How To Be Ready For The Next Google Algorithm Update on April 21, 2015?

Many website owners now started to receive warnings on their GWMT accounts telling them that their websites have issues on being friendly on mobile devices, and most of these issues are speed related.

Then Last Month Google has announced it will release an update on April 21st, which will have a significant impact on websites that are NOT mobile friendly. According to Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Zineb Ait Bahajji the coming Mobile Update will have a much stronger impact then any Panda update!


As a marketer, I now have to know how big this difference will be on my domain and where there is specific room for optimization. Because if the traffic from mobile devices continues to rise, and the wheat separates from the chaff, then I have only a few possibilities to find out the following points:

1. What is the status of my mobile performance?
2. What do I ideally have to do to improve it?
3. What does my competition look like?

It is therefore even more important to have a basis of comparison in which the specific difference between my Desktop and Mobile Visibility can be recognized.

Search Metrics have already collected & analyzed data last year for providing facts about differences of the Mobile SEO Ranking Factors. The split between mobile and desktop search results is measurable. At their last Mobile Ranking Factor study in 2014 the difference of URLs between Desktop and Mobile index was already 36%.

Here is an excerpt of their findings:

"It’s for this reason that we have been tracking the same keywords for months in the mobile area as we have for desktop searches. This is, firstly, to see how the results keep differentiating more and more (which they definitely do) and, secondly, with the intention of giving our users the opportunity to have more evidence for their optimization.

And so, the time has come: the Mobile SEO Visibility (Beta) is now available as a KPI in the Searchmetrics Suite for all users, providing first indications for figuring out main differences between Desktop and Mobile SEO Visibility.

Comparability of Desktop and Mobile Visibility

The starting problem is: Desktop and Mobile cannot really be compared and analyzed to one another under real conditions. In the mobile area, there are different click-through-rates, search volumes, user intentions and the influence of local parameters on the search results is different.

Nevertheless, we want to make a comparison between Desktop and Mobile index possible and have converted our calculation of the normal SEO Visibility – which is based on a dynamic CTR calculation by machine learning algorithms – 1:1 to mobile. Why? Because we consider it to be intrinsic to prepare a mutual basis as a KPI in the form of this comparison. Especially to see how the performance is now and how it will change at April 21st.

The Mobile SEO Visibility will be updated weekly.

We have decided on an Android smartphone as a user agent. Differences between iOS and Android can occur, but in my opinion they are irrelevant, as the only differences that I have previously witnessed occur in queries for apps. For example, if you search for ‘netflix’, the Apple App Store ranks on an iPhone, whereas the Google Play Store ranks on an Android. This is also the reason why apple.com and google.com show such great deviations in Mobile SEO Visibility. Other than this, there have not been any further relevant differences between these domains so far.

Mobile SEO Visibility with desktop comparison at a glance

From now on, there are new KPIs for the evaluation of Mobile SEO Visibility (Beta) in the research area. The new search result page of the Searchmetrics Suite in the research area looks like this:

The rank overview, which was previously displayed across the entire page width, has moved to a closed circular graphic on the left side – in favor of the new ‘Desktop vs Mobile’ KPI. By the way, we have dubbed this circular graphic ‘mojo’, as in Austin Powers, as it shows at a glance how much mojo a domain has in a respective country and which channel works best!

We have also pre-calculated the Mobile SEO Visibility on all subdomains so that you can see how a mobile subdomain, such as en.m.wikipedia.org or m.imdb.com, performs.

The new KPIs and possibilities at a glance:

• Desktop vs Mobile Visibility – comparison of visibility on the same database
  • Difference been Desktop and Mobile Visibility (circular graphic with percentage overlap of the respective Visibility)
  • Trend desktop/trend mobile – to previous week
• Mobile SEO Visibility (SEO research)
• Mobile Paid Visibility (SEO research)
• Mojo with the ranks for SEO, paid, social and links
• Toplist domains (top 10/ top 100) comparison of SEO visibility desktop vs mobile

1. Recognize problem: same database for desktop and mobile

This ‘Desktop vs Mobile’ KPI offers the simplest way to create comparability between Desktop and Mobile Visibility performance. In order to ensure this comparability, we work with identical CTR calculation and search volume on the basis of desktop values.

