seo Archives

What is a ‘Soft Search’ and Why is it Important?

February 12, 2014/by Corey Padveen

We constantly wonder about the most important factors when it comes to increased search rankings, and soft search is one of them.

A few months ago, we were introduced to Google’s latest update: the Hummingbird algorithm. With the evolution of how we conduct searches online, Google needed to adapt. The result was a new base algorithm that focuses much more on the conversational aspects of modern search. The not-so-technical term: the soft search.

So what exactly is the soft search and why is it so important when it comes to SEO?

What is the soft search?

Imagine you’re in a new city and absolutely need to know where the best Thai restaurant is located. There are a few ways of finding out.

The first option is to conduct a traditional search whereby you open up Google, type in something along the lines of, “Great Thai restaurant in [CITY],” and wait for search results to populate the page. Those are traditional search results and still one of the most popular ways of finding information.

The alternative – one that has increased in popularity among millennials and is slowly catching up with older generations – is to conduct this new type of search. While you might get a decent set of results on Google alone, you know that no one knows better than your friends. So, instead of conducting a traditional search, you log on to Facebook, or Twitter, or Google+ and update your status to something like, “Can anyone recommend a good Thai restaurant in [CITY]?”

The results that populate in the form of comments are referred to as soft search results, and they are now more important than ever.

Why do these results matter?

It has long been a point of debate between traditional SEOs and social marketers as to the value of social signals in search. Google provided an answer at SXSW in 2013 when they made it clear that Google’s social layer is of great importance. Hummingbird has reinforced that position.

The soft search is all about conversations about brands and business that are happening outside of owned media. No longer is it about your blog alone, but about the number of people that have given a post a +1, or a like or a retweet.

Take a look at the chart below and see exactly what now contributes to your increased search rankings:

Whereas there was once a time when keywords reigned supreme, we now see them falling far down on the list of important criteria. That is nothing new; we saw a major shift away from keyword density with the introductions of Panda and Penguin.

Now, however, conversation about and around your brand on social platforms is an integral part of being found. No matter in which industry your brand finds itself, there is no shortage of value that can be added from leveraging the power of the soft search by starting conversations on these social platforms.

So how do I get these conversations started?

This is all going to be a result of your content strategy. Why is it that people are going to want to engage with your brand? What kind of content are they sharing with one another, and how can you make your way into the conversation? These are questions that need answering in order to capitalize on the benefits of soft search.

Take some time to understand your audience and actively take part in the conversations that are taking place within your industry.

Have you started taking advantage of the soft search? Has it helped your search rankings on Google? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

10 Great Resources to be Reading Over the Holidays

December 27, 2013/by Corey Padveen

If you have some down time, have a look at these ten excellent resources that every digital marketer should be reading over the holidays.

1. Mashable

It’s no secret that we love Mashable. There is a ton of great content constantly being uploaded to inform marketers about updates to networks, as well as how-to guides and industry news. It is definitely a resource to check out periodically over the holiday season. We have even included it in a list of great resources for sourcing blog content.

2. Hubspot

Another blog that every marketer should be reading over the holidays (and during business-as-usual) is the Hubspot blog. The largest inbound services provider is always sharing great information that can be used by a marketer in any field.

3. Social Media Today

If your looking for a great set of content being shared by social media industry experts, then Social Media Today has you covered. With articles being published regularly, you can expect to find some brand new content over the holiday season.

4. Search Engine Journal

If you want to know about search, then Search Engine Journal should be one of your top stops. There is always a selection of great content to choose from covering everything from organic SEO to paid search tactics.

5. Alltop

Guy Kawasaki’s content curation site is always pulling in some of the best content from around the web. While it is not limited to industry content, you can easily filter your searches to include only results in search or social.

6. Moz

The Moz blog is a little more technical, but highly informative. Though the core discussions of the blog are primarily search-based, you can expect to find a lot of information about social as well.

7. Social Media Examiner

At this point, most social marketers know about Social Media Examiner. The website won’t miss a beat over the holiday season, continuing to share great content every day that marketers can really use.

8. Occam’s Razor

Although Avinash Kaushik’s blog is not updated on a daily basis, there is plenty of content (relaying information at a very high level) that marketers can use. Why is this a good resource for reading over the holidays? Well, simply put, articles are not easy reads. There is a ton of information here, but with this down time it is a perfect opportunity to absorb what he has to say.

