Bing recently announced some pretty cool new features within their Webmaster Tools, so in this blog post we are going to delve a little deeper to see exactly what these tools are capable of.

The Markup Validator (Beta)

Found within the ‘Crawl’ tab of BWMT, the Beta Markup tool works in a similar way to the Google rich snippets testing tool extracting the following elements from a specified URL:

• Microdata
• Microformats
• RDFa
• Schema.org
• pen Graph

The inclusion of the open graph is a nice touch, and I can see this coming in handy. Upon submitting a URL, we are presented with a neat extract of any featured markup. Let’s use imdb.org as an example:

However other than extracting elements from a page, there seems to be little actual validation taking place. There are no references to missing elements for example, or whether the mark up could potentially generate a rich snippet.

Let’s take a closer look at a URL with incomplete mark up. In the following example an “fn” field is missing for the hproduct element of a page, causing a flag to be raised within Google’s testing tool:

However pasting this same URL within the Bing markup validator just produces the below:

The URL actually being tested here contains hreview-aggregate and extensive use of hreview but there are no references within the Bing Validator, so results are also incomplete.

I really want to like this tool, but I need jam in my Victoria sponge – as this is still in a Beta format, fingers crossed for an update (or perhaps a rename).

Bing Keyword Research Tool

So Bing have finally released their own keyword tool:

Overview of features:

• Broad/Exact (select ‘strict’ for exact) match keyword search volumes
• 6 month data history (you can select any date range within this period)
• Export data for a max of 100 keywords at a time
• Filter by country and language
• History feature to track previous research queries

A very clean and simple to use interface but a shame that the data isn’t yet available via an API as there is going to be quite a bit of heavy lifting if you’re generating a substantial keyword research campaign, but none the less we now have some data to play with from Bing directly.

There are a ton of awesome posts to check out on SEOmoz that go into detail about the keyword research process, so I’m not going to go into great detail here, but with the data available from Bing I would be looking to:

1. Consolidate data into a single spreadsheet
2. Obtain current rankings for each keyword in both Bing and Google
3. Use the Google Adwords API to extract monthly search volume for each keyword
4. Using Google analytics, marry up keywords and associated traffic
5. Break down keywords into meaningful categories
6. Use pivot tables/charts to compile this data for identifying key opportunities (low hanging fruit) in both search engines:
   1. Along one axis display separated search volumes for both Google and Bing, also traffic from analytics
   2. On the other axis display current ranking position in both Google and Bing
   3. Filter this chart by ranking between position 5 and 20.

For illustration purposes here is a quick mock up of how this can be developed:

The numbers along the bottom reflect specific keywords, but for demonstration purposes these have been labelled as numbers.

Although the keyword data from Bing isn’t yet available within an API, Bing has released an API for the rest of the data within Webmaster Tools (looking forward to having a play around with this).

Look forward to hearing about your experiences using Bing’s latest tools.

Whew! That, my friends was my first ever SEOmoz post. Did I get round to introducing myself? I’m Dan, Senior SEO consultant at SEOgadget.  I’d love to know what you think and how you’re using the new features in Bing’s toolset. Until the next time!

Article source: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/exploring-the-new-features-in-bing-webmaster-tools

A typical way of thinking of a SEM program is to look at multiple metrics individually, such as the average rank, cost per click, click through rate, conversion rate, cost per action, return on ad spend. Analyzing these metrics separately is a good start but does not allow search marketers to get the full picture.

I like thinking of a SEM program as a whole, or more specifically as a chain. Just like a computer is as fast as its weakest component, a SEM program is as strong as its weakest link. This holistic approach is actually pretty straight-forward and originates from the user experience itself – from the search query to the landing page, see graph #1 below.

As opposed to analyzing multiple indicators independently, the purpose of this article is to emphasize the relationships between those indicators.

While a process is typically a chronological series of steps, a chain is rather a set of links which simultaneously interact with each other and where every link matters. The point here is that search marketers should manage their SEM programs as a chain, and not as a process.

Also, one can measure those interactions within the chain – as defined above – using different performance indicators, see graph #2 below.

Query vs. Keyword Indicators

While the total number of keywords in your SEM account is a fairly good indicator of the development of your account, a more granular way to evaluate your keyword list is to look at the percentage of impressions in exact match type. Basically ,you want your keyword list to effectively match relevant search queries which are related to your offering.

