Using Analytics To Investigate, Evaluate & Decide
This is a presentation my Tunheim Partners colleagues Noelle Hawton, Natalie Wires and I gave this morning before the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits Communicator workshop series. Find the links for this presentation below.
- Google:
- ClickTale
- CrazyEgg
- Technorati
- Backtype
- Yahoo:
- Constant Contact
- MailChimp
Team Tunheim
- Noelle Hawton:
- Natalie Wires:
- David Erickson (me!)
Search Engine Optimization For Newspapers Presentation
This is the presentation I gave today for the Minnesota Newspapers Association conference in Bloomington. Here’s a link to the power searches I promised (basic, advanced, power searches) and another link to the Newspaper SEO tips.
Newspaper SEO
Photo by faungg
In preparation for my presentation on Search Engine Optimization for Newspapers before the Minnesota Newspaper Association conference today, I compiled a few tips, in no particular order, for newspapers to keep in mind when optimizing their sites:
- URL Optimization: Include keywords in the URL structure:
- Use keywords for category sections: e.g. sitename.com/sports/keyword-rich-individual-article-page.html
- Use title keywords for individual story pages: e.g. See above
- Use hyphens to separate keywords
- Include a unique numeric story ID of at least three digits in order to satisfy Google News
- Avoid session IDs
- Ensure the URL is stable, regardless of whether it is on the front page or has been relegated to the archives
- This ensures that once search engines have found the page once, it will remain in their index
- It is also good practice to maintain links that have been created to that page from other sites, blogs, and aggregators.
- Optimize your TITLE TAGS: Article Title | Site Category | Newspaper Name | Geographic Location.
- DESCRIPTION TAGS: Write unique, keyword-rich Meta Description tags for each page. It is this text that search engines draw from for the description below the link in search engine results pages.
- Heading Tags: Use H1 tags for article titles and the H2 and H3 (and H4 and H5, if needed) tags for subheads.
- Template Optimization: The HTML code for page templates should present content first, then navigation.
- Use valid, proper HTML: The code for your site should be clean, valid and used properly. e.g. Use <p> tags for paragraphs of text, not line breaks (<br />).
- Consolidate code: Move all your JavaScript and CSS code to external, linked files. Makes it easier for search engines to read the pages and faster loading for visitors.
- Tags: Implement a tagging system so that stories can be aggregated according to keywords in order to capture topical search traffic.
- Profile Pages: Create profile pages of people and organizations that are frequently in the news to which stories can be added as they are published. Link to these pages within stories whenever the person and/or organization is mentioned.
- Categorization: Create a categorization system for types of content (e.g. newssite.com/sports/football/nfl/minnesota-vikings). Most newspaper sites already have this implemented but most are not search optimized.
- Prevent duplicate content: Take measures to prevent search engines from indexing duplicate content. If the same story appears in more than one place on a site, search engines should only be allowed to index one copy. Search engines do not like duplicate content.
- Avoid breaking stories into multiple pages: If a story is long and must be broken up, try and optimize each page. Ideally, though, keep one story  per page.
- Avoid forced registration: If you require visitors to register with the site before they can view content, you’re also blocking out search engines from indexing your site, and search engines can’t fill out forms. If you must enforce registration, consider a more search-friendly “first-click free” system.
- XML Sitemap: Create an XML sitemap and submit it to the major search engines.
- Google News XML Sitemap: Implement an XML sitemap for Google News. (Google News XML sitemaps are different than XML sitemaps.)
- Optimize your photos: Make them search-engine friendly.
- Open your archives: Make them available to and easy to index by the search engines. This is the long-tail search effect. These pages may not get a lot of volume of traffic individually, but collectively they can turn into a ton of page views.
- Write keyword-rich, descriptive titles: This is one of the biggest shifts traditional news people have to navigate by trading in those clever, snappy headlines for boring keywordy ones. You should be artful with it; first and foremost, you should be writing for your readers, while keeping search engine traffic in mind.
- Link text: Use logical, descriptive text in your internal hyperlinks. If you’re linking to the sports section, use the word “sports” for your link.
- Study keyword analytics: Understand what search terms people are using to get to your site, how people search generally, and keep on top of search trends, but:
- Don’t obsess over keywords either.
- Capture internal search queries: This will tell you a lot about your content and your visitors, what they can’t find and what they want.
- Socialize your content: Allow people to link to, email, Tweet, Facebook and embed your content. You’ll give yourself far more opportunities for people to visit your site–referred by a trusted source, by the way–and the links to your site can become a factor in your search rankings.
Google Including Google Trends Charts In Search Results
Just came across this today: Google is including Google Trends charts within the search results pages for currently hot searches. When I tried later in the day, though, the chart didn’t appear. Looks like Google is testing this.
But why include the charts? Is this an attempt by Google to teach the broader public about keyword trends in order to create more interest in search marketing and expand the AdWords market? That’s the only angle I can think of.
