YouTube Optimization

Author: Matt Commins & Alan Rothstein

As with most people in the Search Marketing industry, I’ve watched many of Matt Cutts’ whiteboard sessions. Not only does he cover an array of different topics, the content is easy to consume. The breath of unique content and the ease of how that content is consumed is the primary reason why YouTube has become the second-largest search engine. As YouTube continues to grow it’s becoming more important

YouTube’s Individual Video Ranking Algorithm exposed

Based on our experiences, testing and observations we ranked (below) the top 32 variables that are most correlated to achieving higher rankings in YouTube. The variables are ranked on a Factor of 100 where 100 is the highest correlation.

Engagement is the Key

Two weeks ago the Official YouTube Partners and Creators Blog announced watch time or how long users watch a video replaced view count in the YouTube algorithm. Surprised is not a response an internet marketer should have after learning this news. Google’s primary concern is creating the best user experience possible and what’s the best way to measure that? Through engagement metrics. The takeaway is mapping the most appropriate keywords to your videos.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a board called Bang!. Upon reading the rules I was confused by some ambiguities so I went online to look for clarification. I clicked on the fourth result because the description best matched my search query. After watching 2 minutes the video discussed one rule and proceeded to be about the players playing the game so I stopped watching and searched again.

Channel Creation

Like the home page of a website, the channel for your videos is extremely important to creating/sustaining a brand image and therefore, should not be taken lightly. Similar to watch time being an important ranking factor for individual videos, overall channel watch times plays an important role in establishing the credibility of the channel, allowing the channel a bigger opportunity to rank higher in the SERPs.

Playlist Creation

Creating a playlist of multiple videos on the same topic is another way to present your videos and videos that are similar. It’s important to create a playlists people will find useful. Lastly, your video should always be located in the first position to increase engagement.

Video Replies

Another way to signal YouTube about the theme of your content is to post a “video reply” to other related videos. Like a blog comment, a video reply offers a response to the primary video. Unlike a blog comment, the video reply contains a full version of your video for the viewer to watch. Video replies give YouTube context as to what your video is about, and helps to get increased traffic. To do this, search YouTube for the exact keyword you want to rank on. Click on each video that comes up and post your new video as a “video reply” to the most relevant videos. Click on “ad comment” and choose “Create a video response.”

 

Search Engine Marketing Glossary

Author: Matt Commins

Bounce Rate – The percent of people who enter a website but leave without visiting any other page.

Clicks – When a listing (paid or free) is clicked in a SERP

Click-Through rate (CTR) – The number of impressions divided by the number of clicks

Conversion – A desired action on a website

Cost-per-Click (CPC) – Total cost divided by the number of clicks

Cost-per-lead (CPL) – Total cost divided by the number of leads

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) – The maximum bid amount for every one thousand impressions received.

Head Term – Keywords that are usually 1-2 words that drive a lot of traffic within a specific vertical

Impressions – The number of times an ad was shown in the SERPs

Keyword – A word or phrase advertisers bid on in the auction

Lead – Similar to a conversion, but more specific in that results in a website gathering users information

Long Tail Keywords – A keyword of any length that drives a low number of impressions but is very targeted and specific

Match Type – A way to control how many related keywords a keyword will show up for

My Client Center (MCC) – Tool normally used by companies to easily manage a large amount of campaigns.

Negative keywords – Keywords that block an advertisers ads from showing

Quality Score – A ranking system to judge the relevance of an advertiser as well as its keywords and ads

Return on Investment (ROI) – Ratio of money gained or lost based on the amount investment.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Free traffic to a website through listings in search engines

Search Query – A search a user performs on a search engine

Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – The results that are shown after a search query.

Penguin Update & Changes to SEO Best Practices

Author: Alan Rothstein, Co-Founder of Fish Tank Media

On April 24th, Google unveiled the Penguin algorithm update aimed at on-page over optimization and external link manipulation. Along with the algorithm change comes changes to some SEO tasks. Below are a few of the SEO best practices that are impacted by the Penguin update to date. Visit SEOmoz Google Algorithm Change to learn about Penguin & Panda algorithm updates as they happen.

Link Building

Penguin

Anchor Text Request

The first thing most SEO professionals contemplate when doing link building is: we have a bunch of links but most have either the domain name or an image externally linked. Can’t we just contact the person with the external link and ask them to use the right anchor text? With the Penguin update, this task is no longer best practice. With Google’s algorithm looking for an un-natural density of external link anchor text, you should go back to building links instead of link anchor text sculpting.

Link Remediation

Many SEO professionals in the past pushed link remediation to the back burner thinking that a handful of bad links will not cause any penalties, and they would have been right until Penguin came around. Fortunately, Google has utilized Google Webmaster Tools to report bad links that may or may not be causing penalties to organic rankings. Keep an eye on the warnings section and remediate any links that get flagged by Google.

On-Page Optimization

penguin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title Tag Best Practices

An important variable to achieving better organic rankings is the optimization of the Title Tag. Pre-Penguin the best practice was to have the primary keyword in the first position followed by secondary and tertiary keywords that echoed the primary keyword. In addition to a 70 character limit, we recommend using the primary and secondary keyword that share a similar keyword theme. However, if you have additional characters available we recommend adding a third keyword that provides a new, different keyword theme.

