Tracking TWITTER using GOOGLE ANALYTICS
At first I found it amazing how plenty of twitter applications are flooding over the web everyday, but looking at this phenomenon closer may be it's not so surprising. According to ComScore there has been an increase of Twitter traffic of up to 700 percent since last year and number of twitter users are growing everyday. Therefore it's not surprising to see so many twitter tools emerging everyday, and sometimes it can be difficult to find yourself in this tsunami of twitter applications.
I was mostly concerned about tools on tracking twitter traffic. For sure, there are a lot of 'cool' tools out there allowing us to track number of hits, geolocalisation and even do real-time traffic analysis but it was not always convenient to have data separated from my main web analytics software. My approach to web analytics is to have a consistent, reliable and integrated view of the traffic thus ensuring a clear vision on what is going on in my campaigns. Furthermore, after testing several twitter analytics applications I didn't find the statistics from the different tools meaningful enough. So I revert back tracking my tweets on Google Analytics (GA). It is much more powerful in my opinion when considering all the functions that we have on GA. It would be wiser to use them to track our twitter campaigns. For example, we can track and analyse goals and conversion rates knowing very well how conversion rate analysis is imperative today.
Google analytics by default shows traffic coming from twitter but wait.. it shows traffic coming from Twitter.com only and today most of the people using Twitter never even visit twitter.com! For that reason, I prefer to manually add some utm codes on my URLs and this allows me to track my tweets wherever they are, even if someone forward my tweets by email.
As you know, tweets that include a URL use some type of URL shortening service, like http://bit.ly or http://cli.gs, but we will be using the classic Tinyurl.com which shortens a URL by creating a redirect that is hosted on www.tinyurl.com. The trick is to add GA's campaign tracking parameters to our Tiny URL, thus encoding campaign info into the URL we use in our tweets:
?utm_campaign=blogpost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=micro-blog
Of course you can change the utm_campaign and utm_medium names to anything you like but be sure they makes sense since you will be using them in your analyses later.
Example:
http://www.itjoblog.co.uk/?utm_campaign=itjoblogpost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=micro-blog
After adding this code to the URL, we shorten it using TinyURL and finally use the 'shortened' URL in our tweets which will be traceable by GA.
Below is a picture on how the data appear in 'All Traffic Sources' report in GA:
This is very cool, but it's even nicer to use all the power of Google Analytics in your web analyses, for example you could use Advanced Segments feature to subdivide your visitors based on operating systems they used to reach your tweets (Windows, Mac, Iphone, etc). Or if you like you could create your own segment that makes sense to your campaign.
As said by Gail Ennis, senior vice-president of marketing at Omniture: "Online marketers recognise the importance of brand reputation management in the social media environment," and I believe that accurate twitter tracking is fundamental and can help a lot in social media campaign analysis.
I was mostly concerned about tools on tracking twitter traffic. For sure, there are a lot of 'cool' tools out there allowing us to track number of hits, geolocalisation and even do real-time traffic analysis but it was not always convenient to have data separated from my main web analytics software. My approach to web analytics is to have a consistent, reliable and integrated view of the traffic thus ensuring a clear vision on what is going on in my campaigns. Furthermore, after testing several twitter analytics applications I didn't find the statistics from the different tools meaningful enough. So I revert back tracking my tweets on Google Analytics (GA). It is much more powerful in my opinion when considering all the functions that we have on GA. It would be wiser to use them to track our twitter campaigns. For example, we can track and analyse goals and conversion rates knowing very well how conversion rate analysis is imperative today.
Google analytics by default shows traffic coming from twitter but wait.. it shows traffic coming from Twitter.com only and today most of the people using Twitter never even visit twitter.com! For that reason, I prefer to manually add some utm codes on my URLs and this allows me to track my tweets wherever they are, even if someone forward my tweets by email.
As you know, tweets that include a URL use some type of URL shortening service, like http://bit.ly or http://cli.gs, but we will be using the classic Tinyurl.com which shortens a URL by creating a redirect that is hosted on www.tinyurl.com. The trick is to add GA's campaign tracking parameters to our Tiny URL, thus encoding campaign info into the URL we use in our tweets:
?utm_campaign=blogpost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=micro-blog
Of course you can change the utm_campaign and utm_medium names to anything you like but be sure they makes sense since you will be using them in your analyses later.
Example:
http://www.itjoblog.co.uk/?utm_campaign=itjoblogpost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=micro-blog
After adding this code to the URL, we shorten it using TinyURL and finally use the 'shortened' URL in our tweets which will be traceable by GA.
Below is a picture on how the data appear in 'All Traffic Sources' report in GA:
This is very cool, but it's even nicer to use all the power of Google Analytics in your web analyses, for example you could use Advanced Segments feature to subdivide your visitors based on operating systems they used to reach your tweets (Windows, Mac, Iphone, etc). Or if you like you could create your own segment that makes sense to your campaign.
As said by Gail Ennis, senior vice-president of marketing at Omniture: "Online marketers recognise the importance of brand reputation management in the social media environment," and I believe that accurate twitter tracking is fundamental and can help a lot in social media campaign analysis.
New Kid in the School of Digg
I've been playing around with a Digg account lately, trying to figure out how to best incorporate our clients content into this fun social networking site. Digg is unique because it doesn't
1.An Ace Nickname: The Username. I'm a big fan of creating plausible usernames - in this case I used my real name. As a newbie, using a normal name like "Scott Osman" or "Miranda Mocco" helps sets the precedent that you're not a bot out to spam.
