Archive for July, 2010
July 8th, 2010 by Lisa Rosenkrantz
There are now about 100 million or so mobile Internet users, so it’s time to tap into valuable opportunities for mobile search engine  optimization (SEO). While it’s still in the early stages, there’s no doubt mobile search is current and powerful and it’s essential for businesses to understand how to capitalize on it. SEO also must make the transition along with consumers towards mobile applications.
The bottom line is that mobile search is different than regular search.
First of all, no cell phone is built like a regular computer, so you need to consider how a mobile search is physically conducted. On each tiny device there’s a tiny keypad that requires precise finger or stylus pointing – and many of today’s devices use some type of predictive text capability to assist in typing. Because typing on one of these keypads can be a bit precarious, it’s important to make search usability and convenience a priority.
Another point to remember regarding mobile devices is where they’re typically used. While computers are generally accessed in a desk-type setting, you can usually find people using mobiles while on the move or seated anywhere but a desk. People browse and text in waiting rooms, restaurants, airports, behind the wheel ( ) or in front of the TV.
This leads to the fact that mobile devices are also used for different purposes than their computer cousins. What are they used for? While a computer is your best choice for writing research papers, conducting critical shopping or holding video conferences because of the large display, handy mouse and full keyboard, cell phones are great for keeping in touch, experiencing personal multimedia functions and enjoying general convenience.
With these basic ideas about mobile search in mind, here are current mobile SEO best practices (likely to change as the capabilities of mobile search morph over time):
- Use fewer keywords. Google says that mobile queries are an average of 15 characters long and take about 40 seconds to enter. Employ mobile-centric search phrases that mobile searchers use, and optimize content accordingly.
- Make sure content is clean and the layout is simple. Don’t use frames or Flash or anything that complicates the minimal space available. Strategically place keywords within navigation, header tags, body copy links, etc.
- Make your code easily accessible for crawlability. Use the correct headers and robots.text file instructions, avoid blocking IP ranges and ensure that all of the pages you want indexed are located in the public domain.
- Submit your site to all of the most relevant directories and business listings services as these sites can provide valuable mobile traffic.
- Submit your site to all major mobile search engines (Google Mobile, Yahoo Mobile, Bing Mobile, etc.) to increase your chances of being crawled.
- Use compliant markup language, such as iMode, cHTML, xHTML, WAP 1.0 and WAP 2.0, to ensure that your content is accessible by most mobile devices.
- Shorten key factors such as title tags and URLs, while still making sure they’re keyword rich.
- Use the word “mobile” in your title tags and meta descriptions so bots will know that these pages are specifically designed for the mobile web.
- To differentiate your mobile site from its PC counterpart, create a mobile sitemap along with a fully optimized mobile site. Mobile search logically syncs with mobile results.
Without question, mobile devices will change drastically and the rules of SEO for mobile will probably follow suit. But what won’t change are the concepts that (a) this technology is not going away any time soon and (b) mobile phone SEO is different than desktop SEO, but just as necessary. No matter what, how or when – to maximize your website, you’ll need to rework it with the latest coding and mobile web compliance standards in mind.
Tags: mobile seo, seo for mobile
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July 8th, 2010 by Patrick Hare
 Article Spinning is an SEO practice that takes a piece of content and replaces words and phrases with synonyms to create multiple versions of the same article. This is normally done through the use of a program that understands synonyms, meanings, and grammar rules, so the end result appears to be a readable facsimile of the original content produced. The creation of “spun content” is generally done to expand a presence on article directories, which get exposure and create links back to a main site. Many people also host spun content on their own websites in lieu of writing multiple pages of original content.
