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Archive for the ‘Keeping up with the Search Engines’ Category
3 Microsoft AdCenter Tips to Manage Your PPC Campaigns
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Guest Blogger: Laura Rodnitzky is the Director of Production for PPC Associates, a search engine marketing agency with offices in San Mateo and Chicago.
Last month I wrote about a few ways to use Google’s AdWords Desktop Editor to more efficiently manage campaigns in Google AdWords. This month I’ll share some of my favorite tricks in the Microsoft adCenter Desktop Editor program, starting with two of the same things I highlighted in Google AdWords Editor: advanced bid changes and copying campaign settings. Just like Google’s AdWords Editor, the Microsoft adCenter Desktop Editor lets you make changes to your adCenter PPC campaigns offline and post those changes live after you’ve had a chance to Q/A your work. The Microsoft Desktop Editor also allows you to do some bulk changes that cannot be done in the adCenter UI, so it’s a great time-saver. While adCenter Desktop program doesn’t have all of the functionality of Google’s AdWords Desktop Editor, it’s come a long way in the last several months. I’m excited to see what additional features they’ll roll out in 2012.
Here are three of my favorite tools in Microsoft’s adCenter Desktop editor:
1. Advanced Bid Changes
If you find yourself wanting to increase or decrease bids on multiple keywords in one fell swoop, look for the “Change bids” button at the bottom of the adCenter Desktop tool. Note that you can only find this option in the Keywords tab for adCenter, unlike the “Advanced bid changes” option found in multiple tabs of AdWords Editor. (Fingers crossed, the “Change bids” button will soon show up on adCenter’s Ad Groups tab as well!)
To change bids, simply select the keywords that need adjusted bids, and then click on “Change bids”
As in AdWords Editor, the pop-up box lets you choose to increase or decrease bids by a certain percentage amount or dollar amount. You can also choose to “Set bid no higher than” or “Set bid no lower than” a certain amount.
2. Copying Campaign Settings
There’s now an easy way to copy campaign targeting settings from an existing campaign and paste them into one or more additional campaigns in adCenter. The following campaign settings can be copied: Locations, Day of Week, Time of Day, Demographics, and Devices.
To do this, simply right-click on the campaign whose settings you need to copy and then select “Copy” from the menu. Right-click on one or more campaigns into which you want to copy the settings. Select “Paste special” from the menu. A pop-up box will then give you the option to “Paste settings only,” and any available settings will appear on the right-hand side. Select the settings you want to paste (in this case, “Targeting”).
Double-check the campaign settings in one of your edited campaigns, and they should match the settings you copied over – much easier than going in and adjusting each of those settings manually!
3. Change Target Settings (Multiple Campaigns)
The trick above is great if you have a campaign that already contains the settings you want to add to other campaigns. But if you need to apply the same brand-new settings to multiple campaigns, here’s what you can do.
Start by selecting all of the campaigns you want to apply the settings to, and then click on the “Targeting” button at the bottom of the “Campaigns” tab. A pop-up box will appear that gives the option of modifying: Exclusions (websites and keywords), Locations, Day of Week, Time of Day, Demographics, and Device.
You can modify any or all of these settings, and they will be applied to all selected campaigns. This is great when you’re launching or modifying several campaigns at once.
The adCenter Desktop Editor is still somewhat behind AdWords Editor in terms of functionality, but if you’re spending any amount of time in adCenter, knowing the efficiency-based features is vital. If you have suggestions for features you’d like to see added in the Desktop Editor, leave a comment!
Meet the Stars of Search Marketing
Friday, September 2, 2011
SEO.com recently came out with a stellar infographic featuring the Stars of Search Marketing. You may or may not yet be familiar with these names but in the world of Search Engine Optimization, you should definitely know their work. This fun infographic also showcases the future of search according to these SEO experts.
For more information about these Search Stars visit their websites:
- Bruce Clay – BruceClay.com
- Matt Cutts – MattCutts.com/blog
- Danny Sullivan – SearchEngineLand.com
- Rand Fishkin – SEOmoz.org
The URL Debate: Underscore vs. Dash
Friday, August 19, 2011
A common question in the SEO world has always been: What’s best to use in a URL, dashes or underscores? Do they make a difference to search engines and how do they affect your web site ranking?
Which is better for SEO? Schipul.com/web-marketing vs. Schipul.com/web_marketing
According to Search Engine Land, Google and Bing handle dashes and underscores in URLs differently.
Google’s Matt Cutts, recently released this YouTube video update on the Underscores vs. Dashes question.
“Join on the Underscore, Separate on the Dash.”
Google says it’s better to stick with the dash to separate keywords in a URL. If you’re starting a new website and its brand new, Google encourages you to use dashes. This will allow you to add more easily searchable keywords into your URL and may help improve rankings.
However, if you have a website that’s successful in page rankings and has been around for a while, don’t worry about it. Underscores are fine to use for established websites. Cutts says the amount of impact it has in Google rankings is “relatively low” and he does not recommend going back and rewriting every single URL to use dashes because it’s just not worth it and may cause problems.
Do Dashes vs. Underscores Make a Huge Difference in Google?
Cutts states, “It doesn’t make that much of a difference. It’s what we call a second-order effect. It’s not a primary thing that makes a huge difference.”
