Guest Blogging - Enough is Enough

Guest Blogging - Enough is Enough
http://bit.ly/RgXD4a

Posted by Carson Ward

If your process chart looks like this, prepare for complete failure.

Technical Audit >> Competitive and Keyword Research >> Guest Blog Posts

Guest blogging is not a strategy, and it’s not a generic solution that can be applied to every client or every part of your site. Guest posts can be an effective supplemental tactic to a fully-formed strategy, but giving this tactic center stage is a recipe for frustration and inevitable defeat.

The Guest Blog Bubble

On-page factors don’t pack the same punch they once did. Search engines have become much better at both compensating for imperfect site optimization and ignoring on-page tricks. Our collective focus began shifting towards off-page factors long ago; it’s all about those tender, juicy links.

There are as many ways to get links as there are people and pages, but in the aftermath of Penguin, guest articles are slowly becoming an industry default. I fear that the trend is driven by a lack of creativity, augmented by fear of failure, and then reinforced by poor communication. 

I raised the issue of guest posting to someone who has done a lot of it - Distilled's head of Outreach, Adria Saracino:

 "Guest posting is safe" ... "We're SEOs. We're metric driven. We like being able to see this consistent, targeted movement. Guest posting plays to our tactical strengths. And once we see it working once, we just keep doing it because it's safe. We fall into a routine of guest posting and the blinders slowly form over time, stifling innovation and big wins.

Guest posting in most cases isn't going to bring you direct traffic or conversions, it's not a "branding" play. There is usually no other benefit other than metric movement, and while it's short-sighted, it's also the easiest to defend to the higher-ups. So we become slaves to a redundant process rather than testing innovative ideas. I may even be so bold as to say guest posting is what will mark a slow death to the fast-paced innovation our industry is known for when it comes to link building."

Diminishing Returns at Best

Guest blog posts, all by themselves, do increase rankings. That does not necessarily mean they are worth doing.

It’s easy to forget about opportunity cost as an SEO when we have had past success with a given tactic. Far too often, we see results, and continue doing it as long as we possibly can. The value of an activity like guest posting is only worth doing if there’s nothing better we could be doing with our time.

Once more, just because something works does not mean we should be doing it – unless it is the best path to the fastest or most enduring results. Guest posting (by itself) is essentially never the best activity for an SEO, due primarily to the diminishing returns seen in long-term guest blogging campaigns.

Guest blogging’s strength is that you can launch immediately, avoiding that lonely feeling of blog posts that no one comments on. However, the guest-blog-only strategy has two fatal weaknesses: 1) there is an obviously fixed ratio of one linking domain per article placed, and 2) you reach rapidly diminishing returns. Furthermore, ideal blogs are a finite resource, and you can either lower your standards or post again on a good blog. Neither option is necessarily bad, but both have diminishing returns.

A pure content strategy can be frustrating simply because it takes so long to get rolling. I’ll be honest: I abandoned both a commercial and a philosophy blog in a past life because I got sick of writing posts no one read. But what if I had combined great content with other tactics?

What do I mean by a comprehensive strategy? I’m sure you remember this guy:

Inbound Marketing Channels

From Inbound Marketing is Taking Off by Rand Fishkin

With great content, your guest posts will be more effective. So will your email marketing campaigns, paid search traffic, and referral traffic. We can think of content as a multiplier that adds to almost any other marketing tactic.

The multiplier effect of amazing content happens two ways with guest posting (or any other channel, really). First, bloggers will be more likely to accept posts and talk about/to you if your target site has its own credible content. Second, users from the host blog will share and re-share your content if your site offers something they can be excited about.

Site Owner Fatigue

Link-based diminishing returns aside, the guest blogging bubble weakens further as site owners are continually poked and prodded by requests from acquaintances and strangers to allow them to guest post. Everyone is getting tired of the constant requests, especially when the requests are so damn horrible. I think Geraldine’s recent post on her travel blog captures that well:

“Hello! I am interested in writing a high-quality guest post for your site! All I require is two contextual links placed within the post.”

You know that song from the sixties that starts with “No-no no no no no no-no-no no?” That is now playing in my head. Because no.

Even if you actually read these blogs and really want to contribute something great, other people are making all but the most patient blog owners weary with their piles of requests.

What's Next?