2.It's all About Looks: Your Avatar. This needs to be unique from other users and if possible, consistent across social networking sites. I threw a relatively ugly yellow border around my image, as an easy way for people to indicate it's me. Check out some successful avatars and get a little feedback on what people think of yours. http://avatarwall.com/toprated. Again, I found that as a newbie, people like seeing a face, it makes communicating more friendly, but as always different people like different things.
3.Hang Out in the Cool Places: Share Your Profiles! Digg permits members to share tons of profile links, be sure to take advantage of this so your future friends can easily contact you. Be sure to include your: Twitter, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Gchat, last.fm, facebook, linked in, reddit, and stumble upon profiles.
4.Make friends with the popular crowd. Long ago Digg had a top users list (sometimes referred to as the "holy grail"), but it was deleted. I used an alternative list set up by SocialBlade to friend top active diggers.
By friending them, you will become their "fan" whereby you receive updates on their Digg activities; it is only when they accept you as a friend that your status is certified as "mutual friends" and your activity will be received by them.
5.Identify stylish trends: Pin Pointing Submissions with Front Page Potential. How do you find the high potential articles when the majority of submissions are spam with one or two Diggs? First and foremost, digg your friends submissions as they appear, especially if the friend sends a "shout" (like a facebook wall post) promoting a certain submission. You're allowed 200 diggs a day - depending on how much of a life you have, try to use all 200.
I'm a huge fan of the Digg Noise Filter, which pulls up articles with your requested number of diggs in it. Or try the Flash based Digg Watcher.
6. Back Stabbing: Talk about your Friends. I cannot stress this one enough. You must comment on submissions, and the more people who vote up your comment, the more recognition you get.
I've certainly struggled to figure out what makes a popular comment; supporting Obama, comic book heroes, and protests all seem to be green lights. Whitty banter, sarcasm, and jokes are usually popular, and comments like "interesting submission" often get a thumbs down for being too obvious.
Being one of the first people to comment on an article that goes to the front page is a great way to build up your recognition. People who view the article will see your comment as it appears at the top of the page, hence more are likely to vote it a thumbs up, and hopefully friend you.
Check out where your popular friends are commenting and be sure to "reply" to their comments. This will call attention to yourself and hopefully be enough to convince them to friend you back.
Spend about 1 month following the above rules. In part II (which will also take me about 1 month to write!) I'll go over great strategies for submitting content that gets notable traffic. In the mean time, get commenting!
1.An Ace Nickname: The Username. I'm a big fan of creating plausible usernames - in this case I used my real name. As a newbie, using a normal name like "Scott Osman" or "Miranda Mocco" helps sets the precedent that you're not a bot out to spam.
2.It's all About Looks: Your Avatar. This needs to be unique from other users and if possible, consistent across social networking sites. I threw a relatively ugly yellow border around my image, as an easy way for people to indicate it's me. Check out some successful avatars and get a little feedback on what people think of yours. http://avatarwall.com/toprated. Again, I found that as a newbie, people like seeing a face, it makes communicating more friendly, but as always different people like different things.
3.Hang Out in the Cool Places: Share Your Profiles! Digg permits members to share tons of profile links, be sure to take advantage of this so your future friends can easily contact you. Be sure to include your: Twitter, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Gchat, last.fm, facebook, linked in, reddit, and stumble upon profiles.
4.Make friends with the popular crowd. Long ago Digg had a top users list (sometimes referred to as the "holy grail"), but it was deleted. I used an alternative list set up by SocialBlade to friend top active diggers.
By friending them, you will become their "fan" whereby you receive updates on their Digg activities; it is only when they accept you as a friend that your status is certified as "mutual friends" and your activity will be received by them.
5.Identify stylish trends: Pin Pointing Submissions with Front Page Potential. How do you find the high potential articles when the majority of submissions are spam with one or two Diggs? First and foremost, digg your friends submissions as they appear, especially if the friend sends a "shout" (like a facebook wall post) promoting a certain submission. You're allowed 200 diggs a day - depending on how much of a life you have, try to use all 200.
I'm a huge fan of the Digg Noise Filter, which pulls up articles with your requested number of diggs in it. Or try the Flash based Digg Watcher.
6. Back Stabbing: Talk about your Friends. I cannot stress this one enough. You must comment on submissions, and the more people who vote up your comment, the more recognition you get.
I've certainly struggled to figure out what makes a popular comment; supporting Obama, comic book heroes, and protests all seem to be green lights. Whitty banter, sarcasm, and jokes are usually popular, and comments like "interesting submission" often get a thumbs down for being too obvious.
Being one of the first people to comment on an article that goes to the front page is a great way to build up your recognition. People who view the article will see your comment as it appears at the top of the page, hence more are likely to vote it a thumbs up, and hopefully friend you.
Check out where your popular friends are commenting and be sure to "reply" to their comments. This will call attention to yourself and hopefully be enough to convince them to friend you back.
Spend about 1 month following the above rules. In part II (which will also take me about 1 month to write!) I'll go over great strategies for submitting content that gets notable traffic. In the mean time, get commenting!
WHY YOU SHOULD SEGMENT YOUR VISITORS? (Google Analytics)
Some time ago Avinash Kaushik the web analytics Guru said: "Analyzing data in aggregate is a crime against humanity". No we're not talking about the last episode of Dexter but about the visitors to your website. Segmentation has become one of the most important thing you should do to understand traffic to your website and hence your business.
So why is visitor segmentation so important?
It is simply the breaking of your site visitors into groups and examining traffic and conversion data for those specific groups. Actually, in Google Analytics, you can perform advanced visitor segmentation and see the number of visits, the average number of pages viewed per visit, and conversion rates for different groups of visitors (example analysis of visitors from different locations).
