Google has confirmed it fixed a bug where some sites with manual actions were not seeing those manual actions in Google Search Console. Daniel Waisberg from Google said Monday morning, “Everything should be back to normal.” Manual actions disappeared. For some sites that had manual actions, the manual actions notices disappeared from Google Search Console. This began on Wednesday, November 18 and was resolved as of this morning, Monday, November 23. Small impact. Daniel Waisberg from Google said this was fixed and that “it affected only a tiny number of sites.” It is hard to know if that means that it only affected a small percentage of sites with manual actions or only affected a tiny number of sites that use Google Search Console. I assume, only a tiny number of sites in Search Console have manual actions. The manual actions are back. Not only has Google confirmed the manual actions are now being displayed, but so are SEOs: What is a manual action? Google will issue a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. These manual actions are displayed within Google Search Console and stay there until the manual action is lifted. You can learn more about these manual actions over here. Why we care. Often seeing a “no issues detected” message in the manual actions viewer within Google Search Console is a reason to smile and celebrate, espesially if the site had a manual action. You should now go check your manual actions to confirm that the sites you manage are penalty free. The post Google manual actions bug is now resolved appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/35UlcAE
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In the early days of the pandemic, the University of Southern California, like many other educational institutions, had to do a swift pivot when it came to one of its most consequential activities of the year: commencement. Over the course of 3 weeks, the university designed and set up a virtual commencement experience, explained Josh Koenig, co-founder and head of product at WebOps platform Pantheon, which counts USC as a client. “They built out their own Twitch-stream-like experience, where they’d have an embedded video feed and chat and other messages,” Koenig said, speaking at the recent MarTech conference. “So they could have 27 different channels of this going on for different schools and niches and audiences.” When the big day arrived, USC got 77,000 people to engage in the experience, significantly more than could possibly come to a normal in-person commencement, said Koenig. “The first thing the team said to us when we did the recap was ‘We’re doing this again next year, for sure,'” he said. “Because their ability to reach into extended family networks and friend networks and open the experience of commencement to a much wider audience than they ever could have admitted into an auditorium is not something they every want to give up.” The new normalKoenig cited the experience as one example of how the digital transformation spurred by the COVID-19 era is driving lasting change. At a time when so many people’s interactions with businesses are conducted solely online, Koenig urged the audience to step up to the challenge of delivering a great user experience. “This is the primary, if not only, channel by which you’re going to be able to reach people, certainly you don’t want them to have a poor experience,” he said. “I think we’re going to see many, many more organizations really stepping up, taking this seriously and striving for excellence.” What that means, according to Koenig, is being able to respond to changes in circumstances quickly, so that your digital communications are always as effective as they can be. Structure your operations to enable agile marketing“Can you can you respond in real time to social media? Can you evolve the experience of your website on a weekly basis, or potentially, if necessary, on a daily basis, because you’ve had to pivot a campaign or you’re sending out a new type of communication?,” he asked. “If the web experience component of your stack can’t move at that speed, it’s really a problem.” “You want to be able to think strategically, you want to be able to act proactively, but a lot of marketing organizations, they’re frankly, just not there, even though they wish they would be, noted Koenig. Koenig said marketers need to get beyond the idea of the website relaunch — that this big-bang process that occurs maybe once a year is the way to manage your site. “What happens inevitably is the website’s unveiled, the relaunch happens. And it’s very exciting, it’s a big improvement, you fixed a lot of things, but it’s also incorrect in many ways,” he said. “There’s no way that you’re going to get it all right and stick the landing perfectly. So there’s this list of things that need to get fixed or adjusted.” Instead, marketers should invest resources in the ability to iterate early and often — this is achieved by using WebOps. “Rather than thinking of a relaunch that solves all the problems, think about applying a new way of managing and delivering through your web channels,” he said. It’s not all about technologyOne important ingredient for achieving this is a technology stack that can support these iterative processes, but Koenig said you also need to develop clear-cut processes to empower content creators. “You’re going to figure out how to give people the authority to write something and publish it with minimal overhead or bureaucratic review,” he said. “How do we invest in kind of messaging guidelines and content strategy, so that you can… make content creators really accountable for the