Nick Winkleback, OX Media

Engage 2019 Ticket, featuring hundreds of attendees from all around the US gaining access to speakers that are experts in the digital marketing field.

Kim Allchurch Flick, Mighty Epiphyte

Swivel Ticket, Bend’s premier marketing conference and event on October 8-9, 2018.

Kelsey Suski, Freelancer

2 WinCo Portland Open tickets

Carri Bugbee, Big Deal Digital

Portland Creative Conference ticket, September 28, 2018, featuring exploration and celebration of the creative process across all creative industries.

Mel White, Classic Exhibits

Free Month at Industrious, Portland’s newest co-working space focusing on community and great spaces for creatives to work.

Michelle Craig, Obility

IABC event ticket

Cooper Glass, Logical Position

SEMpdx September event ticket featuring Conversion Rate Optimization with Jeremy Epperson

The post 2018 Summer Networking Party Winners appeared first on SEMpdx.

The last 2 years of Natalie Allers life have now been taken up by mobile ad fraud. So it was only fitting that she spoke to this topic at Engage PDX.

What is mobile ad fraud?

At it’s heart mobile ad fraud is when clicks on an ad in a mobile app, is not from a real person with real intent to engage with that ad and the brand it’s displaying.

While mobile ad fraud can rear its ugly head in many different ways. Allers defines it as four different categories:

• Impress fraud
• Click fraud
• Install fraud
• Post-install fraud

Aller believes two of these ad fraud categories should be focused on more than others, click fraud and install fraud.

What is click fraud?

Click fraud is when an ad is being flooded with fake clicks from a real user. This can work in several different ways, including:

• “Click stuffing” where you have one click and it clicks multiple hidden ads.
• “Click injections” which happens on Android only and is considered a malware click.
• “Click spam” which involves malware apps running in the background.

What is install fraud?

This type of mobile ad fraud is when an ad is getting fake clicks from a fake user. This works in several different ways, including:

A “click farm” or “device farm” where devices are hooked up and configured to automatically click.

“Fake installs” happens when a program runs to create fake app installs from devices.

“Incent fraud” happens when an offer or incentive wall appears, when unrequested.

How to avoid falling victim to mobile ad fraud

Avoid independent publishers, ad networks and affiliate networks. In Aller’s experience, they are not really checking who uses them so you should be wary.

How to identify your ad fraud risk

Start by asking yourself:

• Who is getting paid?
• What action are they being paid? (Doing this can tell you the type of fraud)
• What is the end media source and what are its properties?

Who can help?

There are several well known 3rd party fraud detection tools you can use. While Aller listed several in her presentation, she didn’t want to name them. She stressed that your marketing team should be focused on the data themselves. And she listed how you and your team can do this in six steps.

What you and your team should look for for trying to identify mobile ad fraud:

Look at the Bundle ID. Take the top 50 and bottom 50 and manually test them. Make sure the Bundle ID, which will look like a URL, is a real app and is available in your country.

Look for APK Stores. These are stores for apps in developing countries and can be found when you look at the Bundle IDs.

Be aware of your ad agencies not sending you the App ID the first time. If you see a blank ID line in the data they send you ask for it to be addressed. When the excel sheet comes back it’ll most likely be one of the most popular apps out there. This is a red flag. A way to check if you’re actually on this app is to download the app yourself and see if you pop up.

Be on the lookout for click stuffing and click spamming by device. If most of your clicks are coming from the same devices you should consider blocking that device.

Check your New Device Rate. Take a look at the new devices coming in. If they are high, this is a red flag and could be your being taken by an install farm.

Be wary of Install Fraud and post-install engagement. Just like the famous situation in Silicon Valley, you might see many new users flooding in- but this doesn’t make them real. If your new users are not engaged and not purchasing, this is a red flag. Watch these users over time to get a better idea if you need to take action.

Components of Fraud Detection Program:

Before you begin the partnership with your ad agency, do these 3 things:

• Make sure you know how and when you can get access to your data.
• Develop guidelines to help you with transparency and quality when selecting media channels.
• Write down traffic expectations, refund terms, and fraud thresholds with your IO.

And remember- if it looks like fraud, it’s probably fraud.

AUTHOR BIO

Jacqueline Fassett – A Salesforce certified Pardot Specialist, Jacqueline joined Portland-based Idealist Consulting in 2016 with proven experience helping small businesses and nonprofits with marketing campaigns. While she loves all things marketing, her favorite topics are marketing automation, content creation, and email marketing.

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-fassett

The post Mobile Trends: From SEO to User Experience pt. 2 appeared first on SEMpdx.

“Now with that in mind, let’s talk about the mobile first index.” Schwartz said.

In November 2016, Google announced they would shift to use mobile searches first. This meant that if you used a desktop computer you’d be seeing search results as if you used a mobile device (not of course in dimension size).

Why?

Well by late 2016, mobile device uses had eclipsed desktop usage. The world went from only being in front of a computer during work, to being connected the whole time we were awake through their smartphone. Mobile devices were being used almost constantly. But the issue here is that companies were not keeping up.

So in November 2017, Google backtracked and moved to what they called a “primarily mobile” approach. Schwartz calls this a “mobile specific” approach. Meaning, Google wants you to have a mobile friendly site that’s responsive and intuitive. They do not want you to have two separate websites, one for desktop and one for mobile devices.

Google is switching their approach because they are still trying to understand how we use our smart phone versus our desktops. For example, we book an Uber through our phone, but most people still online shop on their desktop.

So you’re probably asking “Am I getting penalized for not doing what Google wants?”

Probably not. Google wants to give searchers the results they need. They want to keep people on their search engine, so they won’t be penalizing trustworthy sites for not being the most responsive and mobile-friendly.

Maybe you’re also asking “Well then should I even try to do mobile SEO?”

Well, Schwartz says, like anything in SEO, it depends. What you can do is focus on your audience. Ask yourself- what does my audience want from my content? What devices are they using to view this content?

Schwartz has some tips for where you should focus your attention, and quiet some of your worry around Google’s ever changing algorithm.

#1 Focus on the users, not the engine.

Using the new Google Search Console, you can break down your audience by mobile and desktop. You can do this as well in Google Analytics to help you further understand where you should focus your efforts. Maybe you should have a mobile site, maybe you need an app. But you’ll only know this if you do the research.

#2 Start by using the Google Mobile Friendly Test.

Use this as your baseline and determine what you need to work on.

#3 Keep up (or start) doing regular SEO.

Optimize the titles, meta descriptions, Image alt tags on each page. And finally, make sure you’re using NAP (name, address, phone number) on each page, usually in this information is in the footer of your website

#4 Page speed should be another baseline.

You can view this through a number of tools, including Google Page Speed.

#5 Site navigation should be top of mind.

You want to make sure this fully available and easy to use on a mobile device.

What tools can I use to help me?

Schwartz says his favorite tool to better understand where he ranks is Google Search Console. This is a great place to see how you rank on mobile vs. desktop.  But with all of this advice and strategy there’s one thing Schwartz says you should walk away remember- keep your user top of mind!

AUTHOR BIO

Jacqueline Fassett – A Salesforce certified Pardot Specialist, Jacqueline joined Portland-based Idealist Consulting in 2016 with proven experience helping small businesses and nonprofits with marketing campaigns. While she loves all things marketing, her favorite topics are marketing automation, content creation, and email marketing.

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-fassett

The post Mobile Trends: From SEO to User Experience appeared first on SEMpdx.

Covering as many SEO problems as possible in 75 minutes, Carolyn Shelby of Tribune Interactive and Rohrer Rohrer of NorthSide Metrics ran through clear examples of how to deal with day-to-day SEO issues. Whether this was on migrating to a new content management system (CMS) or creating content for a blog, the solutions all came down to communication and research.

They covered five topics with a stake in SEO performing well. In this post, I’ll cover their top tips for each area they covered, including:

• Migration
• Content
• Crawling
• Site speed
• How do you get more budget for SEO?

SEO tips for Migration

What can be an exciting idea for the company’s leadership team can easily turn into a nightmare if not all of the teams involved in the website’s maintenance are brought into the conversation. Let’s review some of Shelby and Rohrer’s top tips for keeping your SEO rankings when migrating a website:

Rohrer:  Create a checklist of what needs to be done before you begin the migration. Make sure all appropriate teams are involved and can contribute to this.

Shelby: Research is key here. You’ll want to get a list of all the current pages within your site (these means you’ll need to run a crawl), all the inbound links, and compile where your traffic is going within your site. Finally, have conversations across departments about what functionality will need to be maintained. There may be components of your CMS, your database, and more that are being used by one person in one department, and will break when you migrate.

SEO tips for Content

The relationship between SEO and content is a close one. This means an “all hands on deck” approach should be taken.

Rohrer:  Consider how much you spend on promoting your content. While you may be writing multiple posts a day or a week, how much efforts goes into promoting each post? Join forces with your social team, your internal communications team, and other relevant departments to promote your content across different platforms and to different audiences. But remember to tailor your message and speak the audience’s language!

Shelby: Continuity and consistency are key here. Reinforce your message everywhere. Get clear about what you need and your personas want. Know their language and know when and where they’ll start to search for things. Timing is very important.And finally, if your content sucks no one is going to share it and link to it.

SEO tips for Crawling

What’s more frustrating than a website having tons of pages and no clear structure? Being the person who has to navigate the site. Regular maintenance and some front end work can save you and your team from this hassle.

Rohrer:  Take inventory. There are a number of tools to help you do this, including:

• Free tools: Sitebulb, ScreamingFrog, Page Modified, Xeno Link Sleuth
• For small to medium businesses: Sitebulb, ScreamingFrog, Page Modified, Xeno Link Sleuth, Deep Crawl, SEM Rush
• For Enterprise sized businesses: DeepCrawl, SEM Rush, Page Modified

Shelby: Menu structure is extremely important. Help yourself and the crawler understand how to get to each page. A great tip is to build deep links instead of linking something directly from the homepage. Don’t have duplicate content or 404 errors. To manage this you’ll need to audit your website regularly.

SEO tips for site speed

Site speed can greatly affect your traffic and how Google views you. The tips from Shelby and Rohrer were all about optimization. Doing your research and being targeted is key here.

Shelby: Optimize and plan! Consider your image sizes, plugins, cookies, and even your DNS locations (they should be in separate locations in case there’s issues). Try to be lean and efficient. Your site should be like a race horse. Keep the idea of optimization top of mind to have a fast site.

Rohrer: Audit what’s on your site! Start with tracking pixels. Rohrer told a story of how he found multiple Google Analytics tracking codes and call tracking tools on the site, weighing down speed and causing issues. His first task was to remove all the unnecessary ones, which increased the speed and helped with SEO.

That’s great, but how do I get budget to do all of this SEO work?

Rohrer and Shelby had different takes on how to engage your leadership team and earn budget for SEO work. But they stressed both approaches worked for them and combining them might work even better.

Rohrer:  I like to align goals. Some of us don’t have it as easy as just flat out saying how much money they bring in. For me it’s about getting things done. Having everyone work together and communicate, you’ll get there faster and more efficiently. Start with company goals- team goals- personal goals. Then consider how you can convey this when working with other teams to stay on goal.

Shelby: I flat out tell them how much money, traffic you bring in and how you are generating money. It’s powerful stuff.

With so much packed into only 75 minutes, Rohrer and Shelby packed a punch with this session. Ultimately, they stressed the solutions to your SEO problems will depend on your ability to focus on your communication (especially across different departments and roles) and your focus on digging deep into the data available to you.

Author BIO

Jacqueline Fassett – A Salesforce certified Pardot Specialist, Jacqueline joined Portland-based Idealist Consulting in 2016 with proven experience helping small businesses and nonprofits with marketing campaigns. While she loves all things marketing, her favorite topics are marketing automation, content creation, and email marketing.

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-fassett

The post She Said, He Said. Two SEOs give their take on how to solve your SEO questions. appeared first on SEMpdx.

We’re excited to announce that Karen Hyatt is the SEMpdx Volunteer of the Quarter.

Karen’s contributions to SEMpdx and the Portland Digital Marketing community mean that our events are running smoothly, new members are being reached and current members have a great resource at our monthly events.  We appreciate her help and ambition and couldn’t continue to grow as an organization without volunteers like Karen.  Robert Frost, our Events Director specifically wanted to recognize Karen this quarter for her help at monthly events.  Take a few minutes and get to know Karen – she’s even put together some advice for breaking into the Search Marketing Industry.

What is your day job?
Project management at OHSU Marketing & Communications. Typically, I cover 45 or so oncology and cardiology projects that communicate to patients and doctors across a variety of online and offline channels.

What is your area of expertise and passion?
In addition to marketing, much of the previous decade my career focused on analytics, PPC, CRO and front-end development. This is my passion. Now I’m studying public health, to specialize. My dream is to combine these skills and use data storytelling to optimize digital marketing for chronic disease prevention.

How did you get into the digital marketing industry?
When I was in elementary school, in the 96’, we needed to sell CDs for our choir online. So I learned HTML! Kids nowadays will just make a Squarespace page. Can you imagine?

What advice can you give to professionals interested in breaking into the industry?
Never overestimate the value of professional organizations like this one. Early in my career, some of the best advice I received was “make yourself famous.”

How did you hear about SEMpdx and initially get involved?
I first got involved in the SEM Assoc. in snowy Salt Lake City. They are pretty badass; where else can you go to an SEM event and park in the Chief Dragon Slayer* spot?  When I moved to PDX nearly three years ago, Elisabeth Osmeloski connected me to this chapter. *Only at Adobe. Technically you probably shouldn’t park there.

Do you have a favorite event and a favorite way to volunteer?
What I do now – handing out nametags – is the best, of course! It’s easy and fun. Robert Frost is the man to connect to the best (event) volunteer opportunities. But nothing can match the energy of and highly specialized speakers at conferences.

What is the next big thing in the search marketing industry?
I am intrigued with the future of Google Data Studio. They attempt to fill a much needed void in quality free dashboard reporting tools. Plus, how much easier can reporting get than a product native to Google? Wrong. So far it feels like only hype for a cumbersome tool with antiquated features. Here’s to hoping the next edition will compete with the ease of DashThis and power of Tableau.

What’s your favorite Portland area restaurant or bar?
In the winter, soups and cozy bars rule, like Higgins and Luc Lac.

Tell us about any trips you’ve taken recently or have planned.
No firm trips yet this year, hopefully Brooklyn at some point. Last year, the red rocks and stillness of the Navajo Monument Valley captured my soul.

Thank you again Karen!

And finally, with Engage coming up quickly, if you’re interested in volunteering at the event or would like to help out with one of our Committees, please reach out to us.

The post Karen Hyatt – SEMpdx Volunteer of the Quarter appeared first on SEMpdx.