Tag: SEO

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Not Provided Keyword Data in Analytics Requires Out of Box Keyword Discovery

Searching for keywords in an alternative way
Searching for keywords in an alternative way

In Google Analytics almost all organic search activity is being returned with a “not provided” tag masking the actual keywords used to find your content. If you are not advertising in Google AdWords, you may be totally in the dark as to what keywords visitors are using to find your web page content.

If you are looking to improve website visibility and popularity of your website, you may be struggling to figure out what keywords you should use for a landing page, topic for an e-newsletter or for that matter even the topic for a blog post.

Here are a few tips on how you can discover keywords and opportunities to incorporate into your content creation program by thinking outside the norm.

1. Use Google.com’s predictive text insertion to identify top search terms to see if you are covered. Click in to some of the searches you like and look carefully at the returned results. Do you see businesses like yours there or do you just see PDFs from colleges or government entities. Make sure the words you use for your final cut match with your business based on the returned results.

2. Use YouTube.com’s predictive text insertion in the search field to identify possible keyword variations you may not have considered. If you are video minded and see a possible keyword opportunity, consider making a video to fill that niche and place on that topic.

3. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool to do a reality check and see what type of competition you may face and look for alternative keyword variations.

4. Make sure to review your Google Analytics beyond the first page of results where you see the “not provided” as further down the page and back you will be able to see some of the actual keyword terms used to find you.

5. Make sure to review your Google Webmaster account to see what terms Google is showing as your query results. Although you may not see all the terms used to find you, you will be able to glean very specific insight as to city name, combinations, and top activity.

If you feel you need professional help, we provide consulting services to help identify areas of opportunity.

 

 

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Is Guest Blogging Dead? Part Two

Today we’ll talk about when you can and should guest blog for others to improve your own organic placement.

First, I have to say that I do guest blogging on a regular basis for two sites in my own industry: the Bing Ads Community and SiteProNews. I personally find guest blogging in certain parameters authority and visibility building.

Here’s when I feel that guest blogging can be a workable strategy for you:

1. If you have an industry or trade publication that shows articles to the public (not locked behind a gateway) online I would consider the opportunity to write an article that would include links back to your website writing as an authority a great opportunity. I would highly encourage you to see out and write in these types of situations. Make sure that before you write you have your personal Google+ profile set up and that you link to this profile in the article bio block using the rel=”author” syntax. This discreet action will tie the article to your Google+ profile which you in turn link to your website. This type of guest blogging article may help with your own business exposure.

2. If you have been approached by someone in your industry outside of your geographic area and they are willing to allow you to guest blog on their quality blog and you have vetted them as a respectable business, I would consider a once a month guest blog post a wonderful opportunity for you. However, I would properly vet them to make sure that the link from their site to yours is not tainted by other types of activities they may be participating in that would be a high negative for Google which would bleed into your own site’s Google profile.

When would I steer clear of guest blogging:

1. If your SEO firm says “we’ll charge you $XXX a month to send out guest blog posts and they’ll be placed on hundreds of sites so you’ll get a high number of links”, I would be very cautious. In a recent analysis I did for a client we queried exactly where the content was placed and were shocked when the blog post for a medical call center was found on a hemorrhoid medication website and numerous off-topic/no name blogs. There is NO VALUE to your content appearing on sites like this! In fact, links from sites like this you may actually need to disavow with Google.

2. If your SEO firm says “we will write one article but then slightly reword it so it is different for every site we place it on.” Steer clear! This is called article spinning and one clear practice that Google has very clearly disavowed and has stated it considers content spam.

Quality content and the right type of guest blogging opportunities can actually be very good for your own organic placement. Find out how my firm may be able to help you with special quality pieces to use as guest blog posts for your own business.

You’ll want to check out Matt Cutts full video on the topic of guest blogging in this webmaster video from the Google Web Spam department for more information.

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Is Guest Blogging Dead? Part One

The way most SEO’s have been using guest blogging to build links has really been disavowed by Google and appears to be considered low quality content. Here’s how guest blogging particularly impacts websites that use this type of blog content and those that send out guest blog content to others to post.

Today we’ll talk about using guest blog posts on your own blog and Wednesday we’ll talk about situations where you are sending content out to others to post to their blog.

Posting Guest Blog Posts to Your Own Blog

If you have been soliciting guest blog posts to build free content and to try to create value for your blog, here are a few tips to consider before you continue using this type of content.

1. Verify using Copyscape Premium that the content you have been using as a guest blog post is actually unique to your blog. If when you run the post through the plagiarism checker and you see two, five, forty sites that have this same blog post, I would stop using content from this source.

2. Take a look at the keywords used in the post and in the bio block footer. Would Google consider them to be a good match with your website focus? Let’s say for example you are an attorney and got a guest blog post but the footer content and keywords talk about nutritional supplements. I would not use that content any more. You want the keywords and bio block information to be legal category keywords.

3. Take a look at the anchor text used in the blog post – that’s the keywords that are underlined and carry the hyperlink. Open the blog post in Word and see what site are you linking to in the post? Is is a quality site? Is it one you would like your own customers to visit? Is the site in your own industry?

Remember typically others that create and push out guest blog content are not interested in building their own author brand, they are trying to bleed off your search engine capital through a link back to their own website or to their own clients’ website.

Be careful and selective of what you use and how. Google will be evaluating who you link to and who links to you as part of the new organic placement ranking.

You’ll want to check out Matt Cutts full video on the topic of guest blogging in this webmaster video from the Google Web Spam department for more information.

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Not Provided – Masks Search Terms from Website Owners

Just this last week, Google announced that it was moving all web searches at Google.com to https settings which would mean that all keyword data would be encrypted and no longer flowed into Google Analytics.

Although this may sound like business as usual and a great improvement for the typical web searcher – “great, increased privacy”, it is turning the world of search and SEO upside down. This means that the small number of “not provided” notations in Google Analytics will now cover all searches. The only keyword activity you will see in your Google Analytics account will be from Google AdWords activity. No longer will you be able to identify the search terms that are bringing in your traffic organically or for that matter harvest keywords for SEO use from Analytics.

There’s lots of chatter on the web as to why Google would make this change without warning, some say it is a direct reaction to the Edward Snowden revelation and others say that it is to drive more advertisers into Google AdWords. Whichever option you’d like to embrace, at this time Google is not saying why they have taken this action, just that it is.

For many website owners this will create the need to purchase website analytics software so that they will know what is happening on their own website. If I find a good statistical package, I’ll make sure to let you know.

To learn more about this topic, I have found two excellent resources to express the real impact for website owners. I invite you to read them and then come back to my post and let me know your comments.

http://searchengineland.com/post-prism-google-secure-searches-172487

http://www.6smarketing.com/blog/keyword-data-is-dead-long-live-keyword-data-2/