Where are we headed, and what should we do next? SEO is not dying, and linkbuilding is not dead. I'm actually more optimistic than ever about the direction the industry is moving in. We're generally moving towards sustainability and making recommendations that are going to have a far bigger impact than raising the rankings for a couple tracked keywords.

Penalties: Unlikely for Most

It seems highly unlikely that Google will penalize guest posts just because they are guest posts. It’s a perfectly legitimate strategy – at least, when it is legitimate. Just consider that a ton of links from spammy sites publishing poorly-written content is more of a liability than a benefit. I’m not arguing that Google will bring the hammer down on guest blog posts, but risk certainly rises as quality declines.

Communicate and Fix Misconceptions

Some clients and managers are under the impression that it’s your job to vanish into the nether, and return bearing all the links they will ever need to rank for their broadest pet phrase. They're probably in the wrong; that's not how SEO works anymore. It’s easy to blame the people who have the wrong ideas, but whose fault is it when points of contact have these mistaken expectations?

It’s our fault.

We know SEO. Presumably that’s what we're taking checks for. We understand the value of content. Regardless of how someone picked up their mistaken assumptions - and this is worth looking into - it's up to us to correct misconceptions. 

We often get cornered into rote guest blogging when expected to solve their problems without interaction or support. Failure to communicate this fact; however, is not sufficient reason enough to head face first into the inevitable plateau of diminishing returns. For more on how to encourage cooperation, read Hannah's post on solving&n

Search In Pics: Android Noogler, Google Paper Towels & Big Yahoo Ball

Search In Pics: Android Noogler, Google Paper Towels & Big Yahoo Ball
http://bit.ly/NsHgAy

In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Android Noogler Statue:


Source: Google+

Big Purple Yahoo Ball:


Source: Flickr

Google Paper Towels:


Source: Google+

Android Running Shirt:


Source: Google+

Plane Caught Mid-Flight On Google Maps:


Source: Google+

Related Topics: Search In Pictures

Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

A Primer On AdWords Remarketing Using Google Analytics

A Primer On AdWords Remarketing Using Google Analytics
http://bit.ly/QyP57V

Remarketing has been around for quite a while as part of the Google AdWords suite of tools. Remarketing works by creating a “list” or “audience” within Google AdWords. The pages that are pertinent to that audience are tagged with special code that allows Google to place a cookie in the browser of anyone who visits that page.

It’s a great way for you to get your brand out there in front of your website visitors, even when they’re not thinking about shopping and buying from your site. There are tons of ways for you to segment your website to serve remarketing ads; you can even get as granular as per-product remarketing.

Think of the power of being able to show someone the exact used car they viewed on your website – on many sites they visit after they’ve left you, for up to 30 days. New sites, social media sites, email accounts, etc. All can remind your shopper of that great car they looked at. If they bought it, your brand and their choice can be confirmed in their mind, this could help alleviate buyer’s remorse.

Previously, we created lists based on sections or products within our site, there was some guesswork and some analytics involved in creating these marketing lists. Now we can use Remarketing with Google Analytics to create a marketing list for those that spend a specified amount of time on your site, or place items in the shopping cart.

Available to Analytics users who are administrators with at least one linked AdWords account, as of July 27th this feature was in beta and being rolled out by the end of the summer.

You can find the remarketing information by clicking on the “Admin” tab in the upper right corner of Analytics, and then find the tab that says “Remarketing Lists”:

With Remarketing with Analytics you can now create one tag, but serve different ads based on the specified parameters, be it time, shopping cart interaction, number of pages viewed, etc.

Google Analytics will help you create lists to use as audiences in your Google Remarketing campaigns, and send them to your AdWords account with the click of a button.

You can use the setup to create a marketing list for those that spend a specific amount of time on your site, or visit a specific section or complete a goal. You can have a remarketing campaign for shoppers who view pink sequin sneakers and add them to your shopping cart, but don’t buy them. You can also have a remarketing list for the “shoes” section of your website. The possibilities are endless.

True – one of the options is not “Spends X minutes on my site” – but you can pretty much create any kind of remarketing list by using a conversion goal.

Setting conversion goals is easy – and once they’re set, you can choose which configured goal after you choose the “All visitors who completed a conversion goal” radial button above.

Now we have a great way to target our audience, we need to be sure the ad copy stands up to the segmentation. This is not a “set it and forget it” proposition. You need to create and test your ad copy. You need to test ad sizes and if text ads work better than graphic ads.

