State of Search

As of this month I’ve started as a regular contributor to State of Search, one of the best known blogs in the SEO world. Suffice to say, I’m extremely pleased to be part of the gang! State of Search was set up by Bas Van Den Beld and Lisa Myers who have both done a great job with turning the blog into such a success.

State of Search writes about everything from SEO and Social Media strategies through to covering the latest news and live blogging from events and conferences. For those that are interested, you can read my first post from January on open source ecommerce platforms. Looking forward to contributing more throughout 2012!

Think Visibility

Think Visibility is definitely one of the best SEO conferences around, and it’s coming up again on the 3^rd of March featuring a session with yours truly. Held in Leeds, Think Visibility is a one day event with a much more relaxed and open ‘feel’ than some of the bigger conferences. There’s always a high standard of sessions throughout the day, and some amazing fun and networking to be had at their legendary parties! If you haven’t been, then I highly recommend going.

Check out the schedule here and get your mits on some tickets!

Wishing you all a happy and successful 2012!

Twitter has just launched a whole new interface, meaning that there are plenty of ways to be playing with some of the new features, as well as utilising some of the fun and interesting tools that have been available for a while.

New Twitter Features

The change in interface for Twitter has meant that you are no longer looking at @ mentions in the same way as before – you now “Connect” with people.

This means that you start seeing your new followers on your Twitter stream, eliminating the need to continue to receive the pesky new follower emails whilst still knowing how many new followers you receive, as well as who they are.

ReTweets that are made in the “newer” fashion (although the new RT feature has now been around for what seems forever) are also showing up in here, meaning that you have to make fewer clicks to the see the interactions that your Twitter account is garnering.

All in all, the change to this streamlines reviewing the pickup that your tweets are gaining across the platform, making the whole process much simpler.

There is also a new “Discover” feature, where Twitter is looking to encourage greater interactions outside of your circle of who you follow and followers. In a really nice graphical way this is showing some of the top hashtags and themes being tweeted at the time, and is a nicer way of looking at what is hot around Twitter than just looking at the text based trending topics.

Useful Twitter Tools

There are thousands of tools available for making the most of your Twitter activities. Most people typically focus on just different ways to interface with Twitter, like the official Twitter apps and Tweetdeck, but here I wanted to look at ways to review Twitter activity and look at the data in different ways

TweetDownload

If you are a prolific Tweeter, then it’s quite useful to be able to take a record of the tweets that you have made over time and look to store them locally to review at a later stage. One thing that I also enjoyed then using this data for was to create a Wordle from the text file after eliminating some of the items that I didn’t want to be appearing on here.

There are different options for downloading these tweets as well, allowing you to take this in an HTML, text or csv format.

TweetDelete

TweetDelete is a privacy protection tool, allowing you once signed in to automatically delete tweets over that are older than a specified amount of time. There are a number of configurable options here that set the time frame, as well as an option to delete all of your existing tweets.

You might want to use the TweetDownload tool prior to this to ensure that you still have a record of these first though!

WhoTweetedMe

This is a handy tool to look at the Twitter activities in and around a particular URL, looking at influential retweeters. It works best for fairly fresh content but shows some useful insights

Tweetails

This is a tool that shows some really interesting statistics about your Twitter usage. It was really interesting to have a look at my last 1000 tweets and see how many spaces were left in them, the length of words that I was using, as well as an intelligence rating that described me as “Depressingly average, the human equivalent of a grey cardigan”!

It was also illuminating looking at the most common words that have been tweeted, the frequency and estimated time spent on Twitter over a month, as well as daily and hourly breakdowns of activity on the platform.

mentionmapp

This is a really funky looking app that maps the friends that you have been interacting with recently, and then who those people have been interacting with. It also shows the hash tags that those people have been using.

This can be a useful way of finding some more users to interact with, or the hot topics that those you do talk with are discussing at the time.

This process can be easily extended out to check on link building campaigns, competitive analysis and more if your project requires that level of tracking. This also doesn’t necessarily need to be a monthly check list. Depending on the situation you might want to run certain elements more regularly. For example, if there have been major updates and changes to your site you’re definitely going to want to check for errors after each stage of the development. However, once your campaign has settled into a ‘groove’ this list should help keep you on your toes.

Unforeseen Technical Issues

If you’re working as part of a larger team, it’s fairly likely that every now and then a developer could change something without thinking to tell you about it. There are also things that could have been missed in the original site audit that are still causing potential problems. Running a monthly crawl of your site to check over the basics is a great way to make sure everything’s running OK and also spotting clues that something might be going wrong.

Some good things you can check out could include:

-Duplicate Titles/Meta Descriptions – Usually a clue that a larger duplication issue might be lurking
-Misplaced no-index tags – Paranoia makes me check these!
-Canonical Issues – Very easy mistake to make, well worth keeping an eye on
-Response Codes – Is everything as expected? Has anything changed since the previous crawl?

