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Category Archives: Google

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Exciting Changes to Google Analytics Session Tracking Methods

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As an analytics nerd, I’ve always got my ear to the ground about new and upcoming features in my favorite analytics suite. Any change that provides me with more accurate and actionable data really gets me pumped up.

So yesterday, when Google announced a small change to the way visitor sessions are calculated in Google Analytics, I couldn’t wait to dive in and find out more!

Accurate analytics data is a vital component of any successful online marketing campaign, and understanding the way visits are interpreted by your analytics engine can provide a clearer understanding of how visitors interact with your site.

So what does that mean?

Essentially, this change allows Google Analytics to track attribution data more accurately. With the recent addition of Multi-Channel Funnels, which allow you to track the attribution of a conversion from the first-click source to the last-click source, more accurate attribution data means a more effective model of your users’ engagement with your site.

What actually changed?

To understand what any of this means, you need to know how Google Analytics used to track sessions compared to how they are tracking them going forward.

Before today, Google Analytics ended a session:

  • When more than 30 minutes elapsed between pageviews
  • At the end of the day
  • When a visitor closed his or her browser

If the visitor returned to the site after one of those events occurred, a new session would begin.

Starting today, the following changes have been made to session tracking:

  • A session is no longer ended when a visitor closes his or her browser window (which means a visitor can leave and come back within 30 minutes on a given day, and their session will continue)
  • A session will now end when the traffic source for the user changes. This means that if an organic search visitor leaves the site and comes back through a Pay-Per-Click ad, his or her previous session will be ended and a new one will start.
  • As before, the end of a day, or the passage of more than 30 minutes between pageviews, will cause a session to end.

Google has stated that this change may slightly increase the number of visits tracked to a site, but based on their research, “most users will see less than a 1% change”.

If you’ve seen any surprising changes in your analytics data since this change was implemented, please leave us a comment, or drop me a tweet @CliffyKOnline. I’d love to hear about how your data has been affected!

Posted in Analytics, Google | Tagged , , ,

 

Online Video Views Explode to All-Time High in June 2011!

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A recent article in ClickZ by Jack Marshall further excitedly confirms what the video prophets have been forclaiming for several years now - Internet video continues to grow and grow as a marketing and content creation/consumption tool.

According to the article, Internet users in America engaged in over 6.2 BILLION video viewing sessions in June of 2011 – the largest amount of viewing ever recorded - with the definition of ‘engagement’ in a viewing session as “a period of time with continuous video viewing followed by a 30-minute period of video inactivity.”

Leaving all the granular stats to your own reading pleasure with the article itself, what this means for online video is continued massive upward growth. For producers of web videos, look for more new clients to jump on your bandwagons as they realize the reach and ease of web video as an advertsing and marketing vehicle. For businesses especially trying to reach the 20-to-50 year-old consumer demographic, your best shot at listening ears and watching eyes for your brand messages and commercial pitches is through Internet video. It’s that simple.

Fathom makes great-looking and impressively priced online videos for commercial B2B customers of all types. Reach out and contact us today to discuss how our Internet video marketing can help your business reach new heights in leads and sales.

Posted in Content Creation, Google, Internet Video Marketing

 

Proof Why You Should Keep Those PPC Ads Running!

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I have 2 questions/answers for you on paid search:

1. Have you ever wondered whether PPC ads cannibalize organic traffic? In other words, if you paused your PPC ads, would organic traffic see a spike and make up for the lost paid traffic?

The answer: A definite NO!

2. Have you been hesitant to run paid search because you thought the traffic would be redundant in light of your already-successful organic search results? In effect, that you would be paying for something you currently get for free?

The answer: YOU ARE NOT!

Now let me explain.

Google itself was also wondering about these issues and conducted a study that detected click volume in the absence of paid search ads.

The results showed that 89% of paid search traffic is NOT replaced by organic clicks when the ads are paused. This statistic was consistently high across verticals.

What does this mean for businesses who want to maximize online marketing results?

  • Great organic search results do not necessarily mean you’ve tapped out your search market.
  • Paid search brings unique value, i.e. leads and sales you wouldn’t otherwise be getting.
  • On the fence about budgeting for PPC? Tapping into it could mean a lot to your bottom line.

