Using Kissmetrics to Discover the Value of Your Freemium Offering

Ah, the freemium model. It has helped build companies like Dropbox, Spotify, and MailChimp. But can it work for you? Unfortunately, plenty of failed companies used the freemium model, too.

There are a few ways to determine the effectiveness of your freemium plan. For instance, you can track all your freemium customers in a spreadsheet to see which ones convert to paying customers. This will require a lot of work. Plus, it’s not automated, the spreadsheet can get pretty full, and it’s tough to get insights out of a big spreadsheet.

You can also use Kissmetrics. We have a suite of reports that will take all your data and show you various insights into whether freemium is working for your company. You’ll just need to set up the reports. That’s what this post is about. We’ll go through three of our reports that you can use to see if you should continue with your freemium plan or kill it off in favor of all-paid pricing plans.

Let’s begin.

Discovering If and When Customers Upgrade from Freemium

Obviously, companies cannot succeed if 100% of their customers are on the “free” plan. They need their free customers to grow out of the plan and/or refer others who will sign up for a paid plan.

But if you’re not tracking the data, how would you ever know if people upgrade from the free plan to one of your paid plans?

Using the Kissmetrics Cohort Report, you can see if and when your freemium customers move up and start paying you. You’ll also be able to see which marketing campaigns and customer segments upgrade the most.

In simple terms, a cohort is a group of people who share a similar experience. So people who signed up for a free plan and later upgraded to a paid plan would be in a cohort. The Kissmetrics Cohort Report will show you these people and how many of them upgraded. Here’s how it will look:

On the left side, we see the people who signed up for the freemium plan. The property (Social, Organic, Direct, etc.) tells us where the people came from. So, for example, if someone came from Twitter and signed up, they’d be put in the Social group. (The None category is for people who do not fit in any of the properties.)

The right side tells us what percentage of the people in each group later went on to upgrade to a paying plan. The darker the shade of blue, the higher the percentage. The higher the percentage, the better.

Here are some important takeaways from this data:

• Some of the stronger channels are Organic, Direct, and Referral. Social acquires the most signups, but doesn’t convert at a higher percentage than the other groups. If this were your data, you’d know that you could put more focus and effort in getting signups from these channels. Direct would be a little difficult (these are people who have no referrer), but generally an increase in brand awareness means more direct visits.
• Paid has brought 6 free signups, but none of them have converted to paying. We’ll have to see what we’re spending on this channel to know if it’s worth it. If it’s a reasonable cost, we should wait until we get more signups to see if Paid really is a bad channel for conversions.
• Overall, a solid percentage of people upgrade to paying. To build a successful business, the money we receive from customers will have to exceed the amount it takes to acquire them. Free signups are generally low-cost, so if this were our data, it would look pretty good that we are able to acquire customers profitably.

You can also use the Kissmetrics Funnel Report to track the percentage of people who move from the “freemium signup” step to the “billed” step in your sales funnel. You just won’t be able to know when they convert, as you can with a cohort report. (A funnel report can be used for a number of other purposes, including finding where visitors drop off in the path to purchase, finding which A/B test variation led to more signups, etc.)

Click here to view a demo of the Cohort Report.

Knowing if Freemium Spreads

Many free plans have some virality engine built in. Users on the Dropbox free plan, for example, get more space if they refer people to Dropbox. If your free plan has something like this, you can use the same Cohort Report to tell you when people share your product with others. Just set your criteria to people who signed up for freemium and later referred their friends.

You can segment people by channel (as we did above) or by when they signed up or by whatever will deliver the best insights for you. As long as you’re tracking it, you can get the data.

Finding Out if Freemium Users Are Using Your Product

If freemium users aren’t using your product, it may be a sign of one of the following problems:

• There is no product/market fit. You’re signing up people who aren’t interested in your product.
• The capabilities of the freemium plan are too limited for any practical use.
• Your product isn’t any good. In this case, the majority of your paid users won’t be using the product either.

We can track usage with a simple login retention cohort, or we can use the Kissmetrics People Search to get a list of people who have signed up for the free trial but have not used the product. We can then email these people and gather feedback.

The Kissmetrics People Search allows you to find people based on specific criteria. For example, you can find people who have logged in but not used a feature. Or you can find people who have signed up but not logged in, which is what we’ll be searching for. Here are the criteria:

As you can see, we’re looking for people who have signed up for the freemium plan but have not logged in. We want to see all the people who fit these criteria in the last 30 days.

We aren’t limited to looking at people who have not logged in. If we’re tracking it, we can view the people who have signed up but not used a feature or the people who have signed up but not upgraded.

