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Rich Snippets and Schema.org – SEO in the Semantic Web 3.0

Each December, when the year comes to a close, it’s custom to look to the new year and things the future will bring. While there is a great host of things we can look for in the world of SEO, one of the most interesting studies is the topic of rich snippets, Schema.org and the role of the semantic Web – or Web 3.0.

What are Rich Snippets?

Snippets are additional bits of information from your website that Google, Yahoo! and Bing will display alongside your link in a search engine results page. This could be any number of attributes, from the average price of an entree at a popular restaurant to a product’s price and inventory status:

Rich Snippet Example #1Rich Snippet Example #2

 

 

 

In May of 2009, Google announced on it’s blog the introduction of rich snippets. The technical explanation is that Google would now be looking for structured data using resource definition framework (RDF) – an XML-based standard – when crawling sites. In other words, webmasters would now be able to influence WHAT aspects of their site content can be displayed as a snippet in a search engine results page by adding XML based tags to their webpages.

A Brief Detour into the Semantic Web

Structured data and RDF are parts of the semantic web (or Web 3.0). A basic understanding of these principles and philosophies will make it much easier to understand how rich snippets are tagged and how they can help your search rankings, and also improve your click-through rates.

Speaking strictly in terms of websites, the semantic web is the c0llective “web” of data that exists and can be directly or indirectly processed, ranked, sorted and evaluated by machines. That’s right, we’re talking strictly about how your content behaves with search engines - not users.

The semantic web has 3 main concepts:

1. Focusing on data itself instead of how it’s presented

What does that mean? Well, say you have the following content on your website:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

To a human, it’s obvious that this is the world famous recipe for NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies. However, to a machine this is a just 10 lines of random content. The presentation is what makes it apparent to a human that this is a recipe: the indented, line-item form and listed measurements. But this does not help a machine understand.

2. Usage and Dependance on Structured Data

The second concept of the Semantic Web aims to explain to a machine that a list of items and their measurements such as above isn’t random at all; it’s a recipe, similar to millions of others on the Web. Structured data – primarily resource definition framework (RDF) – is a way for machines to understand abstract concepts such as this.

Think of RDF like this. In the same way you would use <H1> to let a search engine know that your content is the header of your webpage, you would use a particular RDF code to let a search engine know that your ballpoint pen costs $5, is a Bic, and is currently in stock.

There are 3 main types of RDF “code”: RDFa, Microformats, and Microdata. We will focus on Microdata, because this is what is used by Schema.org!

3. Reliance on Linked Data

The third concept is really just the final product of #1 and #2. Now that we are expressing data in a way that allows machines to understand abstract ideas and nuances, the machines can better rank and sort large quantities of data (websites). This will ultimately create a better search experience.

Watson is part of the Semantic Web

Remember “Watson” from Jeopardy? IMB’s artificial intelligence computer is a great example of how machines interact with the semantic web. Machines are able to make complicated connections from a large series of data. But if the machines can’t understand the data in the same way that a human can, it’s potential usefulness is limited. However, once we define data in a way that is accessible to machines (search engines), they will be able to find and provide very particular information that will be helpful to the user making a search query.

Rich Snippets, Your Website, and Schema.org

OK, so the ideas behind the Semantic Web and rich snippets have been around for a while – why aren’t more people using them? Well, until recently there was not a universally accepted format for adding structured data markup to your site. Google might be OK with one form, but then Bing or Yahoo! wouldn’t understand it.

This all changed earlier this year when Google, Yahoo! and Bing created Schema.org under a joint initiative.

Schema.org uses the microdata form of RDF and provides a single resource for webmasters to use when applying markup to their pages. The website has a very simple design and is actually quite easy to use.

It is broken down into categories of the different attributes or types you want to associate with your content, called schemas.

 

schema.org schemas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each category provides convenient examples of how to add the schema code into your HTML:

 

schema example #1

Schema Example #2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The code is fairly straightforward and easy to implement for any web developer or webmaster. Webbed Marketing can also help implement the Microdata for you.

