Visibility in Local Web Search Results

The reason we are able to come up in this web search result is because we are registered as a “Marketing Consultant” business in Google Places, with a Waltham address. This particular search query won’t produce a significant amount of traffic for KoMarketing, but it’s free and it took maybe 15 minutes to set up, so the few hits we may get from it are worth it. Google Places offers the opportunity to generate local web search visibility for the products or services your business offers. Think of some terms you would like your business to rank for locally and include them in the description and categories of your Google Places listing.

Visibility on Google Map Searches

Being registered with Google Places allows KoMarketing to generate visibility in Google Maps for keywords related to our business. In this case, we included “Marketing Consultant” as a category and “Internet Marketing Agency” in our description, so when someone goes to Google Maps and types in a search query for Internet Marketing Agency in our area, we have a presence.

Mobile Presence

Business listings from Google Places are referenced in Google Maps both on mobile searches and in GPS mobile phone applications. Registering with Google Places may give you a Google Maps Pin when mobile users search for your product or service through their mobile devices. According to an article from Bryson Meunier, a mobile search columnist for Search Engine Land, “local results are more likely in mobile, so Google Places listings sometimes appear higher in mobile results than they do in desktop.”

SEO Friendly Link

Word on the street is that links are a considerable search engine ranking factor. Register with Google Places and get a new link – it may generate some referral traffic and add to your websites link portfolio.

Verified with Google

In order to create a listing on Google Places the business has to be verified by phone or mail. This verification process should aid in legitimizing the business and website with Google. Any opportunity to gain credibility with Google seems valuable to me, especially if SEO is a priority for your business.

I hope now you see… why I think Google Places is a cool place to be (ha!). If you are looking for more instructions on how to get started, Google Places Get Started is quite user friendly/self-explanatory.
I would recommend using a universal or impersonal email address for the registration (unless you own the business) in case updates need to be made in the future. Also, be sure to fill in as many of the listing fields as possible including photos and videos, and encourage your clients and customers to submit reviews – it may play a factor in how high your pin is ranked. Here are some additional resouces for optimizing a Google Places listing:

• Mashable Topics – Google Places
• Win More Business with Google Places
• Google Forum – Optimizing Your Places Page
• Optimizing Your Google Places Page
• Up Close with Google Places Pages

Google Places is quick, easy, free, and sustainable, so get on it – and please feel free to share any additional references we missed in the comments field!

Example of the Gigaom Pro social login screen

As the use of social media platforms continues to increase, social login becomes functionality B2B marketers need to consider. Social login allows users to register and sign-in to a website by way of popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

According to data released by Gigya, users logged in to a social network spend 50 percent more time on a site. The data also concluded that users logged in with a social platform will view twice the number of pages compared to users with a standard login.

Not Just A Facebook Social Login

Facebook was responsible for the largest percentage of logins with 61 percent, but according to the Gigya infographic, “Although the majority of users choose Facebook as their preferred identity provider, online businesses should consider providing multiple social login options as nearly 40 percent of users prefer Yahoo!, Google, Twitter, or other identity provider.”

The Janrain Social Login Study

Gigya is not the only vendor offering supporting survey data on this subject. As I wrote in my latest Search Engine Land column, Marketingsherpa highlighted a Social Identity study from Janrain, in coordination with research conducted by Blue Research.

• 86% of respondents reported being bothered by the need to create new accounts at websites
• 90% admitted to leaving a website if they couldn’t remember their login details rather than taking the time to recover their login information.
• 41% would prefer social login over creating a new user account or using a guest account.
• 77% responded that social login is “a good solution that should be offered”.

According to the Janrain website, customers using their social login solution have experienced 15-50% increase in registration and conversion rates. B2B marketers should consider how the impact of higher conversion rates may balance out the loss in specific form requirements.

In the same way search marketers might argue developing social media assets for all places their customers are active, it also makes sense to offer registration leveraging the same social media credentials.