The creation of duplicate content is not generally recommended for the average website owner. Search engines have become more savvy with semantic recognition, and are increasingly able to spot text that has the same structure, whether it is on the same site or hundreds of article submission sites. Generally speaking, article submission sites have lost most of their SEO link value compared to a few years ago, and recent changes like the Mayday update are helping to filter out “junk” content that is created more for traffic and links than legitimate consumer use. One of the major issues that search engines have with spun content (which uses tools like Markov Text Generators) is that it is possible for computers to create thousands of low-quality pages that water down search engine results. Since a search engine wants to keep its credibility by delivering the best match possible, it will naturally find ways to detect text that uses these tricks.
In their heyday, article directories and spun content were used by affiliate marketers, SEO spammers, and people who were working to get traffic to their own sites. Article directories generally benefitted because they had a continuous source of new content, which can capture all kinds of aggregate keyword traffic, which in turn fuels advertising revenue by way of impressions and clicks. Therefore, allowing submission of multiple articles on similar topics was a boon to the directory, and early adopters of content submission often got to see their articles in print and got the secondary SEO/traffic benefit from a link to the actual site.
The idea behind article spinning is that you are creating original content by substituting words. Some of the smarter article spinning methods involve the creation of multiple original pieces, then swapping out specific paragraphs. For instance, you might create five versions of a five paragraph article, mix and match each article’s paragraphs into multiple pieces, then spin the mixed pieces into hundreds of other derivative works. You could even use different spinning rules for different parts of each article. In this way, it would be more difficult for a search engine to discover that a piece was not 100% original. Unfortunately, the large scale use of this method, along with bulk submission to such article directories, means that the value of the directory is put into question and the content is less likely to rank at all.
For the average SEO client who is building a site for long-term rankings, spun content has a build in flaw. Even if search engines can’t detect a well-spun piece of text today, they will likely be able to spot it in the future. Sites with huge page counts that employ such tactics are going to either be heavily penalized or removed from an index altogether. Replacing spun content with new material could be such an unfeasible proposition that the site could become completely unsalvageable based on your budget.
From a purely “white hat SEO” view, we always recommend the creation of 100% unique content. In the same way that you would fail a college course for submitting a plagiarized paper, you can get penalized in search engines for copying the same piece of content, even if you change it up. Furthermore, if you modify someone else’s copyrighted content, you are running the risk of a lawsuit and/or DMCA takedown whereby your content is excised from the Google index and simultaneously reported to external sites like chillingeffects.org. The difference between content creation for the internet and college is that you can get away with paying other people to write your copy, and get people with SEO experience to put good keywords into your content that create a “theme” for your web site. At Web.com Search Agency we offer content writing solutions that are scalable for small sites and large enterprises, and the information will be unique to your site, so you don’t have to worry about search engine penalties, lawsuits, and infamy on a medium that never forgets!
Tags: article spinning, Duplicate Content
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July 7th, 2010 by Lisa Rosenkrantz
So I was checking out Bing, hoping to find some new and exciting feature and I definitely got lucky. Their new Bing travel is comprehensive and lets you quickly research and explore your destination. It definitely helped me get a tight grip on planning a vacation and provided some very useful options. I’m a visual person, meaning I like charts and pictures and spreadsheets to focus me, and Bing uses graphic organizers to make it easy to compare fares, times and booking agents, etc. I tried it out for scheduling a round trip flight (it can also be used for hotels and travel packages) from Phoenix to Honolulu and have decided that I’m a fan.
What I liked most is the ease of use and what you get in return for a simple search. I love planning vacations and have booked dozens of them online with various companies, but it can be daunting and somewhat annoying going back and forth between wholesale travel sites and airline websites when you’re looking for the bottom line best deal. With Bing’s travel planning, when you enter your travel information, you get full flight details and more for multiple airlines, current prices and tips on when to buy and save.
Further, when you type in your destination, you access attractions and neighborhoods you might not otherwise have known about. Find maps of the area, links to hotels, restaurants, landmarks, hotspots and whatever else you’re into. Bing hooks you up with local listings on a map and even provides videos that feature the area’s places and people. There’s a slideshow of postcard-ish pictures and links for weather forecasts that will give you an idea of what’s waiting for you at your destination.
