I’ve been going a little sitelink crazy, recently, posting about both natural and paid-ad sitelinks. But it is an important area of search marketing that likes to change a lot.

On the official Google blog, they posted about the evolution of Google sitelinks, stating that over the next few days, Google will roll out a new sitelink format, which I have been noticing for the past few days.

Sitelinks will now be full-size links with a URL and one line of snippet text—similar to regular results—making it even easier to find the section of the site you want. We’re also increasing the maximum number of sitelinks per query from eight to 12.

What the new sitelinks look like

Watch out for this change to take place, if it already hasn’t, for you.

Sitelinks.

Often, this aspect of paid search is overlooked, and that is understandable. Google gives you the option to add extra links within your ad, take up more page real estate, and can, consequently, have a significant impact on your your click through rate.

Once implemented, you may see your clickthrough rates on your top branded terms jump from, say, 15% to 21% (hypothetical). At this point, you are probably feeling pretty good about yourself. You have an increase in qualified traffic, you see your conversions increase, and you have good news to deliver to your client or boss. You may not feel the need or desire to try experient with these because, why change something that is broken? But, if you are always trying to improve your bottom line, you need to be constantly optimizing.

So we’ve been experimenting…

I have a very zen approach to online marketing, design, and usability. More often than not, less is more. So short, concise, and to-the-point sitelink copy would seem like the way to go according to my years of experience. However this was not the case once we started playing with our ads.

Before adding sitelinks, our main branded terms had a 15%+ CTR; once we added sitelinks our CTR increased to 21%+ and had a correlating increase in conversions and a correlating drop in cost-per-click (not exactly proportional, but dropped, nonetheless). But, after several months of running these ads with sitelinks, curiosity got the best of us, and we needed to know if we hit the ceiling. From vigorous testing, I knew that the ad copy was our most optimal (at least most optimal copy that was approved by the business), and the landing page was the most relevant, so the only thing left to change, from an ad perspective, was our sitelink copy. So, we added more descriptive anchor text to the sitelinks.

So we went from something like this:

Example short sitelinks

To something like this:

Example of sitelinks test

A few examples of things we did that worked included:

• Changing “Pricing” to “Pricing and Ticketing Information”
• Changing “Locations” to “Find A Local Store” or “Find A Store Near You”
• Changing “Book” to “Book A Room At XYZ”

And the winner is…

CTR before optimization

Test copy CTR

The test copy. Since increasing the length of our sitelinks our CTR has jumped up from about 24% all the way up to about 32%.

It has remained at about 32% since the test started.

So what?

Now I know that correlation does not always equal causation, and yes, I tested other variations. What should you take away from this? Don’t stop looking for ways to improve your ads.

Our results? We saw not only saw an increase in CTR, but also a drop in CPC, an increase in traffic and conversions, and an overall drop in CPA. So that shattered my whole less-is-more approach to sitelink anchor text. I suppose if Google is going to give you 35 characters to put in each sitelink field, then why not use them?

How are you optimizing your paid search sitelinks?

Photo credit: <bigfoto>
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Amazon or Zappos.

Today Google announced their planned aquisition of Motorola for a whopping $12.5B. While this may be a defensive acquisition to counter Microsoft’s and Apple’s patent frenzy, it also opens the door for more innovative, first-party, open-source Android devices.

I may be a little late to the Google party, but they are not the only ones making moves today.

Samsung has also hired modder/coder/android wizzard Steve Kondik, AKA Cyanogen for an undisclosed salary. Steve is responsible for CyanogenMod, a custom firmware/ROM for various Android devices that adds some very slick functionality. This information was made public after Mr. Kondik changed his “work” status on his Facebook page to “Samsung.” This could mean we will see some more innovation from Samsung’s mobile devices, as well.

Source [GadgetUniversity via Phandroid]
Picture credit to Jens Zalzala

Note: Steve’s Facebook page is only open to his friends and family. If you would like to get updates from him, then follow @Cyangen on Twitter.

Looks like google may be changing the way organic sitelinks are displayed in the SERPS. It seems like a test or a feature that is in Beta, but if it does become permanent, it will definitely have an affect on the emphasis of owning a top-2 spots in the results page for any given keyword.

