by Charles River Interactive | November 10, 2015 | Industry Trends, Organic Search, Uncategorized
Changing the domain of a well-established website comes with some risks that may have an adverse effect on site authority, rankings, and traffic. Weighing these potential risks before the domain change is made is vital to the continued health of the site.
Authority can be divided into two pieces: domain authority and page authority. Domain authority measures the predictive ranking strength of the entire domain or subdomain; page authority measures the strength of an individual page. Both of these measurements are rated on a 100-point logarithmic scale that becomes increasingly more difficult to achieve as the scale nears the maximum possible points.
Rankings are based on a number of different factors that include keywords, content, page layout, page authority, and social signals. Each of these factors is weighed and a ranking is assigned to each page of the website based on the search engine used. The rankings are what search engines use to order websites in a SERP (search engine results page).
Traffic is simply the number of visitors that land on a website through various paths. These paths include organic, paid, direct, social media, and others. The volume of traffic greatly depends on the ranking results that are assigned. Therefore, if a page shows up low in the search results then it is less likely to be clicked on and visited.
Analysis of Current Domain
This example demonstrates one of the highest authorities in Google’s index with a domain authority of 96 (remember, 100 being the highest) and a home page authority of 83 (100 being the highest again). These results are very significant and demonstrate a strong ranking, both which would suffer from a domain change.
One other factor to consider is social signals. In the example above, this company has substantial social metrics which result in increased social signals that Google weighs when ranking a site within search engine results. Social signals do not transfer when a domain is changed so this company would be forfeiting their current metrics and need to rebuild.
Domain Change Next Steps
There are a number of steps that should be implemented to properly execute a domain change if it is decided that the change is necessary or worthwhile.
Before the Domain Update
1. Do an Audit
It is important to audit all statistics before transferring domain names. This will help get a better understanding of everything going on associated with the domain and will give a benchmark in which to see progress from after the switch. The biggest component to audit is the inbound links coming to the site. This is important because it is the biggest SEO ranking factor and when changing domain names it is important to minimize losing good links.
Next, review all the links to look for the best quality ones and highlight them. The best links should be revisited and checked that they are still linked and 301 redirecting properly after transferring domains.
Additionally, conduct an audit on the top keywords that are being searched for that drive visits to the website. This will be used after the launch as talked about below.
2. 1 to 1 301 Redirect Everything
Setting up a 1 to 1 301 redirect will not only send the user to the correct page but will also tell search engines that the page has permanently been moved and will transfer the link credit to the new page. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to take time and make sure everything is getting 301 redirected properly. This is very important for both traffic and search.
3. Keep the Same URL Structure
It is highly recommended to keep the exact same URL structure while switching domains. There are enough changes that both the site and Google have to account for in a domain name switch, to change all the URLs as well would result in even more loss in rankings and traffic. If you want to make changes to the URL structure, it’s best to wait a few months after the domain transfer, once things have settled, and then make the changes.
4. Tell Google You Moved
Submit the new domain to Google and update the domain in their system so all listings are up to date.
After Domain Update
1. Thorough Check
The day of migration, double and triple check everything is linked properly and 301 redirected appropriately. Use the keyword audit performed to review all the keywords that were driving traffic to the site and search for them on Google. Then confirm that they are 301 redirecting properly. Additionally, review the top inbound links and check to see if they are properly redirecting.
2. Monitoring 404 Errors
A 404 will happen when a page doesn’t get redirected properly. Be sure to monitor and update any 404’s that might occur. Check every day for the first week and update any pages that might be returning a 404 error. Continue to review once a week for the first month after the change to keep track of any possible 404 errors that might happen after the launch. Sometimes it can take a few weeks for some to surface.
3. Plan a Big Marketing Push Post Launch
It is pretty common that after the transfer of a domain, search rankings will decrease. Knowing this in advance, it’s important to plan a big marketing push for right after launch to help bump the rankings and return to or, better yet, exceed previous success.
4. Content Push
Implement new site content. Blogs are a particularly good way to expand content and getting multiple blogs posted will drive traffic to the site, and are more likely to get linked to and shared.