Sill have questions about how rich snippets work or why you should use them? Check out our FAQ and best practices below:

Schema.org and Rich Snippets: FAQ and Best Practices

Q. Why use rich snippets?

A. Because everybody’s doing it. Seriously! Big retail sites like eBay and Best Buy are using it. Restaurants and small businesses are using them. Want another reason? Because Google, Yahoo! and Bing all joined together to create a uniform way to add these to websites. They wouldn’t take the time to do this if they weren’t planning on using them to rank search results. We can’t guarantee that having rich snippets will increase your search rankings, but we can venture a pretty solid guess that it will (when used correctly).

Q. Are there other benefits to using them?

A. Actually, yes. Having rich snippets alongside your listing makes it stand out in the search engine results page. A user is much more likely to click-through to your page if your listing includes a glowing product review, or lists the compatible operating systems for your software.

Q. Who should use rich snippets?

A. Adding Microdata to all of your pages could be time consuming – how do you know if it will even be worth it? This is really a good question for this blog post. Schema.org is constantly evolving to include new industries and “things” that can be defined and associated. The best way to decide if you should be using them is to browse the categories (Schemas) and see what applies to your content.

Just last month, a post on Schema’s official blog announced support for job listings! You can tag attributes such as base salary, experience, location, etc.

Job listing rich snippet

 

 

Q. What do rich snippets look like?

A. Rich snippets appear along with the title tag and meta description for your website in a search engine results page. They can take a number of different forms, from user reviews to product price ranges.

Rich Snippet Example #1

 

 

 

Q. Will adding the code for rich snippets change the way my content looks?

A. No! Rich snippets only appear in the search engine results page. The microdata code used to add them is invisible to humans.

Q. Why don’t I see them in every search?

A. Sometimes Google (or Yahoo! or Bing) will choose not to display a rich snippet in the search result. This could be because the particular page does not have any Microdata in the HTML, or because they do not completely trust the source.

You will see rich snippets more often when narrowing your search type (try searching “Shopping” or “Recipes”)
Snippets in Search

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q. Are there disadvantages to using them?

A. You will never know exactly which rich snippets the search engine will choose to highlight if and when your page shows up in a results page. So if have 10 different product reviews on your page, and they are all tagged with rich snippets, the “bad” one could show up in a search result.

Q. Could rich snippets be used as web spam?

A. Yes they could. In fact, the #1 best practice for tagging rich snippets in your content is DO NOT GO OVERBOARD. Tagging several different attributes on a single webpage is webspam. Don’t think you’ll get caught? Think about this: Schema.org was developed by a partnership of Google, Yahoo! and Bing. If you don’t think they have contingencies in place for when people try to manipulate the system, you’ve got another thing coming. It is very possible that pages or even whole sites that overuse or misuse microdata could suffer penalties in the search engine rankings.

Additional questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Contact us today at 614-291-8456 or online.

 

The Spiders Have Eyes

It’s been well known for some time that Google Image Search can recognize many images.  You can try it yourself by opening two browser windows and dragging an image from one window to the Google Image Search bar in the other window.  Google will try to identify the image and show you identical and similar images.  This works even when there is no associated identifying information in the image “alt attribute.”

One useful way to use this image search tactic is for comparison shopping:  If, for example, you go to Target.com and drag an image over to the search bar, Google will display all of the other vendors that sell that item.

I recently analyzed a site that sells t-shirts that would occasionally get traffic from the keyword “t-shirt model.”  Since the word “model” was nowhere on the site, it was assumed that the word “t-shirt” was driving this traffic.  However, by dragging the front-page image of a man in a t-shirt into the image search bar, Google classified the image as a “t-shirt model,” thereby confirming that Google is using image recognition to classify Web content and search results.  Just for clarification, this image did not contain a description or alt attribute that mentioned “t-shirt model.” In fact, the image alt attribute only mentioned the brand name of the shirt.