Bud Light Paintball Airstrike Ad Hijacked By Retailer
Last week I discussed how the advertising industry can revitalize itself by focusing on creating commercial content that is compelling in and of itself rather than content that tries to dupe consumers or is designed to be forced upon them.
One example of this type of content that I failed to mention is television ads for beer. For years, beer ads have been among the funniest and most memorable of all television advertising, at least for me.
Flying Dog Beer
With the exception of Guinness, they are all for beer that I don’t drink, of course. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought to myself, if only Summit or Surly or Flying Dog had funny commercials, they might actually influence my purchases. Say Surly, for example, had a funny commercial and Summit and Flying Dog did not; would Surly be more top-of-mind for me as a result?
Would I buy more? I’d probably talk about it more with my friends, if only to discuss the commercial.
I’ve never understood why brands don’t have their TV ads in place at YouTube at the time they run new campaigns. If people see an ad they like on TV, they’ll often search for the ad on YouTube.
I did this for Anheuser Busch’s new Bud Light commercial with the paintball airstrike. Found at YouTube from paintballdiscounters.
Hilarious! When I first saw it, I searched YouTube and couldn’t find it. I waited a few days and I could only find crappy versions of it that people had uploaded from their Android phones. I wanted to share the commercial with my networks but I wanted a quality version to share. It was only until this weekend that I found a version that was good enough (and even this version wasn’t very good) to share and this version was not uploaded by Anheuser Busch.
It was uploaded by Paintball Discounters with the deliberate purpose of hijacking interest in the Bud Light commercial to build awareness of their paintball supply site among their target audience.
The video is linked to Paintball Discounters‘ paintball supply ecommerce site as well as a link to Splatter Park, a paintball facility in Ohio.
This is very smart. For an hour or two’s worth of work, Paintball Discounters has taken advantage of current interest of their customers who are likely talking about and sharing the Bud Light commercial with their fellow paintballers and, in the process, learning of a new site to get discounted paintball stuff. Here are the stats for the video as of today:
It’s a wonder far more retailers do not take advantage of this tactic. If I were a liquor store, I’d establish a YouTube channel and compile all the beer- and liquor-related videos I could find and create playlists. I’d create a Facebook page and a Twitter feed through which to share these videos and engage with beer lovers.
It’s even more of a wonder that the big brands aren’t consciously extending their television advertising distribution by uploading quality versions of their ads to enable retailers, customers, and anyone else to spread the brand love.
But then, they haven’t asked me.
The Future Of Digital Agencies
Funny I should run across this video today of all days. This is a nice companion to my post this morning on The Future Of Ad Agencies and examines the elements of future digital agencies. I agree with they guy’s assessment. Found at YouTube.
Telling Stories With Google Searches
Google has produced a series of videos that illustrate everything you can do with Google while also telling a story. Very clever. This one is about taking off work to go to a concert. Found at YouTube via Holy Kaw!
And Slate spoofs them while taking a shot at Tiger Woods.
Using Online Analytics For Insight Into News Consumption
These are some links to resources I will talk about during my session for The Other Future of News event today:
- Web Analytics
- Google Analytics – Google’s sophisticated Web analytics service – Free
- Google AdPlanner – Google’s traffic statistics for any site not owned by Google
- Quantcast – Another Web traffic analytics tool
- Clicky- Sophisticated real-time Web analytics service – Free & for fee
- ClickTale- Clickstream Web analytics records actual sessions for Click, Scrolling & Mouse Moves analytics as well as form analytics – Â For fee
- Search Analytics
- Google Trends – What people are searching for now
- Google Insights For Search – What people search for over time
- Google AdWords keyword tool – Discover search volume, competition, seasonal trends
- Google AdWords Traffic Estimator
- WordTracker – Free WordTracker tool
- KeywordDiscovery – Free KeywordDiscovery tool
- YouTube Test Tube – YouTube insights tools
- Conversation Analytics
- Google Real-Time Search – Google’s real-time search for #onfon
- Google SideWiki – What people are saying on a given web page
- Feedly – Unearths what people are saying on social media about a give web page
- Bit.ly – Analytics for how people are sharing links
- Yahoo! Site Explorer – Who is linking to a give Web site
- My Delicious Analytics Feed
Google Goes Real-Time
ReadWriteWeb reports that real-time search has gone live at Google. I can only see it by using the search box at the bottom of Google Trends. Search results will include tweets and Facebook status updates. This means that the real-time Web has finally arrived.
LinkedIn Advanced Search
I am a huge fan of LinkedIn as a B2B tool. One of the features that makes it so remarkable is its advanced search function. Found at YouTube from linkedinmarketing.
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Blog covering all aspects of Internet marketing including search optimization & marketing, email marketing, blog marketing, video marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing & online pr.
David Erickson is Director of e-Strategy at Tunheim Partners strategic communications company.
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