Google Analytics provides a number of default segments like New, Returning, Paid and Non-Paid Visitors, Search, Direct and Referral Traffic. But you can also create your own custom segments. For example you could find yourself segmenting branded search vs non-branded search terms for organic and paid traffic. Why segmenting all these? Because looking at 'all' your figures that in average does not mean a lot. Figures like 'Average Time on Site' does not mean a lot since it is too broad. To find the real actionable insights we need to break our analytics data and split the various sources, behaviour, goals and outcomes. In brief we need to focus on the details as far as possible. Because trying to make strategic decision based on global data can simply lead our business to failure.
Ok, let's now really ask why we should segment our visitors and customers and think about the 'real' reasons for these.
In today's, highly competitive world successful companies realise that the nurturing of high-value, faithful, recurring, pleased and lucrative customers is the key solution for having long lasting profits and help the business stay afloat. In fact, I totally believe that it is imperative for organisations to properly identify their customers. No company can afford to offer the premier level of service to all its customers without really knowing who they are.
Therefore calculating the visitors' and customers' value to the company enable us to know better the different types of customers we have and therefore put us in a better position to allocate valuable resources to different types of visitors/customers. After discovery of those different customer classes we can approach different type of customers differently, like proposing appropriate products at appropriate prices for a particular segment.
For exemple: Advanced segmentation could let you see what are the web pages that are most visited by visitors who came on your site by typing brand keywords. And also what are the products that they bought?
Another common term 'Customer Differentiation' is in fact the segmentation of the high-value and high-potential customers but also the identification and separation of the least cost-effective customers. This process is important to know who the company want to serve, it involves the effort to understand what the customer really wants, what are the customers worth or potential. After discovering valuable information about customers we are is in a better position to give priority to the most profitable ones. We can also decide what to do with the least cost-effective customers.
For exemple: It is useful to discover who are the customers that purchased more than one items on your website, and/or who are the ones that purchased again. Then based on these figures we could deploy more effort to a particular 'segment' of our customers.
One way of differentiating customers is by establishing a baseline for the servicing cost of all customers. The segmentation of all customers should then be done to represent them in figures. After that we evaluate actual and strategic value of all the different types of customers (segments) and finally compare the customer value figures to the baseline established before and consequently make appropriate strategic decisions accordingly. The following graph shows an example of how customer segmentation, customer value and the servicing cost baseline can be represented for decision-making purposes.
Customers in the 'Tier 1' are actually the most valued customers with the highest actual and strategic value, they can be considered as the company's very important customers (VIP) and all effort must be made not to lose them.
Whereas the last group (tier 5) is well below the customer service cost baseline and has also a very low strategic value, appropriate decisions can then be made by managers concerning those customers classified under this group. For example: keep them with expectations that they can be more lucrative later or simply fire them?
As said by Brett Crosby, the Manager of Google Analytics : "Segmentation can help you perform better through an economic downturn and go with what works, find new ways to drive revenue, find the right segments, working for them and invest there to increase their conversions."
So why is visitor segmentation so important?It is simply the breaking of your site visitors into groups and examining traffic and conversion data for those specific groups. Actually, in Google Analytics, you can perform advanced visitor segmentation and see the number of visits, the average number of pages viewed per visit, and conversion rates for different groups of visitors (example analysis of visitors from different locations).
Google Analytics provides a number of default segments like New, Returning, Paid and Non-Paid Visitors, Search, Direct and Referral Traffic. But you can also create your own custom segments. For example you could find yourself segmenting branded search vs non-branded search terms for organic and paid traffic. Why segmenting all these? Because looking at 'all' your figures that in average does not mean a lot. Figures like 'Average Time on Site' does not mean a lot since it is too broad. To find the real actionable insights we need to break our analytics data and split the various sources, behaviour, goals and outcomes. In brief we need to focus on the details as far as possible. Because trying to make strategic decision based on global data can simply lead our business to failure.
Google Analytics Advanced Segments
Ok, let's now really ask why we should segment our visitors and customers and think about the 'real' reasons for these.In today's, highly competitive world successful companies realise that the nurturing of high-value, faithful, recurring, pleased and lucrative customers is the key solution for having long lasting profits and help the business stay afloat. In fact, I totally believe that it is imperative for organisations to properly identify their customers. No company can afford to offer the premier level of service to all its customers without really knowing who they are.
Therefore calculating the visitors' and customers' value to the company enable us to know better the different types of customers we have and therefore put us in a better position to allocate valuable resources to different types of visitors/customers. After discovery of those different customer classes we can approach different type of customers differently, like proposing appropriate products at appropriate prices for a particular segment.
For exemple: Advanced segmentation could let you see what are the web pages that are most visited by visitors who came on your site by typing brand keywords. And also what are the products that they bought?
Another common term 'Customer Differentiation' is in fact the segmentation of the high-value and high-potential customers but also the identification and separation of the least cost-effective customers. This process is important to know who the company want to serve, it involves the effort to understand what the customer really wants, what are the customers worth or potential. After discovering valuable information about customers we are is in a better position to give priority to the most profitable ones. We can also decide what to do with the least cost-effective customers.
For exemple: It is useful to discover who are the customers that purchased more than one items on your website, and/or who are the ones that purchased again. Then based on these figures we could deploy more effort to a particular 'segment' of our customers.
One way of differentiating customers is by establishing a baseline for the servicing cost of all customers. The segmentation of all customers should then be done to represent them in figures. After that we evaluate actual and strategic value of all the different types of customers (segments) and finally compare the customer value figures to the baseline established before and consequently make appropriate strategic decisions accordingly. The following graph shows an example of how customer segmentation, customer value and the servicing cost baseline can be represented for decision-making purposes.
