DFW SEM > Blog > Meetings

The Secrets of Google Local SEO in 2013

January 31, 2013 By

Google Local SEO in 2013 was the topic at the first DFW Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM) meeting of the year, and it started off with a bang. The room was packed and featured keynote presentations by our own Greg Gifford and Chris Silver Smith, who shared their secrets for successfully ranking local pages on Google.

(Seeing the tweets in this post is dependent on the Twitter API, and we know how reliable that is. If all you see is links try refreshing the page.)

Location

We were at our usual location, but due to another large conference going on in the hotel we were relegated to the Spurs Room, which is right off the bar.

DFWSEM Secrets of Google Local SEO in 2013 Meeting

DFWSEM Secrets of Google Local SEO in 2013 Meeting

Which inspired the following tweet.

And retweet.

A few people took Grant up on his suggestion

Attendance

The downside of meeting in this room is the size, and the first meeting of 2013 set a record for the number of attendees who registered online in advance. 117. (Thanks to each of you who did, it helps a lot.) Not to worry, that should not be a problem going forward.

Got to see some faces we hadn’t seen in a while. (Hope it’s not like the gym and we don’t see them again till next year.)

[Read more...]

Post to Twitter Tweet This

Filed Under: Past Meeting Info

What Everybody Ought to Know About Google Local SEO

January 29, 2013 By

Secrets of Google Local SEO was the topic of the first 2013 meeting of the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM), and one of the keynote speakers was Chris Silver Smith, who spoke on the subject of Semantic Markup for Local SEO.

Chris is the President of Dallas based Argent Media, based in Dallas, Texas. He works with clients across the country as a consultant in the areas of SEO, social media, and reputation management. He writes frequently for Search Engine Land, and is the Vice President of Programming for DFWSEM.

Semantic Markup for Local SEO

What Is Semantic Markup?

In the context of web pages, Semantic Markup uses the HTML and page coding to not only instruct the web browser on how to display the page, but also on how to convey meaning so that machines can better interpret the content.

The traditional use of the HTML code is to define how content is presented by the browser to the reader. For example the <h1> code is used for primary titles of articles, such as the one at the top of this page, and makes the text appear larger and bolder. The <i> tag would make text appear in italics. Semantic HTML is the use of code to tell search engines exactly what a piece of information is, not just how it appears.

Why Use Semantic Markup?

  1. Helps search engines to interpret your site correctly, increasing their confidence in assessing the meaning of your information.

    If you have a business with a storefront, you would want to include the address of where it is physically located. If all addresses were as simple as 123 Main Street this would not be an issue, but what if your address is 456 Memphis Avenue? Memphis in this case is a street name, but it can also be a city name, or a type of barbecue. This creates confusion for search engines. What Memphis is this site referring to? Using a snippet of semantic HTML you can tell Google that Memphis is a street name, eliminating the confusion.

  2. Increases the chances of getting Rich Snippets to appear with your web page results.

    Rich snippets, according to Google, “provide webmasters with the ability to add useful information to their web search results. The purpose is to present users with more information about the content that exists on a page so they can better decide which result is most relevant for their query.”

    Key takeaway: This may result in additional traffic to your site.

Rich Snippets for Local SEO

What Type of Rich Snippets Are Available?

There are several forms of rich snippets available for use, depending on what your site is about. Google Authorship is the most popular, and is applicable across all types of sites, followed by Breadcrumbs. You can also markup reviews, videos, events, coupons, among other unique identifiers. In depth detail can be found at Schema.org.

Google Authorship

The Holy Grail of rich snippets today is Google Authorship. When Google Authorship is enabled it has the potential to increase your rankings with Google. Not only does your site come up in the search engine results page (SERP), but your name and picture are shown as well – increasing your click through rate potential.

When Google Authorship is enabled it has the potential to increase your rankings with Google, and your picture and name will show up in search results increasing your click through rate.

