By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
Every webmaster’s and SEO professional’s nightmare is seeing a sudden plummet of those hard-earned Google rankings. The chaos that ensues in trying to pinpoint just what happened is never a welcomed experience.
The good news is that Google has been as transparent as ever in recent months. It offers new information, tools and methods to help webmasters beg for mercy, such as Webmaster Tools alerts, re-inclusion requests and the Link Disavow tool.
Begging for mercy isn’t always the best course of action, however, depending on the circumstances of the issues surrounding the drop in ranking. It should be a last resort once you have identified the reason for the issues with a great deal of certainty, done everything possible to resolve the issues and still don’t see a positive result. In order to take the right course of action after a Google manual review, the first step is to know if a manual review actually took place.
By Sultan Riaz | @Riaz_MediaWhiz | Marketing Coordinator
It’s not much of a stretch to state that performance marketing is the future of online marketing. The 2012 IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report indicates that more than two-thirds of all marketing transactions will be paid for on a performance basis. Total U.S. spend on performance marketing will grow by almost $5 billion, to $25 billion in online advertising revenue, versus 2011 spend.
Peter Klein, who
is head of MonetizeIt, the MediaWhiz affiliate network, has been in performance marketing since the early days of the industry. With nearly 20 years of experience, he has seen the industry grow into one of the most highly demanded forms of marketing. In addition to his duties running MonetizeIt, Klein also oversees MediaWhiz’s AdNet Display Advertising and Data Acquisition divisions.
He recently sat down with us and discussed the state of performance marketing and how they can help your business more profitably engage, acquire and retain customers.
Sultan Riaz: Let’s start with the basics: What is affiliate marketing?
Peter Klein: Affiliate marketing is a type of performance marketing that involves advertisers, publishers and an affiliate network. An advertiser is typically a direct response client/brand that has a product that they want to sell or generate leads for. The publisher, also known as an affiliate, is the one that actually conducts the marketing via the media channel they specialize in. The affiliate resides between the two entities. It acts as everything from operations, compliance, technology, tracking and media planner.
The three marry together nicely to form a kind of performance marketing ecosystem where everybody shares in the profits and work towards driving marketing results (more…)
By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
Editor’s note: This is the second post in a two-part series on predictions in search engine marketing and SEO in 2013. The series is based on MediaWhiz’s new white paper,“SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.” Download your copy.
Last week I predicted that AuthorRank will play an increasingly important role in marketers’ SEO strategies in 2013. This week, I examine what 2013 has in store for content marketing and its increasing value to search and SEO.
Content marketing has been a hot topic in digital marketing this year. The positive benefits it has on SEO are invaluable if done correctly. There are two main ways a good content marketing strategy can benefit organic search results: expanding a brand’s reach by syndicating useful content throughout the Web; and including links in syndicated content to build authority back to the brand’s website.
In order to employ an effective content marketing strategy, SEO experts must take more of a PR approach to developing topics to write about. Content must be cutting edge and ground-breaking to gain the momentum needed for success through social sharing and PR. In today’s landscape, there is little to no value in developing content based on a keyword. Instead, it must be based on a compelling idea. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
Editor’s note: This is the first post in a two-part series on predictions in search engine marketing and SEO in 2013. The series is based on MediaWhiz’s new white paper,“SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.” Download your copy.
When considering major trends that will impact SEO in 2013 it’s clear that AuthorRank will play an increasingly important role in marketers’ search and SEO strategies.
PageRank has long been the standard high-level metric used to identify the relative quality of a Web page. There is arguably limited value in using PageRank as a quality metric over the last few years, but it can still be meaningful in conjunction with other quality metrics (i.e. domain authority, page authority, etc.)
In 2013 a new quality metric will take the spotlight when it comes to page quality and search engine ranking. This metric is affectionately known as AuthorRank (or Agent Rank, according to Google’s patent).
Here’s why AuthorRank will help reshape SEO in 2013:
AuthorRank: A Brief Overview
Content quality, as measured by search engines, is no longer based solely on the authority of a domain or Web page. It is increasingly based on the reputation and authority of the individual that authored the content. This reputational score grades authors on the Web and used that grade when ordering natural search engine results.
How is AuthorRank Established?