Let’s click Search and get our data:

We’re viewing 10 of the 122 people who fit the criteria. We can export this data to a CSV file and then upload it to an email service provider such as MailChimp. Or we can email each person individually to get feedback.

If you’re tracking it, you can also use People Search to discover the users who have been using freemium but have not upgraded to a paying plan. You can email these people to learn more about their use cases, what’s working for them, and even target them for upgrades. As long as you’re tracking it, you can get the data and find the people.

Click here to view a demo of People Search.

Use Data to Discover if Freemium Is Working for You

When you offer a freemium plan, you reduce the barrier to entry for many people. Then, ideally, the freemium users upgrade to a paying plan or refer others who pay. But if none of the freemium users upgrade to a paying plan or refer others, your freemium plan may just be a burden on your business. Analytics tools like Kissmetrics (with its Cohort Report, Funnel Report, and People Search) can help you discover if freemium is working for your business.

If you’re using freemium on your product, you may want to sign up for Kissmetrics to see if it’s working for you. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial, or request a personal demo of Kissmetrics.

About the Author: Zach Bulygo (Twitter) is a Content Writer for Kissmetrics.

How to Earn Links and Gain Credibility with the Three A’s of Legitimacy

The concept of earning links seems to be one of the most difficult subjects for strategists, marketers, and business owners to wrap their heads around.

It’s no wonder, either, since Google and other search engines adjust the criteria for what deems a link to be relevant or qualified at such a rapid pace.

If you quickly review the blogosphere on this subject, it’s easy to become confused. Many sources recommend tactics like press releases and guest posts. Others warn that those forms of content will lead to Google dropping the hammer with a range of severe penalties.

The fact is that earning links is not difficult to do when approached and understood correctly.

Why Links Are “Earned” Today, as Opposed to “Built”

As search engines continue to develop their ability to interpret and understand quality content, their standards for how websites obtain authority continue to rise, as well.

In 2009, strategists could achieve premier rankings by embedding links on just about any website, regardless of the link’s value to users or its relation to the original domain. Now, business owners are tasked with the responsibility for creating relationships with relevant thought influencers that offer high quality content to online consumers.

Examples of link “building” include paying companies or webmasters to post links on their sites and embedding links on free directories that appear spammy.

In contrast, link “earning” involves strategists collaborating over what types of meaningful content they can create to share with other like-minded authorities online.

With Links, Think About How to Gain Credibility in the Real World

The easiest way to understand the concept of earning links is to think about how credibility is formed in offline, real-world settings.

If some unknown name were to run for public office, that person would have zero credibility to use to garner votes from the public.

However, with endorsements from the community’s local politicians and others in positions of higher authority in government, that person would automatically have a level of credibility based on his or her association with those offering words of support.

Well, the exact same mindset is behind the logic of acquiring links today.

When a brand new website is launched, it is not able to convey to search engines that it deserves to be placed on page one of search results without some history of experience to justify that.

However, when the website is able to connect with other popular sites that are seen as thought providers or consumer advocates within their particular space, it can then justify itself as appropriate for online consumers to engage with.

Look at History to Better Understand Today’s Search Demands

The state of the World Wide Web was a bit of a mess back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Millions of online users were constantly confronted with links that led to:

• Pop-up ads
• Porn sites
• Irrelevant/meaningless content

It makes sense that Google wanted to implement standards that prevented their customers (online users) from being subjected to inappropriate and unpleasant experiences.

Standards That Promote a Quality Online Experience

Google updates and/or adjusts its algorithm over 500 times each year. While the vast majority of all updates are unannounced or unnoticed by the general public, some of them have a profound impact on what people see when they search online.

For example, popular, well-known updates like “Panda,” Penguin,” and “Pigeon” aim to create an online search experience that provides the most gratifying, rewarding results possible. This includes removing the ability to access sites that:

• Contain high volumes of duplicate, plagiarized content
• Have excessive volumes of irrelevant links that do not allow users to continue their personal search experience in a meaningful, logical way

Understanding the focus behind some of these updates allows strategists to clearly see an online environment that is completely devoted to offering consumers an original, honest experience that aligns directly with each user’s intentions.

The Three A’s Behind How Content Ranks in 2015

Almost everything about Google’s algorithm and the process involved for determining which listings are appropriate for users to engage with is based on a plethora of considerations.

Remember that links serve as a form of validation or credibility, and you can use the same tactics that have always been popular (i.e., press releases, guest posts, infographics, etc.), despite some industry opinions that say otherwise.

