Search Engine Optimization can be a mysterious field. Every other SEO guru has a different opinion about what tips, tricks or incantations cause your website to rank highly and cause conversions. These tips and tricks can be incredibly useful, and can certainly cause serious increases in your website’s traffic. What these lists don’t mention, however, is that SEO tricks alone do not make a website perform well. SEO tips, tricks and techniques should be icing on the cake.

The backbone of SEO is a well designed and well written website. A well designed website is intuitive and easy to use, and is fashioned to allow search engines to easily spider your site. This means that no pages are forgotten about or lost in space, and visitors to your site can easily navigate to their intended destination. No amount of SEO is going to help your conversion rate if people can’t find what they’re looking for.

Well written copy also performs two basic functions: it provides important keywords, specifically keywords that help make long tail keywords, and it’s the primary source of communicating to your customers. Well written copy is a wealth of information for both search engines and visitors to your site. It allows search engines to determine what your site is all about, while giving important information about your company and your services to visitors.

This might seem a straightforward topic, but often times companies will pour money into SEO projects only to see drastic increases in website traffic that never converts, often due to web designers knowing little about SEO. Without a solid foundation, SEO will unlikely be able to help you reach your goals. Luckily, SEO specialists understand this. If you see phenomenal website traffic for qualified keywords, but not the conversion rates you’d like, it might be worth contacting an SEO company that conducts usability testing. They can help determine why your site is underperforming and can suggest ways to improve your website that dovetail with your current SEO strategies.

If you’ve been to one of our Google Analytics trainings, you may have heard me say this: tracking visitors from one domain to another is a huge pain in the neck. Whenever someone goes from domain1.com to domain2.com, you have to take their cookie data and pass it over to the second domain via the URL. If you don’t, the visitor generates a new visit and their referral data gets jacked up.

Normally, this is a tedious, manual procedure. After making a minor change to your Google Analytics Tracking Code, you then have to modify every link on domain1.com that takes a person to domain2.com. If you have a few links, no big deal. But what if you have thousands of them?

We’ve posted before about automating the cross-domain tracking process, but a lot has happened since then. Namely, Google Analytics has a sexy new asynchronous tracking code. So we finally got around to creating a script that automatically links domains using the new code syntax.

Not only that, but this script tracks outbound link clicks and downloads, all automatically. They’ll show up as events.

We’re pretty proud of it, and since it’s so darn useful to us, we figured we’d share it with you. Give it a try and let us know how it works for you!

Step 1: Modify Your Google Analytics Tracking Code

First, you’ll need to make sure that your Google Analytics Tracking Code is set up to allow for cross-domain tracking. The _setDomainName and _setAllowLinker methods are required for this to work:

var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-Y']);
_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'domain1.com']);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);

Make sure that _setDomainName is set to the second-level domain that the tracking code resides on.

Step 2: Download and Modify the Script

Click here to download the script, then modify the domains and file types you’d like to track.

If I wanted to track the domains lunametrics.com and lunametricsstore.com, I’d modify line 5 to read:

var domains=["lunametrics.com", "lunametricsstore.com"];

And if I wanted to automatically track downloads for PowerPoint presentations, I’d add .ppt to the list on line 6:

var fileTypes=[".doc", ".xls", ".exe", ".zip", ".pdf", ".mov", ".mp3", ".ppt"];

Step 3: Upload Script and Include on Pages

Upload the xdomain.js file to your web server and then reference it on all pages of your site. Place the reference below your Google Analytics Tracking Code:

<script src="/path/to/xdomain.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Because the script relies on jQuery, you will also have to reference the jQuery library at some point before the call to the script. You can download a copy of the jQuery library and host it on your web server, or just reference the one hosted by jQuery:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.6.4.min.js"></script>

Step 4: Test It!

To make sure the script is working, click on one of the links that takes a visitor from one domain to the other. Check the URL that displays in your browser location field after the new page loads. You should see a string of information in the query string:

You can also view your cookies (I use Firebug and Firecookie). Check out __utmb. The number after the first period is the pageview count. If cross-domain tracking isn’t configured properly, then it will reset when you hit the secondary domain.

__utmz should also maintain the proper referral. If you visit your primary domain directly and then move to your secondary domain, __utmz should still reflect this:

Conclusion

Hopefully this helps you set up cross-domain tracking (and outbound link tracking and file download tracking) on your site easily, without a lot of headaches.

