ssharma@brightedge.com

M Posted 11 years 8 months ago

t 9 min read

So you have a blog, and you aim to provide useful posts that address your readers’ interests. Take that content a step further by optimizing those posts with SEO best practices in mind that will help inform search engines about your content, and make it more relevant to show up for a searcher’s query. In this post, we’ll go over five quick tips for optimizing your blog posts to boost search rankings and generate more Web traffic.

1. Create unique meta information

Meta information (also called Meta data) is one thing search engines use to understand the content of your site’s pages, including blog posts. When implemented well, it's often one of the first things a search engine bot encounters when crawling a page. So it's your first opportunity to tell the bot what the page's content is about. The most important components of Meta data are titles and their corresponding descriptions. Meta titles are brief lines of text that summarize the content of each post on your blog. A best practice for composing Meta titles is to include at least one of its keyword terms for optimization purposes, while keeping the character count to 55 (including spaces).

The Meta title is displayed as the “clickable” result in the search engine results pages (SERPs), so it’s essential to make it as compelling as possible. Meta descriptions elaborate on what a person can expect to see when they click through, and are comprised of a brief summary of the topic or page. You’ll want to allow for more room here -- up to 156 characters (again, including spaces) -- and incorporate the keyword term(s) you’re targeting without stuffing. For more on Meta information, refer to Part 1 of our guide to basic SEO concepts.

2. Optimize your content

Of course, your SEO strategy should also include optimizing the actual text of individual blog posts. While content is often naturally optimized simply by writing about a topic, it is a best practice to review the post with an eye for more optimization opportunities to include those keywords you are targeting – given that they naturally “fit” into the text. For more specifics about on-page elements to pay attention to, see Part 1 of our guide to basic SEO concepts, noted above, which also covers:

• How to handle Heading tags
• Video optimization

… And more!

3. Optimize your images

As with blog content, your images should also have concise titles and descriptions optimized with keywords whenever possible while avoiding “keyword stuffing” that the search engines may interpret as spam. Image titles (also referred to as “filenames”) should briefly summarize its content, with hyphens ( - ) separating the individual words. For example, washable-cashmere-sweater is preferable to simply cashmere_sweater, both in terms of keyword use (“washable cashmere sweater”) and search-engine friendly style (using hypens rather than underscores). Image descriptions (also called “alt text”) are key for helping those with disabilities who may be using screen-reading services understand what the images are on the page. Generally these descriptions are brief, and literally describe the image in question. For more on image optimization, refer to Part 1 of our guide to basic SEO concepts, as cited above.

4. Link appropriately

Linking internally to useful resources on your site that are relevant to your blog post, or externally to other (trusted) websites pertaining to your post, is another best practice for blog post optimization. It’s important to ensure that the external site you link to is reputable in order to avoid being hit with a Google Penguin penalty, as discussed in Part 2 of our guide to basic SEO concepts, as well as in our guide to link audits.

5. Include social media sharing

It is well documented that social signals such as Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook work in tandem with organic search rankings. (For more on that, Mark Mitchell discusses “social SEO,” explaining how social media and SEO work together on the BrightEdge blog.) A best practice for leveraging social media sharing of your blog content is to include “buttons” in the form of social media icons that readers can readily “click” to share or endorse your posts. At a minimum, it’s recommended that you include the power of 4: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. If your posts tend to be visually heavy with images, a Pinterest button would also lend itself to social sharing. (Note: For more info on this, Mark Mitchell discusses how to optimize your brand’s Pinterest presence at the BrightEdge blog). There you have it; we hope these five quick tips provide you with the preliminary info you need to optimize your blog posts. Refer to the resources cited to learn more, and if you have any questions, please note them in the comments below!

Andy Betts

M Posted 11 years 8 months ago

t 9 min read

On September 25, Google rolled out Panda 4.1 -- the latest iteration of its algorithm targeting sites with “thin” and low-quality content. As we reported here at the BrightEdge blog, Panda 4.1 packed a punch for several industry verticals. According to our initial research gleaned from the Data Cube, 4.1 dished out an organic search loss of up to 90 percent for some brands. With any major algorithm update there are also winners. When announcing the Panda 4.1 rollout, Google’s Pierre Far noted that it meant “a greater diversity of high-quality small- and medium-sized sites ranking higher.”

Google Panda 4.1 impact

Our early research (cited above) highlighted three types of sites that were negatively impacted by the update (however, there were more that our report didn't highlight beyond the following). In sum, they were:

• Infotainment and media sites that were image- and ad-heavy.
• General information sites with generic content offering little value for users (which we found to be among the sites most negatively affected).
• eCommerce sites with thin content.

We also reported on our research findings that identified the types of sites that benefited from Panda 4.1, including:

• Well-known media brands and targeted niche media (the latter likely representing some of the high-quality, small- to medium-sized sites that Google indicated would rank higher).
• Rich informational sites featuring fresh, compelling content.
• eCommerce sites with quality content that facilitates shopping and purchasing decisions.

