To maximize visibility in organic search results for industry terms, brands must increase ‘domain authority’ with Google. This is often achieved by securing a meaningful quantity of inbound links from high quality websites trusted by Google. While SEO companies often rely on begging for or buying links for clients, a strategic approach can be far more effective: leveraging public relations best practices. The following article outlines best practices for securing both quantity and quality inbound links from local business directories, publications, and industry websites.

Here are 20 effective ways to build links to a website recommended to achieve higher rankings and organic traffic to your website.
1. Conduct Competitive Analysis: Research competitors’ link profiles and reach out to sites linking to them that may also be relevant for your site. Tools like Semrush and BuzzStream can help identify link opportunities with or without competitive information.
2. Promote Existing Quality Content: Promote your new content across social media, email, and other channels to increase natural shares and links. Make content highly shareable.
3. Leverage Unlinked Brand Mentions: Audit the web for mentions of your brand that don’t include a link and reach out to ask for a link to be added to the mention. This article provides a helpful overview. Brand24 is a helpful brand monitoring tool.
4. Submit to Directories: Submit your website to reputable, niche-specific directories. Be cautious with this approach, as overusing directories, especially low-quality ones, can have a negative impact on your SEO. Here is a list of the top 50 free business directories as a starting point.
5. Explore Sponsorships: Sponsor industry events, publications, or other high-authority sites relevant to your audience in exchange for a link.
6. Monitor Your Backlinks: Regularly monitor your backlink profile to ensure that links are of high quality and that there is no toxic or spammy links. Tools like Google Search Console and Ahrefs can help with this.
7. Reclaim Old/Dead Links: Reach out to sites that used to link to your site but no longer do, and politely ask them to reinstate the link or add a new one. Secondarily, identify broken links on industry websites pointing to 404 pages and offer to replace them with one of your relevant pages. Use tools like Ahrefs to identify broken links.
8. Participate in Online Communities: Engage in relevant online communities, forums, and discussion platforms. Provide helpful answers and insights, and when appropriate, link to your website as a source of additional information.
9. Build out a Resource Page: Identify websites that have resource pages related to your niche. Reach out to the website owners and suggest adding your content or website as a valuable resource.
10. Utilize Giveaways & Contests: Running competitions and giveaways that encourage links as part of the entries.
11. Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with influencers or bloggers in your industry for collaborations or features. Influencers often have a wide reach and can help you gain exposure and backlinks.
12. Create High-Quality Content: The foundation of any successful link-building strategy is creating valuable, informative, and engaging content. When you publish high-quality content, other websites are more likely to link to it naturally.
13. Create Linkable Assets: Develop valuable resources, such as research studies, calculators, ebooks, or tools that are relevant to your niche. Create helpful, resource-style posts with lists of links to other useful sites and resources. Make sure to include a brief description for each link. Promote these assets to gain natural backlinks.
14. Create Infographics and Visual Content: Visual content like infographics can be highly shareable. Create visually appealing and informative infographics and share them on your website. Encourage others to use it and link back to them.
15. Secure Guest Blogging Opportunities: Reach out to other blogs and websites in your industry to contribute guest posts that include links back to your site. Focus on high-quality sites with good domain authority.
16. Secure Links via Email Outreach: Identify websites or influencers in your niche and send them personalized outreach emails. Explain why your content or website would be valuable to their audience and request a link.
17. Leverage Your Network: Build relationships with others in your industry, through social media, events, etc. and swap links where relevant.
18. Create Ego Bait: Mention influential people, websites, or products in your content and then let them know about it. They may share or link to your content to showcase their inclusion.
19. Utilize Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): Create accounts with ChatGPT and Bard for researching links, building databases, outreach scripts and compelling, linkable content.
20. Tap PR: leverage public relations activities, including press release distribution, speaking at industry events, syndicating articles on industry websites and pitching the media as a subject matter expert via free platforms including HARO and Qwoted, although there are additional options available.

Once the above strategies are consistently implemented over time, your company will see an increase in domain authority, resulting in higher rankings, increased traffic and ultimately, sales. The key is to focus on building genuine, editorial-style links from quality sites, not just spamming low-quality directories. Vary your link building strategies over time and monitor success with link tracking tools. Regardless of your level of marketing savvy, development resources or budget, these time-proven strategies will give you an edge over your competitors over time.

The post Build Domain Authority and Search Engine Rankings via These 20 Effective Link Development Strategies appeared first on SEMpdx.

With Apple’s latest iOS update blocking cookies by default, consumers are more empowered than ever to control access to their personal information. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge for publishers, agencies and advertisers, ad blockers continue to gain momentum, particularly with mobile users. This article provides a comprehensive overview of ad blockers and how publishers and marketers are adapting marketing to address increasing challenges with ad targeting.

According to the 2021 PageFair Adblock Report, an estimated 40 percent of US adults block online ads on computers and phones. While the number of people using ad blockers has held steady at ~250 million for the past few years, adoption has doubled on mobile devices the past five years to nearly 600 million. The primary reasons for ad blockers, according to the survey, is to avoid interruption and annoyance. Other common motivations include protection against malware (62 percent) followed by privacy (58 percent). According to Statista, 27 percent of Internet users currently use some form of ad blocker.

Publisher Strategies to Address Ad Blockers
Publishers are increasingly threatened by the potential loss of revenue; while advertisers are concerned about reduced visibility and wasted spend. The problem has gotten so big that German publisher Axel Springer sued the creator of AdBlock Plus for lost revenues in 2016, a case that is still in court today. The courts have favored ad blocker Eyeo this far, but Axel Springer isn’t giving up easily. This trend may lead to a larger contingent of publishers, advertisers and brands forming a lobbyist group to eradicate the technology.

