The Decay and Fall Of Guest Blogging… Because Matt Said So.
Case Study: MyBlogGuest.com In a blog post on his ‘personal’ website, Google’s head of the webspam team, Matt Cutts, announced that guest blogging was over. Dead in the water. The post from January (2014) was in response to several spam blog posts and thousands of low-quality guest blogging websites. Matt, himself, referenced an email he had recently received—unsolicited, from someone wanting to guest post on his blog in exchange for one link in the article. This type of activity isn’t new and has always been a violation of Google’s Quality Guidelines, because it isn’t quality (duh). Guest posting isn’t dead and it is still acceptable when done with clear connections. What does that mean? In search positioning, namely the 200+ factors used by Google’s ranking algorithm, social and authenticity are incorporated. When a guest post is published on a blog or website, there should be clear connections between the guest, the article, the website, and the hosting site’s owner or team. When these signals do not exist, users and search engines can assume that the post was generated for rank manipulation or the post was paid for; both of which violate guidelines of the major search engines. What sparked this latest guest blogging conversation? This did: Today we took action on a large guest blog network. A reminder about the spam risks of guest blogging: http://t.co/rc9O82fjfn — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 19, 2014 In that announcement, Matt links to his January post. Over the course of the day, several guest blog websites and networks evaluated their index status. The sad winner here is believed to be MyBlogGuest.com, a guest blog network utilized by many in the SEO community to share updates, techniques and news. I say believed because no response has been given by Google as to the target. The principle of MyBlogGuest, Ann Smarty, offered this tweet and response while at PubCon New Orleans (c/o Search Engine Journal): [Official] Even though #myblogguest has been against paying for links (unlike other platforms), @mattcutts team decided to penalize us… — Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) March 19, 2014 Yes, we realize and recognize the problem of many people abusing our community. We have invested lots of effort in educating our community members on how to do guest blogging right. We have been fighting paid links, duplicate content issues, link farms, etc for years. We have had some awesome success stories from our members and we have always believed in adding value to the web. Have we deserved the “hit” (now I know what that means lol!)? I’ll let the community decide. So far we’ve had some amazing support from the community which I could not be more thankful for! The reality is, Matt Cutts is using us for the PR game: To get more people scared. We are the hugest guest blogging brand out there: He could not have got more publicity by hitting anyone else. The future? I’ll be honest. I am not sure yet. I am a human being and as much as I believe in doing the “right thing”, I am getting tired of all that publicity. We’ll re-brand out of “guest blogging” niche in the near future (we’ve been working on more functionality for a few months now and we have lots of features allowing to connect to influencers already in place now). We’ll keep supporting and helping our community members and advocates as much as we can. We have some great technology and we’ve build the most awesome team in the world. I’ll fight for them and you’ll hear more from us in the near future! The...
Read MoreThe ‘New’ Exact Match – Broad Match Modified
During a discussion with some of my SEM colleagues, we got onto the topic of keyword match types and how there seems to be some change in the way that Google’s Adwords system evaluates the quality score of some keywords in correlation to the match type. One SEM specialist pointed out that there seemed to be some ‘oddness’ happening with exact matches and bids. In his opinion, his exact matches should have had higher quality scores than his broad match modified keywords and by relevancy standards, have a lower CPC (cost per click); however this was not the case. The match type of a keyword plays a part in determining when ads are displayed for users searching related terms and how much it will cost an advertiser when users click the ad (and of course, how much money Google makes). We search marketers want to get the most bang-for-the-buck so we watch conversion rates, impressions and CPC closely when evaluating keywords – new and old. Adwords Keyword Match Types For those unfamiliar with match types the traditional definition of the match types are: Broad Match – With this match type, any term(s) or phrase that matches the keyword target may generate the ad. Phrase Match – Denoted by (” “) surrounding the keyword when viewed in spreadsheets or in the interface, this match type may generated ads for any combination of the words used in the keyword phrase. Exact Match – The most specific method of keyword targeting in Adwords, exact match is used to generate ads for term(s) and phrases that are used exactly as they appear in your campaign. Note*: We know that negative keywords are a type of match but for this post we are referring to types that generate ads. So don’t get your panties in a wad. Towards the middle of 2011, around April, Google released the fourth match type: Broad Match Modifer. With this match type (which many say replaces [or should for that matter] broad match) users are able to gain the benefit of broad match’s wide berth while also incorporating some measure of control of the terms that need to be present for the keyword to be relevant. As Jeremy Decker puts it in the post 6 Ways to Ensure Your Adwords Campaign Fails, using broad match is great way to waste your or your clients’ time and money. That isn’t to say that broad match isn’t useful in some situations, but generally there are usually better ways to make use of the spend – unless you’re looking to meet spending expectations or you’re Nike. I digress. In the conversation about Adwords, my colleague cited that for many of his terms that used exact match his CPC was often 20-45% higher than those comparable ad groups using broad match modifiers. In some cases, the quality score were either the same. In a few however, he stated that the quality score for the exact match was lower than the broad match modified keyword. In reviewing my own Adwords campaigns I was able to confirm his findings much to my own dismay. Adwords Broad Match Modifiers So, what is a broad match modifier, really? Broad match modifiers are denoted by using a “+” in front of a given set of keywords. Say you have a phrase match that is okay but can be interpreted in more than a few ways. Furthermore, the phrase match type may limit the number of variations for which the ads will be triggered; but going with broad matches will either 1) cause the inner campaign drama (the wonderful error...