The standard method for an author on the Web to be credited by Google with the content they produce is to tie pages they have written to their Google Plus profiles. This is done using rich snippets. Authors are then ranked based on the engagement factors of the content they produce. These factors include: social endorsements (tweets, +1’s, shares, likes); the influence and relevancy of those providing the social endorsements; comments on social networks (such as Yelp); the influence and relevancy of those commenting; and the quality and relevancy of inbound links pointing to the content. The more an author writes on a topic, and the more engagement with that content, the higher that author’s rank will be for a specific topic. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
MediaWhiz’s SEO experts share their wisdom in a new white paper, “SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.”
The New Year in SEO is all about the consumer. Long live the consumer.
Search engine optimization is an ever-evolving challenge for webmasters and marketers alike. The SEO landscape in 2012 went through some of its most impactful changes to date. Looking ahead to 2013, it’s necessary to start implementing more complex processes in order to remain competitive in organic search. The rate at which search engines update their ranking algorithms makes it essential to avoid optimizing for short-term results and start planning campaigns with the future in mind.
In 2013, optimizing websites for search engines will not win the game. The necessary shift will be optimizing websites for users.
The path to SEO success in 2013 comes down to two principles: keeping user experience in mind when optimizing and closely monitoring, and adjusting to, changes in search engine algorithms. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
The key to remaining competitive in organic search is to always be two steps ahead of the search engines. Given the frequency and impact of search engine algorithm updates, those who don’t consider the long-term effects of their optimization efforts are subject to pitfalls similar to those many brands experienced after Google’s Panda and Penguin updates of 2012.
Part of the puzzle of predicting the future of search engines will take with respect to changes to their search algorithms is first understanding their goals and aligning them with the goals of any brand’s SEO campaign. Google’s mission is to provide users with the most relevant and useful information relevant to a user’s search. Therefore, in order to maintain organic performance, a brand’s content plan must take similar aim.
The other important puzzle piece in predicting how search engines will evolve is gaining a deep understanding of the current landscape and what quality signals the engineers at Google, Bing, etc. are closely monitoring. This allows search marketers to begin to understand the direction search engines are moving toward in further tweaking their algorithms. This direction was much easier to see in the days of Google Labs, which allowed public observation of some of the new products Google was testing – unfortunately, Google Labs was shut downin 2011.
Although the Google Labs project was discontinued, Google gave SEO professionals a very useful clue this year as to where its search algorithms are headed. This came with the leak of the company’s human rater handbook in early September. As part of its internal process to improve search results, Google recruits hundreds of individuals to manually assess the quality of content on specific URLs. Google then uses that data to modify its algorithms and (hopefully) provide a better user experience for its search engine users.
The handbook provides clear cues as to how Google assesses the quality of brands’ content.
By understanding the information Google is attempting to gain through this human-review process, SEO practitioners can begin to understand the direction search engine algorithms will be moving as they progress.
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By Sultan Riaz | @Riaz_MediaWhiz | Marketing Coordinator
MediaWhiz’s leaders are continually sought after as resources for opinions, advice and expertise, based on our deep understanding of industry trends, the needs of our customers and the broader marketplace in which we operate.
For the week of Nov. 26-30, 2012, MediaWhiz experts were quoted or featured on a variety of digital media news and trends, including Peter Klein’s predictions for Performance Marketing in 2013; what lead-gen marketers must do in 2013; the success of the click-to-call campaign for MediaWhiz; and what marketers are thankful for in 2012 | Read previous MediaWhiz In the News posts.
Performance Mar
keting in 2013: Companies and Regulation
DMConfidential | Nov. 28, 2012 | Op-Ed by Peter Klein
The performance marketing industry has undergone massive changes in 2012.
The list of challenges the industry weathered over the past year is long and varied. It includes news of several long-standing affiliate networks going out of business; email delivery getting more difficult; Facebook and Google all but banning affiliate marketing; the federal government becoming more involved in the cash advance and “for-profit” education verticals; the rise of real-time bidding (RTB); data management platforms (DMPs) becoming critical in display advertising; and mobile marketing efforts gaining prevalence among marketers’ digital strategies.
While performance marketers shift priorities and tactics on the fly, the good news is that money continues to pour into performance marketing for its scalability, ROI focus and measurable results.
Source: Search Engine Journal
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MediaWhiz Grows Fast with Click-To-Call
Performance Marketing Insider | Nov. 29, 2012
MediaWhiz, a leading integrated digital media agency, today released results from the first six months of managing clients’ click-to-call campaigns in partnership with RingRevenue. Total calls into MonetizeIt, the MediaWhiz affiliate network, nearly quadrupled from the second to third quarters of 2012 as a result of the integration of RingRevenue’s patented call performance-marketing technology. Calls driven through the network increased 64 percent during that time period.