impact of what they’re creating, because they know how to be on brand.” Accountability goes hand in hand with analytics, so that you can steer each iteration toward your big-picture business goals. “Ultimately, the purpose of all this is that you connect the web strategy with the business value. Your website has a job to do — you have to decide what that job is, ” Koenig said. “And there’s lots of stakeholders for a flagship website for the public face of your brand or your company. But you really got to figure out what’s the most important thing, and then start to measure that and and align your activities around driving that.” The post Beyond the relaunch: Evolve your web strategy toward regular iterations appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/36XxwQ8 The post 20201123 SEL Brief appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3kVeDSE Creating a strong call to action (CTA) is essential to turn visitors into leads, but how do you come up... The post 20 Call to Action Examples that Create Instant Leads appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger https://ift.tt/397ADHV I’ve worked in SEO in highly-competitive niches for 15 years — 7 of those in link building and 5 in crowd marketing. In that time, I’ve seen plenty of praise for and prejudice against crowd marketing. So I decided to gather all my practical experience and use cases and build a comprehensive guide on crowd marketing — with definitions, best practices and life examples. I’ll be totally open. Don’t expect the names of big brands (confidentiality above all here, right?), but do expect the raw truth on this unique promotion method. Let’s start with the basics. Crowd Marketing: What it is and what it is notCrowd marketing is a methodology of promoting brands through direct contact with their target audience on forums and forum-like platforms. We, at Natural Links, prefer working with industry-specific forums. One needs to participate in organic discussions on topics associated with the brand’s value proposition. When done properly, crowd marketing raises the clients’ brand awareness and creates thousands of safe, natural backlinks that grow organic traffic. Why do we at Natural Links call those links generated by crowd marketing activities “natural”? That is because crowd marketing content looks exactly like content from a real user who shares an opinion about the product or service, gives advice and wants to discuss it with peers. At this stage, we can break the first and most common stereotype: “Crowd marketing is spam.” Numbers and images speak better than words, so let’s refer to images here. This is a natural link as part of crowd marketing: It is posted in a relevant discussion from a trusted account with traction, history and likes. And this is spam you’ve heard all those rumors about: This one is posted from an empty account, written in broken English, in a thread dedicated to a completely irrelevant topic. So, to dot the i’s and cross the t’s: this article is about the first one — real crowd marketing and natural links. How does crowd marketing work?Google updates such as BERT result in a high ranking of high-quality articles with natural language. The company’s public representatives keep stating that Google rewards great content above all. However, content alone is not enough, as links are still crucial for ranking. Search engines favor smooth growth, a structured anchor list and a natural-looking link profile. So, well-thought-out crowd marketing can help with many marketing and SEO tasks. Crowd marketing for general promotion:
Crowd marketing for search engine optimization:
Who needs crowd marketing?I could say everyone who has a site needs crowd marketing — and that would not even be a lie. Still, that would be too easy. I especially focus on several business categories.
How to choose web resources for crowd marketingIf you got to this point in the article, you already understand that it’s important to do quality crowd marketing. So what stands behind this “quality”? First, the hygiene of resources selected for your crowd marketing – all the spammy and dirty items should be immediately washed out. Second, you can use only resources available for comments – websites, social networks, forums, and blogs. There are several types of popular resources you can comment on:
What about standalone blogs? Some crowd marketers use them for link posting, but I think it is a cheat. There are a few standalone blogs with strong moderation and live discussions in the comments. The rest 99% are dead. Not worth an effort for sure. Web resources for crowd marketing: Selection criteria
Bonus for those who read till the end: Real use cases for Crowd MarketingAs a co-founder of Natural Links, I see examples of wise crowd marketing on a daily basis. So I could not miss a chance to furnish out this guide with some success stories. Alas! Our strict confidentiality policy does not allow us to disclose the names of our clients. However, we can still show you something of interest. Here is the traffic graph of our client in the finance (PDL) niche. We started cooperation from the very first day of the website release, bringing the client from zero to more than 13K visitors per month — all in just 1 year. Was it magic? No. Only a reasonable tech assignment and a smooth growth of the backlink profile from 20-50 crowd links a month to 500-1000 crowd links a month. Here’s a graph from our other client in the dating category. Which outcome did they get from 18 months of quality crowd marketing?
What was their secret? Nothing magical again. It was a strategy of 3 tiers for crowd marketing.