Knowing that Google uses images to affect text search results, you should keep a couple of key points in mind:

  1. Make sure that the images you use on your site are relevant to the content. Minimize backgrounds to assist Google’s algorithm in identifying your image. Text within images can also be recognized by Google, so make certain any words in your graphic or image are relevant to your content.
  2. Continue to use descriptive alt attributes. Although the spiders have “eyes,” those eyes may be color-blind. A blue shirt was identified as a green shirt, and a green shirt as an orange shirt. If color is critical to your product, make sure you include that in your image alt attribute.
  3. You may consider using custom images if you want Google to identify your site as having unique content. Don’t make the mistake of developing unique written content and then use a stock image.

“Content is king,” and images are considered part of your content, so make sure that the images you use on your site are not an afterthought.

***


 

Will You Flow with Google Current?

One of Google’s latest additions is Google Current, which allows you to access leading publications and blogs you follow on your Android device, iPhone or iPad.  Plus, you can browse, read and share your content – all in a swipable magazine format.

All you have to do is download the free app to your smartphone, and sign in with Google or Gmail.

The service allows you to add your own RSS feeds, video and photo feeds, as well as Google+ feeds and Google Reader subscriptions.  Google Current also makes it really easy to share content with your friends via Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

The app has some helpful features for publishers of content.  Along with adding content (or RSS feeds), publishers can add photos, videos, social updates, and even personalize the layout of their Google Current profile.  This is a great feature for businesses and organizations that want to showcase their brand for readers on Google Current.

We’re interested to see how quickly Google Current takes off.  What’s your opinion; will you be downloading the app?

 

Setting Up Your AdWords Campaign for Success

Several weeks ago we talked about the impact of your quality score on your AdWords campaigns.  Today we’ll go into more detail about how to set up your AdWords campaigns for success with high quality scores.

First, keep in mind the principles of a good campaign:

  1. Target only searchers who are interested in your offer by carefully selecting your keywords.
  2. Make your offer clear, compelling, and persuasive in your ad copy.
  3. Fulfill the promise of your ad with a positive experience on your webpage.

The best way to achieve this is to set up your campaigns in small ad groups so you can closely match your keywords with highly targeted ad copy and the best landing page.  Start with a small number of keywords in each ad group.  Focus on quality, not quantity.  Avoid ambiguous keywords and only select keywords that a searcher would use when looking for your product or service.  For best results these keywords should almost be synonyms.  Keywords with different meanings should go into a separate ad group.  In the previous post we learned that a big part of your quality score is the historical click-through-rate (CTR).  Having your campaigns set up in tight ad groups will increase your CTR as searchers see a highly relevant ad for their keyword.  This sets up your campaigns for a good historical CTR from the start.

You can expand your keywords later, but you must start small to set your campaigns up for success in the long-run.  After you have achieved a quality score of 7 or better for a few weeks you can start to add keywords, but do this slowly, adding a few more relevant keywords at a time.  If these new keywords don’t achieve high quality scores abandon them quickly so you don’t bring down the quality scores of your other keywords.

While it isn’t necessary to use the keyword in your ad copy, it may be helpful to use it.  When the keyword in your ad matches the search term the keyword in your ad will appear bold on the search engine results page.  This might be the push a searcher needs to notice and click on your ad, improving CTR.  You can also dynamically insert the keyword into your ad so the searcher will see their exact keyword in the ad copy.  Make sure the offer in your ads is clear and enticing and include a call to action so the searcher knows what to do once they get to your website.

When you select the landing page for your ad group make sure it is the most relevant page to go with that keyword and ad copy combination.  Get as specific as possible.  For example, use a product page as a landing page instead of your home page or a category page.  Also, avoid any quality score penalties by making your privacy policy available, making sure your site loads within a reasonable amount of time, and including original content.  If you are selling a product that Google considers to be unsafe or illegal your account can be suspended, but hopefully that isn’t something to worry about!

Overall, you will set your AdWords campaigns up for success when searchers see relevant ads and are taken to websites that meet their needs.  With highly targeted keywords, ads, and landing pages in your campaigns searchers will find exactly what they are looking for.  This makes them happy, so AdWords rewards you, the advertiser, with good quality scores and a lower cost-per-click.