These larger, more-detailed sitelinks would push the majority of natural rankings below the fold, dramatically reducing the amount of traffic other first-page results will get. What do you think?

Google Organic Sitelinks may be changing

UPDATE: Looks like this is officially being rolled out over the next few days.

For those of you that don’t know, 12 bars blues follows a simple chord pattern that repeats chord “A” 4 measures, “B” 2 measures, “A” 2 more, “C” 2, then “A” 2 more.

So it follows the phrasing AAAA, BBAA, CBAB, then repeats.

In google’s Les Paul tribute, today, you can set up a simple 12 bar blues in the key of C by doing following:

Step 1 – Click the keyboard icon
Step 2 – Create a C Major chord with the keyboard (type “CDGK”)
Step 3 – Create an F Major chord (“FHK”)
Step 4 – Create a G Major chord (“GJL”)
Step 5 – In the key of C, our pattern will be CCCC, FFCC, GFCG. Just set up that pattern.
Step 6 – Play

You are now playing 12-bar blues.

Inspired from the source below.

12 Bar Blues On Google Logo

Source: reddit

I have fallen victim to this, myself. The first image that would come to my head, when contemplating search/keyword rankings, was an angry mob of people pushing each other over just to grab the next backlink, in order to compete. Google has said, a number of times, that there are over 200 different factors in their search ranking algorithm. Let’s go over what some of those might be:

Page Titles

This one is big-time important – probably the biggest factor in on-page optimization. I see a lot of sites that have “site name | page title” as their formatting standard. Having tested this many times, I can confidently say that putting your keywords towards the front of your title will rank heavier than having the keywords at the end. Instead of using that format, try JUST using the page title. Having unique titles on your pages will benefit you far more than using the same generic site name or page name format. If you feel you have gained trust and rankability by search engines, then you can feel free to append you titles with your site name (page title | site name).

Keyword Density and Proximity

Sometimes people forget that Google crawls their content. If you do a search for a keyword, chances are, you are going to see some page content highlighted in the SERPs (search engine result pages). Make sure your content contains the keywords you are optimizing for. You don’t want your keywords too-tightly packed together. That’s just not natural. Spread them across the page, BUT be sure not to separate them too much. For example, if you are optimizing for “red shoes,” the phrase, “we sell red shoes” is going to have a heavier ranking factor than a page that mentions “red” and “shoes” at separate points or in different paragraphs (keep your keyword proximity appropriate).

Font Tags

Then, of course, there is the heading hierarchy. <H1> tags will rank stronger than <H2> tags, which will rank higher than text in <H3> tags, and so on. However, you don’t want to abuse heading use. Keep the <H1> tag for your main title or topic for a particular page. Search engines know when you are using the <H1> tag to spam the system. Use <H2> and <H3> for other headings.

Additionally, keyword placement matters, too. Try to keep your main keywords at the front of your <H> tags. However, I would not stress this too much. It’s better that you have good, readable copy than titles and tags that look like word mashes.

Font Format

Another thing that a lot of people don’t consider is formatting. Bold text, I find, puts an emphasis on words ranked within your content. You don’t think Google, in all its infinite wisdom, can’t tell when words in a sentence are being emphasized? It can.

Linking Structure

Make sure your pages are easy to find by adding a linking structure such as a breadcrumb. This tells search engines how to find your pages that may be a little deeper than your top 3 landing pages. Also make sure that you are not linking to one thing within your site too many times. For example: if you have the home button in your main navigation, and in your footer or sidebar, add rel="nofollow" to those anchors, you don’t want extraneous linking draining the link juice from your pages.

Hidden Content

Just don’t do it. Don’t use CSS or any other code to hide any content from visitors. Do not try to make copy invisible – you will be penalized. CSS rollovers and things like that are usually okay, but try to do it as little as possible, and if you decide to use them, then make sure that the pop-up content is not overloaded with keywords.

So what?

These are just a few examples. Most of the 200 signals that Google uses to rank you, you can figure out yourself. Don’t stress too much in putting together backlinks, and don’t stress your page rank. Make sure your site is efficient and interesting – then links and pagerank will follow. In a future article, I will test some elements against each other to see exactly how Google weighs some of these factors when ranking websites. I have already developing hypotheses and started testing. Look forward to it.