In the long run, most impressions should occur in exact match type for maximum control and relevance. Other match types such as phrase, modified broad, and broad should be active only to explore new queries and feed your list of exact and negative keywords.

Also, impression share (IS) data at the campaign/ad group levels can be compared with the exact match impression share (Exact IS). While it is practically impossible to reach an IS of 100% due to poor ranks in phrase/broad match types, it is definitely possible to reach an Exact IS of 100%.

This means that search marketers should look at this indicator to ensure maximum visibility for their exact keyword list, as opposed to less qualitative queries associated with phrase/broad match types.

Keyword vs. Ad Copy Indicators

Most advertisers think of the Quality Score (QS) as a keyword level only metric, while the QS (in both AdWords and adCenter) actually reflects the whole user experience from the user query to the landing page – with a strong focus on the click through rate (CTR).

Interestingly enough, the Yahoo Quality Index was an ad copy level metric, which makes a good case for analyze keyword/ad copy performance as a pair. The bottom line is that it is quite irrelevant to analyze keyword performance without looking at the associated ad copies.

Ad Copy vs. Landing Page Indicators

The one metric search marketers usually look at is the conversion rate, i.e. the number of conversions divided by the number of clicks. While this metric makes sense in most cases, it is even more relevant to analyze the impact of the CTR on the conversion rate, and vice versa.

To clarify, you might have ad copies with a high CTR/QS and a low conversion rate, or ad copies with a low CTR/QS and a high conversion rate. Again, it really is a question of balance – either you optimize the CTR/QS without looking at the conversion rate, or you optimize the conversion rate by sacrificing the CTR/QS.

Whatever your strategy is, you might want to look at other ratios which take into account both metrics: either the number of conversions by impression, or the revenue by impression.

In a nuthsell, a successful SEM program is not necessarily a program with a strong Quality Score. What matters most is the overall profitability and revenue volume levels, which is a combination of all indicators mentioned above.

Beyond that, search marketers should have a good understanding of the whole conversion chain so that paid results are even more relevant than organic results – which is obviously advantageous for everyone: publishers, advertisers, and most especially web users.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Search Conversion

Article source: http://searchengineland.com/the-conversion-chain-in-paid-search-beyond-traditional-key-performance-indicators-112651

At its core, Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI – basics here) is an efficiency tool. As opposed to sitting around all day doing manual keyword stuffing into your ads, this little tool will do it for you automatically! Plus, it’s a great source of buzzwords – for instance, “We used the DKI code to dynamically increase ad relevancy to users in order to improve our CTR.”

Because DKI is such a big part of PPC, I think it’s important to explore its lesser-known ins and outs. Hopefully by reading, you’ll find a few things you didn’t know about DKI

1. It works anywhere in your ad.

In the display URL: DKI always works in the display url. Google separates tokens with plus signs.

In the destination URL: I’m not sure why you’d use DKI instead of ValueTrack parameters, but DKI works just fine in the destination URL.

2. It doesn’t work outside of your ad, such as with sitelinks.

Unfortunately, there is no way to increase relevancy of your of sitelinks with DKI.

3. It comes in 6 uppercase/lowercase flavors!

Type: “KEYWord” How it looks: First token uppercase, trailing tokens proper case.

Type: “Keyword” How it looks: First token proper case, trailing tokens lowercase.

Type: “keyword” How it looks: All tokens lowercase.

Type: “KeyWord” How it looks: All tokens propercase.

Type: “KeyWORD” How it looks: Last token uppercase, all previous tokens proper case.

Type: “KEYWORD” How it looks: All tokens Uppercase.*

(*Note: this is the casing you’ve requested, not necessarily the casing Google will give you. In this example, I requested all uppercase….Google, however, output proper case. The same will occur if you request nonexistent DKI variations such as keyWORD, keyWord, or KEYword)

4. It works swell with modified broad match.

Google is smart enough not to also insert your plus signs when using modified broad match.

5. It’s a privilege, not a right. 

If your quality score is too low, Google won’t give you the benefit of DKI, especially on Google.com.

6. It was the original extended headline option.

Back in the day (way back when – I’m talking six-plus months ago in our fast-moving world), the only way to get an extended headline was with DKI. If the query matches your exact match keyword, Google will give you up to 30 characters in your headline. (To save you the trouble of counting, the image below has 27 characters in the original headline.)