Customer Differentiation
Customers in the 'Tier 1' are actually the most valued customers with the highest actual and strategic value, they can be considered as the company's very important customers (VIP) and all effort must be made not to lose them.Whereas the last group (tier 5) is well below the customer service cost baseline and has also a very low strategic value, appropriate decisions can then be made by managers concerning those customers classified under this group. For example: keep them with expectations that they can be more lucrative later or simply fire them?
As said by Brett Crosby, the Manager of Google Analytics : "Segmentation can help you perform better through an economic downturn and go with what works, find new ways to drive revenue, find the right segments, working for them and invest there to increase their conversions."
About the Latest Google Update (aka "Vince update") - as well as a Brief History of some of the Google Updates
Mid February this year people in the search industry spotted a change in how Google returned search results for certain types of keywords, a change giving "big brands" a push in Google search results. Following discussions on blogs and forums Matt Cutts (head of Google's Webspam team), on March 4th finally confirmed a change had been made. The update was dubbed the "Vince update" (no sorry, not a Vince Neil update)More on the "Vince update" later on and now a brief history of important updates of Google's search algorithm.
The "Florida Update"
On November 16th 2003 Google made a major update on their search algorithm. Named the "Florida update", it had a major effect for a very large number of websites at the time and came to change the course of search engine optimisation.
Aaron Wall from SEObook says: "The Google Florida update was the first update that made SEO complicated enough to where most people could not figure out how to do it. Before that update all you needed to do was buy and/or trade links with your target keyword in the link anchor text, and after enough repetition you stood a good chance of ranking."
Pre-Florida update prominent search engine ranking could be quite easily achieved by doing basic reciprocal link-building, on-page keyword stuffing, and using repetitive inbound anchor text in links.
Post-Florida update a huge number of pages, many of which had ranked at or near the top of the results for a very long time, simply disappeared from the search engine results altogether.
The "rel=nofollow tag Update"
In January 2005 Google contributed to changing the structure of the Internet when Google proposed a link rel=nofollow tag. Originally it was introduced to only stop blog spamming but was shortly afterwards also affecting link buying. In the eyes of Google you are considered a spammer, and risk getting penalised, if you were buying links without using rel=nofollow on them.
In a URL the tag looks like this: <a href="http://www.baseonesearch.co.uk" rel="nofollow">Base One Search</a>
Plenty of prominent websites have adopted the use of the nofollow tag, sites such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and most blog platforms support the tag in the comments section.
"By adding rel="nofollow" to a hyperlink, a page indicates that the destination of that hyperlink SHOULD NOT be afforded any additional weight or ranking by user agents which perform link analysis upon web pages (e.g. search engines)." (http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-nofollow)
The "Universal Search Update"
In May 2007 Google launched their Universal search update. Universal search means that search engine results are blended with selected content from Google's "vertical search databases". The vertical search content is blended directly into the organic search results. Before the "Universal search" update Google gave a list of 10 text-based search engine results.
The "vertical search databases" Google blend into the organic search engine results are: News, Videos, Products, Maps, Images, Books & Blog posts
Today optimising your website for Universal search is important, (e.g. by adding alt-tags and keywords to your images, listing your business of Google Maps, creating videos and optimising title, description, tags etc.), you can increase your chances of achieving prominent search engine rankings.
The "Vince Update"
In October 2008 CEO of Google Eric Schmidt gave a hint of things to come, i.e. the "Vince update". In an interview he talked about "brands", he said:
"The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted." He continued: "Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool." "Brand affinity is clearly hard wired," he said. "It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component." (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=131569)
The "Vince update" has caused a bit of outcry in the search community because with the update it's believed (and proven) that Google is now favouring brands/corporations for core category keywords. Aaron Wall from SEObook in his blog post proved changes had been made in the search engine results, evidence big brands getting favoured. An example is in mid-January three major US airlines all of a sudden began getting top rankings for "airline tickets" (see below)
(http://www.rankpulse.com/airline-tickets)
Addressing it as a "minor change", Matt Cutts says the change is about factoring trust more into the algorithm for more generic queries rather than pushing major brands to top search engine results.
So does this latest Google "update" - "minor change" mean that big brands/corporations can take a back seat and receive top search engine rankings in Google by default? I think not, the "Vince update" may well be just a minor change. Google is continually tuning its algorithms to give most relevant results for users.
For navigational-type searches (aka research queries, "going through the front door in the shopping centre") such as cars, airline tickets etc. brand/corporation sites are maybe what searchers are looking for? In the above illustrated example, shouldn't there be a couple of airline companies in the results when you search for airline tickets?
You Walk Into A Bar (Social Media Style..)
I went to SES London last week, and during the Social Media Optimisation seminar Krista Neher, CEO of the marketing solutions company Marketess, told this cute social media parable.
You walk into a bar and start talking to your friend. Suddenly, this jerk jumps in between you two and says "TRY MY NEW BEER! IT'S AMAZING!". You probably look at your friend with those "what the heck is this looser doing?" eyes and bee line for the door.
Rewind: You walk into a bar and start talking to your friend. When you need a new drink the cute bartender asks "Would you like to try this new beer? It's quite good." You probably look at your friend and say "sure, why not?" and viola! You've been introduced to a new product. This is how social media should work.
The key in example #2 is it wasn't forced on you. Social media campaigns cannot work if the material is forced, the entire point is that users support the content because it's actually of interest to them. By offering a new beer when you were ready for a new drink, the beer company is providing a solution to your need when you (the consumer) wanted it.
You walk into a bar and start talking to your friend. Suddenly, this jerk jumps in between you two and says "TRY MY NEW BEER! IT'S AMAZING!". You probably look at your friend with those "what the heck is this looser doing?" eyes and bee line for the door.