9. Jeff Bullas

Again, Jeff Bullas is not publishing new content every day, but what is available is years of published content with a ton of great information. Jeff Bullas focuses primarily on lists and statistics, and what you can find on his blog can lead you to more great content all over the web.

10. Top Rank Blog

Lee Odden’s blog is another great resource being updated regularly over the course of the holidays. Be sure to stop by to see what great new information he has to share.

And there you have it. Ten great resources that you should be reading over the holidays. We hope you are relaxing and getting some much deserved R&R. Enjoy!

How To: Get People to Click on Your Links

November 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What can we do to get people to click on our links and increase our website’s traffic?

We all strive to get people to click on our links. Every day, we are sharing our content to different networks and actively promoting it in order to drive new traffic and, ideally, generate new business. But it can be frustrating when we write a great post or article, share it to every channel imaginable and simply see no new clicks through to our website. How can we change that?

There are a few easy steps you can take to get people to click on your links and increase the traffic you drive to your website. After all, what is the point of writing all this great content if no audience is lucky enough to read it?

Capture Their Attention

Have you ever been sifting through content online and come across a title you just had to click on? This is the first thing you should consider when trying to get people to click on your links. Consider two titles. The first reads, ‘How To Write a Blog’ and the second reads, ‘5 Ways to Write Viral Blog Content’. You will most likely be more interested in clicking on the second article.

Be Specific

Building off of that first tip, the best way to capture the attention of your audience is to be as specific as possible in your article’s title. Let people know exactly what they are going to get when they click on your link. Vague, cryptic titles are not as enticing as some people think. They also come off as spam.

When you see a link that says, ‘Want to Grow Your Business?’ you are more than likely thinking that you will be directed to a spammy sales page. Tell people what they are clicking on so your traffic is interested in what you have to say before ever arriving at your site.

Tailor Your SEO Sections

When you share an article to a blog post and you are trying to drive clicks to your site, you will definitely want to have information in the title and meta description relating to that specific article – not your site in general. On WordPress, a plugin as simple as Yoast will allow you to add these fields in simply and avoid generic descriptions showing up with your articles.

Having these segments complete is not only good for SEO, but good for clicks, too.

Recycle Your Content

The shelf life of a tweet is said to be about fifteen minutes. For a Facebook post, it used to be roughly two hours. With the new Facebook algorithm, it is likely less now if you are posting as your page. How far do you think your content is going to reach if it is only visible for a short while? Probably not very far.

You are going to need to share your content on an ongoing basis to every one of your networks. If you want to increase your brand’s exposure and get eyes on your blog, then you are going to have to share it’s content regularly. It might take some work, but with so much content being shared to the web on an ongoing basis, organic traffic is only going to come if you start by aggressively sharing your content – and sharing it often.

These are just a few ways to drive more traffic to your blog or website. How do you increase the clicks on your links? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Ways to Use Facebook Graph Search

October 23, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Do you know about some of the interesting ways to use Facebook Graph Search?

The Facebook Graph Search feature was rolled out a little while ago, but has not had quite the impact Facebook was hoping for. The social search tool geared towards providing people with personalized search results and competing with search giants is very impressive, but seldom used. It is a shame, because there are some great ways to use Facebook Graph Search.

While there are a number of features to the tool, we decided to pick five interesting ways to use Facebook Graph Search and highlight how they can be leveraged by individuals and/or marketers.

Search by Keyword, Interest and More

This is nothing new when it comes to search. You can use Facebook Graph Search to look for keywords and find results like Interests, Pages, Communities and more. The difference, however, comes with the personalization based on your profile.

Facebook Graph Search is designed to provide users with the most relevant searches based on their personalities (or, at least, the personalities that have been created in their profile). This is an obvious feature, and nothing out of the ordinary. The helpful aspects come when users start to drill a little deeper.

Filter by Location

Sure, when I do a Google search, it is going to give me the best results based on the location I have set in my Google+ profile. But with Facebook Graph Search, you can specifically indicate where you want your results to target and these results will, once again, be filtered according to your Facebook personality.

Personalize Searches

So, while your results in Graph Search are already personalized for your profile, you can narrow them down even further. Let’s say you look up ‘Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles’ and you generate a list of results. You can then use the filter on the right-hand side to further narrow those results by anything from the type of results to whether or not you, a friend or a group of your friends has ever checked in there.

Multi-Filtered Search

You want to find as specific a result as possible? Then Graph Search has you covered. When you use Facebook Graph Search, you can be as specific as you like and expect the results to be there. 91% of people trust the recommendations of their friends. That said, sometimes it is easier to search for something online than to text or call that friend. Luckily, Facebook Graph Search is designed to work as a pseudo-referral network.