When planning out a new link-earning campaign, keep the three A’s in mind at all times in order to evaluate the legitimacy of the prospective link:

• Alignment – how well a particular website or form of content aligns with your users’ expectations, intentions, and demands.
• Authority – the level of credibility, experience, and intelligence a particular website is deemed to have based on consumer recognition and search engine algorithms.
• Authenticity – the extent to which a particular website’s technical and onsite composition are comprised to meet the specific needs of individual online users/consumers. In other words, is the website built to completely align with and resolve consumer demands, or is it built to satisfy theoretical ranking factors?

How The Three A’s Apply in Action

Over the years, inexperienced strategists responsible for fulfilling a particular linking strategy tended to exclusively dedicate their time to the following tactics:

• Creating as many directories as possible
• Publishing numerous posts across underdeveloped social channels
• Distributing press releases across free, online wires
• Contributing content to unqualified third-party hosts

Now, the activities on this list are not the issue. The problem lies in how they are executed and the level of meaning/relevancy behind each action and its result.

Earn Links Correctly by Thinking of People First, Not Rankings

One sure way to approach links incorrectly is to think about them solely as a means to drive rankings rather than brand awareness or conversions.

When strategists intentionally try to build authority around particular key phrases or sites in order to rank in the first position on Google’s results pages, without consideration for the three A’s, they waste their time publishing content through empty social profiles or setting up directories on sites that no one visits.

Instead, you can maximize the value of your work and the results for your clients by keeping the three A’s in mind at all times when executing the tactics mentioned above.

Let’s go through each one of the link-earning activities now.

Creating Directories

Creating business directories that outline legitimate information attached to a particular brand or service is still an appropriate step to take when it comes to earning links.

However, you need to keep the target audience in mind at all times and think about whether or not the directory you want to create will:

• Lead to a new link

or

• Lead to a new link and drive qualified referral traffic

If a directory is going to be published in an environment that has nothing to do with the primary message or service of your brand, then don’t bother.

This could lead to some trouble with Google (possible deindexing) due to the concept of “building links just to build them.”

Instead, identify which specific directory sites your brand’s target audience actually engages, based on information related to the online behavior of your audience.

Popular, credible directory sites such as Yelp and Foursquare create links that derive from authoritative sources and that connect brands with real, qualified consumers.

Publishing Posts on Social Media

The concept of “social SEO” in association with earning links sees social shares derived from actions of individuals. Examples of actions are:

• Leaving a comment on a blog post
• Sharing an article on Facebook
• Retweeting a comment on Twitter
• Repinning a photo on Pinterest

This also includes any other manual action by an individual in relation to content.

The ability to earn qualified links through social media is successful only when there is an established audience that is able to react to the content they receive.

The idea of publishing all created forms of content through social media is correct.
However, too often, strategists find themselves publishing materials through underdeveloped profiles that have few or no followers.

What basically happens here is that the strategist announces new information using a megaphone, but no one is in attendance to listen.

If your brand has social profiles with inactive followers or insignificant numbers of followers, allocate time and resources to build up such followers first.

You can and should always publish through Google+ since there are legitimate organic search merits involved, including the immediate indexation of content.

However, other profiles like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest need to be nurtured before they can serve as credible avenues for acquiring social links.

Distributing Press Releases

Press releases are a bit of a different beast when it comes to earning links.

The best way to approach this tactic is to think about only the end user and the opportunity to connect with new potential customers.

Online wires, whether they require some form of payment or not, should not be seen as a legitimate means of earning links that have value.

Most wires do not allow publishers to embed links in their releases; those that do are typically not high in quality when it comes to user experience, intention, and meaning.

Source

Here are a few best practices to consider for press release distribution:

• Create them with substance and provide evidence that supports the value of what is being promoted; i.e., statistics, references, quotes, etc.
• Create them only when something is actually newsworthy or relevant to the masses. For most businesses outside the Fortune 1000 status, one press release per quarter is probably appropriate.
• Send each release over actual media outlets, whether regional or national. These include newspapers, affiliate TV stations, radio channels, and others. Most local newspapers and TV stations allow users to publish newsworthy events right on their websites.

Contributing Guest Content

Guest posting is a great way to connect brands and businesses with new potential customers who are interested in similar materials or subjects and who have not yet been introduced to a particular supplier.

However, too often strategists and marketers will create content for their clients and publish with hosts that have no set standards dedicated to the quality of submissions they take or that are irrelevant to the client’s primary message.

You can use tools like GroupHigh to identify actual thought consumers and advocates per vertical throughout the world.