Why wouldn’t you want to spend a little more to make a LOT more?

***

To learn more about PPC dynamics or determine a winning paid-search strategy, request a free evaluation today.

 

Posted in Google, Paid Search | Tagged , ,

 

Choose Your Friends Carefully…

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Did you know you can increase your Google rankings just by making friends?

Now that I have your attention, let me clarify. There seems to be a correlation between people adding you to their Google+ circles and your ranking on Google search results.

In a recent blog post by Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land, he stated that by liking a certain brand or person on Google+, they are more likely to show up in your search results. For example, he found if you became a “friend” of the Ford Motor Company, one of the few companies with a test brand page, they would be more likely to show up in your top results. However, if you signed out of Google+, Ford may not show up in the top results at all.

Since 2009, Google’s social search results have allowed content from people you know to rank higher if you are logged in. However, the function has never really worked for brands. If you followed or liked a specific brand on Twitter or Facebook, it was still unlikely they would actually show up in your results because of it.

So what’s the catch? As of now, you can’t create a brand page on Google+. Only a very small percentage of brands are actually being accepted. Eventually this will change, but for now, you can only use your personal page to show up in Google search results.

In the meantime, you can take advantage of Google’s +1 feature to help searchers make a direct connection with you. In the past, Google has mentioned that +1s can influence your ranking for those who have added a +1 to your content.

Want to learn more about Google+? Check out our earlier post on the launch of Google+.

Posted in Google, Online Marketing, Search Engines, SEO

 

Who Wants a Google+ Business Profile?!

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Not so fast!

Like the Google+ personal profiles, Google planned to slowly roll out and test Google+ company profiles through a test program first. They asked interested businesses to apply to be considered for the test program at the beginning of July. The feedback they received was overwhelming. According to Googler Christian Oestlien, “Believe it or not we actually had tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organizations apply to take part from all over the world.”

Because of this interest Google+ has accelerated the business profiles program and they will hopefully launch for everyone in Q3 2011.

According to VentureBeat, Google+ business profiles will have analytics as well as more sophisticated sharing options. A Google spokesperson told VentureBeat,

“There will be a product very soon that has businesses’ interests in mind… We want to give them the features businesses expect and the features that can improve the sharing experience both for consumers and businesses… You can expect to see a level of analytics and measurement that you’d typically find in Google products as well as a nuanced approach to how things are shared. It encourages and enhances conversation, it doesn’t just put things in the stream.”

Google is asking businesses not to create Google+ profiles using the regular profiles. They will even be disabling business profiles that use regular profiles. They recommend using a real person to represent your business until business profiles are ready.

So as tempting as it may be to set up a personal Google+ profile for your business – don’t! The wait will be worth it!

For more updates from Google+ on business profiles follow Googler Christian Oestlien at https://plus.google.com/105923173045049725307/posts

What do you think of this Google+ business profile saga? Will you create a Google+ business profile when they are available?

Posted in Google, Social Media | Tagged , ,

 

Growth of Google Display

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Will the introduction of Google+ help Google’s display growth? We all know they rule the search space but Google has taken significant strides the last few years to increase their market share of display ads.  Helping this charge has been the increasing use of display by automotive and financial services verticals. They have nearly doubled their impressions on image, flash, and expandable ads last year. This strong increase bodes well for Google considering these two industries have been hit hard with the recession.

With Google’s diverse clients doing mainly search it will be easier for them to package display with it as well. About 99% of the largest 1,000 advertisers on Google run both search and display ads.

In the past, display ads have been primarily dominated by Yahoo Inc. and Facebook Inc. Facebook will soon surpass Yahoo for the top spot. The U.S. display advertising market is smaller than the search ad market, but growing rapidly. Advertisers are expected to spend $12.3 billion on online display by the end of this year compared to $14.4 billion on Internet search ads, according to eMarketer.

Analysts predict Google will be up 34% year over year to 9.3% share in the U.S. display ad market. For comparison, Facebook will near 18%.

Google + which launched in June, does not yet host ads but will soon compete. Google+ has millions of users already and is only a matter of time before they enter the display arena. Will Google take over the top spot in display by the end of 2012? Only time will tell.