This script was a collaborative effort by myself and Phil Anderson, who did most of the heavy lifting in jQuery. It’s supplied as-is. We’ve tested it internally, but it’s your responsibility to make sure it works on your own sites. And if you notice anything that doesn’t seem to be working, you’re free to correct the code. It’s released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, so feel free to modify and redistribute. We just ask that you keep the copyright notice on the top, and that you share any cool additions with us so we can use ‘em too!

Link building is tough. You wander through hundreds of websites, carefully dodging bad neighborhoods and figuring out to get past the gate and into the high profile communities.  You try to make new friends, but the webmasters and gatekeepers won’t give you the time of day. If only you already had a large group of friends in high places – folks who would be more than happy to vouch for you via link, folks whose hyper-linking votes of confidence really boosts your credibility to the search engines that be.

Well, chances are that you have more friends than you realize. They can and will help your SEO endeavors, and you’ve probably been ignoring many of them. Your web friends are your entire group of stakeholders – every person, group, or organization who has a stake in your organizations success.

At LunaMetrics, we’ve found that the relationships our clients have built over the years produce great backlinks. Stakeholder backlinks typically are often hard to duplicate, carry solid authority, exist in neighborhoods with small numbers of external links, and are genuine votes of confidence.  We’ve also found that these relationships aren’t always translated online into links, but they often do with just a little help.

Introducing… the Stakeholder Backlink Audit

Helping current relationships bear linkable fruit online has become such an important part of our link-building methodology that we’ve formalized the process into a method we’ve dubbed the Stakeholder Backlink Audit.

The Stakeholder Backlink Audit is a tool for ensuring your website is receiving as many links as possible from those parties who may have an interest in your organization’s success, and may be willing to link to your site. It is a systematic and thorough method of maximizing link love from all the relationships your organization has built.

The Stakeholder Backlink Audit has 3 steps: 1) List stakeholders 2) Review their websites 3) Request links. We’ll walk you through the process using a make believe company – a restaurant chain called Pittsburgh Premier Pizza.  We’ll also show you how to make a mean audit form.

Stakeholder Backlink Audit Step 1 – List stakeholders

First we need to take inventory. We recommend that you list on a spreadsheet every person or organization your organization has built a relationship with that you’d want as a referral source. This requires some help from your client or coworkers. Leave out any organizations you wouldn’t want to ask for a link from, and leave out any business relationships you want to keep private. Don’t worry yet about adding a bunch of details, checking the website, or checking for links. This step is simply all about building a nice long list of names, and being as thorough as possible. We’ll pare it down later.

You’ll want to build a sheet and pass it around the office. Your coworkers may have relationships you are totally unaware. We use an Excel form for this. We find it helpful to break down the stakeholders into categories, as it makes the process more manageable and makes it easier to think of names.

The various stakeholder groups you’ll encounter in your link building efforts include business partners, customers, associations, sponsorees, and alma maters. Let’s take a closer look at these stakeholder groups:

Business Partners – Includes suppliers, subcontractors, distributors, resellers and other partners.

• Tips: Leave out any business relationships you want to keep private! This is often a huge category, and you may want to break it down into subcategories.
• Some ways they link – Company’s often show where their products can be found or boast of reputable clients or brand names. They may name drop during case studies, testimonials, blog articles, or out of goodwill. Perhaps you are the best homebuilder in Pittsburgh, and your partners are more than happy to link to you because you’re so awesome (but maybe they just need a little reminder).
• Examples: McDonald’s Mushroom Farm; Pittsburgh Printing Press; SolarStats SEO

Customers

• Tip: This is also a good way to identify raving happy customers that may also write a review or testimonial.
• Ways they link – Businesses might list suppliers or recommend other businesses; some consumers blog about everything.
• Examples: Gourmet Gil the restaurant reviewer; Carnegie Mellon Mel, who writes for his university’s newspaper

Associations – Includes any association, organization, or business community you are a member of.

• Some ways they link – Member directories; news; pages covering events/exhibitions you participate in.
• Examples: Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce; Western PA BBBs; PA Restaurant Association;  Association of Pittsburgh Pizza Makers

Sponsorees – Any nonprofits and organizations you support and/or donate to.