When Google Authorship is enabled it has the potential to increase your rankings with Google, and your picture and name will show up in search results increasing your click through rate.

 

Have you set up your Google Authorship yet?

There still seems to be a great deal of confusion on how to do it.

We will explore that further in a future post, but the first thing you must do is setup a Google +, if you’ve not already done so.

Click here for a how-to set up the reciprocal link if you’re running a site on the WordPress/Genesis framework, or here for information, from our friends at Atomic Design & Consulting, on how to do it on other sites.

Breadcrumbs

In the children’s fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel, Hansel leaves a trail of bread crumbs on their trip into the forest so they can find their way back home. In the fairy tale world of Google, breadcrumbs help a user know where they are going on your site or where they are at on your site. In addition they provide additional navigation opportunities, which will in turn increase your click through rate.

Google Rich Snippet Breadcrumbs Help Users Know Where In Your Site They Are Going.

Google Rich Snippet Breadcrumbs Help Users Know Where In Your Site They Are Going.

 

Breadcrumbs appear on a site, as well as in the search results, making it easier to navigate.

Breadcrumbs appear on a site, as well as in the search results, making it easier to navigate.

Google explains them this way.

Reviews

Favorable product reviews appearing in search results increase your click through rate as well.

Google Rich Snippet Reviews Help Users Know How Others Have Rated a Product.

Google Rich Snippet Reviews Help Users Know How Others Have Rated a Product.

Other

There are several other semantic markups that you could potentially take advantage of. Chris wrote on article on Search Engine Land, 13 Semantic Markup Tips for 2013: A Local SEO Checklist, that is an additional great resource.

One Final Thought

Post to Twitter Tweet This

Filed Under: Past Meeting Info

Site Tools from Site Clinic Workshop Meeting

July 19, 2012 By

The list of tools referenced in the July DFWSEM meeting.

Research

•Adwords KW Tool

•SEOBook Keyword List Generator

•LongTailPro

•SEOmoz

•SEO Rush

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

•TextBroker

•The Content Authority

•Scribe SEO

•Fivver

ON-PAGE / ON-SITE

•Google Page Speed Tool

•Pingdom

•Screaming Frog

•Xenu Link Sleuth

•ManageWP

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

•Marin Software

•Kenshoo

•Webtrends

•Simpli.fi

REPORTING / ANALYTICS

•Google Analytics

•Advanced Web Rankings

•BrightEdge

•Raven Tools

Other Tools

•Fiverr

•InfoGr.am

•InfusionSoft

•Microsoft Excel

•Ubot

Post to Twitter Tweet This

Filed Under: Past Meeting Info

How Remarketing Can Complement An Existing Marketing Strategy January 18th 2012

January 26, 2012 By

In this meeting we heard from two experts in Remarketing.  Shelley Ellis and James Moore.

From Shelley:

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing is: a consumer action (visit to site, visits shopping cart, open email, etc.) equals an opportunity to cookie a consumer and use it later.

What is a cookie: a small snippet of code gets dropped onto your computer. Searcher visits another site and the searcher’s cookie tells the remarketing ad server to show your ad

Why Remarketing?: 87% lower Cost Per Conversion (CPC) than paid search and a 76% higher conversion rate
In Brand, OPM saw a 167% increase in impressions. Year over year an increase in non-paid traffic by 28% (client only used search and remarketing)

Remarketing can cover more than just simple visitors to the site.  It can also drill down into specific categories.  Done properly, you can offer the right discount to a consumer that didn’t complete a process.  To illustrate, offering free socks with a shoe purchase isn’t going to drive a person to convert that was looking at video games.

Some best practices:

  • Don’t use cookie cutter ads (generic, irrelevant)
  • Segregated your audience to be able to show them a unique and relevant
  • Test, pause and rotate your ads so they don’t get stale
  • Use Frequency capping (a cap in impressions…how many times on person sees your ad in one day)

From James Moore

There are various types of targeting options:

  • By Platform: demographic, device, OS, Browser+
  • Geographic targeting
  • Contextual targeting (target based on keyword based targeting)
  • Search Retargeting
  • Site Retargeting

Shelly was covering Site Retargeting, Simpli.fi and others focus on search retargeting.