You’ve likely spotted a pattern here, which is precisely what our research identified; when it comes to positive versus negative impact, the difference was original, quality content “above the fold” versus generic, “thin” content and top-heavy images and/or ads (Google’s page layout algorithm and mobile-minded page speed criteria are likely also at work). Our Data Cube research on Panda 4.1 has been confirmed by other professional sources within the SEO industry. Notably, Glenn Gabe discusses the risk of using aggressive or deceptive advertising in light of Panda 4.1 at Search Engine Watch.

Protecting your site from the Google Panda 4.1 update

So how do you go about “Panda proofing” your website? The short answer: provide users with a quality experience. As BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu advises in his recent Marketing Land column, consider referring to Google’s search quality evaluation guide to understand what Google defines as a quality user experience. Then analyze how your site measures up against the relevant criteria in the guide. Here are a couple steps you can take to assess the quality of your content and your site’s overall experience:

1. Evaluate page quality: When evaluating your site, start with pages and prioritize based on the highest value pages to your business (if you’re a BrightEdge user, our “Page Reporting” features can help you identify this). Create a set of criteria that you use to assess your Web pages for quality. (Hint: It’s not a bad idea to start with Google’s guidelines).
2. Optimize each page: Once you’ve evaluated the quality of your pages, including the quality of the text content and the layout, optimizing them from an SEO perspective can only help your content be found. It pays to cross your “t” and dot your “i” when it comes to doing every bit of White Hat optimization so you can help search engines better access and understand the content. For more information on basic optimization principles, check out this post and the other posts in its series.

We’ll keep our readers posted as we uncover new research on Panda 4.1. Until then, follow the basic steps outlined here to help Panda-proof your website.

Andy Betts

M Posted 11 years 9 months ago

t 9 min read

Capturing the economy of scale is a fundamental principle for achieving efficiency within an organization. One example is Henry Ford revolutionizing the car manufacturing industry with his assembly-line business model, making scale possible for the automotive industry. Anyone can appreciate the ingenuity of Henry Ford, and apply the same inventiveness to scale what they’re working on. But to do that, every process needs its parts to facilitate that well-oiled machine. Central to this process is workflow. In this post, we’ll look at how workflow scales SEO, and how you can create your own workflow for in-house SEO.

Why workflow is crucial to scale in-house SEO

A simple definition of “workflow” (via the “New Oxford American Dictionary”) is: “The sequence of industrial, administrative or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” Workflow can be envisioned as raw materials systematically improved upon through a workforce in a series of specialized processes to produce the final, refined result. With SEO, that raw material likely is data resulting from keyword research and competitive analysis. (For more information about how to do keyword research, refer to Sudhir Sharma’s guide; for more on how to conduct competitive analysis, see Daniel Sitner’s guide, both on the BrightEdge blog). Using these raw materials, your SEO team will perform analyses that ultimately determine the strategic optimization of your site’s architecture and individual page content.

Informed by SEO, your in-house writers will then create content in the form of Web pages, blogs and marketing materials, which SEO editors, content strategists and marketing managers will further refine before publishing. As you can see, each piece that each worker produces must be executed well to create the end product. As an SEO project manager, your job is to oversee and coordinate this workflow in order to scale. This is no small task. Managing the workflow for multiple SEO tasks means tracking and coordinating assignments and project progress of your various in-house teams, all the while keeping in mind:

• Long-term business goals
• Campaigns goals and metrics

A common pain point in SEO project management is a lack of collaboration among SEOs and content due to siloed teams and compartmentalized skills; BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu discusses this in a post he wrote for Search Engine Land. One solution is technology. For example, BrightEdge’s “Content Optimizer,” developed in partnership with Adobe, is designed to bridge the gap between SEO and content teams at the enterprise scale, specifically providing for integrated workflow. Here’s a screenshot showing our Content Optimizer at work: Another common pain point for enterprise-level SEO project management is tracking the seemingly myriad tasks and workflows across your organization – and a whiteboard diagram is simply not going to cut it.

Getting your entire SEO and content team on board in an integrated and collaborative effort requires more advanced tools, such as BrightEdge’s project management platform’s tasks and workflow support technology. Designed for enterprise SEO management, it features dashboard reporting for tracking projects with real-time visibility into their status, and automatically marks tasks that have been completed to save time and reduce duplication of efforts.

Insights from Experian and Microsoft at Share14 on scaling in-house SEO

This year’s Share 14 conference featured speakers representing several global brands, some of which discussed how their organizations tackled the challenges of scaling SEO in house. Experian Consumer Direct’s Ngia Vang (who was also interviewed by Andy Betts here at the BrightEdge blog) addressed the issue of its siloed SEO and content teams. From her presentation is the following workflow graphic, showing how Experian integrated SEO into their content team’s process:

In her talk, Vang reminded the audience that it’s a cyclical process, as the performance of SEO content is measured against business objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs), these metrics will then inform budget and resource allocation from one quarter to the next, and the process will start over again with fresh intelligence.