 

 

Stats to Make Any Online Retailer Smile

Almost $20 billion. That’s how much money shoppers have spent with online retailers this holiday season.

As many of you probably know, the Thanksgiving weekend online shopping extravaganza, which also includes Cyber Monday, was the biggest in history.

No one is particularly surprised, but you might be interested to find out just how big it really was. I’m not a numbers person. However, I know where to find people who can take tons of data and put it into easily digestible stats even my fellow English majors and I can understand.

This time, I found those people on the Google Commerce Blog and the Google Retail Blog (thanks guys!). In this fantastic post, they crunched the numbers and came up with some pretty impressive online shopping trends you’ll definitely want to take the time to read and digest:

  • Searches for “black friday deals” were up 30% from last year
  • Searches for “cyber monday deals” and “cyber monday coupons” grew 15% year over year
  • On Black Friday, 50% of the top 20 rising searches on Google were centered around specific retailers or their promotions
  • On Cyber Monday the term “cyber monday deals 2011” was in the top five growing search terms (not to mention that it was the most profitable day in ecommerce history)

Aside from using the Internet to search for the best promotions, people were also using it to create a shopping plan of attack. “Black Friday store map” and “Black Friday store hours” were some of the popular choices.

Finally, we all know that  these searches weren’t all coming from desktops and laptops. And let’s be honest, a conversation about online shopping wouldn’t be complete unless we covered some of the mobile trends:

  1. Mobile coupons” searches were up 90% from last year
  2. Retail-related mobile searches on Black Friday were up 200% over last year

What are some of the major retail-related mobile searches? Location-based inquiries and price comparisons are two of the biggest, so keep that in mind when designing your mobile site (you do have one in the works, right?).

Online shopping has been steadily growing in popularity, but this time around the stats blew past years out of the water. Ecommerce retailers should definitely be standing up and paying attention, because the opportunities to grow your customer base and increase your ROI are better than they’ve ever been.

My only question for you is: What is your website and mobile site doing to encourage customers to buy online from you?

 

 

 

*Image provided by Shorts and Longs | The Both And on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

Using Google’s Freshness Update to Your Advantage

“Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing fruit on a hot summer’s day, are best when they’re fresh. Even if you don’t specify it in your search, you probably want search results that are relevant and recent.”

That’s what Google said when they announced on November 3 the new “freshness” update to their algorithm. And since the announcement, you may be wondering how you can use the algorithm change to your advantage.  Here are some tips that will help you rank higher in search engine results, and also provide your website visitors with relevant, useful content.

  1. Get a blog. The most effective and highest ranking blogs are installed on your company’s domain and are updated frequently.
  2. Shoot videos and promote them. Videos are a great marketing tool for your website pages, blog posts, and more. However, you should also be mindful of frequently uploading your videos to YouTube and other video sharing websites. It’s just another way to show Google that you’re providing new and relevant content for your audience.
  3. Get social. Regularly share content on social media properties and connect with people who have like interests.
  4. Manage forums. With the introduction of social media and blogs, many businesses have all but abandoned managing or contributing to forums, but it might be time for you to explore this tactic again. A forum offers you another way to develop fresh content, and it also allows customers to learn more about your products or services, ask questions and vent frustrations. In turn, you can respond to the forum posts.
  5. Q & A content. Adding this section on your website gives website visitors a place to consult if they have questions. In addition, it’s a section that can be continually populated with new questions and answers as they arise.
  6. Time stamp content. The freshness algorithm update wants the most recent and relevant content to rank, so it’s almost a no-brainer that you’ll want to date your blog posts, press releases and other materials as you upload them to your website.

The algorithm change is designed to improve the quality of search results and make sure you get the most up to the minute answers to what you’re searching for. So embrace the freshness algorithm update and start developing and sharing timely, relevant content.

