Google AdWords Conversion Types

Earlier this month, Google AdWords formally launched Flexible Conversion Counting, a new type of conversion that allows advertisers to track the types of conversions that are most precious to their business.

This change changed how conversions appeared in our AdWords interface – “Conversions (1-per-click)” changed to “Converted Clicks” and Conversions (many-per-click) changed to “Conversions”. For many PPC professionals, we just made a mental note, updated some reporting templates or our data warehouse and moved on.

Below, we’ve broken out conversion types into three areas – Hard Conversions, expected Conversions and Percent-of Conversions.
 
Hard Conversion Types

These are your hard numbers, the bottom-line numbers, and likely what you’ve previously been reporting on, assuming all of your conversion tracking is set up accurately.
 

Converted Clicks

This is how many clicks resulted in one or more conversion actions. The actual number of conversions will be counted individually in the "Conversions" column. The number of converted clicks can help you estimated how many unique customers you're acquiring.

Conversions

This column reports whole conversions, across all the conversion actions you're tracking. However, this conversion type also takes into consideration how you’ve selected to count your conversions which affect the number shown in this column.
 
Phone Call Conversions
 
If you’ve set up call extensions, your Phone Call Conversions column will represent the number of phone calls that were longer than the call duration specific for that call extension. Keep in mind that in order for Google to track Call Extensions, you must use a Google Call Forwarding Number.
 

Predictable Conversion Types
 

These are practically new conversion types provided by Google and based on estimated data. There is no additional conversion tracking needed on your end to view these conversion types, as they rely on Google’s complicated tracking to provide you with more information about how your customers behave.

Estimated Cross-Device Conversions

Estimated Cross-Device Conversions take place when a client clicks on an ad on one device, then converts on a different device or browser. Using this conversion type, you can see how your ads crash conversions that happen across multiple devices and browsers.

expected Total Conversions

This is Google’s best estimate of the total number of conversions that AdWords drives all together. This metric will comprise Estimated Cross-Device Conversions, Conversions and Phone Call Conversions. According to Google, you can use this column to understand your return on investment and make better decisions about your bids and budgets.

Percent-Of Conversion Types

“Percent-of Conversions” in an completely made up name. However, I’ve named the conversion types below “Percent-of Conversions” because when optimizing and adjusting bids, many PPC professionals take a percent of these conversions into thought. While many advertisers won’t fully rely on these metrics, many will be grateful for their value and use a percent of them to say their events.

Click-Assisted Conversions

Appearing only for search campaigns, Click-Assisted Conversions is the total number of conversions for which a finicky keyword contributed one or more assist clicks. Assist clicks can be clear as the total number of clicks a keyword received prior to a conversion, without the last click.
 

Impression-Assisted Conversions
 

The Impression-Assisted Conversions column shows the total number of conversions for which a exacting keyword triggered assist impressions prior to the last click. This is the same idea as Click-Assisted Conversions and is only shown for Search campaigns, with the variation being that it relies on assist impressions rather than assist clicks.

View-Through Conversions
 

View-Through Conversions happen when a customer views your image or rich media ad before converting, but never really clicks on the ad. If these customers later convert, this metric counts their conversions as “View-Through Conversions.” This swap type automatically excludes conversions from people who've also clicked your Search ads.
 

Summary

Choosing the right exchange type for your business can seem overwhelming at first. Hopefully reading through this article has helped you further appreciate the types that are available, and how they are used by advertisers today.

In most cases, the road to success starts by just defining what success looks like – and with Google now offering conversion types for nearly every business model, it's becoming easier for businesses to see the bigger picture and attain their goals that much faster

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Google Penalizes Greek Spam-Link Networks

 Google is ongoing their fight against link networks worldwide. Google's Matt Cutts recently confirmed via Twitter that Greece was the newest country targeted for link network connected penalties.

The link networks in question were apparently networks run by SEO agencies for their clients.

It's vague exactly which SEO agency or agencies are accountable for the link networks that were penalized.

The change in Greek search results was noticeable sufficient that it earned some Cutts praise:

This has simply been the most topical link network targeted by Google, which has been making a point of going after international link spam this year. Google has been making many announcements proactively advising webmasters, mainly those with websites in target locations or languages, to clean up their link profiles prior to penalties hitting.

If you believe your websites is on the receiving end of low-quality links, you can always be positive and work on having the links removed or submit a disavow file to Google in order to discount the links. Google has been making many announcements proactively advising webmasters to clean up their link profiles prior to penalties striking, especially for international sites.