Pre-Penguin Best Practices
Social Media, Social Media Marketing & Social Marketing Media | FTM

Post Penguin Best Practice
Social Media, Social Media Marketing & Facebook Marketing | FTM

Keyword Density in Body Content

The best practice up until the Penguin update was 5% keyword density. For now, we recommend having 3%-4% keyword density until Penguin is researched further. Also consider repetitions of the primary keyword in conjunction with keyword density. The more content you have on the page, the more repetitions of the primary keyword you will need to add.

The Bottom Line

SEO is a long term ranking strategy. Participating in Black Hat SEO will eventually catch up with you. The lost rankings, time and money spent to clean up a website is not worth the short term gain. Further, if your main domain gets banned from Google you may have to start a brand new domain, hurting your brand in the process. Staying on top of the Google algorithm shifts and the use of White Hat SEO best practices is the best SEO strategy.

SEO Keyword Mapping: Part One

Author: Matt Commins, Co-Founder of Fish Tank Media

Its July 19, 2012 8:24PM PST and I’m watching AJ Griffin, of my beloved A’s, pitch a gem against the Yankees. Two years ago I would’ve only looked at his MLB stats and romanticized about Griffin’s potential, but those days are over. For a year I’ve been “scouting” young players in the meth den (shout out to Professor Parks for the phrase) known as the California League and talking/learning from baseball scouts. The first thing you’ll learn is a baseball player’s ability is more than his stat line. In order to better understand a players future potential requires more than stats.

A thirteenth round draft pick, it’s remarkable Griffin has made it to the big leagues. That said, I believe Griffin’s ceiling is a #5 starter, which equates to a fringe Major Leaguer. His simple problem is he does not miss bats. He is a command and control pitcher (60-65 grade command) who pitches to contact. He has a slightly below average 88-90mph fastball, average curveball, and slider. The changeup, his best pitch, is plus and allows him to get away with his below average fastball. If he is pitching behind a bad defense and/or a good or neutral hitter’s park he’s burnt toast. Luckily for him he pitches in the best pitchers park in the American League and the defense behind him is above average. So what am I getting to, you might be asking yourself?

As time goes on you should always revaluate what you thought was correct. Compared to three years ago, six months ago, even a week ago you’re a different, smarter marketer. Therefore, you should always reevaluate the recommendations and strategies you’ve implemented. Keyword mapping, like baseball player projection, is one of those tasks you should constantly re-evaluate.

Before we start the process of smoking the brisket known as keyword mapping you’re going to need the following ingredients:

  • Google Webmaster Tools Account
  • Analytics Account (Google Analytics, Omniture, etc)

For this example I’m assuming we’re working with an ecommerce website that sells shoes. When doing keyword mapping the first thing I do is download the Search Query Report from Webmaster Tools so I can acquire the following metrics: impressions, clicks, and average position. I recommend pulling three months of data so you can have a statically significant data set.

Then I go to the analytics account and pull orders and revenue for all Organic Google keywords from the same date range as the data I pulled from Webmaster Tools. I combine the keyword data and calculate AOV, CTR, and Conversion Rate.

The table (above) is looking at the top 4 keywords for the Red Shoes page. Based on the data, “red shoes” provides the highest traffic potential, but “buy red shoes” is generating the most revenue. Clearly, “buy red shoes” is the keyword I would map as the primary keyword to the Red Shoes page.

Every keyword has a revenue amount attached to it. Some keywords provide more impressions and clicks, but if the clicks are not bringing you more money then it’s time to move on. A common belief in online marketing says ranking on generic head terms such as red shoes will reach users higher up in the conversion funnel, which will assist in conversion process via paid search and/or longer tail keywords. I 100% agree with this logic. However, unless you have an extremely large marketing budget and/or staff, targeting head terms will be very costly and time consuming. I recommend starting with longer tail keywords that receive less traffic but provide the highest ROI. Once you start reaping the rewards you can reinvest and try to go after head terms.

Also, this method can be used to identify which keywords you should focusing your link building and SEO efforts on. It can be a daunting task to prioritize 100-200 keywords, but if you use this methodology the most important keywords will quickly stand out. I’ve found having these metrics will impress your boss and show, from his/her POV there is a method to your madness.

To Conclude

At the end of the day you’re trying to make money; a ton of it. If you look at the appropriate data and map the correct keywords you will make more money. The next installment will provide more in-depth scouting reports (just kidding…actually I’m not.) and more importantly, provide recommendations on how to judge the competitiveness of every keyword. In order to move up in organic rankings will take time and a lot of #want.