What does that mean? Well, for example, you can search, ‘Mexican Restaurants in Los Angeles, California my friends like’ and find a list of results. The idea behind this feature was to add value to the ‘Like’ a company received. It also discourages black hat techniques, where brands buy meaningless likes. Now, when someone likes your company, you stand a better chance of being found on Facebook.

Search Through History

Now your brand’s presence and activity is more important than ever. Go to Facebook and type ‘Photos of [YOUR BRAND]’ and see what pops up. Your content library is now directly searchable. You can also add those filters we talked about. Go ahead, try ‘Photos of [YOUR BRAND] [FROM/TAKEN IN/BEFORE/WITH/BY] [MONTH, YEAR/YEAR/LOCATION]’ and see the results. People can search for a whole lot with Graph Search, and that includes your activity, and their activity with your brand.

For brands, an active presence and a complete profile are now more crucial than ever on Facebook. Think of it like you would SEO. Without your page titles, meta descriptions, alt tags and other SEO must-haves, what would be the point? Would it even make a difference? The same is now true for Facebook. Graph Search is designed to increase the value of Facebook for consumers and brands. To take advantage of this value, you need to optimize your Facebook page the same way you would a website.

These are not the only features that exist with Facebook Graph Search. Users can do a lot more and the feature keeps evolving. While it has yet to make the impact Facebook was hoping for, it is still an impressive feature and one we can expect to see and hear a lot more of.

What is your favorite feature of Facebook Graph Search? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Ways to Leverage Big Data

October 14, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Data derived from social platforms can be highly valuable if you know how to leverage big data for the right campaigns.

Big data is one of the most talked about concepts of the era, and for good reason. If your brand knows how to effectively leverage big data to optimize campaigns and generate results, you could be looking at unprecedented growth.

Below are four great ways to leverage big data and some examples of campaigns you can execute taking these data into account.

Implement Responsive Branding

Social platforms offer brands a unique insight that no other marketing channel has ever offered. For the first time, your audience is coming to you and telling you what they want and how they want it delivered. If you are properly monitoring your audience’s tastes and preferences, you can implement Responsive Branding initiatives that leverage big data in order to target a specific group according to what they like and when they are online.

Say, for example, that you sell jewelry. After you mine for data, you find out that your target audience is most active early in the morning. Imagine taking this information, and targeting this audience when you know they are most engaged – wouldn’t that make the most sense?

Optimize Search Campaigns

When it comes to search-driven traffic, the majority of our audience is going to come from organic results. That’s a well-known fact. That said, there is still a strong part of our audience that can be influenced by ads online. Imagine if you had more insights into what that audience was.

For SEM (search engine marketing) campaigns, you can easily leverage big data in order to narrow your scope and drive a higher click-through rate (CTR). On Google, anything above 1% is considered a strong CTR. Imagine knowing exactly what demographics like to click on your ads and targeting only that group. You may not see as many impressions, but rest assured your CTR will soar!

Increase Internal Efficiency

Marketing patriarch John Wanamaker said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” That is no longer the case with big data.

Think outside just your marketing and advertising departments. You know where to allocate budgets and how much it costs departments to run. Now, when you look at data to see an even more in-depth analysis of where your dollars are best spent (i.e. what dollars provide you with the highest return on investment) you can eliminate waste from your budget and ensure that your spending – in marketing and elsewhere – is completely optimized.

Engage in Real-Time Marketing

Similar to Responsive Branding, real-time marketing is the concept of engaging with your audience while they are talking and capitalizing on events as they are happening. Monitoring your data in real time is a difficult task. The payoffs, however, can be great. First-mover advantage has never been more valuable than in the online world. By engaging in real-time marketing, you stand to benefit greatly as a result of your leveraging of big data.

These are just a few of the applications of big data. Find out about more by contacting t2 today.

How do you leverage big data? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Google Algorithm is Dead; Long Live the Google Algorithm

September 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

‘Hummingbird’ is the newest edition of the Google Algorithm, and there is a lot to know.

In case you have not already heard, Google updated its algorithm last week. Now, this wasn’t some casual change to the Google algorithm. This was a complete overhaul of the program in its entirety. Naturally, there are some questions people are asking.

Didn’t the Google algorithm just change with Panda and Penguin?

All the talk has revolved around Panda and Penguin lately and a lot of SEOs and webmasters have spent their time getting used to that update. We need to differentiate between these updates and the new ‘Hummingbird’ algorithm.