ConclusionCrowd marketing deserves its place among the effective SEO and promotion practices and when it’s done thoughtfully it really works! It can be a secret sauce for your SEO strategy. Make the link profile natural and balanced, increase the website ranking, increase organic traffic and as a result bring new clients. There is no need to be afraid of crowd marketing — though you definitely need to do it right. The post Crowd Marketing: Fears, perks and a comprehensive Guide appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2HntRSS The post 20201120 SEL Brief appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/36RLYcn Google has been making a big push of late with Local Services Ads, which includes its two underlying “trust certifications,” Google Guaranteed (home services) and Google Screened (professional services). And recently the company started making the Google Guaranteed badge available to businesses for a monthly fee, outside of participation in Local Services Ads (LSA). Badges in the wild. Positioned as part of an “upgraded profile,” the Google Guaranteed badge costs $50 per month or $600 per year. The badge will appear on the local business profile and in the Local Pack. Google has labeled this program “an experiment,” which may or may not continue depending on adoption. Now, local SEOs Tom Waddington and Joy Hawkins are starting to see the Google Guaranteed badge appear in the wild. (I have not been able to replicate their screenshots.) So far, SterlingSky’s Hawkins says her agency hasn’t been able to detect any Google Guaranteed badges outside of the LSA program. Google A/B testing placement of Google Guaranteed badge In the graphic above, Simpson Air is an LSA advertiser. On one version of their Google Maps local profile the Google Guaranteed badge appears but in other places it does not. The company does not rank in the top three LSAs for the query “HVAC in Tampa Florida.” It’s buried on a secondary “more pros” page of LSA advertisers that is likely to receive few if any impressions, let alone contacts. (Cue the joke about the best place to hide a dead body.) Guaranteed badge may lead to higher CTRs. The visibility of the Google Guaranteed badge on the profile in organic results presumably offers added value for LSA advertisers and may generate additional organic clicks and/or leads. Given that Google has just moved from fixed pricing for LSAs to bidding, it’s possible marketers down the line will compare the relative value of the $50 per month profile “upgrade” vs. the per-lead cost of LSAs. Provided they pass the trust certification, it’s easier to pay $50 per month than it is to optimize and bid for placement in the top three LSAs. Conversely, we may see larger advertisers doing LSAs and smaller business marketers choosing the $50 fee, although LSA advertisers get the benefit of both placement at the very top of search results — if they’re successful that is — and the badge on their listings. The presence of the Google Guaranteed badge on the profile and Local Pack may confer a consumer-trust advantage that will result in higher CTRs. I’ve asked Google about this directly, but the company declined to share any performance data. I suspect however, that organic listings featuring the Google Guaranteed badge do or will see better response rates. Why we care. LSAs are a potentially disruptive program for many local advertisers. LSAs are both simpler and more “foolproof” than traditional Google text ad campaigns and even the largely automated Local Campaigns. Despite bidding, there are no keywords, no extensions and no ad copy to write. And attribution is much less of an issue because the contact or transaction is captured on the landing page, so it’s effectively a closed loop. Don’t miss the upcoming SMX session: LSAs: Ranking in the Local Trust Pack The post Google Guaranteed badge starting to appear on Google Maps listings appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3pRXZY3 The post 20201119 SEL Brief appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3kJNPVn There are widespread reports that manual actions are disappearing from Google Search Console. If you had manual actions and they are not showing up this morning, you are not alone. Daniel Waisberg from Google said he is investigating these reports. What is a manual action? Google will issue a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. These manual actions are displayed within Google Search Console and stay there until the manual action is lifted. You can learn more about these manual actions over here. What do they look like? Here is a screen shot of a manual action: But many who have manual actions are seeing “no issues detected” in the manual actions viewer within Search Console: Google is investigating. Waisberg from the Google Search Relations team, who works closely with the Search Console team, said, “Looking into it…” when I asked about it: More complaints. Here are some of the complaints from the SEO community about the mysteriously missing manual actions: Why we care. Often seeing a “no issues detected” message in the manual actions viewer within Google Search Console is a reason to smile and celebrate, espesially if the site had a manual action. But do not celebrate or get your hopes up today if you see that. It looks like a bug and Google will probably fix it soon. The post Google investigating missing manual actions appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2HjtMzy Competitor analysis is a crucial part of any SEO strategy. Whether you’re just estimating your chances of conquering a new niche or already trying hard to move up the ranking ladder, you need to mind your rivals. Understanding their strengths and weaknesses will help you make the right decisions, and by keeping tabs on your competitors’ activities, you’ll be one step ahead in the race to SERP supremacy. SE Ranking has all the necessary tools to help you understand who you are up against, learn your rival’s best SEO tactics and always know which direction your competitors are heading. Learn who you need to outrankLet’s say you’re just studying the niche to understand whether you want to create your own project and join the competition, or perhaps you help others gain search visibility and now need to study the market before building a strategy for a new client. You probably know who your major rivals are, but, if not, you can easily find it out by studying SERPs. Just think of a seed keyword that best describes your niche, enter it into SE Ranking’s Keyword Research tool and you’ll learn which websites rank for the search term in the selected area. While navigating between the related keywords pertaining to your niche, you’ll