HTML 5 & Google’s Organic Algorithm

Author: Alan Rothstein, Co-Founder of Fish Tank Media

Why all the fuss about HTML 5 & SEO? The Google organic algorithm. Many are talking about the use of HTML 5 in conjunction with Flash and the announcement of Adobe discontinuing development of Flash for mobile devices.  However, the true SEO value comes in the form of new tags that Google can use to rank Web page’s based on the organic algorithm. If a web developer is able to better identify sections of the Web page, it allows the search bot to better understand sections of a page without generic <div> interference. In particular, this will allow Googlebot to incorporate new individual tags in the algorithm.

html5Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) began work on the new HTML 5 standard in 2004; HTML 4.01 had not been updated since 2000. While HTML 5 has not been standardized across web browsers for many years, a publicized letter was released in April 2010 by Steve Jobs explaining the benefits of HTML 5. In early November 2011 Adobe announced it will discontinue development of Flash for mobile devices and reorient its efforts on developing tools utilizing HTML 5.

What is HTML?

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the main markup language for displaying web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser.

What is Different about HTML 5?

Thanks to Focus.com for providing a list of additions HTML 5 will add to the HTML protocol.

Cross-Document Messaging – Sends information from pages on different domains to each other.
WUYSIWYG Editable Elements – Enables user to add, edit and delete text, graphics and more.
New, Sytyleable HTML5 Elements – The stylable elements refer to the ability to use CSS on some new elements.
Get Elements by Class Name – Method of accusing DOM elements by class name.
Video Element – Enable users to play videos on webpages without requiring a plug in.
Audio Element – Enables user to play sound on whitepapers without requiring a plug in.
Canvas Basic Support – Generates dynamic graphics using Javascript.
Text API for Canvas – Method of displaying text on canvas elements.
Drag and Drop – Method of easily dragging and dropping elements on a page.
Offline Web Applications – Select web page files to be cached allowing them to work offline.
HTML5 Form Features – Expanded form options, including things like data pickers and videos.
Inline SVG in HTML5 – Method of using SVG tags directly in HTML documents.

What about SEO specifically?

As HTML 5 becomes more widely used, it will be mandatory to compete in Google’s organic rankings. The sooner a website adapts to the HTML 5 protocol the better the likelihood it will stand out amongst other websites using indistinct <div> tags. Use of HTML 5 is also buzz worthy since launched apps and games using HTML 5 are still rare.

How Do HTML 5 Tags Help SEO?

Improved page segmentation is the biggest benefit of HTML 5. Up to now developers had to define page sections with workaround <div id=”header”> tags. The new tags include <article>, <section>, <header>, <footer>, <nav>, and <aside>.

Another benefit is the <hgroup> tag, used to group heading elements. The <hgroup> element is used to group a set of <h1> to <h6> elements, when a heading has multiple levels (subheadings). This can allow search bots to better understand the semantics between two different keyword themes.

In Conclusion

HTML 5 improves website usability and the user experience. New HTML 5 tags help developers classify important content. HTML 5 is useful for sites rich in media (Audio & Video). Flash Sites can be crawled and indexed better with HTML 5. It is also great for developing mobile apps & games.

Most importantly, HTML 5 provides Google better control to apply hierarchal values to different elements on the page. The sooner you implement HTML 5 the sooner you can reap the benefits in organic rankings and the longer you will have the upper hand on your competitors.

The True Cost of SEO: Not Just a Cheap Miracle

Author: Alan Rothstein, Co-Founder of Fish Tank Media

1) Run Your Business vs. Learning SEO (Time is Money)

2) Agency or Dedicated Search Marketer

3) The Cost of Link Building & Press Releases

4) SEO Tools for Research & Measurement

When attending Search Marketing conferences and reading blog articles everyone says, “you should do SEO because it is a low cost way to gain organic search results.” However, time is money. You have the option of reading books, articles, attending conferences, testing new theories and waiting to see the results; but is the time you spend learning SEO really more important than running your business?

Agency or Dedicated Search Marketer

The true cost of SEO is in the knowledge and experience an agency or dedicated search marketer comes to the table with. Most SEO professionals have been in the industry for years, worked on multiple campaigns and have already tested many theories before putting them into action. With a little bit of research, the SEO professional will already understand the best way to launch an SEO strategy. They will have a timeline for how long things will take. Most importantly, they will have the confidence to implement an SEO strategy knowing  3 months down the line the SEO strategy will be successful. Whether you choose an agency or dedicated search marketing professional it is going to cost anywhere from $40,000 to $200,000 a year; not the cheap miracle everyone promises SEO to be.

The Cost of Link Building & Press Releases

Think link building is free, think again. Most companies hire a dedicated social media/link building associate. Don’t forget about the cost of 1 press release, as much as $500. Most successful SEO strategies recommend 1 press release per month to increase the amount of external and syndicated links to your website. Include other related costs such as: building an app ($10,000-$35,000), creating a micro-site ($2,000-$5,000), or just some link bait ($1,000+) and the cost of link building adds up.

SEO Tools for Research & Measurement

With the exception of Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools, most reliable tools will cost a monthly fee. SEOmoz offers a nice ranking, link building, and competitor analysis tool for $99-$499 a month depending on the amount of keywords you want to track.

The Bottom Line: SEO is not a Cheap Miracle

Do not be fooled by get rankings quick schemes that promise hundreds of dollars and/or visitors in one month. Implementing a successful SEO campaign is a full time job. If you do not have the time to learn and manage SEO, outsourcing SEO to a dedicated professional or agency is essential. With more people using search engines to find information, SEO is a must.