• Tip: Time is money – so if you volunteer, that counts too.
• Some ways they link – “Sponsored by ______”; list of donors; Press Releases; donation announcements; event announcements.
• Examples:  Southside Little League; Pittsburgh Food Bank

Alma Maters – Schools your organizations employees graduated from.

• Tips: Good way to get the elusive “.edu” links.  Make special note if you have top executives that graduated from the school or if an employee remains highly active within the school (regular guest speaker, active in alumni association, etc…)
• Ways they link – Many schools have alumni business listings, alumni profiles, and success stories.
• Examples:  http://www.business.pitt.edu/alumni/news  http://www.upj.pitt.edu/19150 http://www.b-link.bucknell.edu/s/754/start-template.aspx?sid=754&gid=1&pgid=1284

I like to give each category of stakeholders a worksheet in the Excel workbook. Then I ask the client to provide stakeholder names and a very short description, and pass the workbook around the office until it is as full as possible.

Stakeholder Backlink Audit Step 2 – Review their websites

Now that we’ve built our list, it’s time to figure out which stakeholders we need to get in touch with and where the backlinks can go.

First you’ll need to see if you have a backlink. There are several methods of doing this, and I personally haven’t found a method I’m fully satisfied with. I’ll check domains in an Excel report of current backlinks and then I might do a Google Advanced Search for a client’s brand names in certain stakeholder sites. I pull the client backlink reports using Majestic SEO (via Raven Tools) and SeoMoz (Open Site Explorer) – these aren’t complete but will find majority of links and most of the important ones.

If there is a backlink, see if it would make sense to try to get more links or improve the current link with better placement or anchor text.

If there is no backlink, decide if it’s worth going for (expect many stakeholders not to link out as policy – sometimes you may not want to bother). If so, how are you going to make the link request and who is responsible for it? Often it’s best that the link request is made by the individual with the closest relationship to the stakeholder. Also, like with all link-building, it’s common that you may have to work for the link, so note how.

When you’ve finished reviewing websites, your Excel audit form will look something like this:

Stakeholder Backlink Audit Step 3 – Request those links

By now, you’ve checked all the stakeholders sites for backlinks and you have an idea of how you’re going to go about getting those links. Again, like with all-link building there is going to be rejection, you will have plenty of waiting, and you may have to perform additional work for the links. You may need to write testimonials, fill out submission forms, hunt down webmasters, submit specially formatted logos, guest blog, write news snippets, and who knows what else.

Being as organized and systematic as possible will lower your work load – you could use the Excel form with comments to track and organize your requests or you can you a backlink manager tool (I use Raven Tools which has a neat browser tool). And always remember the golden rule – treat your stakeholders well if you want them to do the same to you.

It is work, but when you complete your Stakeholder Backlink Audit you will have added some quality, hard-to-duplicate, natural backlinks to your growing link profile.

We recommend that every website perform this backlink audit at least once. Let us know how it works out for you or if you have any comments!

Over the years there have been both complaints and praises about Google’s approach to geo-targeting: while it provides advertisers with the ability to further refine their campaigns to increase conversion rates and other metrics, there were (and are) still a few things missing that AdWords marketers have been wishing for; unfortunately, Google’s recent update to its location targeting tool didn’t solve these issues.

Previous Location Targeting Downfalls

One major complaint of advertisers was that there was no real “zip code” targeting available.  While you could (previously) enter zip codes within the geo-targeting settings in the AdWords interface, Google did not translate this into a true equivalent area if you uploaded them via bulk, and instead converted them into the accompanying city.  In order to get a more precise “zip code” geographic area (but still not the true exact zip area), locations had to be entered manually, which for those marketers using zip codes to target, resulted in a plethora of extra work.  This brought many advertisers to use Custom Shape targeting, by looking up the vicinity of the actual zip code, then essentially “drawing” a geo-targeted shape where the zip code(s) (or other geographic areas) were located.

Issues with the Updated Location Targeting Tool

Recently, Google changed their location targeting tool, which in the minds of many advertisers, only made many of the above issues worse.  Some previously offered options were phased out with the update, only multiplying certain problems.

• Bulk Uploads: no longer does Google offer the option of essentially copying and pasting locations into the location targeting tool within the AdWords interface – yes, it’s gone altogether.  While Google may have good reason for this, all I can see are the negatives (and extra work) this is bringing upon campaign managers across the globe.  For all you advertisers out there who target a large amount of specific locations within your account, get ready to spend an incredibly large amount of time setting these locations.  While you still have the “option” of targeting to more than one location within your campaigns, each location needs to be added individually in the interface, or multiple locations can be chosen at once using the CTRL button within the Editor.