Conclusion
Some domain changes are a necessity and have to be completed for the betterment of the company. Even if the domain change is completed correctly, it can result in a drop in the authority numbers which will decrease the rankings, and therefore, an overall drop in traffic as domain authority is not transferable.
Websites that are well established and have years of successful data should stay on the existing domain whenever possible. The history of data can be lost with a domain change and the site would need to start building authority all over again. It would be difficult to recapture the examples’ numbers with a domain change and, in fact, they may never return to such high levels.
If the domain were to change it would undoubtedly lose authority in the process. Instead, consider leaving the domain in the current location and build the changes directly into the site content. If a change must be made then the list of steps and processes above should be executed to ensure the lowest amount of lost authority as possible.
by Charles River Interactive | November 3, 2015 | Industry Trends
Written by Bethany Critchley and Kathryn Falco
Over the past couple of weeks, Facebook and Twitter have been hard at work rolling out new features for both their individual users and their advertisers. Below is an overview of some great new tools the platforms have unveiled to individual users and advertisers alike.
Facebook begins testing new Topic-Based Feeds feature
Until recently, users’ feeds have been primarily composed of statuses, pictures, re-posts, promoted posts, etc. all of which were, for the most part, out of their control. Though Facebook did its best to show and suggest posts similar to ones that users “liked” or promoted themselves, it was easy to get lost in all of the information (and irrelevant relationship statuses) that were constantly being displayed. That is, until now.
Last week, Facebook started testing out a new feature – Topic-Based Feeds. Users within the test were given the ability to choose specific topics to be displayed in their newsfeeds by clicking on their particular interests within the Topics toolbar (found on the left side of the menu). The Topics, Animals & Pets, Food, Health & Fitness, and Sports, were then further refined based on users’ preferences after answering questions on the topics they chose.
Because this feature is still a test, the platform also gave users the ability to “flag” posts that they deemed irrelevant to the chosen topic (a smart move on Facebooks part considering users often feel they do not have much say in what appears in their feeds).
The feature has not been completely rolled out and is only open to random users for now, but it is definitely a step in a new direction for the social giant. Facebook is still the dominant social network, but other platforms are starting to creep up on them.
People predominantly use Facebook to stay tuned-in to what their friends and families are doing on a daily basis, but they are often overwhelmed by the unnecessary information that other people are posting. From a strategic standpoint, it seems this is a positive move on Facebooks part. Users will feel like they have more of a hand in what they see in their feeds instead of feeling lost in a sea of information and emotion. But for those users who prefer to stay up to date on who is newly engaged, who recently broke up, and who is having babies, they can choose to stick with the normal news feed.
For more information on the Facebook Topic-Based Feed check out this article on MarketingLand.
Facebook introduces new “Slideshow” ad unit for emerging markets
What is it?
Slideshow is a new video substitute. Advertisers are able to create video ads from still images. Upload 3 to 7 still images and choose the length of the slideshow which ranges from 5-15 seconds. You are able to use video like motion with no sound to provide a new way to tell brand stories.
Why was it created?
It was designed to play in markets where mobile connections are slow or unreliable. Due to the smaller file size, it allows eye catching ads to people with poor connection.
How does it work?
Advertisers create two campaigns, one being a traditional video and the other a slideshow. Facebook detects the user’s connection speed and then shows the appropriate ad. This feature is at no additional cost.
Useful to You?
Although a very cool feature it may not be completely relevant to our Facebook ad campaigns in North America, since we generally have good connection to service. Facebook released that more than half of its revenue comes from non-North American markets, where the dominant form of internet access is mobile but on a slow connection. So this could be something interesting to test for clients that we are running Facebook campaigns internationally.
On a bigger scale, Coca-Cola ran these types of campaigns in markets such as Kenya and Nigeria and had great results. You can find out more information on this case study on FaceBook and VentureBeat.