Read MoreEthics and integrity in data gathering
Ethics and integrity are big concerns of my organization. We have four key areas of excellence: Team driven culture, integrity, creative enthusiasm and customer service. Operating in an ethical manner will typically result in meeting at least two of these areas if not all of them. Information is a unique commodity that requires a new perspective compared to what most would consider an ethical concern in the less-technology driven cultures in the past. Customer information, data, and knowledge carry value and power – with that power comes a responsibility to use it in a way that reflects the values of the customer as well as the values of the organization; where those values are upright. According to the article by Winn and Jondet, there is no current standard for handling information and communication technology (ICT) networks. ICT networks handle the expanse between consumers, suppliers and businesses. As such there is little that governments can do to regulate ICT networks, similar to how there are no large scale regulations for the Internet as a whole. Ethics plays a pivotal role in how professional organizations handle the information the customers generate, it is counter productive to be inconsistent or negligent with the security of consumer data. Regulators and standard organizations offer programs that help promote standards, but there is little oversight in the long run. For our organization, we handle the clients’ leads, phone calls and initial case interviews. The information we collect is extremely sensitive and very valuable in itself. We are obligated not to use the information directly, release any details outside of our organization, and responsible for protecting clients (and their clients) from any adverse affects that could result from their information being publically available. For these reasons, there are a number of security systems – with multiple layers, to ensure as much protection as technologically possible. To support this mission even more, our security policies are very detailed, explicitly enforced and readily available. Winn, J., & Jondet, N. (2008, December). A “new approach” to standards and consumer protection. Journal of Consumer Policy, 31(4),...
Read MoreMy Ideas on Marketing Online (part 3)
For this final part, I just wanted to include some simple guidelines I use for my social media marketing. I don’t do a lot of this because most of my job is to build marketable websites, copy-writing, or graphic design; but it doesn’t hurt to learn more about the entire marketing environment. I have spoken with TV marketing professionals about television and TiVo’s impact, radio specialist on what Satellite Radio has done to broadcast advertising; and I just wonder… What will be the next user focused technology that will cause an evolution in the way internet marketing will be driven or how advertisers will attempt to spend their marketing dollars? Who knows but I’m sure we won’t have to wait too much longer. I mean, Atlanta is a test ground for city wide free Wi-fi! I even heard a rumor that at some point in the near future a large organization was going to release VOIP or cellular access for telephone communications to the public. In other words, free cellphone use to phones enabled to use the protocols. What would that do to the world? Anyway, here are my ideas on some of the social media outlets for marketing. As I mentioned in part two we looked at how to be audience focused as well as the why, what and where; here we look at some of the mediums to accomplish this. These are rules I follow, but they’re not the Ten Crack Commandments but it works for me (feedback or ideas welcome). Nevertheless, let me give you some key “Golden Rules” of some big marketing avenues. *As with anything internet, there are not true ‘rules’ for the internet road, only guidelines and socially accepted parameters; avoid deprecated practices, look it up novice… Twitter:Advantages – Twitter has all but replaced PR agency as a large percentage of our followers are press and analysts. Disadvantages – Because you have limited space to make the point duplicate posting, follower sculpting, anduseful posts are the name of the marketers game here. Rules of Engagement:1. Tweetlater.com or the like – Allows for inputting several tweets while designating when to actually post them.2. Mobile Applications – For fast access to info or to post fresh pics, links, or additional ‘no marketing’ relatedtweets (effective when used in conjunction with an auto delivery system).3. Cross Marketing – Find a service like Ping.fm to auto update all social outlets with each tweet or post, duh. Google Reviews:Advantages – Adds reviews to indexed links, maps, and across much of Google’s network; allow for better positioning. Disadvantages – Stringent security means lots of work to get viable reviews in and accepted. (Black Hated!!) Rules of Engagement:1. Setting up Avatars for real client reviews seems acceptable and reasonable.2. Be honest with wording and language… most humans going to the length of reading a review about something are a warm lead. Don’t mess it up with illogical gobbity gook (always wanted to say that).3. Best for retailers with large stock, several products, distributors and/or companies with multiplemarketing competitors. Blogger or Related Blog system:“Quite a few bloggers talked about nuisance blog posts clogging the web and the bad noise drowning out thegood. Frequency of blog posts should be dictated by the quality of what you have to say. If you’ve createda blog for the right reason(s), then you are passionate about your topic and should have plenty of usefulinformation to share. “Many bloggers also agree that blogging frequency is dictated by the type of blog you have. News blogs, ofcourse, would be at the most frequent end of the scale. Thoughtful and...
Read MoreMy Ideas on Online Marketing (part one)
There comes a time in every Internet Marketer’s career where you look at what you’re doing and what you should be doing. I need to segway in this blog to get myself back on track by putting it out there that I am not marketing right now, just looking for feedback, ideas and direction. Nevertheless, these are my thoughts on how to use online marketing and some ideas combined from peaking in and hearing the conversations between giants over the last month. (Notes for safe keeping in my own blog… really.) Marketing Online 101 First, one should have a collegiate understanding of what it means to be a search engine marketer and why twitter is viable. In addition to an efficacious keyword targeting system… have I lost you yet? I should have, if not then you are a true marketer and not a people person. Marketing online involves one very vital aspect; not how black hat or white hat you are, how many followers you have or friend request you send out daily; its about targeting an audience. Giving them what they are looking for honestly (bad press/’word of mouth’ is bad press, just like bad breath is bad breath), with a focus on respectability in information. Its good to have a Marketing Degree for doing Online Marketing, just as an Information Technology Degree is useful in designing a social media system; but that teen sitting in her room after being grounded for sneaking out can do more effective marketing than some 40 something Marketer with a MSIT could in a week. Why? Because of the nature of this beast. It takes understanding, integration, and networking value. Sure you can blast emails, or tweet your head off, but if everyone deletes your email or never follows your ‘bird’ channel, you’re wasting your...
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