Do you have an app that you’d like to rank in mobile search engine results? If so, you’re going to need to make room in your SEO strategy for app optimization. For apps, there are distinct ranking factors. Although they are similar to ranking factors for a standard web page, there are differences that you need to know about. Here’s how you can optimize your app to get the best possible rank. Yes, you need to optimizeAccording to a recent Google report, 27 percent of users find apps through a search engine. That’s up from 2 percent to 3 percent in 2014. That trend will likely continue. Why? Because Google is emphasizing app downloads from search results while brushing aside Google Play as a search engine. Google has also become better at ranking apps, a trend we can expect to continue. Even though 40 percent of people still find apps by searching in an app store as of now, it’s still a great idea to plan for the future and optimize your app so people can find it with a search engine. Get in the app packAlthough the word “app” can include web-based applications offered as a service, most people think of apps as mobile applications that people download and install. Google understands that. As a result, Google now includes an “app pack” at the top of the mobile search results. You can see it if you open up the browser on your mobile device and search for something like “photo editor.” The app pack will include between one and six apps. If more than six apps match the search query, Google will display an arrow at the bottom of the pack so that users can view the rest of the results. Google also offers a decent amount of info about each app in the pack. In addition to displaying the app image and title, the app pack also shows the app rating and price. Users who click on the app square are taken to the store where they can download and install the app. Another nice feature: apps displayed in the app pack are specific to the underlying platform. In other words, Android users will never see an app that’s only available on iOS, even if that app matches the search term. There’s a downside, thoughAt this point, you might think it would be great if your app showed up in the app pack. While there’s an obvious benefit to appearing at the top of the mobile search results, there’s also a downside. The bad news is that for every app that appears in the app pack, one web ranking is pushed off the page. For example, if your website is ranking at the very top of the organic mobile results for a keyword (or your brand name) and you optimize your app to appear in the app pack for the same keyword, this could push your organic listing down the page — possibly below the fold. That could have an impact on your search marketing efforts, especially if there was no app pack appearing for that search query before your app optimization efforts. So, if you effectively optimize your app, there are instances where you could find yourself robbing Peter to pay Paul. However, if there’s already an app pack appearing for your target queries, it’s worth pursuing visibility within this space since this is already impacting organic positioning. Use the right keywordsThe first thing to do to optimize your app for search engines is to take a page out of the SEO 101 playbook: gather the right keywords. In my experience with keyword research, I’ve seen people who search for an app usually do so with a noun. They might search for something like “photo editor” or “travel planner.” So start your optimization efforts by thinking more about what your app is than what it does. “Edits photos” is what your app does. People won’t search for that. “Photo editor” is what your app is. People will search for that. Optimize the title and descriptionYou can think of the title of your app much like the title tag of a web page. It’s very important for SEO purposes. Also, Google evaluates app descriptions as text on a web page. That’s why you should optimize the app title and description just as you would optimize a web page title and its content. Use the keywords that you gathered from the first step and sprinkle them appropriately throughout the description. Put the most important keyword in the title. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll also want a branded title. For example, “SnapHelper — A Photo Editor” includes both the name of the app and an explanation of what it is. Of course, you’ll face limitations on how many characters you can include in the app title (50 characters for app store, 30 for Google Play). In that case, you’ll have to get creative about what you’ll include and how you’ll include it. You need reviewsHere’s where app SEO parts company from more traditional SEO efforts: you need reviews. For starters, your app might rank based on keywords included in reviews on the app page. It’s often the case that keywords toward the top of the page are given more weight than keywords farther down. The star rating will also affect how your app ranks. You might notice that some apps with better ratings outrank other apps that have better keyword optimization. That’s because Google pays attention to ratings. Undoubtedly, the star rating will also affect the click-through rate. That will likely impact its rank as well. Use app-specific keywordsYou’re ranking for an app. Why not use the