Panda and Penguin are add-ons to the algorithm. Let’s put it in terms of a house. You own a home and buy couches and beds. These pieces of furniture are to the home what Panda and Penguin are to the Google algorithm. ‘Hummingbird’ is a new home.

Do I have to change my SEO strategy?

If you haven’t seen major changes to your traffic and search rankings in the last month, the likelihood is you won’t see any changes in the future; the ‘Hummingbird’ update has been live for about a month. Google just decided to announce it late last week.

What are the major changes?

The idea behind this update is to provide a more conversational aspect to Google’s search capabilities. Now, where you used to look up “Chinese food broadway” you might find better results if you conduct a search that reads, “Where can I find Chinese food near my office on Broadway?”

Presumably, this is Google’s way of competing with the Graph Search update from Facebook, which makes it easier to search conversationally on the social network. It is also designed to be faster and provide users with more accurate results.

So, are updates like Panda and Penguin out of the equation?

No. Going back to the house example, ‘Hummingbird’ is a new house with a lot of the same furniture. That said, Google updates its algorithm about 500 times per year. That’s an average of about one and a half modifications per day. It is very important that you keep up to date with the changes Google announces in order to keep your rankings high.

OK – what do I need to know?

The important thing to keep in mind is that Google has been trying to incorporate its social layer into search for a long time. The idea here is that the more active you are on Google products, more specifically, Google+, the better it will be for your rankings.

This conversational update is designed, presumably, to make conversations on networks like Google more relevant to search results.

Have you noticed any changes to the Google algorithm in the last month? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: The Benefits of a BizBlog

August 23, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There can be some notable benefits of a BizBlog for your company, and you should certainly be taking advantage of them.

First, what is a BizBlog? If you guessed the most obvious choice and figured it stands for business blog, you are right. And there can be substantial benefits of a BizBlog for your company.

There are three main areas in which a BizBlog can add considerable value to your brand. First, there are substantial SEO benefits to a blog (and a BizBlog in particular). Second, unlike the majority of social networks, a BizBlog allows you to tout your company’s skills much more aggressively and, in essence, sell your readers on why your brand is the best choice for the job. Lastly, a BizBlog offers you the opportunity to not only showcase your company’s success, but your expertise more so than other social networks.

SEO Benefits of a BizBlog

SEO is still an important (and can be a very expensive) practice. Every business is (or, at least, should be) engaging in it in some way. A blog is an excellent way to boost your SEO success, and a BizBlog adds a few additional SEO benefits on top of the already excellent help a blog provides when it comes to improving your search rankings.

With a BizBlog, you can create links to other articles or pages on your site and boost their effectiveness with anchor text. If you are writing about the best social media marketing company in the business, you can link that to your homepage and help your search rankings. (See what we did there!) Sure, one little link isn’t going to skyrocket your website to the top of the rankings, but it certainly helps both in the short and long runs.

Self-Promotion

Self-promotion is one of those taboo issues that almost any social or digital marketer will tell you to stay away from on social media. Put simply, it is in bad taste. People are not sharing content on social networks to be sold a product.

On your BizBlog, however, people are landing on your content with the expressed intent of finding out more about you and what you do. At that point, it is acceptable to talk about why you are the better choice and why you should be chosen over your competitors to do a job. And that brings us to our third point.

Showcase Your Expertise

In telling your readers why you are the best choice for a job, you might want to highlight what makes you stand out.

A BizBlog is a great place to showcase how much you know, where you brand outshines others and, as with the point above, ultimately sell your readers on picking you for a job. People always want to work with the best, and a BizBlog is a great place to show them why you are that choice.

These three features are very powerful, and add a considerable amount of value to your brand. It is not hard to see how a BizBlog generates Social Equity for your business.

Does your company have a corporate blog? Tell us where we can find it in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 SEO Tips for Blogging Beginners

August 13, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Blogging can be fun and help drive traffic to your site, but there are a few crucial SEO tips for blogging beginners.

Your blog will be one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal when it comes to driving an audience to your site. However, in order to fully capitalize on the great benefits associated with blogging, there are a few SEO tips for blogging beginners that should be well understood before you get started.

Keywords Matter…but in the Right Places

Keyword density has become less relevant with all the more recent changes to Google’s algorithm. Filling your article with keywords will not only look bad, but Google will penalize your post (and possibly your site) for this black hat SEO technique. That said, keywords are still quite important in certain areas.

