Article Marketing Content, Tips and Information

Google Makes Optimize for Conversions Mandatory in Your Adwords Campaigns?

Image via Wikipedia

In your Adwords Dashboard, you have always had the option to make decisions like whether or not to let “Do no Evil” Google decide which ads to run most or do that yourself and whether to let “Do no Evil” Google decide what you should bid on your keywords or do it yourself. All that is changing now. If you have your adwords campaign set to rotate ads more evenly, there is no change according to “Do no Evil” Google.  The following is the announcement I found when logging into my Adwords account today;

Optimizing ads for conversions in existing campaigns

In a few weeks, we will automatically set ad rotation to ‘Optimize for conversions’ for existing campaigns using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC. Learn more leads you to this page https://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&utm_content=cues&answer=1725451

Defaulting your ad rotation to optimize for conversions

In late February 2012, we will migrate the “ad rotation” setting for your campaigns using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC from “Optimize for clicks” to “Optimize for conversions.”

Advertisers using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC are focused on conversions and CPA (cost-per-acquisition). We are making this change to better align your campaign settings with your conversion goals. In fact, our studies have shown that campaigns moving from “Optimize for clicks” to “Optimize for conversions” see a 5% increase in conversions on average.

Although we believe this change will deliver better results for most advertisers, you can opt out of this change before February 14th, 2012. To opt out, please submit your AdWords CID.

Note: Campaigns using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC with “ad rotation” set to “Rotate: Show ads more evenly” will remain unchanged.

The opt out page says; Google AdWords currently offers two choices for optimized ad serving: “Optimize for clicks” and “Optimize for conversions.” In order to increase the effectiveness of Conversion Optimizer and Enhanced CPC in bringing more conversions to advertisers, campaigns who have selected “Optimize for clicks” will be automatically opted into “Optimize for conversions” if they are currently using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC. This change will be made in February 2012, so we are asking for all opt-out requests to be made by February 14, 2012.Submitting this form will allow you to indicate that you do NOT want your Conversion Optimizer and Enhanced CPC campaigns being opted into “Optimize for conversions.” Please note that you can adjust your ad serving settings at any time within AdWords; this form will only remove your account from the one-time change in February 2012.

Related articles

• Google Migrating AdWords Users To “Optimize For Conversions” (seroundtable.com)
• Google Tweaking AdWords Quality Score Calculation Algorithm (firstrate.co.nz)
• Create MSN adCenter Campaigns in 15 Minutes (searchenginewatch.com)

Article Marketing in Wikipedia Seriously Needs an Update

As a Wikipedia Editor, I will be updating the page on article marketing, but I’d love some suggestions from others about what to include in the update. Currently, this is what it says;

Image via CrunchBase

Traditional Article Marketing

Article marketing has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available. A business provides content to a newspaper, possibly on a timely topic such as an article on tax audits during tax season, and the newspaper may use the article and include the business’s name and contact information. Newspapers and other traditional media have limited budgets for gathering content and these articles may be used in the business section of the newspaper.

Internet Article Marketing

Internet article marketing is used to promote products and services online via article directories. Article directories with good web page ranks receive a lot of site visitors and are may be considered authority sites by search engines,leading to high traffic. These directories then go on PageRank to the author’s website and in addition send traffic from readers.

Internet marketers attempt to maximize the results of an article advertising campaign by submitting their articles to a number of article directories. However, most of the major search engines filter duplicate content to stop the identical content material from being returned multiple times in searches. Some marketers attempt to circumvent this filter by creating a number of variations of an article, known as article spinning. By doing this, one article can theoretically acquire site visitors from a number of article directories.

Most forms of search engine optimization and internet marketing require a domain, internet hosting plan, and promoting budget. However, article advertising makes use of article directories as a free host and receives traffic by way of organic searches due to the listing’s search engine authority.

The primary goal behind article marketing is to get search engine traffic and authors generally incorporate relevant keywords or keyphrases in their articles.

This is seriously short for an article about article marketing. There are so many methods of article distribution other than mass submitting articles to article directories. Hub Pages, Squidoo Lenses, Forums, Social Media, etc.

What I would like is suggestions from others in the article marketing business as to how to update this article. I will give credit to the source of the information. So, please take the time to add anything you think needs to be added to this page at Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_marketing

Related articles

• Article Submissions To Article Directories Is Not The Way To Go (articlecontentprovider.com)
• Article Marketing Confused with Article Spinning (arnoldit.com)

Why Google Killed The Knol Page

Image via CrunchBase

The official announcement from Google about discontinuing Google Knol Pages says this;

An important update about knol

Knol will be moving to Annotum on May 1, 2012

Knol will be discontinued as a service, but we’ve worked with Solvitor and Crowd Favorite to create Annotum, an open-source platform based upon WordPress that allows you to continue authoring and publishing scholarly articles. You can migrate your knols to WordPress and continue your work with Annotum.