word “app” in your title and/or description? Keep in mind that people who search for an app in the app store probably won’t use “app” in their search query. However, people who search for an app with a search engine are much more likely to use it. Optimize for the word “app,” and you’ll likely stay ahead of your competition. Also, use the name of the operating system in the app title and description. People using search engines to find an app will likely include their platform in the search query. Wrapping it upOptimizing an app for the search engines is different from optimizing a web page. However, with the right know-how and a little bit of effort, you can boost your app to the top of the search results. The post Simple tips to get your app indexed, ranked & installed appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2plFdLN
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Google announced today that the Google Home device is now able to talk you through cooking more than five million recipes. Google partnered with Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Food Network and other recipe databases to bring the best recipes right to your Google Home device. How does it work? 1. First you need to pick a recipe. To do that, go to the Google Assistant on your Android phone or on Google Search on either iOS or Android and find a recipe. Once you pick your favorite, select the “Send to Google Home” button. That will save the recipe to your Google Home. 2. When you are ready to start cooking the recipe, say to your Google Home “Ok Google, start cooking.” 3. Google will walk you through the process, and at any time you can say “Ok Google, repeat” or “Ok Google, what’s step two?” Google said you can also just say “Ok Google, let’s make macaroons” or substitute “macaroons” with something else, and Google will give you a recipe to cook without doing step 1. Here is a video of it in action: This feature will roll out over the coming weeks. The post Google Home now helps you cook over 5 million recipes appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2plJChP Today, the Cassini Spacecraft is going where no spacecraft has gone before — on a dive in between Saturn’s rings to take photos and collect data. Google is celebrating this historic mission with an animated Google doodle, a special logo, to grab people’s attention. The doodle shows a cartoon spacecraft next to a cartoon version of Saturn and its rings, taking photos as Saturn smiles. Here is a static version of the doodle, followed by the animated version: Google wrote on its Doodle page:
The post Cassini spacecraft’s grand finale at Saturn depicted in Google doodle appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2q5sQBo Oh, those idealistic good old days. Back when we truly believed that the global digital community would fact-check lies, make us smarter, and force our institutions to serve the greater good. As the man said, “How’s that working out for us?” It turns out that the social media utopia, like other utopias, didn’t end up as rosy as we’d hoped — mainly because it’s made of human beings. But the social web is still an extraordinary tool. The ability to instantly communicate with thousands of people isn’t to be scoffed at — if you can do it without losing your mind. I’ve been using social media since 1989. The remarkable thing for me isn’t what’s changed … it’s what’s stayed the same. Here are some of my survival tips from decades in the digital realm. #1: Watch out for the ant-shakersRemember ant farms? These were glass cases filled with sand or gel, where you could watch ants building tunnels and carrying things back and forth. In grade school we all had that one mean friend who would shake it hard, just to destroy the tunnels and watch the ants scurrying around trying to fix the mess. Every one of those ant-shakers got a Facebook account when they grew up. Some people just crave chaos — and if they can’t find it, they create it. There’s always a storm brewing around them, some bitter flame war that pits half the community against the other half. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that the pain and anger they cause are real emotions attached to real people. Either they can’t see it or they don’t care. Keep an eye out for the ant-shakers. A lot of them are attracted to the web, and spend a disproportionate amount of time there. They’re at the center of endless dust-ups, and it may take you some time to realize they’re engineering them. Putting distance between yourself and the ant-shakers — even if (especially if) you’re related — will calm your social media experience down considerably. #2: Realize that digital privacy is a lieWhen we socialize over the web, we tend to reveal a lot. It can feel like a small, intimate space. After all, we’re sitting there on the sofa with our laptops, and we recognize those names that fly by, even if we might never have met them face to face. Every day, I see people starting a post with something like — “I’ve never told anyone this before, not even my family” — and they’re sharing in a Facebook group with four million members. Digital privacy depends on the goodwill of every person who has access to the material. Anyone can screenshot anything. Once they have, you have very little control over what they do with it.