On your blog, get a keyword in your post title, your meta description and alt tags (in photos). Though packing your article with keywords is no longer an effective technique, knowing where your keywords matter still is.

Always Use Images

A picture is worth a thousand words – and in the case of SEO, a picture can be worth a thousand more visits.

With the proper alt tags (with a keyword) in your photos, you stand to increase the chances of having your blog found by people searching images with your designated keyword. Not only do images make your post look better, there are also some crucial SEO benefits as well, so don’t overlook their importance.

Write for Your Audience

Are you writing for engineers with a highly technical understanding of your subject matter, or do-it-yourselfers with little to no idea how to screw in a lightbulb let alone rewire an electrical system? It is important to identify your target audience and write specifically for them.

Sure, this might mean that the average individual will not relate to your content, but if you are trying to find customers that fall into certain demographics, you need to appeal to them directly. Take a look here for a few more of these blog writing tips.

Do Some Research

You might have a baking blog and want to optimize for the term ‘cake’. Bad news, your post will likely never hit the top spot on Google (not in the foreseeable future, anyway). To get the real benefits of keyword optimization, you are going to need to do a little bit of research.

Find out what your competitors are ranking well for and where there is room for potential. You will want to mix it up, optimizing for keywords that have little competition and occasionally jumping into the mix with the more competitive keywords.

Also, focus on long-tail keywords (‘vanilla frosted layered cake’ instead of ‘cake’). There may not be as many monthly searches for your long-tail keywords, but when people do search for them, you know they will be finding you.

These are just a few of the more important SEO tips for blogging beginners. There is plenty more to learn about SEO along the way, but these should help get you started on the road to blogging success.

What other good SEO tips can you think when it comes to blogging? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

What Makes Good SEO Copywriting? [INFOGRAPHIC]

August 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

With so many changes to Google, it can be hard to tell what makes good SEO copywriting.

There was a time when keyword density was the key to SEO copywriting success. Then came the day of the backlink (still in existence).

With so many ongoing changes to Google’s much feared and praised algorithm, it is always hard to tell what kind of copy will land your page in the top spot, and what will have you scraping the bowels of Google’s tenth page in search of light.

Luckily, the folks at ContentVerve have put together an excellent infographic detailing the features of high-quality SEO-friendly copy (at least, so far in 2013).

Among the great tips to note when drafting your content with SEO in mind are the social implications of search today. It is not secret that Google+ weighs heavily in search rankings on Google. After all, Google have described themselves as a social company, and their changes have concreted that statement.

Take a look at these ten tips and let us know which one (or ones) you think is most important to SEO success. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How To Use Google Authorship to Benefit SEO

July 24, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There can be a significant boost to SEO from the proper use of Google Authorship.

Considering the first half of the term, ‘Google’, it is no surprise that Google Authorship can have tremendous benefits when it comes to SEO. Frankly, any time a service or network (e.g. Google+) is owned and operated by the search giant, SEO tends to be a major byproduct of its use. But how can you add to SEO with the use of Google Authorship.

The 4 tips below provide some insight into how you can take advantage of Google Authorship to boost your rankings.

Incorporate Google+ Into Your Writing

Google+ should be included on every website where you are sharing content. Google+ is a major consideration by Google when determining the authority of a given author, and if you are properly using Google+ when you write, your articles will have a better chance of finding their way to the top of search rankings.

Don’t Ignore Google+

Having said that, it is important that you are using Google+ consistently.

Simply having a Google+ profile does not mean you are using the network – it comes with a Gmail address. You need to really immerse yourself in the network in order to see the benefits associated with Google Authorship. The more active you are on Google+, the more recognition is given to your Authorship. (It may not be fair, but it’s fact.)

Invite Credible Authors to Share

If you are leveraging your own Authorship on your blog, that’s good. If you are leveraging the authority of several qualified authors on your blog, that’s great.

When your blog is filled with articles written by authors with great Google Authorship rankings, you can rest assured that it will improve the rankings of several articles on your site. We recently discussed the Social Equity of guest blogging, and Google Authorship is one important benefit to note.

Engage with Influencers

Industry influencers, like credible authors, can do wonders for your own Google Authorship. By engaging with influencers on Google+ and seeing mentions of your profile increase, you stand to see a trickle down effect resulting in increased authority given to your Authorship.

Reach out to influencers and join in the conversation in influential groups and Communities and expect to see the benefits to SEO.

Try a few of these tips and see how they help your SEO efforts. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!