This is what happens when companies try to advertise on social networking sites, they shove their product in user's faces and are shocked when no one responds positively. "But we did a social media campaign!" they clamber, all gobbly eyed.
Don't ruin their night by screaming about your product.
Rewind: You walk into a bar and start talking to your friend. When you need a new drink the cute bartender asks "Would you like to try this new beer? It's quite good." You probably look at your friend and say "sure, why not?" and viola! You've been introduced to a new product. This is how social media should work.
The key in example #2 is it wasn't forced on you. Social media campaigns cannot work if the material is forced, the entire point is that users support the content because it's actually of interest to them. By offering a new beer when you were ready for a new drink, the beer company is providing a solution to your need when you (the consumer) wanted it.
How I got 500 Followers in 1 Day
Making friends isn't easy in real life, so you wouldn't think that finding friends or "followers" on Twitter could be an easy task either. But it can be! I used the following method with a client's twitter account and got fantastic results!
Like with real friends, I found the key is to identify common interests. So first things first, what is your twitter account's interest? For example, let's say I'm starting a new website about cooking beef burgers.
Provide a backlog of information. I would want to get a bunch of burger related content up in my history, to prove that I'm serious about my burgers. I can find online content about burgers and tweet it, with a tiny URL (check out tiny.cc ) for optimum space usage in those 140 characters!
Now for the edge - I will tweet my own content (a blogpost? A video?) about a great broiling technique. When twitter users see my account, this will be the most recent update and most likely click.
Now it's time to search for friends, soon to be followers. Scroll to the bottom of your twitter homepage and click on the search link or enter summize.com into your URL bar. Next, type in "Hamburger". As you can see, all of the results will be people who have tweeted about the subject of hamburger.
Now I want to follow all of these people who have mentioned burgers in their recent tweets. In exchange, my hope is that people will follow me, as I continue to share my burger knowledge. Also utilize synonyms, for instance I should also search for "cheese burgers" and "beef burgers", maybe if I'm feeling daring search for "hot dogs" too!
I also found it helpful to find a relevant twitter account (or potential competitor?), and follow all your competiror's follwers. For instance, I may follow all of this guy's followers:
Note - it's really important that I continue to share my burger knowledge. No one wants to follow an account that is inactive; they'll drop me from their followers like a fly.
Important Numbers: On average, I have found that about 25% of the people I follow follow me. And Twitter only permits you to follow 2,000 people in a given day.
In short: provide relevant content on your twitter account and then search for people talking about that content matter.
Like with real friends, I found the key is to identify common interests. So first things first, what is your twitter account's interest? For example, let's say I'm starting a new website about cooking beef burgers.
Provide a backlog of information. I would want to get a bunch of burger related content up in my history, to prove that I'm serious about my burgers. I can find online content about burgers and tweet it, with a tiny URL (check out tiny.cc ) for optimum space usage in those 140 characters!
Now for the edge - I will tweet my own content (a blogpost? A video?) about a great broiling technique. When twitter users see my account, this will be the most recent update and most likely click.
Now it's time to search for friends, soon to be followers. Scroll to the bottom of your twitter homepage and click on the search link or enter summize.com into your URL bar. Next, type in "Hamburger". As you can see, all of the results will be people who have tweeted about the subject of hamburger.
Now I want to follow all of these people who have mentioned burgers in their recent tweets. In exchange, my hope is that people will follow me, as I continue to share my burger knowledge. Also utilize synonyms, for instance I should also search for "cheese burgers" and "beef burgers", maybe if I'm feeling daring search for "hot dogs" too!
I also found it helpful to find a relevant twitter account (or potential competitor?), and follow all your competiror's follwers. For instance, I may follow all of this guy's followers:
Note - it's really important that I continue to share my burger knowledge. No one wants to follow an account that is inactive; they'll drop me from their followers like a fly.
Important Numbers: On average, I have found that about 25% of the people I follow follow me. And Twitter only permits you to follow 2,000 people in a given day.
In short: provide relevant content on your twitter account and then search for people talking about that content matter.
What's in a URL?
I don't know if you have heard about a website called "Good URL Bad URL"? I've been a huge fan of this basic looking but phenomenal website for a long time and I regularly visit it for latest photos of examples with good URLs and not so good URLs. I guess this blog post is a humble dedication to this website.
An URL is the company brand which is meant to connect with an audience, most times the connection is spot on but sometimes things go really wrong. "Good URL Bad URL" is a brainchild of Aaron Goldman, on the website he says his aim is to give businesses some guidance when choosing and promoting their URLs.
"Good URL Bad URL" is packed with interesting points and examples. It says whenever possible, use YourBrandName.com. CapitalizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord and/or UseDifferentColorsOrBoldToHelpEachWordStandOut. Don't use acronyms, abbreviations, or numbers unless your brand is widely known as such. Don't use YourProduct.com or YourCategory.com as a replacement for YourBrandName.com.
Here are a couple of examples, all are from the Good URL Bad URL website.
Good URL
This is a very clever URL from Corporate Express, the URL show up properly in the rear-view mirror of the car ahead.
Better URL
This one gets the message across. Spot on. Concise and to the point.
Bad URL
Here the URL is lost in the mass of text and at first view it's actually difficult to spot the URL. The use of different colours and mix of upper- and lower case letter would improve and get the message across.
Worse URL
This is actually not a bad URL but the all lower cases makes it's message look really bad.
Check out "Good URL Bad URL" website for many more excellent photos of URL examples.
An URL is the company brand which is meant to connect with an audience, most times the connection is spot on but sometimes things go really wrong. "Good URL Bad URL" is a brainchild of Aaron Goldman, on the website he says his aim is to give businesses some guidance when choosing and promoting their URLs.