Twitter rolls out Native Polling feature
Nowadays, everyone has an opinion on everything and Twitter just made it that much easier to voice yours. Regular users of the network are all too aware of the “Retweet for Yes, Favorite for No” Tweets that float around within their feeds. From big Brands to individuals, users understand that these Tweets are a fun way to get followers to engage and interact with a Tweet.
As of last week, Twitter started rolling out a new feature that allows users to quickly share their opinions on social media – Native Polling. Let’s be honest, it’s pretty cool and don’t even deny that you can’t wait to start using it. Though the feature has been in test mode over the past month, it will now be available to all users.
In the past, these polls were only available to advertisers using custom Twitter Cards who were asking questions and tracking responses. The new poll feature is a simple “query” with two possible answers with results being displayed in real-time. Each poll is active for 24-hours and users can also see how much time is left to “vote.” Once the 24-hour limit has been reached, the results are displayed as a percentage. Not only that, but Twitter sends a notification to all poll participants, prompting them to “check out” the final results.
The new feature will be rolling out over the next few days on iOS, Android, and Twitter.com.
In our opinion, this is one of the most useful Twitter features we’ve seen in a while. Not only is it fun for the average person, but this is huge for Brands seeking to engage their followers and attract more. Though there is no information yet on whether this will be available within the ads platform, it’s probably safe to assume that that won’t be far behind.
Social Media is an ever-growing, ever-changing way to be noticed by the public. That is even more true when it comes to advertisers. There is no better way to reach a target audience than to market them with products and services in places and outlets that are relevant to their daily lives. Users are on social media because they are looking for better ways to fulfill their lives and they look to other users to influence their choices (whether consciences of it or not). In a society that has grown up and into the social media world, it is essential for advertisers to take advantage of an audience that is, for lack of a better word, begging to be marketed to.
You can find out more information on this new Twitter feature at MarketingLand.
by Charles River Interactive | October 27, 2015 | Organic Search
One of the most commonly used metrics in a Google Analytics report is the bounce rate. It’s a metric that can help you improve your website, by understanding which pages are not resonating as well with your visitors. But beware because bounce rate can be a bit confusing if you don’t fully understand how it works.
What is a Bounce Rate?
Bounce Rate is defined as the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. It’s one of those metrics in Google Analytics that you’ll prefer to see a lower percentage.
Several factors can contribute to a website or a specific landing page having a high bounce rate. For instance, visitors might leave the site if there are site usability issues. Or upon landing on the page, they may realize this is not the content they were seeking, again causing the bounce.
Alternatively, your visitors may have found the exact information they needed and do not have an interest in looking at any additional pages within the site. So it’s important to realize that a high bounce rate is not necessarily a bad thing. Some pages are meant to have high bounce rates. If a visitor is looking for a specific piece of information – and they have found it on your site, they could take their information and leave. It doesn’t mean that your site didn’t have enough interesting content, but maybe they found an answer and have no desire (or time) to remain on the site. Contact Us pages typically show a high bounce rate, as visitors get the information that they were looking for and then leave.
Finding Trends
We did a bit of digging in Google Analytics for one of our clients to see exactly which landing pages were generating a lot of visits from organic search, but were also producing a high bounce rate.
The first step was to set an advanced segment for organic sessions, and export 3-6 months of landing page data from Google Analytics. We then sorted the pages by highest total sessions and compared these pages to highest average bounce rate. For the purpose of this research, we only looked specifically at landing pages that had a bounce rate of 60% or higher. Bounce rates around the 50% mark are considered typical for most sites; while bounce rates less than that are viewed as good.
After looking at the data in Google Analytics, we were able to see a trend for specific pages that were generating traffic from organic search, but also had a high bounce rate. As we started to group the pages, we noticed that they predominantly fell into three distinct categories. The first group of pages were targeting users with an interest in a specific topic; an interest that may not carry over to other pages on the site. The second group of pages lived on the company’s blog. And, the third group of pages were within a section that had a lot of external links, which were likely distracting visitors and sending them off the site. Outlining any trends you are seeing with pages that have a high bounce rate is the first step to performing a bounce rate analysis.