Tools like this one offer you the ability to understand more detailed information about potential third-party hosts and their level of authenticity/alignment, including:

• Who are the host’s target audience(s)
• How often do they publish new forms of content
• How many social followers do they have and how actively engaged are they
• Domain authority

If such tools aren’t accessible because of budgetary limitations, a simple manual review of the criteria listed above will go a long way toward understanding whether the link(s) and visitors that have the potential to be acquired are qualified and of value.

You Can’t Go Wrong Earning Links Using the Three A’s

Regardless of which tactic you choose to use or implement, remember that everything has to come back to these three questions:

1. Does this content or website align with the specific intentions, expectations, and motivations of your brand’s target audience?
2. Is this content or website recognized as a thought leader, or are they appropriate for the category they are competing for?
3. Is this content or website being built/developed with the intention of satisfying customers, or is there too much focus on onsite optimization?

As long as the answers to these questions always go back to benefiting the end user, your link-earning campaigns will serve as a primary means of driving visibility, connections, and conversions.

About the Author: Jason Corrigan is the Manager of Search Marketing for The American Cancer Society; with experience developing complex, wide-scale search and social strategies for Fortune 1000 brands including: Duracell, Febreze, Swiffer, Oral-B, The Source and others. He is a published author on the concept of “Social SEO” and a frequent contributor to some of the industry’s most popular search journals. Corrigan owns the trademark to “SEO Without Borders” and is currently developing a non-profit organization that will connect victims in third-world countries with qualified donors across the world using digital resources and organic search. You can follow him on Twitter.

5 Blog Topics to Stop Rehashing Immediately

You work hard to create blog content that people actually want to read. You know it’s an important part of your content marketing efforts that will bring in new customers over time.

But there are a few topics that online readers have seen time and time again—and at this point, they’re just becoming noise.

An Algoso survey found that 88% of people read blogs because they want analysis and opinions, while 74% wanted information on trends within a sector or to learn from others’ experiences.

Source

In order to satisfy those readers’ driving desires, you need to write blog content that says something new, interesting, and insightful—not regurgitates what everyone else has already said.

Here are 5 topics that have been overdone (and that you should steer clear from.)

1. The 10 Best X

With more than 4.9 billion search results for this phrase, it’s safe to say that we’ve all seen our fair share of top 10 lists.

For example: The 10 Best Ways to Get More Followers on Twitter or The 10 Best Ways to Grow Your Email List

The trouble with these posts is that they strive for quantity—not quality—by providing only surface level information rather than taking a deep dive into one particular point.

When we look at a top 10 blog post, we don’t learn much beyond what they are. There’s often no how that explains what makes them qualified to be on this top 10 list or that walks you through how you could emulate what made it so successful.

Plus, research shows that the average content length for a top-ranking site in Google has at least 2,000 words. Therefore, it’s clear that Google defines higher quality content as posts that go into greater detail.

Unfortunately, the average top 10 post falls far short of that minimum. Bottom line: There’s not a lot you can teach in that few words.

Try this instead: Rather than throwing together a quick top 10 post, pick the best example on the list and pick apart what makes it work so well. Create a piece of content like ‘The One Best X to do X’ that teaches the reader something valuable using this singular example—and leave the rest of the top 10 list behind.

2. How X is Like X

Another overdone blog topic is the comparison post that finds some creative similarity between two concepts and trys to spin it into something interesting. There are 1 billion search results for this blog topic—so comparison posts have had a good run.

For example: How Your Business is Like a Computer Processor or How Your Marketing Funnel is Like Baking a Cake

It sounds like a good idea, but is there real substance for the reader that can come from such a far-fetched comparison? Is it going to teach them something they didn’t already know?

Posts that try to use comparisons to teach a concept often miss the mark because the writer is so focused on staying on track with the theme. The content becomes idea-centric rather than based in research, and while it might make for a clever headline, the content itself comes out weak.

The other obstacle that arises from posts that pivot on similarities between concepts or products is that they lack those essential personal opinions and experiences that offer unique insight—which the Algoso survey showed was a top motivator for blog readers.

Try this instead: Comparisons can be powerful when used to demonstrate a finding that others can implement, too. Try something like ‘What We Can Learn from Testing A Against B’ that shows how a test proved that one method was more effective than another.

ContentVerve uses this to effectively showcase results of A/B testing and compares two versions side by side to illustrate the positive impact.

Source

3. News Round-Ups

There are more than 350M search results for news round-ups, but how many of them offer something new to the conversation?