"Good URL Bad URL" is packed with interesting points and examples. It says whenever possible, use YourBrandName.com. CapitalizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord and/or UseDifferentColorsOrBoldToHelpEachWordStandOut. Don't use acronyms, abbreviations, or numbers unless your brand is widely known as such. Don't use YourProduct.com or YourCategory.com as a replacement for YourBrandName.com.
Here are a couple of examples, all are from the Good URL Bad URL website.
Good URL
This is a very clever URL from Corporate Express, the URL show up properly in the rear-view mirror of the car ahead.
Better URL
This one gets the message across. Spot on. Concise and to the point.
Bad URL
Here the URL is lost in the mass of text and at first view it's actually difficult to spot the URL. The use of different colours and mix of upper- and lower case letter would improve and get the message across.
Worse URL
This is actually not a bad URL but the all lower cases makes it's message look really bad.
Check out "Good URL Bad URL" website for many more excellent photos of URL examples.
Link Juice Shopping = Expiring Domains
Buy expiring domain names and get link juice and authority. Expired domains are great for SEO. I will try to explain why.
So what are expiring domain names?
Every day thousands of domain names expire but get bought up and changes ownership before they delete and become readily available again for registration. In the domain name industry the domain name aftermarket of buying expiring domain names is big business. Lots of "domainers" and domain name companies are spending hours upon hours sifting through lists of upcoming expiring domain names.
Nowadays buying expired, or pending delete, domain names has become more of a main-stream thing, even outside domaining circles. It takes an expired domain 30 days before it goes back into the pool of masses and become readily available again to register at any domain name registrar. Within this 30 day time period, between expiring and becoming available again, thousands of domain names exchange hands in what is called the 'domain name aftermarket'.
The life cycle of a domain name
The life cycle of a generic domain name (.com, .net, .org etc) explained by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
(Source: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm)
Expiring domain names was registered a year or more ago by someone who did not attempt to renew their domain name. Basically, once a domain is expiring it enters into an "Auto Renew Grace Period" (see above). This period usually lasts for 30 days and the owner of the domain is able to renew anytime during that time frame.
Should the owner fail to renew the domain it will enter into the "Redemption period" (see above). In the redemption period the domain name registrar becomes the owner of the domain (the original owner can still come in and renew it), and will try to sell the domain through auctions.
After the pending delete period the domain name is a goner for both the original owner and the registrar. The domain will become readily available at any registrar, as it goes back in to the pool of masses.
Domain name auction houses
Domain auction houses collect expiring domain names from different registrars and hence, have varying catalogues of names to browse. The better known ones and their major affiliate registrars are:
- SnapNames, affiliated with Moniker, MelbourneIT, DirectNIC
- NameJet, affiliated with Network Solutions, eNom
- Afternic, affiliated with Tucows
- Go Daddy, have their own Go Daddy Auctions
They work on different platforms, but what they have in common is that there is an auction and when the auction ends and you are the highest bidder, the domain is yours.
Most popular domain name registrars
The world's top 15 registrars with total domains in millions. (I highly recommend you to check out the link and play around with it, deserves a blog post on its own).
(Source: http://www.registrarstats.com/Public/RegistrarMarketShareMain.aspx)
So why should you care about expiring domain names?
Many expiring domain names hold authority in the eyes of search engines, stemming from the link juice, directory listings, and the age of domain. It is the short cut way to own a site with a reputation. The reputation and authority is carried over to the new owner, it's never voided. Deleted and readily available to register again domain names lose much of their juicy features.
With a freshly registered domain name you have to walk through the dark forest, with expiring domain names you can cruise through the woods on a bike. Buying expiring domain names can give you a domain with existing link juice. It can give you a domain already listed in dmoz and the yahoo directory, it can already have a couple of .edu and/or .gov back links and it can give you a domain with old ripe age.
Always do your research! However, don't expect to find expiring domain names like seo.com. You will come across HEAPS of junk names. Lots of crap is expiring and for that reason lots of expiring domain names deserve to be buried and forgotten. But, there are gems to be found! Make sure you always double check domain name age, PR, back links and so forth.
Best places to buy expiring domains?
SnapNames
http://www.snapnames.com
SnapNames is probably the most prominent domain auction company. SnapNames offers an "In Auction" section that works like any other online auction site (think eBay for the uber geek). They also offer an "Available Soon" section, an auction that can be joined by anyone, but is limited to those who place bids on domains before the start date of an auction. This is good for serious bidders, because it takes out people who may not be serious about the auction process.
SnapNames tries to "snap" expiring domain names from all registrars but, you will be more successful in your buying if you target expiring domain names from registrars exclusively affiliated with SnapNames. Prices start from $59 each and you will only get charged if you win the expiring domain name.
Go Daddy Auctions
https://auctions.godaddy.com
Go Daddy is both a domain name registrar and auction house. They are my personal favourite, mainly because it's the world's biggest domain name registrar, meaning a lot of domain names also expire through them. Unfortunately there are a lot of poor domain names expiring through Go Daddy. There is a $4.99 annual fee to bid on their expiring domain names.
Go Daddy 'Closeout' domains are domains that went through domain name auction already but nobody bid on. Closeouts are sold for a flat fee of just $5 plus an annual registration fee.
Go Daddy Expiring Domains start at $10 plus an annual registration fee but may increase since it is setup as an auction. Expired Names, most of the time, have more valuable names then 'Closeouts' since Go Daddy Auctions makes a domain available first with the expired names auction and if it does not sell then Go Daddy Auctions places it in the 'Closeouts' section.
The best kept secret tools when buying expiring domains!
I am intentionally keeping this section very short, as I don't want to give away everything but I realise I maybe have anyway. You have to learn this yourself....