“The profile of marketers shifting in the long term as the display space begins to more closely resemble search. Real Time bidding and keyword data is changing the face of brands marketing teams, with a greater requirement for technical and analytical skills due to the importance of data in managing display.” -Marketing week 2011

Search retargeting platforms perform by observing display inventory through the lens of search keyword sources.  Partner sites across the exchanges, where the cookie is deployed. When the cookie comes in, Google has tricks (subset of ip address) and people can identify you from your browser and device. Once that cookie comes back, with server side technology, they create a unique identifier for you (the searcher). And we may see someone 200 times over a 30 day period that is tied to one person. This is unique because for search marketers, you can give a search retargeting company a keyword list and they can tell you how many unique visitors by keyword over last 30 days that they can target with a display ad.  Upload the keyword data and get accurate reach, budget and performance info so you know what you’re getting into and scale it accordingly.

Search Marketers are more qualified to handle today’s (and the future’s) site retargeting advertising sphere because it’s just like paid keyword management/campaigns…and those who specialize in just display won’t be able to compete as well or understand it as well as search marketers. It’s a good time to be a search marketer!

Five reasons to get into retargeting:

  1. Search retargeting and RTB is DATA driven with thousands of segments! This is a search Marketers world
  2. Pre-existing knowledge of search keywords, contextual keywords, up funnel, branded terms, and keywords (we have the expertise to deploy search retargeting)
  3. The ongoing race to integrate search and display dollars and performance into one single platform and attribution system (there is a race to understand attribution, a cocktail that produces a conversion)
  4. Search retargeting is the smartest and most relevant behavior targeting segment available in display just north of site remarketing. People are hungry for a platform that’s more transparent (not 3rd party ad network they don’t trust)
  5. There is really cool differences between keyword level search retargeting and paid search such as: no quality score restrictions, keyword cost differences, look-a-likes and ability and more

Post to Twitter Tweet This

Filed Under: Meetings, Past Meeting Info

December 13, 2011 By

Join us Tuesday, December 6th for Board Member Elections

On December 6th at 5:30PM the DFWSEM board of directors will be holding a special session for the election of new board members. If you are a current member in good standing with DFWSEM (all dues paid) and are interested in placing your name in nomination to join the DFWSEM board, please be at the offices of Barrera Search Marketing in Dallas at 5:30PM on December 6th.

Details

The DFWSEM board is opening nominations for board positions in 2012. If you are interested in being considered for the board, you MUST be in attendance. All nominees will be considered by the board and a vote will be held at this time. If you are interested, you will have 2 minutes to present your name and reason for consideration. After all presentations, we will conduct a private vote and let the nominees know.

In addition, the board will be electing officers for the organization after the new board is elected. New board members that are interested may be considered and nominated for one of the officer slots within the leadership.

Please contact Mark Barrera at 214.908.0954 if you have any questions or email info@dfwsem.org. We look forward to seeing you on December 6 at 5:30PM (sharp).

Where:
Barrera Search Marketing
2211 North Lamar, Suite 305-A (3rd Floor)
Dallas, TX 75202
214-908-0954
For a map of the location, CLICK HERE.

Parking Information:

2 hours of free parking is available in the Retail parking garage located on Victory Avenue before Continental.   Otherwise, there is metered parking along N. Houston and N. Lamar Streets.

The entry to the office is accessed via N. Lamar Street, right across from the House of Blues and behind the Hooter’s restaurant and Dick’s Last Resort.  The office is located on the third floor in Suite 305.

Refer any questions to info@dfwsem.org or call Mark Barrera at 214-908-0954.

Post to Twitter Tweet This

Filed Under: Past Meeting Info
« Older Posts