Here are the basic components of Bing travel:
Smart travel search
Bing travel bases their advice on a huge volume of airfare and hotel rate data that they process daily. It enables you to easily compare, sort and narrow travel results from hundreds of websites.
Price predictions
Their data and technology help determine if the lowest fare for a trip is rising or dropping within the coming week.
Rate indicators
Their Rate Indicator compares current and past hotel room rates to determine whether you’re getting a decent deal.
Search multiple travel sites and purchase tickets at the supplier’s website
Bing does the searching and brings it to you. All you need to do is choose what you like and they’ll deliver you to the supplier and you can take it from there.
Here’s my successful search…
Directly into the Bing search box, I typed in my departure and arrival cities. You can also access this feature by clicking on the Travel link on the homepage.
It brought me to the main search page where I could select dates and particular airports, then click Find flights.
In seconds, that page was replaced by the results, which gave me a list of 368 possible fares from lowest to highest and which airline they belonged to. Best of all, though, is there is a PRICE PREDICTOR function that told me to wait before booking because the fares may have been scheduled to drop.
When I clicked on the red arrow, Bing delivered a 7-day low fare prediction window that alerted me to a probable future price drop within the week (based on past trends). How cool is that? (Of course, every statement is qualified and no definite terms are used; instead, they use words like likelihood, risk, confidence…)
Using the tools on the left side of the page, you can tweak your search and have the results reflect the airlines, airports, flight quality and duration you prefer. Doing this narrowed down my results to a manageable 9 items. This helps to really close in on the perfect travel plan.
After choosing my desired flights, Bing connected me directly to the airline’s website in a separate window with all the information filled in already, and I proceeded to finish out my reservation (I opted not to wait out the seven days for the fare to drop). The whole process took me less than a half hour – normally it would take me hours. For those who work hard and deserve a vacation, do yourself a solid and simplify your search with this sweet online travel site.
Tags: bing travel, online travel sites, travel sites
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July 6th, 2010 by Jessica Runberg
 Pssst! While it’s no secret that SEO is a complex process, there are a few golden rules you can follow that will have an impact on your rankings – and they are things you can implement right now.
Here’s a list of some of our Top SEO secrets (be sure to pass it on!):
Select the Right Keywords. Too often, we see websites that take a scattershot approach to their keyword research (or don’t do any keyword research at all). Your keywords will become the basis for your entire SEO campaign (in other words, they’re REALLY important). Choose relevant keywords for each page you optimize and be sure your website can rank for them.
Not All Links Are Created Equal. Does your website have a gazillion backlinks? Good for you – that is if the links are high quality. Low quality links (irrelevant links or links with poor site statistics) will have little impact on your rankings and may actually hurt your business. Find quality links that will give your website a real boost.
Don’t Forget the Meta Tags. Including meta tags is one of the easiest ways you can optimize your site, and yet there are so many businesses that neglect to do this. Be sure to place a keyword or two (be careful not to go overboard) in your meta title and description tag to help search engines and customers figure out what the page is about. Even though the search engines don’t use description tags for rankings purposes, they still highlight matching keywords when they show descriptions to searchers.
Content Matters. Google’s robots read digital content and they like to see lots of it. The words you post on your website will tell the search engines and, more importantly, your customers, what the site is about. This is one of the most important aspects of on-page optimization. Be sure to sprinkle in a few keywords throughout the body content on each page (just make sure the content reads naturally).
Create Some Buzz. Buzz marketing is an excellent way to create backlinks and build upon your SEO efforts. Create content that makes others naturally want to link to you (whether it’s great content, a YouTube video, an eZine article, a podcast or other form of social media) and you’ll increase your traffic in no time.
What about the rest? We’re keeping those SEO marketing secrets locked away in the Web.com Search Agency idea vault. In all seriousness though, we have lots of tricks up our sleeves and we’d be happy to conduct an SEO site audit on your website and present our recommendations to you – simply give us a call!