So one question I always get asked about link development is this: “Why can’t I seem to get any links via email request?” Let’s face it. This classic link building method is not easy, and it’s time consuming.

Your typical request probably looks something like this:

Hello there,

[Our site] is a…. (short description here). We do xyz for people on the web, and think our site would work as a valuable resource to your demographic (etc.).

Could you please place my link on http://www.yoursite.com/relevant.place

Our Info
URL: http://www.oursite.com/
URL title: [your preferred anchor text]
description: [short description of your site]

Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Cheers,
John Doe
Head of Internet Marketing

So, if you are lucky, you are getting 1 out of every 10 (not a terrible return rate for your basic request) of these request emails responded to. And, maybe half of those responses are from people who think your link will actually add value to their visitors. You may feel like you are doing something wrong, but that’s just how it goes. That’s only a 5 percent success rate, and even THAT may be good for you. Often times, even the positive responses, may take many days or weeks, so this method also takes a lot of patience.

It’s hard enough to get a reciprocal link through an email (a method I don’t like to practice), but to get a one-way link? That sometimes seems impossible. Well think about it. Where is the benefit to the potential link-poster? Where is the value? It’s not surprising that you may only get lucky 5 percent of the time when begging someone to post your link on their site. The solution? Offer Value. I don’t mean pay for links. Google discourages this, and often penalizes site rankings for this practice. I mean make them feel like they are getting something in return.

Start by-

Determining where to ask for a link:

First of all, the site should be relevant to your own. If your site is a blog about milk, try asking a dairy farm blogger for a link.

Secondly, find a site similar to your own, and examine their backlinks. A good free tool for this is Link Diagnosis. I’ll use this tool for the following example. It will only work for Firefox, but it is worth the free use. Simply enter the URL of the site that is like yours (maybe your competition) into their tool, after installing the plugin, and you’ll get a results page. Now, you need to determine the best places to gain a link for your own site. Your result may look like this:

Link diagnosis results

You don’t want to request a link on a site that has too many links, because the strength of a link from that site would be weak, especially if their page rank is low, but if a site linking to your competitor/content-relevant site has too few links, like 1, then it isn’t likely that they are going to want to link to you. Don’t waste your time on these sites. Instead, find a happy medium. Circled in green, in the picture above, is an example of a good option. In the example, the site is a pagerank 6, with 34 outbound links, and a link strength of 40, according to Link Diagnosis. This means that they are probably willing to link to you if you can offer them value.

Likewise, check if the site is actively updated. Don’t waste your time asking for a link on a site that hasn’t been updated since 1996 – you won’t get a response.

Step 3 is going to that site, and locating their contact information. This is usually found in their company profile page or ‘about us’ page. I’ll leave it up to your cunning brain to find the contact info.

Step 4 is where you want to send out your email, BUT BEFORE YOU DO, you optimize your email for the best chance at getting a positive response. You need to offer them some value.

Here are some ways you ca do this:

1.) Offer to write content for free (good for blogs)

Let them know, in your email, that you are willing to offer them free content on their site. For example, a guest post on their blog. This is good because you offer them good copy, and you can link back to your own site in the author description, or on the post. Also, you can offer link-free content, given that a link to your site is somewhere you want it. Alternatively, you can let them know that content on your site can also be produced on their site if it is properly linked/cited. BUT, you want to avoid doing this too much because you dont want to be penalized for having too much duplicated content circulating (which search engines may penalize you for).

2.) Find dead links on their site (or something else that should be fixed)

Of all my methods, this one consistently gives me the best return. It works particularly well on .edu resource directories.

After finding a site that you want an inbound link from, browse their site for dead links. If you are familiar with your niche, a quick-and-dirty way to do this is to check the links of sites you don’t immediately recognize.

Dead link recognized.

There are also tools out there made to recognize dead links. Be sure you know how to recognize links that have expired, and are replaced with a parked domain. Free tools out there won’t identify these for you. They usually look something like this

A dead link, replaced by a parked domain.