Another speaker, Alex Volk of Microsoft, said that when he first started at the company ten years ago, SEO didn’t even exist in-house. It was about seven years ago that he and colleague Derrick Wheeler initiated in-house SEO, facing challenges ranging from internal keyword competition to overlapping content and inconsistent UX, domain and subdomains. He and Derrick developed a “hybrid model” that involved enlisting 14 key people within the company to forge a bond for fueling SEO strategy. 

For more expert tips from Share 14’s speakers on scaling in-house SEO, you can refer to the liveblogging coverage of the session here at the BrightEdge blog. In sum, you don’t need to be an industrialist to appreciate scale economies, and luckily today, you can access advanced tools to scale SEO within your own organization to take it to the next level.

enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 11 years 9 months ago

t 9 min read

Newton joined BrightEdge in July of 2014 and is the senior director of marketing demand generation. He manages a team of five and co-manages the inside sales reps with his colleague in Sales. He was the 3rd BrightEdge customer at Netflix 6 years ago. Newton earned his MBA at the International University of Japan and his BA in English from UCLA.  We all want to make effective career decisions that balance our need for growth, opportunity, relationships, the commute, and of course, compensation.

When we first come out of school or when we are in between jobs, it’s easy to fall for the first company that produces an offer letter. However, we should find companies that are a good fit for our personalities and work styles. I’ve worked for a number of notable companies in Silicon Valley, and a few in other countries, so I have a pretty decent sample when I say that BrightEdge is the best company I have ever worked for. I thought I’d share 15 reasons I chose this company.

1. Growth: Growth makes work exciting, stimulating, and fun. BrightEdge adds about 5 people every 2 weeks, so you see evidence of growth all around you. Growth makes small opportunities large and small problems small. Growth is the most powerful accelerant to gaining responsibility faster than your cohort.

2. Opportunity to grow: Company growth means you can grow personally, too. It makes it easier to be a bigger leader when the company has a healthy appetite for new leadership. BrightEdge management hires people who want to be promoted and creates paths for that to happen.

3. Pre-IPO company: The Silicon Valley is the world capital of venture-backed businesses, and being part of a venture company is valuable for future venture opportunities. Every day feels like you are writing a page in the story of the company’s success. The pre-IPO company gives employee-owners access to more chunky income events than regular companies. Our last round of funding was large at $42 million, so we have the resources to expand our aspirations. We are already a global company with offices in London, Tokyo, and Sydney.

4. Industry-leading product: Head-to-head, we win over 85% of the time against our competition because we’re true innovators and provide the most value.

5. The BrightEdge values: Customer success, people success, striving for excellence, urgency, winning; working at BrightEdge is rather consistent with these values. Every day at least one or two of these values drive decision making. It’s real. It’s authentic. It matters.

6. Focus: We focus on the right things: happy customers, the best product, urgent execution, and winning all the way. If you have ever been forced to focus on the wrong things, you will recognize why this is so important.

7. Work ethic: People at BrightEdge work hard and get the job done on time. From the execs to the office manager, people care about their productivity and keeping their commitments.

8. Size. A mid-size company of 300 people means that you get a good-sized portfolio of work and that you can influence the outcome and the market cap. We all matter at this size.

9. B2B company: Most of the top companies in Silicon Valley make money selling to other companies. The planning and development cycles are more realistic and the margins are better than business-to-consumer.

10. BrightEdge beating the odds. Only one in 10 venture companies succeed, and only one in 110 make it to more than $100,000,000 valuation. BrightEdge’s success in terms of valuation has blown those odds away.

11. Numbers-driven rational approach. We manage by the numbers at BrightEdge, so people make good decisions and make them quickly and with confidence. Many of our executives came from Salesforce, the most successful SaaS company in the world.

12. Full of wicked-smart people. There are a lot of bright people here, but everyone does a good job of hiding it. Egos are not outsized, and we all work towards the same goals with mutual respect.

13. Outstanding onboarding program. BrightEdge has the best-organized onboarding program I have come across. Every single employee at every level goes through the same training with the same instructor and comes out the end of the week certified on the BrightEdge product. That consistent experience increases the connections between groups and people.

14. Youthful energy. We hire a lot of people right out of college and lots of mid-career people like me, so we have a fun and energetic environment that leverages both groups.

15. Founder-led company: Founder-led companies have more heart and soul, more passion and a clearer sense of purpose. So, if you like to work hard in a healthy environment full of smart people led by committed founders or if the other reasons resonate with you, apply to join our team at BrightEdge!