be able to easily identify all major players in the market. You’ll immediately see keyword search volume and whether it’s subject to seasonal fluctuations. Besides, the keyword difficulty score will let you understand how much effort it will take to start ranking these keywords. If you already have the website URL or domain name of one of your major rivals, SE Ranking’s Competitive Research tool will come in handy. Here, you’ll find an exhaustive list of your competitors in organic and paid search sorted by the number of keywords they have in common with the analyzed website. On a graph, you can compare your site to any of the listed rivals in terms of the number of keywords you rank for, the total amount of website traffic and its cost. Both Keyword Research and Competitive Research tools can be tested right from the landing pages and if you start a 14-day free trial, you’ll be able to try out all of the tools’ capabilities. Take a peek under the hood of your rivalsOnce you have the list of your competitors, you can start analyzing them in greater detail to learn your rivals’ strengths and borrow their best practices. SE Ranking’s Competitive Research tool will provide you with all the necessary insights. Learn their traffic sourcesStart with finding out whether your competitors mostly rely on organic search or paid ads for driving traffic. You’ll immediately see the amount of traffic the website gets from organic and paid search, the number of keywords it ranks for and targets in its PPC campaigns, as well as the estimated cost of the website’s traffic. You can study the dynamics of all the metrics on the charts below to understand whether your rival shows any kind of growth. Borrow your rivals’ top keywords and topicsBy digging deeper, you’ll also learn which exact keywords drive traffic to the rival’s website. In the Organic keywords report, you’ll find each keyword’s search volume and difficulty, and will see how well your rival ranks for the keyword as well as which portion of the website’s traffic each of the keywords bring. If you spot some low-competitive search queries that drive plenty of traffic, consider borrowing them. Another quick way to find keywords your own website could benefit from would be by analyzing it against two close rivals. This can be done with the help of the Competitor Comparison tool, which identifies which keywords the analyzed websites have in common. In the Missing keywords tab, you’ll find search queries both of your rivals rank for while you don’t. Then, you can also analyze which pages bring most of the traffic to your rivals. If you don’t yet cover the topics on your website, an effective strategy would be to create respective pages. Finally, if your competitor happened to be focusing on paid search, you can also check which exact keywords they target and even study their most popular ads. Assess the quality of their backlink profileWhen running SEO competitor analysis studying your rivals’ backlinks is essential. The above mentioned Competitive Research tool immediately shows you any website’s Domain Trust and Page Trust along with the number of its referring domains and backlinks. Domain Trust and Page Trust are aggregate quality scores developed by SE Ranking that are calculated based on the number and the quality of a website’s referring domains and backlinks. To study your competitor’s backlink profile in greater detail, click on the number of referring domains, and hit the Get full report button. You’ll be then redirected to the Backlink Checker tool, where you’ll be able to examine your rival’s backlink profile from every possible angle:
All this data will help you fine-tune your own link building strategy. Keep an eye on your major competitorsWith the help of the Competitive Research tool, you can find competing websites that rank for the same keywords as your site. But those keywords won’t necessarily be the ones you target. To see who you compete with for the keywords you want to rank for, create a project with SE Ranking and add the keywords of your interest. In the My Competitors section, you’ll find rivaling websites that rank for the keywords that you added to your project. To see a full list of such websites go to the Visibility subsection. All your rivals are sorted here by their visibility — websites that rank well for popular keywords boast higher visibility score. Besides, you can see each website’s Alexa rank and the number of its backlinks and referring domains. You can mark every competitor with a specific tag (e.g. major rivals, local market competitors, blog competitors, etc.) to quickly understand how the data that you see affects your own website. On the graphs above the table, you can compare the listed websites with each other. If you see that your rival’s visibility is growing and it now has more keywords ranking in the top 10, that’s a reason for you to worry and double your own SEO efforts. To see who you compete with for exact keywords, go to the SERP Competitors subsection. Here you can select the keyword of your interest and learn which websites rank for it in the top 100. Tags are also here to help you identify what kind of websites made it to the top: your major rivals, local competitors, news websites, etc. Study how the SERP landscape has changed over time. If you spot a competitor, who has shown significant progress, take a mental note to analyze it in more detail — you may be willing to copy some of your rival’s strategies that proved to be successful. Finally, you can add five of your major competitors to the project to track their rankings along with your own at no additional cost. Don’t miss changes that make a differenceWouldn’t it be great to get a notification every time your competitor does something that could tilt the game balance? Like when they update a landing page you’ve finally outranked, release a new product or update their pricing. SE Ranking’s Page Changes Monitoring can help you with this one. All you need is to choose the pages you want to monitor — if the tool spots some changes were made to the pages, you’ll get an email notification. You are free to choose which page elements you want to monitor, be it page title and description, keywords, headers, content, links, robots.txt file, HTTP code, search engine index status or all of the parameters. Note that to make use of the Page Changes Monitoring tool you’ll have to add your competitor’s website to your account as a project. But as all SE Ranking pricing plans except for the basic one allow for unlimited projects, that won’t be a problem. More good news: right now you can save big on all the SEO tools SE Ranking offers.
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