7. You can use it for repetition.

Google doesn’t allow repetition of words unless you request an exception. With DKI, however, no exception request is needed!

8. You can use it in GDN.

DKI works in the GDN. The manifestations are different; in GDN, Google decides which keyword in your ad group to insert for you based on the content of the placement. Google may also decide to show your default text.

9. It doesn’t help your Quality Score.

I’ve read a lot of DKI-related articles that claim it helps your QS. The claim is, DKI tends to improve CTR, so the logical conclusion is that DKI improves QS. My response is that it’s an unfair claim, because if you’re using DKI, your ad group probably has several different keywords that don’t have much to do with each other. So, that means your static text is probably much less relevant to a given keyword in that ad group. If you serve a static ad that’s keyword-stuffed against a DKI ad, however, DKI loses its edge. So, if anything, the claim should be, ‘relevancy improves CTR, which improves Quality Score,’ not ‘DKI improves Quality Score.’

Additionally, Google may in fact knock you for using DKI! Much in the way Google normalizes CTR by position, Google may expect better CTR of an ad that uses DKI vs. one that doesn’t.  Currently I’m testing this hypothesis by having 2 ads duke it out; they’re exactly the same except that one uses DKI and the other doesn’t (there is one exact match keyword in the ad group, and the keyword matches the default text). So, if over time the avg. position for the DKI ad is worse and/or the CPC higher, that’ll indicate a lower QS relationship between the keyword and DKI ad. Stay tuned.

Conclusion

Going back to my original statement, DKI is ultimately an efficiency tool, not an optimization tool. If you’re hard-pressed for time, dealing with long-tail keywords, or simply have better things to do, DKI is a great option. If you really want to have the best PPC account structure (i.e. small, well-targeted ad groups), however, DKI isn’t going provide any benefit over static ads. If you add in the fact that with DKI you lose some control over your messaging (in GDN, or if your QS is too low, or if you have unique keyword casing), I would say DKI doesn’t help improve your AdWords numbers compared to old-fashioned static ads. So I’ll end with some wisdom that you certainly did know if you’ve read much about DKI: proceed with caution!

 

Article source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/9-things-you-might-not-know-about-dki/40738/

Running an affiliate program often requires managing relationships with thousands of different advertising partners. This can be challenging, as different types of affiliates have different marketing needs. Last month, in “Segmenting Your Affiliates,” I addressed two of the most common segments: (a) coupon and deal sites, and (b) content sites. This month, I’ll look at affiliates who specialize in search engine marketing and mobile marketing.

Search Engine Affiliates

There are two types of affiliates that use search engine marketing to drive revenue: Those who specialize in search engine optimization, and those who specialize in pay-per-click advertising. There is certainly some overlap in both strategies. But I’ll review each niche individually.

Affiliates who specialize in search engine optimization will likely have many sites, each one customized to rank highly in search engine results. If the commission rate is attractive enough, an SEO affiliate may build a site specifically for a retailer’s product or program.

Securing high search result rankings takes time. So it may take longer for top SEO marketers to surface in your program. These affiliates first have to build a relevant site that is likely chock-full of keyword heavy content. Then they have to establish a network of credible back links. A good example of a highly ranked affiliate site is BuyTwilightStuff.com, which promotes products related to the Twilight book and movie series.

To help these SEO affiliates, offer up content such as product reviews or copy, and allow affiliates to adapt them for their own use. Additionally, since it takes time to customize a site, work with the affiliates to develop sites that have longevity. Customized sites and high search engine rankings are useless if the product they are promoting has low margin or low inventory.

Affiliates who specialize in pay-per-click advertising focus their efforts on securing paid placements within the search engines. They will use their own funds to build and bid on specific keyword campaigns. Their goal is to drive high converting traffic to your site, thus earning more in commission than they spent on acquiring the click. Since these affiliates are using their own funds, they are usually highly resourceful and cost-effective. To help, provide them with keyword lists, conversion rates, and even consumer information such as geographic density of purchases or even time-of-day analysis. If affiliates know that the majority of widgets on your site are sold to consumers in New York on weekday evenings, they will focus on driving consumers from New York to your site on weekday evenings. You can identify successful PPC affiliates by conducting a search in Google for one of your products and excluding paid ads that belong to you or your competitors.

