RCS for RPS: Relationship Building with Results
We SEOs have spent a lot of time lately talking about creating communities, developing content that people want, and building relationships. We talk about these concepts, but we falter in execution. Our outreach doesn’t reflect our grand strategies. If we truly care about building relationships and fulfilling people’s needs, we have to start letting go. […]
Google: Adding Too Many Pages Too Quickly May Flag A Site To Be Reviewed Manually
Google’s Matt Cutts answered a question submitted by another Googler, John Mueller, on YouTube asking, “Should I add an archive of hundreds of thousands of pages all at once or in stages?” The question is, if you build out a new section of your website with tons of content –…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Live @ SMX London: From Authorship To Authority: Why Claiming Your Identity Matters
While “content is king,” many marketers overlook the all-important factor of authority, and the process required to establish and maintain it. Google underscored the importance of authority when it introduced “author rank” as an important factor in its ranking algorithm. To…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Fined $3,100 For Slanderous Search Suggestion in Japan
A Japanese court has fined Google $3,100 for an autocomplete suggestion that linked an innocent man to criminal acts. Google has been asked to change its autocomplete feature, but Google isn’t based in Japan, so the court can’t enforce a change.
What Google’s EU Settlement Means For Search
Google and the EU are about to reach an antitrust settlement. What will this mean for search in Europe, and how will European businesses be affected?
Post from Barry Adams on State of Search
What Google’s EU Settlement Means For Search
4 SEO Recommendations For Dealing With B2B Lengthening Sales Cycles
Many of our clients face sales cycles in a six- to twelve-month duration. In a recent client interview, one of the sales directors revealed that they were on the verge of closing a multi-million dollar deal that took nearly three years of nurturing alo…
Facebook Photo Sizes Cheat Sheet for Marketers: Apps, Ads, Albums & More
Vibrant, colorful photos drive more engagement. Use this guide to find the right dimensions, resolution, and file size for Facebook images to market your business with albums, cover images, apps, timeline photos, highlighted images, and more.
Why We Are NOT Accepting Guest Posts Anymore
Guest post requests have become the new linkbuilding requests. They are flooding inboxes of bloggers and publishers. But it should stop.
Post from Bas van den Beld on State of Search
Why We Are NOT Accepting Guest Posts Anymore
33 examples of great meta descriptions for search
Ah meta descriptions… the last bastion of traditional marketing! The only cross-over point between marketing and search engine optimisation! The knife edge between beautiful branding and an online suicide note!
It’s been a long time since Google read the meta description tag and ranked your site accordingly. It is true that Yahoo & Bing do still pay some reference to it.
However, the real and most-misunderstood value in this important 156 characters of real estate is that it represents the first touchpoint with your brand to the world.
Indeed in this world of split testing and persona development one thing is still for sure: everyone uses search. Whilst you may have the right RGB to attract the C suite executive through your site, presenting yourself ineffectively in the SERPs can still spell a disaster.
What is it?
The meta description is the snippet that appears below the blue link in Google search. Words that matched the user query get pulled out in bold.
Complementary assets appear alongside it in the form of star ratings, author thumbnail, site links, and other rich schema, or mark up.
The art of writing the meta description
The art to writing the meta description is a simple one, and one which the present day author may see akin to composing a tweet, with its strict character limit (156).
There are some key elements to ensure you feature:
- Search Terms. Don’t forget that keywords matching the users query will be matched in bold and therefore draw the eye’s attention to your result and increase your chances of click through.
- Brand message/strap line. An important differentiator in a crowded marketplace. Really, what sells you? Be honest now.
- Compelling marketing message. AHA! The last bastion of traditional marketing! Write something that markets the contents of this page.
- USPs/value adds/discounts/offers.
- Make it unique. If you don’t, Google Webmaster Tools will tell you off! It must be unique to the contents of the page.
So here’s how you can put it together in 156 characters:
Search term relevant to page – why us – why now? Our name – why we’re the best
Improvements here can obviously be measured (if measured in isolation) as increased click through rate.
What happens if you don’t write a meta description?
In the best case scenario Google’s automated system will pick up a useful string of text from the page which reads well and features search terms and helps encourage the click through.
In the worst case scenario Google will publish a suicide note. Or possibly even no meta description at all. What’s better: commercial suicide or a derelict store?!
Here are 33 examples of great meta descriptions (based on Google Zeitgeist 2012).
33 examples of great meta descriptions
A couple of extra tips:
- Use the =len() function in Excel to word count your meta description in spreadsheet format.
- Use SEO Mofo’s Snippet Optimizer for an online character count tool.
AdWords Mobile PPC Performance: How it Stacks Up Against Desktop
Mobile and tablet campaigns will soon be included with desktop. How will this impact your results? This mobile vs. desktop PPC performance snapshot comparison provides helpful guidance on how to enhance your mobile campaign integration strategy.
Google Maps Quality Calls: Improving But Still Confusing
Adrew Forster of Adster Creative recently received and recorded a call from the Google Maps listing quality team. The calls are improving in quality over previous calls that we have heard. For example the caller clearly introduced herself. A definite improvement. But the call was still confusing. The intent of the call was not clear […]
Social Tragic-ology: How Brands Learn to Be Part of Real News
In the wake of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, it’s apparent that we need to continue the conversation about how people and brands communicate during times of tragedy and crisis. Here are some social dos and don’ts to help prepare for a tragedy.
The Second Most Creative Link Building Post Ever
In November I asked a group of ~50 SEOs one simple question:
“What was the most creative way you, or someone you know, got a link?”
This was personally one of my favorite posts because there was so much awesome, actionable, and insightful responses. But it looks like I wasn’t alone – it’s now the #1 all time post on Inbound.org.
After it was published, I got a lot of SEOs wanting to …
The Second Most Creative Link Building Post Ever is a post from: Point Blank SEO
How to Pitch to Journalists
We all want attention and coverage from ‘real life media’ they get the most attention and provide the best links. But how to get their attention?
Post from Jackie Hole on State of Search
How to Pitch to Journalists
Can Google be Trusted to Do No Evil?
Google has managed to build or acquire properties in which users just naturally leave tracks. Is it all part of a grandiose scheme to build a massive graph that can help convert a search engine into a knowledge engine? Or is something else going on?
SEO for Multilingual eCommerce Websites
During the last 5 years of doing SEO for eCommerce websites, I noticed that most store owners have a hard time with optimization for multiple languages. In this article I’ll try to explain some common misconceptions and tell you how to avoid 7 most common mistakes!
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The post SEO for Multilingual eCommerce Websites appeared first on DEJAN SEO.
The Legacy of Spam
Link building isn’t as easy as it once was. Google Penguin changed the game. Now, rather than building links “the easy way,” SEOs must focus on building natural, relevant, and useful links – not the kind that exist only to increase search rankings.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing – Indonesia
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This intensive 2-day course enables you to plan and build an organic search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. The right SEO strategy brings the right kind of visitors to your website, boosts online conversions and helps you stand out in the fiercely competitive online space. The course also gives you the latest updates on the increasingly tricky nature of SEO as search engine continuously innovates and online competition heats up.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 16, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: SMX Advanced Agenda Posted – Register Now & Save with Early Bird Rates! Join the most accomplished search marketers in the world at SMX Advanced, June 11-12…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Bing & Yahoo Steal Tiny Bit of Search Market Share From Google
A month after hitting its highest U.S. search market share in February (67.5 percent), Google saw both Bing and Yahoo steal away what essentially amounts to crumbs from the giant pie that is Google’s dominance, according to comScore.