Google Permitted a US copyright for Panda Algorithm

 Three years after Google rolled out the initial version of its Panda algorithm, Google has been granted a copyright for it by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Full credit for this news goes to Bill Slawski at SEO by the Sea, as he was the first to discover the patent had been granted. Full details of the patent can be seen here.

Navneet Panda and Vladimir Ofitserov are scheduled as the inventors of the algorithm, which explains how Panda got its name.  It’s interesting to note, before Panda launched it was supposed to be called “Farmer” because it was designed to target content farms. It wasn’t until Google’s Amit Singhal was asked about it in a Wired interview that we learned the algorithm would be called Panda.

Another attractive thing to note about the patent is it was filed for in 2012, quite a while after Panda was rolled out, and not granted until 2014.
Further reading into the details of the patent indicates how it is designed to understand abbreviations for domains. For example, a search for “SEJ” may return a result for the Search Engine Journal homepage because Panda is designed to realize how domains are referred to by their users.

Here’s what it says in the copyright description about that:

… if the system has data indicating that the terms “example sf” and “esf” are commonly used by users to refer to the resource whose URL is “http://www.sf.example.com,” queries that contain the terms “example sf” or “esf”, e.g., the queries “example sf news” and “esf restaurant reviews,” can be counted as reference queries for the group that includes the resource whose URL is “http://www.sf.example.com.”

There are also some attractive sections about links, specifically how a user navigates from one page to another. There is a section of text that indicates Panda considers whether or not the page being linked to is a navigational result for the anchor text being used, “The system can determine whether a query is navigational to a resource by accessing data that identifies queries that are classified as navigational to each of a number of assets.”

A lot of the text is admittedly hard to appreciate if you’re not an expert when it comes to reading patents, but it’s worth looking through if you want to try and gain a deeper accepting of the Panda algorithm. 

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Twitter Experimenting with New aspect

 Twitter is reportedly experimenting with a new feature that would show users how many people viewed their creature tweets. The view count would be shown underneath each tweet, parallel to how Facebook shows the amount of views underneath each Page post.

Advertisers have long had access to these kinds of analytics on Twitter, being able to see how many views their tweets receive while successively an advertising campaign. If this experiment is finally rolled out to all users it would mark the first time Twitter has made those statistics available to everyone.

Twitter has explained before that they work on experiments all the time. They say “it’s rare for a day to go by when we’re not releasing at least one experiment.” 

Not all of those experiments get released across the whole platform, “We also experiment with features that may never be released to everyone who uses Twitter. Those experiments are perhaps even more valuable because they help us decide what not to do.”

It’s significant for us not to get our hopes up about tweet views just yet, but it sure is worth noting they’re at least testing it. Tweet views would be an very useful way for individuals and businesses to measure the true reach of their tweets, something they’ve never been able to do without being a paying advertiser.

Even though the feature hasn’t been unconfined yet, there are mixed feelings about it already. On one hand some are saying it would help cheer others to tweet more if they can see how many people are seeing their tweets. On the other hand, some are saying it could put off people from using the service if they have hundreds of followers but only a few dozen people really see what they’re tweeting.
 

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Basic SEO Tips

 Here are three ideas to help you smash through your upland and help you steadily boost your search visibility.

1. Release Your Content

We all know that great content is the key to increasing online visibility, whether its through SEO or social. 

Sure, it's significant to have gated content that helps your lead generation hard work, but you should try to get the best of both worlds. Whitepapers, videos, or case studies that are gated after a lead form won't get you any SEO value. These are major content assets that you should be utilizing for SEO.

Why not repurpose some of the thoughts in your whitepaper into blog posts that can be indexed and read by anyone visiting your site? Or maybe you could quote some of the key stats from your case study in a blog post promoting your services? Your gated content will still be there, but by repurposing the content you will increase your search visibility, social referrals and, inevitably, the number of leads your website generates.

Another way to utilize your gated content for SEO is to offer it in multiple places. Why not make it accessible to visitors as 'gated' content, but also offer it un-gated? Anyone who reached your lead form won't know that they could get the content without providing their details and filling out a form. This gives you the best of both worlds, the content will be indexed, it will make more traffic and your lead generation won't be harmed.

Though this may seem like you're misleading your 

visitors, you're not doing anything wrong. You're present the same content; you're just facilitating the lead generation process as well. This is a very common method.