Thoughts and Considerations for B2B Marketers

Gigya and Janrain survey data reveals social networking logins and plugins may have an impact in conversion rates and overall visitor engagement. Incorporating the ability to login or “enable” form registration though popular social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ could further prospect development as users interact through comments, shares, and registrations.

What are your thoughts on the use of a social login, in place of traditional form submissions? Even though B2B marketers would lose some control of form field requirements, the increase in conversion rates might outweigh this obstacle. In addition, there are accessible metrics that can be obtained in the social login process.

Would the metrics and data points accessible make this type of functionality even more likely to implement? I would love to read your thoughts and perspective via comments below.

The Gigya Infographic: Social Login and Social Plugins Increase Page Views / Time Spent On Site

Additional Resources & References

• Marketing Infographics Discussion on Conversational Marketing
• 20 Free Social Login and Bookmark Buttons Source Files

Google announced yesterday that their privacy policies and terms of service would be altered as of March 1, 2012. There have been many articles on this topic, but I’d like to look at the issues surrounding the mobile relationship in this new policy. With these changes, specifically ones relating to mobile devices, I wanted to dig deeper into what was actually happening. Being from the search and business development world for 10+ years, I’m often curious and sometimes skeptical on rolling changes to an existing privacy policy. While I appreciate Google creating a “new main policy” that covers multiple products and creating a “beautifully simple” user experience, I ask myself, to what end?

Mobile Tracking

I’m sure many of you have been getting requests to add your phone number when you log into your Google Profile for quite some time now. If you haven’t seen it in a while, here might be a good reason why.

In the previous Terms of Service, whenever you sent or received an SMS message to a Google service, your information, such as the phone number, associated wireless carrier, message content, and timestamp would be gathered and saved. As this is the same information that could be gathered by a call provider, it isn’t all that groundbreaking.

Based on the March 1, 2012 Terms, Google can now collect, store and utilize a great deal more.

Association of your Call Information to Your Google Profile.

Information will now be collected in one of two ways:

• What you give Google- a name, email address, phone number, photo, all of which can be housed on a Google profile.
• The information that is gathered when you use Google services.

To break down the second point, there are three types of information gathered.

• Device Information
  If you check out the device information section in the new privacy policy, you’ll be looking at this, “Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.” i.e. When you click through an ad, Google ties it to your profile. Since they have a time stamp of the call and a timestamp of your click to the ad, guess what? They know you called from that ad source. Fascinating stuff, but I’m wondering how Google will use this conversion data. Google is creating a click to call profile model like no other. Not only do they know whom and when you called, they know everything in your profile for serving you additional ads. Pretty slick!
  
  
• Log Information
  If you plan on using Google services, plan on Google collecting and storing that information in a server log. Basically, Google has your queries, the ads that you’ve clicked on, and the time and duration of your calls. Mix in Google Analytics and you’re covering all bases for calls and on site conversions. Too bad Google can’t track your IP address or track you via GPS to know if you went into the location of the merchant you searched. Oh wait, see below…
  
  
• Location Information
  In addition to gathering information from your devices and storing it all in a server log, Google also has the ability to collect information on your whereabouts when you use a location-enabled Google service, such as GPS from a mobile device. They may also use other technologies “such assensor data from your device that may, for example, provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.”

Is what Google is doing an invasion of privacy? Being from the marketing space, I don’t believe Google is doing anything that the marketing community hasn’t been trying for years, Google just has access to the data for the entire sales funnel.

The merge of phone numbers to a database, and mapping those numbers to call provider data is commonplace in this industry.

My issue is how Google is positioning the “beautifully simple” merge of data for the benefit of the user. The real goal is a targeted marketing campaign tracking conversions to justify value to Google’s advertisers. While the March 1, 2012 policy clearly defines what information Google can extrapolate from your profile, I think a better explanation on how and why it is being used, might be in order.

How do you feel about the impact of your mobile number and Google Profile being connected? Helpful or hindrance?