There are a lot of choices on the display network. Try them all, see what works best. Because your analytics are hooked into your AdWords account, you’re going to see amazing data that will help you fine tune your campaigns.

Check out your placements every few weeks and ask Google to not show your ads on sites. Sometimes your ads will be shown on sites that you don’t like, or that aren’t the best match for your brand. You can tell Google to stop showing your ads. 

By creating these marketing lists, and setting up graphics to entice users back to your website, you can gain advertising placements in places that you would never be able to afford through traditional display media. I’ve seen my clients’ ads on sites like FoxNews.com, AOL.com, CNN.com – placements small clients could never afford are now available for fractions of the cost.

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

Related Topics: Beginner | Google: AdWords | Google: Analytics | How To | How To: Analytics | Intermediate | Search & Analytics

Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Ideas About Podiatry

Ideas About Podiatry
http://bit.ly/PLOsLO
Podiatry is the clinical discipline that is interested in the protection, prognosis and also treatment of the feet and also related difficulties. In order to do that podiatric physicians utilize a wide range of treatment solutions via mechanical towards surgical to medical as well as pharmaceutical methods. Foot doctors handle a number of persons from child to elderly people; from couch potatoes to athletes; from working persons to younger persons. The exact range of practice or simply what a podiatric physician could do will vary from nation to nation and will depend on the laws from the country and the training which the Podiatric doctor receives (more).

One example is, in the United States the podiatry process is a four year post graduate course that will commonly demands the completion of the undergraduate degree first. Following the four year podiatry degree, practically all podiatric physicians really need to complete a 2-3 year residency. Soon after this they will have full medical and also surgical rights on the treatments for the feet and also connected problems, even though there's some variation from state to state (more).

Throughout Australia, the podiatry program is a four year undergraduate degree (unlike the USA where it is a postgraduate degree). Immediately after the 4 years, Foot doctors are approved to practice, nevertheless the degree consists of very little surgical training. Those podiatric physicians which choose to pursue a surgical career, then enrol on the surgical college's training course while working as a podiatric physician. The program will take many years to complete, however they then have almost full surgical rights with regard to the therapy for the feet and also access to many prescribed drugs which the general podiatric physician can not have (more).

Podiatry throughout the U . K ., is actually same to Australia, nonetheless the basic entry degree is just a three year program. Around New Zealand and also South Africa the degree is just a three year program however the surgical treatment options are much more limited than elsewhere. Podiatry within Canada, is different from province to province with some demanding the United states equivalent training while others having a program same to the UK.

Do Improved Social Signals Cause Improved Rankings?

Do Improved Social Signals Cause Improved Rankings?
http://bit.ly/R4ygCs

Posted by willcritchlow

Everyone in search is by now aware that certain social signals are well-correlated with rankings.

In each major study published on the subject, the authors point to how correlation does not imply causation (see, for example SEOmoz and Searchmetrics). Dr. Pete even wrote a whole post on the subject.

I wanted to see if it was actually plausible for these correlations to arise without social signals being a direct ranking factor. I built some Excel models to test this out and see if I could build a model that achieved the observed correlations without assuming social signals as a ranking factor.


The punchline: it's possible there is no causation

I have a suspicion that this could be the most misinterpreted post I have ever written, so I thought I'd start with a prominent "Cliff notes" to be explicitly clear about what I am saying and more importantly what I am not saying.

I am saying

You can tweet any of the following without misrepresenting me:

I am not saying

If you tweet any of the following attributed to me, I will write "does not follow instructions" on your forehead in magic marker:

What is this based on?

I have built a simplified Excel model of how pages accrue Likes over time. With no assumption of them being a ranking factor, I nevertheless demonstrate that we could see a strong correlation between Likes and ranking position.

Why focus on Likes?

The modelling works equally well with any of the social signals. I simply chose Likes to make the example more concrete - you could build the exact some correlation model with Tweets, Facebook Shares, Google +1s, or any other signal where accruing more social shares makes it even more likely that you will accrue more in the future.


Starting at the beginning

Every time we see a correlation study, I see evidence that some people haven't completely taken on board the correlation/causation subtleties. This is unsurprising - the mathematics behind the calculations in these study is typically undergraduate level (with some of the advanced analysis verging on graduate level) - most people's intuition lets them down horribly when confronted with probability and statistics. (Don't believe me? Check out the Monty Hall Problem).