• Zip Codes: while Google’s previous “solution” to zip code targeting left much to be desired, it’s now gone  altogether as an option.  If you have a list of zip codes that need to be targeted, those will have to be converted into cities, or entered as coordinates.  Although the old targeting tool didn’t offer the best zip code targeting options, at least it offered something.

• Custom Shape Targeting: I’ve encountered many advertisers who have used this as a more precise solution to the previous zip code targeting, but it required a lot of extra work – looking up the shape of the zip code area itself and essentially “drawing” it as closely as possible within the AdWords interface.  It was also a great option for those marketers who didn’t want to necessarily target a specific country, city, state, region, etc. and instead saw success in more sporadic areas.  Custom Shape targeting was removed as an option in July of this year, and campaigns that already had custom shapes in place will only be able to maintain these settings until the end of this year.  Removal of this feature will cause advertisers to rely on other targeting options (that may not work as well for them), but the best option may be to target by radius, assuming you can obtain the coordinates necessary.  If you previously had custom shape targeting set up in any of your campaigns, you will now see the message “Feature removal planned” when viewing your campaigns’ location settings.  After 2011, your custom shapes will convert into available locations in AdWords or to a map point with a radius.

While Google’s new location targeting tool looks a lot sleeker and does offer some cool updates (‘Reach’ number, ‘Limited Reach’ messaging, and improved accuracy to name a few), the removal of many previous options will be leaving a lot of advertisers frustrated, and will result in additional time being spent on something that was previously done so quickly.  Maybe there’s a chance that Google will release a new and much improved location targeting tool in the near future (which would hopefully bring back the beloved bulk upload option), but until then, many advertisers will have to give their geo-targeting settings and strategies a facelift.

Playing the saddest song in the world...

Over the past few weeks since Google implemented SSL encrypted search results pages that block keyword data for users signed into their Google accounts, SEOs have been pulling their hair and gnashing their teeth. It’s true, and it’s warranted. One of the best SEO KPIs is reporting on the quantity of organic search traffic generated by highly qualified keywords. Now that between 9 and 20% of this data is generic, it’s harder for us to prove our worth and progress. So we’re justifiably upset.

However, as objectively as I can be, I would say that removing data for organic searches has far wider reaching consequences than depriving SEOs of one of their prime KPIs.

One of my friends who owns a great hip hop dance video eCommerce store and I got into a debate last weekend about how it’s not just SEOs who are affected by this change. My argument, which I could not deliver with any eloquence that night, (Friday at 10pm after happy hour and wine at dinner — you do the math.) I will now present here.

Why The (Not Provided) Keyword Hurts the Web

Let me begin by asking a question: Why do webmasters care about rankings? Because rankings=traffic and traffic=some benefit (either monetary or otherwise.) The only thing that webmasters want to do is get their site ranking for relevant terms that drive qualified traffic. To do so, they optimize their sites for those terms.

It is in the webmasters’ best interests to focus on keywords that drive qualified traffic, and to make their site as relevant as possible for this valuable traffic. But how, you may ask, do webmasters know whether they are optimizing for the right things?

What if someone searching for “vice grips” typically wants to buy and someone searching for “locking wrench” typically wants to find out more about the applications for that tool? Both of those words could apply to the same tool, so webmasters look at their conversion data and engagement metrics to find out how to make their site fit the wants and needs of the searcher.

By doing so, they inadvertently give the search engines exactly what they need and want: a page that matches user intent and is valuable to the searcher — who will then use that search engine again because the results were exactly what they were looking for.

The decision to try to rank a product page for vice grips vs. locking wrench has to be informed by keyword data since Google doesn’t provide exact clickthrough data — even through webmasters tools. This data should be statistically significant.

I would hazard a guess, however, that most sites out there don’t have statistically significant traffic over the short term. So even if the site really IS the best result for a specific search, they are already at a disadvantage. Now, however, about 10 – 20% of their already slim keyword data is generalized.

So, the webmaster makes a decision based on personal preference or the opinions of peers in his industry and optimizes his sales page for vice grips. He manages to rank pretty highly for that and can’t understand why people are bouncing so much.