When it comes to these news round-up posts, they often just repeat information that’s already been shared elsewhere and leave out personal insight.

For example: Healthcare News Round-Up for August 2015 or Marketing News Round-Up: The Things You Missed

For the reader, there’s simply not much value. Number one: They may have already read the news elsewhere, so when they encounter it on your blog with no accompanying input, it feels disappointing. When someone visits your blog, they want to hear from you—not from someone else.

Number two: News round-ups also frequently include quote-heavy content that really tells the reader, “Hey, I didn’t have the story, but someone else did.” Is that a message you want to send to your readers?

Try this instead: Rather than just repackaging existing information, try a topic like ‘Highlights of X and What You Can Learn From It.’ This way, you’re still sharing the important information, but you’re doing the legwork for the reader and telling them what they need to read between the lines. Or, share what you know from your past experiences—and weigh in with some fresh perspective.

4. Why X is Cliché/Wrong/Bad

Lots of bloggers and content marketers like to take to the pulpit and express their opinions on business issues, launching lofty statements like, “X is wrong and here’s why.”

For example: Why Blogging is Bad for Your Business or Why Client Thank You Notes are Cliché

Don’t believe me? Check the 1B search results that come up for that title.

Opinion and persuasion are definitely key elements to a great blog post. However, when writers make these bold claims, they often forget to back them up with research, case studies, or experience. They’re purely opinion-based—and there’s where things get tricky.

Commentary that’s not backed in tangible proof can read as trivial for the audience, and can put you in a position to play defense with people who disagree. What might sound like an emotionally charged blog post that you’re really passionate about could actually do harm for your personal brand if you don’t have the ethos and logos to accompany your claims.

Additionally, these posts often lack a strong CTA for the reader. If blogging is part of your content marketing strategy and you throw in an opinion piece that’s missing a strong, relevant CTA, you can cause serious damage to your sales funnel.

Try this instead: Make bold claims by showcasing interesting case studies you conducted that include screenshots, testing methods, and real numbers that prove your point. Think more along the lines of ‘How We Tested (strategy) to Discover You Should Use A Over B’.

5. The Year in Review

999M ‘year in review’ posts exist already.

For example: The Year in Review: Looking Back at My Business in 2015 or Recap: The Year in Review and What I Accomplished

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Do we need another? Probably not. Here’s why:

Reflection posts that simply recap the past 365 days don’t typically offer the reader any new insight and instead just recycle ideas, lessons, and events you’ve already talked about.

More importantly, though, think about what motivates your audience to visit your blog in the first place. They might like your writing style and online persona, but really, they want to learn something they can use for themselves.

If you’re just looking back on what you accomplished this year and not showcasing an in-depth lesson you took away from it—you’re probably just rambling.

Try this instead: It’s okay to share what you learned over the past year, but remember to focus in on one key theme. A topic like ‘The Most Important X I Learned in (year) That Helped My Business’ gives the reader serious value—you’re squeezing the best lesson you learned over a the course of a whole year and handing it to them with a pretty bow.

Conclusion

With millions of pieces of content that already exist on the Internet, the blog posts you write need to stand out, provide value, and be backed in research—not pure opinion.

Gary Vaynerchuk said that when it comes to what you’re producing on the Internet, “Someone is always watching.” Readers can see when you’re not giving a solid effort to your blogs and each time you deliver less-than insightful blog posts, you chip away at the trust and authority you’ve earned with your audience.

Stop rehashing these overdone blog topics and start being a unique voice in the noisy world of content.

About the Author: Kaleigh Moore is a social media consultant and copywriter who helps SaaS companies craft intelligent content with a charming human element. Visit her website or follow her on Twitter.

Search Engine Ranking is Not The Point – Check These Progress Signals Instead

We all want to show up higher in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). That’s the name of the game. Most clients will see a rise in ranking and love you for it. However, have you really completed your job as a web marketer by improving your client’s key terms positions?

More often than most people think, a rise in ranking does not improve the bottom line. In fact, some clients will report that despite a rise in ranking, an improvement in calls/sales have yet to come.

The truth is that improving ranking does not necessarily improve sales.

Of course we want to improve our ranking, and in order to do this, we take a look at keywords, and their ranking data. However, while there is no question about the value of checking a set of keywords against the SERP and finding out their positioning, this information is simply over rated… and I’ll explain why.

Knowing the rankings for a set of keywords doesn’t really give you an idea of performance, it’s just a number. Not once, but many times I have witnessed keywords with high commerciality and decent search volume entering the performance zone (position 1-5), with little to no improvement. For the experienced readers, this is probably starting to sound familiar.

