Performics Performance Marketing Blog: SEM, SEO, Social & Display

Yahoo! Axis’s Potential Impact on Paid Search, Organic Search & Display

BACKGROUND

On May 24th, Yahoo! announced its new light-weight browser, Axis.  Axis is a plug-in to desktop browsers and a stand-alone app on mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad.  It’s only available in the U.S. and is still in development for Android devices.  Axis combines searching and browsing.  It populates instant answers and highly-visual previews as searchers type.  On mobile devices, Axis’s visual experience has received rave reviews; CNET wrote, “On the iPad, Axis is simply a great browser.  The integrated search feature is intuitive, and being able to move through search results without having to go back to search makes sense”:

 
Axis works slightly differently on desktops.  People use their preferred browser, and the Axis search box sits on the bottom-left corner of the user’s window, expanding as the user searches:

Google Knowledge Graph’s Influence on the Search Engine Results Page

BACKGROUND

Back in March, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google would soon give its organic listings a semantic “makeover.”  On May 16th, Google announced some enhancements to the search engine results page (SERP)—particularly the “direct answers” box—that are powered by the Google Knowledge Graph.  The Knowledge Graph helps Google leverage collective search wisdom (i.e. how people search) to transform Google from an “information engine” to a “knowledge engine.”  

For fact-oriented searches, the Knowledge Graph uses semantic analysis to adjust search results and provide direct answers on the SERP.  For instance, the direct answers box for the below “Marie Curie” query shows a short bio, birth and death date, spouse, children, discoveries, education and related searches.  Google stated, “We can now sometimes help answer your next question before you’ve asked it, because the facts we show are informed by what other people have searched for.”

 

The “New” Bing: Implications for Paid & Organic Search

BACKGROUND

On May 10th, Microsoft unveiled a significant update to Bing.  The “new” Bing is rolling out over the next few weeks and will be broadly available in June (users can sign-up here).  It features a three-column interface meant to help searchers act quickly.  Results are organized into columns, and friend/expert input is given high visibility.  According to Bing, “[T]he 10 blue links that search has been predicated on for the last decade no longer makes sense.  Simply put, that’s not how you get things done.”

In addition to the core listings (in the left-hand column), Bing now features two new columns:

• Snapshot: This middle column highlights information on specific places or topics.  In the below example, the snapshot shows—for a hotel query—reviews (Yelp, Citysearch, etc.), a map, photos, rates and check-in/check-out dates.  For a restaurant, snapshot may show additional content like phone, directions, hours and the menu.
• Sidebar: This right-hand column displays recommendations/advice related to your query from friends, experts and enthusiasts—with emphasis on Facebook and Twitter.  Sidebar also features a box for searchers to pose questions to their Facebook friends, who can respond on Facebook or Bing.  Over time, Foursquare, Quora and LinkedIn content will also appear in sidebar.  These social results are now completely separated from the core results.

IMPLICATIONS for PAID & ORGANIC SEARCH

As the new Bing rolls out to more searchers, we’ll pay close attention to the potential impacts on paid and organic search.  Snapshot and sidebar are very eye-catching and may—at least initially—draw attention away from the core paid and organic results.  Furthermore, snapshot pushes down right-side paid listings, thus increasing the importance of appearing in the top-sponsored listings.  We’ve noticed that Bing is testing the number of top-sponsored listings for some queries; traditionally there’s been a maximum of three listings, but—in some instances—we’ve seen four.

SEO Strategies to Manage Negative Wikipedia Listings

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

For years, Wikipedia has consistently been a top-ranked site for high-volume keywords. The site was designed with SEO in mind, and its contributors have produced hundreds of millions of quality pages that are exhaustively cross-referenced and updated to contain the newest information. Search engines love this site because it satisfies so many informational needs for visitors; thus, search engines tend to give it high visibility for relevant queries. In the best case, a Wikipedia page for your company can be a source of good information and a potential ambassador for your site, as well as a concise definition of your business’s primary focus that can indirectly assist visibility for your brand.