 

Posted in Google, Paid Search

 

Google Insights for Researching Local Search Keywords

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OK, here is a classic math problem with a “local search” twist:

  1. At 10:45 a.m., Jim gets on a computer in Norfolk, VA and searches for real estate license information.
  2. Pam gets on a computer in Charlotte, NC one hour later and searches for real estate license information.
  3. What does an Internet marketer need to do to target both of these audiences?

Answer? Local SEO campaigns (sorry, the “time” element of the equation was irrelevant).

There is little debating that local search is the future of search engine optimization – and, more generally, the future of Internet marketing. There are already a number of different tactics and techniques that are all part of a savvy marketer’s toolkit. These includes claiming and optimizing Google Places listings for all of your physical businesses.

But relying solely on Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Yelp, and other local listings will significantly limit your local search campaigns (especially if your business doesn’t have traditional brick-and-mortar locations).

A truly effective local search campaign requires a local content strategy. And by local content strategy, we mean:

  • Identifying your target regions
  • Performing local SEO keyword research for your top products/services in these regions
  • Creating unique content tailored to the search demand of each region

What we DO NOT mean by local content strategy is creating 20 versions of the exact same page by simply substituting the names of different cities and states. This kind of local search strategy is scrutinized now more than ever by Google following the Panda update.

But white, black, green or blue hat tactics aside, the most important part of any local content strategy is keyword research.

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is a good place to start, particularly when you want to find and compare search volume on keywords using a geographic modifier:

Local SEO and Local Search Keywords

The keyword tool also attempts to estimate the amount of local search volume for your terms. However, this number is based on Google’s estimate of search traffic in your current location (so in our case, people in Columbus Ohio searching “real estate license nc”). This is not very helpful if you are not physically in the location of your research target.

In order to justify adding a region to a local SEO campaign (or maybe even to justify creating one in the first place), you are probably going to need more detailed information.

Enter Google Insights for Search.

This tool allows you to compare the search “interest” of various keywords over time in multiple geographic areas. You can also fine tune your comparison and filter by search type (web, image, news, or even product).

Google Insights for Search

Once you enter your search term(s) and select the regions you want to compare, the tool first provides you with a graphical representation of the interest in your search term(s) over time in the selected regions:

local search keyword research

Under this graph, you can view a more specific breakdown of each state selected. The interface provides you with a map of search “interest” broken down by the top metro areas in the state. The tool currently will include some metro areas from other states if they are geographically close (e.g. the map below includes the New York City and Washington metro areas).

local SEO keywords

Finally, the tool also provides a list of top search keywords for that state, related to your initial keyword term(s). It even goes so far as to provide insight to search terms that are rising rapidly in search volume.

local search keyword ideas

Obviously, the tool provides ample possibilities for comparing as many different data sets as you can imagine – which, of course, is a true SEO keyword researcher’s dream.

Things really start to get interesting when you use Insights for Search and the Adwords Keyword Tool in tandem. Use the Keyword tool to find an initial set of data and then migrate that to Insights for Search for deeper analysis. Then, take the recommended keywords from Insights to explore more possibilities in the Keyword Tool. After a few rounds of back and forth you should be able to create and ultra targeted keyword list for each region in your local search campaign.

For example, you may find that the phrase “real estate license + the abbreviated form of each state” is a good keyword to use on all pages. But then you may find different variations are better in different areas. So you might determine that the best strategy is to target “real estate classes” in Pennsylvania, but then target “real estate license renewal” in North Carolina.

You can also check out Google Sets for even more local keyword research ideas.

Now that you have your dynamic list of regional keywords, you can begin creating your content strategy. Need help determining how to use these keywords in the creation of your content? Webbed Marketing can help.

Posted in Google, Keyword Research, Local Search, Local SEO, SEO | Tagged , , , , , ,

 

Are My PPC Ads Really at the Top? Finally, an Answer!

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I don’t know about you, but I know some of my fellow PPC’ers have been complaining for ages about position reporting on Google.  Sure, it seems enough just to know that we’re showing in position 1 for certain keywords.  That’s all fine and dandy except Google offered us no way to determine if we were appearing above or to the right of organic listings.  Our clients would ask, “How do I know if we showed up on top?” and we’d simply shrug and say, “We can’t tell”.