In your email, make sure that you politely mention that a couple of links on their site are dead. You are now doing them a favor, a service, free of charge. Webmasters appreciate it a lot when you do this, unsolicited. You can change your email to say something like this (this is not my normal format):

Hi there,

I found your resource directory located at http://yoursite.com/links very useful, but I noticed that some of the links on the site are dead. More specifically, the first link and the third link, with the anchor text, “[dead link text here]” and “[dead link text 2 here]“. They link to the URLs http://[deadlink].com/ and http://[deadlink2].com/, respectively.

While you are editing your site, maybe you would like to replace these dead links with our site, a site that [short description]. I think your visitors would appreciate the extra, working resource… etc. (continue with your basic link request format)…

More times than not, you WILL get a positive response. This is my default tactic every time I can spot a dead or expired link. It is in our social nature to return a favor. This tactic works because of its ease. While they are deleting a dead link, it is a far-less taxing task just add one to replace it than it is to have to edit a page for only one purpose. This also works for other errors you find on a site. Do this, when possible. Just don’t come off as a know-it-all, and don’t be nagging or insulting.

3.) Inform them of some (awesome) relevant news

Was your site the first site to write about the guy who made a floating skateboard, like the one in Back to the Future 2? Tip them to the news, and have them use your site as a reference or citation. This is a good way to get linked to on bigger blogs like Lifehacker and Gizmodo. Your format will be different. Treat it like a news tip instead of a request. If your content is interesting enough, they will cite you. If they don’t, spam their comments section with allegations of plagiarizing (disclaimer: this is probably not the best way to handle things… in fact, just don’t do it) .

0.) Offer reciprocal links (but try not to)

I am numbering this suggestion as ’0′ because I would probably try to avoid this. This isn’t the best practice, but it is sometimes appropriate. Matt Cutts, himself, said multiple times that reciprocal links are not inherently bad because they do occur naturally, but excessive reciprocal linking may end up hurting you and your rankings, in the end.

This is often the first, most obvious way of gaining a link, and offering value. A 1-for-1 exchange. It’s easy to amend your email for a reciprocal exhcnage by adding this line somewhere:

I placed your link http://www.yoursite.com on our website – let me know if your site’s title is correct. You can view your link at our site here, http://www.oursite.com/place.

Could you please place my link on http://www.yoursite.com/relevant.place and reply? In return, I’ll keep your link permanently. …

The key to reciprocal link exchanges is relevance. Make sure you are not getting a link from an interior decorating site when you sell jet fuel. These reciprocal links don’t typically occur naturally. And again, don’t overdo it.

So, do not let that low rate of email responses get you down, just try to be interesting, and offer them something. Follow these suggestions, and you will see an improvement in your positive response rate.

Comment if you have questions.

Oh PAC-MAN, how you have kept me entertained over the years. For some quick-and-dirty fun and entertainment, check out the Google front page to play a game of PAC-MAN on the Google logo.

For a two-player game, hit the “insert coin” button bellow the search bar. Player one controls PAC-MAN with the arrow keys while player two uses W, A, S, D.

Check it out.

The Perfect Landing Page

Quite simply, it does not exist. What this does not mean is that you shouldn’t strive for it. Will you ever get it? No. But, you always need to be improving your pages to increase your conversions. This IS optimization. Always measuring. Always improving. Always converting. So, don’t get discouraged when your pages are not converting as well as you want. Not every visitor is going to buy your widget, subscribe to your newsletter, or sign up for a gold membership on your site. Where do we start? We start by identifying the flaws on your pages.

1. Check your titles: Page titles are, arguably, the biggest on-page keyword factor. Not only is this important for SEO, but for your conversions. Your title WILL be displayed in search engines if your keywords are ranking. This is the first step in getting someone to click through to your site in order to convert. You need your titles to be to-the-point, but you also need them to be unique. Just having your site title is NOT enough. This needs to gram the web surfer’s attention, so that they can read your description (or initial pitch). Similarly, your ad titles need to do the exact same thing. They need to be the answer as to why the visitor is browsing the web. For example, “Widgets-R-Us” is not enough. Consider, “Widgets delivered in X days, guaranteed”, you can even append your site name: “Widgets delivered in 2 days, guaranteed | Widgets-R-Us”

2. Page loading speed: Aside from Google announcing that site speed is now a ranking factor, people do not want to wait around for your page to load, especially if your brand is new or relatively unknown. Trust is a major factor in brand management, and by extension, conversions. When your landing pages load slowly, a visitor will reconsider their purpose on your page. You will not build any trust when your images and layout pop up slowly and sporadically.