Improvement can be defined as: ranking increase, additional traffic, more conversions, better CTR, impressions, etc. However, some improvements are only stepping stones to end goals.

We should treat some improvements as signals indicating that we are on the right track, and others as actual success metrics – working towards reaching our goals. With this in mind, I am going to discuss discovering a website’s high ranking keywords and their signals, and more importantly, understanding how to utilize them for perusing success metrics (conversions goals).

Differentiating Signals vs. Success Metrics

Let’s pause for a second…. I know some of you might think that conversions on a website are affected from a range of metrics that sometimes SEO experts have no control of (no budget to improve code/design, bad sales copy, wrong call to action, bad offer all together, etc). So how can goal completions be an indication? To start, you are right! However, even though you still might not be able to reach the full potential of a website due to barriers, you should be able to see some incline with your success metrics, and that’s enough to prove that what you are doing is working. Getting more or less results is probably out of your hands if you don’t have access/resources to improve on-page conversion metrics as part of what you do.

Okay, now going back to signal/success metrics. Here are the metrics I review when promoting a business. I use Ignitur to automate the process, but you can do this on excel as well. Signals are just direction pointers, and the success metrics are what I’m really aiming for:

• Signal – Impressions
• Signal – CTR
• Signal – Traffic
• Signal – Ranking
• Success metric – Goal completion

You should know that you might not find all of this data unless you have a PPC campaign in place, which if that isn’t the case, you will need to mine this information somewhere else. My method has helped me rely less on scraped keyword ranking data and more on what’s important to improve my client’s bottom line using Google Webmaster Tools (WMT).

Instead of checking the positioning of a set of keywords I/the client came up with, I compare them to the search terms list in Google Webmaster Tools to see what I’m already ranking for.

Example

Keyword: [Target Keyword]

I’m already ranking for:

• Best [Target Keyword] in Phoenix AZ
• Where to find [Target Keyword] in Phoenix
• Buy [Target Keyword] near 85028
• [Target Keyword] that sell also Ocean Breeze Orchids
• Pictures of [Target Keyword]
• [Target Keyword] (exact match)

You get the idea, right? I compare the core key terms I want to rank for as Phrase Match with what Google indicates I’m already ranking for. Aha moment! You now have a list of terms that your website is showing up for in the SERP that you most likely didn’t know about. You can do the same thing for each core keyword on your list, until you have a long list of keyword versions (and some exact match) of your core ones.

How To Do This Screening in Webmaster Tools?

Download the list of queries from Google Webmaster Tools.

Select ‘Search Traffic’ -> ‘Search Analytics’ -> click ‘Download’ on the bottom. Don’t forget to check all metric options available:

Note: this table provides 1000 records. Unless you are an eCommerce store with many products, that should be more than enough. However, and for probably a limited time (until Google takes this option out), Google gives the option to see up to 10,000 search queries if you just click the link ‘Go back to the old search queries report’.

Next…

Open the excel file and click CTRL F. Input your core keyword, click ‘replace’ -> click ‘options’ -> click ‘format’ -> click ‘fill’ -> choose the color green -> Click ‘ok’ and click ‘Replace All’. Now, all key terms containing your core keyword will be highlighted. Repeat for all keywords. (This works with excel on a PC, not a Mac)

What Do You Do With These Keywords?

The information you just downloaded and sorted has all the signals we talked about above:

• Signal – Impressions
• Signal – CTR
• Signal – Traffic
• Signal – Ranking

I will talk about the success metric in a little bit…

Actions You Should Take:

• High ranking + Low CTR/Clicks – Improve meta description
• High ranking + Low Impressions – Improve page relevancy
• High CTR + Low Clicks/ Impressions – Make sure your keyword is in the title
• High Impressions + Low Clicks – Improve page engagement and all relevancy metrics

Any combination of Low + Low means that the work needed is beyond a few tweaks.

When you are done with all content updates, wait for the next few crawls, review and adjust. You now probably see why just checking ranking for a list of keywords might feel like a half-way job. There was no direction on which actions to take and why. Right now you have your signal metrics to give you a clear direction.

Another immediate action you can take to improve your organic presence is using the metrics and actions above. Use the option in WMT to see ‘Pages’ in search metrics:

The results will display a table of URLs. Simply try to improve anything ranking on pages 2 to 5 (will show in the table positions 10.1 to 50 in the SERP. These pages have more chances of improving with a few minor tweaks, as opposed to pages 5 and down which indicate that relevancy level need more than a few content changes to bring them up in ranking.