If you aren’t willing to make it public, don’t share it on the web. Not in a private group, not on Snapchat, not in email. Rather than trying to make these decisions on the fly, decide in advance what kinds of material you will — and won’t — share. There’s no one set of rules that will suit everyone — it’s really about your own comfort zone. But it may clarify your thinking to ask yourself how you’ll feel if your mom, your boss, and a professional identity thief can see a particular type of content you’re sharing. Because chances are, eventually, all three of them will. #3: If you’re in business, act like itYou may not feel particularly social about social media … maybe you’re there to promote a business or product. Nothing wrong with that, if you handle it well. A stream of pitches gets obnoxious fast. Trust me, your friends don’t want to buy your essential oils, nutrition shakes, skincare, or whatever the latest thing is. And they desperately wish you would stop trying to push it onto them. Quit trying to spam your friends (it isn’t working), and start acting like a business. Get a business account or page. Be clear about your purpose there — to sell something you believe is valuable. Educate yourself about real marketing — the kind that reaches people you didn’t go to high school with. (We have free resources to help with that.) Promote content at least 10 times as often as you promote a product. “Content” is the stuff that most people are on the social web to look at and share — useful and interesting images, videos, articles, and audio. Social media is an amazing way to get business-oriented content shared — either for free or for a very moderate cost. You can focus on organic reach, paid advertising, or a mix, depending on the platform and your resources. #4: Seek (and create) smaller communitiesRemember that four-million strong group I mentioned on Facebook? It’s got great energy … and it’s almost completely unmanageable. The large common spaces on the web can be fascinating, but they’re also exhausting. For a greater sense of community, more useable information, and better connections, look for smaller groups. Groups that are too small will run out of steam — there’s definitely a point of critical mass. But smallish online groups can be nurturing, delightful little communities. If there isn’t a group like that in your topic — maybe you’re the right person to start one. It will be a lot of work (and you’ll probably have to manage a few ant-shakers), but it can also be wonderfully rewarding. #5: Manage your timeHere’s the great, big, gigantic problem with social media — it will eat every minute of your life if you let it. There’s always another great conversation. And there’s always another opportunity to explain to someone how wrong they are. I’ve taken a tip from Cal Newport and I schedule my social media time. And because I have no self-control (and I prefer to use what I do have on other things), I use an app to manage that. There are quite a few of these out there that will block certain sites at certain times, so you can be a productive member of human society. I’m partial to Freedom — it’s a paid app, but it has a flexibility I find highly useful. #6: Mind your mannersThis seems like it would be obvious, but we all blow it from time to time. Be a kind, respectful, and polite person when you’re online. (Offline would be great too, of course.) Don’t say ugly things you don’t mean. Don’t say ugly things you do mean. Your extensive collection of racist knock-knock jokes isn’t funny. Never was, isn’t now. Condescension and the attitude that you are entitled to other people’s time are as unpopular on the web as they are in real life. Good manners are free, and they can open amazing doors … especially as they become rarer. #7: Know when you need to back awayI’ve been online so long, I can remember when virtual community was going to save the world. Now we know better. Over the years, I’ve realized that no one has to be on social media. Even social media managers could presumably find a different way to make a living. If it’s diminishing your life, you can change how you use it. You can also decide to go without it. Sometimes I need to implement what I call the FFS rule. When I find myself muttering, “Oh FFS” (Google it if you need to), it’s time to log off. People are irritating, and some of them are mean. Those people consistently get meaner and more irritating on the web. Block and report trolls. Remember that you don’t have to reply to everything. Dan Kennedy, of all people, had some rather good advice about this years ago. He wasn’t talking about social media, but he could have been.
Pretty savvy social media advice from a guy who refuses to use email. Because it turns out, what tends to work well in social media … is what works well in real life. The post Surviving the Social Web: 7 Things You Need to Know appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger http://ift.tt/2qetwDK SMX Advanced pre-conference workshops are conducted by the world’s leading subject matter experts in SEO, SEM, social and digital. All workshops will be held on Monday, June 12 at the Bell Harbor Convention Center in Seattle. You’ll pick one workshop for a full day of actionable tactics you can use to improve your campaigns right away! Keep reading for workshop previews.