2. Solve problem: individual data for mobile

We know that both CTR and search volume differ in the mobile area. We have already been working with mobile data for years and have even offered mobile rankings in the project area of our Suite since June 2013. Therefore, we recommend this new Mobile SEO Visibility (Beta) only be used as an indicator in order to understand how the performance between mobile and desktop differs.

Specific analyses in the project area

For an optimum mobile measurement of performance, individual, local rankings for mobile with individual mobile search volume are necessary. We offer this data and functionality within the project area in the Searchmetrics Suite using more than 800 search machine/country/device combinations.

Conclusion: From data comparison to deep analysis

The new ‘Desktop vs Mobile’ KPI can been seen as the starting point for recognizing how big the overlap between my Desktop and my Mobile Visibility is. Furthermore, the trend shows at a glance how my performance has recently developed. Due to the fact that this KPI is part of the research area, all users of the Suite benefit from this update, which spans not only the SEO but also the PPC area.

In order to be prepared for April 21 – Google’s mobile update – and thereafter, the tracking of concrete mobile rankings is required. This is already available in the project area of the Suite, taking into account also historical developments and individual data.

Check out the current status of your Desktop vs Mobile Visibility and start projects in order to track your individual performance.

suite.searchmetrics.com/en/research.

PPC ads on Google Play Store SERPS

Like with Adwords ads on Google SERP (Search ads), Mobile app developers will soon be able to run PPC ads on the Google Play results page.

It is of course different than the current mobile advertising system, where advertisers (whether app developers or anything else) could target only other mobile apps.

The ad listing will look something like the Adwords ads we see everyday on Google Search Engine Result Pages.

Google Play now reaches more than 1 billion people on Android devices in more than 190 countries, helping a growing number of developers like you build successful global businesses. In fact, in the past year, we paid more than $7 billion to developers distributing apps and games on Google Play. We remain as committed as ever to making Google Play the best place to find great apps, games and other entertainment.

App discovery plays a critical role in driving your continued success, and over the past year Google has provided bestpractices to enhance app discovery and engagement, as well as app promotion tools to get the most out of search and display advertising for developers. We are always looking for new ways to help you get your apps in front of potential new users. That’s why, in the next few weeks, we will begin piloting sponsored search results on Google Play, bringing our unique expertise in search ads to the store.

With more than 100 billion searches every month on Google.com, we’ve seen how search ads shown next to organic search results on Google.com can significantly improve content discovery for users and advertisers, both large and small. Search ads on Google Play will enable developers to drive more awareness of their apps and provide consumers new ways to discover apps that they otherwise might have missed.

In the coming weeks, a limited set of users will begin to see ads from a pilot group of advertisers who are already running Google search ads for their apps. We’ll have more to share in the coming months about the expansion of this program as we look at the results and feedback. We believe search ads will be a useful addition to Google Play for users and developers alike, and we hope this will bring even more success to our developer community.

Source: 

• Michael Siliski, Product Management Director, Google Play
• http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2015/02/27/google-enables-app-search-ads-in-google-play-store.aspx 

How Egypt and India are Threatening The Future of Facebook?

As you may know, Facebook exists and grows because of the ads they run on the right side bar. When people click on those ads, the advertisers pay Facebook per each click (or 'Like').

You might also heard of 'Click Farms', where some small companies or individuals charge a facebook page a small amount of money to send them 'Fake' visits and Likes.

How Click Farms Work?

Simply, how these Click Farms work is by hiring people in developing countries like Egypt, India, Indonesia, etc. to Like advertised pages with fake accounts.

What about Legitimate clicks on Facebook Ads?

Even legitimate clicks on Facebook Ads could also generate Fake likes from fake FB accounts because click farmers sometimes click "Randomly" on ads to avoid being suspicious and caught by Facebook Quality Assurance team.
That is what Veritasium, a famous YouTube Channel, tried to proof in a video last week. They ran a nice experiment to proof that even paid ads generate fake likes.