Tags: SEO Secrets
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July 6th, 2010 by Patrick Hare
 The “Google Sandbox” effect has been debated for several years on webmaster forums. Because the topic has been discussed in the SEO world so often that it has become tiresome, it often is only brought up as a topic when an SEO client’s new site isn’t making any progress on Google. For new clients who aren’t familiar with all the SEO jargon that gets thrown around, it helps to start with a definition and an explanation of how the sandbox effects new websites.
The Google Sandbox is defined (loosely) as an artificial lowering of search engine rankings for new sites. It can also be called the “Sandbox Filter” because a figurative glass ceiling has been created for your site’s rankings event though the site has been cached and indexed. Sometimes this effect can go on for over a year, which is not encouraging for clients who may have expected to have high rankings in a short amount of time. Even worse, an observed component of the Sandbox is that it may initially place a site in a good position, then suddenly drop it back for an extended period of time. For the SEO team that is part of the initial web development project, this can look like a quick achievement followed by lackluster results, so the client should be forewarned.
Why would Google create a sandbox? Like many actions taken by search engines, the sandbox filter would most likely have been created to prevent search engine abuse. As search engines became better at spidering new sites and following more links, people were buying up thousands of domain names and adding enough low value “garbage” content to get discovered. Even though a lot of this traffic came from words and phrases with relatively low individual search volumes, these pages would create millions of clicks as a collective. Suddenly, top search engine results would be watered down by low value websites, which would lead the end user to distrust search engine results. Another practice, known as “domain tasting” involves buying large batches of domain names and then returning them within a few days to get a full refund, then buying them back again, and so on. Garbage content on these domain names can also produce traffic, but cause headaches for search engines and the general public. One way to combat this abuse would be to create a filter for newer sites, which effectively takes away the incentive to try and get a short term benefit from garbage sites. (For long-term garbage site practices, there are other filters not discussed here.)
From the standpoint of an SEO firm, one of the key problems related to the Google Sandbox is that there are plenty of pages online from reputable SEO experts stating that there is no such thing. Other experts argue the opposite. Some also will argue that the sandbox filter has been replaced by other factors. An interesting March 2009 article from Rand Fishkin at SEOMoz outlines a series of signals showing how to identify that a site is sandboxed. Common factors include a newer domain, pages that don’t rank for their own title, and the aforementioned instance of good rankings suddenly dropping off.
How do you combat the sandbox effect, or prevent it from happening? Generally speaking, you do this by appearing as trustworthy as possible. If you’re running an aggressive SEO campaign, this is kind of like trying to buy “fake integrity,” but the consequences of the sandbox are often worse than the suspense that comes from a patient and focused SEO strategy. Avoiding the sandbox involves steadier content creation, and link building tactics that roll out links as opposed to buying several dozen (or hundred) at a time. A massive infusion of new links to a site can raise serious red flags for Google or any other search engine. If your site is already sandboxed, it pays to get higher quality links from more trusted websites as opposed to cheap links from sketchy sources. You may also want to improve the quality of your site, and add more user-friendly content, which may not only help you emerge from the sandbox but will also help you get more long-tail traffic when you finally do.
Whether or not you (or your SEO consultant) believe in the Google Sandbox, you should still be on the lookout for its effects, whether they come as a result of one filter or several. At Web.com Search Agency, we have observed several cases where the “sandbox” has come into play, and it is tough to combat. At the same time, it is very important that you go through your site to make sure that there aren’t any other factors that could be giving you artificially low rankings. Is your navigation in order? Are you blurring titles or linking to low quality pages? Does your content pass muster? You don’t want to come out of the sandbox with a low quality site, and you also don’t want to find out that your “sandbox” issue was really caused by a problem that could have been fixed in a couple of hours.