2. Focus on the Long Tail

During the first few phases of an SEO campaign the focus is frequently on the major keywords and phrases. These will be linked to the most significant pages on the website. It's regularly the rankings of these key pages that plateau first.

When this happens, the best approach is to cast your net wider. This means focusing your efforts on the long tail.

Long-tail search rankings can often be just, if not more, precious than your major keywords and phrases. They have lower competition, are more specific and, if chosen well, can be really action oriented.

If you focus your SEO efforts on identifying and exploiting any opportunities you uncover, you could very promptly increase your search referrals and conversion rates.

3. Go Offline

This is absolutely the most commonly overlooked SEO tactic of them all. Just because the "nuts and bolts" of SEO are all digital, it doesn't mean that it's an entirely digital discipline.

One of the most efficient SEO strategies out there is the building and cultivation of human relationships. Yep, that means getting out of the office and talking to people.

Some of the most precious links, PR opportunities, and ideas I've ever come across have come from real world human relationships with people I've met in a face-to-face setting. Go and find out what's working for other people.

Network with key influencers and peers. If you do this frequently, I guarantee you will uncover opportunities and insights that will help you avoid any plateau in performance.

Summary

It's a principle that doesn't exclusively apply to SEO. You should use it in every aspect of your online marketing: If you reach a plateau, does something different.

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Tips to develop Your Instagram Account

  Instagram is huge business in 2014, and not just for the photo-sharing social network or its parent company, Facebook. Many companies and self-employed professionals are taking benefit of the nearly 200 million active users on the platform.

What social media analysts are seeing with Instagram is related to what Twitter has turned into: A social network that members really enjoy using on a daily basis because they find it engaging. For many brands, this means their chances of social media marketing achievement on Instagram are greater than on Pinterest or even Facebook. 

Out of those nearly 200 million Instagram users, more than half are actively using the network at least once a day, and more than one-third use it more than once daily

There are three other factors that make Instagram very beautiful for businesses: visual appeal, engagement, and mobility. This last factor sums up the very nature of the network — Instagram is mainly a collection of flawless mobile applications that seamlessly connect users through a cloud service. The apps and the levels of communication they offer make Instagram a visually pleasing and highly engaging social network.
Here are five ways to grow an Instagram account into a powerful marketing and branding tool:

Posting Quality, Meaningful Images

Instagram is pretty useful on its own, but it works even better when synchronized with other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. One of the tenets of Instagram is that no one is a awful photographer. To this end, the a variety of filters and special effects come in handy, but it is more significant to make an effort to post quality images that speak to followers.
When it comes to choosing beautiful photos to post on Instagram, retailers, manufacturers, and visual artists have it easier than other professionals.

Instagram Community meeting

Once an Instagram account gains a considerable number of followers, it starts to feel and act like a community. Businesses and professionals who wish to grow their Instagram accounts should turn on notifications and keep them that way. The idea is to be learned every time people leave comments or like a photo. 

Notifications also serve to make users responsive of how their brand is being perceived across the network. Users should make an effort to interact accordingly each time they receive a notification.
 

Using Hashtags

The Instagram hashtag system is planned to make visual content relevant. Each image should have at least one or two hashtags for the purpose of making it easy for others to discover a new account. Hashtags can also be researched to find out the users behind them, follow them and interact on their content. To get followers, one must become a good follower first, and this means liking images and leaving nice comments.
 

Building Relationships

On Instagram, engagement is only the start. Once followers become prospects, customers, and clients, the next step is to take advantage of the network and form relationships. This can be accomplished by keeping the following in mind:

Instagram is supposed to be fun. A computer repair shop that only shares images of broken monitor screens and motherboards taken separately will probably have a hard time gaining followers. To inject some fun into their photo feed, the business owners should post pictures of their employees being silly or having fun during a break.
Followers should be confident to share their own images.

Find Out What Others Are Doing correct

The beauty of Instagram is that its content can be found transversely many social media platforms; this allows users to see what others are doing successfully. Since Twitter is often synchronized with Instagram, it is a good idea to research what type of content is having a greater shock and how. 

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Tips to Rank a Keyword

 Sound on page SEO builds a solid base for your search marketing efforts. Fading to optimize the key areas we are going to cover below will really reduce the efficiency of your link building efforts, costing you time and money.

Key on Page SEO Factors

Unless you work in SEO, many of you will not have time to optimize every single factor of your website, so we are going to tap on the key areas that you must pick up to gain higher rankings.