Although the experiment looks interesting, but I do not think it is accurate. I myself tried to run a Facebook Campaign before for a Saudi Arabian Social Activist page to get him many likes for his Facebook Statuses and shared articles but I could not get any clicks although the bidding was set to be too high and the impressions were in thousands. But No Clicks! because the ads were too serious and very restrictive. 

Plus, what makes me believe that the above experiment is not accurate is that how come a Targeted campaign limiting the ad view to the US and Canada get clicks from Egypt? It is technically impossible unless the Click Farmers are using proxies to click on ads targeting Canada, but do they? 

Why Would Such a problem threaten Facebook?

As I said before, Facebook's revenue is coming from Pay per Click Advertising. So, if Facebook is taking money for Fake clicks, and it was proven, Advertisers will stop advertising with the Facebook model provided that they won't sue the company for the thousands they previously paid in vain. 
The US State Department paid 650,000 dollars on Facebook Ads and got less than 2% engagement. 

Conclusion,

Although Click Farms are getting more and more popular and they sometimes click on Facebook Ads, I believe that a company as big as Facebook knows very well how to avoid such invalid clicks, because without Strict Quality Assurance, the will be history. 

Read More: 

How low-paid workers at 'click farms' create appearance of online popularity

Fake facebook twitter and youtube clicks are big business

Mobile Marketing FutureTrends Infographic

There are 1.2 Billion people accessing the web with their mobile devices whether they are smartphones, tablets, or a regular phone with a browser. Did you also know that 58% of people who own smartphones have used them for store-related shopping? It’s no surprise that ecommerce and brick-and-mortar companies are all working hard to bring mobile shopping options to their customers.

The real question is: are you leveraging mobile technology?

It’s estimated that 63% of people expect to do more shopping on their mobile devices over the next couple of years. As mobile shopping continues to rise steadily in popularity, it’s important for you to stay ahead of the game in order to maintain relationships with your customers to make sure they keep coming back for more.

With Black Friday just around the corner, now is the time for businesses to learn more about how their customers will be shopping this holiday season. My hopes are that the following infographic convinces you to leverage mobile devices:

Infographic Source: http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/09/19/why-all-marketers-should-be-thinking-mobile/?display=wide 

Bounces to Leads Converter - The Ice Breaker of E-Commerce

I got a crazy idea that I believe will rock the SEO world.

let's agree first that SEO (and PPC) are not about traffic anymore but about Revenue and Sales.

Even if you are not selling any product, you need the traffic to sell ads of third parties.

OK then..

Do you know that the only challenge in SEO (and PPC) campaigns is not to drive traffic but to keep them? and what is really more challenging is to convert them to Leads to buy what you are offering.

70-96% of visitors abandoning your site will never return  

Here are even more facts:

• 90%-99% Of Your Marketing Spend Is Completely Worthless
• Email is a phenomenal profit driver, however most websites capture less than 1 in 400 emails from visitors (who have not purchased)
• Up to 85% of shoppers who add to cart DO NOT BUY ANYTHING

Imagine:

Mrs. Lynda owns a store in a Big Mall and Mr. Christopher happened to pass by her nice store when he was doing his weekly shopping. He stayed for a couple of minutes, went through her products, felt interested in some of them, checked the prices, thought of dropping her store another visit when he is prepared to buy, then he left. 

30 minutes later, he entered another store selling the same products like you do, but the store looked better with more promotions and friendly staff. A cute saleswoman broke the ice and approached him. She asked him about what he is looking for, they talked for a while, she showed him some products, he was convinced and bought what he needed. 

And never came back to poor Mrs. Lynda who is selling the same thing. 

The Lesson here is: Sales NEED Ice-Breakers 

So,

The tool I created is not an invention per se albeit it does not exist yet. 

It is a combination of 3 already existing tools, but in one All-In-One Powerful onsite SEO tool

That I will call The Bounces2Leads Tool (AKA, The Ice Breaker of E-commerce) 

What it does:

It simply detects when a visitor abandons the website, then after they do, a window appears asking the visitor to chat with a representative if they have any inquiries before they leave.  

So, it is using the Bounce Exchange service but instead of popping up a banner, it will pop up a chatting window with a real person representative. 