The first tool I wanted to mention is the "Best Upcoming Auction" tool from DomainTools. My tips here are to use the filters in the right hand menu. Most expiring domains found here are auctioned off on SnapNames. Check it out on: http://www.domaintools.com/advanced-auction/top-picks.html
The second tool is Fresh Drop. I used to spend a lot of hours on this website going through expiring domains and watching/bidding in auctions. This tool is a bit under the radar, even amongst domainers. The Fresh Drop tool is free to use for Go Daddy Auctions, what it does is it scans through upcoming expiring domains (their PRO subscription membership lets you scan SnapNames, Name Jet, Pool etc. as well as Go Daddy)
(expiring domain names filtered on the number of .edu back links)
My tip for Fresh Drop is to have a good look at the column headers, notice that you can filter domain names on their Age, Dmoz, .Edu and .Gov and lots more. I love this! My other tip is to familiarise yourself with the filters on the right hand menu. Check it out on: http://www.freshdrop.net
Enjoy... and I would love to hear your comments about your experience from buying expiring domain names.
So what are expiring domain names?
Every day thousands of domain names expire but get bought up and changes ownership before they delete and become readily available again for registration. In the domain name industry the domain name aftermarket of buying expiring domain names is big business. Lots of "domainers" and domain name companies are spending hours upon hours sifting through lists of upcoming expiring domain names.
Nowadays buying expired, or pending delete, domain names has become more of a main-stream thing, even outside domaining circles. It takes an expired domain 30 days before it goes back into the pool of masses and become readily available again to register at any domain name registrar. Within this 30 day time period, between expiring and becoming available again, thousands of domain names exchange hands in what is called the 'domain name aftermarket'.
The life cycle of a domain name
The life cycle of a generic domain name (.com, .net, .org etc) explained by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
(Source: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm)
Expiring domain names was registered a year or more ago by someone who did not attempt to renew their domain name. Basically, once a domain is expiring it enters into an "Auto Renew Grace Period" (see above). This period usually lasts for 30 days and the owner of the domain is able to renew anytime during that time frame.
Should the owner fail to renew the domain it will enter into the "Redemption period" (see above). In the redemption period the domain name registrar becomes the owner of the domain (the original owner can still come in and renew it), and will try to sell the domain through auctions.
After the pending delete period the domain name is a goner for both the original owner and the registrar. The domain will become readily available at any registrar, as it goes back in to the pool of masses.
Domain name auction houses
Domain auction houses collect expiring domain names from different registrars and hence, have varying catalogues of names to browse. The better known ones and their major affiliate registrars are:
- SnapNames, affiliated with Moniker, MelbourneIT, DirectNIC
- NameJet, affiliated with Network Solutions, eNom
- Afternic, affiliated with Tucows
- Go Daddy, have their own Go Daddy Auctions
They work on different platforms, but what they have in common is that there is an auction and when the auction ends and you are the highest bidder, the domain is yours.
Most popular domain name registrars
The world's top 15 registrars with total domains in millions. (I highly recommend you to check out the link and play around with it, deserves a blog post on its own).
(Source: http://www.registrarstats.com/Public/RegistrarMarketShareMain.aspx)
So why should you care about expiring domain names?
Many expiring domain names hold authority in the eyes of search engines, stemming from the link juice, directory listings, and the age of domain. It is the short cut way to own a site with a reputation. The reputation and authority is carried over to the new owner, it's never voided. Deleted and readily available to register again domain names lose much of their juicy features.
With a freshly registered domain name you have to walk through the dark forest, with expiring domain names you can cruise through the woods on a bike. Buying expiring domain names can give you a domain with existing link juice. It can give you a domain already listed in dmoz and the yahoo directory, it can already have a couple of .edu and/or .gov back links and it can give you a domain with old ripe age.
Always do your research! However, don't expect to find expiring domain names like seo.com. You will come across HEAPS of junk names. Lots of crap is expiring and for that reason lots of expiring domain names deserve to be buried and forgotten. But, there are gems to be found! Make sure you always double check domain name age, PR, back links and so forth.
Best places to buy expiring domains?
SnapNames
http://www.snapnames.com
SnapNames is probably the most prominent domain auction company. SnapNames offers an "In Auction" section that works like any other online auction site (think eBay for the uber geek). They also offer an "Available Soon" section, an auction that can be joined by anyone, but is limited to those who place bids on domains before the start date of an auction. This is good for serious bidders, because it takes out people who may not be serious about the auction process.
SnapNames tries to "snap" expiring domain names from all registrars but, you will be more successful in your buying if you target expiring domain names from registrars exclusively affiliated with SnapNames. Prices start from $59 each and you will only get charged if you win the expiring domain name.
Go Daddy Auctions
https://auctions.godaddy.com
Go Daddy is both a domain name registrar and auction house. They are my personal favourite, mainly because it's the world's biggest domain name registrar, meaning a lot of domain names also expire through them. Unfortunately there are a lot of poor domain names expiring through Go Daddy. There is a $4.99 annual fee to bid on their expiring domain names.
Go Daddy 'Closeout' domains are domains that went through domain name auction already but nobody bid on. Closeouts are sold for a flat fee of just $5 plus an annual registration fee.
Go Daddy Expiring Domains start at $10 plus an annual registration fee but may increase since it is setup as an auction. Expired Names, most of the time, have more valuable names then 'Closeouts' since Go Daddy Auctions makes a domain available first with the expired names auction and if it does not sell then Go Daddy Auctions places it in the 'Closeouts' section.
The best kept secret tools when buying expiring domains!
I am intentionally keeping this section very short, as I don't want to give away everything but I realise I maybe have anyway. You have to learn this yourself....