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Reverse Engineering Human Rating to Predict the Future of Search
Search Engine Journal | Nov. 27, 2012 | Op-Ed by Marc Purtell
The key to remaining competitive in organic search is to always be two steps ahead of the search engines. Given the frequency and impact of search engine algorithm updates, those who don’t consider the long-term effects of their optimization efforts are subject to pitfalls similar to those many brands experienced after Google’s Panda and Penguin updates of 2012.
Part of the puzzle of predicting the future of search engines will take with respect to changes to their search algorithms is first understanding their goals and aligning them with the goals of any brand’s SEO campaign. Google’s mission is to provide users with the most relevant and useful information relevant to a user’s search. Therefore, in order to maintain organic performance, a brand’s content plan must take similar aim.
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What Lead-Gen Marketers Need to Take Care Of Before 2013
DMConfidential | Nov. 26, 2012 | Featuring Peter Klein
Holiday offers
Just as consumers should be doing, marketers should be budgeting for the holidays. More specifically, they should be planning on ways to capitalize on the festive season by having enough money in their budgets for seasonal offers to their clients, according to Peter Klein, senior vice president of media services at MediaWhiz.
“Lead-generation marketers must ensure their budgets have enough leeway to meet seasonal offers for the holidays,” he says. “The holidays are the best-performing season for cash-advance offers. It’s important to keep existing clients happy, as they will undoubtedly present additional budgets to hit for year at the last minute. Lead-gen marketers need to do their best to meet clients’ year-end demands to ensure inclusion in advertisers’ 2013 budgets.”
Plan and set goals
Part of closing one year is planning for the next, so it’s only logical for lead-generation marketers to do likewise. But how should they go about this? “Review your financial projections for 2012 and plan realistic goals, month-by-month, for 2013,” Klein says. “Once the numbers are planned, it’s critical to outline how you plan on hitting these numbers, such as staffing, advertisers and potentially acquisitions.”
He adds that the first quarter requires special attention, given the slow start that’s likely to come thanks to New Year’s Eve/Day and conferences. “There are good offers to take advantage of, such as tax season and auto insurance, to help offset some of the slowness and set the proper tone for 2013,” Klein says.
Review org charts and processes
The end of the year is when people tend to take time off – it’s also a good time to take a sober look at your org chart and processes, according to Klein.
“If you are able to move the business forward without some of your employees, then you need to cut ties or upgrade their positions,” he says. “If you can’t succeed and are inundated with tactical maneuvers, then it’s time to get job specs together for the positions you need and seek out the right staffing level.”
As marketers ensure that org charts include positions, descriptions and an ideal model, they should also make sure that all processes are running smoothly. “Whether it is establishing weekly meeting agendas, sales processes, offers setup or just basic document storage, the quieter, post-holiday weeks at year-end are the time to go through everything in preparation for a successful 2013,” Klein says. He adds that marketers don’t even need to be in the office to carry out these kinds of audits.
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What Marketers Are Thankful for in 2012
DMConfidential | Nov. 21, 2012 | Featuring Peter Klein
Peter Klein, senior vice president of media services at MediaWhiz:
“I’m thankful for a dedicated, hardworking team that has continued to drive client results despite many challenges this year in our space — from Yahoo in email, to Google in search and Facebook in social media, among many others. I’m also thankful for the industry making significant positive progress in lead quality via great monitoring services, such as CPA Detective, in addition to the stellar self-regulation efforts from industry leaders and organizations like the Performance Marketing Association. I’m most grateful for the advertisers that see the value in paying for performance vs. branding, which is contributing to the growth of performance marketing by billions of dollars each year.”
By Sultan Riaz | @Riaz_MediaWhiz | Marketing Coordinator
MediaWhiz’s leaders are continually sought after as resources for opinions, advice and expertise, based on our deep understanding of industry trends, the needs of our customers and the broader marketplace in which we operate.
For the week of Nov. 12-16, 2012, MediaWhiz experts were quoted or featured on a variety of digital media news and trends, including online lead-generation in the post-PC era; extolling the role and value of affiliate marketing; best practices for online lead conversion; and what it’s like to be a digital media buyer. | Read previous MediaWhiz In the News posts.
source: DMConfidential
Roundtable Discussion: Lead Generation in a Post-PC World
DMConfidential | Nov. 15, 2012 | Featuring Ori Carmel
Ori Carmel, VP of performance strategy, MediaWhiz
To understand the impact of mobile on the lead-gen industry, and online marketing as a whole, marketers should look toward the developing countries in Africa and Central and South America. There they will find the future of mobile lead generation and e-commerce.