The second, less distinct, but slightly more complicated obstacle (at least in initial perception), is the ability to verify authenticity of a Google+ Page for Business. For example, while anyone could create a page about KoMarketing Associates (potential online reputation nightmare?), only site administrators can properly confirm ownership.

The process is really quite simple.

Via Google Webmaster Support, confirming ownership can be done when the site administrator enables two things:

• A rel=”publisher” link from the main page of your website to your Google+ page.
• A reciprocal link back from your Google+ page to the main page of your website (love that it is a “reciprocal link” )

Adding the rel=”publisher” Link

The rel=”publisher” link “tells Google that the Google+ page represents the publisher of the site”. The simplest way to do this is as follows:

Add the following HTML code to the section of your home page:
<link href=”LINK TO GOOGLE+ PAGE” rel=”publisher” />

Google’s Rich Snippets Testing Tool can help site owners verify the whether Google can correctly parse the HTML code and attribute information appropriately.

Site owners can add a Google+ badge to their website, which could help drive +1′s. The tool for adding this can be found here and these “pluses” become visible on the Google+ Page for Business. Ideally, site owners should have +1 buttons on individual blog posts and content designed to be “rated” (such as news items or case studies), since Google will take into account “pluses” across the domain.

Search Engine Land reported that according to Google, “the +1 count will change to show all +1s to a particular site. For the moment, it only shows +1s to a page.” That was supposed to be corrected a few weeks after the article postscript was added, but certainly has not been integrated yet (based on “pluses” our site/individual pages have experienced)

Google also points out that having this publisher link also creates an opportunity for the site to be found via Google+ Direct Connect. This allows users to “quickly navigate to a Google+ page when using Google Search”. Personally I don’t know how much impact this will have, and that impact is largely based on the adoption of “Google+ terminology” and relative effectiveness when using the query.

Linking from the Google+ Page to Your Site

Fortunately, linking from the Google+ Page is pretty self-explanatory. When logged into the Google+ page, simply add the requisite link within “Recommended Links” on the right-hand side of the “About” information.

Screenshot: Location for Adding Link to Google+ Page for Business

Screenshot: How to Add the Link to Google+ Page for Business

I would also recommend adding relevant social profiles and any additional, pertinent information and resources about the organization in this section as well.

In summation, verifying ownership may feel complicated at first glance, but is fairly simple in practice and can be easily tested for accuracy. What are your thoughts on Google+ Pages for Business? Have you seen your Google+ Page begin to appear for relevant search results? I would love to read your feedback and perspective via comments below.

Towards the end of last year, Google announced a series of enhancements to their Google+ Pages for Business product. For B2B marketers, the most important addition was the ability to delegate up to 50 named managers as administrators for a page.

While Google posted a video that highlighting instructions on how to do this, here are a few screenshots and step by step instructions for adding an additional administrator to a Google+ Page for Business.

Step 1: Google+ Settings

The originator of the Google+ Page for Business needs to navigate to and select the “Google+ Settings” option, which is located at the top right-hand side of the browser window.

Step 2: Designating Managers

Once in the settings administration for Google+, page administrators (Managers) can simply add approved individuals as managers by inviting them through email. From this panel, adminstrators can also remove managers as well.

Google+ and B2B Marketing Strategy

The addition of multi-admin support provides enough credence for B2B marketers to begin exploring what Google has to offer with this initiative, and how they can leverage Google+ Pages for Business as part of their marketing strategy.

It is worth noting that there are still minor security flaws to consider. It would seem more beneficial to have multiple levels of administration (like WordPress or Google Analytics users) in an effort to provide access but possibly not all capabilities. (For example, what if a rogue manager removed all administrators?)

At the least, originating page creators cannot be removed as administrators. They can also transfer ownership to a designated account. So if someone had jumped on the opportunity to create an organization’s Google+ Page for Business, I might recommend transferring to an account that will remain under the continued ownership of the company (in the event of turnover or promotion).