The metric that Google reports when it comes to position is actually based on auction position, not page position.  This essentially means that a position of 1 will always be the first ad but it can occur either at the top or along the right hand side.  In order to get that position above organic listings, you really need to have a solid quality score.  When it came down to knowing if we met the requirements for a top notch spot, we were left in the dark.

Well, my friends, those days are over.  Google just announced the release of the new “Top vs. side” reporting segment.  Hooray! While this may not be the most detailed or elaborate news Google has given us these days, it’s certainly a big win for us PPC geeks.

In order to see these segments broken out, all you need to do is:

1.)    Go to either the campaigns, ad groups, ads or keywords tab in your AdWords account

2.)    Click on the Segment drop down

3.)    Select Top vs. Side

You’ll then see six possible breakouts under each keyword: Google search top, Google search side, Google search other, search partners top, search partners other, and Google Display Network. It’s great to see these results on such a granular level and this new feature will be instrumental in determining whether or not bidding into a top position is worthwhile.

Hopefully this will clear up any misunderstandings about where the heck ads are appearing.  Albeit a small addition, it’s the little things in life that keep us PPC’ers  happy.

Are you curious about other new features within Google AdWords? Be sure to check out our other blog posts on Google Adwords Keyword Diagnostic Tool to see if you keywords are showing or read our blog post on What’s New at Google.

Posted in Google, Paid Search

 

Deciphering Google+ Webinar

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Over the past couple weeks, you have likely heard the hype surrounding Google+. If you were lucky enough to get an invite, you may have started exploring the new social network. Or you may have seen the “+1” appear next to your search results. Google+ has the potential to have a large impact on social and search as we know it. Join Webbed Marketing’s President Bill Balderaz, and Social Media Manager Rebecca Roebuck, to discuss the ins and outs of Google’s latest venture, and what it means for you and your company.

During this webinar we’ll discuss:

• What is Google+
• How it differs from other social networks
• How +1 impacts search and SEO
• What’s next

Register today, https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/387975723.

 

Posted in Google | Tagged

 

Measuring the Early SEO Impact of Google+

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As Google+ continues to roll out its services, more people will become privy to its satisfying features, and will help curb the question of those currently uninvited to the party: “Isn’t it just like Facebook?”

In a lot of ways yes, Google+ is like Facebook. From the profile design to the homepage stream, its design characteristics are influenced heavily by Facebook, and for good reason.

But seeing as how Google is the big reason that SEO exists the way it does today, there is plenty of reason to believe that this new social network will have a much more profound effect on the way we look at SEO in the coming months.

As of right now, we know a few things that Google is doing (or likely plans on doing) with its social network to influence SEO, including:

  • Indexing public posts from Google+, including the comments made on those public posts
  • Providing Google+ updates in search results

But the most intriguing SEO concept to come out of the early showings of Google+ is something called Sparks. Essentially, Sparks are content streams that users can personalize based off their own interests. A user chooses which Sparks to follow and is easily updated on his/her Google+ homepage.

The mystery here is that no one quite knows the methods that Google has used to collect all of these news sources. The “Cleveland Browns” Spark, for instance, contains links to various Browns-themed blogs, so it doesn’t appear that Google will shun those from this particular algorithm right off the bat, which is great news, but how does one get a blog listed? It’s a question that, when finally answered, will result in a big push to be listed in popular Sparks.

With the Blogger platform overhaul coming (including a renaming to “Google Blogs”), one wonders if that will play a role in Sparks integration as well. While that is merely speculation, it would appear that big things are on the way for Google and the world of SEO.

And, as with the early testing of any product, there are bound to be changes. For instance, there currently isn’t an official way that allows users to choose a custom URL for their Google+ profile.

Additionally, you will find brand pages noticeably absent from the social network. That isn’t to say that Google won’t allow those to roll out with time, because that would be the smart thing to do (think of the integration that can take place with local search), but for now, those chomping at the bit to start a business page will need to have a little patience.

For now, if you are lucky to be invited to the Google+ party, be sure to look around and start using all of its features. Separate your life into Circles. Start a Hangout. Above all else, stay involved because it looks as though Google+ is here to stay.

Let us know: what do you think of Google+ so far?

 

 

Posted in Google, Social Media

 

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