My favourite tool for this at the moment is Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider. If you’ve yet to try it out, just go and do it. The full version costs £99 per year, but they do have a free version which is limited to crawling 500 URL’s. Even with that limit in place, you should be able to pick up on ‘clues’ that can help alert you to things and identify areas that you might need to look into further. Alternatively you could use Xenu’s link sleuth and export the data into Excel for a bit of further investigation. If you’re a member of SEOmoz then their custom crawl tool is also a great way to extract this data and drill down into the areas of your site that may or may not need attention. Each tool mentioned is more than capable of doing the job, especially if you have some basic Excel skills that will allow you to poke around the data.

(screaming frog in action)

Segmenting Your Traffic

One regular check that I feel everyone should be doing is segmenting their search traffic to try and ascertain what’s going on in each section of the website. Simply tracking the total search traffic you’re receiving won’t tell you the full story. For example you might find that search traffic on the whole has risen since last month, but when you dig deeper you find out that one page has seen a huge boost but at the same time the traffic going to your deeper pages has dropped significantly. Although it’s nice to bask in the glory of growing search traffic, you need to make sure that an average increase or stable level of traffic isn’t actually hiding a drop in traffic from other sections.

This should help you to identify the areas that need your effort the most. If you can then focus on the underperforming areas of the website you can start to win in every area, and in my opinion that’s when SEO really starts to pay off. The other area of concern here is that problems don’t always affect the whole site; it could just be certain areas of the website causing problems and dragging the campaign down. Being able to drill down into the various sections of your website and find potential faults in specific areas will go a long way to ensuring that you have a good ‘bird’s eye view’ of the campaign.

(great news for the blog…but what about everything else?!)

When looking after an ecommerce site, I’ll tend to segment the search traffic into homepage entrances, category page entrances, product page entrances and then expand out to the blog (if they have one) and other informative pages. This gives me a very quick view on how each part of the website is doing. You can then go on to segment the traffic even further to include branded keywords vs non-branded keywords and so on and so forth. This is all about trying to identify and track what’s working well vs what needs more time and effort.

Indexation

Tracking indexation is another really important thing to do on a regular basis, and if done correctly it should give a lot more information that just how many pages you have indexed. When looking into indexation I’m usually checking to see if everything’s still as I need it to be, and also to try and find out how the search engines have reacted to any changes that may have recently been made to the site. If I’ve uploaded a ton of extra content I’ll obviously want to know that this has been indexed. On the flip side to this, I might have been working on a duplicate content issue by no-indexing a load of unwanted content – has this happened yet and if so is everything as expected?

When trying to build an accurate picture of true indexation I usually rely on a few different techniques. One is the basic site: command in Google. Although this can bring back some inaccurate numbers it can be quite useful for spotting what I would call ‘oddities’. Not long ago when checking a clients website with the site: command we found the homepage no-where to be seen. This led to finding a small but problematic duplication issue which was quickly dealt with; problem found…problem solved!

It’s also worth checking your indexation figures in webmaster tools. If you can upload segmented sitemaps then this will make things a whole lot better. For an ecommerce site you could consider having one sitemap for ‘pages’, one for categories and one for products plus any other sections that might be relevant. That will then allow you to check the number of indexed pages in each section vs the number of URL’s included in the sitemap, thus indentifying any indexation issues within a specific area of the site.

In addition to that, tracking the number of keywords and pages sending organic visits will also give you an idea as to your indexation.

Internal Linking

This one’s really for any SEO’s who work alongside another team of people that have control over content. No doubt, as part of your SEO strategy you carefully constructed a well thought out internal linking strategy. But what if this all changes when someone (with well meaning intentions) updates some content and changes your links, or a load of new content is added with no thought to your internal linking specifications?

(internal OSE report)

Keeping track of internal links is really important. Again, there’s a few ways in which you can do this. My preferred method (quickest and easiest!) is to download an OSE report of internal links, open it up in excel and filter down to the pages I want to check, and then take a quick look at the anchor text. That way I can quickly find out if anyone’s been messing (sorry…editing!) with my carefully constructed links and spot anything that strikes me as odd.

When working on a larger website, it’s really easy to lose track of your internal anchor text and linking structure, so doing this as a routine should be a great way to double check that you’re not missing any opportunities to improve your linking to a particular page or set of pages.

The Basics

I think it’s worth mentioning that the most basic of things can sometimes get forgotten. When you’re in the middle of duplication and crap content hell, it is so easy to forget the most basic things such as titles and content optimisation. Again, with a large website and an even larger list of problems it can be really easy to miss out on quick wins. Having a short checklist to go through on a monthly basis should help to avoid missing out on anything that could be done really quickly. Are your alt tags all good, how about your content, titles, meta descriptions?