Why Do I Need to Wait For a Few Crawls?

If you are working on inner pages, you want to make sure you give Google enough time to update its index. Alternatively, you can use the option in WMT ‘Fetch as Google’ in order to expedite this process.

Let’s Go Even Further and Separate Between Brand and Non-Brand Keywords

Simply continue working on the same excel file, but do your searches and sort by company name/ business owner name and color the cells in a different color. In the example below, the non-brand keywords are highlighted in green, and the brand keywords are highlighted in red.

Do I Still Need To Do Keyword Research?

Of course you do! Remember in the movie Stargate when the lab guy explains that for space travel you need six points to define the destination and another one to define the point of origin? (By the way, this is Hollywood misinterpretation – you only need three to define the destination and one for the origin…just like GPS).

Following this example, the core keywords you come up with after your keyword research are your coordinates to the destination. Your origin is the current status of those keywords – the signals I talked about earlier. Without one or the other, there really can’t prove any progress. Sadly, it is common to only check ranking on core keywords without really knowing the other important metrics needed to start moving the spaceship to its destination.

Do I Still Need to Check Ranking?

Not really, however, I found it very difficult to let others see it through this perspective, so in some cases, I still provide this data alongside all the goodies above. It simply keeps everybody happy.

What About the Success Metric?

Success metrics are merely Conversion Goals. This is a whole different topic, but I will still cover some of the essentials. You can bring the horse to the river, but you cannot force it to drink! As an SEO specialist, I feel responsible to bring relevant traffic to my client’s website, as well as conversions, but I cannot force a purchase.

Example #1:
I define a user conversion when a subscriber signed up for his 30-day software trial. It is not my responsibility to convert them from free subscribers to paying clients.

Example #2:
I define a user conversion on a hotel’s website when someone clicked ‘Book Now’. It is not my responsibility to convert them from prospects to vacationers (maybe the offer is bad…).

Example #3:
I define a user conversion when a user fills out a form or calls the company. It is not my responsibility to actually sell their services over the phone.

You are probably asking ‘what about eCommerce websites where conversions are actual sales?’ Excellent point! Well, it really is not different from the examples above. If the client decides to sell car parts 25% above suggested drop-shipping retail value instead of 15%, he will probably have less sales, but if you bring him relevant traffic, you will still be able to show him some improvement. However, it would be smart to define conversion goals from the start that are not actual website sales, where you have less control of. Here are a few ideas:

• Increase email subscribers
• Download discount coupon
• Product searches on the website
• Create an account
• Calls (you can use a call tracking number)

To Sum It Up

Use Google WMT search metrics data to improve your SEO results. WMT provides 90 days of data. You can align your testing and tweaking strategy, and make adjustments every quarter according to the trends.

About the Author: Asher Elran is a practical software engineer and a marketing specialist. He is the CEO at Dynamic Search and founder of Web Ethics.

5 Ways to Take Advantage of the Google/Twitter Partnership

Here is what we know: Google and Twitter are partners.
Here is what we don’t know: The impact this will have upon search/social marketing.

In February, Google and Twitter agreed to a partnership that gives Google access to Twitter’s firehose, which is the term for Twitter’s stream of Tweets.

What is Google going to do with this information? The answer seems obvious. They will provide tweets in the SERPs for real time search results, right? After all, Google is a search engine.

Most likely, yes. But the fact is, we simply don’t know. Google is a search engine, but they’ve also made a pretty darn big social media platform, smartphone platform, and operating system among other things. They’re even involved in space travel.

Whatever they plan to do with it, we will probably find out in the next few months. Right now, however, we can prepare.

And what should we do to prepare? Since we don’t know how Google will be applying firehose information to their search algorithm, we must focus on the broader issues of search and social.

This article does not promise the end-all solution, but it is an attempt to help marketers get ready for whatever is coming.

1. Understand the extent of social search

We might as well begin with the basics.

Social and search are merging. This is no longer pie-in-the-sky conjecture. It is the reality of the here-and-now.

Already, social platforms have robust search algorithms built in to them.

Facebook’s innocuous search bar can turn into a powerful social search. An advanced search can produce surprisingly focused results. I can even find friends who aren’t my friends.

Twitter’s own advanced search provides even more flexibility. Twitter search can produce results with positive emotion, negative emotion, or questions.

For Google users who are logged in, Google already returns Google+ results, which includes detailed contact information on users.

When I search for the name of someone in my Google+ circles, I get proprietary results drawn directly from my personal network.

With Google and Twitter’s tighter relationship, we can now expect the existing search power of Google applied to Twitter in new and surprising ways.