As a last resort, it is always possible to buy a ranking website, or one that has enough age to overcome the sandbox issue. For example, if you see a site that gets first page rankings for a particular search term, but looks a bit “distressed,” then you may be able to purchase it from its owner and slowly re-tool the site to fit your purposes. One caveat with this approach is that it is best to keep the same content and configuration for awhile after the purchase so the search engine doesn’t match up a new WHOIS listing with a new looking site, consider your site to be “brand new” and then throw you into the sandbox!
Tags: google sandbox, sandbox
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July 2nd, 2010 by Patrick Hare
 Anyone can claim to be an SEO Expert. This can become problematic when a self-declared “SEO Guru” turns out to be completely out of touch with current search engine optimization practices. Many of these self-styled savants also turn out to be fast talkers and very persuasive, so they can still get lucrative consulting gigs despite shady credentials that would get torn apart with a small amount of analysis. Sadly, many people find out that their consultant is lacking in knowledge when a campaign fails miserably, or when rankings disappear from search engines altogether.
For the unsophisticated site owner, the dishonest SEO salesperson usually looks a lot more attractive than the one in the white hat. An ethical optimization consultant will tell you that rankings take time, that you shouldn’t expect “dramatic overnight results” and that your business plan should anticipate slow growth and patience. Meanwhile, the people who get their SEO leads by spamming will tell you that you can have a first page position “guaranteed” on Google in a few weeks. They don’t tell you that it will be a ranking for a long-tail phrase nobody would realistically type in, and that their guarantee is fulfilled as long as any one of your keywords gets to the first page.
In many cases, we find that people have been trusting an “SEO Expert” with no real SEO knowledge. Even worse, we get customers who bought “optimization” in the past for thousands of dollars when the only deliverable was a submission to a batch of search engines, or links on sites that will host your URL on a South Asian page with 500 links to casinos, money making schemes, and online pharmacies. For a couple of dollars out of pocket, the SEO consultant has walked away with a 95% markup on something that is more likely to sink your rankings than raise them. We once even ran across an SEO huckster who was charging a client $3400 a month for links like these, and he claimed that they provided “international flavor” despite their low value. When we had the client turn these links off, amid protests from the other vendor, the client’s rankings improved.
Other clients will often go for the SEO company that takes them straight into Black Hat territory. We have had to turn away business from prospects who paid for cloaking, auto-generated content, and bad links, then got banned by search engines. While it is occasionally possible to rescue a site that has been penalized for intentional SEO issues, it isn’t possible to guarantee that the site won’t be banned for years. A site that has been reincluded in the index may also be under permanent scrutiny for search engines, so any future SEO work would have to be more above-board than an average campaign.
As a general rule, you should not retain a company that sent you a spam email promising you great results for just a few dollars. In reality, great results cost more money, and they are worth it. You should also be a bit chagrined is you got an unsolicited email based on a click from one of your Pay-Per-Click ads, since you effectively paid for the spam message with your own marketing dollars. Most good SEO companies can gather leads based on their reputations, search engine positions, or through relationships with other reputable organizations. Many companies that promise cheap SEO results will do little or nothing to improve your site rankings, and the only silver lining is that they didn’t destroy your site’s search engine trust factors in the process.
Learning a little bit about SEO is usually a great way to find a reputable SEO expert or consultant. Many people with advanced SEO skills will still hire management companies to do specialized work that takes more time or resources than the average individual could perform alone. Also, good SEO companies have processes in place that can streamline implementation and provide you with superior results. At Web.com Search Agency, we take a certain amount of time to educate our customers about several different aspects of the optimization process. By presenting our product in reference to accepted SEO principles, we can help guide customer expectations and allow for the patience necessary to make a campaign successful. By turning our customers into more educated consumers, they become evangelists for quality SEO practices, and in turn help more people learn how to get better rankings without taking unnecessary risks or falling victim to SEO scam artists.