Feel free to come and say hello or tweet me any questions on twitter @jonquinton1

People tend to run into problems by trying to second guess what there users want. It’s very easy to start assuming that it’s your pricing, or your design, or all manner of potential issues. However, what webmasters really need to do is find out exactly what is putting people off.

What Is Usability Testing?

Identifying exactly where people are leaving your website is the first step. Using Google Analytics is a pretty good starting point. From looking through your goal funnels or content reports it should be fairly easy to identify some basic patterns. But what about trying to decipher exactly what’s putting people off, and why they aren’t completing your goals?

I’m no conversion rate expert, and would never claim to be, but recently I’ve had a great experience from using a combination of online services to gather information from which I can make informed decisions. The whole aim of this process was to take the guess work out completely.

Some of The Tools I’ve Found to Be Extremely Useful:

www.usertesting.com
Cost: $39 per test

Usertesting.com is an online service that utilises a large panel of user testers to complete specific tasks on your website, and feedback to you about what they may have found difficult or challenging. When you submit your website for a test you specify what you want users to do, and ask any specific questions such as ‘what may have caused you to leave the website?’. So, if you’re having problems with shopping cart abandonment, set the task of trying to complete and order and find out what issues they come across.

In return for your money you get a 15 minute video complete with commentary of the tester going through the processes you’ve laid out for them. Seriously, it’s amazingly insightful. I’d recommend paying for about 4-6 tests in order to get a balanced opinion.

www.userfly.com
Cost: first 10 recordings free, then $10 per 100 recordings

Userfly is a really great way to get a cost effective insight into how your users are navigating your website. Userfly simply records people’s journey through the website, giving you a video of their screen identifying what pages they are clicking on and what content they are looking at. It’s fascinating to see how people respond to your content, and by watching where they click you can get some pretty good insights into potential ‘hot spots’ on your pages.

Used in conjunction with usertesting.com you can really start to build up an accurate picture as to what might be bothering people, and hindering their progress through your website. For the sake of $10 is has to be worth it.

www.kissinsights.com
Cost: $30 per month

Assuming that your website is already getting some traffic, then Kiss Insights is a very easy and cost effective way to add a simple survey to your website. By asking direct questions you can get some very honest and useful ideas straight from the very people you’re trying to convert into customers. Kiss Insights is extremely easy to set up and install on your website, you simply customise the form to include the question you need, and then add a small piece of code to the pages you want it to appear on.

If you’re website is getting traffic, then you’ll get some really useful information from using this service.

I’ve just done a test combining the use of the tools listed above and the information I gathered was insane. These tools not only work well on their own, when combined they give you an extremely powerful insight into user behaviour.

All of this cost a grand total of $196, which I don’t think is all that much when you consider how valuable the information gathered could be for your business.

The Jewellery Boutique is a fantastic website that has sourced some amazing handmade jewellery from some of Britain’s most talented designers. We’ve worked closely with them throughout the start-up and development process and everyone involved has pushed really hard to ensure that the quality of product is matched by a great user experience.

www.thejewelleryboutique.com

I’d highly recommend checking out the following:

Tom Critchlow (Distilled):

Panda Update – What To Do About It

Martin Macdonald (SeoForums):

Panda Update Hits The UK

Similar in nature to the ‘May Day’ update last year, this recent algorithm shift is all about improving the quality of the search results and penalising websites that don’t offer anything of value. I’ve been banging on about the need to write good solid content for ages, and it seems that this update only serves to reinforce the argument. In short, write good content or suffer the consequences.

Writing good content, and writing enough of it can take time and effort especially for those who are new to websites, or have never had to write before. However, the rewards are worth it and it’s something that will really help separate your website and make it stand out. It also seems to me that there is some heavy importance on how your structure your pages and making sure that the content you do write is accessible.

Unfortunately some websites have been hit that possibly don’t deserve to be penalised. Why is this? Well, it could be down to page structure. Review Centre got hit particularly hard, and unfairly in my opinion. Last week they published quite an interesting blog post in reaction to the update; well worth a look.

If you’re concerned about the update and if it’s had an effect on your website, I would recommend tracking the numbers of keywords sending traffic from Google, and also the amount of pages sending you traffic. It’s likely that the biggest effect would be seen in the long-tail results, so these metrics should give you a basic overview and warning signals should the worse be happening.

If you’re not sure how to do this, check out my post on basic Google Analytics filters as a starting point.

Meanwhile…keep writing that content….

Most of the bots that leave comments on my posts are very friendly, and usually have very complimentary things to say about what I write…it really warms the soul.

A small disclaimer:

I’ve identified these comments as spam due to the nature of the names, email addresses and domain names in question. However, if you spot a comment in here that you made…I’m very sorry!