So let's start from the beginning:

What are these studies looking for?

When we say correlation in this context, you can imagine that what we are looking for is similarity. We are looking for evidence that two things happen together (and don't happen together).

In the context of these studies, we are typically looking to see if "ranking well" happens together with "strong social signals."

Now - the mathematical part comes in when we try to define "happens together with" properly. The human brain is a remarkably powerful pattern matching device. For example - how many sportsmen and women have a pre-game routine involving a specific pair of lucky socks because of a sequence of events something like:

  • Wore a new pair of socks today. Kicked ass.
  • Wore the same pair of socks as last week. Kicked ass.
  • New socks in the wash. Grabbed a different pair. Got whupped.
  • Socks successfully cleaned and dried. Kicked ass again.

Pretty compelling evidence for those socks, huh?

From that point onwards, the athlete refuses to surrender the lucky socks. Any future losses are attributed to other factors ("I did everything I could - I even wore my lucky socks").

Superstitious athletes

Michael Jordan apparently started wearing longer shorts to cover his UNC "lucky shorts"

But let's look at this a little more closely and skeptically. Are there any other explanations for this sequence of events? Imagine that the athlete in question is good - winning roughly 75% of his or her games on average. Imagine also that the socks are, in fact, not magic and that they have no impact on the result (shocking, I know). The odds that the single loss of a set of 4 games will coincide with a single wear of a different pair of socks is then: 0.75 x 0.75 x 0.25 x 0.75 = 0.11

In other words, roughly one in ten pairs of socks would randomly look this lucky.

Given all this evidence, most of us would probably chalk it up to chance (but keep wearing our lucky socks just in case).

Add to this the fact that we can't help but be always on the lookout for these patterns (it's just how our brains are wired) and it's unsurprising that there is always some pattern to be seen somewhere.

Given all of this, we apply pretty high standards of proof before stating that there is correlation [i.e. that two things tend to happen (or not) together]. This is measured with a "confidence" which is similar to the layman's definition but is measured in probabilities. We express our confidence in terms of "the probability that we would see a correlation at least this strong even if there were no underlying correlation." Statisticians typically talk in 95% or 99% confidence ranges (though note that a 95% confidence interval is still wrong one time in 20).

The ranking factor studies undertaken by SEOmoz and others have shown a non-zero correlation with high confidence. In other words, there is a correlation between certain social signals and higher rankings. I don't think anyone is seriously disputing that at this point.

Correlation is not causation

This tricky phrase gets wheeled out with every study. What does it mean?

It means that the mathematical techniques we have applied to be confident that there is a relationship between these two variables says nothing about whether one causes the other.

It's easy to think of correlations that are not causative. More ice creams are sold in months when more sun lotion is sold. Sun lotion sales don't cause ice cream sales and ice cream sales don't cause sun

Three Important techniques to Smashing Social Anxiety

Three Important techniques to Smashing Social Anxiety
http://bit.ly/SXkpiT
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Agenda Posted for SMX Social Media Marketing – Join Us in Las Vegas, Dec. 5-6

Agenda Posted for SMX Social Media Marketing – Join Us in Las Vegas, Dec. 5-6
http://bit.ly/Rdw53B

Do you live and breath social media marketing? Every day. 24/7. Or manage a team that does?

Join us for SMX Social Media Marketing, the only conference for social media marketing professional that delivers cutting edge paid, earned and owned social media tactics.

Growing fans/followers your focus? We’ve got the latest tactics. Trying to decipher the new Facebook/Twitter paid ad options? We’ll crack the code and tell you what’s working…and why. Customer service a challenge? We’ve got the best practices for turning complaints into testimonials.

SMX Social Media Marketing is programmed by the editorial teams of Search Engine Land and its sister site Marketing Land. Check out the agenda with sessions including:

  • Tactics To Increase Facebook Reach & Engagement
  • Maximizing Your Impact With Twitter Ads
  • Customer Acquisition Through Social Media
  • Social Media Automation: The Good & Bad
  • Measuring Success: From Reach To ROI

Register now for SMX Social Media Marketing in Las Vegas, December 5-6. Just $ 1295 for two days of tactics, best practices and networking. It’s an incredible value; we guarantee it.

