Ryan talked about the importance of goals. He suggested measuring what makes sense, not just things that are measurable. He defined the following as viable SEO goals:

• Sales
• Leads
• KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
• LFAs (Lower Funnel Activities)

The following are not valid SEO goals:

• Keyword Rankings
• Visits
• Video Views
• Facebook Likes
• Twitter Followers

Reporting vs. Analytics

These two are different. Reporting shows what the number is. Analytics tells why and what to do about it. Goals should be actionable. If what you’re doing doesn’t offer actions or insights, it’s reporting, not analytics.

Ryan also mentioned to familiarize yourself with Google’s Webmaster Tools, because pretty soon it will be the only natural search data we have.

Chris stressed the importance of your client’s goals, and how your SEO goals should align with them. You client most likely doesn’t care about indexation metrics, number of backlinks, and they might not even care about traffic. Your job is to know what they care about.

Chris also discussed a number of “trap” metrics: he advised caution when migrating from one analytics program to another. He also advised against using traffic as a success metric. He also warned against the rankings trap fail, and advised that in this day and age “there is no one single objective ranking.”

The post SES 2012: Meaningful SEO Performance Metrics appeared first on 435 Digital.

• Moderator: Dana Todd, Vice President of Performance Innovation, Performics
• Bruce Clay, President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
• Dan Cristo, Director of SEO Innovation, Catalyst Online
• Andrew Delamarter, Director of Search Marketing, HUGE, Inc.
• Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board; International Search Strategist, Author, Beyond Ink USA

This session was in Q & A format, and included the role of the SEO practitioner, big data, the knowledge graph, the role of apps, social media, links, and local.

Regarding the changing role of SEO, the panel generally agreed that SEOs are becoming more “quarterbacks” for their organizations. A lot of traditional SEO tactics are starting to go away or have less value, such as link building. That relationship building may be better handled by the Public Relations or Social Media folks. As a result, the SEO needs to be an evangelist for best optimization practices. Social, PPC, and SEO need to work effectively together now more than ever.

When asked for practical solutions that can be implemented now, the panel offered the following items:

• Implement structured data utilizing schema.org. (Anne)
• Get active with Google+ and link your profiles to all your content. (Andrew)
• Develop a native app, and build it with an API so your data can be accessed (there will soon be a schema.org for aps). (Dan)
• Beef up your team w/ developers & data/analytics folks. For non-technical staff, hire folks who have experience with content marketing & PR. (Dan)
• Focus on quality. Clean up your backlinks. Get rid of anything marginal. (Bruce)

The post SES 2012: SEO 2013 – The Future of Search appeared first on 435 Digital.

The panel started off with an announcement of a mobile marketing report released by ClickZ and the Google Analytics team detailing the future of mobile marketing and measurement.

The panel discussed how, even though the use of mobile devices has become extremely popular in the last few years, only recently has the marketing value of mobile begun to be realized. As a result, they expect mobile marketing budgets to increase. Mr. Singer stressed the value of utilizing mobile analytics to win support for larger mobile budgets.

The panel stressed the importance of considering how people use mobile devices. Just because a device is mobile does not necessarily mean that the user is “mobile”. Mr. Allen stated that “There isn’t a ‘mobile’ user any more. Users just move from device to device to device.” Mr. Singer talked made the point that mobile conversions are different from web conversions. A mobile conversion might be a click-to-call, opt-in for an email newsletter, or just take the form of general engagement. He also stated that nearly 1 our of 5 of all marketers market a non-mobile experience to mobile users, meaning that mobile users might be directed to a landing page designed for a desktop computer, which results in an unsatisfying user experience.

A popular question from the audience was whether to have an app or a mobile version of a website. The panel agreed that each can be valuable, although each has worth in it’s own right, and that the needs of the user should guide the decision-making process. Mr. Hafiz stated that studies have shown that a lot of users on tablet devices use the tablet’s browser to make purchases (as opposed to apps), and suggested that a balance be found between apps and mobile websites. Mr. Singer mentioned that app engagement is important, and stated that, once a user has downloaded your app, “if they’ve used it (only) once you’ve failed; you should not have an app.”

The post SES Chicago: Metrics for Success in the Mobile and Apps Ecosystem appeared first on 435 Digital.

A few weeks ago we met with Amy Ravit Korin and Ashley Glassman of Google+. Our SEO specialist Alex wrote about that meeting in his blog post Why Businesses Should Use Google Plus Local. Amy and Ashley talked about Google’s migration away from Google Maps/Google Places over to Google+ Local/Google+ Pages. They told us that in about a year Google expects to have fully migrated the data to Google+.

We continue to see evidence of this migration. Search Engine Results Pages (“SERPs”) have been showing links to business Google+ pages. If a business has Google+ reviews, the current review score is displayed. For example, here are the local results for “running shoes:”

Notice how the two bottom reviews do not show the new 30-point Zagat score. This is because the old Google 3-point reviewing system does not transition over unless someone manually re-publishes their old review.