Some publishers are not outwardly worried about the impact of ad blockers and are conducting business as usual. Other publishers are uncertain of the future and are doubling-down on short-term revenue maximization by adding new inventory including auto-play videos, welcome ads, takeovers, pop-ups and page wraps. A few hold-outs are trying to take a stand against ad blockers and are finding that approach challenging. Below is a recap of the primary strategies’ publishers have taken to address ad blocker proliferation over the past decade.

Staying the course
While this is the most common approach currently, it is not a sustainable strategy. Some publishers are not outwardly worried about the impact of ad blockers and are conducting business as usual. A subset of those publishers is uncertain of the future and doubling-down on short-term revenue maximization by adding new inventory including auto-play videos, welcome ads, takeovers, pop-ups and page wraps. This is equivalent to fueling the ad blocking adoption fire. Long-term, publishers taking this approach will have to change course or risk going out-of-business.

Embracing adoption
A small minority currently, some publishers (typically with minimal advertising) see opportunity in the adoption of ad-blocking software. These publishers can offer unique native advertising or advertorial that is becoming a growing segment and appealing to brands stymied by ad blocking on larger ad-driven websites. Vendors have also sprung up to take advantage of the evolving ad blocker industry. PageFair measures how many people block ads on publisher sites and allows publishers to display discreet ads to ad block software users through the platform. Secret Media uses a “polymorphic encryption algorithm” to accomplish the same task. Companies like Sourcepoint provide a content compensation platform to address ad recovery for advertisers and publishers.

Buying into ad blockers
While taking a good deal of heat, big players like Microsoft and Google are taking a strategic approach by paying to get ads whitelisted by default within the Ad Block Plus software. Irony is abundant: advertising platforms are paying to avoid getting their ads blocked by third parties and the default blocking of ads also creates a moral dilemma. By definition, default ad blocking would violate the principle of network neutrality, which holds that internet providers should treat all types of traffic equally. The conversations are just getting started on this front and look for large publishers and advertisers to fuel the flames.

Developing reward or loyalty programs
When all else fails, some publishers are putting money where their mouths are. Conde Nast, Time and New York Magazine are now rewarding visitors to view ads by providing incentives like points redeemable at select retailers or game credits. The strategy is designed to drive more traffic, ad views and inventory. This is neither a new tactic (first used in the mid- to late-nineties) nor is it proven to be highly effective, as participants are typically only visiting to earn rewards rather than for the content or the ads. Regardless, look for more publishers to test this approach in the near future.

Improving the user experience
Since a majority of workarounds are not viable long-term, smart publishers are looking at alternatives. Undeniably, publishers will benefit from creating the best possible user experience by building in advertising options that are seamless and/or add value. Focusing on site speed, minimized but expandable ad formats and native advertising can create a win-win for all parties (publishers, advertisers and consumers). In the end, compelling content will drive readership and creative ad formats. Sponsorships or endorsements may be the best compromise to keep publishers in business, advertisers connected and consumers happy. This is the solution that will ultimately provide the greatest return for publishers.

Educating readers
An increasing number of publishers are taking a more direct, transparent and collaborative approach. These sites have chosen to educate ad blocker users regarding the impact of the lost revenue to the publishers and request they whitelist the website to enable the ads. Wired, Mixcloud and others have seen success with this approach. I predict this will become the de-facto starting point for a majority of publishers in 2016, as it has a relatively low cost and takes the high road. That being said, the efficacy of this approach is dubious at best, based on historical data (that readers prefer ad-free and cost-free news and information).

Going rogue
Some publishers are utilizing technology workarounds to subvert ad blockers, including tweaking URLs and using URL shorteners. This is of course a cat and mouse game that will be difficult for publishers or ad blockers to win. The Washington Post has taken to blocking the blockers, detecting when visitors are using an ad blocker and asking them to turn it off before they can view content. Due to the never-ending escalation of costs associated with this approach, I predict this will be one of the least popular strategies to combat ad blocking. Some companies are taking advantage of the conflict and are developing alternative solutions for consumers and publishers. Optimal.com is a “smart subscription service for all the content on the web, minus the ads. Time will tell if these options are appealing to readers, as they are not likely favorable to publishers or advertisers in their current format.

Lobbying and pursuing legal action
While publishers are increasingly threatened by the potential loss of revenue, advertisers are concerned about reduced visibility and wasted spend. The problem has gotten so big that German publishers sued, Eyeo, the creator of AdBlock Plus earlier this year for lost revenues. French publishers are considering doing the same. The courts have favored Eyeo this far, however. This trend may lead to a larger contingent of publishers, advertisers and brands forming a lobbyist group to eradicate the technology. The challenge with the legal approach is extremely high costs with long odds. The strong-arm approach also does little to engender trust or respect from readership.

Building a paywall
Another approach to thwarting ad-blocking is to create a paywall (a system that prevents Internet users from accessing web page content without a paid subscription) so that paying users are able to skip advertising all together. Paywalls are the flip-side of ad-blocking software, in that you pay the publisher for the ability to avoid ads, instead of ad blocking software. For example, The Guardian is inviting users who choose to block ads to support the paper by becoming paid-up members. YouTube and The Next Web are planning to take a similar approach. Alternately, a “premium content” strategy can be positioned as more consumer-friendly. Instead of penalizing visitors using ad-blockers by creating a paywall, publishers can reward visitors by offering them additional benefits or access when disabling ad-blockers.

Playing hardball
A fringe group of publishers are taking a hardline approach to prevent ad blocker users from accessing content. Video streaming and media sites like Hulu and UK’s ITV and Channel 4 have taken this angle. Forbes has developed a hybrid approach by both hiding content from ad blocker users and promising an “ad light” experience (no autoplay videos or animation) to those that turn off their ad blockers. GQ is a firm but practical approach. Site visitors interested in reading articles instead receive a popup asking to turn off their ad blocker or pay .25 cents.