Many affiliate managers are concerned about pay-per-click affiliates because of potential conflict with internal PPC efforts, potentially driving up the cost for clicks. However, remember that retailers typically have deeper pockets than affiliates, and it is in the affiliate’s best interest to keep costs low since they are working on commission.

There are affiliates who specialize in trademark or brand bidding. Many larger companies choose not to work with these affiliates because of trademark protection: If consumers search for a particular trademark, they already know what they want and a PPC affiliate is simply siphoning away what would otherwise have been a brand-driven sale. Conversely, while you might be able to prevent PPC affiliates from bidding on one of your trademarks, you likely cannot prevent one of your competitors. As such, there is a benefit to allowing affiliates to bid on your trademark and block off real estate on the search result page.

I typically recommend — if you do not have a dedicated, internal search team — that merchants select a few PPC and SEO affiliates to work closely with, to ensure they are optimally positioned within search engine results.

Article source: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3391-Affiliate-Marketing-Segmenting-Your-Affiliates-Part-2

The searchscape is constantly evolving, and SMX experts offered up some insights on how marketers can prepare and work to ensure constant search visibility for their sites. 

1. Think about the SERP experience. Brafton has reported that Mark Munroe of Reply.com has spoken at past SMX conferences about his belief that Panda is a behavioral update, and the growing role of interaction metrics in SEO is common search conversation. (In a separate SMX West 2012 panel, Google and Bing confirmed that bounce rates are a rankings signal.)

Munroe encouraged marketers to “think about the SERP experience” when  optimizing for search. Business owners should test their sites starting from the search results pages to ensure their pages aren’t serving as “false advertisements” on the SERPs. Good content is not enough, he said, suggesting that relevant content is vital. Looking at interaction metrics in analytics to determine what users think is relevant is key, as “every visitor tells you something about your site – even if they do nothing.” 

2. Go back to SEO basics. The experts in attendance agreed that social marketing – and social search signals – get many marketers sidetracked from the cornerstones of search engine optimization. Kerry Dean, chief traffic officer of Performance Media Group, said, “Pinterest is sexy, but SEO is core.” He advised marketers to look at their title tags, meta tags, navigation links, etc. The other marketers agree, with Marshall Simmonds, founder of Define Media, reminding marketers to check their sites for broken links.

“Getting your SEO ducks in a row” is essential to building the search foundation needed to survive in an evolving landscape.

 3. Double up on analytics. The more data you have, the easier it will be to get an informed picture of where your site stands in search. If you’re using a paid SEO tool, get Google Analytics for free. If you’re already using Google Analytics, add Statcounter for free. Once you have mutliple analytics check points, pay attention to various campaigns, keyword referrals and – of course – interaction metrics to inform your SEO strategy.

4. Hire a content writer “for crying out loud.” Dean claimed that fresh content is the future of SEO – and the internet – and businesses need to invest in top content for their sites. Indeed, there have been fresh factor Google updates in recent months that reward sites for frequently updated content. Dean advised businesses to blog everyday, add unique product descriptions and find ways to keep their sites unique and fresh. ”A little bit of content can go a long way in terms of ranking,” he said.

Simmonds also suggested that marketers should take a look at their top performing content pages – in terms of pageviews and inbound links – and figure out how they can add and update content based on this data. 

5. Go for landing page/ conversion optimization. This tip is somewhat similar to “thinking like a SERP.” When people land on your content pages, you want to send them deeper into your site – both for positive interaction metrics and, presumably, to support your business goals online. Conversion marketing is the ultimate goal of any SEO campaign, and the experts suggest it might also be key to positive interaction for SEO.

6. Embrace the age of personal branding with rel=author. Simmonds was quick to admit that rel= author is “confusing, but worth it for the SEO payoffs.” While Dean suggested some industry experts might not be good writers (or might need assistance from good SEO writers and editors), the idea of linking a business website to an industry authority is a good way to build both the company’s brand and the writer’s personal brand.

Notably, Elisabeth Osmeloski of Search Engine Land argued that rel=author is not hard to implement at scale (citing her publication as a website that has successfully and seamlessly done it). 

Plus, there are now Webmaster Tools features that track author success.

7. Be relentless about making it easy to share. This tip came from Dean, but the panelists all expressed that social sharing is key. As Munroe said, businesses should strive to create content that will win shares – and it’s essential to give them opportunities to do this. Every share will be an indicator for organic ranking algorithms, and the panelists agreed that even if it’s not a prominent ranking factor.