Google, in turn is ranking him appropriately to his level of optimization, but for the wrong keyword and the result is not what the user was looking for so they loose too.

*sigh*

So, why is Google denying analytics users this important information? There is a lot of speculation that it is in an effort to push site owners to depend more on paid search data… up their paid search traffic since they can’t get accurate data through the organic channel anymore.

If this is the case, it seems really short sited to me. The only reason why most people search Google is to get the organic results. Clicking on a paid result is a bonus. If the organic results decline because webmasters don’t have the right information to make education decisions about their site, then Google looses money because people will start using other engines.

If they really are trying to stave off a privacy issue, either present or future, then why is the data still available for paid search? Have people that click on paid links entered into some type of implicit agreement that their search data is less private than those who click on organic results?

Regardless of their motives, the change will detrimentally affect the web in general, search results specifically, and the ability webmasters to make good decisions.

As an SEO, I admit that I’m personally put out by these changes because they make my job harder and who likes that? (See above image.) However, I really and truly believe that the web as a whole will be drastically and negatively affected, especially if more and more people sign in to a Google account while searching.

Yes, Google+ recently launched but the prevalence of Facebook as a social platform hasn’t changed, especially for marketers. There are a ton of tutorial videos out there, giving insights on different aspects of what Facebook offers marketers. I’ve sifted through the lot and pulled out a list of some of the most helpful Facebook video tutorials for marketing purposes. Here are my top video suggestions:

1. From Awareness to Sale via Facebook Studio

This video from Facebook itself, helps simply conceptualize the purchase cycle from people engaging on Facebook. This short video is a great way to visualize the power of recommendations from friends and how Facebook is merely echoing recommendation on a measurable scale. It helps give you a simple way to explain the importance of Facebook for business to others (clients) and how a marketer can connect with customers at every point of the purchase cycle.

2. Facebook Marketing Best Practices via Mari Smith + HubSpot

This video helps highlight everything from the type of content you should be sharing on Facebook (short and sweet is the way to go), metrics to monitor your success within Facebook (engagement per post), the benefits of Facebook Places (there’s lots) and more. Mari Smith, one of the many social media gurus out there, highlights these features in an interview conducted by HubSpot. It’s half hour long video, but worth the info, even if you skip through to different parts of the video.

3. The New Facebook Subscribe Feature via Social Networking Academy

Brought to you by the Social Networking Academy, this video gives you an in-depth look at Facebook’s Subscribe Feature. This feature, part of the round of updates following F8 and the launch of Google+, has a lot of potential for marketers and publishers on Facebook. By allowing people to follow your public updates from your profile and following the public updates of others, you can help grow a larger, more influential network and gain more exposure for the content you’re sharing. Learn how to allow this feature and how it affects your messaging across Facebook.

4. Anatomy and Best Practices for Facebook Ads via Traffika

Facebook ads are one of the big money makers for Facebook as a company, but they can also help benefit you as a marketer by expanding the reach of the existing content you’re already sharing on Facebook. With amazing targeting capabilities and social features to the ad’s, Facebook ads can be a real benefit. This video by Traffika, highlights the four parts of a traditional Facebook ad and how to use them inline with best practices for higher conversions.

5. Converting Your Facebook Personal Profile into a Facebook Page via Social Vision Media

Pages are the official home for business, brands and public figures on Facebook. However, many businesses are still using a regular Facebook Profile to represent themselves on the platform. This is against Facebook’s terms of service and is a very limited way to connect with a network of loyal fans. Social Vision Media shows you how to convert a personal Profile on Facebook to a Page, changing your friends over to fans, therefore saving your connections and moving them to the appropriate place on the network. This is where you should begin when starting this tutorial: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18918

6. The World Is Obsessed With Facebook via Alex Trimpe

Facebook and social media is still in its infancy and many people are still doubting its importance. Alex Trimpe put together a wonderful two minute video of some of the most shocking facts and statistics about user activity on the social media giant. This is a resource in terms of viable facts and figures you as a marketer can share with your CEO, potential clients and any one else that is unclear of the benefit Facebook offers.

7. How Facebook Social Plugins Work via Facebook

Soon after the Facebook like button was released, plugins hit the scene. This has helped thousands of websites further connect their web visitors to their social audience and vice versa. Social plugins have been around for awhile now, so you would assume most websites would have implemented them but surprisingly, many still haven’t. This video is a quick and simple overview of how Facebook social plugins are a benefit to any website looking to connect and influence their audience.