Here is How Bounce Exchange Works:

As for the chatting services you can find hundreds of software online to choose from (I prefer those that can forward chats to Google Hangouts and can go mobile)

Finally, you can have an email marketing software to manage your newsletter in case your visitor preferred to leave their email address instead of chatting with a rep. 

But why have 3 services with a cost more than 3000$ if you can have only one that does it all for a fraction of that price (I did not price it yet but it will be way cheaper)

How to Calculate your ROI for Online Advertising campaigns?

3 Years ago, a Sales Manager at Google Adwords, and a friend too, told me if you know the power of Online Adverting, you will keep your campaigns "Always On". Because if for every 1000$ you pay on advertising you gain 1300$ revenue, then why limit your budget if profit can be unlimited?

So, to be more convincing we need to Calculate the net profit by subtracting your costs from your AdWords revenue for a given time period. Then divide your net profit by your AdWords costs to get your AdWords ROI for that time period. 

Here's an example:

($1300               -	$1000)        /	$1000        =	0.3
Your revenue (measured by conversions)	Your overall costs	Your AdWords costs	Your ratio of profit to advertising cost is 30% -- this is your AdWords ROI.

Sometimes your ROI may require a different formula. For example, if you're interested in calculating the ROI for a page view or lead, you'll have to estimate the values of each of these actions.

A Yellow Pages ad for your business may cost $1000 per year and result in 100 leads. Ten of those leads become customers, and each customer provides a net profit of $120, after taking your business costs into account. So the value of each lead is $12 ($1200 net profit/100 leads), and your ROI for the Yellow Pages ad is 120% ($1200 net profit/$1000 advertising cost) x 100.

Here's the formula used in this example: (Total revenue - Total cost)/Advertising costs x 100 = Advertising ROI %

A simple alternative to estimating values for your leads and page views is to use a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) measurement. Acquisitions are the same thing as conversions: they're actions your customers take that you think are valuable, such as completing a purchase or signing up to receive more information.

Using this method allows you to focus primarily on how your advertising costs compare to the number of acquisitions those costs deliver. Using the Yellow Pages example again, your ad may cost $1000, resulting in 10 sales. So your CPA for that ad is $100. Here's the formula for CPA: 

(Costs/Sales) = CPA

Your CPA shouldn't exceed the profit you made from each acquisition. For your Yellow Pages ad, the CPA is 20% less than the profit the acquisitions provide.

Formula to calculate Cost Per Acquisition

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is calculated as:

ad campaign cost/[number of impressions x CTR x CR]. 

Example: an advertiser pays a CPM of $10. For 20,000 impressions the advertiser has 5 percent click-through rate (CTR) to the landing (destination page). 30 percent of those 5 percent convert to paying customers(CR).

The calculation is: ($10.00 * 20,000Impressions / 1000)/(20,000*0.05*0.30) = $0.67. That is, the cost per acquisition is $0.67.

See Also:

• Cost Per Acuisition Formula for Local Business (Video)

Mobile Search Advertising Around the Globe - Download 2013 Report

With smart mobile devices becoming ubiquitous, advertisers need to adapt their online marketing strategies to more closely reflect how people search, buy and share. Specifically, marketers will need to learn how to communicate with an always-on audience, think harder about allocating ad budgets across devices, and develop better attribution models to account for the fading boundaries between online and offline commerce.

Written for the online marketer, in this white paper you will learn:

1. The latest mobile search trends and projections
2. Advertising cost and performance across devices
3. How to optimize mobile search opportunities

Download the Report 

Conversions from Mobile Search: New Research - Infographic

Google and Nielsen have conducted a new research that all marketers should consider seriously:

77% of mobile searches happening at home or at work

and half of mobile search conversions happen in one hour

here is the official Blog Post on Google Mobile Ads Blog


and here is the infographic:

Download a High resolution PDF copy of the infographic 

Mobile Traffic and Advertising In 2013: infographic

Smart Ad Server has created an interesting infographic about 3 Key Points About Mobile Advertising You Should Know In 2013. 

1- Mobile Traffic Vs Desktop in 20132- Mobile web Vs. Mobile apps 3- Ad performance and ad formats on different mobiles OS and platforms