While Dean sad that marketers should use “ALL the social sites,” he suggested that the must-haves include Google+, Facebook, Twitter and now, Pinterest.

8. Be even more relentless about mobile website optimization. This isn’t the fist session at SMX today where panelists discussed the need for a viable mobile website. In fact, Google’s Jack Menzel went as far as to mockingly beg marketers to make sure their sites work on mobile phones. (As Brafton has reported, 90 percent of sites aren’t ready for mobile use!)

As searches increasingly come from smartphones and tablets, mobile SEO is huge to search engine optimization – but the SMX experts reminded attendees your don’t have to create an entirely new site and new search strategy. HTML5 web design is making sites more friendly to mobile browsers, and responsive websites mean businesses don’t need to build a separate mobile site – Dean says responsive web design is “like Flash, but readable.” And all main site SEO brands do will help with mobile SEO.

9. Use your sitemap to your benefit. As Simmonds said simply and effectively, “Sitemaps are your way of communicating with Google. If you’re not leveraging them, you’re missing out.”

Google, itself, says that sitemaps are a way to tell the search engine “about pages on your site we might not otherwise discover.”

 

10. Pay attention to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Michael Martinez, owner of SEOTheory, says it’s important not to tailor websites to algorithms, but marketers can be more strategic about the SEO research they do to stay ahead of the curve. He touted his personal belief that changes to the search guidelines are indicative of potential search visibility disruptions.

“You need to take a good hard look at your site and ask, ‘Is this a good site or a bad site?’ But you have no way of knowing whether Google’s opinion would be the same as yours.” Except, he suggests, through looking at Webmaster Guideines. Is your site created on the same principles espoused in these guides? When changes occur, even subtle ones, he suggests he has seen consistent search success by making sure his site fulfills the updated guidelines.

Ultimately, the SMX panelists suggest marketers will benefit if they don’t look at updates to Google (and other search engines) as roadblocks, but rather as reminders to make their own sites better for users. As Simmonds said, “Google moving the goalposts is your opportunity to push your SEO agenda.”

Article source: http://www.brafton.com/news/a-hitchhikers-guide-to-seo-10-seo-tips-from-smx-west

Pinterest is the web’s fastest growing social media site with more than 10.5 million unique visitors and growing daily.  It’s grown a massive 4000% in just six months and is already turning a tidy profit – something that the other social leaders never achieved in the early days.  Why?  Pinterest is addictive.  It whips users into a sharing frenzy.  It allows you to upload all your e-Commerce pics, whack a price tag on them and then make a sale in a single click – and on the flip side, gets buyers whipped into a buying frenzy and empowers them to check the product and price and buy in a single click, and oh how they’re buying!  Great for business, but also great for small business SEO.  Pinterest users don’t just share your content; they share your link with that single click. So, how do you harvest the awesome SEO power of Pinterest?

Link well

Once you’ve set up your boards, upload your photos and infographics to your boards and include your link (Pinterest also allows for deep linking but doesn’t display the whole link).  Be sure to add keywords to your image descriptions and board names so that your boards will be found by search engines.

Tag well

Use #tags to add your pins to Pinterest keyword searches, this will GREATLY increase the number of shares you receive.  Use @tags to bring your pins to the attention of potential sharers (especially those with lots of followers).  To @tag a popular pinner, simply follow any one of their boards.

Organise well

Making your boards visually appealing will encourage users to dig deep into your content and to share more.  Make board topics highly relevant and keep content on each board interesting and original.  Over time, your boards may start to look identical to your competitors – being specific and adding original content will make them stand out.

Sell Well

Pinterest has an outstanding CTR, use it.  Label all e-Commerce products with a keyword rich and well written description.  Product description writing is an art, do it well.  Include a unique name or product code, postage details and other relevant information in your product description.  Add a price tag to each picture by typing the $ symbol and the price and clicking “pin it”.

Share Well

Pinterest makes pinning easy.  Integrate Pinterest with your existing social media by searching for the app in each medium.  Encourage your social media likers and followers to add the “pin it” button to their browser and on mobile devices.  Add Follow buttons to your website by visiting the Pinterest Goodies tab and most of all, interact with other pinners, enjoy the experience, get addicted and share in the bounty of this social phenomenon.

Article source: http://isedb.com/20120228-16446.php