8. Eight Ways to Find Great Social Media Content via Mari Smith + Social Media Examiner

Lastly, content is and always will be the driving force behind social media, especially on Facebook. Again, Mari Smith takes us through a tour of some of the most important and effective ways to find content to share about your brand on Facebook. Watch the video to learn ways to find content, like using Google Alerts or Google Reader to find brand mentions.

Have you come across other beneficial Facebook marketing videos? Share these videos with us in the comment section below if they’re worth a look, we’d love to see what you’ve got!

Now that Google’s SSL search for signed-in users has been in place for a while (since October 18), I thought I’d take a look at how things have been affected so far. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, first crawl out from under your rock. Then, go read Christina’s post (Google Analytics Keyword Not Provided) from a few weeks ago. I’d also highly recommend this insightful piece from Danny Sullivan, which dives into Google’s real reason for doing this.

Google only started rolling the SSL search out to users on October 18. From the graph below (which others have also seen for their own sites) you can see that the first two weeks didn’t see much action. Most sites were in the 1-3% of Google organic search visits being affected, and I actually let myself begin to believe that maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad after all. Then reality kicked me in the teeth. On Monday October 31, the number of logged-in users who got the default https search page started to sharply increase, finally plateauing on Thursday of the same week. It’s held steady there for the past 8 days.

As you can see from the graph above, things are looking a bit grim for LunaMetrics’ organic keywords report. We’re currently missing about 25% of the keywords from people who get to us from a Google organic search result. However, our numbers are bound to be higher than average, right? After all, you (our valued reader) are most likely signed in to a Google account right now (you probably even have your Google Analytics up on your second monitor, don’t you?).

To get a more complete and less biased look at the overall effect of Google’s SSL search, I took a look at a number of sites in a wide range of industries. Here are the details:

Timeframe: Nov. 2 – 9, 2011 (this is the past 8 days, which have seen relatively stable numbers)

# of Web Properties: 117

Total Google Organic Search Visits: 13,564,118

Encrypted Google Organic Search Visits (keyword not provided): 1,238,297

Average % of (not provided) keywords: 9.13%

Highest % of (not provided) keywords: 28.33%

Lowest % of (not provided) keywords: 3.82%

The graph below shows the distribution of how the 117 sites I looked at were affected (click to enlarge):

So Matt Cutts’ estimation that SSL search would only affect single-digit percentages of searchers is still holding true (in aggregate). But as you can see from the numbers above, the number of signed-in Google users that reach your site will vary greatly depending on your industry. The silver lining in this is at least we’re able to easily measure the effects of SSL search using Google Analytics and a couple of advanced segments.

It often seems Search Engine Optimization boils down to a battle royale over keyword. Websites stake out their high search volume, high competition keyword; battle lines are drawn. From social media strategies to rapidly updated blogs to link building campaigns, websites maneuver to have greater search engine equity. Unfortunately, websites often win the battle only to find the victory hollow. The keyword wrested from the hands of their enemies don’t equal the legions of new customers or hoards of adoring fans that they expected. Their hard work has earned them but an empty title. There are two lessons to be learned here: high powered keywords are not always to be coveted and finely tuned research is never a waste of time.

Source: http://www.gabehoggarth.com

Everyone wants to rank highly for the big keywords. There’s nothing more gratifying than finding your website sitting pretty on that first page. This prominent placement, however, is not a golden ticket to successfully driving targeted traffic. Head keywords comprise only a small portion of overall searches.

A study Bill Tancer did in 2008 helps illustrate the importance of long tail keyphrases. He did a study on 14 million searches and found that the top 10,000 keywords in his sample only brought in 18.5% of the searches. The remaining keywords, called “long tail keywords”, made up the remaining 81.5%. Clearly, this means placing endless resources into cornering the market on a small handful of keywords is not an effective strategy.

That’s not to say that keyword research is to be ignored. It’s fairly safe to say that head keywords are indicative of where public interest lies. If many people search for “sprockets” each month, you can be sure people are searching for related long tail keywords  that include the word “sprocket”.  Similarly, if your research shows that only a handful of people search for “gizmo” a month, you’ll likely see minimal long tail keywords surrounding that topic.