In no particular order:

Not bad for a post with no comments…

“Nice amount of feedback in so little time, I have to second, its a great blog. the site is nicely …”

Ain’t that nice!

“An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!”

Danke!

“Guten Tag, sehr wissenswerter Blog Beitrag. Grüße aus Berlin”

This one came from a lovely chap called Mr ‘Automatic Link Exchange’. Ironically he was commenting on my reciprocal linking post.

“An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!”

The defensive spammer…

“Hi. I like your website but i can tell it probably isn’t getting much traffic? If you want to help imrpove that check this website out, he has a short video that i really suggest you watch. Commission Crusher P.S this isn’t my website and i’m not spamming your blog, i don’t care if you delete this comment. I am only trying to help you improve your site.”

I thought this nice little tune summed things up nicely:

The approach to the session was about getting inside the mind of your traffic. What are they thinking when they land on your website? Is your purchase one that requires consideration or one that’s more impulsive? Once you understand the mindset of your potential customers, find a solution to help them.

The first point Stephen made was that conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is NOT about changing button colours. It’s about making big changes that address the issue that’s preventing your traffic from converting. In order to do this you have to find out the reasons why your traffic isn’t doing what you want it to do. Stephen suggested asking one simple question such as ‘What one thing on our website would stop you from purchasing?’. Don’t make it hard or time consuming for someone to give you feedback.

So how can you get this information?

• Use your email database
• Order confirmation page is a great place to ask for simple feedback
• Use Kiss Insights

The art of persuading someone to take an action is something that has been around for a lot longer than the internet. Stephen made the point of suggesting you look for inspiration from many different sources, and quite often the ‘junk’ mail that lands on your doormat features some superb examples.

A few thoughts and ideas:

- Try to understand what your traffic might be thinking or feeling when searching for your product; then use your website to make them feel you are the ‘answer’

- Use the idea of authority. You could try using trust signals such as ‘recommended by doctors’.

- Social Proof – people like following the crowd so make sure you have a good presence on review sites and social media sites. Make people feel they are ‘buying into’ more than just the product.

- If you’re product is typically something that could be purchased impulsively, try using messages such as ‘only 3 left – 2 items in shopping baskets’ to tip people over the edge.

If you want a fun and intuitive weekend in great company, Think Visibility is ace!

I always enjoy listening to talks on link building as it’s a great way to find out what other people are doing and sussing out what’s working well. I’ve read quite a few of Paddy’s blog posts on link building, and really like his no nonsense approach. His session at Think Vis was full of some great actionable tips that I think anyone should be able to implement.

The first thing you should be doing is running a link analysis to find out what links you already have, and expanding on the weaker areas. For example, you may have a large number of low quality directory links therefore you should be focusing on higher quality links such as press etc. On the flip side, you may be lucky enough to have some really strong links but lacking in volume…if so, react!

Paddy then went to take us through a few example websites and explained some potential link building ideas for each website. This was a great way to get some ‘real’ tips…

Quick Wins:

• Top ten business lists (Obviously including 10 businesses with websites that link!)
• Run a survey
• Promote special offers/discounts
• Use twitter to find websites that already trust you
• Upload product videos to You Tube
• Get the links YOU need

Another real gem in this session was the tool Paddy had built to help you with the process of extracting link targets from twitter. Check out a great explanation and full instructions on how you can build this tool from James Little. (great post btw!!)

A really good session to kick start the day…

Google have made a very clear point of stating that these mass reciprocal linking schemes won’t add any value to your website, and in fact they could harm your chances of succeeding.

However, there are ways in which I think reciprocal links can benefit your website and link building efforts. The way I choose to look at it is to try and relate reciprocal linking to ‘real world’ situations. If you have a genuine business connection with another company then I think a reciprocal link will do you no harm. It makes sense for you to link to your stockist, or partner websites. This can be a great way to earn a few good much needed links, especially if your website is new.

When deciding on whether or not it might be appropriate to exchange links, always think about the user experience. Does linking to another website improve your user’s experience; will it add value to your content? If the answers no then it’s probably wise not to do it.

Good examples of reciprocal links that should cause no harm:

• Linking to partner websites
• Linking to genuine associates
• Linking to external sources that will add value

Bad examples of reciprocal links that might negatively affect your rankings:

• Linking to completely un-related websites
• Linking to anyone who offers you link

I thought it might also be useful to include a list of do’s and don’ts:

DO:

• Choose your exchanges wisely
• Link to great sources of further information
• Exchange links with select friends
• Exchange links with relevant websites

DON’T:

• Give everyone a link who sends a reciprocal email request
• Exchange links with every directory under the sun
• Spend all day sending reciprocal email requests
• Hide your outgoing links with the no-follow tag
• Block your links page with your robots.txt

Photo credit: Christian Hill