Need approval? Visit our Get the Boss on Board page. There you will find a cut-and-paste e-mail detailing the benefits of attending and the investment you’ll make in language even your CFO will understand!

Related Topics: SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | SMX & DMD Alerts



SMX - Search Marketing Expo Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Google: Further Penguin Update “Jolts” To Come; Panda Is Smoother & Monthly

Google: Further Penguin Update “Jolts” To Come; Panda Is Smoother & Monthly
http://bit.ly/O1zIbL

Fasten your seat belt, if you’ve been spamming Google. The anti-spam “Penguin Update” will have more jolts in the coming months, as Google continues to adjust it. In contrast, updates to the Panda algorithm aimed at low-quality pages are now so minor as not to be noticed, when they roll out monthly.

Speaking yesterday at the SES San Francisco conference, the head of Google’s spam fighting team Matt Cutts talked about how Google is still adjusting the Penguin Update algorithm that’s designed to penalize sites that spam Google.

Technically, Google’s saying that Penguin isn’t a penalty but rather an “adjustment” that simply doesn’t let sites get rewarded for spam as much as in the past. In particular, some linking activities that generated credit in the past seem to have been taken out.

Updatequakes & Aftershocks

Last year, Google rolled out its Panda Update designed to penalize (or adjust) pages that had poor quality content. Each further update produced changes in the search results, creating “winners and losers” that were felt across a wide-range of publishers.

But kind of like an major earthquake, each Panda update was more like an aftershock to the main quake, where the effects were less dramatic. Now Panda’s updated on a roughly monthly basis, Cutts said, and the changes are so subtle that few notice.

Indeed, Google itself hasn’t announced any major changes to get us from Panda 3.0 to Panda 4.0 and beyond. The latest, in late July, we dubbed Panda 3.9. It seems likely we’re going to have Panda 3.91 follow, rather than going to Panda 4.0.

Penguin Is Still Shaking Out

Penguin is different. Cutts said that because the Penguin algorithm is newer, it will face bigger adjustments and thus be more “jolting” for people it hits, until it smooths out over time similar to Panda. He also just added more to his statement yesterday in a comment at Search Engine Roundtable:

I was giving context on the fact that lots of people were asking me when the next Penguin update would happen, as if they expected Penguin updates to happen on a monthly basis and as if Penguin would only involve data refreshes.

If you remember, in the early days of Panda, it took several months for us to iterate on the algorithm, and the Panda impact tended to be somewhat larger (e.g. the April 2011 update incorporated new signals like sites that users block). Later on, the Panda updates had less impact over time as we stabilized the signals/algorithm and Panda moved closer to near-monthly updates.

Likewise, we’re still in the early stages of Penguin where the engineers are incorporating new signals and iterating to improve the algorithm. Because of that, expect that the next few Penguin updates will take longer, incorporate additional signals, and as a result will have more noticeable impact. It’s not the case that people should just expect data refreshes for Penguin quite yet.

So far, Google’s only announced one further change to Penguin, which we dubbed Penguin 1.1. That came last May, about a month after the initial Penguin Update. We made it Penguin 1.1 rather than Penguin 2.0 because, as Google said it impacted less than 1% of all search results, it seemed a minor change.

Will the next update be Penguin 1.2 or Penguin 2.0 — and will it be soon? Certainly, it feels overdue, and given what Cutts said, the chance seems like it may be fairly dramatic. Keep in mind, however, that for all the “losers” in any update that will scream, there will be winners that say nothing.

Related Articles

 

Related Topics: 1



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How Optimizing My Ugly Google Pic Increased Free Traffic 35%

How Optimizing My Ugly Google Pic Increased Free Traffic 35%
http://bit.ly/RbU2Z3

Posted by Cyrus Shepard

The following topic was presented at MozCon 2012.

Over the years, SEOs have employed many techniques to control how their site appears in search results. These included:

  • Writing compelling Title Tags 65-75 characters long
  • Descriptive Meta Descriptions
  • Use of NOODP and NOYDIR meta tags
  • Keyword rich URLs

By controlling how our snippets appear in search results, we could greatly improve our click-through rates and the amount of free traffic we saw.

But times are changing. For better or worse, Google has now stepped up it's title tag rewriting algorithm so that webmasters can no longer predict how their title tags will display. This a major bummer that is only compensated by the fact that Google has given us something much better in the form of rich snippets.

In particular, Google+ gave us author profile photos.