Tags: seo scam, seo scams
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July 2nd, 2010 by Patrick Hare
 Build Your Site For Tomorrow’s Algorithm Change
When it comes to search engine algorithms, the one thing you can count on is change. Google says there were hundreds of tweaks last year, Bing is always refining its indexing, and scores of other “Google Killers” are trying to worm their way into the market with a better search experience. In the process of all these changes, there are sites that keep their positions, ones that suddenly move up, and others that drop off the map. People who employ search engine optimization tactics usually see their sites hold positions or improve slightly during these updates. Despite this, the majority of SEO work involves playing “catch up” with the latest indexing changes, even though they could have been anticipated with a little foresight.
Building a “Future-Proof” SEO strategy shouldn’t be too hard if you understand what search engines have in mind. Essentially the engines are trying to match people up with the best possible search result for the query, so you should build your site accordingly. You should strive to have the most authoritative pages for your keyword searches, and offer tools and resources that people can’t find on most other sites in your field. You should also stay on the “continuous improvement” path with your site design and link building since this is congruent with current SEO practices while it builds a better site for the client. A search engine gets and keeps its authority among users by giving the most accurate results, so you should not only strive for accuracy but stickiness. If Google or Bing can see that the top link for the query didn’t result in a lot of clicks back to the engine, then it is more apparent that the user found the right information. In turn, the user is going to visit the same engine in the future.
Understanding previous updates and filters can also help you anticipate what is going to happen down the road. For instance, Google recently added page speed into its list of ranking factors. Many other changes are relative to semantics, or the relationship between words on a page. Site owners with original, well written content would be the beneficiaries of better semantic indexing in the future, while people who use machine generated (or “spun”) content may find their pages in worse positions. For example, the Google Mayday update had a large impact (mainly reported as negative) on many long-tail phrases, and this was relevant to content and the trust (via linking and other signals) on pages containing that content. Anyone who is working in “Gray Hat” territory should consider the potential for future updates which are certain to be better at detecting tricks that work right now.
The influence of social media on SEO is also something that should not be discounted. Tweets, Facebook references, and other traffic relevant to a site can go a long way toward establishing an understanding of sites that are popular among users. They can also help search engines sort out which sites are “static” and which ones are playing an active role in the online community. While there isn’t too much direct social media influence on optimization right now, it does make sense to integrate your profiles with your website in order to help associate your company’s presence with a single destination.
If you’re an ecommerce site selling products, it also pays to stay ahead of the next search engine update. Search spiders and robots are always getting better at reading pages they previously could not discover. If you have a large product catalog, this means that your rivals who previously had a less SEO-friendly site are now getting crawled and indexed. Your position in the search market can get diluted by improvements in the search engine algorithms unless you plan ahead. For starters, you should make your product descriptions as unique as possible, instead of just importing in content from the manufacturer, which will appear on hundreds of other sites. Second, you should make sure your shopping cart structure has a better hierarchy, logical breadcrumbs, and good internal linking. Naturally you should have better product page titles as well. If you play your cards right, you can improve rankings across the board for your products even when the marketplace suddenly becomes more crowded.
While it isn’t possible to predict every search engine algorithm change, it pays to have a vision for search engine changes. If you expect search engines to get better at finding content, and assigning a relative value to what they find, then you can build that vision into your website strategy. In short, it pays to be the best. Not only are people more likely to link to the best website, they are also more likely to visit that site again. If you can present good information to the new searcher, and bring that person back via bookmarks and direct traffic, your benefit is obvious, while a search engine may use such information (gathered through toolbars and server logs) to understand which sites people “like” more than others. If you can readily show why someone would want to visit your site more than once, then you probably have less to fear from an SEO change than a site that does not provide the same value to visitors. As long as you can “endorse” the ranking choice made by the search engine, then you will not only be able to succeed in SEO, but you will also have a site everyone wants to see.