What About in Bing?
A Bing spokesperson responded to Search Engine Land by saying they do not differentiate at all between dash and underscore in their URL ranking features.
What Should Webmasters Do?
If you are launching a new site, then go ahead and use dashes in your URLs, in order to keep your keywords separate. According to Cutts, “when Google sees an underscore in a URL, it joins what’s before and after into one term.” However, if you have an existing site and using underscores in your URLs, don’t change them to dashes because it can cause technical problems and can impact your search rankings.
Social Signals and SEO – Can Facebook and Twitter help my SEO?
Thursday, March 31, 2011
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Google and Microsoft have made announcements lately that Social Signals are being incorporated into the search algorithm (including this interview with SEO Moz back in December). Which means that whether or not a link has been shared via social networks affects its performance in search. How much do Social Signals matter? Keep in mind that there are several hundred signals Google looks at – and this is one. But it can be an advantage. Google is indexing Tweets within seconds, and search engines are finding a way to incorporate that data. SEOmoz did a great case study on Social Signals of an instance where a link that was tweeted by Smashing Magazine (and then retweeted again and again by the magazine’s loyal following) began to appear higher in the results after it was tweeted. |
 Social Signals Offline: The guy getting all the hugs must be cool. |
Rule of Thumb: Include Links in your Social Media Posts
Links add context to a tweet and give you the opportunity to drive fans back to your website (or someone else’s that you think is really great). 140 characters can be limiting, but a link can provide more content for someone who is interested. This also has the opportunity for Google to see your link as more valuable.
At the recent SMX Conference the Schipul SEM team had the opportunity to attend, Microsoft recommended including a link in every Tweet and Facebook status.
Twitter recently added a tab for “Tweets with Links” when you search from Twitter.com – which tells me that Twitter knows that tweets with links are more interesting (similar to how they pull out “Tweets near you” because those are more interesting).
All these factors point to the same conclusion – include links in your Tweets!
What About No Follow and URL Shorteners Affecting my Link Juice?
According to Danny Sullivan at a panel at SMX this month, link shorteners are ok for “link juice” as long as they use 301 Redirects to get you to the long URL (most do), including these three:
- Bit.ly uses 301 Redirects
- Hootsuite – ow.ly does use 301 Redirects but ht.ly does not (the top bar robs the link juice)
- is.gd uses 301 Redirects
Fun fact about Bit.ly – add a plus sign to the end of any Bit.ly link to see the stats on who has clicked on that link
Most Social Media sites classify outbound links posted by users as “no follow” in their code, which tells the search engines not to count that link as an “endorsement” for the site like it would normally. If Google is following its own rules, these links don’t get counted as “link juice” for the site. Links from Social Media sites are being indexed differently than “regular” links. Search engines only count the link as “Link Juice” after taking into account Author Authority from the person who posted the link.
Author Authority in Social Media
Author Authority refers to the authority of the person posting the content. Most of us can do a “squint test” and tell if someone on Twitter is a spammer (no photo, following thousands of people with no one following back, they haven’t been on Twitter long and only have a few spammy looking posts, etc.). Google is getting smart about identifying low quality accounts on Twitter as well. We don’t have many specifics on exactly what factors they look at, but we know that Spam is a top priority.
Search Engine Land compiled a great list of Social Signals the Search Engines may use to determine authority. Here’s the recap:
- Bing says they look at – how many people you follow, how many follow you, carries much more weight in Bing Social Search than regular Bing search
- Google says they look at – author authority, how many people share a link
- What about Facebook? – Bing looks at pages and “Everyone” status posts, Google treats links shared on Facebook fan pages the same as tweeted links, no personal wall data (no comment on public wall data)
For more on building Twitter authority: Dan Zarella’s The Science of Retweets is a fantastic Article on the patterns behind Retweets – Time of day, Words used, Word length, etc. – including tips on how to get Retweeted.
Social Connections Matter
Your content doesn’t just show up in your Fan’s Facebook News Feed and follower’s Twitter stream… people connected with you through Social Media are more likely to see your links in Search Results as well (you’ve probably seen this under “Links from your Friends” in Google Search Results). This makes those Social Connections even more valuable.
What About Other Social Networks?
We have heard Google and Bing specifically mention Twitter and Facebook now. Networks like LinkedIn that require a login to see the content, Search Engines won’t be able to crawl that data.
Recap – What Do I need to do?
- Link back to your site when posting on Twitter and Facebook
- Use a URL shortener that uses 301 Redirects (bit.ly, ow.ly, is.gd, etc.) – also find one that gives you stats (I like bit.ly, ow.ly)
- Make sure your company social media profiles are public – Facebook allows you to make Fan Page 18+ or 21+, those will be difficult (if not impossible), because the Google crawlers can’t log in to Facebook. Make sure Twitter is public as well.
- Be a high quality account – make sure your accounts have photos, bios, and you are interacting with your followers regularly
- Post awesome content people want to link to – the best way to get links and retweets is to post great stuff
- Be a good neighbor – The internet runs on karma, and posting content from other people that you think is interesting encourages that karma to flow. Sharing other people’s content shows them and the world (and Google) that you are participating in the conversation, not just broadcasting your own message