After May 1, you will no longer be able to create, view, enter or edit knols, but you will be able to export your knols to WordPress.com and download them to file through October 1st, 2012.

Google has also chosen to make the Knol pages that are already there inaccessible, so the current content on the Knol pages will be removed. They could have chosen to leave current Knols up and just disallow the creation of new Knol Pages.  The following is from the Google Webmaster Blog about how to remove content.

Image by seo_gun via Flickr

When you remove a page from your site, think about whether that content is moving somewhere else, or whether you no longer plan to have that type of content on your site. If you’re moving that content to a new URL, you should 301 redirect the old URL to the new URL—that way when users come to the old URL looking for that content, they’ll be automatically redirected to something relevant to what they were looking for.

If you’re getting rid of that content entirely and don’t have anything on your site that would fill the same user need, then the old URL should return a 404 or 410. Currently Google treats 410s (Gone) the same as 404s (Not found), so it’s immaterial to us whether you return one or the other.

Google says up in that first paragraph, “You can migrate your knols to WordPress and continue your work with Annotum. After May 1, you will no longer be able to create, view, enter or edit knols, but you will be able to export your knols to WordPress.com and download them to file through October 1st, 2012.”

Will Google follow their own advice and 301 all of the current Knol Pages to the new location at Annotum as they advise people to do when they remove content or will Google just let those links all die out? They don’t answer that question in their announcement. They do talk about it in their FAQ though.

Can I redirect my knol’s URLs so people can find the content?

Yes. Knols exported to WordPress.com will automatically be redirected. To manually set redirects, visit knol.google.com and click on My knols. On the Knols tab, each published knol will have a link to “Set a redirect URL”. Click that link and enter your new target URL. Click Save to set the redirect.

Note that users who try to visit the knol’s original URL will see a page informing them that the page’s author would like to send them to a new page and be given the choice of whether to continue. Any co-author or co-owner of a knol has permission to set or remove a redirect URL for that knol until May 1, 2012, when they will be locked.

Why is WordPress.com the default destination for Knol content?

The team at Automattic, which runs WordPress.com, has worked hard to enable Annotum and make its review and publishing functionality available by imported knols. The peer review workflow can be enabled for any Annotum site by following a few simple steps outlined in this knowledge base article.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY: You may use Knol to create articles for your business or to promote your lawful products or services that are not otherwise prohibited by our Content Policy or Terms of Service

From the wordpress.com terms of service; “Be responsible in what you publish. In particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items listed below appear on your site or get linked to from your site”

Below it adds, “Unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites”

Project Objectives

1. Develop a simple, robust, easy-to-use authoring system to create and edit scholarly articles
2. Deliver an editorial review and publishing system that can be used to submit, review, and publish scholarly articles

So, neither wordpress.com nor Annotum is set up for anyone that publishes commercial content, or for anyone who wants to build links to their website for SEO purposes, whereas that was allowed in Google Knol Pages. With Knols, the links were no follow, but you still had a chance of generating interest and getting people to click through and the Knol Pages were ranking well when written with SEO in mind.

My advice is, if you have any Google Knol Pages that are commercial in nature, then move them someplace other than wordpress.com or Annotum. You could take them a post them to blogger.com in a blog or multiple blogs with optimized subdomains. The terms of service there will allow them to be published. If they are spam, then there’s nowhere you can move them nor should there be,

I think it’s irresponsible for Google to handle it in this way. Had their terms of service for Knol Pages stated that commercial content was not welcome and that they were looking for “scholarly articles”, then the export to Annotum and wordpress.com would have made sense.

So basically, Google has done it again, created something, then changed their mind about it and discontinued it. Orkut, Buzz, Google Sites, and now Knol Pages. They certainly don’t mind wasting our time and effort we give using the products they create. They reward us with “Oops! We changed our mind.”

This seals the deal with Google+ fopr me as well. For me, Google is a search engine, nothing more. Any new products they create will be ignored. I just don’t have the time to waste on Google creations that will just eventually be discontinued.

Related articles

• Google Knol Is Dead (smallbusinessmavericks.com)
• Google Knol Comes to WordPress (metaverse.wordpress.com)
• Google shuts down Knol – Can WordPress be(come) a viable scientific publishing platform? (nextlevelofnews.com)
• The Spring Cleaning Continues: Google Shuts Down Knol, Lets Its Users Migrate to WordPress (siliconfilter.com)
• Google Retires Knol, Wave, Friend Connect, Gears (ghacks.net)
• After Google Wave, KNOL to be discontinued (scienceintelligence.wordpress.com)
• Google Shutting Down Knol & 6 More Failed Products (searchenginewatch.com)
• Google Kills Another Round Of Services Including Knol & Wave [News] (makeuseof.com)
• Google Discontinues Knol, Friend Connect and Other Services (googlesystem.blogspot.com)

Personal One on One SEO Training

Just a quick note to let people know I am available for one one one personal  SEO training. Topics can include how to build a good keyword list, How to create optimized content for web pages and blogs, how to use WordPress, how to use content to build links to your website, or anything else you have questions about.