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July 2nd, 2010 by Jessica Runberg
 Much like architecture itself, website architecture is multi-faceted in that it involves technical and aesthetic elements. An architect must design a building that is structurally sound, aesthetically pleasing and welcoming to its human inhabitants. If you’re missing any one of these three critical elements, the design will be a flop.
The same is true of websites. It’s just as important to optimize your website for actual visitors as it is for the search engines. If you want to take a tiered approach to SEO, you have to consider people, search engines and design when implementing site architecture.
 People. One of the pieces of SEO advice we give clients is to design their site as if search engines didn’t exist. While we don’t usually mean this literally, it is a good idea to keep in your back pocket. Search engines want to see content, keywords and backlinks that look natural. Any attempt to over-optimize or otherwise make your website look spammy won’t win you friends in the search-engine world or with potential customers.
Most of the pillars of SEO are great for people and search engines, such as creating value-added and optimized digital content on your pages. In the end, the goal of SEO is to drive traffic to your site, so you want to make sure that it’s designed with the human visitor in mind.
 Search Engines. Search engine spiders read code so you’ll want to make sure your website is up to speed in the technical arena. This includes having optimized meta tags, a proper navigational structure such as bread crumb navigation, an optimized site map, a 301 redirect in place if necessary and much more.
Without the technical know-how, it can be very difficult to reach your SEO goals. This is why many website owners hire an SEO firm to help them achieve the results they want. Behind the scenes, analytics software such as Google Analytics will enable you and your SEO services provider to measure your campaign’s progress and adjust your strategy accordingly.
 Design. The Internet world moves lightning fast and most websites only have a few seconds (if that) to make a good first impression. If your website design isn’t attractive or otherwise appropriate for your business, potential customers are going to move on. Your overall design, layout and logo say a lot about your business. In this case, a picture truly is worth a thousand words!
It should be noted that the search engines can’t read images, so be sure to include anything you want them to see (such as optimized page titles and body content) in a text format. Also make sure that your website isn’t all form and no function; an easy-to-use website is an online shopper’s best friend.
It’s time to break out the proverbial SEO site architecture map and get to work on your website!
Tags: site architecture
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July 1st, 2010 by Jessica Runberg
 Are you new to social media or aren’t sure how to use Facebook and Twitter marketing to increase your sales? This post is for you.
Social media marketing ROI is a hot topic; everybody wants to know how social media is going to make their business money. And let’s face it, that’s a pretty fair question.
But first, let’s get back to basics. No matter what you’re measuring, whether it’s social media or something else, ROI is defined as the ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested. Therefore, you have to set up some baseline metrics prior to measuring your social media results.
This means you’ll need to determine what it is that you want to measure. You can customize your campaign to accomplish a variety of goals including increased sales, better customer retention, increased coupon-redemption rates and so on. Then the work begins!
When you launch your campaign, the first results you’ll see are generally referred to as non-financial indicators and can include:
- Facebook friends
- Twitter followers
- Re-tweets
- Social mentions
- Increased site traffic
- Blog comments
- Positive press
- Positive word of mouth
While these indicators are a good sign that your business is growing because of social media, you’ll need to find a connection between these non-financial indicators and revenue generation in order to calculate ROI. For example, do customers on your social networks purchase products from your website more frequently than others? What percentage of your coupons have been redeemed as a result of social media? If your Twitter followers increased by X%, then how much did your total revenue increase? These questions drive ROI.
From an SEO perspective, one of our favorite metrics is to measure how site traffic increases because of social media and how this traffic ultimately results in increased revenue. This is simple to track through Google Analytics or other analytics software platforms that your SEO services provider may be using.
The thing to remember is that no matter what metrics you decide to measure and how you measure them, the key to measuring social media ROI is to identify how it helps your business generate revenue.
Tags: social media ROI
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optimization (SEO). While it’s still in the early stages, there’s no doubt mobile search is current and powerful and it’s essential for businesses to understand how to capitalize on it. SEO also must make the transition along with consumers towards mobile applications.
