on the Web is a new tool from Google that helps users to track their identity on the Web and provides access to resources describing ways to control the information out there. The tool is a section on the Google Dashboard. “Savvy web users may already have used Google Alerts to set up notifications for mentions of their name or email address in websites and news stories. If you haven’t set up alerts yet, Me on the Web makes it even easier to do so and even automatically suggests some search terms you may want to monitor.” (Google Public Policy Blog)
25 Ways to Get Links
Getting links boosts your rankings on search engine results pages, which means getting links is an important task. Luckily, there are many ways to go about link-building, 25 of which are listed here. Among them are paying for a listing, being a great case study, submitting a tip, offering a discount and attending an exhibition. (WebProNews)
3 Ways to Realign Your PPC Strategy
No matter what you’re running PPC for, it can be easy to become stagnant as your account and campaigns grow and age. Three tactics to use to avoid this stagnation are: 1) creating tag clouds, 2) surveys and 3) looking through your competitors’ PPC ads and landing pages. (PPC Hero)
Facebook Updates Pages, Places and Apps
Facebook continues to make updates to its platform, and this week is no exception. A new “Recommend This Place” feature on Facebook Places enables fans to spread the word about Places. Places will also get a community edit section, making them similar to Wikipedia. Facebook is also set to remove the option for developers to pre-fill the message or stream story when an app is posted to a wall starting on July 12, which indicates that the company is encouraging people to post relevant content and remove corporate content from its streams. Ad Account Groups and a Resources tab for Page owners are also new features on Facebook. (The Next Web)
How to Track Social Conversions on Landing Pages
Social conversion, for purposes of this post, is defined as “a social-oriented action that a user takes on one of your pages: clicking a Facebook Like button, clicking a Twitter Follow button, or clicking a new Google +1 button.” The question is: How do you track their usage? If you’re up for some technical stuff, here’s how to track social conversions. (Search Engine Land)
Social Networking: 1 out of Every 6 Minutes Spent Online
Social networking accounts for one out of every six minutes spent online, according to comScore. This is up from the one out of every 12 minutes spent online social networking accounted for back in 2007. It’s also interesting to note that a race between two horses (Facebook and MySpace) has turned into a more fragmented story. For marketers, this is a good time to be reminded that social media is not a strategy – it’s a venue. (comScore, AdAge.com)
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