On the other paw, your company’s Wikipedia page can seem like a nightmare if it shows negative information about your brand. The high visibility and reputation of Wikipedia can give pages on this site a good chance of ranking above the fold for searches on your brand name. You can’t blame people for looking, though; the variety of information on the Web helps users make informed buying decisions, and neutral sites like Wikipedia are indispensable to the modern participant.

So what can you do when your Wikipedia page paints a mean picture of your brand? This POV will help you review your options and make a decision on what to do next.

Search Engines Want Reliability

In some cases, you may be able to “push down” a Wikipedia page in the results by improving the link portfolio of information sources that show your brand in a more positive light. If search engines think that other pages are more reliable, authoritative, and useful to visitors than the Wikipedia entry, they will rank these pages above Wikipedia. For example, though AT&T has a Wikipedia page, the search query “AT&T” returns a full set of site links, entries for the “Map Pack” for AT&T stores in the local area, and a variety of different att.com subdomains like “Fan Zone”. This pushes the “Wikipedia” page down to the 10th result or lower, so search engine users will generally see the Wikipedia page only if they are looking for it.

What to Do If You've Been "Penguin-ed": Discussing the New Google Algorithm Change

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

Google made its official announcement of its latest algorithm change on April 24, 2012. This one is called “Penguin,” and like “Panda” (first released February 2011) it’s targeting low quality sites. In this POV you’ll learn more about this algorithm change, what it was designed to do, and what your next steps are.

What is Penguin?

The main target of this update, as always, is to remove sites from Google’s top ranks that don't contribute meaningful information about a particular keyword. Google’s value proposition is delivering good results to its users, and the less spam there is, the longer Google will continue to dominate the search market.

Note: a few days before the Penguin update was released, Google revised its “Panda” update, further affecting search ranks. The Penguin roll-out was complete on April 24, 2012 and the Panda update was released on April 19th. At the current time, it’s difficult to fully parse out the effects of Panda and Penguin. This POV will focus specifically on Penguin.

If there were no search engines, there would be no spam, right? Search spam is the result of deliberate actions on the part of unscrupulous webmasters to artificially raise the visibility of their sites for specific keywords. As the search market continues to grow, spammers are following Google algorithms more closely and designing pages for visibility on keyword searches based on the specific algorithms. This directly affects Google’s value proposition.  So, to keep its results pages useful and customer-friendly, Google released the Penguin update to identify and penalize those deliberate actions taken to raise visibility.

Performics Uncovers New SEO Opportunities for Retailer Client; Boosts Rankings by Prioritizing Link Building Efforts

Challenge

A Performics retailer client with thousands of URLs for a variety of products sought to boost organic rankings for pages most likely to drive traffic and revenue. 

Solution

Performics recommended link building to increase organic rank for the client’s most important pages.  Our link building solution started by prioritizing which pages to focus on.  After (1) prioritizing and optimizing mission critical sections of the site and (2) focusing on pages for new brand launches, new product launches and seasonal initiatives, it was time to prioritize the next group of pages.  Performics sought to determine which pages would generate the highest return on link building energy. 

Using a proprietary tool, Performics uncovered a group of high search volume, high profit keywords that the client was ranking for on Google’s second page (i.e. 11–20).  Matching keywords to URLs, we created a list of 24 pages to build links to.  We then built relevant links to these newly prioritized pages without making on-page/technical optimizations to the client’s site.