Another thing to look into when dealing with high bounce rates is the average session duration. In the example of the blog posts performing well from an organic search standpoint, but having high bounce rates, we took a step further and looked at the average session duration. The average session duration for a lot of the blog posts were around 45 seconds, which suggests that these visitors were reading the posts and then leaving the site. Again, this may not necessarily be a bad thing…especially if you have a smaller site and are looking to boost up a specific piece of content.
There is often confusion around sites with external links that open in a new tab. The short answer to this is that if someone clicks on an external link in a new tab, and then does not interact with your site for 30 minutes, they will be considered a bounce – even if the tab is still open. Therefore, external links can contribute to a higher bounce rate if your visitors are clicking off and never coming back (or coming back too late). Adding event tracking to your outbound links can help you gain a better perspective on how many of your users are clicking on external links or just closing out the site.
You should also have a clear understanding of the differences between bounce rate and exit rate. A bounce refers to visits with only one interaction, while an exit can occur after several interactions. An easy way to differentiate is to understand that Bounce Rate is based only on sessions that start with that page; while Exit Rate applies to the page in which visitors are leaving the site after several interactions.
Next Steps
Now that you’ve got a clear understanding of how to interpret your bounce rate and have identified trends you are seeing in your data, you can determine which pages need your immediate attention. Overall, the best way to improve your bounce rate is to find ways to encourage visitors to remain on your site and engage with more content. You may want to add more internal links to your pages that have high bounce rates, or create more compelling content that encourages your visitors to stay engaged. Just don’t waste time adding or altering content on pages that you would expect to have a high percentage of bounces. Look for trends in your bounce rates and then focus your efforts on where they will matter the most!
by Charles River Interactive | October 1, 2015 | Organic Search, Search Engine Marketing, SEO, SEO Industry Trends, Uncategorized
We’ve done it. You have done it. So have a lot of other people we all know.
What is it?
Searched for information about a health condition online. As of February 2015, Google made it easier to find this type of information with a knowledge graph containing details for more than 400 medical conditions. And in early September, they more than doubled the number of conditions and enhanced the visual appearance of the health conditions knowledge graph, and added a downloadable PDF with the information. So now, when you search for a common condition such as “asthma”, you will see a page that looks like this:
I’m sure you’re thinking, “This is great – I get information about the condition, including symptoms and treatments. I don’t see any problems.” The problem is what if you are a hospital or medical facility with an asthma treatment program, and you have just spent time optimizing your web pages to rank in one of the top positions for the term? Now you are not only competing with health information sites such as WebMD as well as other hospitals, but you need to drag the searcher’s attention away from the bold visual.
All is not hopeless with this development. There are opportunities for hospitals and health care providers, including:
- Users that will scroll past the knowledge graph to organic results are likely to be more qualified leads. Students and casual browsers who are simply looking for definitions and general information will have no need to look further. Patients and families truly looking for care for a condition will be seeking additional information.
- Long-tail queries are (at least for now) not displaying the knowledge graph. So although phrases such as “exercise induced asthma” and “pediatric asthma” have less search volume than the broad term “asthma”, organic search results have better visibility and thus better click-throughs.
Beyond this, the question that remains for hospitals and healthcare providers is whether there is any benefit for them in maintaining pages on their site about medical conditions. For users that are seeking care for a condition, there is still value in gaining a ranking position in that space as the knowledge graph does not provide direction for treatment. Bottom line – perhaps there is a silver lining in the knowledge graph in allowing hospitals to do what they do best, provide treatment.
by Charles River Interactive | March 4, 2015 | Search Engine Marketing, Uncategorized
Earlier this year, Google started including brands’ social profiles within its Knowledge Graph panel. In the past, this feature only applied to famous people, such as actors, musicians and politicians. What does this mean for brands that Google will now pick up their social handles?
Branded search results are hugely important; this addition of social profiles makes it clear that:
• If your brand is already active in the social space and has a great presence, it will have even a better visibility in search results.
• If you haven’t had the time to build out your brands’ social profiles, this is yet another reason why you absolutely should. ASAP.
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