The first tool I wanted to mention is the "Best Upcoming Auction" tool from DomainTools. My tips here are to use the filters in the right hand menu. Most expiring domains found here are auctioned off on SnapNames. Check it out on: http://www.domaintools.com/advanced-auction/top-picks.html
The second tool is Fresh Drop. I used to spend a lot of hours on this website going through expiring domains and watching/bidding in auctions. This tool is a bit under the radar, even amongst domainers. The Fresh Drop tool is free to use for Go Daddy Auctions, what it does is it scans through upcoming expiring domains (their PRO subscription membership lets you scan SnapNames, Name Jet, Pool etc. as well as Go Daddy)
(expiring domain names filtered on the number of .edu back links)
My tip for Fresh Drop is to have a good look at the column headers, notice that you can filter domain names on their Age, Dmoz, .Edu and .Gov and lots more. I love this! My other tip is to familiarise yourself with the filters on the right hand menu. Check it out on: http://www.freshdrop.net
Enjoy... and I would love to hear your comments about your experience from buying expiring domain names.
Yahoo not very Christmassy
This morning I did an interesting and funny discovery when searching for Google on Yahoo.com.
Yahoo is telling people to "please stay with us - pretty please - we can do better - don't go!". When searching for Google or MSN this comes up. Have a look for yourself below. Not very Christmassy of Yahoo.
The "You could go to Google or..." message only come up when using Yahoo US and both Google and MSN are targeted.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Yahoo is telling people to "please stay with us - pretty please - we can do better - don't go!". When searching for Google or MSN this comes up. Have a look for yourself below. Not very Christmassy of Yahoo.
The "You could go to Google or..." message only come up when using Yahoo US and both Google and MSN are targeted.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Links vs Content - The Debate Continues.
I am not going to patronise anyone in this post by saying it is obvious that you need both quality content and links in order to survive the search engines....... The debate here at Base One is between me and a co-worker over what is MORE important as we realise the significance of both for ranking purposes.
The Background
The co-worker is a link building machine - he could be considered an Arnold Schwarzenegger of the link building world, except his phrase is not "I will be back", it is more like "I am not going anywhere"....
Me? Well my strengths lie more in on- page optimisation. This major difference is perhaps where this year- long debate has stemmed from...........
The Arguments
For Content: Whilst acknowledging the co-worker's argument, and the importance of links towards any search marketing effort, I remain in favour of quality, keyword rich content as the more significant element. I am debating for the user whilst the co worker is debating for the search engines. In my opinion, the ultimate objective for any website is to gain user intrigue, navigate throughout the site and hopefully get them to convert.
A website can have a million quality links but, if it has poor or limited content, that is not relevant to the search, it is likely that any user will instantly bounce off the website. What will gain conversions, links or content? And if this is, after all, the objective, should there not then be more importance placed on quality content rather than links? Without great content, link building can prove difficult.....particularly when approaching high authority websites. People are more likely to link to strong, well optimised content with relevance to their own website. Be it a product or a service, quality and interesting content more often than not will have people blogging about it or linking their own websites naturally to yours.
For Links: Without links there is little or no chance of ranking on the first page for any competitive terms. They are vital to off-page optimisation in allowing a website to be found and potentially gain a high volume of traffic. If using logos as links on relevant websites then this also increases online brand awareness, as users will start to recognise the brand. Referring traffic or even direct traffic can increase with this type of link building.
Closing Statement
I put this question to you......User or search engine? Good content MORE important than links? I ask you this: can you, the user, live in a world where websites are revolved around the number of links they have and the importance that Google has placed on these sites, or do you want to create a society where the content is interesting and relevant to your search?
"Let us not despair...
And so, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream, that one day content will reign over the link weight in the Google algorithm, that content will be able to walk the worldwide web with heads held high.... "
VOTE CONTENT!!!!!
The Background
The co-worker is a link building machine - he could be considered an Arnold Schwarzenegger of the link building world, except his phrase is not "I will be back", it is more like "I am not going anywhere"....
Me? Well my strengths lie more in on- page optimisation. This major difference is perhaps where this year- long debate has stemmed from...........
The Arguments
For Content: Whilst acknowledging the co-worker's argument, and the importance of links towards any search marketing effort, I remain in favour of quality, keyword rich content as the more significant element. I am debating for the user whilst the co worker is debating for the search engines. In my opinion, the ultimate objective for any website is to gain user intrigue, navigate throughout the site and hopefully get them to convert.
A website can have a million quality links but, if it has poor or limited content, that is not relevant to the search, it is likely that any user will instantly bounce off the website. What will gain conversions, links or content? And if this is, after all, the objective, should there not then be more importance placed on quality content rather than links? Without great content, link building can prove difficult.....particularly when approaching high authority websites. People are more likely to link to strong, well optimised content with relevance to their own website. Be it a product or a service, quality and interesting content more often than not will have people blogging about it or linking their own websites naturally to yours.
For Links: Without links there is little or no chance of ranking on the first page for any competitive terms. They are vital to off-page optimisation in allowing a website to be found and potentially gain a high volume of traffic. If using logos as links on relevant websites then this also increases online brand awareness, as users will start to recognise the brand. Referring traffic or even direct traffic can increase with this type of link building.
Closing Statement
I put this question to you......User or search engine? Good content MORE important than links? I ask you this: can you, the user, live in a world where websites are revolved around the number of links they have and the importance that Google has placed on these sites, or do you want to create a society where the content is interesting and relevant to your search?
"Let us not despair...
And so, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream, that one day content will reign over the link weight in the Google algorithm, that content will be able to walk the worldwide web with heads held high.... "
VOTE CONTENT!!!!!
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