The smartest approach, in my humble opinion, is to improve the user experience with smarter and more user-friendly layouts, ad formats (i.e. native advertising, video and cinemagraphs) and generally reducing the number of ad options. The idea is that attention will be divided among fewer ads and improve performance. The publisher can also charge more for each ad and the brands and agencies can spend more time developing compelling creative. Advertisers may migrate to other (social) platforms and solutions, including Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Brand Advertiser Strategies to Address Ad Blockers
The best way for brands and creatives to effectively mitigate the impact of ad blockers, is to understand the motivations behind usage. Once brand advertisers (and publishers) address consumer concerns about digital ads, lost revenues can be mitigated. According to Juniper Research, total revenue lost due to ad blocking technologies reached nearly $28 billion in 2020.

With so much to lose, brands must get serious about addressing consumer concerns. Let’s take a deeper look at key motivators for using ad blockers and associated mitigation strategies.

1. The ads are annoying. Bad creative can be downright irritating. Recommended fix: invest more time on development of compelling creative that resonates with the target audience. Spend more time and effort on market research, strategic planning and testing, to hone the creative.
2. The ads get in the way of what I’m trying to do. While intrusive ads (think pop-ups and expandable ads) can generate a higher number of clicks, it is not usually because people find the creative or product compelling. Similar to mobile devices, people tend to click accidentally on intrusive ads. This only infuriates the user and can result in a negative brand perception. Recommended fix: buy ad placements that are less-intrusive or completely non-intrusive. Examples might include sponsorships vs. display ads. According to recent research, one in three users was positive toward an ad-light experience with fewer advertisements shown in exchange for turning off their ad blockers.
3. The ad is irrelevant to me. As web surfers, we tend to ignore irrelevant ads, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a negative impact and inspire blocker usage. Recommended fix: invest more time in audience segmentation and targeting. Understand your audience motivators and preferred media outlets and have the discipline to actively manage digital campaigns for optimal ROI. Run-of-site or run-of-network ad buys are a lazy approach and key driver of ad blocking.
4. I find the ads too intrusive. If you’ve surfed the web for work or play in the past year, you’ve probably experienced intrusive ads, including pre-roll on YouTube or interstitials on large publishers. Overlay ads are popular because they demand the user’s attention and advertisers can guarantee impressions. Unfortunately, users find these ads frustrating. Recommended fix: See #3. Stay away from intrusive ad buys. Look for alternatives, per #2.
5. The pages tend to load faster when adverts are blocked. Any web developer will agree that fewer ads = faster download speeds = better user experience. In fact, Google has indicated site speed impacts rankings in search results. Unfortunately, this insight conflicts with a publisher’s need to generate revenue. Recommended fix: consider ad buys on websites with limited inventory, elegant user experience or perceived faster download times. Also consider creating ads that are small in file size that minimize impact on the user experience.
6. It leads to a saving of my mobile data. This is perhaps the most difficult to combat but is thankfully the least important of the top motivators. Recommended fix: not much you can do here, unless you plan to buy those viewing your ads additional data on their mobile plans. Perhaps suggest they view the website on wi-fi or at work. Yeah, right.

Parting Thoughts
Advertisers and creatives are in a tough spot due to growth of ad blocking (and a cookieless future). I’ve mentioned a few mitigation strategies above, based on the top six motivators. Here are a few additional thoughts from other industry influencers.

During a panel at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Randall Rothenberg, president-CEO of the IAB suggested that brands should “serve people and not impressions through better creative.” The panelists also suggested less intrusive ad formats with better targeting. In another panel at the same event, PepsiCo’s president Brad Jakeman said “Ad-blocking is the best thing that has happened to this industry” arguing it will drive the industry to act more like entertainment brands.

My fellow teammates at Anvil came up with additional workaround strategies for ad-blocker users. The first strategy is to get “white-listed” by following ad blocker best practices in order to advertise through ad blocker networks or related technology platforms like PageFair and Ghostery. The second is my foundational recommendation from previous articles: native advertising. Create your own content that is so compelling that nobody cares that it is technically considered advertising.

Additional workarounds include in-app advertising (which can still be considered intrusive) but users may be more tolerant depending on the application and creative. Increasing engagement levels can also decrease user frustration. Consider unique ad formats that incorporate multimedia. This is a riskier approach, as it can increase download times and be considered even more intrusive than static ads.

Conclusion
At its core, ad blocking software is a powerful response by consumers tired of poorly executed and placed creative. Brands and agencies that heed the call will invest more time on developing data-driven creative, further audience segmentation, improved targeting and thoughtful media placement. Publishers must also do their part to provide more options for advertisers that address many of the consumers’ biggest complaints. Consumers have voiced their concerns and the advertising industry is now starting to listen. The result should be a better experience for all parties involved. At least we hope that is the case.

The post Ad Blockers: The Impact and Implications for Publishers and Advertisers appeared first on SEMpdx.

2018 Digital Marketing Prediction: How Did We Do?

Voice Search will make massive strides in 2018
In 2018, digital assistants will dramatically affect the way consumers search. The 2017 holiday season will prime the pump with consumers purchasing large quantities of voice-assisted devices, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple iPhones with Siri and Microsoft Cortana devices. The Android, Windows and Apple device users will speak directly to their devices to conduct searches as well as manage their lives. How consumers verbally communicate significantly varies from how individuals type out search queries. Because of this variation in behavior, you will begin to see more long-tail keyword queries; this will allow brands to create much more accurate and intelligent keyword search optimization strategies, since more granular data will be available around consumer behavior. Voice search is also driving the need for brands to optimize for Position 0 on Google. Position 0 is a sentence, list, or table “answer” to common questions asked by Google users that appear above the organic search results. This coveted position will become increasingly competitive, even as Google heavily moderates results. Lastly, brands will increasingly invest in custom voice “skills” for Amazon, which is now estimated at 25,000, to better connect and engage consumers.
GRADE: B