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Customize your SMX Advanced experience AND save:All Access and Workshop combo: Get the complete package for only $2,795, a savings of $600 compared to on-site rates. Or, if you’ve registered for an All Access Pass and would like to upgrade with a workshop, just pay an additional $900. Workshop Pass: Just looking for a one day workshop intensive? You can do that too for just $995, a $200 savings compared to on-site rates. If you’re just interested in attending the SMX Advanced conference June 12-14, that’s fine too! For only $1,895, you’ll get full access to all conference sessions, keynotes, clinics, networking activities, WiFi and hot meals. P.S. An SMX Advanced workshop is your opportunity to increase your search marketing skills and deliver outstanding results in 2017! View all workshops here. The post Take a deep dive on search and social. Attend a workshop at SMX Advanced. appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2q3WcmA Marketing data is everywhere. With so many new consumer touch points — from chatbots to in-store beacons and virtual assistants — the sheer variety and volume of data is exploding. Beyond your out-of-the box product dashboards, custom Excel spreadsheets and basic data visualizations, are you really leveraging your data in meaningful ways? Isn’t it time to connect the dots of all your data sources and create business intelligence that drives action? Join our data analytics and business intelligence experts as they explore five of the biggest trends in advanced analytics, including:
Register today for “The BI Wish List: 5 Hottest Trends in Advanced Analytics,” produced by Digital Marketing Depot and sponsored by Tallan. The post [Reminder] Live webinar: 5 hot trends in advanced analytics appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2q2m9A6 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land:
Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:
Search News From Around The Web:Local & Maps
Link Building
Searching
SEO
SEM / Paid Search
Search Marketing
The post SearchCap: Google Project Owl, trillions of searches & local reviews appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2q26Ze6 Google seems to be making moves to use the quality of small businesses — as determined by user ratings and reviews — as a ranking factor. Today, the search giant has begun incorporating the quality element directly into the snack pack’s interface for some local searches (Hat tip: Dave DiGregorio). Note below on the search for “best Atlanta personal injury Lawyer”:
The functional filter appears ubiquitously for queries with the word “best” and other such superlatives. “Awesome,” “outstanding” and “great” all trigger the filter, although “stupendous,” “kick-a**” and “supreme” didn’t. Note that even without a qualitative element in the queries, the filter still shows, though it’s not prefiltered for 4.0-star and higher rated businesses, and it appears in gray rather than in red. : I’ve suspected that Google has been looking to increase the focus on the qualitative element of local search results based on things that have been showing up, and have been talked about, in the industry where I work — the legal vertical. For example, we’ve seen SERPs with organic results from legal directory and lawyer rating service Avvo sandwiched between the ads and the local results on occasion. That site is specifically optimized for the word “best.”
This focus on quality is now showing up directly in the snack pack — making positive reviews an increasingly important component of the small business marketing arsenal. It’s not clear what weight the reviews take in the rankings. In the first example above, the third result actually has a higher rating than the second one. This could be because the second result has a higher volume of reviews — more than twice the number of reviews — or this could be due to physical proximity to the searcher or some other factor. The post Local search update: ‘Best’ filter invading the local pack appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2pwBk7k The simple truth is that anyone working in any paid media field (like search or social) is incredibly hard to evaluate from the outside. Apart from looking at their current employment status, where do you even start? Finding strong PPC talent is challenging, especially if your business is new to paid advertising and has nobody in-house with the technical expertise to validate a candidate’s knowledge. In this article, I am going to discuss where to begin when looking for PPC talent. It’s simply not enough to hire someone who has a certain number of years of experience — unfortunately, there isn’t a direct correlation between years and expertise when it comes to paid media. So what should you be thinking about (and doing) to make sure you hire the right person for you? First, does it even make sense to hire?This should really be your first question. If you’re not able to invest a minimum of $20,000 per month in advertising, it likely doesn’t make sense to have a full-time PPC manager. You’re better off working with a freelancer, an agency or someone in your office who can spending some of their time working on PPC and learning it. In my opinion, it’s very feasible to take someone who has no experience, but is highly interested, and pay to train them on AdWords management. I’d even go so far as to say that this may be the best way to get started in advertising. What you’re doing is ensuring that your campaign manager hasn’t developed bad habits. Yes, you’re investing in someone who may eventually leave you for a new job; but when this happens, your advertising will have grown to a level of sophistication where you can sensibly hire someone with experience. PPC talent is highly sought after, and there is a tendency to change jobs frequently. Don’t let that stop you from taking the steps necessary to be successful. Writing the job postingI’ve been doing this for years, and I’ve seen hundreds of job postings for PPC jobs. I’m about to tell you the things I’ve been frustrated by. This is for you, recruiters and marketing managers. If you’re not directly stating the following elements of your position/requirements, you are getting applicants who aren’t a good fit, and you’re wasting everyone’s time:
Salary The reality is that although there are some general ranges where any PPC manager with X years of experience will reside, compensation can vary wildly between practitioners. As a result, when I see a position asking for three to five years of experience, I would assume the salary range is somewhere between $70,000 and $115,000 (depending on the location). That’s a wide range, and it very likely doesn’t align with how much you may have expected to pay someone with that experience level. Begin by talking with local recruiters or companies and doing some market research to get an understanding of the salary range by years of experience in your area. Don’t strictly live by these numbers — there are too many variables. Finally, just write your salary range in the job posting. This creates a much smoother and more transparent process, and it ensures you aren’t having great applicants get far into your process only to fall off when they hear the compensation doesn’t match their needs. Strategic experience When you’re evaluating mid-level talent (three to five years’ experience), it is very likely that this person has had at least one direct report, is starting to get access to larger budgets and is strategic. However, how many years of strategy experience do they have? Did they spend two years as an entry-level bid manager? No two people are exactly alike in PPC; your compensation should reflect this and not be set in stone. It’s a fact that with more time making strategic decisions and being responsible for the results, it becomes second nature to know which optimization tactics to pursue for any situation you’ve run into before. At a certain point, someone who has been strategic for years just develops this. I’m one of the least decisive people in the world (average time to choose a movie in Netflix is roughly 15 minutes), yet when it comes to a choice impacting a campaign, there is no hesitation. Size of budgets managed Years of experience doesn’t directly correlate to expertise or fit with your advertising needs. However, budget size likely does. Someone who is very good at their job has found a way to get their hands on a large, enterprise-level budget and is succeeding with it. When evaluating PPC candidates, it is crucial that they have managed a budget in the past that is at least comparable to yours, but ideally, they have managed more than your current spend and can help you scale. Direct reports Not everyone is a good manager; managing people is very different from managing PPC campaigns. If you’re hiring for a manager-level PPC position, it’s crucial that this person has recent experience being hands-on with ad campaigns and is able to clearly articulate how they have taught and led a team in the past. The reason that recent hands-on experience is so important is that building a successful PPC team doesn’t involve simply delegating ad copy writing, bid management, optimization tasks and so on. A manager needs to get in a room with junior paid managers and be able to talk through the strategic decision-making process with them; leaving junior PPC people out of the strategic process ultimately leaves them less capable and does a disservice to all those involved. Channels managed This one feels pretty straightforward. However, I would encourage you to consider all of the potential channels your business should be investing ad spend in instead of only where you currently (or plan to) advertise. You will find a mix of candidates, some of whom only have experience in one channel and others who have already diversified. Each is interesting:
Another aspect to consider: Do the candidates have the right type of experience in each channel? If your business is based on lead generation instead of e-commerce, be sure to specify that. Advertising phases Are you just getting started? Not everyone has built a campaign strategy from scratch — conducting competitive analysis, performing keyword research, defining bid strategies, writing ad copy and so on. Are you at max budget and need to optimize? The skill set here is different and focuses on finding small wins and consistently gaining ground. Are you underspending and trying to scale? This ability is often hardest to find, as balancing the need to spend more money with efficiency is difficult. You’ll be asking for more from a potential candidate here, and you should understand that it’s a harder ask than the other two. Hiring someone who has already been through the particular phase your business is currently in will speed up their onboarding and success — ultimately making you look smarter. Find your ideal candidate!You’ve written a job description now and should have developed a better understanding of who to hire at this point. We PPC people are notoriously hard to pin down — we have a skill that isn’t exactly transparent, and we often love to talk in sentences comprised entirely of buzzwords. Coming up in Part II, I’ll discuss how to create an assignment or project to evaluate technical expertise. It’s not as easy as it sounds! The post Evaluating PPC talent, part 1: Where to begin appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2pi2Nc5
AirBNB provides a compelling case study of entrepreneurial fortitude. In the early days of the company, founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia created unique US Presidential Election-themed boxes of cereal in order to raise capital for AirBNB. While a diligent founding team and a notoriously positive workplace culture contributed to the growth of the company, … … Continue reading →
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