Lacking infrastructure, entire regions in the developing world have leapfrogged the PC era. People in these regions rely on mobile technology to operate and streamline many aspects of everyday life, including business interactions, regardless of how large or small those businesses are. At the click of a button individuals can conduct their entire business cycle, including acquiring new customers and solidifying existing ones through mobile-optimized e-commerce and lead-gen platforms.
For the lead-gen world, the implications are massive. As the U.S. transitions to the complete mobilization and personalization of both information and access, potential and existing consumers can now be reached at any time, in any place. This ongoing shift, which is only speeding up, is changing consumption patterns of information and purchasing right before our eyes. Marketers can gather more precise and relevant information to better tailor offers to behavioral and demographic profiles. Brands can pinpoint the exact moment at which the potential client is most receptive to signing up or converting.
Furthermore, with increasing resources going toward tailoring brands’ mobile presences and usability, consumers continually grow accustomed and now expect to be able to gather info, sign up and transact online. As a result, consumers are more receptive than ever to being targeted for intelligent, value-driven offers and opportunities on their mobile devices.
The future of PC usage in the U.S., or anywhere else for that matter, is far from obsolete. However, it is certainly past the growth stages of its life cycle.
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Let’s Give Affiliate Marketing Its Due Respect
DMConfidential | Nov. 12, 2012 | Op-Ed by Peter Klein
Rodney Dangerfield would have loved affiliate marketing. It gets no respect, at least not from CMOs and senior marketers.
Long considered the ugly stepchild of digital marketing, affiliate marketing has grown to become one of the leading drivers of brands’ online marketing success. It accounts for more than $21 billion in online advertising revenues in 2011, according to the IAB.
Thankfully, this lack of respect is starting to change. Marketers are taking notice — affiliate marketing is a powerful force in brands’ online marketing strategies. Read more …
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SEO’s benefits aren’t just limited to building brand presence and driving traffic to a website. Search engine optimization also can be used to increase click-through and conversion rates of branded search traffic and act as a business retention model.
With 74 percent of consumers conducting online research before making a purchase decision, any negative sentiment around a brand can deliver a significant blow to the brand’s bottom line. In many instances of a brand’s reputation being tarnished online SEO is the only way to clean it up and present the brand in a positive light.
Social Media’s Effect on SEO
The popularity of social media and blogs, combined with the emergence of consumer complaint websites, has been detrimental to the reputation of many brands. Both allow one person’s bad experience, or even a deceitful competitor, to drag a brand’s reputation through the mud for the entire Web to see.
When a critique of a brand is posted to a popular website, search engine queries for that brand will often include that critique on the first page of organic search results. This can be very damaging to the brand. Potential customers who come across such a critique may be disinclined to engage with a brand they otherwise would have after finding such a negative organic search result.
Blog posts and social media updates that speak negatively about a brand and rank for the brand name are on third-party websites; the brand has no control over them. Since it is unlikely that the pages will be removed from the websites, the only recourse the brand has is to get them removed from the search results. This is done by leveraging SEO for online reputation management. (more…)
Look beyond SEO’s traditional uses for brand- and reputation-enhancement benefits.
SEO is not typically considered a branding mechanism. But below the surface, there is intense brand-building value. In order to fully understand the value of a search engine optimization campaign, it is necessary to look beyond traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) such as rankings, organic traffic, etc. and look also at the value search engine optimization has on a brand. Our point of view is that SEO is not successful if it is not building both brand awareness and brand influence.
That is the basis of our new white paper, “Leverage SEO’s Brand-Building Powers.” Download your copy today.
Building Brand Awareness through SEO
Brand awareness via SEO is built by saturating the most relevant channel with positive brand content for increased visibility. For example, a brand selling dietary supplements should publish engaging content with a positive brand spin throughout the health channel, both on their own website, and other authoritative sites related to health and wellness. This channel saturation will lead to increased visibility by casting a wide net of content around the Web.
It’s not just about volume, however. In order for a saturation strategy to perform, your brand’s content assets must provide value to the channel’s audience andconvey the brand messaging in a positive manner. If there is no value to the audience, the content will not perform in organic search, reducing the benefits of increased visibility.
Rather than simply promoting the brand, the content must provide consumers with information that is of value to them and that they are looking for. The more engaging content a brand has saturated within the channel, the more likely consumers are to come across the brand online. The example below shows how consumers’ first online interaction with brands has changed.
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