Bing Improves Search Share Very Slowly

Based on data shared by Experian, Bing exhibited gains in search engine usage share recently. Bing-powered search improved its share to 28.99 per cent in four weeks ending August 27th from 28.05 per cent in July, representing a 3% improvement. Searches from Bing.com also improved from 12.98 per cent to 13.10 per cent during the same period.

It has been reported that the volume of longer search queries — those that average between five to eight words — increased by 3 per cent. Perhaps more people realized that by using longer search queries, they feed Google with more specific queries and are provided with more accurate results.

Continue reading Bing Improves Search Share Very Slowly

5 Benefits of Google Sitelinks

Google Sitelinks has been a longstanding feature on search engine results, mostly on brand-related queries. Sitelinks offer multiple opportunities to reach your site, in addition to the homepage, oftentimes the designated default page.

In the earlier days, I discussed about Sitelinks, including tips on generating one for your brand. As I have been asked by clients on how to create them, I’ll also say here in the blog: Google determines sitelinks, and we SEO consultants only provide guidance on how to achieve them.

As sitelinks have evolved, often generating buzz in the search marketing space, and with recent changes that further promote a wider coverage of internal links and inclusion of Meta description, having Sitelinks on one’s site becomes really important.

Continue reading 5 Benefits of Google Sitelinks

How to Become a Preferred SEO Client

Working with different clients from a diverse set of backgrounds, interests and personalities, there are times we are tempted to put preference for one over the other. While I make sure I treat every client fairly, regardless of how they behave, there are things that help us take the extra step.

Spending
When I was at the agency, I was sometimes told to provide extra attention to bigger clients. Although I think it’s unfair — signing smaller contracts do not mean some clients are relegated to second priority projects — the reality is bigger clients help us take a breathe of relief knowing that there’s something that keeps us busy for a while. But happiness at work can’t be bought with money, so bigger clients don’t automatically translate as favorite clients.

Continue reading How to Become a Preferred SEO Client

Site Search Analytics: Checking Out What Visitors Cannot Find

To many of us search engine optimization people, helping visitors get to a client’s landing page from search engines is already an accomplishment. Yet, it’s only part of the objective most, if not all, clients have in mind.

For sites that are built to sell products, conversion rates — the ratio of orders to overall site visits — is between 2 and 3 per cent. So the question is that, where do 97 to 98 per cent of traffic go? It is easy to assume different factors such as invalid visits from site owners or web developers, visitors who were at the early stage of buying cycle, or simply those who can’t easily find what they are looking for.

Continue reading Site Search Analytics: Checking Out What Visitors Cannot Find

Google Webmaster Reports + Google Analytics = Awesomeness

Search Engine Roundtable has released screenshots of an apparent update in Google Analytics. The new addition to the ever-growing arsenal of Google Analytics reporting tools is similar to those we see at Google Webmaster Tools. Without switching from one application to another, the screen grab below shows a Google Analytics report similar to Search Queries report found at Google Webmaster Tools.

This report indicates how many times a website appears as search result within a specific country and how many percent of total impressions came from a certain country. Number of impressions could be influenced by volume of relevant queries or visibility of website within search results in a country via local search. All the other screen grabs represent a similar idea of that found in Google Webmaster Tools. It doesn’t present a new set of reports other than what we’ve seen in GWT. However, one power of Google Analytics is the ability to use dimensions to slice and dice data presented as impressions or clicks per country, query or landing page.

Chinese Internet Users Prefer Portals Over Social Networking Sites

While almost the rest of the web surfing world have spent hours and hours of the day at social networking sites, Chinese Internet users don’t share the same passion. This is the result of a study conducted by comScore Media Metrix service. Instead of social networking websites many of us have become addicted to, Chinese users spent more time on portals — sites that provide a collection of content from various sources — accounting for 24.4 per cent of total time in Greater China, which includes Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Continue reading Chinese Internet Users Prefer Portals Over Social Networking Sites

Analytics Tip: Setting Goals for Self-Loading ‘Contact Us’ Pages

Setting up goals is one way to objectively measure engagement level of a website over time, while serving as a diagnostic tool to identify areas of concern. One common goal to measure is the ‘contact us’ form. This is a form where visitors can send inquiries, complaints, or any message to stake holders of the website.

Setting up goals in Google Analytics is relatively easy: identify the URLs of pages where visitors must access to complete a transaction. It may be three or four steps for a shopping cart or a click away if you’re measuring whitepaper downloads or newsletter subscriptions. Going back to the ‘contact us’ page, it is also pretty straightforward, just fill up the form and press the submit button, you have one website engagement waiting to be measured.

Continue reading Analytics Tip: Setting Goals for Self-Loading ‘Contact Us’ Pages

Another Example Why Meta Description is Important

Occasionally, we find search results that contain browser compatibility warnings within search result snippets. Such information is helpful ONLY when the visitor decides to click on the link and found out that the browser he or she is using is not supported by the website. But until that happens, the visitor doesn’t need such notice. Instead the website should describe its content so the visitor can judge whether this is the page he or she is looking for.

Hey, I am using Google Chrome already!

If search engines cannot find Meta description values, they’ll scan the rest of the page for text values. In many cases, error text on browser incompatibility is located towards top of the page so it’s likely captured as search result snippet. The best way to deal with it is to ensure Meta description is present on every page within the site.

Continue reading Another Example Why Meta Description is Important

Google Analytics Page Speed Now Available

I’ve mentioned recently about the importance of web page speed as a factor in search engine ranking. Such measurement was considered under the premise of user experience. Google wants the process of information search fairly quick, and search engine users would probably choose fast loading sites over the slower ones. In addition, slower loading pages also influence Google AdWords landing page quality.

Surely, as website owners and not just SEO people, we like to measure this metric and evaluate if our website is loading as fast as it should be. Otherwise, we may need to review our coding practice, or have a word with out web hosting provider.

Continue reading Google Analytics Page Speed Now Available

How to Track Offline Campaigns for Local SEO

Google has been more caring when it comes to accommodating search queries that contain local modifiers. In the past when someone uses location + keyword, Google tries to find results based on conventional means. That is, look for the pages that match based mainly on the presence of these keyword combinations, and to a later extent, relevance of inbound links and anchor text.

Effective advertising: Hong Kong MTR can use such campaign to help discourage last second dash on closing doors. Source: thepirata.com

Now Google serves results more geared towards local flavor. The search engine giant is increasingly focusing on serving local results and local modifiers are sometimes not even a necessary part of search queries.

Continue reading How to Track Offline Campaigns for Local SEO