Site Speed

Newly Google received a patent on their site speed ranking algorithm but industry professionals have known it is an significant factor for quite some time now. When you are developing a website, the speed of your pages should be a key consideration. Fresh coding improvements allow you to have a visually pleasing site that still loads quickly so there is no reason for a slow site. If you are hiring a web designer, make sure they take load time into consideration when building your site.The bottom line is a slow site is a low ranking site.

Site Navigation

The navigation of your website is very significant for users and for search engines. A proper internal linking structure will permit users to easily reach pages and should lead them to take the preferred action for you website. Aside from helping users, the internal links of your site will give search engines with a hierarchy of your website. If you sell construction services you may have a services page that links to exact services, a very simple example of a hierarchy. Remember, the more important a page is, the fewer clicks it should be from the home page of your site.

Page Titles & Meta Descriptions

Every page on your website should be sole and should have a purpose. The purpose, message, or keyword of each page should be conveyed by the page title. The meta description is a short review of what the page is about and should improve click-through rates. I like to search my target keyword and read the ad copy for the terms. This gives you a number of good ideas for page titles and meta descriptions, most of the time they have been tested and optimized. Send your competitors a thank you card for testing and sharing the best variations with you! 

Meta Keywords

For some reason people still add meta Keywords to pages. They not at all help you rank and are now used by Bing to look for spam pages. Don’t waste your time adding meta keywords.

Creating Content

The ability for your website to rank all starts with on page SEO. Before you begin build your website, you should decide on 1-2 keywords that will be targeted on each page of your website. While the old practice of mentioning exact variations of the keyword repeatedly are not necessary, you do need to take in your primary keyword in the page title, at least one heading and URL if possible. The body content should have variations of your keywords and should make mention of terms associated with the background of your page.

Alt Text for Images

Most websites have a number of images, but people often forget to optimize them. Adding alt text to all the images on your site will help Google appreciate what the image and page is about. While keyword filling is a waste of time, including your keyword on at least one image on each page has been connected with higher search rankings. This is a simple fix, just make sure you add alt text to your images.

5 Effective Link Building Strategies

Before we get started I want to stress that using a grouping on link building methods will always yield better results than a single strategy. Google likes to see a diverse link profile that appears normal so lets play their game.

Guest Posting

Guest posting has newly been in the limelight as another passing fad among link builders. If you make a bunch of low quality, useless articles and share them on low authority sites, you are killing your time. Guest posting should only be done on sites that you would post to if SEO did not exist. 

Outreach Link Building

There is nothing new or sexy about this method, but it works. Coming up with a list of sites to reach out to can be tricky, but this is how I do it.

1.    Run a back link analysis of your top 5 competitor sites.

2.    Remove links with a page authority below 20.

3.    Remove any no-follow links (unless they are likely to provide significant referral traffic).

4.    Export your list and sort from highest page authority to lowest and work your way down the list of sites looking for ways to get a link. Finding the link to your competitor and improving the content they used to get that link is the best way to get your own link. You can also look for busted links to competitor sites and offer a new piece of similar content for the site owner to link to.

5.    Send a fast email to the site owner and tell them what you have to offer.

6.    Repeat until you have gone through the complete list, then find sites ranking 5-10 for your keyword and repeat steps 1-4.

Social Link Building

This is a lot like traditional outreach link building, excluding you are going to find link opportunities from social media. I have mentioned this technique before, but it is worth repeating. Here is how to find people who will possible link to your site.

1.    Curate content closely connected to your niche and share it via social networks.

2.    Monitor user engagement and identify content that was heavily shared, liked, re-tweeted, etc.

3.    Create a new part of content closely related but better than what you shared.

4.    Contact everyone who engaged with the curated piece and let them know you have something they would love.

5.    Relax while your new piece of content is being shared, liked, and linked to.

Directory Submissions

Before you leave the page or a spiteful comment, I am not talking about the old school method of blasting your site out to a billion and nine directories. There are a few directories that are still precious to submit your site to but remember, quality over quantity is the key. Here are some valuable directories to get you started.

1.    Best of the Web

2.    Yahoo Directory

3.    DMOZ (they have seen a recent loss in listings)

4.    Business.com

5.    Exact Seek

When you are looking for directories worth submitting to you should look for sites that are human edited, have been around for a while, and are trusted. If you are looking for local directories, here is a list of the top 50 from HubSpot.

Blog Commenting

You are maybe thinking that this method is straight from 08, and it kind of is. The difference is that you are going to comment only on sites directly related to your site. You should leave comments that add to the conversation and hearten interaction from the writer. 

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