3. Don’t throw in the kitchen sink: Assuming that this landing page is targeted, for a specific visitor, you want to stay on-focus. If your visitor clicked on an ad for flowers, make sure your landing page focuses on flowers. Don’t have pictures, links, sections, etc. for the other 20 home product categories that your site provides. Likewise, if they are clicking on an ad or search engine result (this is where title is important) for home improvement, don’t include DVDs and car parts. Generally, the fewer disruptions a visitor faces, the better

4. Update, update, update: DO NOT let your content get outdated. This creates serious doubts in your visitors. Do not let your content for a flowers page make a promise that says, “delivery by February 14th, guaranteed” if it is March 2nd. That’s the obvious example; small things count, too. If you have “Copyright, 2002″ in the footer, you create doubts by letting the visitor know that you don’t maintain your site as well as other more professional sites. Again, this is a trust issue.

5. Check your design: This is something you always need to be testing. On one hand, you want to keep it simple, but on the other, you want to make the page aesthetically appealing. Test if your content converts better on a full-width or fixed-width design. Does your content fit on the majority of screen resolutions? Consider whether or not the user has to scroll through extra content before getting to the intended object/link/button/form on the page. Design your pages so that the user has the quickest path to converting. Make it easy.

6. Remember your high school English/Writing teacher: Some of the most obvious mistakes you can make are the easiest ones to make. Proof read your content. Make sure that you are not making any grammar or spelling mistakes. This is a really easy way to instantly lose trust with many, many, many visitors. A lot of people that browse the web are smart. Why should someone buy your product if you say ‘anxious’ when you mean ‘eager’, or if you misuse ‘they’re,’ ‘there,’ and ‘their’? Intelligent people want to convert on sites managed by people with intelligence.

7. Tactical copy decoration: Check to make sure that you are emphasizing things that need to be emphasized. Bold your points, use heading tags on headers and titles, EMPHASIZE with capital lettering and italics (but don’t go overboard). It also helps to letter/number/bullet point your lists. Use CSS coloring and decoration to make things stand out, but don’t let them become an eyesore. and finally….

8. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CALL TO ACTION: Not only that, make sure it is obvious. Don’t just talk about your product or the benefits of membership. Show your visitor how to sign-up, purchase, or subscribe. Make it clear. Make it easy. Then, eliminate extra/unnecessary steps after the click. The fewer steps there are to conversion, the better (typically).

Take the reins. Own your landing pages. Keep them updated and clean. Add these tips to your check list – they can only help. But do not forget to ALWAYS be testing landing pages against each other. Find your balance, and always be converting.

When you work in-house search marketing, you come across the need to find a link builder for your site(s).  Now, I see Craigslist, Careerbuilder, and meta jobs search engines, etc. littered with job ads for link builders, but I noticed that I never see any consistency. It’s hard to come across a job ad, specifically titled, “Link Builder” or “SEO Link Builder”. Instead, at the entry level, you tend to find ads like, “Junior SEO”, or “Internet Marketing Intern”, or “SEO Assistant”, or even something as vague as, “Online Marketing Position”. And, at the more experienced level, you see “Link Building Expert”, “SEO Specialist”, and titles as vague as “Search Engine Optimizer”.

Now look, it isn’t enough to put up a title and a short description in your job posting. If you want to attract quality SEOs, you have to think and act like one. If you are hiring a link builder, it is usually safe to assume that you do internet marketing/SEO in some capacity. You spend all day optimizing copy, landing pages, ads, structure. Why, then, are you NOT optimizing your job postings? Sure, you will get applicants (oh, you WILL get applicants), and sure, you will eventually find someone that you like enough to hire, but what have you forgotten? Have you considered the cost, time spent, applicant volume, experience/quality per applicant, or how about ROI? Yes, you invest your time and money into finding the right person. Why not try to get the best bang-for-your-buck?