Performics Weekly Digital Research Recap

Posted by Cristina Lucero & Christina Mannarino, Performics Research & Insights Team

United States

Channel Insights

Social

-Pinterest is now the third most popular social network after Facebook & Twitter

• According to a new Experian report, Pinterest’s traffic surged 50 percent between February and January of this year, which is growth that’s stunning in itself.  That surge has allowed the site to overtake services like Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Google+ for what Experian says is the third-highest number of visits in February.
• Pinterest attracted 17.8 million unique visitors in February from the U.S. alone. In terms of engagement, Pinterest is winning as well, with users spending an average of 89 minutes per month on site. However, the social network still lags behind Facebook, which has users spending an average of 405 minutes per month on its site.
• Read the full 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report here

-Now pinning: Vimeo videos on Pinterest (VentureBeat)

• Pinterest has expanded the functionality of its popular “pin it” bookmarket to support “pinning” Vimeo videos
• Users can click the “pin it” button to fetch Vimeo videos embedded anywhere on the web and add them to their boards
• Vimeo pinning functionality will do more for the video service, which also appeals to connoisseurs of design, than for Pinterest. The inspiration focused social network has earned a reputation for driving tons of traffic (and purchases on e-commerce sites).
• Read the full article here

Pinterest SEO Capabilities and Organic Search Strategies

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

Pinterest has received a great deal of attention in the past few weeks because of a very large increase in its user base; according to Hitwise, Pinterest traffic increased 36% (to 103 million visitors) from January 12, 2012 to February 12, 2012. In addition, Pinterest is driving more traffic to publishers than Twitter.

On the Performics Blog the other week, we discussed Pinterest opportunities and strategies for brands and provided details on what Pinterest is and best practices for brands to develop this new method of engagement with their customers. If you’re new to Pinterest, check out this article first, and then come back here for an analysis on Pinterest’s potential for improving organic search visibility.

Depending on how its content is shared, Pinterest has the potential to increase search visibility for a wider variety of search terms related to your brand. The architecture of Pinterest gives search engines more information about what your products are and the words with which they can be associated. Visibility will be more likely based on how well your products or services align with Pinterest demographics and their most active categories.

How does SEO work on Pinterest?

It seems like SEO would be a natural fit for Pinterest. This site allows its users to build pages of material around specific topics. Most often, the material is in the form of images (though there is video content as well). A typical page on Pinterest displays an image, and the image itself is a link back to the site where the image was originally located.

For example, here’s an example of a “Pin” you might see on Pinterest:

Semantic Search: What it Is and What You Need to Know

Posted by Jonah A. Berger, SEO Manager

Google makes hundreds of ranking algorithm changes each year – many that fly under the radar or are headlines one day and back page residents the next. The search engine is in the news again, this time for potential changes to the look and definitely the feel of its search results that website owners and agency partners need to pay attention to. The changes, referred to separately (but housed under a similar content umbrella) as direct answers and semantic search in this white paper, could have a profound impact on how search results are displayed. The positive news is that while these changes may alter the search engine results page (SERP) as we know it, current SEO efforts don’t necessarily need to experience a dramatic shift. This white paper provides extensive background on the history of semantic search and concludes with five takeaways that can help emphasize what you as a site owner or agency partner need to know.

Download our full Semantic Search White Paper

Pinterest Opportunities & Strategies for Brands

Topic: Leveraging earned media opportunities on Pinterest
Opportunity:  Increase participation, engagement, site traffic and sales
Channels Impacted: Social, organic search

Right now, Pinterest is the hottest social media site on the Web.  Pinterest’s exponential growth in both traffic volume and user engagement indicates that it’s more than just the flavor of the moment—it’s here to stay.  Hitwise reported that Pinterest traffic increased 36 percent (to 103 million visitors) from January 12 to February 12; Pinterest drove more traffic to publishers in February than Twitter.  And according to comScore, Pinterest users spent an average of 89 minutes on the site in January 2012 compared to 21 minutes on Twitter, 17 minutes on LinkedIn and only 3 minutes on Google+.

So what exactly is Pinterest?  And how can marketers use it to increase participation, engagement, native site traffic and sales? 

Pinterest’s mission statement is “to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.”  First, a user on Pinterest discovers a new “thing” and pins it to one of their Pinterest boards.  Then, the user’s followers comment on the pin and re-pin it.  There’s a wide variety of pinning categories—from apparel to technology to home décor: