Month: December 2012

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Coming Soon Custom Vanity URLs on Google+

The current URL of your Google+ page is long and ugly, but the Google+ team does say that they are working to re mediate this issue.  at Google writes in one of his Google+ status updates that Google is currently trying out new vanity URLs on select brands at this present time.

Google+ vanity URLs will be in this format Google.com/+NancyMcCord (this URL does not exist yet, but you can connect with me on Google+ for now on this ugly URL: https://plus.google.com/104147012849953819334#104147012849953819334/posts.

You can read Saurabh Sharma’s full announcement online. Make sure to read the comment thread as it is interesting.

The first step in the process is to request Google+ verification. Here is the link to start.

So stay tuned when custom vanity URLs are available on Google+ I’ll make sure to let you know.

 

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Placement on Google is All About Web Authority Not SEO Tactics

Since 2005 I have been focused on building web authority website as I felt that this was the best way to truly place on Google and insulate myself and my clients from search engine algorithm changes. I named my blog the Web Authority just for that reason. Authority websites communicate transparency and confidence to the potential client. Now it seems that my focus on organic placement is finally being embraced by mainstream SEO gurus.

In this last year if your website placement dropped because of the Panda and Penguin Google updates your only way to re mediate traffic is to move into Google AdWords and drive traffic to your poorly placed site or spend time and money and rework your content while changing your online marketing strategy.

I have recently read an interesting article written by Jill Whalen on SiteProNews that speaks to the same focus that I have taken in regards to authority building strategies. She very succinctly spells out what works now and what does not. The article is certainly worth a careful review.

This is the bottom line from my own view point of what you should do to get organic placement on Google

1. Re mediate your problems first. If you have duplicate content, duplicate websites, poorly written or thin content; get rid of it now!

2. Create a content building plan. Invest in creating rich informational content and share your expertise on your website through a regular plan of content building. Share your expertise, share your view point with white papers, blog posts, and new pages on your website, cross link where appropriate.

3. Work your social media plan. The key is to connect not just to vomit out updates on social media. Interaction and creating a rich network is key. I like Google+ and Twitter for my own uses one as Google spiders these and adds updates to their index. I see more of my updates from Google+ in the Google index and so I make sure to try to connect there. Additionally as Google+’s personal pages are where the real action is and your AuthorRank is tied to it as well as the fact Google allows no automation to Google+ personal pages your voice there is legitimate and Google knows this and rewards it as such. Keep your follower to following ratios in check. Make sure you have a difference with more followers than following. Google will reward your efforts with a higher SocialRank.

Authority sites do not get built in one week, one month or even in several months. It takes time to create and build and tweak content that gets rewarded for placement. As an example of an authority website, I invite you to visit my own and review the depth of informational content and writing style for transparency. The same tactic I have taken for my own business can work for yours. Just ask me how!

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Google+ Tips – Bold and Verify

Here are a few tips for Google+ that I thought were pretty good and wanted to pass along.

How to Bold Something in a Status Update
This is pretty cool and I stumbled across this on the Web, but can’t remember where. To bold something specific like a keywords or hashtag in a Google+ update surround the text with a +. For example I want to bold AdWords Services in an update, I use this syntax +AdWords Services+. Check it out in your own account and you’ll see that once published it will appear as AdWords Services.

You may want to try bolding your Google+ hashtags or keywords to see if this helps you with Search Engines and indexing.

How to Hashtag Something in Google+
On Twitter you use # in front of a no space hashtag to let Twitter know that they should index your tweet with a special search phrase. For example referring to my business name on Twitter I would use #McCordWebServices. Note I have no spaces between words. On Google+ you will use #McCordWebServices also and your updates will appear tied to that search.

How to Mention Someone in Google+
When you want to link to and mention someone in Facebook or Twitter you use @mccordweb. Note the @ in front of their name? On Google+ you will +mccordweb or + and then name the person.

Verify Your Google+ Business Page with Google
To make sure that Google knows which business is yours. Make sure to verify your business page with Google using this online verification tool. This will allow Google to know who you are and may speed your ability to create a vanity URL for your Google+ pages.

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Structuring Your Account to Use Dynamic Text – Part II

Continued from Monday.

  • I am very careful in crafting my ad text so that when the dynamic keyword or phrase is inserted it makes sense to a reader. This is why my keyword trigger lists are small and concise and include a desired reader action such as buy, order, or purchase in the phrase. I will not duplicate these action words in my ad text; rather let the keyword phrase contain them.
  • Bing Ads has recently added some nice new capitalization options that you may not be aware of when it comes to dynamic text use. Here are some examples that now allow you to have total control over how your dynamic text appears in your ad’s title and description. Using the keyword phrase buy roses as an example:
  • {KeyWord} translates into Buy Roses (note the caps on B and R)
  • {keyword} translates into buy roses (note all lower case)
  • {Keyword} translates into Buy roses (note the caps on the B and lower case on the r)
  • There are even options for All Caps where appropriate based on how you capitalize the keyword contained within the brackets. For all examples, please visit the ‘How to use dynamic text to insert keywords in ads’ article to see all examples and uses.
  • Did you know that Bing Ads allows you to use one keyword in an ad that is all caps? So my dynamic text for Buy ROSES would be installed in the account as {KeyWORD:Buy ROSES}. Note the all caps on the word I want to be in all caps in the ad text. If I wanted BUY Roses, I would enter in {KEYWord:BUY Roses} instead. Be aware that excessive use of capitalization is not allowed. Check the editorial style guidelines here.
  • Where possible, but not always, I use {param1} insertion for unique URLs by keyword, and sometimes even {param2} and {param3} for promotional discount text by item. Read more about how to use the different forms of dynamic text here.
  • I always include default text when I am doing dynamic text insertion. For a keyword, use this format: {KeyWord:Buy Roses} note the colon with no space and then the default text capitalized the way I want it to appear. Bing Ads will automatically show your default ad text when you exceed your character count with a keyword phrase you had wanted inserted.

I have personally found that the click through rate is higher on ads where I am using dynamic text insertion and in many cases the conversion rate will be higher as well. If you haven’t tried using dynamic text in your Bing Ads program, now’s the time to do a little testing by creating a small ad group. Use your top converting keywords crafted into meaningful phrases for your program to test if you can boost conversions even more by using keyword and phrase insertion. Remember Bing Ads will bold this special text item when it is inserted into your ad when your phrase matches a search query – drawing the reader’s eye right to your ad!

If you need a Bing Ads savvy account manager, please visit our Bing Ads services page to find out more about how we can help you.