Voice Search will fully embrace Paid Media
As we predicted in 2017, it’s only a matter of time before Google and Amazon figure out how to monetize voice assistants. As more phones and smart speakers flood the markets and consumers acclimate to utilizing these devices daily, Google, Amazon, Bing and Apple will increasingly explore ways to integrate paid media into their voice-based services. This process has already begun: as we outlined in March, Local Service Ads are in beta and will be rolling out to Google’s Home and Pixel devices soon. Select home service companies have been invited to participate in this paid, Adwords-based experience. More is sure to come. By Q4 2018, consumers everywhere will be asking their voice assistants for shopping help and that paid ads will be at the center of the interaction. You can bet on it.
GRADE: D

Amazon Search will continue to gain ground on Google
According to a Kenshoo study, 56 percent of consumers start product searches on Amazon. That means a minority of consumers are starting product searches on Google. While this behavior shift that has been in the works for the past decade, it will reach a tipping point in 2018.
With Amazon advertisers expected to increase investment by 63 percent in 2018, Google may find itself in a defensive position. In short, Amazon is the new Google in many respects, so brands will adjust marketing strategies appropriately in 2018. Those that take a more aggressive stance and invest bigger and smarter in Amazon organic and paid programs will outperform competitors that fail to do so, in 2018 and beyond.
GRADE: B+

eBay makes an Ad Play
As Amazon reaps massive financial success from its Sponsored Products promotion platform, expect other players to step up. One big online reseller that will be making a play in 2018: eBay Promoted Listings. Once known as the place to auction off that (hopefully valuable) junk from your attic, eBay has quietly started allowing “Buy Now” listings to become more pervasive, representing an opportunity for re-sellers to sell direct using the platform. eBay also allows a minimum bid for auction items to be considered “sold”, for those selling rarer and more valuable items they believe will fetch a premium. Along with new listing options, eBay is increasing ways to get more traffic to customer listings via its Promotions tool, expanding the program to new categories and sellers in 2017. Unlike Amazon and other promoted listings platforms that charge only for a click, eBay only charges for the promotion when an ad is clicked and the item is sold to the clicker within 30 days. This allows them to charge a premium for promotions, but the charge is always attached to an actual sale. Experts predict eBay Promoted Listings will represent a $1B+ market with over 70% margin, prompting a rise in eBay stock valuation in Q4 of 2017. Early adopters of this technology might see a blue ocean of opportunity in 2018.
GRADE: D

AMP Pages Will Blow Up & Become a Ranking Factor
As Google continues to roll out Mobile-First Indexing, more emphasis will be put on sites utilizing AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to improve mobile user experience. AMP pages load 4x faster than normal website pages on average, which can significantly improve user experience, CTR and site engagement. Currently, AMP pages do not have the widespread adoption that Google was hoping for. Only 900,000 of the 1.2 billion websites on the internet have implemented the AMP framework thus far. With Google’s continued focus on mobile, it is likely that they will soon factor the use of AMP pages into organic rankings to further increase adoption. Businesses that have yet to implement the AMP framework should consider creating AMP pages for their top performing content, especially if Google intends to make AMP a ranking factor.
GRADE: C-

Link Building will play a much more prominent role
We’ve already discussed the importance of ranking for Position 0 and owning voice search results, but it is worth mentioning that the old-school strategy of securing high quality inbound links to boost domain authority is not only important, it is more critical than ever. To achieve Position 0, ensure that other websites linking back to your website are the most “authoritative” around the query that the visitor is searching. 70 percent of voice search results are Featured Snippets, so capturing Position 0 in SERPs translates to you owning the voice result if someone talks to Siri, Bixby, Cortana, Alexa or another digital assistant.
GRADE: B-

Brands will focus on Fan-Generated Content
When it comes to showing products in natural settings, there are several brands who rely on celebrity photoshoots and repurposing paid influencer content. The influencer scene has become so overblown, that many influencers are pricing themselves out of the market.
Based on this trend, we think the bubble is about to burst, and many brands will switch to sharing user- generated content from fans instead of high-priced influencers. Vans Girls is already sharing fan-generated content for many of its Instagram posts. This works in Vans’ favor by allowing them to save money, while providing incentive to its fans. Fans are already posting great content on their meticulously-curated accounts and tag posts with Vans in the hope of being featured on one of their favorite brand’s social pages. The collaboration strengthens brand affinity with consumers and helps solve a common challenge among brands: content creation.
GRADE: B+

Micro-Influencers are going to become more useful to Consumer Brands Than Big Influencers
In the past few years, Influencer Marketing has become a proven tactic for driving awareness and leads. Seventy one percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference. People follow influencers they like and respect on social media, but an influencer doesn’t have to be a celebrity or have at least 100,000 followers to help your brand.
While brands have been pining after mega-influencers, micro-influencers have demonstrated significant value by making an impact with as few as 1,000 followers. They tend to be more authentic and trustworthy brand ambassadors. The smaller price tag, high engagement rates and steady results will raise eyebrows of previous skeptics. Look for 2018 to be the year of the micro-influencer.
GRADE: A+

Chatbots Will take Over Social Media Messaging
According to a study done by Facebook, 56 percent of consumers prefer to handle a customer service issue over chat vs. over the phone. As this trend continues to grow, the need for timely responses on social channels will grow with it. Every visitor to a website or Facebook business page presents an opportunity to enter a brand’s funnel and chatbots help secure that potential lead. Don’t wait and see for yourself: jump on the trend by creating a simple Chatbots that can answer questions and redirect social media visitors to your Customer Service department and/or Sales team. The secret behind chatbot’s is the ability to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to broaden its knowledge and ability to provide sales and service support in a seamless manner. As a result, look for greater chatbot adoption in 2018 than any previous year.
GRADE: A-

Augmented Reality Marketing will finally Take Off
Pokémon Go might have come and gone, but it’s effects on marketing might not be so ephemeral. The first attempts at augmented reality marketing seemed to be a bust. In 2009, a hidden feature named Monacle made Yelp the iPhone’s premiere AR application. Sadly, it never took off. In 2010, the MIT Technology Review even wrote an article detailing the failures of AR campaigns to draw in consumers. Pokémon Go, the fad of 2016, may have breathed new life into AR by introducing it to a mainstream audience and re-inspiring marketers. Ad Age claims that AR is “marketing’s trillion dollar opportunity.” In the Fall of 2017, Apple released the ARKit, which gives developers tools to create their own Augmented Reality iOS applications. An example of an app already created with ARKit is Ikea Place, which lets you visualize how Ikea furniture and décor will look in your home or office. AR marketing use varies from the real-estate and interior decorating spaces to virtual banners and Google My Business information for brick-and-mortar establishments. Apple CEO Tim Cook pronounced, “We are high on AR for the long run, we think there’s great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity.”
With tech giants behind AR and the “Pokémon Go generation” (millennials) starting to buy homes, advance in their careers, and spend more on entertainment, it seems AR marketing might finally go mainstream. Maybe Yelp will even put out Monocle 2.0.
GRADE: B-

SkyNet may become a Reality, thanks to the rapid evolution of AI
We don’t typically wear our tin foil hats in public, but there are already signs that AI has the potential to go very, very wrong. From the “highly aggressive” DeepMind AI to some of the worlds brightest minds warning us about the dangers ahead, 2018 has the potential to bring a Terminator-like problem front and center. It may not be as obvious as this guy running amok through the city streets with his army of buddies, but it will be very real. We are turning more aspects of our lives over to technology at an alarmingly fast rate. Self-driving cars, bank accounts, smart refrigerators and even medical procedures are being managed by AI, with little to no control or regulation. The rate at which machines can learn already far exceeds our ability as human beings – setting the stage for a potential showdown in the future. We predict there will be at least one major event in 2018 that will clearly demonstrate the threat.
GRADE: A-

2019 Digital Marketing Predictions

Without further ado, here are Anvil’s digital marketing predictions for 2019.

Brands Will Make Major Strides with In-Game and eSport Sponsorships and Related Advertising Opportunities
While online gaming, especially multiplayer, has been around since Doom in the early 90s, recent explosive growth, thanks in part to games like Fortnite, have changed the game for brands looking to target GenZ in particular. Online gaming enthusiasts range in age from 10 to 65, yet a whopping 73 percent of 14- to 21-year-olds in the US identify as a competitive gamer (including 56 percent of females in that same age group), according to a WaPo study. Anvil believes game makers will not be able to resist lucrative partnerships, sponsorships and advertising opportunities. Recent examples include Wreck-It Ralph Breaks the Internet and Fortnite including a brief cameo in the movie and an Easter Egg embedded in the popular game. Look for more cross-over partnerships in the future. There is another large audience relating to gaming and that is spectators and fans. Electronic sports (esports) are increasingly a spectator sport, drawing millions to global competitions (physically and virtually). While most gamers play for social reasons, 35 percent play to win prizes or acclaim. Look for brands to increase sponsorship budgets to get in front of gamers by associating brands with high profile players.

With Search Growing More Prevalent, Google Will Introduce Campaigns Specifically for Voice-Assisted Devices
With voice search becoming more prevalent, we believe the trend will affect Google search with a new campaign type. This campaign type would specifically be for voice search and would allow targeting with bid adjustments by the type of voice search device including mobile phone voice search as well as the specific voice-assisted devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home.

AEO and REO Will Replace the Outdated SEO Model
Search Engine Optimization will fall by the wayside in favor of Answer Engine and Research Engine optimization. SEO is becoming a broad term that is beginning to encapsulate digital marketing as search engines are more and more able to anticipate user intent. At the same time, SEO is becoming more siloed as websites are beginning to focus more on their own specialty. As a website’s optimization aligns more and more with where users are in their specific journey, websites will have to think about how to optimize to answer questions, allow for research, or convert from search engine results pages directly.

Voice Assistants Enter More Home–sand Businesses–Than Ever Before
Use of voice search will continue to increase. Facebook, Google, and Amazon have all doubled down on in-home voice assistants and Amazon have just stated that their biggest Cyber Monday saw the most sales of their Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. Voice search isn’t going anywhere, and these massive companies are attempting to make it easier and easier for users to utilize voice in their everyday lives. Not only that, but voice assistants are moving into the business sphere more and more.

Blockchain Is Going to Lie Low
After the crypto gains in 2017, many companies engaged in the marketing ploy of launching blockchain products, trying to ride the media coattails surrounding the emerging technology and buzzwords associated with it that most people don’t truly understand. A year later and crypto markets are in the middle of a tailspin. As mainstream attention cares only about the dollar signs associated with crypto, companies will keep quiet about their blockchain products until the next bear market. As for crypto, many projects will lose funding; the deadwood will burn. But the community is thriving as ever. Keep your ear to the ground for projects looking to go to market and take advantage of the opportunity to get into this industry on the ground-level by keeping your prices low and goals reasonable.

Video Trends Will Increase in Marketing, Messaging and Media
Live video content (streaming) encourages high-engagement and will be an even more valuable tool for brands in 2019. This type of video content will be more search friendly with more prevalent use of closed captioning and the power of artificial intelligence. AI can transcribe audio to make video more searchable. Video previews (silent) will auto-play on most platforms. With the ease of video production essentially being in everyone’s phone, video will also take on more of a 1:1 approach. Personalized video messages will start replacing chat, email, and phone calls as ways brands communicate with customers. Videos will be created to thank a customer, delivers support, or follow-up on customer questions.

Virtual Reality (VR) Will Finally Go Mainstream
2019 will see Virtual Reality move from a niche-gaming system or novelty experience to a much more accessible platform with higher use than we’ve ever seen before. While it won’t even come close to the usage of mobile, computers or television, the technology, cost and ease of use has taken many giant steps over the past year – which see a payoff this year. Look no further than the new Oculus Go. No longer is a high-powered computer needed to run VR. The Oculus Go is making VR more accessible due to its simple setup and relatively low cost. Facebook, the owner of Oculus is already betting heavily on the success of the Oculus Go by launching an entire multi-platform campaign that spans from social to television. Online radio advertising will see increased impressions and decreased performance as Virtual Reality hangouts become more popularized. The Oculus Go also allows users to play online radio stations while in hangout rooms and will increase the available ad space for online radio such as Pandora and Spotify. However, as these placements aren’t clickable, advertisers attempting to drive site traffic will see decreased performance.

Local SEO Will Get Sexier
Yes, voice search is trendy, but should optimization focus on voice search alone? No: rather voice search should be an integrated part of a larger focus. According to a 2018 BrightLocal study, smart speaker owners usually use their devices to perform local business-related search on a weekly basis. Over half of smart speaker owners perform this type of voice query every day! Voice search optimization shouldn’t live in a vacuum. It should be part of a holistic on-Page or on-SERP optimization plan or Local Search strategy. With an increasing amount of no-click searches and Google-owned content eating up more space (and often all above-the-fold real estate) for local SEO SERPs, on-SERP and voice search optimization is and will continue to become more paramount to Local SEO in 2019.

GenZ Will Call For Increased Brand Transparency & Purpose
Brand transparency and purpose will go beyond affecting ad targeting and be a critical component to developing successful marketing strategies & campaigns. As Generation Z ages and their buying power grows, it will be important for brands to think about their story and how to connect with this new consumer group. To effectively connect with GenZ, brands will not only have to authentically convey their values & purpose but actively live it and prove their commitment.

Amazon Will Create Its Own SEO Position 0
As Amazon gains a larger share of not only online shopping but consumer purchases in general, it will become more and more like its own search engine. We expect increased importance on SEO for product pages, and possibly even position 0 and “featured snippets” in the form of a promoted product that matches one’s search query.

So, there you have it. Feel free to leave comments regarding your 2019 predictions or provide feedback on our 2018 review and 2019 digital marketing predictions. Happy Holidays!

The post 2019 Digital Marketing Predictions (+ 2018 Year-in-Review) appeared first on SEMpdx.

Let Images Speak for You

As the old saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words. Small business need to appeal to their consumer’s emotions with pictures. Having a special for Small Business Saturday? Post that on your social with a picture of your team. Decorating your store/office/space? Post pictures with engaging captions that display your personality and why consumers can relate to you.

Posting personality will both engage your audience but it will form instant connection. So the next time you’re browsing the internet, take note of the advertisements that draw you in and those you gloss over and ask yourself why?

Invest in Paid Social

If you’re a small business and you aren’t putting a least a small bit of budget towards digital marketing, you are setting yourself behind your competition (especially brands like Amazon and Target). Facebook is a great platform for small business to advertise on. If you combine your unique personality, with the fact that you’re a small local business, users will be more likely to engage with you and convert. Paid Facebook may even perform better for your small business than Adwords.

Speak to Segments of Your Audience

If you are going partake in email marketing make sure you tailor your message to individual consumers. It’s a powerful way to stand out among the noise. According to MarketingProfs, personalized promotional emails and personalized online advertising techniques are among the top tactics for prompting consumers to purchase.

A great example of personalization performing well is Coca-Cola. After years of plummeting sales, the company decided to take a new approach with its “Share a Coke” campaign. Their brilliant solution? Putting popular names and labels on their bottles and promoting consumers to share pictures of it. As a result, Coca-Cola gained 25 million Facebook followers.

When It’s All Said and Done

As a small business your advertising efforts will require a little extra strategy, but don’t let that overwhelm you. You don’t need a massive marketing budget to get your brand across. Keep it short and sweet, and relate to your audience on a personal level. Follow these suggestions and you’ll be able to advertise to any consumer and compete with larger brands.

About Rachel:

Rachel Bills is a Digital Strategist at Intuitive Digital. A Michigan Native, Rachel is brand new to Portland and falls more in love with the West Coast every day. She earned her bachelor’s degree From Grand Valley State University in Advertising and Communication with a focus in digital media.

When she’s not dabbling in the dark art of PPC, or creating compelling visual content, you can find Rachel riding horses, camping or rereading Patrick Rothfuss’s “The Wise Man’s Fear” for the eleventy-bajillionth time.

Rachel wants to live in a world filled with scary movie marathons, books that come bundled with dark chocolate and a force field around her keyboard that repels spills and sticky-substances of any kind.

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We’re opening up the blog to anybody for guest posting on any topic relevant to search marketing. I’ve been tasked with writing a blog post on how to get your blog post posted on our blog. I’m supposed to share with you the steps and rules you need to follow to make this happen.

Here’s the deal though…there aren’t any. You just need to convince me that your post is worthy…and then I hook you up.

Speaking of hook-ups…if I really like your post, I might sweeten the deal by offering you some schwag or a free ticket to one of our events.

Even better, all guest posts also get included in our e-newsletter.

How to reach me? Easy. Email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.

No-No’s: Page Rank, Link Juice, Moz Metrics, Politics, Pharma, etc.

I really love this film:

Thanks,

Todd

The post How To Get A Post On Our SEMpdx Blog appeared first on SEMpdx.

In their quest for the most useful search result, Google’s algorithm has placed increasing weight on social media signals including citations, likes, comments, and shares. Brands that have hesitated to enter the social media fracas have paid a price in terms of organic search rankings. Conversely, brands who embraced social early have benefitted from the additional boost in visibility. The integration of social media tactics into search engine optimization (SEO) efforts can maximize the impact of those efforts on brand visibility, credibility, and sales. The following seven steps will ensure an optimal organic search engine presence.

Step 1: Claim & Optimize Social Profiles
The first and most important step in improving your organic search visibility via social media is to ensure you’ve created profiles on the top platforms. It only takes a few minutes to claim a profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest. Be sure to secure your brand name as your handle, as it typically becomes the URL and is your best performing keyword in search results. Make sure to incorporate relevant industry keywords into your biography and status updates to boost non-branded search visibility. If you only have time to claim one profile, make sure it is Google+, as there is no such thing as SEO on Google without a Google+ company profile.

Step 2: Listen, Learn & Apply
In case you haven’t yet figured it out, social media is the world’s largest focus group. Every day, millions of people publish their thoughts, opinions, and insights about your company, competitors, and industry. Analyzing keywords and phrases posted on social media provides insights into future content opportunities for SEO. When you have insights into current trends, you can create unique, timely, and compelling content for your website, blog, and social profiles. Utilize Google, social platform search, and related tools (like FollowerWonk) to identify industry influencers and leverage your content to engage target constituents. The goal: seek the Share, which is the most powerful vote of confidence regarding the quality of your content and credibility of your website.

Step 3: Integrate with Website
In order to maximize the value of your investment in social media, it is important to close the loop between your social profiles and website. The first step is to embed links to your primary social media profiles into your website (ideally at the header or footer of your template, so that they appear on every page for optimal visibility). This will tell Google and site visitors that you have a social media presence worth visiting. The second step is to embed social sharing buttons (again, ideally on every page) so that visitors can easily share your content via their social media profiles without having to navigate away and lose their browsing momentum. I mentioned leveraging the power of the share, and this is the easiest way to facilitate that sharing. The third step is to integrate feeds from your social profiles into your website (ideally the home page). This is a great way to keep your website content fresh and interesting to users and search engines. Utilizing tools like Postano will aid in content syndication, curation, and measurement of engagement. Last but not least, consider syndicating customer reviews from third-party websites on your own website. Review sites are often highly visible and respected, and offer critical third-party validation. Martin Hospitality on the Oregon Coast incorporates reviews from TripAdvisor and other platforms into their websites to boost credibility.

Step 4: Develop Winning Content
Content has always been King. There is no such thing as a social media or SEO strategy without content. Leverage the research performed in Step 2 to create shareable content. Google loves multimedia, so think about a multi-dimensional media content strategy. The most efficient approach to content creation is to start with HD video, as one 60-second recording can be repurposed to YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook, and edited down for Instagram (15 seconds) and Vine (6 seconds). That same HD video also provides more than 1 million still images (for Pinterest and Instagram), and 60 seconds of audio (for iTunes), and can also be transcribed into text for a blog post or an article. Post and syndicate the content on your website and across your social media profiles for maximum reach and engagement.

Step 5: Go Local, Mobile & Social with Search
According to Search Engine Watch, 50 percent of mobile searches have local intent and 61 percent of those mobile searches result in a purchase. As such, mobile search and social cannot be ignored, especially by retail brands. The first step in creating a meaningful local presence is to claim and optimize your local listings on search engines, directories, and review sites. Google and Yelp are two of the most important platforms in this arena. Once claimed and populated with content, it is essential to monitor and update the listings regularly, as freshness is important. Be sure to optimize your website for local search as well, utilizing Schema.org Local Business markup and Google Maps for driving directions.

Step 6: Monitor Social Mentions & Citations
Among the primary signals influencing search rankings are mentions of your brand in social media. Even if all mentions of your brand are positive (which is unlikely), it is essential to monitor social conversations. Quickly address negative reviews and be sure to celebrate and syndicate positive reviews. Engage constituents in conversation to build rapport and trust. Ask and answer questions about your brand or industry and encourage offline-to-online engagement where possible, including encouraging happy customers to post reviews based on their recent experience. This content will all be factored into your rankings. For bonus points, incorporate positive reviews into your paid advertising and offline marketing.

Step 7: Measure & Optimize
What gets measured gets managed, as my old boss used to say. In order to get the most out of your search and social marketing efforts, it is essential to continuously measure and optimize. While there are limitless ways to measure the impact of social media on your search visibility, there are a few primary metrics on which to focus. The first set of metrics relates to the impact of your presence in social media, and includes shares, comments, and brand or website mentions (aka citations). The higher the numbers, the more credible your social presence and the greater the likelihood that they will positively impact search rankings. The second set of metrics, which are further down the funnel, relate to the impact of social media on your website. These metrics include level of visibility in targeted search rankings, the associated traffic to your website, and any resulting leads or sales (which require conversion tracking in your analytics to properly measure). Last but not least, it is worthwhile to measure overall sentiment and related qualitative metrics, which are likely to impact site traffic, rankings and sales. Regularly tweak your content based on insights from analytics to maximize your rankings.

Due to recent changes in consumer behavior, social media will continue to impact search engine rankings and SEO strategy. By integrating social media with your search marketing efforts, you will see a measurable and positive impact on your rankings, traffic and ultimately, sales. Follow the seven steps outlined above and see a return on your marketing investment in the coming year, before your competitors figure it out.

The post 7 Steps to Leverage Social Media to Increase Search Engine Visibility appeared first on SEMpdx.

1 In the beginning (God / Tim Berners-Lee / Al Gore) created the World Wide Web.
2 And the web was without form, and void; and chaos was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the net.
3 And God said, Let there be online properties and domain names were born.
4 And God saw that domains were nothing without associated content so he created web hosting and the ability to post content online via FTP.
5 And God called this process web publishing. And this was the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a way to organize content so that people can find it.
7 And God made the web directory where human editors could post links to websites.
8 And God called the firmament Yahoo. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let there be a way to organize websites in such a way so that users can make queries in order to find their information..
10 And God called these new information portals “Search Engines”.
11 And God said, Let the Search Engines send forth spiders to seek out, index, and categorize all the websites throughout the land.
12 And the spiders allowed the Search Engines to map out and index the web for web surfers and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the primary web from the secondary web:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give enhanced visibility to web surfers: and it was so.
16 And God an important distinction; dot com domains to rule the day, and other lesser domain extensions to rule the night: he made the subdomains also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the web,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 And God said, Let the Search Engines create a way to link websites and visitors in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created algorithms which decided which websites would rank well for user queries: and God saw that it was good (and since Google did the best job of this for God, God blessed Google with most of the marketplace).
22 And God blessed website owners saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill web with beneficial sites that meet the needs of the public (and make money for the webmasters).
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the website owners adjust their sites so they are more likely to be ranked well by the search engine algorithms: and SEO was so.
25 And God said, Let the website owners who wish to pay their way to the top of the search engine have the ability to do so: and God saw that Paid Search was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness: and let man (and woman) communicate with other online in furtherance of relationships and online commerce (and Social Media was born).
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and communicate, and replenish the web, and subdue it: and have dominion over the commercial web, the social web, and over every living thing that goeth online (and ICANN was born).
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every possible tool from which you can create and run online communities and commerce (plus the ability to endlessly innovate to suit the collective purpose).
30 And to every man and woman on earth, I’ve given them the ability to get onto the web and use it in such a way to enhance their life (and the life of their loved ones).
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

1 Thus the World Wide Web was finished, and all its infrastructure was in place.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

And then lots of smart men and women attempted to game the system that God created…

Pictures from the Cinematic Masterpiece “Days of Heaven”. Please note that I’ve done similar posts before.

The post Online Genesis: Chapter 1 (And Part Of Chapter 2) appeared first on SEMpdx.

Since I first attended SES in Boston, I’ve noticed the event has changed along with the industry. For starters, the overall energy level has waned as the SES appeals to a more broad and corporate audience. Back in the early days, you could sense the nervous energy and appreciated the “insider information” now outlawed by legal departments.

On the flip side, the content has evolved to a more strategic level, which I appreciate as a business owner. There are certainly more opportunities for hand-on training through SEMPO Institute and Search Engine Academy that take some of the burden off of SES. The parties continue to impress, however.

While they may not be quite as edgy and wild as in the past, the boys at Webmaster Radio surely know how to throw a SearchBash. The presenters are consistently better than in the past, yet I’m still surprised that some were truly rusty and tended to be overly self-promotional on occasion. But we search marketing professionals don’t attend SES for the parties or presenters as much as we do for the content and networking.

Unfortunately for me, I was so busy blogging and keeping things running at Anvil Media, that I wasn’t able to partake in much of the networking opportunities (lunches and some parties). That said, I was able to take away a few nuggets from the content, which I’ll summarize for those that don’t have the time to read my blog posts.

Based on a non-scientific analysis of session attendance and overheard conversations, I believe the hottest single topic was social media (including platforms, monitoring and measurement tools, optimization techniques, link development and reputation management strategies). Secondarily, I there was a bit of buzz about local and mobile search, but it’s still so early in the game that the following is still relatively small.

Perhaps the most inspirational session was Andrew Tomkins keynote this morning about the future of search. Essentially, the Chief Scientist at Yahoo! Research outlined a new abstract-based approach to search results that I found intuitive, powerful and inspiring. We’ll see if my judgment amounts to much, however. All-in-all, an educational event with a touch of inspiration.

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This morning, I read Bill Simmons “Save Our Sonics” column which began:

In six years of writing for ESPN.com, this is the longest piece I’ve ever sent to my editors — nearly 15,000 words of anguished e-mails from Sonics fans around the country.

He then shared with us a large variety of letters containing incredible levels of emotion and distress from Sonics fans everywhere. One could not help but be touched by what those folks were feeling. While I’m a huge Trailblazer fan, I totally feel your pain…we know that it easily could have been us a few years ago.

Later today, I am checking my RSS Feeds where the following press release catches my eye:

WebsiteBiz Lands Contract with NBA Sonics for Search Engine Marketing Campaign.

It begins:

WebsiteBiz, an Internet marketing agency, will develop a search-engine marketing plan designed to sell single-game tickets for the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics.

You gotta be kidding me. Do you think search engine marketing will help you sell more tickets when you’ve alienated your entire fan base by announcing that you’re leaving town? Search engine marketing is designed to make online initiatives more visible to customers who might be willing to buy your product or service but it’s worthless when a company has alienated their entire customer base (and FYI, the vandalism that has taken place on Clay Bennett’s Wikipedia page is hilarious).

The owners have a reputation management problem that even Andy Beal couldn’t fix.

It is the job of an ethical search engine marketer to offer each potential client realistic expectations of what a well-executed search engine marketing campaign can accomplish. Search engine marketing can not undo the damage caused by horrible public relations. I’m sure the Sonics are a “whale” (Vegas terminology) client for that vendor and I would be curious to know how WebsiteBiz could achieve more ticket sales via SEM in light of the Sonics desire to leave town ASAP.

Furthermore, it is also curious that Seattle, the home of SEOmoz, Marchex (Matt McGee’s Employer) & John Andrews would choose a company from Charlotte for SEM services (though it appears Websitebiz also represents the Charlotte Bobcats…another team rumored to be moving).

For people reading this that are considering purchasing search marketing services, ethical SEM’s are valuable contractors to help increase sales / leads. They can even help perform reputation management damage control to a certain degree. However, when you’ve fucked over 3 Million people and 41 years of cherished history, SEM can’t undo the damage.

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