 

SEO for the IPO

The fundraising, IPO and growth periods can be a very exciting time for young and old companies alike, with new products, services and ideas.  It can also be one of the most challenging and stressful times.  The entire company is forced into focusing on numbers, reports, and analytics to support projections and ultimately secure the biggest investors and ensure future hockey-stick-style stock charts.  The latter typically becomes the norm of a company’s culture during the fundraising phase and clouds the huge marketing opportunities of the former.

What I’m talking about is the exciting part of the business—the new ideas and products that got the company where it is.  The business and consumer world is also excited about these products, and your visibility tends to pick up steam once people catch wind of the magical word IPO.

Here are some ideas on how to capitalize on that visibility with SEO:

  • Social Media: This is the best time to get Twitter churning, Facebook humming, and LinkedIn working.  As word gets out that you’re shopping for capital investors or prepping for an IPO, people are going to start talking:  Financial commentators, CNBC, MSNBC, Entrepreneur magazine, Jim Kramer… the list goes on.  Every time someone is mentioning you, it’s a chance to connect and interact with that member of the community via social media.
    ** Will your company ever get this much coverage and press again?  Hopefully, but maybe not.
    ** Wouldn’t this be the best time to attract top talent, and could social help? Absolutely!
  • Company Feedback: As your awareness grows and your social marketing kicks in, it quickly becomes a firestorm of re-tweets, mentions, hashtags and most importantly, feedback.  Make sure you’re capturing the social community’s consensus on your products and company.  This is a great time to find product pitfalls and highlight the features your community loves,  all of which create opportunities for link bait and content.
  • Link-building: Again, every time your company is mentioned on TV, the Internet, radio etc., it’s an opportunity to build links.  You can use the market sentiment, analysis and broadcasts as link bait on your website. You should also be using this as compelling content that can be distributed across the Web with links and anchor text.  Will there be a better time to generate links?
  • SEO: Market buzz and the former present boundless opportunities for fresh content on your site.  Take advantage with a “What they’re saying” section that highlights prominent press mentions. Think about the blog posts, incoming text links and website integration with social profiles. The list of SEO opportunities is endless.

Don’t think for a second that these social, link-building and SEO initiatives won’t have an impact on business objectives.  As awareness spawns awareness and your savvy Web marketing team starts to focus this attention, you’ll be able to control the conversation and steer the masses to product purchases.

The awareness will also spark the interest of the business world’s commentators and analysts.  This in turn won’t go un-noticed to pre-IPO investors, both existing and new.  Post-IPO, your stock will explode because of the underlying fundamentals and revenue generated from social, SEO and Web marketing, along with the hype these initiatives will ultimately create. The only question now is in-house or outsourced: I’m sure you know which way I’m leaning.

 

Step Up Your Blog Posts

It’s easy to fall in to a rut with your blog.  So, how do you maintain the online presence you want, keep fresh content, and keep your audience engaged?  Here are a few tips that will help you keep your focus… and keep your followers.

  1. Understand your blog’s focus. Don’t ramble on about a multitude of topics. Remember your blog’s purpose, and keep all posts centered on that.
  2. Set up Google Alerts or RSS feeds for industry-related topics. The best way to gain credibility on your blog is to be viewed as an industry expert.  In order to do this, you’ll need to be prepared with the latest trends and topics.
  3. Stay relevant and mix it up.  You’ll get burnt out if you’re constantly reading the same industry blogs and articles. Sing up for a conference or a webinar.  This is a great way to spark creativity and refuel your blog content.
  4. Be sure you have links, or icons, for all of your social networks easily available for readers on your blog. If someone likes what they read, they will want to find a way to connect with you.  If the links to your social media networks are no where to be found, that reader might lose interest.
  5. Don’t overlook the importance of your “subscribe” button.  Make sure it’s easy to find, and in a convenient location for the reader.
  6. Write for a busy professional in your industry. Think about it – do you read articles with 500-word paragraphs? Probably not.  Keep the paragraphs concise, try to use bullets or numbering, and get to the point.
  7. Interact.  If you receive comments, post something back.  Sometime it’s just a “thank you!” and other times it might be an answer to a question, or even direction to a previous post you’ve written.
  8. Use the free Google Keyword Tool to make sure you’re using the proper keywords that are bringing people to your blog via search engines. Don’t miss an opportunity to help your audience find your blog.
  9. Find another industry expert to do a guest post.  This is a great way to bring a fresh angle to your blog.  Plus, you just might learn something from the guest blogger!
  10. Avoid self-promotion. Don’t use every post to sell your new book. Don’t constantly pitch your company’s services to your readers.  Your blog should serve as a resource for trends, news, hot topics and information – not a sales outlet.