Huge Unfair Advantage

This was a huge win. Or so we thought.

After seeing other authors earn the coveted profile pic in Google's search results, I worked for months trying to get my photo to show up. After navigating Google's often confusing markup instructions, my photo finally appeared in search results.

Imagine my disappointment when my traffic stayed flat. I wasn't alone. We even heard stories from webmasters who saw thier traffic drop after implementing the author profile markup.

Being lazy, I hadn't considered the actual photo used for the snippet. Unfortunately, I'm not blessed with photogenic looks, especially when the camera is a webcam at 8:30 in the morning.

Time to face facts: my photo was ugly. At the very least, it didn't inspire clicks.

Ugly

For your author photo, Google pulls the picture directly from your G+ profile, which is easy to change. As an SEO, I thought, "Why don't I test this?"

I dug out better photos and asked a professional photographer/friend to capture me in a more flattering light.

Testing photos

I experimented with different colors and backgrounds. I changed the amount of whitespace visible around my head. I tried glasses and no glasses. (If I owned a wig I would have tested myself with more hair.)

You Could Say I Got a Little Obsessive...

obsessed with cyrus shepard

A little Photoshop experience is a dangerous thing.

Yet over time, as I tuned it in, the results started to show a definite improvement in click-through rates.

Use Google Analytics to Track Results

In the Search Engine Optimization report in Google Analytics, you can track click-through rates for all of your impressions in Google's search results. Simply select CTR from the site usage drop-down. You can even use the "Compare to past" feature to compare 2 date ranges.

A word of caution: this is not a scientific experiment. Many factors influence click-through rates, especially rankings. The higher up you are, the more clicks you generally receive. Pay particular attention to the "Average Position" number in the Google Analytics SEO report. With all other things being equal, a change in CTR can easily be attributed to a corresponding change in your profile pic.

Resutls with Author photo

The final number settled down around a 35% increase in click-though rate. That's 35% more traffic from Google than what I received before, and it was all free. Imagine how long it would take to gain the same momentum through manual link building.

Another side effect: my engagement metrics improved. Bounce rate dropped while time-on-site and page views increased. It's as if having an authorative photo in the search results raised users' trust in my site and expectations of authority.

Should You Use a Real Photo? What About Logos?

Google's G+ Content policy regarding photos is pretty slim. It states:

"Your Profile Picture cannot include mature or offensive content. For example, do not use a photo that is a close-up of a person’s buttocks or cleavage."
http://www.google.com/+/policy/content.html

Ann Smarty, a marketer whom I respect, advises against using logos.

As for offensive photos, there was an issue awhile back with MG Siegler giving G the middle finger, but that's the only instance I know where Google cracked down.

Formula for a Perfect Picture

Is there a magic formula for author profiles? No. You might be tempted to think that changing your background to yellow or red might be the answer, but the right photo depends much more on your audience and content. An author photo for content aimed at a 13-year-old Justin Bieber fan is not the same photo that will perform well with content aimed at retirees searching for tax advice.

When you change your Google+ profile pic, Google displays your new photo very quickly. This makes it easy to run many tests in the course of a couple months. A few final tips include:

  1. Write killer content
  2. Implement Authorship Markup
  3. Put your best face forward

If you manage a site with multiple authors, consider hiring a professional photographer to come in for a team day. Distilled does a great job creating visually attractive, stand-out photos.

Download my full MozCon deck on Slideshare.


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Microsoft Revamps AdCenter For Agency Relationships

Microsoft Revamps AdCenter For Agency Relationships
http://bit.ly/MARF1i

adcenter logoMicrosoft has updated adCenter to enable advertisers to change or add agencies without losing their entire account history.

With what they’re calling “Agency Enablement” features, adCenter now makes it possible for agencies to link or unlink to client accounts, onboard new clients via email requests to access accounts, control billing preferences and manage client accounts at the account level, rather than the customer level — providing greater flexibility. Being able to be linked to existing client accounts will also give agencies greater insight into the account history, rather than starting from scratch.

From the advertiser perspective, the changes provide more options in managing agency relationships while still holding onto the account — with all the linked account history.

To use this new feature, agencies will need to enable the new version, make sure they’re identified in adCenter as agencies, and may need to unlink from current clients’ accounts and then relink by sending clients invitations to connect.

Related Topics: Microsoft: adCenter



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