Entry Level Job Postings

Title: The title, here, is important because it tells the job-seeker what the job is. Or at least it should. Too many job-posters leave vague titles. You want the title of the job posting to be as revealing as possible. This is the first filter that weeds out the candidates that you do not want.

For example, if this is an entry-level position, put “Entry Level” in the title. If not that, then use, “New Grads,” or “Coordinator,” although “coordinator” could be a bit too vague. If this is an internship position, mention it, but at this level, are you going to find what you are looking for? Don’t expect to use “entry level,” on “intern,” and find someone that can just start the job on day 1. Expect that they will need training.

Content: I see a lot of posts, out there on the internet, whose job description is only a 2-4 sentence paragraph with no company information. These posts are only going to attract the people that apply to everything. It is not very efficient. It is usually a good idea to give a little information about your company; if you can’t reveal what company you are, paint a picture as to what kind of company you are. If want someone who has shown they can survive in your company/site environment, make sure you require a year of experience as at least an intern.

What to look for: Look for someone who knows how to work hard and is organized. Link building should require someone who can keep track of what they have done, and what they have not done, yet. A good GPA is a good start, but also look at activities they mention in their resume. Did they teach a class? Are they dedicated to something? These are indicators of someone who can keep things organized. Also, you obviously want to look for someone that is tech-savvy – someone who knows what a search engine does, and uses the internet, fluently, and writes good emails (look at all of your email exchanges with them – a good emailer/writer can get links at a much better rate than someone who writes poorly or is unfamiliar with email practices).

Pros: You can teach your entry-level person your own method of SEO. Their pay rate will be lower.
Cons: They won’t be able to bring anything new to the table – it’s always good to be able to learn from someone else. Although pay is lower, you have to invest time into training.

Experienced Link Builder/SEO Job Posting

Title: Make sure you include the words, “Manager,” or, “Experienced.” If you use “specialist,” or, “expert,” you will get a lot of people applying that only think in their mind that they are specialists/experts. You will get a lot of people applying that are better suited for entry-level or low-experience positions, and trust me, you don’t want to have to read through those cover letters, emails, or resumes.

Content: See, this is where it gets tricky. Not because it is, but because we forget to optimize. If you want a Link Builder who knows what they are doing, you are going to need keywords in your post, and they are going to have to be noticeable. By keywords, I mean buzzwords. “Social networking skills” is a good start, but you need words that flash aspects of your business. If your site is membership-driven, ask for experience on a membership-driven site. If it is an ecommerce site, you better be asking for ecommerce experience. What you DON’T need, here, is “5-7 years SEO experience.” With around 2 years of experience, you can find extremely well-rounded link builders. You can also find weak ones with 5 years of experience. Search Marketing is changing every day, and you want someone who is up-to-date on all standard and advanced practices. Include experience, but make it a “plus,” rather than a requirement. This way, you can still weed out those who are better-suited for entry-level positions.

What to look for: Well, I already started to go into this, but you need someone who is up-to-date on all the best link development strategies. Instead of looking for experience in years, look for it in knowledge. Make sure that they are fluent with each of your qualifications. You should be able to tell right from their first email/cover letter how knowledgeable they are.

Newbies or Experience?

Well I always think that it is easier to train someone than to bring someone in with their own set of ways. However, if your business needs some variation, then experience comes with a premium. Also, the larger the organization, the more knowledgeable of a candidate you are going to want to seek out. However, in a small business setting, a recent college grad or intern may suit you just fine. This is may be because you are not overwhelmed with other SEO tasks, and you just need someone to lighten your work load by taking on some link building duties. Plus, if you teach a man to fish… well do SEO… err… there was a metaphor in there, but I lost it.

What To Do

I can’t tell you how to optimize your job postings without knowing your company, your niche, your sector, your audience, or your requirements, but you need to do your own analysis. Put yourself in the position of the job seeker. An experienced link developer is going to find a title and short paragraph too shady to pursue, and a newbie is going to be scared-off by an onslaught of qualifications/requirements. Find your center-of-balance, and once you do, optimize it.

If you find a small number of people you think may be perfectly qualified for your needs, consider them your conversions. Don’t think of this as a guide (although, take the tips into consideration), but instead, as a reminder that you need to approach your head hunting the same way you tackle search marketing. Always Be Converting.