Hopefully these ten tips will help you keep your blog on track, and take your online presence to the next level!

 

The Wait Is Over, Google+ Business Pages are Finally Here

Google is at it again. Monday, in an effort to continue to increase its presence in the social media sphere, Google launched the next installment of its already successful Google+ project: Google+ Pages. These pages have been in the works for months, and users have been anxiously awaiting their arrival. Google+ Pages will allow business small and large to connect with their existing customers, and potentially create new business.

Google+ Pages are not only a great way to enhance your business’ local and national presence, but they also allow existing Google+ users to connect with brands, companies and organizations.  Many brands, news outlets and big name companies have been early adopters of Google+ pages.  Below are a few examples:

So you might be asking yourself, “Okay great, I have a business and a Google+ Page, what does it mean? How can I make Google+ work for my Business?”

Below are a few simple steps that can get you on the right track to utilize this new feature effectively:

Start by setting up your actual Google+ page:

  • Visit https://plus.google.com/pages/create
  • Select which category your business fits into:
  • Local Business or Place
  • Product or Brand
  • Company, Institution or Organization
  • Arts, Entertainment or Sports
  • Other

Enter the Basic Information into your selected category

  • Agree to the terms
  • CREATE!

Next, it’s time to customize the page:

  • Create a Tagline
  • Enter your profile picture
  • Enter all of the information customers will want to know about your product.
  • PROMOTE!
  • Click Finish, and you will be taken to your new Google+ Business Page.

A few things to note:

One main feature of Google+ Page that you do not want to forget is: the badge for your website.  Visit the developers guide for gain access to this badge.

https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/config

Also, be sure to add the +1 button on your website to share even more content with the Google world. http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/+1/button/index.html

Have questions about Google+ or want to know more tips and tricks? Check out this helpful resource:https://plus.google.com/100585555255542998765/posts/J4LKQnjj7z1

 

Google+ is now open for business(es)!

Since summer businesses have waited patiently for the opportunity to join in on Google+ and yesterday Google officially opened the doors to Google+ business pages. Previously Google+ was only open for personal profiles. Google discouraged businesses from using the profiles for businesses and even shut down a few businesses trying to use Google+ profiles as business pages.

So what now?

Businesses who want to join Google+ should head out to https://plus.google.com/pages/create to create a page. The process is simple:

  1. First, it is important to decide what Google+ profile you want connected to this page. For now, Google+ business pages do not have admin rights like Facebook pages so the login used to create the page will be the only login with access to update the page. So make sure you are logged into a business Google account before creating your business page.
  2. Choose a category that best describes your business (Local Business; Product or Brand, Company, Institution or Organization; Arts, Entertainment, Sports or Other).
  3. Enter the basic information for your business and click Create.
  4. Next Google+ will ask you to customize your page a bit with a tagline and profile picture.
  5. Then you will be prompted to spread the word about your new page to your circles. Remember, this is all done through the Google+ profiles you used to create the page.
  6. Click Finish and you are taken to your Google+ business page. The Get Started page provides some useful information about how to update and promote your biz page. You can then easily toggle between your personal profile and any pages you have created.
  7. Once your page is complete you can add a Google+ badge to your website to connect your website to Google+.
  8. Don’t forget to also add a +1 button to your website to allow users to share your content on Google+.

Now start updating your page! The process from here is similar to personal profiles. Pages can share posts and add photos and videos. A few Google+ pages that have already been created are:

Macy’s
Angry Birds
Anderson Cooper 360

Have you created a Google+ business page yet? How do you plan to use it for your business?

 

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