If a newer business shows up, only a link to their Google+ page will appear:

In this example, I was logged into Google when I performed the search for “riverfront theater chicago”. Google recognized that I was logged in and encouraged my use of Google+, asking if I would like to write a review for the location.

Even though Google+ Local is still transitioning, Google’s integration of Google+ into search results will probably increase as time goes on. If you’ve got a business with a brick and mortar location, we highly recommend you claim your listing. Doing so will allow you to better manage your business’ profile on Google.

The post Google+ Local Information Now Common in Search Results appeared first on 435 Digital.

You own a small- to medium-sized business. You’ve heard enough about search engine optimization (SEO) that you’ve decided to go for it. People search the internet before making a purchase, and you’d like to turn that into profit. At this point, you’d like to find out:

• What can I expect from an SEO agency?
• How do I start the SEO process?

When choosing an SEO agency, I recommend asking a lot of questions. The more questions the better.

• Ask to meet the team that will be working on your site.
• Ask about some of their other clients.
• Ask about their process. Make sure you understand the plan of attack.
• Ask what you or your in-house people need to participate in or can contribute to ensure the process is smooth and successful.

Make a point to get involved. Your relationship with your SEO agency is not a set it and forget it situation. Water your SEO garden and watch it grow; ignore it and it may wither away.

Beginning the SEO Engagement

At the onset of every SEO engagement, our agency will review your current website. This is called an audit. An audit can tell you what the SEO value of your current site is, determine its strengths and weakness and give us (and you) an accurate assessment of what we have to work with. Auditing your website sets the SEO strategy for the future, and can help determine if an entirely new website is necessary or recommended.

There are a few things you should have on hand to prepare for the audit. Here are 5 important pieces of information:

• Where your website is hosted (GoDaddy, BlueHost, 1and1, for example)
• The password for your web hosting
• Where your domain name is registered (GoDaddy, for example)
• The password for that domain registration
• If you have analytics on your site, the password for that

It is difficult to perform a thorough audit without this information.

One question you want answered from the start is: How do we know when SEO is working? SEO success can show itself in a few ways:

• More traffic to your site
• Sales leads
• More online sales
• More/greater diversity in the keywords that are driving traffic to your site
• More pages in the index
• Higher keyword rankings

Be aware that higher keyword rankings don’t always mean more business. Be sure to discuss your goals and expectations thoroughly with your SEO agency. Your SEO goals should support or advance your overall business goals.

These are just a few things to get your SEO started out right. Now, plant your SEO seeds and watch them grow!

The post SEO For Small Business: First Steps appeared first on 435 Digital.

On October 18th, Google announced that over the next few weeks they’ll be introducing encrypted search (via SSL) for those users who perform a search query while signed in to Google.

As a result, this will limit the data seen in analytics programs. We will no longer be able to see the specific keyword search that brought that user to a site. In Google Analytics, that traffic will appear as (not provided). In Omniture/SiteCatalyst, from what I understand, you won’t even see (not provided); your Referrer Types report will show an increase in traffic from Other Web Sites and your Search Keywords and Search Engines reports will show an increase in traffic from None.

Google claims this change will only affect a single-digit percentage of search volume. I looked at 10 Websites I have access to analytics data for, and since October 18th the mean affected traffic has been .05% of total traffic, and 1.1% of Natural Search traffic. So, at least thus far, from what I’ve seen, Google’s claim checks out.

There is a bit of a double standard in place, as Google Ads aren’t subjected to the same level of encryption.

Overall, there’s been an uproar in the SEO community; see Danny Sullivan’s post, or Rhea Drysdale’s post, or Ian Lurie’s post.

Why have they done this?

I don’t believe that Google’s master plan is to eliminate this data completely. Why would they risk alienating (nay, threatening the careers of) the entire SEO community, a passionate group of people that RELY on search engines for their livelihood? If not suicide, that would at least be PR self-loathing. Google expects the SEO community to be outspoken, and is most likely using this as a barometer to measure the climate, in preparation for their next move.

Should SEO folks be freaking out? Yeah. We gotta speak up and let Google know how seriously this ties the hands of SEO.

What might happen?

Ok, so let’s assume Google is legitimately serious about user privacy, and requires a Website to run over SSL before passing any referrer data. Fine. An inconvenience, yes, but I get it.

Or, they make that data available only through Webmaster tools, which seems fair, because at that point you’ve gone through a measure of authentication.

How do you explain the gross hypocrisy of not encrypting paid searches? This could be their out, a calculated flaw that allows them to inject some rhetoric, in the event that they decide to revert away from signed-in SSL. “The technical limitations that Web-wide SSL browsing posed proved to be insurmountable bla bla…”

Is this just a ploy to push Google Analytics Premium?

Eh. That doesn’t make sense to me. They’d essentially be declaring GA impotent. The value of the free data they receive from Google Analytics is more valuable than what they’d make from GA Premium. Not to mention that they’d be creating another political firestorm.

Am I being naive in assuming Google will stick to their do-no-evil philosophy? I sure hope not.

The post SEO Implications of Google Encrypted Search appeared first on 435 Digital.