I would also recommend that that account be the primary account for Google services such as Webmaster Tools and Web Analytics (and Google AdWords).

What are your thoughts on Google+ Pages for Business? Less than two months old, there will certainly be much to explore and anticipate as the year rolls on. I would love to read your thoughts and perspectives via comments below and follow our Google+ Page to continue the discussion.

Related Posts and Columns

• First Impressions: Google+ Pages for the B2B Business
• How Social Networking Fits in the B2B Search Marketer’s Toolbox

Since Wells’ arrival with the company, we have increased our team with four new full time employees. Our fresh faces include Tammy Byars, a SEO/SMO analyst with a special flair for Facebook;

Mike Piccowitz, who specializes in PPC advertising;

and two new marketing copywriters – Rachel Veznaian and Ryan Young.

For a few weeks, our quaint office was becoming a bit squished…

but we were able to bring in some sweet new furniture and give the office a facelift.

As an employee with the organization, I am certainly looking forward to the New Year – working with new team members, delving into new client initiatives and the continuing successes in store for KoMarketing in 2012. Happy New Year!

Here is the growth in mobile device usage across a select group of client sites, comparing the two most recent six month periods (December 2010 through May 2011 and June 2011 through November 2011):

With the exception of the one industrial client, all of the sites have or are experiencing gains in mobile device usage when accessing their websites.

While a 7% impact rate might not seem significant in comparison to all site traffic, keep in mind two additional considerations:

• The actual growth in mobile browser usage was over 80% period to period.
• That growth represented well into six digit total visitor volumes.

A few more interesting data points:

During the latter six month period, nearly half of KoMarketing clients were receiving over 5% of their website traffic through mobile browsers.

The majority of our clients do not have specific mobile initiatives; at least in final production. Those that do, did not stand out (in an extreme sense) in terms of mobile adoption percentages reported.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that of the handful of clients we work with that maintain a B2C focus, all of them were receiving over 10% of their traffic via mobile devices.

What does this mean for B2B marketers?

We have been hinting at the importance of mobile adoption for quite some time. While it would be easy to dismiss mobile again in 2012, the growing number of users accessing client sites via mobile devices is really getting hard to ignore.

Does that mean you should simply rush into the first available mobile site platform? Definitely not.

Planning, requirements, and business strategy need to be considered. That said, we anticipate the overall volume and percentages of mobile browser behavior to continue to increase in 2012. We’re tracking that as the months roll on and hope to share insights, success stories, and lessons learned.

B2B marketers want to see numbers when justifying new marketing initiatives. Hopefully this information provides a pretty good start.

Related Posts

• 6 Ways to Leverage a Mobile App for SEO
• 10 Search Engine Marketing Statistics for B2B Marketers to Begin 2011

While it does not surprise us to find a lack of quality information about SEO when meeting new prospects, this certainly becomes troubling when that organization has been burned by a bad SEO relationship in the past. Misconceptions and SEO fraud hurt the industry in general, evidenced recently in a few mainstream examples.

If your organization is looking for the right SEO partner, or you know of one that is, here is a list of questions to consider when interviewing the prospective vendor. Hopefully this will help your organization avoid SEO fraud and build a foundation for an effective SEO partnership moving forward.