Social media professionals should understand how search works, both from a social perspective and from a search engine perspective. Having an understanding of search will enable social media strategists to further advance the findability of their brands and specific social media campaigns.

Digital marketing professionals have long struggled with identity crisis, trying to determine how broad or deep they should be. Those who prefer specialized roles tend to clash with those who are digital marketing jack-of-all-trades. SEOs are told that they aren’t actually SEOs, and marketers and agencies alike are trying to shape up into a T.

Whether you’re a search professional or a social professional, you should realize that the boundaries between the two are blurred. Search professionals should understand how social affects their role. Social professionals should realize the impact of search upon their role.

Both must acknowledge that the lines of the playing field are being redrawn in new and startling ways.

2. Employ an ongoing social strategy

Admittedly, this is a broad application, but it’s one that I must insist on.

Twitter and Google’s partnership sends a clarion call to the digital marketing world: Social matters. Big time.

Brands — from enormous companies to individual personalities — must have a social presence. But social presence isn’t enough.

It’s now necessary to have an ongoing methodology for advancing a social media agenda.

In the early days of the web, a business thought that it was doing a good job simply by having a website. Websites were digital placeholders.

Then around 2009 we realized that brands needed to produce content on a regular basis! The blog boom was born.

Source

Greater indexation, more pages, more visitors, more leads, more revenue — good things came to those who blogged.

We’re in a similar situation with social. A company that lacks a consistent output of social content isn’t going to last in the world of social.

As Google and Twitter merge their vast user bases and algorithmic technology, we’re going to see the importance of real time social search results.

Let me be very clear: Tweet regularly. Tweet often. Tweet a lot.

Keep your social output consistent and regular. Presumably, the better your posting velocity, the more likely you are to gain the right kind of attention and traffic.

3. Learn hashtag strategy, and use hashtags regularly

Hashtags will become more important than ever.

It’s likely that hashtags will help to drive search queries and Google’s search results. This is, admittedly, conjecture, but it seems likely that if tweets are part of the search results, then hashtagged terms within those tweets will also be searchable and visible.

It’s not a leap of logic to assume that any hashtagged queries will also produce additional Google results.

How can we be so sure? For one, Google already does this. Hashtagged queries get social results:

The top result for #semrushchat is a Twitter page with that hashtag. SEMRush hosts Twitter chats, so the hashtag #semrushchat has plenty of action, images, and updates.

Hashtags are the new keywords — not just for social activity, but search activity, too.

Since all the major social platforms use hashtags, Google search has been forced to adapt.

Now, your brand must adapt, too. Creating unique hashtags and capitalizing on the use of those hashtags will put you in a strong position to gain additional visibility and exposure s Google rolls out the application of their Twitter partnership.

For a quick visual summary of hashtags, check out this hashtag infographic.

4. Participate in trending topics

Twitter loves its Trends.

Users love it, too. Twitter trends are a way to discover what’s hot on Twitter. Trends can easily explode into worldwide sensations.

As Google jumps into the game, Trends will become even more significant in their real time search application.

Google can ascertain what topics are trending, but not with the same instantaneous algorithmically-powered accuracy that Twitter has.

A Googled trending hashtag can’t compete with Twitter’s live stream.

A Google query for #birdbands will give you this…

You get the idea that #birdbands is trending, but you don’t know why — not at a glance anyway.

Twitter’s live stream, however, shows you this…

Searching on Google means that you won’t get the joke at first. Searching on Twitter gives you complete understanding.

As Twitter and Google cozy up, Trends will be bigger and better than before. Twitter’s recent mobile changes mean that trends are more apparent and easier to find. As Google brings these trends into search visibility, we can expect it to improve even more.

5. Measure, track, and adapt

It will be interesting to see how the Google and Twitter partnership will affect the impact and ROI of social media.

In light of the coming change, keep close tabs on your social media record keeping. Be sure to align your social media efforts with your company goals. To this end, it will be helpful to inform your company’s search marketing team of the efforts.

Conclusion

My final recommendation is perhaps the most significant, but also the most obvious.

Keep using Twitter. If Twitter is partnering with the king of search, there is no way that the 14-character social media platform is on the decline.

This is the perfect opportunity to beef up your Twitter profiles, ramp up your tweet velocity, and strengthen your strategy.

Search and social are finally getting together, and it can only mean good things for social media marketing.

What do you think will be the biggest impact of the Google/Twitter partnership?

About the Author: Neil Patel is a lifelong evangelist of Kissmetrics and blogs at Quick Sprout.