I’ve been doing keyword research and building sites since 1995, when Yahoo was powered by Google and it was Yahoo that you needed to rank well in to get traffic. Now that Google has the most traffic, it is the primary place you want to rank well, but not ignoring traffic from Bing, Yahoo, Social Media and other sources.

The charge for this one on one training is $75 per hour. To put that in perspective, I can train someone to use WordPress at an almost expert level in around 30 minutes. I don’t use a lot of technical terms to confuse you. I have an easy way to teach you so that you actually understand not only how to do something, but exactly why you are doing it.

My phone number is 512-322-9566. Ask for Chris McElroy. I’ll be happy to help and I’ll include a free website analysis on top of the training or do the training based on what needs to be done at your site.

Response to Allen Taylor’s Response to Michael Martinez Post on SEO Theory :)

Allen Taylor posted a response to Michael Martinez’ post on SEO Theory and I decided to expand on that response here.

Image via Wikipedia

Content VS Link Building

Content is king. Links only support content, they are not more important than content, never were, never will be. Left you see Google’s home page from 1998. Content was king then and still is today.

Title Tags

Title tag for a web page should be the key phrase you are targeting for ranking that page IF the title also makes someone want to click it.

Description Tag

You should write your own description tag. If you have a header tag on the page that is or contains a key phrase you are targeting and you want google to use the description in the paragraph on the page below that header, then don’t use that key phrase in your description.

If you write your own description tag and you rank for a particular phrase that IS in the description, google will use your description. If google does NOT find that phrase in the description, it will use what’s on the page. So you can use google snippets to pull content for some phrases while keeping your own description for other phrases.

Keywords

Not doing keyword research and not using keywords in your pages is moronic. No other way to put it. That does NOT mean using the key phrase you want to rank for over and over again. It’s all about semantics.

Your key phrase in the title tag and in the header tags on the page basically tells the googlebot what you’d LIKE to rank for. The bot will then search the content for other keywords it expects to find on a page that is really about that topic. If it finds those related words, you have a chance to rank well. Pretty simple.

Link Building

As far as building links goes, building a lot of links from anywhere you can get them, using the same anchor text for most if not all of them, and pointing them all to your home page is a total waste of time.

Google isn’t stupid. They aren’t going to believe that suddenly 1000 people linked to you and all of them underlined and linked the exact same words to describe your site and all of them linked to the exact same page.

You don’t need a ton of links. You need links from high-traffic websites that are related to your topic. You promote content, you don’t just build links.

Building knol pages, hub pages, squidoo lenses, posting an article in a related forum if they allow it, these are things that are good for building high-quality links. But it has to be 100% original content and it has to be interesting and it has to be helpful to people.

Those are the reasons you get click-thrus from those articles. It isn’t about the links. it’s about getting people to read the content and want to come to your website. The fact that you are also link building and feeding the algorithm is a side benefit, not the purpose of real article marketing.

Keyword Domains

Image via CrunchBase

Yes, the keywords in the domain name do help you rank well in search engines. Sorry, but it’s a fact, not a theory.

Just search for SEO on Google. SEO.com is #1. According to Michael’s theory, this makes the people at SEO.com better at SEO than anyone else on the web . . . or another theory is . . . they own SEO.com. I’ll say the latter is correct, not to say anything bad about the people at SEO.com, but the best in the world at SEO? Seriously? They were smart enough to get SEO.com though. Gotta give em that.

With searches for most keywords, you will find that keyword in the URL, not necessarily the domain name itself, like wikipedia.com/keyword. Having the keywords in your domain name is not enough. Other factors are at play here like the actual content on the page.

You can overcome not having the keywords in your domain name, but the key word in this sentence is “overcome”. Why handicap yourself and “overcome” not having the keyword in your domain name? It is an advantage and every little thing you can do to gain an advantage is a good thing. It’s why we still use alt tags, header tags and other things. Any one of those by themselves is not that important. But if you do them all, it adds up.

If you own a company, you should own the domain that matches your company name. You use that on biz cards, letterhead, ads, etc. You brand that name. But your website can be physically located on a domain name that matches the product you sell or the service you provide or the key phrase that brings you the most traffic.

Your “company domain name” is simply pointed to or redirected to that keyword domain so the people who see your ads, biz cards, letterhead and such will still arrive at the right place. In the search engine results pages, people click links and don’t care what the domain name is. It can even help you track what is happening because of your seo efforts vs what is happening because of your marketing efforts.

Anyway, there is so much misinformation out there, I thought I’d straighten some of it out. Need 100% original Content written for you? Let us optimize your web pages the right way. Call us at 512.322.9566 for a free SEO consultation.