• Does the SEO vendor ask questions about your business?
  How interested is the SEO in your business model and sales process? Good search marketers will tie SEO strategy to business objectives and overall marketing initiatives; not just keyword rankings and search traffic.
• How does the SEO vendor explain their SEO process?
  While it should not be expected for an SEO vendor to give away all of their experience, basic philosophies about SEO and practical tactics should be explained and they relate to broader business goals and have been applied to previous client example.
• What benchmarks does the SEO vendor typically recommend for measuring performance?
  While an organization may have its own KPI’s in place already, they will also turn to the SEO vendor for recommendations on performance measurement. In most circumstances, benchmarks should include a mix of business performance and production-specific SEO measurements.
• Does the SEO vendor have demonstrable client achievements?
  Keyword rankings are only part of the puzzle. The SEO vendor should come prepared with case studies (comparable ones if possible) illustrating background, challenges, and results.
• For larger SEO vendors, define the experience of the individuals and team.
  In larger agencies, it is unlikely the SEO professional on the business development side will work day to day on the SEO program. Make sure to obtain the credentials of the team that will work on the program on a regular basis as well as at the strategic level.
• How does the SEO vendor manage client projects?
  Project management is an underrated skill in executing SEO strategy or SEO campaigns. How the SEO professional will collaborate and deliver client communication is important to establish and agree upon at the start.
• How does the prospective SEO vendor keep pace with industry innovation?
  What publications, blogs, and resources does the SEO vendor trust or have at their disposal? While the search space can change rapidly, there are several fundamental best practices as well. It is not practical to expect an SEO professional to know “everything” but they should have access to resources (or people) for reference.
• How active is the SEO/SEO company in the industry?
  Do members of the SEO team write or contribute to industry publications, blogs, or communities? What type of social presence to members of the SEO team have in places like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook? Being active in the industry can be a sign that the team as a whole keeps pace with trends and advancements in the space.
• What memberships and organizations is the SEO/SEO vendor part of?
  While it is debatable how valuable membership in a search-related organization might be, member affiliation can be a sign of overall industry involvement. Just keep in mind if there are any requirements (outside of a financial commitment) in being a member. For example, becoming an AdWords Certified Partner requires explicit qualifications.
• Will (can) the SEO vendor provide references?
  Once the SEO passes all tests and interviews, it is still important to get client and/or partner references. These references may also help validate some of the questions asked above as well.

Hopefully these questions provide greater depth to your organizations’ interview process when selecting an SEO vendor. Good luck in your explorations for the right SEO partner and best wishes for internet marketing success in the new year!

In relative order that these resources published in 2011…

• 125 Tips for Building an Irresistible Brand
  There is possibly no better way for internet marketers to start their 2011 than a solid checklist for building success (and a brand) in the new year. While this post on Copyblogger kicked off 2011, it certainly should be well referenced as we move into 2012.
• The Dirty Little Secrets of Search
  It did not take long for SEO to hit mainstream media in 2011. This NY Times column exposing tactics J.C.Penney used to gain top rankings in Google thrust SEO in the spotlight and quite possibly hastened some of the significant changes search marketers felt throughout the rest of the year.
• RIP Digg.
  I personally have been a fan of Digg for quite some time, having invested a fair amount of time on the site as a reader and participant. More than a eulogy about Digg (still around by the way) this article pays respect to the risks entrepreneurs took to start something in the beginnings of “Web 2.0 movement”.
• Manage Like You’re Dying: A Humbled Entrepreneur’s Reflections
  Marty Weintraub’s introspective post on how aimClear has grown into such a respected business provides fantastic advice for business owners and individuals seeking to build their own career and path in the workplace.
• Questioning Amit Singhal’s Questions
  To every point there should be a counterpoint and if you’ve been in SEO for any period of time, you should know to question everything you find online. Aaron Wall’s rebuttal to Amit Singhal’s blog post on the Google “Panda” algorithm is one great example.
• 75 of the Best B2B Facebook Marketing Tips
  Even though Facebook will continue to (frustratingly) change and enhance their offerings, Jeffrey Cohen’s collection of resources and tips is a go-to online asset for learning more about B2B marketing on Facebook.
• Content Marketing in a Blink: The Content Grid v2 [Infographic]
  Eloqua’s Content Marketing Grid 2 was an even better representation than the original in how-to for marketers should consider how they operationalize content marketing programs.
• Link Building with the Experts – 2011 Edition
  Rae Hoffman’s annual interview featuring top link building experts is a must read for SEO professionals. This past year’s edition continued the trend.
• We’re All Marketers Now
  Search marketers have been pushing their way into overall marketing strategy for years, but that really is a piece to a much larger puzzle. McKinsey’s article highlighting the new era in customer engagement provides an excellent overview and insight into how the role of marketing must evolve in every business organization.
• Stop Ignoring the Stalwart Worker
  This article from Harvard Business Review is not only important for business leaders, but anyone working in a team environment, especially in the marketing space.
• Dear Friend: Sorry. My heart says yes, but my schedule says no.
  Dharmesh Shah not only provides subtle advice on focusing your objectives as a business owner but a solid list of resources for people interested in start-ups and entrepreneurship.
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective SEOs
  Neil Patel is a pretty good SEO (understatement) and his advice for those looking to get into the field or enhance their current experience is well worth the time to read and reflect upon.
• Google Puts A Price On Privacy
  Danny Sullivan’s perspective on Google Encrypted Search should be the article marketers read as they delve into keyword referral reports in 2012, wondering why “not provided” data keeps showing up in results. (I no doubt believe a significant amount of marketers still do not know about this)
• 2011 Edition of the Search Engine Ranking Factors
  This past years search engine ranking factors survey was even bigger and better than before, with a much clearer navigational stream and downloadable resources and information. A must-have resource for search engine marketing professionals.
• This One Leadership Quality Will Make or Break You
  Finally, this article from Mike Myatt in Forbes provides the perfect launch pad for jumping into 2012, as a business owner, professional, or entrepreneur.