This keyword research can then be used with great success to determine a category, or even the terminology, best used to garner long tail queries. For example, when using a tool such as Google Adwords to search for key phrase “spaghetti”, the related results show that “spaghetti noodle” has a much higher search volume than “spaghetti pasta.” As spaghetti noodles have a high search volume, there are bound to be many long tail keywords surrounding the phrase. Writing well informed copy that touches on a variety of spaghetti related subjects is likely to bring in more searches than trying to claw your way to the front page for “spaghetti noodles”.

Effective SEO is always an exercise in moderation. If your website is trying to sell sprockets, writing a dissertation on the history, popular opinion, and news coverage of sprockets will likely do very little to actually sell sprockets. Your copy should gear towards long tail keywords that will actively help with your goal. For selling sprockets, the copy might discuss why sprockets are a better choice than widgets, how buying a sprocket can help save you money, and why your sprockets are superior to other sprockets.

By adding relevant content, you are likely to pull more qualified customers by narrowing down customer intent. Landing on the first page for “nails” isn’t helpful if your company sells nails, as user intent could be for hardware or a nail salon. By creating broad content about selling nails, you’re more likely to show up on the first page of a variety of long tail queries about buying nails, instead of stuffed between nail salon information.

When aiming for long tail keywords, SEO basics are still in effect. Optimize header and title tags. Write keyword rich meta descriptions. Use appropriate anchor text for internal linking. The biggest difference in optimization when targeting long tail keywords is going with big picture ideas when possible. Actively optimizing header and title tags for long tail keywords isn’t possible. As such, supply headers and titles with big picture keywords, and let the copy supply the data for long tail keywords. Instead of optimizing headers and titles with “sprocket installation tips” use “sprocket installation”. This shorter title gives the page greater flexibility without losing its intended direction.

The push for page ranking for a handful of keywords is the classic problem of not seeing the forest for the trees. What you have to understand is that behind those big keywords are literally tens of thousands of long tail key phrases. By generating broad but relevant content, and using keyword research to help shape your decisions, you can tap into these long tail keywords and  bring in a wealth of customers, without the hassle of the battle royale.

This labs tool from visual.ly is lots of fun. After I created it, Brian (who works here at Luna in social media) and I reviewed the results together. He is such a bigger tweeter than I am that the results were surprising to me. (BTW, the company doesn’t really explain their algorithm, but they do say that the avatars are dressed and have accessories based on tweets. Notice that Brian is a rocker and I am a workaholic, but I think he does pretty well in both categories.) Brian thinks that I must have a higher engagement with my very rare tweets than he does with his many more tweets. Enjoy.

We recently ran into a very strange issue here at LunaMetrics. Specifically, my co-worker Dorcas Alexander noticed something odd in one of her client’s reports. While checking out the Multi-Channel Funnels report, Dorcas realized that the number of transactions listed with a path length of 1 (e.g., the transaction occurred on the visitor’s first interaction with the site) were different than the number of transactions listed as “1 visit to transaction” in the Visits to Transaction report.

Initially, it seems like the two reports should show the same, or very similar, numbers. But we were seeing discrepancies of 100%, with Visits to Transaction always higher by a huge margin.

Interactions are defined as “clicks/referrals from channels” by Google. And a Visit, of course, is the number of sessions that users have on your site. Why is there a difference between the two, and why is it so vast?

After some digging, and some help from former Director of Online Intelligence, Jonathan Weber, we think we may have put this issue to bed.

It looks like Visits to Transaction only counts visits from the most recent campaign update, whereas Multi-Channel Funnels counts all visits over the past 30 days.

Let’s take a look at some specific cases. Let’s say we have a visitor with the following visit path:

In this case, because the direct visit doesn’t update the __utmz cookie, then both reports will show the same data. But what if that cookie is updated?

Here, Multi-Channel Funnels will show a 2 interaction path length, but Visits to Transaction only shows 1, because the count is only from the last update of __utmz.

Finally, in this example, we only have a single interaction in the Multi-Channel Funnels path length, because it only counts for the last 30 days. But we have 2 Visits to Transaction, because the cookie was never updated (direct visits don’t overwrite).

Hopefully this will help to explain strange discrepancies in your own reports. Remember: usually there’s an explanation for weird stuff like this. Sometimes you have to dig a bit to get to the bottom, though.