Our Most Popular Posts on KoMarketing Associates

• 12 Questions to Ask When Performing SEO Keyword Research
• 18 Ways to Measure a Search Engine Optimization Campaign
• 15 Content Marketing and Social Media Takeaways from the 2011 B2B Marketing Summit
• 22 User Experience Factors to Consider Post-Panda
• The Impact of Google Encrypted Search for the B2B Marketer

Popular Columns from Third Party Publications

A full recap can be found on my about page, but here is a list of some of more popular columns I wrote this year on Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch in 2011.

• How to Establish a B2B Social Media Benchmarking Plan
• Why B2B Search Marketers Should Care About Content Curation
• Before Or After The Form? Balancing Lead Generation & SEO Strategy
• 10 Concepts Critical for Aligning SEO to B2B Marketing Strategy
• Google Encrypted Search: 9 Key Points B2B Marketers Need to Know
• B2B SEO 2012 Strategy Planning: 4 Recommendations

Happy Holidays to all of our blog and news subscribers from the team at KoMarketing Associates. Wishing you the very best this holiday season and into the new year!

With a full month under our belts, it seemed appropriate to revisit how this change has impacted SEO reporting in November and through the first six weeks.

Some quick summary points:

• Even though Google indicated only single digit percentages of search queries would be impacted, several SEO organizations were seeing significantly higher, double digit numbers a few weeks in.
• This change not only impacts an SEO professionals ability to measure performance, but hampers third party marketing tools, which rely on keyword data to provide more actionable marketing communication campaigns.
• Just this week JBS Partners left us a comment that one of their client’s websites was impacted by a staggering 28.89%. Over a quarter of their search query data was no longer actionable for that organization.

Trends in Google Encrypted Search Impact by Week

The percentage impact on keyword referrals appears to be increasing across the board for all types of B2B organizations. Technology/software and professional services have been impacted significantly higher than the single digit percentage indicated. This does not seem surprising given the type of users we expect frequent these types of sites more often (management professionals, faster new technology adoption, etc).

The overall trend in percentage impact and percentage of sites with greater than single digit impact continues to grow. It was interesting to see a slight dip the week of Thanksgiving, but numbers quickly increased shortly after.

It is worth pointing out that across all client sites, the average number of keywords impacted greater than 2,000 unique referrals. In my opinion, that represents a significant amount of actionable data lost.

As Google continued to rollout Google+ and improvements/enhancements to all search-related services, we can be certain this number will continue to trend upwards. What has been the impact to your website’s reporting metrics? I would love to hear your perspectives and opinion via comments below.